The One Percent Club is Building Generational Wealth in Houston

Growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tederick Derosin never thought financial freedom would be possible. It wasn’t until he moved to Houston in 2015 to work in the oil fields that his life changed forever. After suffering a knee injury, Derosin suddenly found himself unable to walk, and worse, unable to work. But that injury may have been the best thing to happen to him.

“I couldn’t walk for weeks so I started studying financial literacy,” Derosin said. “It honestly just took off from there.”

As inflation continues to rise and a recession looms, many Americans are struggling to make ends meet. The nationwide credit card balance was $925 billion in the third quarter of 2022, according to consumer debt data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Damaged, leveraged, and overall bad credit can be a costly, long-term financial purgatory, resulting in higher interest rates on loans and credit cards. One that Derosin found himself in after his injury. A grueling cycle of paying credit repair companies to fix his credit, losing money, and a sinking credit rating.

So while on bed rest and unable to walk, Derosin began to study the different aspects of finance—credit management, budgeting and investing—which made him shift gears from working on oil rigs to starting his financial platform, the One Percent Club.

“A lot of credit repair companies took our money and didn’t deliver the product we paid for,” Derosin said. “I wanted to purchase my family’s first home, and knew I needed to improve my credit. I decided to really lock in and start studying the different laws on credit and how it works.”

He fixed his and his wife’s credit and purchased his family’s first home by building a structure around his family’s budget and spending habits. His biggest lesson was living within their means, and not overextending accounts. “Once I did that, I had a few friends and family reach out to me to help them with their credit. One friend told me ‘I think you should really start taking your business seriously because you’re living your purpose.’ That’s when I decided to pursue it full-time.”

Wanting to use the knowledge he gained from fixing his own finances became the impetus for creating the One Percent Club, so named because it represents the brand’s ethos. “In order to be in the one percent, you have to be willing to do what the other 99 percent won’t do,” Derosin said. 

The organization’s goal is to assist people who need help with credit repair, debt deletion, financial mentorship, business funding, and setting up private trusts. Derosin is looking to work with people and families who want to build generational wealth, something that’s a systemic obstacle for people of color, namely African-Americans. “We’re given things from the government, such as our social security card, and we don’t know how to utilize it to the fullest extent,” Derosin said. “There are ways to leverage your credit in a way to positively impacts your life. It’s one of the keys to financial freedom.”

Additionally, the One Percent Club represents a level of exclusivity. According to Investopedia, the world’s top one percent is formed by the richest individuals, who on average, need to make $402,000 to join. While the one percent seems largely unattainable for many in today’s economy, Derosin is working to change that narrative in Houston.

In the courses, he, along with the two other founders of the One Percent Club, teach the fundamental importance of financial literacy and coach people on how to adopt the mindset of those in the one percent.

Headquartered in Houston, the One Percent Club hosted its official launch in January. In just a couple of months, Derosin says, his company has changed the financial lives of dozens of every day Houstonians,  as well as high-profile individuals like athletes and entertainers. “We wanted to build a community for people looking to learn more about what it means to be financially literate,” Derosin said. “People who are open-minded about structuring their finances, and willing to put in the work.” 

The One Percent Club is located at 2323 S Voss Rd Suite 410.