Discrimination against minorities, black and latino borrowers in massachusetts continue to be reject insisted for home mortgages and much higher rates than whites. The piece written by Jay Fitzgerald goes on to quote an annual report that shows that even when minority borrowers have roughly the same income as whites, there is still a distub distubbing and persistent pattern of rarely disparity in mortgage approvals in both Greater Boston and across the state. To further discuss the topic we are speaking to Jay Fitzgerald and who interviewed the author of the report. Jay, welcome tourban update. Thanks for coming in. Reporter thanks for having me. Anchor lets begin if we can just start by talking about where this information came from. Gym at the university of massachusetts boston has been doing this study for 20 years, he compiles it from data from the federal government, home it goes into great detail about Mortgage Applications, peoples income, race, adaptive file, all of that information whether they got an application or not and so all of the data is all right there. It takes a lot of work like gym campen to get this done. It also by the way the Massachusetts Community and bank Banking Council sponsors this report every single year. Anchor now is this a report that banks look at . Ceos . Carefully. They dread if their name didnt come up well, you know, closely monitor insisted by the Banking Community and by Banking Community activists. Anchor who should be looking at this . Everyone. Basically, particularly those in the Minority Community because the findings are rather stark. It shows what they are about to get into. Its a little bit of an unfair process. That surprise insisted you . Well, just the fact that there is a disparity by beingly blah blacks and latinos still to this day who are reject insisted far more often than whites are in the city of boston its 21 rejection rate for blacks versus 6 for whites. Statewide, its about 17 rejection rate versus about 57 for whites. Rejection for mortgages. Latinos are twice as likely as whites to have their Mortgage Applications reject insisted. Anchor what about some of the reasons for these disparties disparties . Well, they are just statistics and gym is very careful not to get into too much inextent take but its a little bit of common sense. Of things. Racism, its about lowered job, higher jobless rates, lower income, thinner Credit Histories on the part of minorities, all of that factors into it. There is not one single cause. Anchor one of the troubling findings i notice here is that even when minority borrowers have roughly the same income as whites the disparity, rarely disparity mortgage approvals still goes on. Yeah. That is the real smoking gun for lack of other words. That is the real test. You can go in there and say okay blacks have traditionally job jobless rates or lower income but when you even that out with income, they still being reject insisted really much higher rate than whites. Anchor you said some of the things may be thinner credit history. Thats believed to be some of the reasons but again if you everything steady for income there is still a gap there. Anchor we have a little graphic up there on the screen if you want to take a look, this annual report here, Mortgage Loans to blacks were nonexistent in these communities. Can that be, is that the case . Nonexistent. There is none. Zero. Very few applications. There segregation in the city. Segregation may be minorities just cant afford on average that or they might conclude i wont get something here. So there are entire neighborhoods and entire communities across the state in which there are no minority Mortgage Applications. Anchor beacon hill, downtown, fenway, mission hill, north end, south boston. We have another graphic up here, loans to black applicants concentrated in five cities. The ones that do get the loans you see boston, brockton, loans to black applicants concentrated in five cities. Those are kind of some of those are the gateway cities that where there is a large minority population now so its basically been certain cities they are doing well or better statistically it doesnt hold the same thing sort of the same thing loans to latino applicants are concentrated apparently in these cities. Boston, lawrence, lynn, methuen, revere, springfield and worcester. So thats where everyone is sort of latino applicants are concentrated again the same pattern. Its a case, very segregated state racially and economically. Minorities are in those communities and so they are getting loans in those communities but they are not applying or they are just not getting loans and large numbers and other towns anchor what kind of reaction are you getting to your piece . I see you interviewed Darnell Williams of the urban league of eastern massachusetts. Darnell, i have talked to him before i was telling you, he was genuinely surprise insisted. He kept on saying to me, what . You can repeat that . Basically he blurt insisted out this is dismal. Dismal. That is how he describe insisted statistics. He was generally shocked and disappointed. Anchor i dont know one of the things i notice is that these statistics have been this way for a while. They havent really changed. Are there any, do you see anything positive on horizon at all . Number one, local banks or regional banks that have Branch Branches here are covered by the Community Reinvestment act. Community banks in massachusetts if they have a branch in the state generally do much, much, the problem that were seeing is really outofstate mortgage lenders and they are not covered by the Community Reinvestment act because they dont have branches here. Thats where a lot of dispear,. Anchor like when you get those letters in the mail, you know, lower your Monthly Payment or whatever. You get these letters from these Mortgage Companies from all over the country so one of the things bang shopping really very much. People really should be shopping around for their loans. You should go into your local bank if you have a Checking Account, savings account, cds try it. Not saying you will get it but it looks like you have a much better chance are also Government Bank loans. Minorities do well with those. Those are more expensive and its too bad that they have to rely more heavily on these bank they have a much, much better track record. Of giving mortgages to minorities. Anchor Jay Fitzgerald, that was quit an educationment thanks for coming in. Thanks for having he. Anchor four Financial Resolutions that every boston kwan should make in 2016 right well be right back. Anchor when you think of new year race resolutions, people off the an think of weight. But the begin of the year is also an opportune time to start saving for retirement, paying off debt or setting a budget. Our net guest john navien of the metlife premiere group has resolutions every bostonian should make in 2016. Thanks for coming in. Lets get right into it. Four Financial Resolutions every bostonian should make in 2016. Lets take a look at each one. I think we have a graphic we can show you. Here they are. Eliminate credit card debt. Start a rainy day fund. Make sure you are properly insure. Start saving for retight. Lets start off well emanating credit card debt. Sure, relevant time after the holidays and a lot of americans end up building up thing month to take into conversation is if you dont have the money to pay for something today unless your bonus insisted or variable compensation, not likely that you are going to have the money to pay for it down the road Holding Credit Card debt at high Interest Rates can be debt ratal to any financial plans so be cautious of it, be cognizant of it. Charge cards as opposed to credit cards if you want points and miles, better way it approach it. You cant hole a billion on the card if you do have a credit card pay it off every month. If you dont have the act to do that, dont put it on the card and maybe pass on the purchase. Anchor all you are doing is paying more money. Ing the problem. Anchor look at number two here, starting a rainy day fund. Life those curve balls at everyone. Make sure you have Funds Available in the event that something goes wrong with your home, health issue thats not covered by insurance or you need some liquidity to bridge a potential gap have you in your dont keep it too lean and we talk about runny day fund. Were not talking about money that is two clicks away from moving back into your Checking Account and were talking about money that effectively is off limits in the event that something happens you are prepared of you dont have to go too your Retirement Plan that may have penalty thats associated with longer term savings as opposed to pure liquidity. Anchor they used to say six months usually six months. Six month savings, three at an absolute minimum but six months is a good metric to work through. Anchor number three, make sure you are properly insured. Not the most riveting topic i can appreciate that. Sometimes there is plenty of insurance through your employer so make sure you understand what Group Benefits are that may often be more eofficial interand inexpensive way to cover insurance you need but if you have a family or children or a home or mortgage, again, something were to happen not just passing away and needing you cant work, short Term Disability or hopefully not but often long Term Disability if you dont have that coverage in place your family is in a tough spot. Anchor disability is one of those things people often overlook . I think they overlook it. Its again unless you are maybe an overly morbid person its not something exciting to think about and people dont want to pay for something they dont think they would use. Anchor you have life insurance, Health Insurance but you dont think about the between, you know, if you sudden suddenly just couldnt work. Family would be in a jam. Its a great point of i think the misconception is that i have got coverage through work and typically the sum level of baseline coverage through work i think most people dont take the time to evaluate exactly what that coverage entails and whether its going to be sufficient in the i sent that something happens. Anchor and number four, start saving for retirement. Right. Anchor a lot of adds for baby boomers on tv too. And who knows where Social Security ends up long term but typically not enough, especially in the boston area where its an expensive place to live to cover all of your retirement so saving system atically. The bulk of the net worth within the mean demographic of this country rather is in 401k plans and in home equity. Its not surprising why thats the case. 401k money comes out of your paycheck, once it goes in you cant get out. Home equity you have mortgage payment you have to pay it or its forecast insisted on. Once its inside the mortgage its not readily veil. Outside of that people tend to spend anything above and beyond that so make sure you have a systematic plan in place for retirement and for education for our children if thats important or any other mid to long term goals. Make it systematic. Make it part of your savings month in and month out and think of that savings a bill, spend whats left over and dont reverse the final two steps. Most people earn income, pay fix insisted expenses, spend and try to save as if its part that figures expense. Anchor pay yourself first i believe. Pay yourself first. Thats right. Anchor when do you start saving for retirement . You get out of school 21, 2223 . They are not thinking about retirement actually at that age. They are not but the sooner the better and when you talk to someone in the 40s or 50s who hasnt started yet then you are in catch up mode and it can be dangerous pretty quickly. The sooner the better find a way to put money aside, especially if you your players might even offer you free money. If they offer you some some of a match on money you put aside, make sure you at least take advantage of that at a minimum and figure out a way to live and run your lifestyle. Anchor Financial Advice something that a lot of people dont go out against Financial Advice and support. Is it important to have professional help . Yeah, my opinion obviously is a little bit bias insisted perhaps because thats my feel but it is. If it wasnt then more people shape as a whole. Even if you are financially astute and many people are, there is a tons of Information Online and television but tremendous contrast between information find in one place versus another so if you have i can to day job you are manage a household, family, finding time for yourself, find someone to help you work through that and. Anchor what are some of the biggest myths around having a Financial Advisor helping you . Financial advisor, estate planning, people i think assume in order to have an advisor need to be worth millions and millions of dollars. Thats not the case. Anchor how to you do you go about, what advice would you give to someone that wants to try to find one . Again there is a lot available out there online and with different firms. My advice is talk to people that you know and respect who are doing a good job or at least you believe are doing a good job. Ask them who they use. Interview a number of people. Make sure there is a comfort ideally its a long term partnership. You want to make sure you are comfortable and you tuft the person that you are working with. Anchor people procrastinate about this a lot. Isnt that true . Without question. Any thoughts on that at the time you talk about saving money you are talking about taking it from one bucket thats probably a little more exciting to your lifestyle kay to day than is putting it aside for 30 year, 20 30, 40 year plan. I get that. I understand that. Dont wait until its too late otherwise you might be in tough shape from retirement. Anchor where a good place for people to get more information, tips about handling money. I think they metlife. Com is the metlife premiere client group is a firm i am affiliated with and go on, check it out, there is a number of good firms. We are not the only one but we are very strong and its a good way to get an understanding of you are comfortable with. Anchor financial expert with some very good ideas and those four very good ideas for resolution for 201 eliminate credit card debt, start a rainy day fun, make shoe sure you are properly insured and start saving for retirement. All good ideas. Very important. Thank you for coming in. Anchor have a good success successful Financial Year for you and everybody else. After the break, what kind of parent are you to your teenager teenager . What are some of the different parenting style out there and is there help . Well talk to an r expert when update. Anchor being a parent to a teenager that is College Bound in todays task should you be a helicopter or submarine parent . Do you even know what those painting styles mean . Our next guest is an expert on subject that is founder and ceo of teen life. Com the leading that inspire, purpose and passion in College Bound teens. Every month millions of parents and students and educators vice her teen life web site looking for guidance that help prepare students for college and for life beyond school. Former marketing and professional and mother of two she heads up an Editorial Team that has created a reservoir of useful content including daily parent and teen oriented block posts, monthly news letters and six popular annual online print guides. Lets now welcome teen life founder and omarie schwartz to tourban update. Thanks for coming in. Thank you. Anchor thats quite an impressive resume have you there there. Lets start with i think these teen or these parenting styles out there. Helicopter parent. I have heard of that one before but submarine parent . I dont know if there are others. There is even snow plow parents. Anchor lets talk about the three of them. Maybe i can figure out which one i have been. They are all, the words conjure an image and so helicopter parents are really kind of describe insisted as over protective and excessively involved this their kids lived. Anchor hovering. Exactly. And they watch and they protect so snow plow parents are not far behind because they try to push all of the bad stuff out of the way and clear the path. What ends up happening is if you are overly, over protective or overly involved in your kids lives they dont learn how to fend for themselves. So you know the story of parent calling a teacher and saying why did my child get a bad grade . You know, how dare you . Or coach, you know, getting involved overly involved in sports. Why is my child not playing more more . Just basically not letting the child experience anything bad. So what has happened is that these children are now going to college and experiencing some Emotional Trauma because they dont know how to deal. Raise an adult by julie haynes if you are interested in this topic which describes her experience with seeing these students at stanford for the past, she was a dean of students and seeing what they couldnt deal with. And she ascribe insisted it to parents. Anchor for example you talk about cant deal in. Leave living independently. Living in a group situation, like voting for themselves, dealing with conflict. You know, not being able to kind of navigate. Anchor submarine parent, thats the one that i get gethelicopter i get. Submarine . I think thing i like to recommend now that i have been through it all, you know, believe me i was a helicopter parent at times also, but submarine, so your jobs a parent is to launch a child into life. So a submarine parent is kind of like seeing this boat leave the shipyard and thats your child and they are trying to go you are basically as a submarine parent under the surface, you know, hovering, nearby and ready to pop up when needed but otherwise you are out of sight. Right . Not out of sight but you are not child. You by attention like my mother worked when i was a child and shecash but she was never absent. I could tell she was interested and engage insisted. We spent time together on the weekends. So a submarine parent can do all those other things and still be a godparent. Anchor what are some of the common challenges that parents of College Bound teens face today you think . Well, the whole College Admission process as changed dramatically. Colleges are getting more and more applications because everything is online. So a child today will apply to 12 to 18 colleges whereas when i went, when i applied i dont know about you but it was like six. I think i applied to three. The chances of getting admitted to a college and not that there are more students. There are some, but its just the percentage of students who get in is that much lower because there is so many applicants so they are wore worried. Parent are anxious that their kids wont go to a good college. The other thing is i dont think students are necessarily majoring in the right majors and they are coming out of college under employed or not employed. They are moving back home. So there are those two factors i. Talk to me about teen life. Teen life, weather does it do . How does the Online Search engine sort of help those College Bound students and parent. I felt when i started teen life i want insisted to expose my kids to other interests and to get them prepared or, you know, exploring things that would be mentally stimulating and fun. What weve done in the past 8 years has really aggregate opportunities for teens that most of us never knew exist insisted. So you can as a High School Student go and try out architecture or engineering or veteran area medicine without any grading, without any expectation you have to be successful and usually those kind of environments are the most fun for students because they are with their peers and they are learning something that could potentially become a career interest. So weve actually done all of the homework of putting those opportunities on our site and its really easy just to type in an interest and then get all kinds of results that match that student is a interests. Dance, language, science, computer science, all kinds of really fun stuff. Cooking. Anchor what about i guess the value of outside the classroom learning experience like gap years. The do in the summer. This is its important it got your child out of their comfort zone before they go to college. In my opinion. Some students are so burned out from high school that if they start going to college they are just going to, you know, fall a apart or not be able to manage. You can take a gap year which is putting off admission to college college. The point is that you should make it structured make sure you are not just sitting at home wav waving tv or Community Service experience or Something Like that. Anchor why y experential earn willing necessary for teens nowadays. It teaches you skills that are actually making you employable. Anchor when experiential what do you mean in. Learning by doing. Instead of learn big textbook and doing that kind of thing, learning alone, being in a place where you are actually doing it with other people is much more like a Work Environment and also like real life. Anchor finally i guess to sort of wrap things up teen life you are hosting a first teen life live event, Virtual Event on january 31. You can tell me more about this . Anchor sure. For the First Time Ever were having an event where you can actually log in from home. So it can be snowing all you want and were we put together a roster of about 12 live presentations that you can listen to and also 50 exhibitors you can visit online. Teen life. Com. Anchor i will leave it right there. Thanks for a lot of good information. We have to cut it off there. Marie schwartz thanks for coming in and thanks for all of the great advice. Thank you. Anchor thats it for this edition ofurban update. Everybody here at the show have see you next week. Dear fellow citizen, i know what it s like to buy a house. I know how it feels to be stressed about money. I understand what a scary word retirement is, and i can help. Fellow dad, fellow mom, fellow saver, who gets up every daand tries hebest. Just like you