Give the Girl Credit: Glinda Bridgforth

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GLINDA BRIDGFORTH, AUTHOR of the bestsellers "Girl, Get Your Money Straight" and "Girl, Make Your Money Grow," is back with her third twist on helping women achieve financial empowerment. And though it was written specifically with African-American women in mind, "Girl, Get Your Credit Straight!: A Sister's Guide to Ditching Your Debt, Mending Your Credit, and Building a Strong Financial Future" provides useful financial advice for anyone whose money is green. Bridgforth talked with Express' Darona Williams.

» EXPRESS: In the personal history you share in the introduction to the book, you say it took an entire team to dig you out of debt. What if you can't afford a team? Is your book aiming to serve as the reader's team?
» BRIDGFORTH: There's a lot of information in the book that certainly can walk the reader through step-by-step, and, hopefully, I have written the book in a manner that makes the reader feel that we're going through this journey together. That was certainly my intention — to make it very user-friendly, supportive and encouraging. But also, there are resources available that are free.

For instance, "Debtors Anonymous" is a 12-step support group. Or there are credit-counseling agencies that offer free classes in training and budgeting. It's only if you sign up for the debt-management program that you'll perhaps pay a fee, something like $25, $35 per month, for them to pay off the other creditors and you pay one lump sum to them. There are resources; it's not that it's going to cost you a lot of money in order to get out of debt. It's a matter of how ready you are and how committed you are in being discipline and having a structured plan to utilize.

» EXPRESS: How do you avoid emotional trauma once you finally have all those bills in front of you?
» BRIDGFORTH: In the book I have some ritual exercises that people can do before sitting down to take a look at their credit report or to deal with paying the bills or whatever. The last chapter deals with these spiritual rituals because I'm a firm believer in prayer, meditation, affirmation and visualization. Sometimes you have to do some internal work before you start to actually do the physical work. So developing some positive affirmations related to getting out of debt in order to get you in the right mind set can help.

It's about quieting down and getting in the right space. When you have clutter, disorganization and disarray, a lot of times that makes you feel worse than actually sitting down and seeing where you are. I'm a believer in knowing as opposed to not knowing, because the not knowing can create additional anxiety.

» EXPRESS: How do you think financial stability and true happiness relate?
» BRIDGFORTH: There are a lot of people who tend to think I have to make a six-figure income in order to be happy. In actuality it's not the money you make that determines your happiness. If you're making a six-figure income but you're living beyond your means, spending way more than that, a person that's making $20,000 or $30,000 or $40,000 — if they're living within their means — can have a very simple lifestyle and still be very content. I think where people become discontented is where they start comparing themselves with other people and what they have.

» EXPRESS: Too much MTV Cribs, huh?
» BRIDGFORTH: That's one of my big premises right now, this celebrity obsession we have. You cannot turn on the TV at any given hour and not find a celebrity entertainment program. There's so much temptation out there, so much advertising that really seduces people into thinking, "Oh I have to have that, I'm supposed to have that." We've been trying to keep up with the Joneses for years, but now it's getting to the point where we feel we have to shoe shop just like Oprah. But we don't have Oprah's resources.

» EXPRESS: The book's themes seem universal, so what makes it specifically for the African-American woman?
» BRIDGFORTH: The book is universal; its themes and strategies. But I wrote the book to African-American women, and I wrote it in a language that is my language, so I spoke from the heart. I feel that goes a long way in terms of helping African-American women relate to it. And while there are more similarities than differences, I also feel like there are differences when you think about the triggers that cause us to spend in dysfunctional ways.

In our day-to-day life experiences, African-American women have to deal with subtle discrimination, covert types of slights that others don't. Often when this happens, it slowly eats away at our self-esteem and at a certain point we start to feel self-doubt or a lack of self-worth or some form of inadequacy. Then, we try to find a way to boost our self-esteem and medicate ourselves and so that's the trigger that maybe causes us to go on spending binges.

» EXPRESS: What advice would you give newly married, engaged or cohabitating couples to reach financial harmony?
» BRIDGFORTH: Something like 52 percent of marriages in this country end in divorce, and the number-one cause is said to be money. But I don't think the cause is money; I think it's the failure to communicate about money.

So I think it's critical to discuss money issues — not on the first date — but when a relationship is getting serious because you want to get a sense about their attitudes toward money so that you can determine how your life is going to move forward. Are they really a saver, are you a spender, etc? And it's quite often that opposites attract, that a saver will hook up with a spender. But if there will be stress and hostility in the household over money — if one person wants to use credit all the time and another wants to operate on cash basis — these are things that you can determine in advance of getting married or engaged.

Look at each others' debt, savings and credit reports, because if one person's is really bad when you look into buying a home, you may have to do it only one person's name. If your partner is against discussing finances at all, that should be a red flag.

» EXPRESS: So should savers stick to savers?
» BRIDGFORTH: I'm one who believes in balance. So if two savers are together there's always the possibility that they may be saving so much that they're not enjoying their life. Or if two spenders are together, there's no opportunity to save. So, hopefully, if a saver and a spender are together, that's where you find that happy medium and that financial harmony in the relationship.

» Olsson's The Lansburgh/Penn Quarter, 418 7th St. NW; 5 p.m., free; 202-638-7610. (Gallery Place/Archives-Navy Memorial)