December 27, 2023 • 41 mins
Previously recorded
In this Checking In replay, Michelle and Raquel Curtis (aka The Boujee Banker) are holding you accountable for your money management. The Boujee Banker tells us her story of the struggle that led her to become a financial advisor. She also gives us tips to change our spending habits and take steps towards financial freedom. CHECK IN to this episode if you want to get your money right this year!
For access to the Boujee Banker’s classes, visit: https://www.beboujee.com/
Follow The Boujee Banker on Instagram: @theboujeebanker_
Subscribe to her YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVQHPFYH5BIm0CMbqPyXwuw
Make sure you’re following Michelle on social media!
Instagram: @MichelleWilliams
Twitter: @RealMichelleW
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Hey, family, you know I
love you and I got a question for you, maybe
(00:21):
two questions. Do you feel like you're working just to
pay off your credit cards? Do you feel like you
live in paycheck to paycheck? Or have you wanted to invest?
But it all sounds very confusing. Well, my next guest
has all those answers for you coming up next on
Checking In. Okay, y'all, I'm so excited about today's guests.
(00:45):
We had been dming each other on Instagram for a
while saying when you're gonna come on checking In or
I've got to meet you. She is a sought after
financial consultant and expert for shows like The Table, Bloomberg
Radio Business Insider. She's also an author, podcaster, educator, and
yes she's a mama of three. Please welcome Brakel Curtis
(01:09):
to Checking In.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Hey, Michelle oh Man, that intro I was like, who's
that honey?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Listen and y'all she you might really know her as
the Bougie Banker, which was definitely a catchy name on Instagram.
I followed her immediately because there was something that she
posted that was on the explore page, and it seems
like we follow some of the same mutual good people.
So I was like, Okay, I know we're gonna be
(01:36):
in great company with each other.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yes, I'm so excited to be here. When you followed me,
I had to check out, like wait a minute, hold on, Michelle.
So I'm just so excited. I called my mama immediately.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Please, hey, mama. We started following each other because during
the pandemic, the whole crypto and four X thing became
something very popular, and I began following you because you
were so educational. And there's a disclaimer, ladies and gentlemen,
Yes she is a financial consultant, but you must speak
(02:10):
with your own advisor because what she's gonna say to
you are suggestions and not necessarily advice. So what I
liked on your Instagram page, Raquel, was that you had
great suggestions about banking, investment, and crypto and at that
time for X can be considered an investment. So I
(02:32):
began following you for some education and all that good stuff,
and I'm glad I did. So how did you get
started in the field of consulting in the area of financing.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
This is a very long story of being broke. So originally,
you know, I went to school with Sabanna State University,
graduated with a degree in criminal justice, and I went
on to become a directional officer. Now this entire time,
I was like, that's my field. We had to take
(03:05):
one semester of math. I'm good. And that's exactly where
I stayed up until I was pregnant with my now
ten year olds and a fight that broke out between
two inmates, and in that moment I was thinking about
doing my job and I ran to go break up
the fight. One of the inmates fell on my stomach.
(03:26):
I was placed on bed rest for the duration of
that pregnancy, and then when she was born, you know,
we didn't have a lot of money, and so I
became a stay at home mom. So during that time,
you know, obviously I loved my children, obviously, you know,
I love that whole dynamic. But I really felt like
(03:46):
I worked too hard not to feel myself grow as
an individual anymore. So since we couldn't afford to send
my daughter to childcare, I just got a job at
the local daycare. I was making seven dollars and twenty
five cents an hour and with a degree that was
kind of hard to swallow over. But to do what
you have to do. And I started paying attention to
(04:08):
what management was doing, what the owners were doing, and
I was like, you know what, you can figure this out.
You're smart enough. So I started taking CDA classes, so
just childhood certification classes on the weekend. And then I
started watching people's children, which eventually bled into it being
its own in home daycare. Now this point, I'm like,
oh wow, I'm like doing the entrepreneur thing. This is great.
(04:30):
But I was learning business and a few things transpired
just with my family, and so I ended up closing
down my daycare. A few years later, my youngest was born,
and you know, I'm five to nine. I have an
athletic build, so I think she was born. People were
asking me, how did you snap back so quick? Says
this year break. My daughters burned on July first, my
(04:51):
brother's lack fifteen. How did you snap back so quick?
And I have all of this experience from being a
collegiate athlete, played basketball, ran track my whole life. You know,
I'm like, I can train them to help them get
into shape. You know I could do this, So I
started helping people, and I realized that I enjoyed it
and I was doing very well at it. So I
(05:12):
got my certification to be a personal trainer a few
months after that. About six months after that, I opened
the first women's only gym with childcare in my city,
and so everything was going great.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Way wait wait, wait, wait, the first gym with childcare
in your city. And what city is this?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
This is Comington, Georgia. Wow, in the country, in the stix.
So you know, I had seven employees, seventeen hundred square
foot building. And then unfortunately, one day I was headed
home and this older gentleman ran a red light. He
t bowed my vehicle. I was putting in a neck
brace for about six months. I had over sixteen spital injections.
At that point, I could not work or work out
(05:49):
for a year. So all of the hard work, all
of the funds that I put into that space, I
watched my accounts dream completely into the negative MM most
of them closed out in the red. And so I
was in a season to where you know, we had
two income earner expenses on one source of income. We
(06:10):
needed food stamps, couldn't qualify for them. You know, we
were having conversations with each other like did you eat
And he'd be like yeah, and he didn't eat, and
he'd ask me and I didn't eat. But we made
sure that food. And you know, maybe there was places
where we could have reached out to, but there's a
certain level of pride and ego that really came into
that at the time, and you just didn't want people
to know what was going on, you know. And so
(06:34):
eventually I was able to go back to work, and
what I realized I was doing. I was working at
FedEx overnight, I was working at the front desk of
a hotel during the day, and I was selling life insurance.
And so I'm doing all this hustling and grinding and
getting it and I'm realizing the entire time, I'm working
this hard and nothing is coming out of it because
(06:56):
I'm continuing to chase what that lifestyle looked like from
being a business owner opposed to actually building wealth or
even starting to build wealth, or what building wealth looked like.
So how I ended up becoming a banker was you know,
I had to have a hard look at myself because
we were still living paycheck to paycheck even though we
both were working, and things just were going south fast.
(07:18):
So eventually it was just myself and my girls, and
I had to have a hard look at my life
and say, you know, is just the life that I
want for my daughters And it wasn't. So I started
watching YouTube videos, downloading templates, you know, trying to do
everything that YouTube said I should do, and a budget worked.
(07:39):
The templates worked for about two weeks and my two weeks,
and as soon as life would happen, I would go
right back to the same habits and behaviors that caused
me to be broke the first time, you know. So
I looked at my babies and I said, something's got
to change. I started asking myself some really hard questions
(08:00):
around money that had to do with my relationship and
not the numbers. That point when I changed what that
conversation looked like with myself, When I started checking in
with myself.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Come on, come on.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Checking in with myself, I was really able to change that.
I started to build learn study about financial literacy. I
started to study investments. I started to get around people,
places and things that spoke like and I was able
to change from having closed out bank accounts to having,
you know, multiple five figure investment portfolios, multiple five figure
(08:36):
savings accounts, and at this point in time, I'm still hustling,
I'm still getting I'm working these multiple jobs. And my
best friend was a banker. She said, you know, you've
gotten really good with money. Have you thought about taking
this on as a career.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Thanks? Friend. What's your friend's name, Lisa?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Thank you girl, thankless. So I became a banker, and
it was literally the best thing that could have ever
happened to me. At this point in time, I had
gone through so many up and down swings with money,
and I'd finally gotten it together. So when people were
sitting with me, I wasn't just opening accounts, I wasn't
(09:11):
just getting credit cards for them. I was looking at
the red in their account and I saw myself. So
I started helping them build budgets that was holding them
accountable to their budget. And I thought that this is
my like, this is where I'm supposed to be, you know,
And I wanted to climb that corporate ladder. But unfortunately,
or fortunately, December third of twenty twenty, I walked into work.
(09:35):
My manager let me know that due to the pandemic.
They had to make some decisions and they had to
let me go, and they let go of three bankers
in my branch. They let go of thousands of bankers
company wide. And I felt myself in that same position again,
like I don't want to lose everything I just built.
I worked so hard for it. So I leaned on
(09:57):
my experiences from the past and being entrepreneur with my
newfound knowledge of money management, and I said, you know what,
I just want to help people. That's all I want
to do is just continue to help people. So between
December third and twenty twenty and today my book has sold.
I wrote a book. I'm a first time authored. My
book has sold in seven countries and it's dealing with
their relationship with money.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yes, it is called Living Bougie and Balanced, Mastering your
Money mindset, and it.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
You know, it's almost sold in every state in the US,
and I'm really grateful for that. You know, my brand
operates in over thirty countries now and I really give
it to the grace of God.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Now do you think had you not been let go
from your job, would you have done the book?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
The pandemic birthed millionaires entrepreneurs because it pushed people out.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Of comfort zones. Yeah, I cried, snot knows boohoo, like
bad my friends like cried all the way home. And
then the next day I woke up and I was like,
it's time to get to it. You have it's Christmas time, Yeah,
I have dark Yeah, it's time to go.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah. And by the way, what you did is actually recommended,
where you give yourself, depending on the situation, twenty four
to forty eight hours to mourn something, and then after
that you got to get up and start looking at solutions. Now,
it's not to say after that seventy second hour or
(11:36):
beyond that you still won't feel sad, But I'm so
glad within those forty eight hours you was like, all right,
I'm gonna wipe these tears. Yes, I'm sad. It's something
called feeling your feelings, right, And I'm so glad that
you literally got up. You got up, So yeah, I
(11:57):
am so happy for you. Now, in your book, you
dive into healing the underlying relationship with money that we
tend to ignore it before focusing on the numbers. So
where do most of the underlying issues come from.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So I'm a firm believer that our thoughts, behaviors, actions,
all of those things are shaped from our childhood and
our environments that we grew up in. And what I
love about Checking In is that in chapter four you
talk about that, you talk about your childhood. And this
(12:34):
is such a good book, by the way, I love it.
Thank you, welcome, and I have it here highlighted. You said, so,
when I reflect, I have to start with the relationships
I had with my mom and my dad, and I
have to ask myself some tough questions. You know, there's
something that we are told is that be careful how
(12:55):
you raise your children, because they will grow up dating
someone just like you. You heard that before. Yeah, and
so the same thing happens with your relationship with money.
So if you grew up in an abusive household right
where let's just say it's verbally abusive, and you're constantly
told you're stupid and that you know you're ugly or
what have you, just all these derogatory things, the meaning
(13:16):
things that you're told. When you start dating the person
that you date, if they call you stupid, you're not
going to recognize that as a red flag. You're just
gonna be like.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You're familiar with trauma, you're familiar with abuse, so it
looks like I belong here absolutely.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And where that difference is if you're a child who
grew up in a loving and supportive household where they say,
you know, you're intelligent, you can do anything, you're so beautiful.
Then when you grow up, if you come across that
type of person that calls you stupid or they don't
speak liking to you, you're a hold up. Hold up,
that's that's not me because you recognize that as a
red flag. The same thing happens with your relationship with money.
(13:54):
If you grew up and all you saw was your
parents worked super hard for that money and all they
did was spend it, or they argued about money all
the time, or they were constantly tired because they were
working all the time and just never had any space
to live and breed, chances are that you grew up
reflecting some of those same habits with your relationship with money.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Wow, so how you saw your parents handle money is
possibly how you will handle money.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Your parents or your environment, or some people grow up
with their grandparents, how the people they look up to
may not have been their mom and dad maybould have been.
You know, ann to your uncle. It's your environment. It
shapes you, your habits, your behaviors, your triggers, it shapes you.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
You are so right. I remember growing up my mother
wanted us to make sure that we had good credit too,
and she would always say, you don't want to not
be able to get a lollipop on credit. She would
always stress to us about good credit. And so to
this day I have probably got every alert possible to credit.
(14:59):
Or when you pay your credit card balances at a
certain time, you know it can positively or negatively affect
credit because of certain cycles with credit, and trust me,
I remember that. I also remember seeing investment envelopes come
to the house like my mother was investing, and that
(15:23):
was so good to see. But at the same time,
a lot of the arguments stemmed across money. That's really
a relationship killer if compromise or resolution around finances is
not quickly figured out.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Absolutely, and there's another one too. Have you heard as
long as you have a roof over your head, closing
your back and footing your stomach, don't worry about it.
Stay in a child's place, yep. So I just think
it's so interesting that growing up, we're taught the Golden
rule about how to treat others, but we're not taught
the Golden rule about how to treat money, when that's
literally what we need to survive. And so for most
(16:04):
of us, our first relationship with money was when we
were already in debt because we went to college got
financial aid. And then now we're in adults. Who has
a negative relationship with money out the gate because now
we're trying to swim upstream.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Y'all. If y'all are in college and you're on the yard,
do not. I don't know it, but back in the day,
every credit card company was on the yard, honey, and
they after you fill out the application, you get a
free bag of peanut eminems or a calculator. Stuff you
stuff you need, don't you do it?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
They had to shut them down from doing that. That
was like predatory lending practices.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Really, so they did. So this was between the years
nineteen ninety seven and nineteen ninety nine when I was
in college. So it's good to know that they don't
do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
If I'm here and you redreate it, you know, they
find their ways. I was eighteen with a credit score
seven twenty and didn't know it. You know, I grew
up in an environment where my mom worked extremely hard
and I had the benefit of being a spoiled brat.
But I had zero value attachment to money. And my grandfather,
he you know, did what he did. And by the
(17:15):
time I was eighteen, I had a credit score seven twenty.
I didn't know what credit was. Wow, I got my
first credit card and max it out on my boyfriend. Good.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That's a whole other episode. You was being sugar mama.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I was a whole sugar mama.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Lord Jesus God blessed. We won't hold it against you.
We've all done some I won't say stupid unwise. I've
done some unwise things as it relates to love, relationships
and money. Now, because you talked about the underlying issues,
sometimes those underlying issues can create certain triggers as it
(17:54):
relates to money. What's one of the steps that you
would suggest so that folks can start feeling more positive
about money.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah, the first thing you need to do to start
feeling more positive about your relationship with money is to
definitely have the hard conversation first and then when you
identify what your triggers are, you'll be able to start
developing healthy boundaries around those triggers. So identifying what your
triggers are is key. We all have a reason why
(18:26):
we impulsively spend our money, whether it's a positive reason
or a negative reason. And it could be argued if
your friends and family members are a positive reason or
if they're a negative reason. But there's still reasons why
we do it. And so you could say that I'm
going to take some time and I'm going to write
down every positive reason as to why I impulsively spend
(18:47):
my money and then draw a line down the paper
and on the opposite side, you're going to write every
negative emotion that's attached to why you spend your money impulsible.
So maybe if you're you know, stressed at work or exhausted,
you know those are reasons why. Now how you get
(19:08):
into a happier place with this is everything that's in
the positive column, you need to factor it into your
money management plan because you're gonna do it anyways. It
makes you feel good. Everything that falls in the negative
column you should write if then statements around if I
am stressed, then my response is instead of I'm gonna
(19:29):
go and shop on Amazon or Fashionova and have these
temporary moments of joy and then feel guilty about spending
the money anyway, right fact, you're gonna say, if I
feel stressed, then I'm gonna run a nice hot bath
and play some relaxing music.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Or that's free.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
It's free, or you know, I'm gonna get on the
phone and just gossip, put my girlfriends or what have you.
But change it from you spending the money to you
doing an activity that will change the emotional attachment to
why you're spending the money.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Okay, y'all. When I do these podcasts, they just don't
be for y'all. It's for me too, you know. And
these are great notes. I have accounting in business management,
but I love when they can tell a difference in
a spending habit. Or you ain't used this credit card,
let me tell you some There are certain emails that
you get from your credit card company. If you haven't
(20:21):
used it in like a week or two, they start
sending you stuff to make sure you're still there, You're
still alive, what's going on? I love when I get
there I can look at a certain email and know.
Oh it's because I haven't touched it, you know, And
so that does make me feel good. So y'all, when
I've got people on here, trust me, I'm listening for
(20:41):
me too. So those were some great steps that you
gave us. Have you found that it's true that if
you stress about money or feel that you don't have money,
that somehow it manifests into you not having money.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Absolutely, come on, you have to change the conversation. And
to be quite frank, the conversation didn't change for me
until I changed my environment. You have to change your
thought process because words are things, thoughts are things, and
you will eventually speak into your life what you have
or what you don't have. And so I started learning
(21:16):
that concept really when I became a part of a
company and they focused on personal development. And then I
was encouraged to go out to a Bob Proctor event.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Oh yeah, and then I.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Was going to Believe Nation events and I was like,
wait a minute, Oh, wait a minute, and flip the
whole script. So, yes, you can definitely speak wealth or telf.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So we both are familiar with the leader of Believe
Nation and how he would break down the word future. Yes, right,
and how we discovered that the word future means the
time or period of time following the moment of speaking
or writing. Absolutely, we ain't God, but we show got
a hand, a small pinky to do with our future
(21:58):
by what we said, and that includes money. So what
do you have to say to the person that's like
Raquel ms boogie banker? I hear you, but I've been
struggling with money all my life. I can never make
I'm barely making ends meet. Y'all always talking about this
positive speaking and what you say matters, but I'm broke.
(22:24):
Baby daddy ain't coming through with the child support.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Listen, because that was me once upon a time. I
would definitely say this. You either have an income issue
or you have an effort for issue. It's one of
the other. And so if you have an income issue,
then it can be fixed because it's just the activity
has to change, which also equates to the effort that
you put into your situation. The only person who has
(22:50):
power over where you currently are and where you will
or will not be six months to a year from
now is you. So if you're constantly complaining about not
having I mean, then that activity is not going to
match for you to have the things that you desire
to have, even if it's not well, maybe you just
want to live comfortably, maybe you just want to be happy. Yeah,
but if the activity is not adding up to you
(23:12):
getting there, you're never gonna achieve it. So the question
really becomes, are you more complacent with complaining than you
are for being in the search of growth? That's really
the question.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
It's tight, but it's right, y'all. Don't want to hear
that good preaching today the walls just say amen, because y'all,
I'm not hearing nobody say amen out as they say.
If you can't say amen, say out.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Just taster Daniel say, y'all not hearing me?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Okay, as he said, did you hear what I just said?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Y'all?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Did y'all hear what this woman just said? That stings,
especially if you know that it's you, and the point
of checking in is to have great testimonials of This
episode changed my life. It snapped me back into a
positive mindset, or it helped me evaluate my mindset when
it comes to money, because a lot of people also
(24:12):
think you have to already come from a thirty seven
percent tax bracket to have wealth, or you can't have
made as many mistakes as I've made so many mistakes, Michelle,
I've done this. I've done that. There's no possible way
that I can get myself out of this. And I'm
telling you some of the worst of the worst have
(24:34):
made complete changes in their life, not only in their
mindset and their relationships, but with money. And you are right.
Maybe your goal is to make sixty thousand a year
because you know in your demographic sixty thousand a year
is amazing. Those of y'all that live in New York,
sixty thousand might not gut it. So it is okay
(24:55):
to set certain financial goals for yourself, just like you said,
as long as that effort is matching. I want folks
that are listening to this episode to have like breakthrough
with their mindset as it pertains to money and freedom.
That a budget gives you absolutely, freedom, that good credit
(25:15):
gives you, freedom, that a savings account gives you to
where you know if something should happen. I got a
couple months of income set aside, and listen, I have
compassion for those that are like Michelle. I can't do
a couple months of income right now because I do
have children, or I take care of my entire household.
You got twenty year olds that are the bread winners.
(25:38):
So my heart goes out to you. But I'm telling you,
at the end of the day, if life goes the
way it's supposed to go, you will be left standing
after your loved ones that are in that house go
on to heaven. So you got to have a place
where you can dip back into and love on yourself financially.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
If I can say, Michelle, like you know that journey is.
What I don't want to do is to make it
seem like, well, I'm going to pick myself up by
the bootstraps and here we go. Like you know, it's
a very hard journey. There are a lot of conversations
that you have to have with yourself, and sometimes you're
going to be the only person who believes in yourself.
Sometimes you're going to cry yourself to sleep at night.
(26:17):
Because the thing is is that dealing with changing your
financial picture is dealing with changing you, and so that's
a whole personal development journey that you have to go through.
And there's conversations that current you need to change so
future you can appear right and So if you're saying like, Okay,
(26:39):
I'm struggling, I'm living paycheck to paycheck, change the conversation
and say why am I struggling? Why am I living
to paycheck? What decisions have I made or have not
made that are keeping me in this current financial situation?
And what is it costing me to stay here? Especially
if you have children.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That's so good. Checking in is gonna be about breakthrough. Yes,
we have fun conversations as it relates to mental health,
and we have having conversations about mental health, but I
love to talk about finances because mental health and finance
do play. There is a psychology as it relates to
(27:21):
how you view money. Now, let's talk about another part
of stress and money and how do you find that
women and men deal with stress about money differently.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I think there's dynamics to it. So when you're talking
about a household, like a married couple, right, there's a
certain support system that they give each other. If the
husband is the bread the breadwinner, then he feels the
brunt of the stress because the wife is there to
you know, kind of make things easier or help with
(27:55):
the conversation. I've seen the dynamic kind of go back
and forth. Seen where the husband will complain about how
much money the wife is spending because he doesn't understand
the dynamic of the household because he's always working, right,
And I've seen it vice versa as well, where the
woman is the head, she's the one that's bringing the money,
who's paying the bills, and you know, the focus is
(28:17):
a little different. I feel like men tend to focus
on career more where women tend to focus on future,
tend to focus on their kids and what their kids need. Yea,
it's transparent in the future. When you're talking about individually,
I can't say that I've noticed too much of a
difference when you're just talking about two single individual people
because they're focused on career development, advancement, you know, their
(28:39):
financial picture. I don't really see too much of a
difference there.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Okay, okay, you are amazing. You are amazing. Now you
talked about at one particular time being a banker that
has helped women all over the world stop living paycheck
to paycheck. We found through lending Tree. They published a
study that nearly eleven million homes ten point seven million
(29:03):
homes are owned by single women, while single men own
approximately eight point twelve million homes in the country. This
comes despite American women making less than men in median
earnings for twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
There's been studies that came out to say that women
do a better job with saving, we do a better
job with planning for the future in executing in that
there have been studies there.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Honey, we do a better job at planning for the future, honey.
And we ain't waiting on you to buy the house.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Said, but you give a woman, she will supply, okay, God.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
She bears the children, okay, for that reason, to bring multiplication.
My mom would always tell she hates when I buy
a house, why don't you wait for the man to
do it? But that's that generation she was born in
the fifties where the man did buy the house. As
far as I'm concerned, I can buy this house. You
(30:03):
just buy the other one. You just buy our beach house.
You know what I'm saying. So you know I'm okay
with that. What it is we are in the winter
months leading up to tax season. Tax season is here
chat what what are some of the mistakes that people
(30:24):
make when filing on their own.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Filing on their own that's the mistake. There are people
who are tax professionals for a reason, you guys, Okay,
there are simple mistakes that you can make in your taxes,
such as just not putting information in correctly, not marking
your deductions correctly that can really hurt you. Just stop
(30:48):
being cheap, okay, Just pay for what will keep you
out of the irsi's call log.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I used to eat file. I used to do my
own my very first job and like the mid nineties,
I was working at a retail spot, and I used
to do my own taxes. When you're only making ten
g's a year, what's your claiming?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
What's you're claiming? Yeah, well, so.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
You're saying to get a tax expert to help you.
What's another one The common mistake that people make when
filing their own is maybe you doing your own and
you know what about maybe another just mistake period as
it relates to taxes.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yeah, you're just not setting up your withholdings correctly.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Marking down the way that you do your deductions is
key because there's so many people that mess out on
thousands of dollars every year because they're not properly marking
out their deductions, making sure that even something simple like
people will have their old address on their tax filings
and so now they when they mail you or issue
your check. If you're not doing direct deposit, it can
(31:51):
cause all sorts of delays or you possibly you know,
having to resubmit for your tax returns. So it's just
the small things that we tend not to pay attention to,
especially if we're in the process of moving and you
haven't done your cowarding address and all of those things
that can cause so many either delays or errors on
your reports. So if you are stressing about filing your
(32:12):
tax returns, sit down with the professional. Let them do
their job, let them properly educate you, make sure that
your information is correct, Come through your stuff, make sure
it's right, make sure you have everything foiled properly, that
your deductions are clear, and that they're correct. And I
think those are the main things that people mess up
on for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
That's so good. Now, ladies and gentlemen, you are probably thinking, man,
that's so good. I cannot afford a financial advisor. Some
advisors you don't have to necessarily pay a flat fee.
Some you just pay maybe a percentage to But when
you go on the Bougie banker. It's the bougie b
oh ujee banker underscore. She has amazing tips and guess what,
(32:55):
there are ten tax filing tips on. There is a
well of information. What's one step that people can do
to start getting out from under that credit card debt?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yes, so you have a couple of options. I have
people come to me and they ask if they should
consolidate their debt. Right, so they'll be like, Ah, should
I just get a personal loan and consolidate the debt?
If you decide to go that route. My suggestion for that,
if you want to consolidate, is that you go look
at a credit union first, and then you also ask
(33:31):
for the maximum amount of months that you have to
pay off that balance transfer. Essentially, what you'll be doing
you'll get a personal loan with the credit bank and
they'll do a balance transfer of all of your credit
cards onto that one loan, which will now drop the
balances to all of your credit cards down to zero.
And now instead of being responsible for seven different credit
card payments that may equate to you know, seven or
(33:53):
eight hundred dollars, now you have one loan to pay
off where the loan payments may be three or four
hundred dollars, and now you can apply you know, six
hundred dollars towards that and get it paid off sooner,
and the interest typically is lower as well, opposed to
having you know, seven or eight credit cards. Now you
just have this one responsibility to take care of.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
The caution there though, is that now that you have
all this available credits, you got to be responsible enough
not to go back and use the credit cards and
then have all the credit card that and the right.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Honey, I am so guilty. And you pay that credit
card down to zero and it says available credit limit
fifteen thousand, and you're like, ooh, I.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Do need a new dresser. I do, I do need
some shoes.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
On that, but do it gotta be fifteen thousand? Now?
The great thing about you, Raquel, is that you are
a self professed travel junkie. Yes, so we can talk
about buying things on a budget, maybe a dresser on
a budget. There are certain things that online where you
(35:01):
get a west elm or restoration hardware dresser for one
hundred dollars that somebody just wants to get rid of.
So you teach people on an average budget, how they
can save for a vacation. Now, if someone has debt
or doesn't have a savings should they go on vacation?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, I don't think you should. I don't think you
should stop doing the things that make you happy, because
there's a certain there's making a decision, and there's also
like disregarding your peace of mind. Right, And if you're
doing something that is taking away from your happiness or
from your peace of mind, chances are you're not going
(35:42):
to stay in that lean. So if I want a
budget and I take away their ability to travel, or
I take away their ability to go out to eat
every once in a while, they're not going to stick
to the budget because they're like, I can't live. What
I always say is a budget gives you control. So
if you don't have a savings account and you're still
in debt, what you can do is you can say,
(36:03):
you know what I do like to travel well, instead
of traveling every single quarter, let me just plan for
this one trip once a year until I get my
financial picture together. But then you'll go through and factor
in how much a typical trip will cost you. You'll
take that number divided by twelve, and so now every
month you may have fifty to fifty bucks that's going
(36:25):
towards it, or one hundred bucks that's going towards your
annual trip. So now you have something to look forward
to where you're essentially rewarding yourself or staying on a
financial plan. Now all this money that you're saving because
you're not going on four trips a year, you're planning
for this one trip. Now, now you can take some
of that money, have it budgeted to pay down debt,
(36:45):
and take another portion and have it budgeted so that
you have your emergency savings out up. I don't want
people to feel suffocated with their finances. It's all about
living bougie and bounce. It's all about doing the things
that you enjoy, but also so having control to where
its financially makes sense.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
That's so good. You have been absolutely brilliant today, y'all.
She's got lots of classes that teach about financial health.
But you also offer a freebee vault of material and
resources on your website. The website is bboogie dot com.
But let me not speak for you. Tell us maybe
(37:26):
one of the freebies that's on your website.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, there's spending trackers, saving calcers in there. There's free
PDFs that I've just found over time through doing different resources,
whether it's on money management, investing, what that looks like
for you. I definitely encourage you guys to go grab
your freebees because oftentimes it's just like exposing yourself to
something new, you know, and that can really be helpful
(37:51):
for you. And if I could say this, Michelle, you
kept mentioning something called the Breakthrough, I'm actually I'm actually
having a financial literacy and business development conference at the
end of the month, and it's called the Breakthrough Experience.
So it's all about breaking through the limiting bearers that
you place on yourself, breaking into your financial success. So
it's a financial literacy and business development conference. We have
(38:12):
phenomenal speakers lined up. I'll be there, Eli Talks Money
will be there and countless other speakers and people in
the finance and business space that you may already know.
So please come, y'all. I cultivated this space so that
we cannot only talk about money management. We could also
talk about how to build our wealth and most importantly,
(38:33):
protecting it. I feel like so often we have these
events where we're always talking about it's the money, get
to the bag. Do this. We have to protect generational
wealth and we have to learn how to create it first,
you know. And so I really want to bring everyone
to a space to have that conversation. I would love
for you guys to come. The website is breakthrough exp
(38:55):
dot com.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
All right, we in there like swimwear. Listen. I think
one of the reasons why I'm so engaged is because
you've been through not having You've been through the Okay,
I gotta get myself up. Okay, I can do this,
and we are here today. Your book is translated into
various countries and you are just helping and you're freeing
(39:19):
people to get out of debt and to be great investors. Please,
wherever you are, clap your hands, give love, give her
a follow again. She's on Instagram at the Bougie Banker Underscore.
Show her some love for kel Curtis. Thank you for
checking in.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Thank you so much, Michelle. This was amazing. You're awesome.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
You are welcome. You are welcome. Listen. This was so informative.
Raquel aka the Bougie Banker just came with so much knowledge.
She was just a web wanting to poor, poor, poor,
(40:02):
everything that she has in her and I'm truly, truly
thankful for her. Again. She's got many classes and books,
stuff that is at no cost to you. At bbougie
dot com, it's the word b b E b o
u j e e dot com forward slash the Bougie Banker.
(40:23):
Follow her on Instagram again. Her Instagram handle is the
Bougie Banker Underscore, the b o u j e E
b A n k E R Underscore. She's gonna help
you budget, save, invest and help you continue to, you know,
change your mindset as it relates to money, if that's
(40:45):
what you desire. Okay, I'm so excited for folks that
are on their way to a different type of freedom,
and that freedom is financial freedom. Guess what you deserve it?
Your family deserves it, your legacy deserves it.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Please know that you're loved, and guess what you loved
by me. There's absolutely nothing you can do about it.
(41:41):
Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeartRadio
and The Black Effect. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Hey, family, you know I
love you and I got a question for you, maybe
(00:21):
two questions. Do you feel like you're working just to
pay off your credit cards? Do you feel like you
live in paycheck to paycheck? Or have you wanted to invest?
But it all sounds very confusing. Well, my next guest
has all those answers for you coming up next on
Checking In. Okay, y'all, I'm so excited about today's guests.
(00:45):
We had been dming each other on Instagram for a
while saying when you're gonna come on checking In or
I've got to meet you. She is a sought after
financial consultant and expert for shows like The Table, Bloomberg
Radio Business Insider. She's also an author, podcaster, educator, and
yes she's a mama of three. Please welcome Brakel Curtis
(01:09):
to Checking In.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Hey, Michelle oh Man, that intro I was like, who's
that honey?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Listen and y'all she you might really know her as
the Bougie Banker, which was definitely a catchy name on Instagram.
I followed her immediately because there was something that she
posted that was on the explore page, and it seems
like we follow some of the same mutual good people.
So I was like, Okay, I know we're gonna be
(01:36):
in great company with each other.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yes, I'm so excited to be here. When you followed me,
I had to check out, like wait a minute, hold on, Michelle.
So I'm just so excited. I called my mama immediately.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Please, hey, mama. We started following each other because during
the pandemic, the whole crypto and four X thing became
something very popular, and I began following you because you
were so educational. And there's a disclaimer, ladies and gentlemen,
Yes she is a financial consultant, but you must speak
(02:10):
with your own advisor because what she's gonna say to
you are suggestions and not necessarily advice. So what I
liked on your Instagram page, Raquel, was that you had
great suggestions about banking, investment, and crypto and at that
time for X can be considered an investment. So I
(02:32):
began following you for some education and all that good stuff,
and I'm glad I did. So how did you get
started in the field of consulting in the area of financing.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
This is a very long story of being broke. So originally,
you know, I went to school with Sabanna State University,
graduated with a degree in criminal justice, and I went
on to become a directional officer. Now this entire time,
I was like, that's my field. We had to take
(03:05):
one semester of math. I'm good. And that's exactly where
I stayed up until I was pregnant with my now
ten year olds and a fight that broke out between
two inmates, and in that moment I was thinking about
doing my job and I ran to go break up
the fight. One of the inmates fell on my stomach.
(03:26):
I was placed on bed rest for the duration of
that pregnancy, and then when she was born, you know,
we didn't have a lot of money, and so I
became a stay at home mom. So during that time,
you know, obviously I loved my children, obviously, you know,
I love that whole dynamic. But I really felt like
(03:46):
I worked too hard not to feel myself grow as
an individual anymore. So since we couldn't afford to send
my daughter to childcare, I just got a job at
the local daycare. I was making seven dollars and twenty
five cents an hour and with a degree that was
kind of hard to swallow over. But to do what
you have to do. And I started paying attention to
(04:08):
what management was doing, what the owners were doing, and
I was like, you know what, you can figure this out.
You're smart enough. So I started taking CDA classes, so
just childhood certification classes on the weekend. And then I
started watching people's children, which eventually bled into it being
its own in home daycare. Now this point, I'm like,
oh wow, I'm like doing the entrepreneur thing. This is great.
(04:30):
But I was learning business and a few things transpired
just with my family, and so I ended up closing
down my daycare. A few years later, my youngest was born,
and you know, I'm five to nine. I have an
athletic build, so I think she was born. People were
asking me, how did you snap back so quick? Says
this year break. My daughters burned on July first, my
(04:51):
brother's lack fifteen. How did you snap back so quick?
And I have all of this experience from being a
collegiate athlete, played basketball, ran track my whole life. You know,
I'm like, I can train them to help them get
into shape. You know I could do this, So I
started helping people, and I realized that I enjoyed it
and I was doing very well at it. So I
(05:12):
got my certification to be a personal trainer a few
months after that. About six months after that, I opened
the first women's only gym with childcare in my city,
and so everything was going great.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Way wait wait, wait, wait, the first gym with childcare
in your city. And what city is this?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
This is Comington, Georgia. Wow, in the country, in the stix.
So you know, I had seven employees, seventeen hundred square
foot building. And then unfortunately, one day I was headed
home and this older gentleman ran a red light. He
t bowed my vehicle. I was putting in a neck
brace for about six months. I had over sixteen spital injections.
At that point, I could not work or work out
(05:49):
for a year. So all of the hard work, all
of the funds that I put into that space, I
watched my accounts dream completely into the negative MM most
of them closed out in the red. And so I
was in a season to where you know, we had
two income earner expenses on one source of income. We
(06:10):
needed food stamps, couldn't qualify for them. You know, we
were having conversations with each other like did you eat
And he'd be like yeah, and he didn't eat, and
he'd ask me and I didn't eat. But we made
sure that food. And you know, maybe there was places
where we could have reached out to, but there's a
certain level of pride and ego that really came into
that at the time, and you just didn't want people
to know what was going on, you know. And so
(06:34):
eventually I was able to go back to work, and
what I realized I was doing. I was working at
FedEx overnight, I was working at the front desk of
a hotel during the day, and I was selling life insurance.
And so I'm doing all this hustling and grinding and
getting it and I'm realizing the entire time, I'm working
this hard and nothing is coming out of it because
(06:56):
I'm continuing to chase what that lifestyle looked like from
being a business owner opposed to actually building wealth or
even starting to build wealth, or what building wealth looked like.
So how I ended up becoming a banker was you know,
I had to have a hard look at myself because
we were still living paycheck to paycheck even though we
both were working, and things just were going south fast.
(07:18):
So eventually it was just myself and my girls, and
I had to have a hard look at my life
and say, you know, is just the life that I
want for my daughters And it wasn't. So I started
watching YouTube videos, downloading templates, you know, trying to do
everything that YouTube said I should do, and a budget worked.
(07:39):
The templates worked for about two weeks and my two weeks,
and as soon as life would happen, I would go
right back to the same habits and behaviors that caused
me to be broke the first time, you know. So
I looked at my babies and I said, something's got
to change. I started asking myself some really hard questions
(08:00):
around money that had to do with my relationship and
not the numbers. That point when I changed what that
conversation looked like with myself, When I started checking in
with myself.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Come on, come on.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Checking in with myself, I was really able to change that.
I started to build learn study about financial literacy. I
started to study investments. I started to get around people,
places and things that spoke like and I was able
to change from having closed out bank accounts to having,
you know, multiple five figure investment portfolios, multiple five figure
(08:36):
savings accounts, and at this point in time, I'm still hustling,
I'm still getting I'm working these multiple jobs. And my
best friend was a banker. She said, you know, you've
gotten really good with money. Have you thought about taking
this on as a career.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Thanks? Friend. What's your friend's name, Lisa?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Thank you girl, thankless. So I became a banker, and
it was literally the best thing that could have ever
happened to me. At this point in time, I had
gone through so many up and down swings with money,
and I'd finally gotten it together. So when people were
sitting with me, I wasn't just opening accounts, I wasn't
(09:11):
just getting credit cards for them. I was looking at
the red in their account and I saw myself. So
I started helping them build budgets that was holding them
accountable to their budget. And I thought that this is
my like, this is where I'm supposed to be, you know,
And I wanted to climb that corporate ladder. But unfortunately,
or fortunately, December third of twenty twenty, I walked into work.
(09:35):
My manager let me know that due to the pandemic.
They had to make some decisions and they had to
let me go, and they let go of three bankers
in my branch. They let go of thousands of bankers
company wide. And I felt myself in that same position again,
like I don't want to lose everything I just built.
I worked so hard for it. So I leaned on
(09:57):
my experiences from the past and being entrepreneur with my
newfound knowledge of money management, and I said, you know what,
I just want to help people. That's all I want
to do is just continue to help people. So between
December third and twenty twenty and today my book has sold.
I wrote a book. I'm a first time authored. My
book has sold in seven countries and it's dealing with
their relationship with money.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yes, it is called Living Bougie and Balanced, Mastering your
Money mindset, and it.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
You know, it's almost sold in every state in the US,
and I'm really grateful for that. You know, my brand
operates in over thirty countries now and I really give
it to the grace of God.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Now do you think had you not been let go
from your job, would you have done the book?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
The pandemic birthed millionaires entrepreneurs because it pushed people out.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Of comfort zones. Yeah, I cried, snot knows boohoo, like
bad my friends like cried all the way home. And
then the next day I woke up and I was like,
it's time to get to it. You have it's Christmas time, Yeah,
I have dark Yeah, it's time to go.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah. And by the way, what you did is actually recommended,
where you give yourself, depending on the situation, twenty four
to forty eight hours to mourn something, and then after
that you got to get up and start looking at solutions. Now,
it's not to say after that seventy second hour or
(11:36):
beyond that you still won't feel sad, But I'm so
glad within those forty eight hours you was like, all right,
I'm gonna wipe these tears. Yes, I'm sad. It's something
called feeling your feelings, right, And I'm so glad that
you literally got up. You got up, So yeah, I
(11:57):
am so happy for you. Now, in your book, you
dive into healing the underlying relationship with money that we
tend to ignore it before focusing on the numbers. So
where do most of the underlying issues come from.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So I'm a firm believer that our thoughts, behaviors, actions,
all of those things are shaped from our childhood and
our environments that we grew up in. And what I
love about Checking In is that in chapter four you
talk about that, you talk about your childhood. And this
(12:34):
is such a good book, by the way, I love it.
Thank you, welcome, and I have it here highlighted. You said, so,
when I reflect, I have to start with the relationships
I had with my mom and my dad, and I
have to ask myself some tough questions. You know, there's
something that we are told is that be careful how
(12:55):
you raise your children, because they will grow up dating
someone just like you. You heard that before. Yeah, and
so the same thing happens with your relationship with money.
So if you grew up in an abusive household right
where let's just say it's verbally abusive, and you're constantly
told you're stupid and that you know you're ugly or
what have you, just all these derogatory things, the meaning
(13:16):
things that you're told. When you start dating the person
that you date, if they call you stupid, you're not
going to recognize that as a red flag. You're just
gonna be like.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You're familiar with trauma, you're familiar with abuse, so it
looks like I belong here absolutely.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And where that difference is if you're a child who
grew up in a loving and supportive household where they say,
you know, you're intelligent, you can do anything, you're so beautiful.
Then when you grow up, if you come across that
type of person that calls you stupid or they don't
speak liking to you, you're a hold up. Hold up,
that's that's not me because you recognize that as a
red flag. The same thing happens with your relationship with money.
(13:54):
If you grew up and all you saw was your
parents worked super hard for that money and all they
did was spend it, or they argued about money all
the time, or they were constantly tired because they were
working all the time and just never had any space
to live and breed, chances are that you grew up
reflecting some of those same habits with your relationship with money.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Wow, so how you saw your parents handle money is
possibly how you will handle money.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Your parents or your environment, or some people grow up
with their grandparents, how the people they look up to
may not have been their mom and dad maybould have been.
You know, ann to your uncle. It's your environment. It
shapes you, your habits, your behaviors, your triggers, it shapes you.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
You are so right. I remember growing up my mother
wanted us to make sure that we had good credit too,
and she would always say, you don't want to not
be able to get a lollipop on credit. She would
always stress to us about good credit. And so to
this day I have probably got every alert possible to credit.
(14:59):
Or when you pay your credit card balances at a
certain time, you know it can positively or negatively affect
credit because of certain cycles with credit, and trust me,
I remember that. I also remember seeing investment envelopes come
to the house like my mother was investing, and that
(15:23):
was so good to see. But at the same time,
a lot of the arguments stemmed across money. That's really
a relationship killer if compromise or resolution around finances is
not quickly figured out.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Absolutely, and there's another one too. Have you heard as
long as you have a roof over your head, closing
your back and footing your stomach, don't worry about it.
Stay in a child's place, yep. So I just think
it's so interesting that growing up, we're taught the Golden
rule about how to treat others, but we're not taught
the Golden rule about how to treat money, when that's
literally what we need to survive. And so for most
(16:04):
of us, our first relationship with money was when we
were already in debt because we went to college got
financial aid. And then now we're in adults. Who has
a negative relationship with money out the gate because now
we're trying to swim upstream.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Y'all. If y'all are in college and you're on the yard,
do not. I don't know it, but back in the day,
every credit card company was on the yard, honey, and
they after you fill out the application, you get a
free bag of peanut eminems or a calculator. Stuff you
stuff you need, don't you do it?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
They had to shut them down from doing that. That
was like predatory lending practices.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Really, so they did. So this was between the years
nineteen ninety seven and nineteen ninety nine when I was
in college. So it's good to know that they don't
do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
If I'm here and you redreate it, you know, they
find their ways. I was eighteen with a credit score
seven twenty and didn't know it. You know, I grew
up in an environment where my mom worked extremely hard
and I had the benefit of being a spoiled brat.
But I had zero value attachment to money. And my grandfather,
he you know, did what he did. And by the
(17:15):
time I was eighteen, I had a credit score seven twenty.
I didn't know what credit was. Wow, I got my
first credit card and max it out on my boyfriend. Good.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That's a whole other episode. You was being sugar mama.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I was a whole sugar mama.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Lord Jesus God blessed. We won't hold it against you.
We've all done some I won't say stupid unwise. I've
done some unwise things as it relates to love, relationships
and money. Now, because you talked about the underlying issues,
sometimes those underlying issues can create certain triggers as it
(17:54):
relates to money. What's one of the steps that you
would suggest so that folks can start feeling more positive
about money.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah, the first thing you need to do to start
feeling more positive about your relationship with money is to
definitely have the hard conversation first and then when you
identify what your triggers are, you'll be able to start
developing healthy boundaries around those triggers. So identifying what your
triggers are is key. We all have a reason why
(18:26):
we impulsively spend our money, whether it's a positive reason
or a negative reason. And it could be argued if
your friends and family members are a positive reason or
if they're a negative reason. But there's still reasons why
we do it. And so you could say that I'm
going to take some time and I'm going to write
down every positive reason as to why I impulsively spend
(18:47):
my money and then draw a line down the paper
and on the opposite side, you're going to write every
negative emotion that's attached to why you spend your money impulsible.
So maybe if you're you know, stressed at work or exhausted,
you know those are reasons why. Now how you get
(19:08):
into a happier place with this is everything that's in
the positive column, you need to factor it into your
money management plan because you're gonna do it anyways. It
makes you feel good. Everything that falls in the negative
column you should write if then statements around if I
am stressed, then my response is instead of I'm gonna
(19:29):
go and shop on Amazon or Fashionova and have these
temporary moments of joy and then feel guilty about spending
the money anyway, right fact, you're gonna say, if I
feel stressed, then I'm gonna run a nice hot bath
and play some relaxing music.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Or that's free.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
It's free, or you know, I'm gonna get on the
phone and just gossip, put my girlfriends or what have you.
But change it from you spending the money to you
doing an activity that will change the emotional attachment to
why you're spending the money.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Okay, y'all. When I do these podcasts, they just don't
be for y'all. It's for me too, you know. And
these are great notes. I have accounting in business management,
but I love when they can tell a difference in
a spending habit. Or you ain't used this credit card,
let me tell you some There are certain emails that
you get from your credit card company. If you haven't
(20:21):
used it in like a week or two, they start
sending you stuff to make sure you're still there, You're
still alive, what's going on? I love when I get
there I can look at a certain email and know.
Oh it's because I haven't touched it, you know, And
so that does make me feel good. So y'all, when
I've got people on here, trust me, I'm listening for
(20:41):
me too. So those were some great steps that you
gave us. Have you found that it's true that if
you stress about money or feel that you don't have money,
that somehow it manifests into you not having money.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Absolutely, come on, you have to change the conversation. And
to be quite frank, the conversation didn't change for me
until I changed my environment. You have to change your
thought process because words are things, thoughts are things, and
you will eventually speak into your life what you have
or what you don't have. And so I started learning
(21:16):
that concept really when I became a part of a
company and they focused on personal development. And then I
was encouraged to go out to a Bob Proctor event.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Oh yeah, and then I.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Was going to Believe Nation events and I was like,
wait a minute, Oh, wait a minute, and flip the
whole script. So, yes, you can definitely speak wealth or telf.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So we both are familiar with the leader of Believe
Nation and how he would break down the word future. Yes, right,
and how we discovered that the word future means the
time or period of time following the moment of speaking
or writing. Absolutely, we ain't God, but we show got
a hand, a small pinky to do with our future
(21:58):
by what we said, and that includes money. So what
do you have to say to the person that's like
Raquel ms boogie banker? I hear you, but I've been
struggling with money all my life. I can never make
I'm barely making ends meet. Y'all always talking about this
positive speaking and what you say matters, but I'm broke.
(22:24):
Baby daddy ain't coming through with the child support.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Listen, because that was me once upon a time. I
would definitely say this. You either have an income issue
or you have an effort for issue. It's one of
the other. And so if you have an income issue,
then it can be fixed because it's just the activity
has to change, which also equates to the effort that
you put into your situation. The only person who has
(22:50):
power over where you currently are and where you will
or will not be six months to a year from
now is you. So if you're constantly complaining about not
having I mean, then that activity is not going to
match for you to have the things that you desire
to have, even if it's not well, maybe you just
want to live comfortably, maybe you just want to be happy. Yeah,
but if the activity is not adding up to you
(23:12):
getting there, you're never gonna achieve it. So the question
really becomes, are you more complacent with complaining than you
are for being in the search of growth? That's really
the question.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
It's tight, but it's right, y'all. Don't want to hear
that good preaching today the walls just say amen, because y'all,
I'm not hearing nobody say amen out as they say.
If you can't say amen, say out.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Just taster Daniel say, y'all not hearing me?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Okay, as he said, did you hear what I just said?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Y'all?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Did y'all hear what this woman just said? That stings,
especially if you know that it's you, and the point
of checking in is to have great testimonials of This
episode changed my life. It snapped me back into a
positive mindset, or it helped me evaluate my mindset when
it comes to money, because a lot of people also
(24:12):
think you have to already come from a thirty seven
percent tax bracket to have wealth, or you can't have
made as many mistakes as I've made so many mistakes, Michelle,
I've done this. I've done that. There's no possible way
that I can get myself out of this. And I'm
telling you some of the worst of the worst have
(24:34):
made complete changes in their life, not only in their
mindset and their relationships, but with money. And you are right.
Maybe your goal is to make sixty thousand a year
because you know in your demographic sixty thousand a year
is amazing. Those of y'all that live in New York,
sixty thousand might not gut it. So it is okay
(24:55):
to set certain financial goals for yourself, just like you said,
as long as that effort is matching. I want folks
that are listening to this episode to have like breakthrough
with their mindset as it pertains to money and freedom.
That a budget gives you absolutely, freedom, that good credit
(25:15):
gives you, freedom, that a savings account gives you to
where you know if something should happen. I got a
couple months of income set aside, and listen, I have
compassion for those that are like Michelle. I can't do
a couple months of income right now because I do
have children, or I take care of my entire household.
You got twenty year olds that are the bread winners.
(25:38):
So my heart goes out to you. But I'm telling you,
at the end of the day, if life goes the
way it's supposed to go, you will be left standing
after your loved ones that are in that house go
on to heaven. So you got to have a place
where you can dip back into and love on yourself financially.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
If I can say, Michelle, like you know that journey is.
What I don't want to do is to make it
seem like, well, I'm going to pick myself up by
the bootstraps and here we go. Like you know, it's
a very hard journey. There are a lot of conversations
that you have to have with yourself, and sometimes you're
going to be the only person who believes in yourself.
Sometimes you're going to cry yourself to sleep at night.
(26:17):
Because the thing is is that dealing with changing your
financial picture is dealing with changing you, and so that's
a whole personal development journey that you have to go through.
And there's conversations that current you need to change so
future you can appear right and So if you're saying like, Okay,
(26:39):
I'm struggling, I'm living paycheck to paycheck, change the conversation
and say why am I struggling? Why am I living
to paycheck? What decisions have I made or have not
made that are keeping me in this current financial situation?
And what is it costing me to stay here? Especially
if you have children.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That's so good. Checking in is gonna be about breakthrough. Yes,
we have fun conversations as it relates to mental health,
and we have having conversations about mental health, but I
love to talk about finances because mental health and finance
do play. There is a psychology as it relates to
(27:21):
how you view money. Now, let's talk about another part
of stress and money and how do you find that
women and men deal with stress about money differently.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I think there's dynamics to it. So when you're talking
about a household, like a married couple, right, there's a
certain support system that they give each other. If the
husband is the bread the breadwinner, then he feels the
brunt of the stress because the wife is there to
you know, kind of make things easier or help with
(27:55):
the conversation. I've seen the dynamic kind of go back
and forth. Seen where the husband will complain about how
much money the wife is spending because he doesn't understand
the dynamic of the household because he's always working, right,
And I've seen it vice versa as well, where the
woman is the head, she's the one that's bringing the money,
who's paying the bills, and you know, the focus is
(28:17):
a little different. I feel like men tend to focus
on career more where women tend to focus on future,
tend to focus on their kids and what their kids need. Yea,
it's transparent in the future. When you're talking about individually,
I can't say that I've noticed too much of a
difference when you're just talking about two single individual people
because they're focused on career development, advancement, you know, their
(28:39):
financial picture. I don't really see too much of a
difference there.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Okay, okay, you are amazing. You are amazing. Now you
talked about at one particular time being a banker that
has helped women all over the world stop living paycheck
to paycheck. We found through lending Tree. They published a
study that nearly eleven million homes ten point seven million
(29:03):
homes are owned by single women, while single men own
approximately eight point twelve million homes in the country. This
comes despite American women making less than men in median
earnings for twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
There's been studies that came out to say that women
do a better job with saving, we do a better
job with planning for the future in executing in that
there have been studies there.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Honey, we do a better job at planning for the future, honey.
And we ain't waiting on you to buy the house.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Said, but you give a woman, she will supply, okay, God.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
She bears the children, okay, for that reason, to bring multiplication.
My mom would always tell she hates when I buy
a house, why don't you wait for the man to
do it? But that's that generation she was born in
the fifties where the man did buy the house. As
far as I'm concerned, I can buy this house. You
(30:03):
just buy the other one. You just buy our beach house.
You know what I'm saying. So you know I'm okay
with that. What it is we are in the winter
months leading up to tax season. Tax season is here
chat what what are some of the mistakes that people
(30:24):
make when filing on their own.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Filing on their own that's the mistake. There are people
who are tax professionals for a reason, you guys, Okay,
there are simple mistakes that you can make in your taxes,
such as just not putting information in correctly, not marking
your deductions correctly that can really hurt you. Just stop
(30:48):
being cheap, okay, Just pay for what will keep you
out of the irsi's call log.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I used to eat file. I used to do my
own my very first job and like the mid nineties,
I was working at a retail spot, and I used
to do my own taxes. When you're only making ten
g's a year, what's your claiming?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
What's you're claiming? Yeah, well, so.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
You're saying to get a tax expert to help you.
What's another one The common mistake that people make when
filing their own is maybe you doing your own and
you know what about maybe another just mistake period as
it relates to taxes.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yeah, you're just not setting up your withholdings correctly.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Marking down the way that you do your deductions is
key because there's so many people that mess out on
thousands of dollars every year because they're not properly marking
out their deductions, making sure that even something simple like
people will have their old address on their tax filings
and so now they when they mail you or issue
your check. If you're not doing direct deposit, it can
(31:51):
cause all sorts of delays or you possibly you know,
having to resubmit for your tax returns. So it's just
the small things that we tend not to pay attention to,
especially if we're in the process of moving and you
haven't done your cowarding address and all of those things
that can cause so many either delays or errors on
your reports. So if you are stressing about filing your
(32:12):
tax returns, sit down with the professional. Let them do
their job, let them properly educate you, make sure that
your information is correct, Come through your stuff, make sure
it's right, make sure you have everything foiled properly, that
your deductions are clear, and that they're correct. And I
think those are the main things that people mess up
on for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
That's so good. Now, ladies and gentlemen, you are probably thinking, man,
that's so good. I cannot afford a financial advisor. Some
advisors you don't have to necessarily pay a flat fee.
Some you just pay maybe a percentage to But when
you go on the Bougie banker. It's the bougie b
oh ujee banker underscore. She has amazing tips and guess what,
(32:55):
there are ten tax filing tips on. There is a
well of information. What's one step that people can do
to start getting out from under that credit card debt?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yes, so you have a couple of options. I have
people come to me and they ask if they should
consolidate their debt. Right, so they'll be like, Ah, should
I just get a personal loan and consolidate the debt?
If you decide to go that route. My suggestion for that,
if you want to consolidate, is that you go look
at a credit union first, and then you also ask
(33:31):
for the maximum amount of months that you have to
pay off that balance transfer. Essentially, what you'll be doing
you'll get a personal loan with the credit bank and
they'll do a balance transfer of all of your credit
cards onto that one loan, which will now drop the
balances to all of your credit cards down to zero.
And now instead of being responsible for seven different credit
card payments that may equate to you know, seven or
(33:53):
eight hundred dollars, now you have one loan to pay
off where the loan payments may be three or four
hundred dollars, and now you can apply you know, six
hundred dollars towards that and get it paid off sooner,
and the interest typically is lower as well, opposed to
having you know, seven or eight credit cards. Now you
just have this one responsibility to take care of.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
The caution there though, is that now that you have
all this available credits, you got to be responsible enough
not to go back and use the credit cards and
then have all the credit card that and the right.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Honey, I am so guilty. And you pay that credit
card down to zero and it says available credit limit
fifteen thousand, and you're like, ooh, I.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Do need a new dresser. I do, I do need
some shoes.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
On that, but do it gotta be fifteen thousand? Now?
The great thing about you, Raquel, is that you are
a self professed travel junkie. Yes, so we can talk
about buying things on a budget, maybe a dresser on
a budget. There are certain things that online where you
(35:01):
get a west elm or restoration hardware dresser for one
hundred dollars that somebody just wants to get rid of.
So you teach people on an average budget, how they
can save for a vacation. Now, if someone has debt
or doesn't have a savings should they go on vacation?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, I don't think you should. I don't think you
should stop doing the things that make you happy, because
there's a certain there's making a decision, and there's also
like disregarding your peace of mind. Right, And if you're
doing something that is taking away from your happiness or
from your peace of mind, chances are you're not going
(35:42):
to stay in that lean. So if I want a
budget and I take away their ability to travel, or
I take away their ability to go out to eat
every once in a while, they're not going to stick
to the budget because they're like, I can't live. What
I always say is a budget gives you control. So
if you don't have a savings account and you're still
in debt, what you can do is you can say,
(36:03):
you know what I do like to travel well, instead
of traveling every single quarter, let me just plan for
this one trip once a year until I get my
financial picture together. But then you'll go through and factor
in how much a typical trip will cost you. You'll
take that number divided by twelve, and so now every
month you may have fifty to fifty bucks that's going
(36:25):
towards it, or one hundred bucks that's going towards your
annual trip. So now you have something to look forward
to where you're essentially rewarding yourself or staying on a
financial plan. Now all this money that you're saving because
you're not going on four trips a year, you're planning
for this one trip. Now, now you can take some
of that money, have it budgeted to pay down debt,
(36:45):
and take another portion and have it budgeted so that
you have your emergency savings out up. I don't want
people to feel suffocated with their finances. It's all about
living bougie and bounce. It's all about doing the things
that you enjoy, but also so having control to where
its financially makes sense.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
That's so good. You have been absolutely brilliant today, y'all.
She's got lots of classes that teach about financial health.
But you also offer a freebee vault of material and
resources on your website. The website is bboogie dot com.
But let me not speak for you. Tell us maybe
(37:26):
one of the freebies that's on your website.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, there's spending trackers, saving calcers in there. There's free
PDFs that I've just found over time through doing different resources,
whether it's on money management, investing, what that looks like
for you. I definitely encourage you guys to go grab
your freebees because oftentimes it's just like exposing yourself to
something new, you know, and that can really be helpful
(37:51):
for you. And if I could say this, Michelle, you
kept mentioning something called the Breakthrough, I'm actually I'm actually
having a financial literacy and business development conference at the
end of the month, and it's called the Breakthrough Experience.
So it's all about breaking through the limiting bearers that
you place on yourself, breaking into your financial success. So
it's a financial literacy and business development conference. We have
(38:12):
phenomenal speakers lined up. I'll be there, Eli Talks Money
will be there and countless other speakers and people in
the finance and business space that you may already know.
So please come, y'all. I cultivated this space so that
we cannot only talk about money management. We could also
talk about how to build our wealth and most importantly,
(38:33):
protecting it. I feel like so often we have these
events where we're always talking about it's the money, get
to the bag. Do this. We have to protect generational
wealth and we have to learn how to create it first,
you know. And so I really want to bring everyone
to a space to have that conversation. I would love
for you guys to come. The website is breakthrough exp
(38:55):
dot com.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
All right, we in there like swimwear. Listen. I think
one of the reasons why I'm so engaged is because
you've been through not having You've been through the Okay,
I gotta get myself up. Okay, I can do this,
and we are here today. Your book is translated into
various countries and you are just helping and you're freeing
(39:19):
people to get out of debt and to be great investors. Please,
wherever you are, clap your hands, give love, give her
a follow again. She's on Instagram at the Bougie Banker Underscore.
Show her some love for kel Curtis. Thank you for
checking in.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Thank you so much, Michelle. This was amazing. You're awesome.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
You are welcome. You are welcome. Listen. This was so informative.
Raquel aka the Bougie Banker just came with so much knowledge.
She was just a web wanting to poor, poor, poor,
(40:02):
everything that she has in her and I'm truly, truly
thankful for her. Again. She's got many classes and books,
stuff that is at no cost to you. At bbougie
dot com, it's the word b b E b o
u j e e dot com forward slash the Bougie Banker.
(40:23):
Follow her on Instagram again. Her Instagram handle is the
Bougie Banker Underscore, the b o u j e E
b A n k E R Underscore. She's gonna help
you budget, save, invest and help you continue to, you know,
change your mindset as it relates to money, if that's
(40:45):
what you desire. Okay, I'm so excited for folks that
are on their way to a different type of freedom,
and that freedom is financial freedom. Guess what you deserve it?
Your family deserves it, your legacy deserves it.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Please know that you're loved, and guess what you loved
by me. There's absolutely nothing you can do about it.
(41:41):
Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeartRadio
and The Black Effect. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Death, Sex & Money
Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.