Isn’t it time to move past the term “consumer”? In fact, maybe it’s time to elevate yourself and become the perfect borrower? In this episode, our host Merrill Chandler tackles the term “consumer” and proposes that we elevate ourselves and become borrowers. And not just borrowers, but perfect borrowers. Merrill fleshes out why the borrower is important to the financial cycle and talks about why you need to be a borrower and not a consumer. This episode is a perfect starting point for financial literacy. Join in!  

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In this episode, we are going to be talking about consumers versus borrowers. We will take a detailed look at what it means to be a consumer and a borrower. We’re going to jump right into it.  

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Remember how we talked about terms? Everything is about definitions. Everything is about our understanding of what’s going on. In this episode, we are talking about consumers versus borrowers. The use of the terms, what they mean. Why people use them and how can we elevate ourselves from being just a regular old consumer to a borrower? Not just a borrower but the perfect borrower, a professional borrower. Let us get into this. 

First of all, for decades and decades, it started in the ’40s and the ’50s. The use of term consumer has basically been used to define all of the users in our financial world. In our economy, you got the producers, who make stuff and then, you got the consumers, who use stuff. They consume it. They consume foods. They’re buying cars. They’re consuming everything. This goes back even further than the ’40s, back to the Marxist and The Communist Manifesto about who has the capital. Everything you need to know about being part of the consumer base and all the capital held by the producers. As I do so many times in so many places, we are redefining the terms. You will rarely, if ever, hear me refer to you and to the people who are in our economy as consumers? It’s a low-brow reference when I hear the economists talk about it when I hear the political pundits talk about it, the financial pundits, everybody who talks about, “Consumers want more of this. Consumers want more of that.” It just makes us sound like we’re greedy and hungry. To one degree or another, we’ve been lied to about how all of that, how we’ve come to our current state of affairs.  

What this episode’s all about is how do we move from being a consumer to be known as a borrower? A borrower is part of a partnership. The reason why I like borrower, some people might say, “That’s just as much of a pejorative term or a negative term as a consumer.” I would disagree. Here are the points that I want you guys to determine. Are you a consumer or do you want to be a borrower? Borrowers are in partnership with lenders. Lenders do not have dreams. They have quarterly returns that they’re working on. They don’t have dreams and ambitions. Borrowers do. Borrowers want a new house. Borrowers want a new investment property. Borrowers want a new car. Borrowers want to have access to good travel benefits with a good credit card to be able to get rewards and points and rebates back from using credit. Borrowers are contributing members of our society especially of our financial system. Whereas consumers, you don’t have to partner with lenders to be a consumer. All you have to do is just consume. You can do that in any number of ways. 

Perfect Borrower: If there were no borrowers, our entire economy would crash to the ground, but if we have an army of intelligent, capable, grounded borrowers, we keep the economy moving.

If you’ve got a copy and read my book, The New F* Word, which happened to hit the bestseller list. I’m super excited about it. In my book, The New F* Word, we talk about different types of animal totems. Borrower energy, borrower profiles that match certain animals. Think of a credit eagle as a perfect borrower. That professional borrower. A borrower who knows how to use other people’s money to leverage for your financial dreams compared to a credit seagull. A seagull is a consumer, just picking up scraps, doing the best she can. Grabbing whatever’s leftover. Not necessarily intentionally creating the results that you want to create an intentional design of your financial life. That’s where I separate a consumer, if not thoughtless then at least programmed to just buy. 

Sometimes these consumers put it on credit but sometimes not. They just consume. To be a borrower is not enough for me. I want you to be the perfect borrower. I want you to be the perfect customer for lenders. If you meet all of their underwriting guidelines, if you meet that bullseye, sometimes I’ve referred to it as a bullseye borrower but if you’re a perfect customer for a lender then you are literally in a partnership. That partnership is insanely productive because you get to help the banks and lenders meet their quarterly goals. They get to help you fulfill your financial and business dreams.  

Think of it this way. In my show, I had an episode about deceptive advertising. It’s called, How Marketers Ruin Your Credit. Look for that. That’s a very vital podcast. In it, we talk about how they just throw all of these offers at you because they want you to pick up the scraps and charge you high interest and help you. Responding to all those offers puts you in a financial and a credit hole. That will teach you how to stay out of that hole. That exact behavior, responding to those offers, literally makes you a consumer’s like, “Give me. Give me.” Rather than strategically using your borrower profile, your borrower behaviors, your financial reputation to create powerful, long-lasting relationships with banks and lenders so that they invest in you.  

Now, if you’re falling to these consumer offers, that’s a pretty good definition of being a consumer. As a professional borrower, as this perfect borrower, we want you to read between the lines and know exactly how to use your credit to leverage your financial dreams. Now, let’s illustrate this a little bit further. In my bootcamp, if you haven’t been, make sure you go to GetFundableBootcamp.com. We go into so much of how to protect yourself from being a consumer and how to be a perfect borrower. 

In this, we got consumers on one hand, borrowers on another hand. The borrowers are actually contributing to the economy. Borrowers contribute to the long-term progress of both us individually and lenders, etc. As a consumer, we may contribute to the economy but we’re just buying stuff. We’re not necessarily creating a vital loop. Think about it this way, when you consume something, let’s say you go buy a motorcycle for cash. You buy it, you get it, you consume it, you have it for years. At some point, if you’re not a borrower then you go buy another one.  

Dave Ramsey preaches to be a consumer. Dave Ramsey wants you to not be in the credit game. He doesn’t want you using other people’s money. He wants you saving. He’s got some great learnings on how to be a smart and intelligent consumer. I don’t want you to be a consumer at all. When you are a perfect borrower, when you’re a good borrower, a pro at this, you purchase that same motorcycle. You pay the lender for advancing you the fees. They make money. They create more deposits to their financials and their P&Ls, which gives them more strength in the economy to lend to you again, to buy an automobile, which pays them interest. This whole entire process makes you look better and better because you’re building a deeper and deeper relationship with that same lender.  

The New F* Word

Once you borrow money for that car and then you pay it off 24 months or pay it until the end and then you buy a house. Maybe you have all three of these loans going at the same time with the same lender. Do you see how rich of a partnership that creates? I always teach and I’ve never deviated from this definition. For me, interest is simply the gift we give to someone believing in us financially. Interest is the gift we give to someone believing in us. Since I frame it that way, they’re not taking money from me. I’m investing money in them. I’m investing in a way that they look at me in the like, “Look how generous they were with me.” The exchange of finances continues to cycle. 

Let’s put it this way. If there were no borrowers, our entire economy would crash to the ground. If we have an army of intelligent, capable, grounded borrowers, we will keep the economy moving. In fact, part of the reason why they wanted the SBA student loans, Sallie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Notice all of these government-backed agencies were designed to keep borrowing going on. It was in regard to business credit, student loans and home loans. There is such a vital role for us as borrowers. I want you to take pride in the fact of you becoming a borrower. Just reframe. That’s just a mental choice.  

Reframe yourself as a borrower instead of a consumer. Refer to yourself as a borrower instead of a consumer. Together, through fundability™, my book, the bootcamp and watching all the shows, GetFundablePodcast.com, through studying and engaging those different platforms, you’re going to learn what it means to become a perfect borrower. A true professional that lenders continually want to lend to because you send them the message that, “We’re in this together.” I invite you, challenge you, encourage you to make sure that you are a borrower first. Like, love, post and turn people on to this episode so that your people and your tribe can know as well what it means to be the perfect borrower and be able to fund your dreams using other people’s money.  

Important Links: 

• The Communist Manifesto 
• The New F* Word 
• GetFundableBootcamp.com