October 15, 2024 • 36 mins
Ep. 187 Ross Mac is the founder of Maconomics, a financial literacy media company dedicated to empowering urban communities. He brings a wealth of knowledge as a former Wall Street professional for Morgan Stanley and Grosvenor Capital.
Ross talks with AfroTech’s Will Lucas about the importance of finding reliable financial information, taking advantage of emerging financial technologies, and the foundational steps to building wealth. Tune in for a rich discussion on wealth-building, entrepreneurship, and the misconceptions that often hinder our financial growth. Whether you're just starting your financial journey or looking to refine your strategy, this episode offers actionable insights to help you succeed.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:43):
counted by your ticket Now. I'm with Lucas and this
is Black Tech, Green Money. Ross Mackt is founder of Economics,
the financial literacy media company dedicated to empowering urban communities.
He brings a wealth and knowledge as a former Wall
Street professional Morgan's Faanilely and gross Vendor Capital. We're about
(01:04):
to break down the importance of finding reliable financial information,
taking advantage of emerging financial technologies, and foundational steps to
building wealth. And so can you explain for me how
exposure to financial concepts at a young age can change,
you know, a person's financial trajectory, especially within the black community.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Are people.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, So, look, I think I think it's really important
to think about. You know, when we talk about generational wealth,
one of the biggest hindrances for us getting there is
truly living with past generational traumas. And so when you
think about being exposed to financial literacy at an early age,
what is going to do is just give you one
(01:48):
the confidence and understanding a know what though to actually
better managing your money.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I think there's a direct correlation to stress levels when
it comes to you know, how long you live, different
levels of health et cetera. Obviously health as wealth. But
I think once you're exposed to financial literacy at an
early age, it gives you that ability to confidentally say Okay,
I'm going to save, confidentally say I'm going to invest, confidently,
(02:14):
be able to say I would rather own rather than rent.
I can go in and say, hey, I have a
six fifty, seven hundred and seven fifty credit score, right like,
at the end of the day. And I always equate
financial literacy to its own language, and therefore, the earlier
you learn how to speak it, the.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
More likely you'll become fluent in it.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And so my biggest goal is to for our children
to speak it the same way they're fluent in sports
or culture. Right, they're going to know all the latest dances,
they gonna know which athlete is the best, et cetera.
But being exposed to financial literare at early age, that's
gonna give them that same confidence.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
When we have conversations on our community, even with adults,
we talk about stocks and investments, et cetera. Even adults
are still confused about how these things work. So when
you're talking about literacy for kids, at what age or
at what types of experiences, is it the right time
to start introducing financial concepts to.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Them the moment a child can walk and talk, you
know what I mean? I like at the end of
the day, right, I think all of us just think
about the things that we learn, right, we learn a
lot of stuff just through osmosis, right, purely just being
submerged in the culture of it.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
And so at an early age when my child says, hey,
I want to buy x y z, right, and obviously,
you know, to people that don't know me, I have
a lot of children, right, And so I have three,
And so if I'm going to a target or something
and my daughter or son says, hey, I want x
y z, they need to one understand the value of
a dollar. They need to understand hey, mommy and dad
(03:45):
had to work to get this, or hey, right, you
want to be on you know, on the tablet to
watch YouTube, Hey you own this stock? And so I
don't think there's never a certain things too early, right.
And the reason I say that is because just through osmosis,
they'll start being conditioned into the overall psychology of what
money is and how the world of money works.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
And so it's interesting you say that because I have
three also, and when my son asked for something, I
can put that on like, yeah, we need to teach
you about financial literacy. Is so how much did you save?
Et cetera. And even though my daughters do save, it's
I'm gonna still buy it for them. If if I
got the money to do it, then I'm not spending
my eleven year old daughter's money to buy something that
(04:26):
she wants. I'm gonna just do it. And so, you know, so,
how do you think about that? As a father somebody
who's trying to raise children. This still teach them to
be responsible. Here's the value of a dollar when you
just want to be that And especially with girls, you know,
guys like us, I want to just take care of
them because I'm not gonna let some knucklehead later make
it make it feel like, you know, oh he got me.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
What I think is it gives your kids the ability
to go set right. Like, at the end of the day,
the vast majority of Americans, right, I want to say
sixty percent Americans left pycheck to piccheck.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Half of Americas don't have a thousand dollars shaved. And
what that stems from is a lack of budgeting and
you know, not managing that money properly. And the thing
that I'm even trying to get to is impose decisions, right.
And so when you're saying, hey, your child wants to
buy X y Z, they need to understand that whether
(05:21):
you're ten or forty, Right, there has to be something
where you have to be able to control your impulse decisions,
especially if it doesn't align with your your overall financial goals.
And so when a kid is saying, hey, I want
to buy this certain toy, I think it's good to
start saying, hey, let's goal set. You're getting an allowance. Right,
(05:43):
Let's figure out if I'm giving you one hundred dollars
a month or a week or whatever it is. Right,
Let's figure out if this toy or whatever it is
cost two three hundred dollars, how long will it take
us to get to that goal. And once we get
to that goal, do we want to have zero in
our savings or do we still want to have some
money just in case the next toy comes up? And
so at the end of the day, I think it's
just a function of teaching.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Obviously, right, we're gonna get our kids whatever. But at
the same token, it's a good practice for it to
be their money because you know, as a business owner,
I'm going to pay my children for working in my business.
I'm going to get right a tax right off. So
now technically it is their money. Now, let's actually teach
them how to be responsible with that.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, like that. What are some big misconceptions you see
in our community, you know, around wealth building? What are
the things that we just think are one way and
they really not that way.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I mean the biggest misconception is that you got to
be rich in order to get rich, right, Like, at
the end of the day, right, investing has been democratized
anybody and everybody has the ability.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
To own stocks.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And also I think people don't understand its power and compounding, right,
I think, and I say this all the time, Like
I remember growing up, whether it was watching comic view
or just having pure relatives, there was always a joke
around build collectors. And I think, you know that comes
a point where you yourself have to just say, all right,
I got this past generational trauma when it comes to
(07:07):
whether it's bill collector is overspending or because I have
to wear pay or I had to wear pay less.
Now I want to buy all designer I got the
end of the day, man managing money is not hard.
It's just a function of us actually doing it. Everything
starts with a budget and the next once we start
paying our sales first, I think we're all conditioned in society.
Pay our bills, whether it's your phone bill, your light bill,
(07:30):
your mortgage, your rent.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Et cetera.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I think once we start paying our sales first, it's
very easy to get rich. It's just a function of
if you're disciplined enough to understand it might take you
twenty five years to get there.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Say more about paying yourself first, and how what does
that mean? How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
By paying?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I mean, so, here's what I mean by paying yourself first. Right,
I think we all know what direct deposit is. Right,
you don't have to think about it. That check is
going to automatically hit your account. Right, you work, you
work for a job, your job, you put your bank
account to it. Guess what that is going to automatically
hit your account? Now, what I mean by paying yourself
(08:11):
for paying yourself first is kind of the same concept
where that money's going to actually come out of your
account every month or every other week, whatever you set
it up for.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
But that's now.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Going towards your either your savings account, your retirement account,
your investing account, and so not having any think about it,
it takes the psychology out of it. And now you're
taking one hundred two three four hundred dollars out of
your account every month, and that's being invested.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You know, there's this quote I found from you or
you said, I've given my community a comprehensive grasp of
how to create lasting wealth and invest for a long term.
Say more about this, and like, what are some of
the foundational steps we should take when we're starting on
a wealth building journey, Like what are the first things
we need to do that sets a press, sets a
(08:56):
landscape for building out.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I love to tell people to work backwards sometimes right right,
Like at the end of the day. The best time
to plan a tree was, you know, twenty years ago.
The second best time it's to plant one today. And
so I think the average person needs to say, Okay,
I'm not where I want to be, but that's not
the end of the world. That's not the end of
the world. I could actually still get there. There is
a pathway to getting there. So now is it I
(09:21):
have to aggressively get out of debt, I have to
aggressively say, I have to aggressively invest. And so I
think what that comprehensive plan is is one you start
with mindset, your goal set, you budget, you get out
of debt, right, get out of that bad debt. You
don't need to be in credit cards, you know, carrying
the balance of something that's accruing right, compounding at over
twenty percent per anim interest rate. And so after that
(09:45):
is just about aggressively investing. I think, you know, the
average person wants to be rich, but the average person
doesn't want to make the sacrifices today. And so, you know,
I tell people all the time, Look, if you put
three three fifty three hundred fifty dollars a month aside
in a investment account, putting into the S and P
five hundred where it's going to on average gets you
ten percent returns and a year you have over a
(10:07):
million dollars when you get ready to retire in twenty
five thirty years. And so it's just a function of
how do you work backwards to get there? And you know,
so there's a there's a you know, a twenty five
X rule that literally says, you know, because the average person, right,
forty percent of people will run out of money once
it comes to retirement, and so how do you ensure
you don't run out of money?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Right?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
You literally start with that budget and you see exactly
what your annual expenses are, the necessary expenses that you take, right,
and so in order to not run out of money,
you just take that annual that you know, the average
annual expenses, and you multiply that by twenty five and
that is how much money you need to have saved
in your investment account for you to actually say, Okay,
(10:48):
I can retire, because the average person is working well
through that retirement age because they didn't plan ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
How did ROSS learn this? Like, tell me about your
upbringing is did you see people who were financially savvy
in the household or you made a bunch of mistakes
like people like me?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
No, So what I will say is, you know, I
learned early on the value of a dollar. I've been
an entrepreneurs since I was selling candy in the third grade.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Right. But what I will say is.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
You know I come from some parents that would be
you know, frugal. Will teach me the value of a dollar,
but I never really knew about investing. I never knew
about the power credit, but how to buy home, et cetera. Right,
So I'm from the South side of Chicago, you know,
middle class family and I will say, right, I worked hard,
went to a good school. I graduated from the Warden
School at University of Pennsylvania and worked on Wall Street,
(11:43):
et cetera. But a lot of stuff, the vast majority
of the things I learned was just being in the
right place, right time, right. I tell people all the time,
the greatest teacher is exposure.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
And I remember my freshman year at penn there was
a kid day training in the middle class. I'm broke,
what are you doing Asian here right day? Trading in
the middle class. At that moment, That's what made me
say I'm about to start investing. I open up a
portfolio within a week of that. Right, learning about different
tax hacks by being once again in the right place,
right time while working on Wall Street and hearing other
(12:14):
people talk about it by walking down me. You know,
because people on a trading floor, you don't have actual cubicles.
Everybody sits side by side with their various screens. I
remember seeing a managing director check his four oh one
K and he had a couple million in there.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So I'm oh, wait, hold on, now, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So now I'm starting to think about retirement and so
I think by being submerged in it, but once again
accidentally learning and then being intentional about Okay, how do
I do this now? What do I need to do
as a parent to ensure my kids never have student loans?
What do I need to do to be intentional to
ensure that my kids got the ability to, you know,
if they graduate, to say, hey, I want to take
(12:54):
a gap year. Hey I want to explore having a startup.
So it's about you know, little luck being at the
right place, right time. But the biggest thing is intentionality. Right,
it's not taking our schools. So you got to teach yourselves.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Talk about some technology, even applications that you might you know,
be using on the regular basis daily, weekly and monthly.
Like I know my Schwab account is on my phone.
Acorns automatically pulls money out a rounds up.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Obviously you know things like coinbase, you if you're in
crypto or other there's others also, But what is raws us?
What's what's ross mathews?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, every morning and I'm looking at them on the phone. Right,
there's something powerful about and I get, like some other
something powerful about those updates.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Right, I probably got.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
A Zooming, but c NBC, Yahoo Finance. I want those
updates every every hour on hour, every morning, right where
once again you're learning things through osmosis. There's some stuff
you're not gonna understand, but then there are things that will.
And so I love always having you know, the financial
based apps where you know, you try to know the
caations on where you're going to get those push throughs
(14:02):
of what's going on in the world. To your point,
I love having those investing in saving apps on my
phone right where you're now taking the guess and work
out of it. I love, you know, leveraging because one
right everything has been democratized. You got the ability to uh,
you know, invest from the power of your phone. I
(14:22):
love the YouTube and the Google University right where now
that is the number one. You ain't got to go
to Harvard. You can just go to Google and YouTube
and learn everything you really need to know. And so
I love utilizing those platforms to learn. You know, I
got a budgeting app or you know, the budgeting Excel
worksheet where you know, I need to be able to
control my inflows and outflows. Like you say crypto, I
(14:45):
got coin based on my phone, like at the end
of the day, Right, I think it's just a function
of saying. It starts with intentionality, it starts with education.
Then it's about you being intentional on saying I'm gonna save,
I'm going to invest, And it's just a function of
you know, learning and then putting everything you learn into practice.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, I want you to say more about this osmosis
and just you know, you may not understand everything, You
may not understand all the notifications you get on your phone,
but just being around it is helpful. Like I started
reading the annual report from Berkshire Hathaway, like especially the
Chairman's report, and even though like I'm a small, like
tiny minute shareholder there, and just seeing how he thinks
(15:27):
and seeing how these people think can impact you positively
and it gets you in the mindset of wealth making,
wealth generation, money making. Can you talk more about just
even though you don't understand everything that you may see
in the Wall Street Journal, read it anyway, why is
their value there?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
We choose to consume what we consume.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
So right, if you were to consume insert your favorite
drill wrapper and they start talking about different guns and
different drugs, first thing you're gonna do is.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
What are they saying? You might google that or you
might go to what are the lyrics? Right? I say
that all to say, we choose to learn what we
want to learn.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And I think you have to be just as intentional
when it comes to learning about the stuff that actually
impacts you, which is money. Right, Like, you're not making
no money by listening to rappers. You're not making no
money by going on Shade Room and reading the comments.
But you can make money by going you know, by
reading the annual shareholders report, by going on CNBC and
(16:30):
Yahoo finance. Right, you have to just say, how could
I be intentional? And so to your point when you
start out, it's going to sound like a different language,
but you understand certain things as it comes.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
You need to understand what happens if the FED is
lowering interest rates? What does that mean to you? Your
a borrower and all assets of whether it's borrowing money
for a car, borrowing money for a house or just
credit cards, right, you know, or your student loan money.
Like at the end of the day, you need to
understand that impact on what prices do verse when interest
rates go?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right? And so I think the more you are.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Submerged in it, the easier you start learning to speak
the language of finance.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You know, you talked about YouTube university and you know,
being on X and you're seeing what people are doing.
There's a lot of misinformation out there too, So how
do you how do you know what's credible and not credible?
And if you're starting out.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I look at it like dating, right, I think you know,
when you are getting ready to date. You know, ladies,
y'all got that one friend that's gonna be able to
scrub the internet and find all his ex girlfriends, et cetera. Right,
you know, in the same right, like you got to
be able to go back and see does this person
(17:47):
have any credibility? Because to your point, it's a lot
of scams, a lot of misinformation. So I think, you know,
it boils down to the same way you would date.
You're not going to take what a person say from
face value, going to see do we got any friends
in common? You're gonna then go get a background report.
You know, what's this person car Fax? You know, do
you know this person that's that the third And it's
the same right, Like, at the end of the day,
(18:07):
you should never take what anybody says for face value.
You got to see if that person truly did work
where they say they worked. This person, you know, trying
to scam you or is this person really for the
people trying to put you on?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
And I think you know at the moment, right, you can.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Then go to those credible websites, those the CNBC's the
Yahoo finances, right, whether it's the Charles Schwab, the e
trays right, like, they have a lot of different resources,
a lot of companies that I work with, Tia, right
if we talk of retirement, right, so far right, Like,
it's so many different companies, but right, I have no
issue with that one person that you may not heard
(18:45):
of having a viral post and that just kind of
makes a light bulb go off in your head. But
then now give let that give you the fuel to
then say, okay, I want to learn more about this
particular topic and then do that dive deeper and go
further into it.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I like that you've built some remarkable partnerships with companies
like Google or LinkedIn. How do you approach strategic building relationships?
Strategically building relationships and what advice do you get other
people who are trying to you know, collaborate with big partners.
How does this work?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I think most companies want to see a person that
is credible but also pure and genuine and what they're doing.
And so I started my business while I was a
full time entrepreneur, while I was working on Wall Street
whatever it was, right, Like, the goal is to be
a person that is adding value. And so if your
(19:45):
person that's adding value and have a decent following, right,
and I'm not saying hundreds of thousands, right, you can
have ten thousand followers, five thousand followers as long as
they are engaged and they and those five thousand people
are truly champions of mission, right, then those brands can
very well say, Okay, there's some value add that this
(20:06):
person can have. And so I started with credibility. I
started with being a champion other people in my business.
I started doing everything for free, right, And so now
brands are like, yo, we like his approach, We would
love to work with him, and whether it's creating content
for them or actually coming and speaking to their employees.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Like, at the end of the day, financial literacy is
the one thing we all need, but.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It's never taught to us.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And so you know, I found a niche in a
world where I speak. I make it more easily digestible
for the average person. Whether you're a kid, or you're
from the inner cities, or you're from a rural suburban
area and you're making ten million dollars a year, right,
if you're an athlete, it don't matter. We still need
to know these basic concepts of wealth building.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
How do we approach crypto as black people? I mean,
there's studies that have shown, like you know, a lot
of black people have gotten scammed in crypto or been
uneducated investors in crypto. I don't even know if you
wouldn't call it investor at that point, but we've been
uneducated aping in to a lot of these things. How
should we approach crypto as potential investors?
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I think it boils down to the same way as dating. Right,
you see that one guy, Ladies, they got the Gucci
shoes on, they done bought the table, only to find
out families living in paycheck to paycheck that kay Hed
was renting and he really living with his homeboy, his mamad. Like, look, man,
you got to actually understand what you're buying when it
(21:37):
comes to any asset. Know what you're buying, do the
research and understand the value ad and the use case.
So when it come to crypto, whether we talking crypto
or get rich quick schemes. When it comes to stocks,
whether that is the game Stops of the world, right
or if we're talking to the eight coins and those
coins right like, at the end of the day, know
what you're buying, know what the value add is, and
(21:59):
from there more research to see what it is. And
so when it comes to buying crypto, I'm going to
tell you to buy the ones that have a use
case that are the largest, whether that is the bitcoin
in the ethereums. But understand what it is, understand why
there's value in it. And if you don't truly understand it,
it's no harm loss, no harm, no filing, not buying it.
But where it becomes harmful is when you're buying things
(22:22):
because of the fomo, the yolo right where now you're
just buying it because you saw or heard somebody say, yo,
I just made two hundred percent returns in a day.
Now you have heard mentality and you buying stuff that
actually you were lured into buying it, right, And so
I think it boils down to doing the work understanding
(22:42):
the use case of the underlying asset. Right, I don't
want you to buy a penny stock. I don't want
you to buy a penny, you know, a worthless cryptocurrency,
So the same concept.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, I think that's a perfect segue into this idea
about patients. You know, you've talked about know how we
need to avoid this get rich quick mentality, and you
also talked about compounding and what that means over time,
Like you don't get wealthy overnight. Can you talk about
some of the things that you found successful when you
(23:14):
try to communicate, Like, you know, wealth is a you know,
generational thing. It's a long term play versus you know tomorrow.
It's all it.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I got.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
I got a mentor that used to tell me say, look, man,
making money should be like watching paint dry, right, Making
long term money should be like making you know, if
you're having too much.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Fun, it ain't gonna last or or rite like.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
And I say that all to say, wealth is made
long term by being diligent, being consistent, and disciplined. So
whether that is you taking one thousand dollars every month
or two hundred dollars or one hundred dollars every month,
being disciplined and consistent and growing your wealth over a
long course of time. And so I think way too
(24:01):
often we get on social media and you hear this
person's day trading or that person is trading cryptocurrencies or
NFTs was a big fad, right like at the end
of the day or game stop to the moon Yolo
diamond hands. Look at the end of the day, they're
very well trained marketers that go on social media and
(24:27):
lure you into buying different assets, right, sheeps and wolves, clothing, etc.
Unfortunately fall victim. But the true way of building wealth
is being disciplined, investing every month into create performing investments,
whether that's ets or the top companies that being the Apples, day, Amazon's,
the Microsoft's, the Googles, then.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Videos, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
And doing that over the course of time over twenty
thirty years. Right, Like we talk about generational wealth.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
But you have to be you have to be willing to.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Own certain securities for generations as well in order to
truly get the wealth. So it's all about discipline, and
I think try not to fall victim to the get
rich quick schemes.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, I want you to go in there because you know,
you said a couple of times you know about you know,
and I love with you just how you just positioned
like very well trained marketers who are really good at
luring us into doing things. And can you talk about
the levels of deception that we too often fall victim
to When you see somebody on ig and see them
(25:32):
on TikTok and snap and they got the car, they
got the jewelry, they're wearing designer and it's really they
trying to get your money.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
So there's a saying and investing where it's like the
moment everybody's talking about it, it's now too late, right,
and so you ask yourself, how is everybody.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Talking about it? It's marketing, right, Same with sports betting.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Right, I go on sport, I go on Instagram and
I see somebody made one hundred thousand dollars off a
hundred you know, one hundred dollars parlay.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Right. That is marketing.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That is enticing me to now go make a sports
bet in a parlay where the where the the you
got less than a percent rich, You got a less
than a percent chance of hitting. Right when you add
the more and more legs you add add to the parlay, right,
But that one person you thought one that's marketing, right.
And so when it's all said and done, you have
(26:30):
to say to yourself, right, the moment the average person
is talking about it, right, it is now too late.
And what that is is like buy the room or
selling news. And so when people are saying, oh now
it's time to buy, you know, oh now right every
time when everybody in the Auntie was talking about buying
(26:51):
video right and videos down now right relative And I'm
not saying that should ever deter you. Anytime you buy
a stock, I want you to go into it saying
I'm going to buy this for the long term, right,
and so in video will be higher in five.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Years no matter what the case is. I don't care
what's going on less.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
The world is ending, right, and so I don't want
you right. Like so for starters, you want to go
into an investment knowing what it does, how it makes money,
what is this company's competitive advantage, what makes them better
than everybody else, and then own it for the long term.
But once you get sucked into the Reddit community, the Instagram,
the Twitter, right, there's certain ways that people are marketing
(27:33):
to you so that you can go buy it. That
doesn't do anything but make those people that market it
to you their value go higher then they sell it.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Right, it's pump and dumb skin.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, I want you to talk about because there's something
else to this slow growth in paint and dry, you know,
sort of thing that I think too many in our
community get caught up on. Is you know, if I
put you know, one thousand dollars away and I'm gaining
you know, one percent or half a percent, whatever it
is that I'm gaining above what I might have been
gaining before the Fed you know it did what it did,
(28:06):
you know in the year two, year, three year. It's
I'm talking about hundreds of dollars, not meaningful dollars. And
so when we think about we want these, we want
ten thousand turning into twenty thousand, ten twenty thousand turning
into forty. Why is that a dangerous way of thinking?
Or is it a dangerous way of thinking?
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Well, here's the thing, right, there's a lost seventy two,
the rule of seventy two. Right where ten percent returns
in the s and P five hundred, your money you'll
double every seven years. So right, year seven, you just
flipped one hundred to two hundred year fourteen to to
foe twenty one, your year twenty one, you know, four
(28:51):
to eight to one point six, and it's just a
function of that's in twenty eight years, right, And so
I think I did it right, y'all.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Can play it back out. I might have missed it.
Who But the idea is like.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Being a stupid discipline is the name of the game, right,
Like I love the idea of investing every month, and
there's a so put it like this, right, there's something
called portfolio construction. I want you to think about this,
like when you were applying to college and your guidance
counselor told you you want to have your safety schools,
(29:23):
your reach schools, and your dream schools.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Safety is your just staple, your stable investment portfolio where
the vast majority of your money's at right, that is
the great blue chip stocks, That is your your ETFs, right,
your shange trade of funds, your s and P five hundreds, nasdacs,
et cetera. Right, then you got your reach and then
your dream. The reach can be right, whether it's venture
(29:49):
capital investments, whether that is certain portions of your crypto
but guess what. You're not gonna put one hundred percent
if you if you were a senior in college and
you got a three point GPA with a twenty seven
on the act, You're not going to only You're not
You're not going to only apply to Harvard. That is reach,
(30:14):
that's a dream. Instead, you're going to look at some
of your state schools, some of your YadA YadA, like
you know where you for sure should get in versus
what your dream is. And that's how you should think about.
What's something called portfolio construction. So I have no issue
with you buying certain crypto right as long as you
did the work, understand the value, and understand if this
is an investment or trade, but it should be a
(30:36):
smaller percentage of your overall portfolio when it comes to
thinking of it, like applying the schools.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
And so on the other side of entertainment, you talked
a lot about trying to make things digestible and accessible
for our communities. How much does entertainment from the positive
side play into being able to, you know, reach your audience.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
You got to meet your people with it yet, right,
so if they're on social media, you got to have
your content there you see it, from the biggest to
the smallest.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Right, you got to be able to meet your people.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Our attention spans are smaller, our screen time on our
cell phones are a lot longer. Seven eight hours is
getting insane, right, But at the same time, if you
have the ability to educate, right, educating and entertain edutainment.
Excuse me, If you got the ability to educate and entertained,
there's nothing wrong with it. I think that you know,
(31:31):
when we talk about building wealth in our community and
about the year twenty fifty, the media networth of a
black family's going to be zero. How do we ensure
that that never comes? It comes from everybody, right. We
need the politicians coming up with different things. We need
the teachers showing us different ways. We need the internet,
you know, financial advisors, et cetera. We need it's a
(31:53):
collective approach that we need everybody doing their part. And
my part is continuing to show you the way, continuing
to help educate and give people the blueprint and say, hey,
it's okay that you didn't your parents didn't have this
type of account for you, but guess what now you
know about this, So do that for your kids and
so it's just a function of you know, making sure
(32:14):
everybody understands that, you know, in order to be better,
we got to learn from our mistakes and actually, you know,
be intentional about building wealth in the community.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
You had said, despite the fact that my children are
only one and two years old. This may have been
some time ago, you said, I speak to them about
the economy, stocks and credit scores. When they're that young,
How do you speak to them? How like what kind
of things are you saying that may be understandable at
that level.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I try to put it in their own language, but
I still talk to them like they're adults. And what
I mean by in their own language is no Google, God,
gotta talk. But something that makes it relatable to them.
And so the things that are relatable is the stuff
that they're accustomed to. So if my kid is getting
a report card now, or they're getting a report right, Hey,
your teacher told us you know you were bad in school,
(33:09):
that's a report.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So if I'm talking about a fight, go score, you
could put.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
It in that language where it's like, hey, this is
a report card for how well you pay your bills
back or how well you pay back the money that
you borrow.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
They might not.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Understand what borrowing is, but it will start to click
as we get there.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
And so, you know, or if I say, hey, you
know you.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Own Amazon, right, you know the kindle that you watch
such and such on? Hey, you own this right? Not
only do you have it in your possession, but you
own the stock. And so it's just a function of
thinking about it. Like my kids are starting to think about, oh,
I want to go to this type of school, right,
My oldest just turned four a week or so ago.
Now you're just putting it in that language, But I
(33:50):
think that you just got to understand. At some point
it will get easier and easier for them to comprehend it. Right,
Like I put a basketball on my son hand. He
get fresh traded when he missed a shot, and I'm saying, oh,
you're shooting it too hard. It'll get only easier and
easier as he gets more reps. And the same thing
with you know, it'll get easier to comprehend and digest
(34:12):
the information as they get exposed to it earlier and earlier.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Yeah, I like that. You know what about parents who
are not rich or wealthy themselves? Can wealthy can non
wealthy and non rich parents teach their kids to be
rich or wealthy.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Absolutely, look, in order to build generational wealth, the generational
curse got to stop somewhere. I got to come from
that one person to be selfless and bold and disciplined
to get there, and so minimally minimal things like this, Right,
people don't understand there's such like Rome wasn't built in
(34:49):
a day and wealth doesn't have to start in five years.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Right, Like, there's a mindset first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
So a parent by purely saying, hey, I'm a new parent,
let me be selfless, let me get life and sh saurance.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You don't got to be rich of our own life insurance.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
But when you do, eventually right pass away, you can
have a million dollar policy. Right that can give your
kids some comfort when you do pass away. Right, So
that's first step. So it's a mindset. And also there
are a lot of people that were rich or that
are rich that didn't start with money. Right, it's just
a level of discipline. Once again, we.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
All can find two hundred dollars a month, that's how
much it cost to get your hair done.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Barber's costs that right now is one hundred dollars for
a haircut these days? How many drinks in the club? Right, Like,
this is just a function of where do you want.
It's about being intentional. If you want to intentionally save
and overinvest, you can get there.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
The easiest way to get a raise at your job
is not going and asking your boss for raise.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
It's actually cutting back expenses.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
So starting with the budget, learn knowing how you know
you're spending your money. Are you over spending when it
comes to Uber and you know grub Hub and dining
out maybe dying out times less? That's an extra two
hundred dollars Now you can invest. That just a function
right of being intentional, coming up with a plan and
goal setting.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Black Tech Green Money is the production of Blavity Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Hire Media.
It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with
the digital production support by Kate McDonald, Sayah Ergan and
Jada McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach.
Learn more about my Guess and other tech. This ruff
is an innovator's at afrotech dot Com. Video version of
(36:28):
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so tap in, enjoy your black tech green money. Share
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Afro Tech Conference is back, bringing together over twenty thousand
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(00:43):
counted by your ticket Now. I'm with Lucas and this
is Black Tech, Green Money. Ross Mackt is founder of Economics,
the financial literacy media company dedicated to empowering urban communities.
He brings a wealth and knowledge as a former Wall
Street professional Morgan's Faanilely and gross Vendor Capital. We're about
(01:04):
to break down the importance of finding reliable financial information,
taking advantage of emerging financial technologies, and foundational steps to
building wealth. And so can you explain for me how
exposure to financial concepts at a young age can change,
you know, a person's financial trajectory, especially within the black community.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Are people.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, So, look, I think I think it's really important
to think about. You know, when we talk about generational wealth,
one of the biggest hindrances for us getting there is
truly living with past generational traumas. And so when you
think about being exposed to financial literacy at an early age,
what is going to do is just give you one
(01:48):
the confidence and understanding a know what though to actually
better managing your money.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I think there's a direct correlation to stress levels when
it comes to you know, how long you live, different
levels of health et cetera. Obviously health as wealth. But
I think once you're exposed to financial literacy at an
early age, it gives you that ability to confidentally say Okay,
I'm going to save, confidentally say I'm going to invest, confidently,
(02:14):
be able to say I would rather own rather than rent.
I can go in and say, hey, I have a
six fifty, seven hundred and seven fifty credit score, right like,
at the end of the day. And I always equate
financial literacy to its own language, and therefore, the earlier
you learn how to speak it, the.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
More likely you'll become fluent in it.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And so my biggest goal is to for our children
to speak it the same way they're fluent in sports
or culture. Right, they're going to know all the latest dances,
they gonna know which athlete is the best, et cetera.
But being exposed to financial literare at early age, that's
gonna give them that same confidence.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
When we have conversations on our community, even with adults,
we talk about stocks and investments, et cetera. Even adults
are still confused about how these things work. So when
you're talking about literacy for kids, at what age or
at what types of experiences, is it the right time
to start introducing financial concepts to.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Them the moment a child can walk and talk, you
know what I mean? I like at the end of
the day, right, I think all of us just think
about the things that we learn, right, we learn a
lot of stuff just through osmosis, right, purely just being
submerged in the culture of it.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
And so at an early age when my child says, hey,
I want to buy x y z, right, and obviously,
you know, to people that don't know me, I have
a lot of children, right, And so I have three,
And so if I'm going to a target or something
and my daughter or son says, hey, I want x
y z, they need to one understand the value of
a dollar. They need to understand hey, mommy and dad
(03:45):
had to work to get this, or hey, right, you
want to be on you know, on the tablet to
watch YouTube, Hey you own this stock? And so I
don't think there's never a certain things too early, right.
And the reason I say that is because just through osmosis,
they'll start being conditioned into the overall psychology of what
money is and how the world of money works.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
And so it's interesting you say that because I have
three also, and when my son asked for something, I
can put that on like, yeah, we need to teach
you about financial literacy. Is so how much did you save?
Et cetera. And even though my daughters do save, it's
I'm gonna still buy it for them. If if I
got the money to do it, then I'm not spending
my eleven year old daughter's money to buy something that
(04:26):
she wants. I'm gonna just do it. And so, you know, so,
how do you think about that? As a father somebody
who's trying to raise children. This still teach them to
be responsible. Here's the value of a dollar when you
just want to be that And especially with girls, you know,
guys like us, I want to just take care of
them because I'm not gonna let some knucklehead later make
it make it feel like, you know, oh he got me.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
What I think is it gives your kids the ability
to go set right. Like, at the end of the day,
the vast majority of Americans, right, I want to say
sixty percent Americans left pycheck to piccheck.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Half of Americas don't have a thousand dollars shaved. And
what that stems from is a lack of budgeting and
you know, not managing that money properly. And the thing
that I'm even trying to get to is impose decisions, right.
And so when you're saying, hey, your child wants to
buy X y Z, they need to understand that whether
(05:21):
you're ten or forty, Right, there has to be something
where you have to be able to control your impulse decisions,
especially if it doesn't align with your your overall financial goals.
And so when a kid is saying, hey, I want
to buy this certain toy, I think it's good to
start saying, hey, let's goal set. You're getting an allowance. Right,
(05:43):
Let's figure out if I'm giving you one hundred dollars
a month or a week or whatever it is. Right,
Let's figure out if this toy or whatever it is
cost two three hundred dollars, how long will it take
us to get to that goal. And once we get
to that goal, do we want to have zero in
our savings or do we still want to have some
money just in case the next toy comes up? And
so at the end of the day, I think it's
just a function of teaching.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Obviously, right, we're gonna get our kids whatever. But at
the same token, it's a good practice for it to
be their money because you know, as a business owner,
I'm going to pay my children for working in my business.
I'm going to get right a tax right off. So
now technically it is their money. Now, let's actually teach
them how to be responsible with that.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, like that. What are some big misconceptions you see
in our community, you know, around wealth building? What are
the things that we just think are one way and
they really not that way.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I mean the biggest misconception is that you got to
be rich in order to get rich, right, Like, at
the end of the day, right, investing has been democratized
anybody and everybody has the ability.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
To own stocks.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And also I think people don't understand its power and compounding, right,
I think, and I say this all the time, Like
I remember growing up, whether it was watching comic view
or just having pure relatives, there was always a joke
around build collectors. And I think, you know that comes
a point where you yourself have to just say, all right,
I got this past generational trauma when it comes to
(07:07):
whether it's bill collector is overspending or because I have
to wear pay or I had to wear pay less.
Now I want to buy all designer I got the
end of the day, man managing money is not hard.
It's just a function of us actually doing it. Everything
starts with a budget and the next once we start
paying our sales first, I think we're all conditioned in society.
Pay our bills, whether it's your phone bill, your light bill,
(07:30):
your mortgage, your rent.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Et cetera.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I think once we start paying our sales first, it's
very easy to get rich. It's just a function of
if you're disciplined enough to understand it might take you
twenty five years to get there.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Say more about paying yourself first, and how what does
that mean? How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
By paying?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I mean, so, here's what I mean by paying yourself first. Right,
I think we all know what direct deposit is. Right,
you don't have to think about it. That check is
going to automatically hit your account. Right, you work, you
work for a job, your job, you put your bank
account to it. Guess what that is going to automatically
hit your account? Now, what I mean by paying yourself
(08:11):
for paying yourself first is kind of the same concept
where that money's going to actually come out of your
account every month or every other week, whatever you set
it up for.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
But that's now.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Going towards your either your savings account, your retirement account,
your investing account, and so not having any think about it,
it takes the psychology out of it. And now you're
taking one hundred two three four hundred dollars out of
your account every month, and that's being invested.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You know, there's this quote I found from you or
you said, I've given my community a comprehensive grasp of
how to create lasting wealth and invest for a long term.
Say more about this, and like, what are some of
the foundational steps we should take when we're starting on
a wealth building journey, Like what are the first things
we need to do that sets a press, sets a
(08:56):
landscape for building out.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I love to tell people to work backwards sometimes right right,
Like at the end of the day. The best time
to plan a tree was, you know, twenty years ago.
The second best time it's to plant one today. And
so I think the average person needs to say, Okay,
I'm not where I want to be, but that's not
the end of the world. That's not the end of
the world. I could actually still get there. There is
a pathway to getting there. So now is it I
(09:21):
have to aggressively get out of debt, I have to
aggressively say, I have to aggressively invest. And so I
think what that comprehensive plan is is one you start
with mindset, your goal set, you budget, you get out
of debt, right, get out of that bad debt. You
don't need to be in credit cards, you know, carrying
the balance of something that's accruing right, compounding at over
twenty percent per anim interest rate. And so after that
(09:45):
is just about aggressively investing. I think, you know, the
average person wants to be rich, but the average person
doesn't want to make the sacrifices today. And so, you know,
I tell people all the time, Look, if you put
three three fifty three hundred fifty dollars a month aside
in a investment account, putting into the S and P
five hundred where it's going to on average gets you
ten percent returns and a year you have over a
(10:07):
million dollars when you get ready to retire in twenty
five thirty years. And so it's just a function of
how do you work backwards to get there? And you know,
so there's a there's a you know, a twenty five
X rule that literally says, you know, because the average person, right,
forty percent of people will run out of money once
it comes to retirement, and so how do you ensure
you don't run out of money?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Right?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
You literally start with that budget and you see exactly
what your annual expenses are, the necessary expenses that you take, right,
and so in order to not run out of money,
you just take that annual that you know, the average
annual expenses, and you multiply that by twenty five and
that is how much money you need to have saved
in your investment account for you to actually say, Okay,
(10:48):
I can retire, because the average person is working well
through that retirement age because they didn't plan ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
How did ROSS learn this? Like, tell me about your
upbringing is did you see people who were financially savvy
in the household or you made a bunch of mistakes
like people like me?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
No, So what I will say is, you know, I
learned early on the value of a dollar. I've been
an entrepreneurs since I was selling candy in the third grade.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Right. But what I will say is.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
You know I come from some parents that would be
you know, frugal. Will teach me the value of a dollar,
but I never really knew about investing. I never knew
about the power credit, but how to buy home, et cetera. Right,
So I'm from the South side of Chicago, you know,
middle class family and I will say, right, I worked hard,
went to a good school. I graduated from the Warden
School at University of Pennsylvania and worked on Wall Street,
(11:43):
et cetera. But a lot of stuff, the vast majority
of the things I learned was just being in the
right place, right time, right. I tell people all the time,
the greatest teacher is exposure.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
And I remember my freshman year at penn there was
a kid day training in the middle class. I'm broke,
what are you doing Asian here right day? Trading in
the middle class. At that moment, That's what made me
say I'm about to start investing. I open up a
portfolio within a week of that. Right, learning about different
tax hacks by being once again in the right place,
right time while working on Wall Street and hearing other
(12:14):
people talk about it by walking down me. You know,
because people on a trading floor, you don't have actual cubicles.
Everybody sits side by side with their various screens. I
remember seeing a managing director check his four oh one
K and he had a couple million in there.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So I'm oh, wait, hold on, now, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So now I'm starting to think about retirement and so
I think by being submerged in it, but once again
accidentally learning and then being intentional about Okay, how do
I do this now? What do I need to do
as a parent to ensure my kids never have student loans?
What do I need to do to be intentional to
ensure that my kids got the ability to, you know,
if they graduate, to say, hey, I want to take
(12:54):
a gap year. Hey I want to explore having a startup.
So it's about you know, little luck being at the
right place, right time. But the biggest thing is intentionality. Right,
it's not taking our schools. So you got to teach yourselves.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Talk about some technology, even applications that you might you know,
be using on the regular basis daily, weekly and monthly.
Like I know my Schwab account is on my phone.
Acorns automatically pulls money out a rounds up.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Obviously you know things like coinbase, you if you're in
crypto or other there's others also, But what is raws us?
What's what's ross mathews?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, every morning and I'm looking at them on the phone. Right,
there's something powerful about and I get, like some other
something powerful about those updates.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Right, I probably got.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
A Zooming, but c NBC, Yahoo Finance. I want those
updates every every hour on hour, every morning, right where
once again you're learning things through osmosis. There's some stuff
you're not gonna understand, but then there are things that will.
And so I love always having you know, the financial
based apps where you know, you try to know the
caations on where you're going to get those push throughs
(14:02):
of what's going on in the world. To your point,
I love having those investing in saving apps on my
phone right where you're now taking the guess and work
out of it. I love, you know, leveraging because one
right everything has been democratized. You got the ability to uh,
you know, invest from the power of your phone. I
(14:22):
love the YouTube and the Google University right where now
that is the number one. You ain't got to go
to Harvard. You can just go to Google and YouTube
and learn everything you really need to know. And so
I love utilizing those platforms to learn. You know, I
got a budgeting app or you know, the budgeting Excel
worksheet where you know, I need to be able to
control my inflows and outflows. Like you say crypto, I
(14:45):
got coin based on my phone, like at the end
of the day, Right, I think it's just a function
of saying. It starts with intentionality, it starts with education.
Then it's about you being intentional on saying I'm gonna save,
I'm going to invest, And it's just a function of
you know, learning and then putting everything you learn into practice.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, I want you to say more about this osmosis
and just you know, you may not understand everything, You
may not understand all the notifications you get on your phone,
but just being around it is helpful. Like I started
reading the annual report from Berkshire Hathaway, like especially the
Chairman's report, and even though like I'm a small, like
tiny minute shareholder there, and just seeing how he thinks
(15:27):
and seeing how these people think can impact you positively
and it gets you in the mindset of wealth making,
wealth generation, money making. Can you talk more about just
even though you don't understand everything that you may see
in the Wall Street Journal, read it anyway, why is
their value there?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
We choose to consume what we consume.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
So right, if you were to consume insert your favorite
drill wrapper and they start talking about different guns and
different drugs, first thing you're gonna do is.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
What are they saying? You might google that or you
might go to what are the lyrics? Right? I say
that all to say, we choose to learn what we
want to learn.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And I think you have to be just as intentional
when it comes to learning about the stuff that actually
impacts you, which is money. Right, Like, you're not making
no money by listening to rappers. You're not making no
money by going on Shade Room and reading the comments.
But you can make money by going you know, by
reading the annual shareholders report, by going on CNBC and
(16:30):
Yahoo finance. Right, you have to just say, how could
I be intentional? And so to your point when you
start out, it's going to sound like a different language,
but you understand certain things as it comes.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
You need to understand what happens if the FED is
lowering interest rates? What does that mean to you? Your
a borrower and all assets of whether it's borrowing money
for a car, borrowing money for a house or just
credit cards, right, you know, or your student loan money.
Like at the end of the day, you need to
understand that impact on what prices do verse when interest
rates go?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right? And so I think the more you are.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Submerged in it, the easier you start learning to speak
the language of finance.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You know, you talked about YouTube university and you know,
being on X and you're seeing what people are doing.
There's a lot of misinformation out there too, So how
do you how do you know what's credible and not credible?
And if you're starting out.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I look at it like dating, right, I think you know,
when you are getting ready to date. You know, ladies,
y'all got that one friend that's gonna be able to
scrub the internet and find all his ex girlfriends, et cetera. Right,
you know, in the same right, like you got to
be able to go back and see does this person
(17:47):
have any credibility? Because to your point, it's a lot
of scams, a lot of misinformation. So I think, you know,
it boils down to the same way you would date.
You're not going to take what a person say from
face value, going to see do we got any friends
in common? You're gonna then go get a background report.
You know, what's this person car Fax? You know, do
you know this person that's that the third And it's
the same right, Like, at the end of the day,
(18:07):
you should never take what anybody says for face value.
You got to see if that person truly did work
where they say they worked. This person, you know, trying
to scam you or is this person really for the
people trying to put you on?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
And I think you know at the moment, right, you can.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Then go to those credible websites, those the CNBC's the
Yahoo finances, right, whether it's the Charles Schwab, the e
trays right, like, they have a lot of different resources,
a lot of companies that I work with, Tia, right
if we talk of retirement, right, so far right, Like,
it's so many different companies, but right, I have no
issue with that one person that you may not heard
(18:45):
of having a viral post and that just kind of
makes a light bulb go off in your head. But
then now give let that give you the fuel to
then say, okay, I want to learn more about this
particular topic and then do that dive deeper and go
further into it.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I like that you've built some remarkable partnerships with companies
like Google or LinkedIn. How do you approach strategic building relationships?
Strategically building relationships and what advice do you get other
people who are trying to you know, collaborate with big partners.
How does this work?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I think most companies want to see a person that
is credible but also pure and genuine and what they're doing.
And so I started my business while I was a
full time entrepreneur, while I was working on Wall Street
whatever it was, right, Like, the goal is to be
a person that is adding value. And so if your
(19:45):
person that's adding value and have a decent following, right,
and I'm not saying hundreds of thousands, right, you can
have ten thousand followers, five thousand followers as long as
they are engaged and they and those five thousand people
are truly champions of mission, right, then those brands can
very well say, Okay, there's some value add that this
(20:06):
person can have. And so I started with credibility. I
started with being a champion other people in my business.
I started doing everything for free, right, And so now
brands are like, yo, we like his approach, We would
love to work with him, and whether it's creating content
for them or actually coming and speaking to their employees.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Like, at the end of the day, financial literacy is
the one thing we all need, but.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It's never taught to us.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And so you know, I found a niche in a
world where I speak. I make it more easily digestible
for the average person. Whether you're a kid, or you're
from the inner cities, or you're from a rural suburban
area and you're making ten million dollars a year, right,
if you're an athlete, it don't matter. We still need
to know these basic concepts of wealth building.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
How do we approach crypto as black people? I mean,
there's studies that have shown, like you know, a lot
of black people have gotten scammed in crypto or been
uneducated investors in crypto. I don't even know if you
wouldn't call it investor at that point, but we've been
uneducated aping in to a lot of these things. How
should we approach crypto as potential investors?
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I think it boils down to the same way as dating. Right,
you see that one guy, Ladies, they got the Gucci
shoes on, they done bought the table, only to find
out families living in paycheck to paycheck that kay Hed
was renting and he really living with his homeboy, his mamad. Like, look, man,
you got to actually understand what you're buying when it
(21:37):
comes to any asset. Know what you're buying, do the
research and understand the value ad and the use case.
So when it come to crypto, whether we talking crypto
or get rich quick schemes. When it comes to stocks,
whether that is the game Stops of the world, right
or if we're talking to the eight coins and those
coins right like, at the end of the day, know
what you're buying, know what the value add is, and
(21:59):
from there more research to see what it is. And
so when it comes to buying crypto, I'm going to
tell you to buy the ones that have a use
case that are the largest, whether that is the bitcoin
in the ethereums. But understand what it is, understand why
there's value in it. And if you don't truly understand it,
it's no harm loss, no harm, no filing, not buying it.
But where it becomes harmful is when you're buying things
(22:22):
because of the fomo, the yolo right where now you're
just buying it because you saw or heard somebody say, yo,
I just made two hundred percent returns in a day.
Now you have heard mentality and you buying stuff that
actually you were lured into buying it, right, And so
I think it boils down to doing the work understanding
(22:42):
the use case of the underlying asset. Right, I don't
want you to buy a penny stock. I don't want
you to buy a penny, you know, a worthless cryptocurrency,
So the same concept.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, I think that's a perfect segue into this idea
about patients. You know, you've talked about know how we
need to avoid this get rich quick mentality, and you
also talked about compounding and what that means over time,
Like you don't get wealthy overnight. Can you talk about
some of the things that you found successful when you
(23:14):
try to communicate, Like, you know, wealth is a you know,
generational thing. It's a long term play versus you know tomorrow.
It's all it.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I got.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
I got a mentor that used to tell me say, look, man,
making money should be like watching paint dry, right, Making
long term money should be like making you know, if
you're having too much.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Fun, it ain't gonna last or or rite like.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
And I say that all to say, wealth is made
long term by being diligent, being consistent, and disciplined. So
whether that is you taking one thousand dollars every month
or two hundred dollars or one hundred dollars every month,
being disciplined and consistent and growing your wealth over a
long course of time. And so I think way too
(24:01):
often we get on social media and you hear this
person's day trading or that person is trading cryptocurrencies or
NFTs was a big fad, right like at the end
of the day or game stop to the moon Yolo
diamond hands. Look at the end of the day, they're
very well trained marketers that go on social media and
(24:27):
lure you into buying different assets, right, sheeps and wolves, clothing, etc.
Unfortunately fall victim. But the true way of building wealth
is being disciplined, investing every month into create performing investments,
whether that's ets or the top companies that being the Apples, day, Amazon's,
the Microsoft's, the Googles, then.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Videos, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
And doing that over the course of time over twenty
thirty years. Right, Like we talk about generational wealth.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
But you have to be you have to be willing to.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Own certain securities for generations as well in order to
truly get the wealth. So it's all about discipline, and
I think try not to fall victim to the get
rich quick schemes.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, I want you to go in there because you know,
you said a couple of times you know about you know,
and I love with you just how you just positioned
like very well trained marketers who are really good at
luring us into doing things. And can you talk about
the levels of deception that we too often fall victim
to When you see somebody on ig and see them
(25:32):
on TikTok and snap and they got the car, they
got the jewelry, they're wearing designer and it's really they
trying to get your money.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
So there's a saying and investing where it's like the
moment everybody's talking about it, it's now too late, right,
and so you ask yourself, how is everybody.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Talking about it? It's marketing, right, Same with sports betting.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Right, I go on sport, I go on Instagram and
I see somebody made one hundred thousand dollars off a
hundred you know, one hundred dollars parlay.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Right. That is marketing.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That is enticing me to now go make a sports
bet in a parlay where the where the the you
got less than a percent rich, You got a less
than a percent chance of hitting. Right when you add
the more and more legs you add add to the parlay, right,
But that one person you thought one that's marketing, right.
And so when it's all said and done, you have
(26:30):
to say to yourself, right, the moment the average person
is talking about it, right, it is now too late.
And what that is is like buy the room or
selling news. And so when people are saying, oh now
it's time to buy, you know, oh now right every
time when everybody in the Auntie was talking about buying
(26:51):
video right and videos down now right relative And I'm
not saying that should ever deter you. Anytime you buy
a stock, I want you to go into it saying
I'm going to buy this for the long term, right,
and so in video will be higher in five.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Years no matter what the case is. I don't care
what's going on less.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
The world is ending, right, and so I don't want
you right. Like so for starters, you want to go
into an investment knowing what it does, how it makes money,
what is this company's competitive advantage, what makes them better
than everybody else, and then own it for the long term.
But once you get sucked into the Reddit community, the Instagram,
the Twitter, right, there's certain ways that people are marketing
(27:33):
to you so that you can go buy it. That
doesn't do anything but make those people that market it
to you their value go higher then they sell it.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Right, it's pump and dumb skin.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, I want you to talk about because there's something
else to this slow growth in paint and dry, you know,
sort of thing that I think too many in our
community get caught up on. Is you know, if I
put you know, one thousand dollars away and I'm gaining
you know, one percent or half a percent, whatever it
is that I'm gaining above what I might have been
gaining before the Fed you know it did what it did,
(28:06):
you know in the year two, year, three year. It's
I'm talking about hundreds of dollars, not meaningful dollars. And
so when we think about we want these, we want
ten thousand turning into twenty thousand, ten twenty thousand turning
into forty. Why is that a dangerous way of thinking?
Or is it a dangerous way of thinking?
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Well, here's the thing, right, there's a lost seventy two,
the rule of seventy two. Right where ten percent returns
in the s and P five hundred, your money you'll
double every seven years. So right, year seven, you just
flipped one hundred to two hundred year fourteen to to
foe twenty one, your year twenty one, you know, four
(28:51):
to eight to one point six, and it's just a
function of that's in twenty eight years, right, And so
I think I did it right, y'all.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Can play it back out. I might have missed it.
Who But the idea is like.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Being a stupid discipline is the name of the game, right,
Like I love the idea of investing every month, and
there's a so put it like this, right, there's something
called portfolio construction. I want you to think about this,
like when you were applying to college and your guidance
counselor told you you want to have your safety schools,
(29:23):
your reach schools, and your dream schools.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Safety is your just staple, your stable investment portfolio where
the vast majority of your money's at right, that is
the great blue chip stocks, That is your your ETFs, right,
your shange trade of funds, your s and P five hundreds, nasdacs,
et cetera. Right, then you got your reach and then
your dream. The reach can be right, whether it's venture
(29:49):
capital investments, whether that is certain portions of your crypto
but guess what. You're not gonna put one hundred percent
if you if you were a senior in college and
you got a three point GPA with a twenty seven
on the act, You're not going to only You're not
You're not going to only apply to Harvard. That is reach,
(30:14):
that's a dream. Instead, you're going to look at some
of your state schools, some of your YadA YadA, like
you know where you for sure should get in versus
what your dream is. And that's how you should think about.
What's something called portfolio construction. So I have no issue
with you buying certain crypto right as long as you
did the work, understand the value, and understand if this
is an investment or trade, but it should be a
(30:36):
smaller percentage of your overall portfolio when it comes to
thinking of it, like applying the schools.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
And so on the other side of entertainment, you talked
a lot about trying to make things digestible and accessible
for our communities. How much does entertainment from the positive
side play into being able to, you know, reach your audience.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
You got to meet your people with it yet, right,
so if they're on social media, you got to have
your content there you see it, from the biggest to
the smallest.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Right, you got to be able to meet your people.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Our attention spans are smaller, our screen time on our
cell phones are a lot longer. Seven eight hours is
getting insane, right, But at the same time, if you
have the ability to educate, right, educating and entertain edutainment.
Excuse me, If you got the ability to educate and entertained,
there's nothing wrong with it. I think that you know,
(31:31):
when we talk about building wealth in our community and
about the year twenty fifty, the media networth of a
black family's going to be zero. How do we ensure
that that never comes? It comes from everybody, right. We
need the politicians coming up with different things. We need
the teachers showing us different ways. We need the internet,
you know, financial advisors, et cetera. We need it's a
(31:53):
collective approach that we need everybody doing their part. And
my part is continuing to show you the way, continuing
to help educate and give people the blueprint and say, hey,
it's okay that you didn't your parents didn't have this
type of account for you, but guess what now you
know about this, So do that for your kids and
so it's just a function of you know, making sure
(32:14):
everybody understands that, you know, in order to be better,
we got to learn from our mistakes and actually, you know,
be intentional about building wealth in the community.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
You had said, despite the fact that my children are
only one and two years old. This may have been
some time ago, you said, I speak to them about
the economy, stocks and credit scores. When they're that young,
How do you speak to them? How like what kind
of things are you saying that may be understandable at
that level.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I try to put it in their own language, but
I still talk to them like they're adults. And what
I mean by in their own language is no Google, God,
gotta talk. But something that makes it relatable to them.
And so the things that are relatable is the stuff
that they're accustomed to. So if my kid is getting
a report card now, or they're getting a report right, Hey,
your teacher told us you know you were bad in school,
(33:09):
that's a report.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So if I'm talking about a fight, go score, you
could put.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
It in that language where it's like, hey, this is
a report card for how well you pay your bills
back or how well you pay back the money that
you borrow.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
They might not.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Understand what borrowing is, but it will start to click
as we get there.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
And so, you know, or if I say, hey, you
know you.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Own Amazon, right, you know the kindle that you watch
such and such on? Hey, you own this right? Not
only do you have it in your possession, but you
own the stock. And so it's just a function of
thinking about it. Like my kids are starting to think about, oh,
I want to go to this type of school, right,
My oldest just turned four a week or so ago.
Now you're just putting it in that language, But I
(33:50):
think that you just got to understand. At some point
it will get easier and easier for them to comprehend it. Right,
Like I put a basketball on my son hand. He
get fresh traded when he missed a shot, and I'm saying, oh,
you're shooting it too hard. It'll get only easier and
easier as he gets more reps. And the same thing
with you know, it'll get easier to comprehend and digest
(34:12):
the information as they get exposed to it earlier and earlier.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Yeah, I like that. You know what about parents who
are not rich or wealthy themselves? Can wealthy can non
wealthy and non rich parents teach their kids to be
rich or wealthy.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Absolutely, look, in order to build generational wealth, the generational
curse got to stop somewhere. I got to come from
that one person to be selfless and bold and disciplined
to get there, and so minimally minimal things like this, Right,
people don't understand there's such like Rome wasn't built in
(34:49):
a day and wealth doesn't have to start in five years.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Right, Like, there's a mindset first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
So a parent by purely saying, hey, I'm a new parent,
let me be selfless, let me get life and sh saurance.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
You don't got to be rich of our own life insurance.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
But when you do, eventually right pass away, you can
have a million dollar policy. Right that can give your
kids some comfort when you do pass away. Right, So
that's first step. So it's a mindset. And also there
are a lot of people that were rich or that
are rich that didn't start with money. Right, it's just
a level of discipline. Once again, we.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
All can find two hundred dollars a month, that's how
much it cost to get your hair done.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Barber's costs that right now is one hundred dollars for
a haircut these days? How many drinks in the club? Right, Like,
this is just a function of where do you want.
It's about being intentional. If you want to intentionally save
and overinvest, you can get there.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
The easiest way to get a raise at your job
is not going and asking your boss for raise.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
It's actually cutting back expenses.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
So starting with the budget, learn knowing how you know
you're spending your money. Are you over spending when it
comes to Uber and you know grub Hub and dining
out maybe dying out times less? That's an extra two
hundred dollars Now you can invest. That just a function
right of being intentional, coming up with a plan and
goal setting.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Black Tech Green Money is the production of Blavity Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Hire Media.
It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with
the digital production support by Kate McDonald, Sayah Ergan and
Jada McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach.
Learn more about my Guess and other tech. This ruff
is an innovator's at afrotech dot Com. Video version of
(36:28):
this episode will drop to black Tech green money on YouTube,
so tap in, enjoy your black tech green money. Share
us to somebody, Go get your money. Piece in love
Host
Will Lucas
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