Spent: Looking For Change (Full Documentary) | American Express

Summary

The documentary 'Spent: Looking For Change' by American Express explores the financial struggles faced by millions of Americans who are underserved by traditional banking systems. It delves into the lives of various individuals and families who, due to lack of credit history or low credit scores, find themselves relying on expensive alternatives like payday loans and check cashing services. The documentary highlights how these financial traps can cripple their dreams and provides hope with innovative solutions emerging to reshape banking for the underserved.

Highlights

• Justin is one of 70 million Americans lacking traditional banking access; he struggles to cash checks without incurring fees. 💰
• Tiffany, a nurse, has to leave her job to care for her ill mother, impacting her finances significantly. 💔
• Alex and Melissa face financial challenges due to health issues in the family, resulting in reliance on payday loans. 😓
• Debbie, a designer, struggles to grow her business due to student debt impacting her credit access. 🎨
• Innovative solutions are emerging, including alternative credit scoring based on rent and bill payments. 🌟

Key Takeaways

• Many Americans lack access to traditional banking, forcing them to rely on expensive alternatives like check cashers and payday loans. 💸
• The current credit system overlooks many hardworking individuals, categorizing them as high risk due to insufficient data. 🏦
• There is hope in the form of innovative financial solutions and technology aiming to help the underserved find their way into the mainstream financial system. 🚀
• Financial education and alternative credit scoring systems that consider rent and bill payments are emerging as solutions. 📚
• The documentary showcases real stories that highlight the urgency of financial reform for the underserved in America. 🎥

Overview

The documentary 'Spent: Looking For Change' offers a window into the financial hurdles faced by millions uninsured by traditional banks. Following individuals like Justin, Tiffany, and Debbie, the film outlines how people end up in financial traps, relying on payday loans and check-cashing services due to low credit scores or lack of credit history. These underserved individuals often pay exorbitant fees just to access and use their own money, trapping them in a cycle of debt.

Through real-life stories, the film sheds light on how unexpected life events, such as sickness or educational expenses, further exacerbate financial instability. For instance, Tiffany steps back from her nursing career to care for her ailing mother, which drains her savings and leaves her struggling to return to the workforce. Others, like Alex and Melissa, are caught using payday loans repeatedly, unable to break free from debt spirals.

Despite the grim realities, 'Spent: Looking For Change' glimmers with hope in the form of innovative financial solutions. New technology and alternative credit measures, like considering rent and utility payment histories, offer potential pathways out of the vicious financial cycles. The documentary emphasizes the need for wider access to financial tools and education, promoting a vision of financial freedom for the underserved.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction In the 'Introduction' chapter, the conversation begins with a casual exchange of greetings, followed by a discussion about a debt of $360 that one person owes to the other. They plan to settle the entire balance. The conversation then shifts focus to monthly expenses, particularly emphasizing that most of these expenses are related to business. There is an indication that these expenses might be misleading in some way.
• 00:30 - 01:00: A Mother's Sacrifice The chapter titled 'A Mother's Sacrifice' delves into the financial sacrifices and responsibilities a mother bears for her children. It highlights the everyday expenses she incurs, such as school-related costs (field trips and lunch money), utilities, and insurance (dental, health). The narrative underscores the constant juggling of small and large expenses, including entertainment and communication costs, to provide for her family. It portrays the mother's ongoing struggle and ambition to balance the household budget while ensuring her children's needs are met. With monthly expenditures ranging from $2,800 to $3,500, her financial planning is shown as a delicate, ongoing challenge.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Struggles of Small Business Sometimes, small business owners are left with minimal financial reserves. They experience nail-biting anxiety due to the roller coaster nature of managing a business amidst massive debts. The pressure can be overwhelming. Despite aspirations like securing a great family life, education, and owning a home, a significant number of Americans find the path to prosperity obstructed by a financial system that inadequately serves millions.
• 01:30 - 02:00: The Financially Unstable The chapter titled 'The Financially Unstable' delves into the theme of perseverance in the face of financial hardships. Despite the struggles and the temptation to give up, there's a strong emphasis on resilience and determination. The phrase 'tuck your chin to your chest and keep going forward' encapsulates the mindset of pushing through difficulties without backing down. The speaker stresses the idea that failure is not an option and highlights the internal drive to succeed no matter the circumstances, illustrated by the metaphorical preparation to race against challenges.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Living on Cash The chapter titled 'Living on Cash' delves into the author's experiences growing up in poverty. They recount being reliant on welfare and food stamps, and the feeling of inadequacy when comparing themselves to peers who had new clothes for school while they had to make do with second-hand items from Goodwill. The narrative reflects on a youth characterized by longing and recurrent disappointment.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Challenges of Credit and Loans Justin has a challenging past but has built a small production company. He aspires to start a life with his girlfriend, Brittany. Driven by a sense of responsibility, Justin aims to support his family and ensure they are free from want or worry. He expresses his love for Brittany, with intentions to propose to her and make her his wife.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Title and Payday Loans This chapter titled 'Title and Payday Loans' introduces Justin, who earns a living by shooting videos for corporate clients. Although his business shows promise, Justin faces challenges with managing his finances. His income comes in the form of checks from clients, which he has to cash at a check-cashing outlet, reflecting some financial disadvantages despite his business success.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Trapped in Debt The chapter 'Trapped in Debt' begins by highlighting the plight of individuals like Justin, who represent a significant portion of the American population—approximately 70 million people—that are excluded from the traditional financial systems. These individuals are increasingly becoming part of a growing demographic that is transitioning away from mainstream financial practices. The narrative continues with a mathematical problem mirroring the challenges faced by those 'trapped in debt,' juxtaposing personal finance issues with a simple arithmetic example.
• 04:00 - 04:30: Entrepreneurs and Credit The chapter "Entrepreneurs and Credit" discusses the importance of financial education and discipline, emphasizing lessons learned from a parent's guidance. It highlights the role of parents as the first teachers to their children, instilling values of hard work, belief in oneself, and the significance of financial responsibility. The narrative reveals how foundational principles such as paying debts and saving money—through savings accounts, 401ks, and credit cards—shaped the speaker's understanding and approach towards entrepreneurship and credit.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Losing Dreams and Motivation The chapter 'Losing Dreams and Motivation' explores a parent's aspirations for their child's education. The parent emphasizes the importance of consistent academic habits, such as an hour of math nightly and 30 minutes of daily reading, aiming to equip the child for future success. The parent has chosen private schooling to ensure a high-quality education, expressing love and encouragement for the child's daily pursuits.
• 05:00 - 05:30: The Financial Landscape The chapter titled 'The Financial Landscape' focuses on Tiffany, a nurse who worked diligently to support her family. She successfully saved money, accumulating nearly $100,000 in her 401k, symbolizing her living the American Dream. However, it also hints at possible challenges, with a note of a conversation about 'too much water,' possibly indicating future financial or personal hurdles.
• 05:30 - 06:00: Innovations in Banking The chapter titled 'Innovations in Banking' contains a brief, seemingly out-of-context transcript that mostly involves a conversation between individuals presumably discussing a mix of personal and work-related experiences. There is mention of crepes, pancakes, and a personal encounter between Melissa and Alex, who was part of the music industry. They 'hit it off' quickly, leading to a significant development in their relationship within ten weeks. However, the transcript does not directly address innovations in banking, leaving the reader with little information on that specific topic.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Conclusion and Reflection The chapter focuses on a family, Alex and Melissa, who experience rapid and significant changes in their life. Initially living a happy life with two kids and stable incomes, their reality shifts abruptly. Their son is diagnosed with autism, and shortly after, Alex receives a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, leading to a period of fear and uncertainty for the family. The summary highlights the sudden challenges they face and the emotional impact on their lives.

Spent: Looking For Change (Full Documentary) | American Express Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey good how are you good i owe you money you're gonna pay the whole balance yeah which is 360. yeah how much would you say you spend in expenses every month the monthly expenses are primarily business expenses misleading
• 00:30 - 01:00 stuff for the kids be it field trips lunch money gas money 60 80 maybe 100 bucks a week electricity i have insurance dental insurance health insurance medicines for the kids and as one bill gets paid off in the next month there's more money for people to go to the movies it's over 150 for phones a lot of little expenses and then big expenses would i be able to do like a swap of machines to get towards this every month we spend anywhere from 2 800 to 3 500
• 01:00 - 01:30 sometimes i'm left with hardly anything sometimes it's nail biting it's a roller coaster i have all this massive debt behind me and it feels so overwhelming we all want to get the most out of life a great family an education a business a home it's a three bedroom slash four but for a growing number of americans the price of getting ahead is higher because of a financial system that leaves millions underserved you
• 01:30 - 02:00 just have to kind of tuck your chin to your chest and keep going forward don't give up even when you want to there's not ever the option to not make it work i have to you ready yeah let's race baby
• 02:00 - 02:30 i grew up dirt poor we were on welfare we were on food stamps i remember the first day of school you know everybody's always got their best gear on everybody's ready for the first day of school and my best gear came from goodwill i often look back at my life from an early age there was a lot of wanting and disappointment despite his
• 02:30 - 03:00 tough past justin's built a small production company and wants to start a life with his girlfriend brittany now that i'm an adult and i'm making it i want to carry my whole family on my back so nobody ever has to want or worry see that i love britney i'm gonna buy a ring and i'm gonna make her my wife
• 03:00 - 03:30 i'm gonna do the things that'll take us there he makes a good living shooting videos for corporate clients i see a lot of potential where we're at and where we're going but while business is good justin's at a disadvantage i get checks from clients and i leave the lustre and grandeur of downtown when i go uptown right into the check cashing place
• 03:30 - 04:00 i'm doing good i'm tired but i'm good justin is one of 70 million americans who lack access to the traditional financial system and as that number grows it includes more and more people who once lived in the mainstream very good okay now write that number down because we're going to subtract so we really 136 take away 149 my total answer is
• 04:00 - 04:30 87. you cooking with crisco take you a minute to cook the meal but you're doing a good job you have to be your child's first teacher i told you you could do it and i believed in you just have to apply yourself and work hard my mom taught me pay what you owe and save so i saved savings accounts 401ks credit cards with
• 04:30 - 05:00 wonderful limits wanted to have something to leave for my daughter we know we need an hour of math every night and we know we need at least 30 minutes of reading every day i want her to be able to find success in whatever her dreams are i chose to put her in private school because i don't want to ever compromise on her education i love you have a great day be good good luck on your
• 05:00 - 05:30 test tiffany worked as a nurse to provide for her family and built a nest egg for her daughter's future my 401k was almost a hundred thousand life was good i was living the american dream hey honey yeah you were right there's a little too much water
• 05:30 - 06:00 well there'll be crepes some of them will be crepes and some will be pancakes dude i like it when melissa first met alex he had a career in the music industry and was doing what he loved most i love this thing after one of the shows i went up and talked to alex and can i hit it off no kinda about it we just hit it off we hit it off about 10 weeks after our first date he asked me to
• 06:00 - 06:30 marry him just like everything else in our life the family thing happened pretty quickly with two kids and two incomes alex and melissa had a healthy happy home times were good everyone was doing well and then our reality changed overnight their son was diagnosed with autism shortly after alex was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis it was terrifying and then what happened
• 06:30 - 07:00 was is i focused on the kids does it matter oh yes which one do you want to get go buying 10. burlington got birthday 10. not today not today what are we doing today jonah look at mommy stay home stay home i can tell you to go and i can schedule it but if you don't go i can be scared mom you got he has to touch your eyes i had just gotten a new job i had steady income but then my mom was
• 07:00 - 07:30 diagnosed with cancer that's my number one patient how can i take care of somebody else when i have my mom suffering at home tiffany decided to leave her job so she could focus full time on her mother's health i thought that i could come back to the workforce and just pick up where i left off the picture of the financially unstable is a picture of you and me but for a
• 07:30 - 08:00 couple of breaks between alex's illness and jonah's diagnosis this became this huge expense that we had no contingency plan for we had no savings for alex's illness affected his ability to work and he was forced to give up his job so they did what many americans do at their bank if a bill came up and we needed to pay for the power or the cable we knew we could go ahead and write a check and it would clear
• 08:00 - 08:30 when a customer withdraws more money than they have in their account they can give their bank permission to cover that cost with an added fee this is called overdraft protection banks were increasingly looking for profits from these classic consumer check accounts some customers didn't make money for banks so they found other ways to meet costs what most banks were doing as a customary practice was this check reordering her it's also called hilo
• 08:30 - 09:00 check sequencing when alex and melissa paid their bills their grocery and student loan checks cleared okay but the price of power went up and that bill emptied their account one overdraft fee 35 but if all three debts posted on the same day their bank had software that reordered their purchases power bill first then loan then groceries three overdraft fees 105 the fees became so much payday would
• 09:00 - 09:30 come and we'd be back to zero eventually what the bank will do is boot them out of the system and close the account because they feel like they're not going to recoup their debt if banks can't keep those customers there's an alternative that will every year over 30 million americans use check cashers and for many of them the service works they are open later they remember my name they're offering uh we can get you what you need right now kind of solution a huge amount of
• 09:30 - 10:00 business gets done at check cashers because people can get their money right away and they need their money right away we've all had to wait a couple of days for a check to clear it's because when a bank clears a check it has to be scanned verified and processed by a system that was built in the era of rotary phones most western nations have found faster ways to clear our funds but not the us so americans have to wait three to five days from now isn't acceptable for tens of millions of americans
• 10:00 - 10:30 if your light's going to go out tomorrow you need to be able to have that clear now i'm not exactly sure when it's going to clear and i have to pay my bills you go to the check casher you get the money back minus the fee you have that money in your hands right at that moment it's not an irrational choice it's just not a productive choice and it's a costly choice underserved americans spend the same percent of their income on fees and interests
• 10:30 - 11:00 as the typical american family spends on groceries that amounts to 89 billion dollars a year as a way to avoid fees alex and melissa decided to live on cash we have cash on hand and that's the money that we have this is all we can spend so when the money runs out that's it
• 11:00 - 11:30 on payday it's getting to the places so i can get the bills paid on time hi how are you i'm good i'm here to pay the power thank you so much thank you not a problem have a good one being unbanked is really something like having a part-time job i probably spend quarter tank to half
• 11:30 - 12:00 tank gas driving around and paying bills you're going to spend more money and more time doing things that people who are in the banking system take for granted and usually do for free you go to a check casher you are automatically having to pay somebody to get your money now you want to pay a bill well you have a lot of cash how are you going to pay your bill how can i help you how you do i just need to put some money on this card money is becoming more and more digital which means there are less places that accept cash that makes life for the underserved
• 12:00 - 12:30 even more expensive we have prepaid debit card and the money that's on the card is real cash it's cash that i directly hand the people and they turn it into fake money for me it's convenient you know if you don't have a bank account you can still do everything everybody else does but you get taxed justin not only pays a fee turning his checks into cash and is cash into a card he pays a fee for every purchase he makes there's the transaction and there's a buck in the transaction a buck and a buck all the way down the board man it just kills you
• 12:30 - 13:00 very quickly you can lose 80 bucks a month cashing your checks and another 100 bucks a month spending your money over the course of his career justin could spend up to forty thousand dollars just to turn his paychecks into cash and another thirty thousand dollars using his card and that's just not how you get ahead it's not how you think about the future this it's like fully hand stitched and you know i have to like stitch every single i have to make every single hole
• 13:00 - 13:30 before i stitch it yeah like every single one debbie is a designer struggling to grow her business but she is used to overcoming odds like being the first in her family to graduate from college more than being proud for myself i was happy that i could make my parents proud when she was 14 she emigrated from argentina with her parents her father worked construction and her mother cleaned homes both my parents like people who work really hard
• 13:30 - 14:00 and sacrificed our whole lives debbie applied her parents work ethic and put herself through college with student loans then started her own business making leather bags by hand mom said you were this tall you came up to me and asked me for a needle and threat she gave it to me and i started making clothes for my dolls
• 14:00 - 14:30 so i figured out how to sew on my own when i was four years old after six months her bags are starting to sell i'm excited beautiful crossbody love it love it i can see all these stores and i can
• 14:30 - 15:00 see my company growing i can see it you know how to get out right but because student loans have weakened her credit debbie's dream has a limit banks use credit to measure a person's ability to repay a loan they look at a limited set of data length of credit history past loan payments and debt if you've never taken out a loan or a line of credit you're invisible to the credit scoring system i thought i was being responsible by not
• 15:00 - 15:30 having credit cards and we already had a lot of friends who were really getting into that trap of maxing out a card so we got to get another credit card and another credit card and we didn't want to go that route not having a credit card may have saved alex and melissa from debt but it hurt them when it came time to get a loan we tried to buy a car we went to a car dealership and the car dealership told me you would more likely get a mortgage than you'd be able to buy a car and we reached out to a bank to say okay
• 15:30 - 16:00 let's see if we can get a mortgage and i said oh you'd never be able to get a mortgage you should try to get a car there are lots of financial transactions one undertakes that are not actually tracked in the credit system and so people who looked like a high financial risk might not be when a bank looks at a borrower it doesn't see their monthly bill payments or rent or hard work it sees a number and if that number is damaged by past
• 16:00 - 16:30 mistakes it's very difficult to recover people often judge me on the choices i've made not knowing the options that i had justin had to grow up fast when he was a teenager his family fell apart so at 16 justin was on his own paying rent and working every job he
• 16:30 - 17:00 could just to support himself whatever his paycheck didn't cover he put on a card you can't get to work you need to pay somebody gas money you need to get some food whatever i needed like that had to get taken care of that i couldn't do i wasn't grown enough yet to address these mistakes in this situation in the proper fashion so you know what does a kid do they run justin stopped paying on his debt a mistake he's been working to overcome ever since when we set up shoots we'll have two
• 17:00 - 17:30 live cameras out and the still or we might run her still as alive and while he's taking his life and business in new and better directions banks don't see where he's going they only see where he's been it's just frustrating because you know we've worked really hard for a really long time it's so hard to find a house yeah with his lease running out justin wants to buy the kind of home he never had growing up a lot of these places are i mean they're like that they're townhomes they're all for lease they're never for sale
• 17:30 - 18:00 i can check on craigslist again i think it's smarter to check out craigslist the house that we can afford we're not going to be able to get if she's the only one on the papers it's not enough with just her income but if i was on the papers my credit's so bad that it would negatively impact us and we wouldn't get the house so i have a couple things that i needed to get i guess so you guys do the smaller orders too right yeah okay debbie has close to 100 000
• 18:00 - 18:30 in student loans but even though she pays a bill every month the debt makes it hard for her to move on in terms of pricing i guess that that makes a difference these are more expensive they are okay millions have had their credit scores impacted by having student loan debt and it's really stunting future opportunities for sort of the next generation you know what i do need knobs for where the strap goes okay those are a little pricier because they're made out of solid brass
• 18:30 - 19:00 it's 91.48 per gross i want to build my credit and i want to be able to be given the opportunity to have some kind of credit line debbie's bank refused to give her a business loan instead they offered a secured credit card which is like a prepaid card except that it helps to build credit 34.75 but the card has a 250 limit how much is this one to make a single
• 19:00 - 19:30 bag debbie needs a hide cording zippers magnetic closures rivets lining ceiling components and linen thread this is decline when i go to get my supplies and i've reached my limit which happens almost immediately i have to tap in onto my personal cash which is a big stretch on a tight budget your order's gonna come out to a hundred and ten dollars okay because even after debbie fills an order she still has to wait up to three
• 19:30 - 20:00 months to be paid i just spent every last penny i had to my name and next week i already have student loans that i had to take care of most people live from paycheck to paycheck i lived from him back to him back thank you so this is great man it's quiet off the main road good freeway access most people when they're buying a house it's a compromise between price and location
• 20:00 - 20:30 and for us buying a house it's a compromise between price location and the actual ability to get in to pass the process of getting in we can do it but it's not going to be easy we've got to find just the right person in just the right spot and that might take a week it might take a month it's not going to take more than six you know what i mean it's going to happen get in oh it even has a shed baby so this is just a guest house it should be like an office area what
• 20:30 - 21:00 and then that could be oh my god how amazing would that be i mean if it's cool inside that would be so great i really like it i like it too well let's give them a call the number yeah we're ready financially we've got all our ducks in a row as far as as you know proof of income and proof of residency and proof of bills we're ready hi um my name is justin dickinson i was calling about the house for sale are you interested in a full-time position yes ma'am
• 21:00 - 21:30 when her mom got sick tiffany made a plan she decided to live off savings and return to work in a year but she didn't count on the recession now the only job she can find at part-time and they don't pay her enough to cover the bills i was working a travel assignment in kingwood and it's up it came with a drive for you it is 50 miles one way i always said to myself i'm a nurse
• 21:30 - 22:00 i can get a job i'm educated i have an associate's degree in psychology a bachelor's in nursing then i have an mba after the financial crisis we saw many more people losing their jobs defaulting on debt the credit scores they just started dwindling because i had to decide what was more important when you're the caretaker for somebody
• 22:00 - 22:30 that's an expensive toe but every day you need to be taking care of your family pick one okay i okay i know this is different no no when one of your children needs more support than you originally expected the only thing you can do is provide for him the best care you can find that you can afford to get access to a
• 22:30 - 23:00 school program that would meet his needs jonah first had to get an exam we really needed a write-up to make sure that jonah got into a program that was really going to suit him a lot of the developmental psychologists were 2 500 to do this report without access to credit and no savings alex and melissa had no way to cover the cost nearly half of all u.s households lived paycheck to paycheck
• 23:00 - 23:30 and could not come up with two thousand dollars in an emergency it's increasingly more middle-class people too suddenly they're in a situation where they can't afford to keep a buffer in their accounts the way they used to before i had depleted my 401k that's how i paid the card notes the mortgage and if you're steady taking take and taking and nothing coming in it evaporates so you got to pay attention to your numbers or are you adding or subtracting the process is different when you're
• 23:30 - 24:00 subtracting the number is going to be less when you're adding the numbers get bigger my back was against the wall and i had borrowed as much as i thought i should be borrowing from friends and family what are my other options it used to be you could walk into a bank or to a finance company and get a 500 unsecured loan just on your signature but that product doesn't really exist anymore
• 24:00 - 24:30 finance companies have essentially gone away so what filled the gap during that time they're easy to ignore until you actually need the money which is one of those things like you see that it's there but i didn't really know what it was i was in the state of desperation of course i see this commercial that looks like it will fix all of my
• 24:30 - 25:00 problems if you've got your title we've got your box like title maps turn it into cash loans can approval for you in just five minutes in the neighborhood we live there are payday loan places all over the place they call it a payday loan because it's designed to be paid back on the borrower's next paycheck if you have a job and you have a paycheck you know come in sign up we'll give you this payday loan and then next payday you pay us off and it's like okay well let's do that title loans are like payday loans
• 25:00 - 25:30 except instead of using your paycheck as collateral you put up the title to your car the company will give you a loan based on the value of your vehicle and if you don't pay it back then they take your car i'm like well i'm thinking about taking out this loan on my car how much do you think it's worth well let's go outside and take a look at it and then they say oh you should be able to get five thousand dollars
• 25:30 - 26:00 i said okay we'll do this it'll tide me over and when i start working we'll just pay it off when i first got the title loan paid off the bills rent it was like a little kickstart for me in the moment when we needed it i was glad that it was there
• 26:00 - 26:30 but then you get in a cycle where you can't get out of it i would get my paycheck but now i'm stuck where i was before where i don't have that money and we were living too close to the edge to not have it so we would just reload if the option is either paying off the loan or paying to extend it americans on the edge don't have a choice week after week the account comes due but for some the fee is more affordable
• 26:30 - 27:00 than paying off the principal so the loan is rolled over it's how over the course of time a short-term loan can become a long-term crisis but even as the fees pile up the original loan is never paid off and so the spiral begins those loans are based upon this false idea that all somebody needs is a little bit of money to get to their next paycheck that's not what's happening what's happening is that people aren't able to
• 27:00 - 27:30 make ends meet and getting a loan this pay period doesn't make that problem go away it only makes it a little bit worse the next pay period eighty percent of borrowers are forced to renew their loan after two weeks if you're in a situation where you have to get a payday loan you don't have the money you don't you know it's two weeks to payday and i've got eight dollars and i gotta make that stretch i got a job in dallas while i was there
• 27:30 - 28:00 one of my payments was due so i called them they were like we can't take a payment over the phone you have to come in i said well can i go to one of your sister companies no you have to come to this store so by the time i get back fees have kicked in it was a routine i go and get the loan pay whatever bill it is and now in two weeks i owe them the money again and then they tell you can't make partial payments if you can't pay the whole amount then
• 28:00 - 28:30 we're not taking anything i've got a quarter tank of gas we want to celebrate gabriel's birthday at my sister's tomorrow so that's what that quarter tank of gas is for if we need anything else we have to walk interest and fees instead of getting stacked on and it's getting higher and higher you always trying to run to the finish line but the finish line never come we have yet to be able to pay that off in full and so over the course of time we've
• 28:30 - 29:00 spent about 1700 how much was that loan originally um 450. i got some goodies this is so cool oh yeah i didn't even show you that one nothing i love this one you want yes i keep it i want it i want it debbie is meeting more and more boutiques who want to sell her bags for anyone else this would be good news
• 29:00 - 29:30 i couldn't afford to have like a big contract come in and tell me like i want this many bags what about the chain one um this is the last of it okay because like the material i think i may have enough to make like maybe one or two more and then um and then what catches this is the last of it absolutely okay today she has more orders than she can handle the reality of it is i won't be able to produce that i gotta do like
• 29:30 - 30:00 the numbers and see how much it costs me it's scary sometimes because it's i'm trying to build something i just don't have the means without credit or the cash to fund the order she has no choice but to take another job justin and brittany need to convince a
• 30:00 - 30:30 seller that they are credible home buyers really like the front that's a great spot this is nice i like it a lot we have to find individuals who are willing to work with us who can trust the last few years history of income as opposed to the last 10 years history of credit well it's still on the market a couple weeks right then though i'm sure they'll be more willing to listen to an offer right um but at this point it's probably a little too soon
• 30:30 - 31:00 so
• 31:00 - 31:30 i never thought i'd see myself at a pawn shop unless i was buying something because it's a place to get some great deals not realizing that those deals were other people's dreams there i was selling my dreams
• 31:30 - 32:00 i woke up and that sounds like my alarm on my car by the time i got there it was a tow truck taking the car all around the corner this is how i get to work after a 14-hour day it doesn't end
• 32:00 - 32:30 regardless of how many nights i don't sleep it's just not enough this sucks baby you're telling me really trying to better my life become a different person
• 32:30 - 33:00 it's hopeless i ended up having to take her out of private school mommy why are we not going to this school anymore that hurts
• 33:00 - 33:30 these situations have taken families that hit a bump in a road and pulled them down into a major crisis people end up at the doors of our social service providers what happens when a family runs out of options
• 33:30 - 34:00 what happens when a mother can't give her daughter the education she needs what happens when an entrepreneur gives up her dream or the door closes on a young couple's future the financial landscape is changing and
• 34:00 - 34:30 changing fast one in four households are underserved many of them are hard-working families servicemen and women and college graduates in the last five years bank branches have been closing at record rates while check cashing and payday loans are thriving as you get closer and closer to the edge there are fewer places for people to go but there is some reason for hope a new generation is using innovation and technology to reimagine the way we bank
• 34:30 - 35:00 in san francisco a business is helping people pool their money together and lend to each other so families have a better option when money gets tight in new york there's an organization that's giving affordable loans to growing businesses so entrepreneurs can see their ideas come to life and outside atlanta a company is building a new type of credit score using rent and monthly bill payments so underserved americans have a path to the
• 35:00 - 35:30 mainstream it's about having a range of options available that enable people to spend save borrow and plan but for too many of us when we need it the most good options aren't available tens of millions of hard-working americans are trying to reach their potential and they're waiting wanting
• 35:30 - 36:00 believing in a simple promise that if they strive forward they won't be held back this is redemption
• 36:00 - 36:30 nothing has changed is
• 36:30 - 37:00 slept on my own i remember all the things my
• 37:00 - 37:30 we don't drink until so if i were you i'd have all let's all trust
• 37:30 - 38:00 two thousand years now
• 38:00 - 38:30 for me i was holding all of my secrets soft and healing pages were folded and there was nothing at all so if in the future i might need myself a savior i remember what was written
• 38:30 - 39:00 on that wall we don't eat until your father's at the table we don't drink until the devils so if i were you
• 39:00 - 39:30 we too
• 39:30 - 40:00 so if i were you my friends
• 40:00 - 40:30 you