Solano Real Estate Scene: Jim Porter
Article By: Jim Porter – January 10, 2025
Fair Isaac Corp trades on the New York Stock Exchange as FICO. This company invented a scoring system way back in the 1960s that is used by 90% of the major lenders in the country.
As I always say, when I am coaching, speaking or writing, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and the one thing the rich all have in common is super high FICO scores.
Another thing financially successful people have in common is they invest and only keep emergency funds in savings accounts.
Sure, banks are still paying 4% to 5% in very safe and secure CDs, but if an investor had bought $10,000 worth of FICO stock on Jan. 7, 2015, that person would have made a 2,600% return and now have something like $270,000. The stock price was under $72 per share 10 years ago, and today is trading at $1,968 per share. (Interestingly, the price per share 30 days ago was $2,400.) Ten thousand dollars in a bond or bank CD will be worth $16,500 in 10 years.
It never occurred to me to buy FICO stock 10 years ago, but 87% of FICO stock is owned by institutional investors, pension funds, 401(k) plans and insurance companies via ETFs and mutual funds. So as it turns out, I do own FICO, just not enough, and you probably own it too.
The point is that it is best to be an owner and not a loaner.
Lending your bank or insurance company lots of money at 2% to 5% and them investing your money or lending it out at 6% to 10% or better yet investing your money in stocks and real estate and getting 12% to 15%, is how banks and insurance companies own the world. Compound interest is not magic, it’s just math.
Jim Porter, NMLS No. 276412, is the branch manager of Solano Mortgage, NMLS No. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS No. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.
