Who am I and why should you listen to me?
Mortgage and Money Coach Damon Carr helps everyday people make good decisions with their money. Damon has helped thousands of people select the best insurance, investment, and mortgage products. His mission is to help people save money on their mortgage, beat debt and ultimately build wealth.
Before starting his own Firm – ACE Financial, Damon worked for Mellon Bank as a Sr. Corporate Loan Specialist where he managed accounts of several Fortune 500 Companies. Damon is versed in budgeting, credit management, mortgages, real estate, investing, taxation, insurance, retirement planning, college planning, estate planning, career planning, and small business development.
Damon currently provides mortgage, comprehensive financial planning, and small business development services. He writes a Financial Column that appears weekly in "The New Pittsburgh Courier" Newspaper. He is the Resident Financial Expert for "The Lynne Hayes- Freeland Television Show" and "The Herman Hill Radio Show". Damon also writes a FREE online "Ask Damon" e-Newsletter where he answers common mortgage and money related questions.
Damon has appeared in several other newspapers, magazines, and on several radio and television talk shows discussing money matters.
Damon’s articles have also appeared in other newspaper and magazines including The Dollar Stretcher, Urban Business Journal, The Final Call, Onyx Women Magazine, and Africa based Amity Magazine. Damon has also appeared on several radio broadcasts and television talk shows discussing financial matters, including "The Bev Smith Show", "The Ramont Anthony Show", "Urban Reality Radio" and "Christian Radio"
Damon is married to his high school "Sweet-Heart" LaShan and he is the proud father of three sons Damaigne, Daylon and Jaydon.
Obviously I’m qualified – but the aforementioned detail does not define who I am and why you should listen to me. Read on………
Reared by a single mom of modest means I understand first hand how it feels to struggle financially. From birth to age 19 my yearly household income never exceeded $8,000. We were dirt poor. I’ve experienced utilities being turned off. I’ve experienced not knowing what I was going to eat from one day to the next. Nevertheless we managed to make it.
Fortunately I got involved in basketball while in High School. Organized sports instilled in me the work ethics, discipline, perseverance and confidence that I embody to this day. Organized sports encouraged me to dream that I can make something of myself one day. I determine at a young age that I was going to succeed at something. I had no earthly idea what that something was.
Upon graduating from a 2-year Business College, I landed my first full-time job at one of Pittsburgh’s largest banks. It was then that I decided in my mind that until I get some money, I’m going to learn everything there is to know about money. I thought to myself that I’m going to learn everything rich people know about money and share it with ordinary people. I read everything I could get my hands on that related to money. I begin to take courses and attend seminars on money management. I was truly becoming an expert.
Unfortunately, as I was becoming an expert and as I moved forward in my career, I learned that helping ordinary people understand money concepts was not a profitable endeavor unless you do it on a massive scale. I had grown to a point where my average fee was $3,000. I could not fathom the idea of doing something for anything less than $2,000. As a result, I neglected the very people I said I was going to teach.
By age 30, I earned a paycheck from one business transaction that totaled $8,647.50. A copy of that check hangs on my office wall to this day. It’s dated 7/30/2003. Picture that – From birth to 19, my household income never exceeded $8,000. I made $8,647.50 in one business transaction that took me all of 4-hours to complete. That dear friend was the beginning of my ultimate demise. I thought I had arrived. I got arrogant and lazy (bad combination) and begin to violate principles that I teach.
I was not aware of my arrogance and laziness until July of 04. This happens to be the same month and year my youngest son was born. It was this month that I noticed a depleted pipeline and that my phone was not ringing. By August 2004, my personal income was moving in a different direction – DOWNWARD. Fortunately, my wife and I listened to some of my advice. We had $30,000 in the bank earmarked for emergencies and our household expenses were low. The unfortunately part was I had no clue why my phone was not ringing and I had no clue about how to make it ring again. There’s nothing more humbling than watching your emergency fund drop from month to month and you see no end in sight. Because of this, I now teach a 3-line defense on how to preserve your emergency fund. When the emergency fund dropped to $2,000 I drew a line in the sand and said – We will not take another dime from it. I have to fix this problem.
We are now DEBT-FREE with the exception of our mortgage using the strategies that I teach. We're working hard to pay it off ASAP!
Turned out it was a marketing problem. I isolated the problem but I needed working capital (money) to fix it. Borrowing was not an option. I needed money and I needed it fast. I begin offering fee-based comprehensive financial planning to ordinary everyday people at a flat fee that’s equivalent to what other fee based financial planners with my background charged by the hour. As I begin to work with everyday ordinary people – people that typical financial planners do not target, I started to remember why I wanted to become a financial expert in the first place.
I’m now on a mission to help ordinary people make extraordinary progress toward their financial goals with my mortgage, financial planning and small business development services. It’s my fundamental belief that you don’t have to have a fortune to start building one.
As for the wife and me – we experienced a minor set back. Others faced with the same set of challenges we faced back then would have probably gone bankrupt. Because of the sound financial principles that I teach and ascribe to, we never went backwards, we simply moved forward at a slower pace than what we were accustomed to.
Financial Statistics Tell Us That:
- 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
- 85% of Americans have a true net worth of less than $250.
- 62% of Americans say money is their biggest problem.
- 41% of American households do not have an emergency fund.
- Money problems are the primary cause of fights between married couples.
- 51% of marriages end in divorce. Of those divorces, 80% site financial problems as the leading cause.
- Only 2% of Americans own their homes independent of a mortgage
- 60% of college students leave college with student loans and credit card debt.
- 96% of those 65 and older retire or die broke.
My mission is to help people "Get A Grip" on their mortgage, their money and ultimately their life.
I'm in the the business of helping people WIN FINANCIALLY!
I’m looking forward to helping you with your mortgage, financial planning and/or small business development needs.
Damon Carr
Licensed by the PA Department of Banking
