April 18, 2024 • 30 mins
In this episode, John highlights the financial savvy of Serena Williams and reveals a potential pitfall to watch out for when slick financiers come knocking!
Check out John's book Financial Literacy For All:
https://johnhopebryantholdings.com/financial-literacy-for-all-book/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome the Money in Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
of The Black Effect podcast network, and iHeartRadio Serena Williams
more of that. So Serena Williams is proving that she
(00:22):
really is a triple threat beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, sophisticated, obviously
incredible athlete, mother, you know, friend or whatever, incredible athlete investor.
She may be a quadruple thrill. I don't know, but
she's a businesswoman without questioning. Is invested in eighty five
(00:47):
businesses that I guess her family venture fund has put
money in over her career, and it appears a dozen
of those have company evaluations in to the billion dollar range,
which is I don't know what portfolio, so I can't
give you details on it. But it doesn't mean that
(01:09):
that she owns all the company, by the way, means
she made some smart bets and the bets paid off.
In other words, companies that she invested in rolled up
into a larger overall valuation that she benefits from because
she was an early venture capital investor. So kudos to her.
(01:29):
I don't care what the structure is. It's a positive thing.
And even I love how you can see her sort
of doing her makeup. She's explaining very casually, very confidently,
very comfortably, the structure of her investment. She clearly knows
what she's talking about. I want you to become an investor. Also,
(01:54):
you may not be able to do it the way
Serena Williams has done it, and that's okay. But you
can do it the way you need to do it.
That might be even fractional investing. So you're not Serena
and her sister Venus. But maybe you don't play tennis either,
(02:16):
but she can't roll and do some of the things
that you do as a talent and a gift. Your
life is different, Your life is appropriate for you, so
it make it all the way down. Do what I
call fractual investing, which is you may find that you
only have three hundred dollars to invest and the companies
(02:37):
that you dream about maybe three thousand dollars stocks, or
it might be one hundred thousand dollars worth of a
stock basket, but you've got three hundred dollars. But with
fractional investing, you can't still invest in those businesses successfully
getting a fraction of each of those companies that you
believe in in their stock for your portfolio. Did you
know that? You can also open a stock account, a
(03:00):
proper start account. You can also can do one online
through one of the online brokerage companies and buy whole
shares of stock. You can buy digital currencies crypto if
you want, if that's your thing. You can buy a
range of you know, which is more of a riskier
(03:21):
basket than of these digital investments, which I'm not saying
don't do, or do I do or don't do, just
saying don't put your rint money in it. And you
can also choose to invest in a mutual fund where
you're sharing a risk basket. That's another option for you.
(03:41):
You can invest in commercial paper, which is not traded
on Wall Street. Is more risk, but it tends to
be more reward. I'm actually recommending you don't do that.
I'm just giving you the scale you can risk. You
invest in a limited private placement, which is a private
offering of stock. Make sure that your lawyer checks that
(04:04):
out if you decide to do that. You can invest
in a crowdfunding platform if you like some small businesses
raising some money in your neighborhood or some family member
and you decide to invest in the crowdfunding opportunity that
could pay off for you. You can invest directly into
(04:25):
a business, as my family has done with somebody that
we know, and they've got a wellness business that serves
a certain clientele in New Jersey, and it's one example,
and they need XYZ to get equipment and certifications, and
maybe we invest it in that directly and God shares
(04:49):
as a result of that. So I'll just give you
all the way example, all the way from something that's
very removed from you and very fractionalized, a FRAC no
share investing, all the way up through a you know,
buying a share of a publicly traded company, then by
being participating participating in a mutual fund investment vehicle, which
(05:16):
is probably the least risky too, you know, all the
way through smaller cap investing, all the way up through
again as in not suggestion you don't do commercial paper
that's very sophisticated and high high risk, and suggesting you
don't do that, all the way up through finding a
(05:39):
brick and mortar business that you want to back with
your five hundred dollars, fifteen hundred dollars, twenty five hundred
dollars twenty five thousand dollars. Make sure that you understand
the risk and you check with an attorney, et cetera.
And you may decide that that's what you want to
and maybe that business is just located right around the
corner from you. They decide just to do that, or
(06:01):
you may decide to just go start a business. You
can do that through one million Black Business Initiative and
you don't invest anything about your time and your energy.
That's an option for you as well, but I suggest
you just do something right. I want you to do
something and start somewhere. Serena didn't just start at the
top of the market investing. She was making money as
(06:25):
a tennis player, wasn't making money for a long time,
and she wasn't investing. When she started making money. She
understood the difference between making money and building wealth, and
make money during the day, you build wealth in your sleep,
and she was very good. It appears at the building
wealth in your sleep part. So now she's actually her
wealth is actually really coming from the investments and not
(06:47):
her professional tennis career. Anybody who became a billionaire, by
the way in professional sports are the arts, did not
do it through professional sports. Are the arts they all
with corporate Think about Lebron, think about Magic Johnson, whoever
your hero shero is. They got the profile in the arts,
(07:14):
the public figure profile, you know them as a celebrity.
But they leveraged that and went and cut a deal
with corporate America, got shares, equity in a corporate entity,
or some kind of participation in Doctor dre and headphones,
and that's how they became billionaires. I hope this has
(07:36):
been helpful. This is John O'Brien. Money and Wealth is
the iHeartRadio Black Effect Network podcast series John O'Brien Money
and Wealth, dropping new episodes every Thursday.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Hey, Hey, this is John O'Briant, founder of Operation Hope,
and I created this organization to change the world, to
go from civil rights in the streets to silver rights
in the business suites.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
The color's not black or white anymore, or red or blue.
That was the second reconstruction and the first reconstruction. The
third reconstruction after George Floyd's murder from twenty twenty to
twenty thirty. The third reconstruction is about the color green,
at least in the US, the color green. It's about
not black, white, red, brown, yellow. It's US currency, it's economic,
(08:27):
it's opportunity for all, and I want you to get some.
That's why I wrote this book, Financial Literacy for All.
I've written six books now, several are bestsellers on business.
I'm one of a few people of color who's written
bestsellers on business, by the way, But all those books,
while relate to my work, the memo of how the
Porcinsai Capitalism up from nothing, Love Leadership, Banking in Our Future, etc.
(08:52):
All those books relate to the work. This is the work.
And while I can't counsel and coach every person to
raise a critics or fifty four to one hundred points
to lower their debt thirty eight hundred dollars, making fifty
thousand dollars a year, to increase their savings a couple
thousand dollars. While my team can't be with everybody every time.
(09:12):
We can't be at your kitchen table, we can't be
in your bedroom. We can't be with either car dealership
when you're making these decisions. We can't be at the
mortgage table when you're buying a house, or worse, when
you're renting for the rest of your life and missed
out on home ownership and generational wealth. We can't be there,
but now I can be. This book is your primer
for your life. Hear me now when I say this,
(09:34):
financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation.
Hear me when I say this. This is John O'Brien.
I'm telling you a truth that I've learned in my
life that changed my life, the one thing that changed
everything else. If your day's not about God or love,
your day's about money. Financial literacy is the civil rights
issue of this generation, and it will affect your life
(09:56):
more than almost anything else. Number what cause a divorce? Money,
Number one calls for domestic abuse. Money, number one reason
for heart attacks, stress, number one reason for stress. Money.
Why are ninety five percent of employees stressed out of
the job? Economics and money. They're on the job, but
their mind is someplace else. They're worrying about those red
(10:17):
notices and those cutoff notices. They got too much month
at the end of their money. I want you to
turn your problems into promise. I want you to turn
away from the darkness and into the light. And you're
going to do that by setting yourself free. Because you're
not dumb, and you're not stupid. It's what you don't
know that you don't know that is killing you, but
you think you know. Pre order this book today. It
comes out in mid April. Pre order today. Let's show
(10:41):
the world and send the message that you understand what's
really a priority in your life and you back the movement.
This is the silver rights movement in the suites, where
we get you from the streets to the suites and
get the sweets to understand the power of the streets.
This is John O'Brien. This is financial literacy for all.
(11:01):
A special shout out to Doug Miller, the CEO of Walmart,
who did the forward, and all of the heroes and
sheiroes who endorse the book. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of
J B. Morgan, Chase and my friend Charlemagne thy God,
so many heroes and shero Seraph Fryar. All these luminaries
have already endorsed this book. They know the power of
(11:21):
financial literacy because you make money during the day, you
build wealth in your sleep. Hello, it's one of the
jewels in here. You make money during the day, you
build wealth in your sleep. What are we obsessed about
in our communities. I want to make this money and
we get this bag. I want to get this dollar.
I want to get paid. I want to get I
want to get I want I want to get this.
This mulah doesn't mean anything. Money is what is just
(11:42):
a currency for your time to at work during the day.
It's how you live. Literally as you're making it, you're
spending it. But you build wealth in your sleep. Home
ownership is compounding stocks and bonds, real estate, even education
compounds small business ownership. U These are things that when
(12:03):
you're sleeping, it's growing for you and so you build
generational wealth over time. This is a business plan for
the rest of your life. It's financial literacy for all,
and I want you to pre order it today. John
O'Brien I'm out hey, hey, hey, this is John O'Briant
(12:33):
Money and Wealth on the Black Effect Network podcast series
on iHeart. I gotta start using codes now. There's so
much financial shenanigans going on and folks trying to separate
you from your wallet. I'm gonna start using like sign
language Like I don't mean like literal sign language, no
(12:54):
disrespect intended there, I mean like financial signs like make
stuff obvious. What I mean by that is green light,
red light, like do it, don't do it. So this
one's a red light. This is a bright red light.
So my man, Sir James Buchanan, who is one of
(13:18):
my assistants and has been invaluable to me and Operation
Hope and my family, who's just a good guy, who's
also just sort of a very common sense financial literacy
genius and what I call it bush attorney, Like he's
not really an attorney, but he's the dude that you know,
(13:41):
the attorney. Real attorneys don't Hope, don't jump out of
a bush somewhere, because he's smarter than them. And he's
just real study like he don't play, and he loves
hard and so he's got a very solid credit score.
And I don't want to get in his business and
tell you exactly what credit score is, but it's solid.
(14:03):
Just take my word for it. And he works at
Operation Hope as a chief Community Officer in addition to
being my assistant. And he called me one day he said, John,
I can't believe this man, Like my credit score is slid.
I know what it is. He can go to a
bank and get a line of credit if he wants.
And what happened was he got this notice in the
(14:27):
mail from a finance company. I'm not going to name
the name. It's not important, but you need to know
how to defend yourself from folks trying to separate you
from your wallet capitalism. This is not personal. This is
business in folks, business some people's businesses to separate you
(14:50):
from your wallet, from your resources. And this company sent
my man a note saying I'm sorry, send him a check.
There was a check endorsemble check in the letter. Now,
Sir James didn't ask for this, didn't request this, didn't
reach out to anybody. Folks just came to him, sent
(15:14):
him a note and said, here's fourteen hundred dollars. Now,
I'm gonna put this into context. Seventy percent of this
country is living from paycheck to paycheck, the largest economy
in the world. This is why I say financial literacy
is a civil rights issue of this generation, the lard's
economy in the world. Seventy percent of all Americans, not
(15:36):
poor people, all people are living from paycheck to paycheck.
Folks who got too much month at the end of
their money. I think it's something like sixty percent of
Americans and change don't have four hundred dollars for an
unplanned event. Half of those making one hundred thousand dollars
a year live from paycheck to paycheck. So you know
(15:57):
that I'm talking to you, every one of you listening
to this. I don't care what your economic situation might be,
or as my dad would say, situation. If you're making
a quarter million dollars a year, a third of those
living from paycheck to paycheck, can I get an amen?
It's the church of what's happening? And now what have
you done for me lately? You live in Manhattan, New York. Hello,
(16:18):
you make one hundred thousand dollars a year. It feels
like thirty nine thousand dollars a year in Manhattan because
the cost of living is so high. So wherever you are,
this message is for you. Because when my man got
this check for fourteen hundred dollars, he realized what this
company was doing, enticing people to disconnect their brain and
(16:40):
connect their surviving mindset and their depression and their anxiety
and the fact they got too much month into their
money and they're trying to figure out which bill to pay.
It's like Russian roulette at the kitchen table on Friday,
which bill to pay? And they know that when they
see I noticed like this, and somebody just says, you're
(17:01):
pre approved. Not actually you approved right now. Actually just
endorsed his check and deposited the money's yours. He knows
that most people that get this, a good number of
people are just gonna say, my god, this is fantastic,
just what I needed, and they're gonna endorse that check
and take that money. Now. My man reads and he
(17:23):
read the fine print, and this is what the print said.
He told me in this note, Chairman. The attached letter
was sent to him, and they were you know, he
hadn't applied for a loan with his company and hadn't
asked him for anything. It just said number, real check,
and all you do do it, it says, is just
(17:44):
deposit it and the funds are immediately available to you.
The issue with these types of offers, he says, is
that it come with a healthy prepayment penalty and other
processing fees and gives you a payback over fifteen months
with an annual percentage rage hold on now of forty
(18:05):
point seventy six percent forty point seven six percent is
the annual APR annual percentage rate to pay back this long.
Let me now break this down into English. Why this
is red light red light red light? Loan them out
fourteen hundred dollars. We covered that, prepaid financial finance charges
(18:30):
prepaid Now you haven't cash his check the ninch you
cash your check. Prepaid interest one hundred and forty four
dollars and sixty one cents. You owe that immediately, But
when I was gotten started yet, prepaid finance charges, pre
computed interest now pre computed interest. A loan is two
(18:51):
hundred and twenty dollars and fifty nine cents. You haven't
written the minute you deposit this check. Okay, you owe this.
This is like sharecropping. This is pimping. This is financial pimping.
Like sharecroppers, no matter how hard they work, you'll never
pay the man off, you'll never get ahead. So let
(19:12):
me let me continue write these numbers down now, one
hundred and forty four dollars and sixty one cents, and
prepaid finance charges two hundred twenty dollars and fifty nine
cents in pre computed interests eight percent origination fee, which
is a prepaid finance charge forty eight dollars four percent
origination fee. This is another origination fee, another prepaid finance
(19:35):
charge of forty six dollars and sixty one cents. They're
just making this stuff up. Why won't you have two
prepaid finance Why woult you have two origination fees? Closing
fees fifty dollars. That's a prepaid finance charge. What's a
closing cost? It's no closing costs. They've already written the
documentation and the loan agreement before they sent it to you.
(19:57):
Total monthly maintenance charges forty five dollars. What is a
monthly maintenance charge? You sent me a check and told
me what the monthly payments are. It's already laid out.
What are you maintaining? I guess it's a servicing fee
for the forty point seven to six percentag which you're
charging me. Total monthly maintenance charge is forty five dollars.
(20:20):
The grand total of said fees are four hundred and
ten dollars and twenty cents. The fees are assessed regardless,
and you may be subject to a refund of said
fees if you pay the loan off early. But in
all In most cases you won't get a dime back
because there's all kind of carve outs and subject tos
(20:42):
and whereas is in the agreement. You end up paying
back nearly two thousand dollars on a fourteen hundred dollars
loan in a year. You could just walk down to
the bank if you got a decent credit score. Opera
SHOA can help you with this and get an injury
a twelve percent eleven percent credit card. If you have
(21:04):
decent credit, fourteen percent credit card for sure and no fees,
none of this stuff applies, and you're good to go.
Maybe even qualify for about this line of credit. Maybe
if you have a home, a home equity line of
credit costs you next to nothing. A consumer loan. There's
(21:27):
all kind of options for you, but you shouldn't be
paying forty dollars in seventy six cents to some stranger
who's hitting you up with almost five hundred dollars in
with four hundred dollars in pre paid charges before you
even say boo. And then you got to pay these
payment back every month of one hundred and twenty dollars
(21:50):
and sixty six cents, which is money that you don't
think is a big problem to pay, but it's not
edge part of your cash flow today, so it probably
will be a problem to pay. And this company has
calculated how many people are going to default. They realize
(22:11):
that this is unsecured credit, but they're going out to
people who got cut credit scores. So these are not
These are not dumb people. These are not people who
don't pay their bills. These are people who pay their
bills but may get caught up in the emotions of
the moment. And remember I told you, whenever you make
an emotional decision, it's a bad one and you get
caught up in what did Malcolm X say. We've been bamboozled,
(22:34):
we've been tricked, We've been food. So I want you
to understand this is a game that's being played, is
being played on your emotions, is being targeted to people
who folks think are financially unsophisticated, and they are emotionally
depressed and desperate who are living in the moment with
a surviving mindset. But you're not dumb and you're not stupid.
(22:55):
It's what you don't know that you don't know that's
killing you. But you think you know and Now I'm
here to tell you that you can do better, because
I'm gonna help you know better. Go to a Hope
counselor today for free, and we will introduce you to
folks that won't rob you blind, for whom we have
no economic interest or don't go to who will we
(23:16):
introduce you to. Just have us educate you on the
process and go to whoever you like. But you don't
have to pay somebody almost forty five percent interest rate
just because they found your email address and targeted you
and made it easy. If success was easy, everybody would
be doing it right. Only in the dictionary does the
(23:39):
word success come before the word work because it's alphabetical.
Do not take these offers unless literally it is your
only choice, because this will choke you. It will choke
your cash flow in you until you economically die, all right.
John O'Brien on the Black Effect Network on iHeart, this
(24:00):
is a red light. Hey, John O'Briant, this is money
and wealth all in the Black Effect Network, iHeart Radio
and the Black Effect Network. And this is a fan
(24:21):
question from at DF Underscore Nicole at DF Underscore Nicole
on Instagram. What are wise retirement investment focuses for someone
at thirty five who just started. First of all, great
question at a great time. Thirty five years old is
a perfect time for you to get serious about life.
(24:42):
You've had your fun in your twenties, you dis stuff
in your teens that you don't anybody know about. It's
all a blur, and now you're in your thirties you're like, Okay,
I guess I should grow up and get serious about
this thing. The first thing you should do is, if
you're working at any kind of mature company or certainly
major company, they're gonna have some kind of retirement program.
(25:05):
They're gonna have a four to oh one K plan.
The number one thing you should do is invest in
that four oh one K. If they're matching you dollar
for dollar, you invest five dollars every paycheck into your
four one K program. They invest five dollars to match you.
(25:26):
It's dollar for dollar. That's free money. That's that five
dollar match is free money. And that ten dollars now
is going to be invested in the stock market or
whatever it is that you signed up for with your employer.
Check your four oh one K program and make sure
that you are signed up for the kind of investment
(25:49):
and the kind of risk tolerance that you're comfortable with
with your money. But whatever it is, you're getting the
magic of compounding and free money. Again, you put in
your five dollars, they had matched you five dollars in
this example. The company then took, through typically a fiduciary
a third party, the ten dollars now in this example
(26:12):
from the pay period, and they've invest that in stocks
or bonds or treasury bills or whatever it is you've
authorized them to invest in. And that's going to start
building momentum in the investment market and over time will
build equity. And there's no guarantees and investments that will
work out prosperous, but the likelihood is if you stick
(26:36):
to it over the long term, you'll probably do better
than okay. And if you keep investing every two weeks,
as you get a paycheck, put it on allo pay,
don't think about it, set and release. In fact, I
encourage employers to have an opt out strategy for four
oh one K for their employees versus opt in. People
are finitially illiterate or not finanially literate are not going
(26:59):
to opt in to four oh one K. Investing and
I going to say, hey, take some money out of
my paycheck. They're going to take We'll take every one
of their dollars. Short term thinking, surviving mindset from my
book Up from Nothing. Have a new book out by
the way, it's called Financial Literacy for all that you
should get but which is a great private for this conversation.
But my book Up from Nothing talked about people have
(27:21):
a surviving mindset, a thriving mindset, and a winning mindset,
and will winners or builders have a long term outlook,
but those are the surviving mindset. Want to get theirs
right now, so we'll take every one of the piece
of that paycheck and go spend it or whatever. I
want the employers to have an opt out strategy, meaning
(27:43):
that you are an investor in Every employee is immediately
enrolled in for a one K matching program. They have
to request to opt out of that. Likewise, when you
sign up as an employee E, when you go to
HR department, sign your documents, tell them you want to
opt in to the four one K program, and then
(28:05):
you tell them how much of your paycheck, either by
dollar amount or a percentage you want taken out of
your paycheck, and don't get upfraid. If you have a
crisis or emergency, there are ways to get your money out.
It's not locked up forever. This is your money and
when you leave, that goes with you. Four one k's
in most places have almost replaced what used to be
(28:27):
called pension funds and traditional retirement accounts like that. So
this is really important for building for the future. And
it's free money, and it's the smartest, easiest thing for
you to do. And then you get to determine what
that four oh one K investment is going to go
into for your money, plus the free money from your employer,
which is yours for life and government. You have a
(28:53):
crisis your life, you can go and get an emergency withdrawal,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, and it's with
regards to thee of investments I would invest suggest maybe
starting with a mutual fund or that you know, start
with if you want to buy individual stocks, if that's
your thing, then do things that you recognize from your
(29:14):
own life. But you know, I'm over answering the question
when I say do things you recognize the stuff that
you love? Right, the kind of companies that are that
occupy your daily life, though both of those companies are
publicly traded. But to answer the question, four oh one
K matching program, all day, all night, free money. And
(29:36):
when I looked at the operation up one day at
a very small percentage of my employees, we're taking advantage
of that. I was embarrassed because I'm running a financial
literacy organization. Now proud to say the vast majority of
my employees, the overwhelming majority of my employees are now
participants in the four Way K program. We are helping
them to build wealth and not just make money. It's
(29:57):
John O'Bryant re the book Financial Ducy for raw pre
order it. Tell your friends to subscribe to this podcast,
get your financial coaching through Operation Hope and change your life.
John O'Briant, Money of Wealth, I'm out Thank you at
df underscore Nicole on Instagram. Money and Wealth with John
(30:23):
O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome the Money in Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
of The Black Effect podcast network, and iHeartRadio Serena Williams
more of that. So Serena Williams is proving that she
(00:22):
really is a triple threat beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, sophisticated, obviously
incredible athlete, mother, you know, friend or whatever, incredible athlete investor.
She may be a quadruple thrill. I don't know, but
she's a businesswoman without questioning. Is invested in eighty five
(00:47):
businesses that I guess her family venture fund has put
money in over her career, and it appears a dozen
of those have company evaluations in to the billion dollar range,
which is I don't know what portfolio, so I can't
give you details on it. But it doesn't mean that
(01:09):
that she owns all the company, by the way, means
she made some smart bets and the bets paid off.
In other words, companies that she invested in rolled up
into a larger overall valuation that she benefits from because
she was an early venture capital investor. So kudos to her.
(01:29):
I don't care what the structure is. It's a positive thing.
And even I love how you can see her sort
of doing her makeup. She's explaining very casually, very confidently,
very comfortably, the structure of her investment. She clearly knows
what she's talking about. I want you to become an investor. Also,
(01:54):
you may not be able to do it the way
Serena Williams has done it, and that's okay. But you
can do it the way you need to do it.
That might be even fractional investing. So you're not Serena
and her sister Venus. But maybe you don't play tennis either,
(02:16):
but she can't roll and do some of the things
that you do as a talent and a gift. Your
life is different, Your life is appropriate for you, so
it make it all the way down. Do what I
call fractual investing, which is you may find that you
only have three hundred dollars to invest and the companies
(02:37):
that you dream about maybe three thousand dollars stocks, or
it might be one hundred thousand dollars worth of a
stock basket, but you've got three hundred dollars. But with
fractional investing, you can't still invest in those businesses successfully
getting a fraction of each of those companies that you
believe in in their stock for your portfolio. Did you
know that? You can also open a stock account, a
(03:00):
proper start account. You can also can do one online
through one of the online brokerage companies and buy whole
shares of stock. You can buy digital currencies crypto if
you want, if that's your thing. You can buy a
range of you know, which is more of a riskier
(03:21):
basket than of these digital investments, which I'm not saying
don't do, or do I do or don't do, just
saying don't put your rint money in it. And you
can also choose to invest in a mutual fund where
you're sharing a risk basket. That's another option for you.
(03:41):
You can invest in commercial paper, which is not traded
on Wall Street. Is more risk, but it tends to
be more reward. I'm actually recommending you don't do that.
I'm just giving you the scale you can risk. You
invest in a limited private placement, which is a private
offering of stock. Make sure that your lawyer checks that
(04:04):
out if you decide to do that. You can invest
in a crowdfunding platform if you like some small businesses
raising some money in your neighborhood or some family member
and you decide to invest in the crowdfunding opportunity that
could pay off for you. You can invest directly into
(04:25):
a business, as my family has done with somebody that
we know, and they've got a wellness business that serves
a certain clientele in New Jersey, and it's one example,
and they need XYZ to get equipment and certifications, and
maybe we invest it in that directly and God shares
(04:49):
as a result of that. So I'll just give you
all the way example, all the way from something that's
very removed from you and very fractionalized, a FRAC no
share investing, all the way up through a you know,
buying a share of a publicly traded company, then by
being participating participating in a mutual fund investment vehicle, which
(05:16):
is probably the least risky too, you know, all the
way through smaller cap investing, all the way up through
again as in not suggestion you don't do commercial paper
that's very sophisticated and high high risk, and suggesting you
don't do that, all the way up through finding a
(05:39):
brick and mortar business that you want to back with
your five hundred dollars, fifteen hundred dollars, twenty five hundred
dollars twenty five thousand dollars. Make sure that you understand
the risk and you check with an attorney, et cetera.
And you may decide that that's what you want to
and maybe that business is just located right around the
corner from you. They decide just to do that, or
(06:01):
you may decide to just go start a business. You
can do that through one million Black Business Initiative and
you don't invest anything about your time and your energy.
That's an option for you as well, but I suggest
you just do something right. I want you to do
something and start somewhere. Serena didn't just start at the
top of the market investing. She was making money as
(06:25):
a tennis player, wasn't making money for a long time,
and she wasn't investing. When she started making money. She
understood the difference between making money and building wealth, and
make money during the day, you build wealth in your sleep,
and she was very good. It appears at the building
wealth in your sleep part. So now she's actually her
wealth is actually really coming from the investments and not
(06:47):
her professional tennis career. Anybody who became a billionaire, by
the way in professional sports are the arts, did not
do it through professional sports. Are the arts they all
with corporate Think about Lebron, think about Magic Johnson, whoever
your hero shero is. They got the profile in the arts,
(07:14):
the public figure profile, you know them as a celebrity.
But they leveraged that and went and cut a deal
with corporate America, got shares, equity in a corporate entity,
or some kind of participation in Doctor dre and headphones,
and that's how they became billionaires. I hope this has
(07:36):
been helpful. This is John O'Brien. Money and Wealth is
the iHeartRadio Black Effect Network podcast series John O'Brien Money
and Wealth, dropping new episodes every Thursday.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Hey, Hey, this is John O'Briant, founder of Operation Hope,
and I created this organization to change the world, to
go from civil rights in the streets to silver rights
in the business suites.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
The color's not black or white anymore, or red or blue.
That was the second reconstruction and the first reconstruction. The
third reconstruction after George Floyd's murder from twenty twenty to
twenty thirty. The third reconstruction is about the color green,
at least in the US, the color green. It's about
not black, white, red, brown, yellow. It's US currency, it's economic,
(08:27):
it's opportunity for all, and I want you to get some.
That's why I wrote this book, Financial Literacy for All.
I've written six books now, several are bestsellers on business.
I'm one of a few people of color who's written
bestsellers on business, by the way, But all those books,
while relate to my work, the memo of how the
Porcinsai Capitalism up from nothing, Love Leadership, Banking in Our Future, etc.
(08:52):
All those books relate to the work. This is the work.
And while I can't counsel and coach every person to
raise a critics or fifty four to one hundred points
to lower their debt thirty eight hundred dollars, making fifty
thousand dollars a year, to increase their savings a couple
thousand dollars. While my team can't be with everybody every time.
(09:12):
We can't be at your kitchen table, we can't be
in your bedroom. We can't be with either car dealership
when you're making these decisions. We can't be at the
mortgage table when you're buying a house, or worse, when
you're renting for the rest of your life and missed
out on home ownership and generational wealth. We can't be there,
but now I can be. This book is your primer
for your life. Hear me now when I say this,
(09:34):
financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation.
Hear me when I say this. This is John O'Brien.
I'm telling you a truth that I've learned in my
life that changed my life, the one thing that changed
everything else. If your day's not about God or love,
your day's about money. Financial literacy is the civil rights
issue of this generation, and it will affect your life
(09:56):
more than almost anything else. Number what cause a divorce? Money,
Number one calls for domestic abuse. Money, number one reason
for heart attacks, stress, number one reason for stress. Money.
Why are ninety five percent of employees stressed out of
the job? Economics and money. They're on the job, but
their mind is someplace else. They're worrying about those red
(10:17):
notices and those cutoff notices. They got too much month
at the end of their money. I want you to
turn your problems into promise. I want you to turn
away from the darkness and into the light. And you're
going to do that by setting yourself free. Because you're
not dumb, and you're not stupid. It's what you don't
know that you don't know that is killing you, but
you think you know. Pre order this book today. It
comes out in mid April. Pre order today. Let's show
(10:41):
the world and send the message that you understand what's
really a priority in your life and you back the movement.
This is the silver rights movement in the suites, where
we get you from the streets to the suites and
get the sweets to understand the power of the streets.
This is John O'Brien. This is financial literacy for all.
(11:01):
A special shout out to Doug Miller, the CEO of Walmart,
who did the forward, and all of the heroes and
sheiroes who endorse the book. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of
J B. Morgan, Chase and my friend Charlemagne thy God,
so many heroes and shero Seraph Fryar. All these luminaries
have already endorsed this book. They know the power of
(11:21):
financial literacy because you make money during the day, you
build wealth in your sleep. Hello, it's one of the
jewels in here. You make money during the day, you
build wealth in your sleep. What are we obsessed about
in our communities. I want to make this money and
we get this bag. I want to get this dollar.
I want to get paid. I want to get I
want to get I want I want to get this.
This mulah doesn't mean anything. Money is what is just
(11:42):
a currency for your time to at work during the day.
It's how you live. Literally as you're making it, you're
spending it. But you build wealth in your sleep. Home
ownership is compounding stocks and bonds, real estate, even education
compounds small business ownership. U These are things that when
(12:03):
you're sleeping, it's growing for you and so you build
generational wealth over time. This is a business plan for
the rest of your life. It's financial literacy for all,
and I want you to pre order it today. John
O'Brien I'm out hey, hey, hey, this is John O'Briant
(12:33):
Money and Wealth on the Black Effect Network podcast series
on iHeart. I gotta start using codes now. There's so
much financial shenanigans going on and folks trying to separate
you from your wallet. I'm gonna start using like sign
language Like I don't mean like literal sign language, no
(12:54):
disrespect intended there, I mean like financial signs like make
stuff obvious. What I mean by that is green light,
red light, like do it, don't do it. So this
one's a red light. This is a bright red light.
So my man, Sir James Buchanan, who is one of
(13:18):
my assistants and has been invaluable to me and Operation
Hope and my family, who's just a good guy, who's
also just sort of a very common sense financial literacy
genius and what I call it bush attorney, Like he's
not really an attorney, but he's the dude that you know,
(13:41):
the attorney. Real attorneys don't Hope, don't jump out of
a bush somewhere, because he's smarter than them. And he's
just real study like he don't play, and he loves
hard and so he's got a very solid credit score.
And I don't want to get in his business and
tell you exactly what credit score is, but it's solid.
(14:03):
Just take my word for it. And he works at
Operation Hope as a chief Community Officer in addition to
being my assistant. And he called me one day he said, John,
I can't believe this man, Like my credit score is slid.
I know what it is. He can go to a
bank and get a line of credit if he wants.
And what happened was he got this notice in the
(14:27):
mail from a finance company. I'm not going to name
the name. It's not important, but you need to know
how to defend yourself from folks trying to separate you
from your wallet capitalism. This is not personal. This is
business in folks, business some people's businesses to separate you
(14:50):
from your wallet, from your resources. And this company sent
my man a note saying I'm sorry, send him a check.
There was a check endorsemble check in the letter. Now,
Sir James didn't ask for this, didn't request this, didn't
reach out to anybody. Folks just came to him, sent
(15:14):
him a note and said, here's fourteen hundred dollars. Now,
I'm gonna put this into context. Seventy percent of this
country is living from paycheck to paycheck, the largest economy
in the world. This is why I say financial literacy
is a civil rights issue of this generation, the lard's
economy in the world. Seventy percent of all Americans, not
(15:36):
poor people, all people are living from paycheck to paycheck.
Folks who got too much month at the end of
their money. I think it's something like sixty percent of
Americans and change don't have four hundred dollars for an
unplanned event. Half of those making one hundred thousand dollars
a year live from paycheck to paycheck. So you know
(15:57):
that I'm talking to you, every one of you listening
to this. I don't care what your economic situation might be,
or as my dad would say, situation. If you're making
a quarter million dollars a year, a third of those
living from paycheck to paycheck, can I get an amen?
It's the church of what's happening? And now what have
you done for me lately? You live in Manhattan, New York. Hello,
(16:18):
you make one hundred thousand dollars a year. It feels
like thirty nine thousand dollars a year in Manhattan because
the cost of living is so high. So wherever you are,
this message is for you. Because when my man got
this check for fourteen hundred dollars, he realized what this
company was doing, enticing people to disconnect their brain and
(16:40):
connect their surviving mindset and their depression and their anxiety
and the fact they got too much month into their
money and they're trying to figure out which bill to pay.
It's like Russian roulette at the kitchen table on Friday,
which bill to pay? And they know that when they
see I noticed like this, and somebody just says, you're
(17:01):
pre approved. Not actually you approved right now. Actually just
endorsed his check and deposited the money's yours. He knows
that most people that get this, a good number of
people are just gonna say, my god, this is fantastic,
just what I needed, and they're gonna endorse that check
and take that money. Now. My man reads and he
(17:23):
read the fine print, and this is what the print said.
He told me in this note, Chairman. The attached letter
was sent to him, and they were you know, he
hadn't applied for a loan with his company and hadn't
asked him for anything. It just said number, real check,
and all you do do it, it says, is just
(17:44):
deposit it and the funds are immediately available to you.
The issue with these types of offers, he says, is
that it come with a healthy prepayment penalty and other
processing fees and gives you a payback over fifteen months
with an annual percentage rage hold on now of forty
(18:05):
point seventy six percent forty point seven six percent is
the annual APR annual percentage rate to pay back this long.
Let me now break this down into English. Why this
is red light red light red light? Loan them out
fourteen hundred dollars. We covered that, prepaid financial finance charges
(18:30):
prepaid Now you haven't cash his check the ninch you
cash your check. Prepaid interest one hundred and forty four
dollars and sixty one cents. You owe that immediately, But
when I was gotten started yet, prepaid finance charges, pre
computed interest now pre computed interest. A loan is two
(18:51):
hundred and twenty dollars and fifty nine cents. You haven't
written the minute you deposit this check. Okay, you owe this.
This is like sharecropping. This is pimping. This is financial pimping.
Like sharecroppers, no matter how hard they work, you'll never
pay the man off, you'll never get ahead. So let
(19:12):
me let me continue write these numbers down now, one
hundred and forty four dollars and sixty one cents, and
prepaid finance charges two hundred twenty dollars and fifty nine
cents in pre computed interests eight percent origination fee, which
is a prepaid finance charge forty eight dollars four percent
origination fee. This is another origination fee, another prepaid finance
(19:35):
charge of forty six dollars and sixty one cents. They're
just making this stuff up. Why won't you have two
prepaid finance Why woult you have two origination fees? Closing
fees fifty dollars. That's a prepaid finance charge. What's a
closing cost? It's no closing costs. They've already written the
documentation and the loan agreement before they sent it to you.
(19:57):
Total monthly maintenance charges forty five dollars. What is a
monthly maintenance charge? You sent me a check and told
me what the monthly payments are. It's already laid out.
What are you maintaining? I guess it's a servicing fee
for the forty point seven to six percentag which you're
charging me. Total monthly maintenance charge is forty five dollars.
(20:20):
The grand total of said fees are four hundred and
ten dollars and twenty cents. The fees are assessed regardless,
and you may be subject to a refund of said
fees if you pay the loan off early. But in
all In most cases you won't get a dime back
because there's all kind of carve outs and subject tos
(20:42):
and whereas is in the agreement. You end up paying
back nearly two thousand dollars on a fourteen hundred dollars
loan in a year. You could just walk down to
the bank if you got a decent credit score. Opera
SHOA can help you with this and get an injury
a twelve percent eleven percent credit card. If you have
(21:04):
decent credit, fourteen percent credit card for sure and no fees,
none of this stuff applies, and you're good to go.
Maybe even qualify for about this line of credit. Maybe
if you have a home, a home equity line of
credit costs you next to nothing. A consumer loan. There's
(21:27):
all kind of options for you, but you shouldn't be
paying forty dollars in seventy six cents to some stranger
who's hitting you up with almost five hundred dollars in
with four hundred dollars in pre paid charges before you
even say boo. And then you got to pay these
payment back every month of one hundred and twenty dollars
(21:50):
and sixty six cents, which is money that you don't
think is a big problem to pay, but it's not
edge part of your cash flow today, so it probably
will be a problem to pay. And this company has
calculated how many people are going to default. They realize
(22:11):
that this is unsecured credit, but they're going out to
people who got cut credit scores. So these are not
These are not dumb people. These are not people who
don't pay their bills. These are people who pay their
bills but may get caught up in the emotions of
the moment. And remember I told you, whenever you make
an emotional decision, it's a bad one and you get
caught up in what did Malcolm X say. We've been bamboozled,
(22:34):
we've been tricked, We've been food. So I want you
to understand this is a game that's being played, is
being played on your emotions, is being targeted to people
who folks think are financially unsophisticated, and they are emotionally
depressed and desperate who are living in the moment with
a surviving mindset. But you're not dumb and you're not stupid.
(22:55):
It's what you don't know that you don't know that's
killing you. But you think you know and Now I'm
here to tell you that you can do better, because
I'm gonna help you know better. Go to a Hope
counselor today for free, and we will introduce you to
folks that won't rob you blind, for whom we have
no economic interest or don't go to who will we
(23:16):
introduce you to. Just have us educate you on the
process and go to whoever you like. But you don't
have to pay somebody almost forty five percent interest rate
just because they found your email address and targeted you
and made it easy. If success was easy, everybody would
be doing it right. Only in the dictionary does the
(23:39):
word success come before the word work because it's alphabetical.
Do not take these offers unless literally it is your
only choice, because this will choke you. It will choke
your cash flow in you until you economically die, all right.
John O'Brien on the Black Effect Network on iHeart, this
(24:00):
is a red light. Hey, John O'Briant, this is money
and wealth all in the Black Effect Network, iHeart Radio
and the Black Effect Network. And this is a fan
(24:21):
question from at DF Underscore Nicole at DF Underscore Nicole
on Instagram. What are wise retirement investment focuses for someone
at thirty five who just started. First of all, great
question at a great time. Thirty five years old is
a perfect time for you to get serious about life.
(24:42):
You've had your fun in your twenties, you dis stuff
in your teens that you don't anybody know about. It's
all a blur, and now you're in your thirties you're like, Okay,
I guess I should grow up and get serious about
this thing. The first thing you should do is, if
you're working at any kind of mature company or certainly
major company, they're gonna have some kind of retirement program.
(25:05):
They're gonna have a four to oh one K plan.
The number one thing you should do is invest in
that four oh one K. If they're matching you dollar
for dollar, you invest five dollars every paycheck into your
four one K program. They invest five dollars to match you.
(25:26):
It's dollar for dollar. That's free money. That's that five
dollar match is free money. And that ten dollars now
is going to be invested in the stock market or
whatever it is that you signed up for with your employer.
Check your four oh one K program and make sure
that you are signed up for the kind of investment
(25:49):
and the kind of risk tolerance that you're comfortable with
with your money. But whatever it is, you're getting the
magic of compounding and free money. Again, you put in
your five dollars, they had matched you five dollars in
this example. The company then took, through typically a fiduciary
a third party, the ten dollars now in this example
(26:12):
from the pay period, and they've invest that in stocks
or bonds or treasury bills or whatever it is you've
authorized them to invest in. And that's going to start
building momentum in the investment market and over time will
build equity. And there's no guarantees and investments that will
work out prosperous, but the likelihood is if you stick
(26:36):
to it over the long term, you'll probably do better
than okay. And if you keep investing every two weeks,
as you get a paycheck, put it on allo pay,
don't think about it, set and release. In fact, I
encourage employers to have an opt out strategy for four
oh one K for their employees versus opt in. People
are finitially illiterate or not finanially literate are not going
(26:59):
to opt in to four oh one K. Investing and
I going to say, hey, take some money out of
my paycheck. They're going to take We'll take every one
of their dollars. Short term thinking, surviving mindset from my
book Up from Nothing. Have a new book out by
the way, it's called Financial Literacy for all that you
should get but which is a great private for this conversation.
But my book Up from Nothing talked about people have
(27:21):
a surviving mindset, a thriving mindset, and a winning mindset,
and will winners or builders have a long term outlook,
but those are the surviving mindset. Want to get theirs
right now, so we'll take every one of the piece
of that paycheck and go spend it or whatever. I
want the employers to have an opt out strategy, meaning
(27:43):
that you are an investor in Every employee is immediately
enrolled in for a one K matching program. They have
to request to opt out of that. Likewise, when you
sign up as an employee E, when you go to
HR department, sign your documents, tell them you want to
opt in to the four one K program, and then
(28:05):
you tell them how much of your paycheck, either by
dollar amount or a percentage you want taken out of
your paycheck, and don't get upfraid. If you have a
crisis or emergency, there are ways to get your money out.
It's not locked up forever. This is your money and
when you leave, that goes with you. Four one k's
in most places have almost replaced what used to be
(28:27):
called pension funds and traditional retirement accounts like that. So
this is really important for building for the future. And
it's free money, and it's the smartest, easiest thing for
you to do. And then you get to determine what
that four oh one K investment is going to go
into for your money, plus the free money from your employer,
which is yours for life and government. You have a
(28:53):
crisis your life, you can go and get an emergency withdrawal,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, and it's with
regards to thee of investments I would invest suggest maybe
starting with a mutual fund or that you know, start
with if you want to buy individual stocks, if that's
your thing, then do things that you recognize from your
(29:14):
own life. But you know, I'm over answering the question
when I say do things you recognize the stuff that
you love? Right, the kind of companies that are that
occupy your daily life, though both of those companies are
publicly traded. But to answer the question, four oh one
K matching program, all day, all night, free money. And
(29:36):
when I looked at the operation up one day at
a very small percentage of my employees, we're taking advantage
of that. I was embarrassed because I'm running a financial
literacy organization. Now proud to say the vast majority of
my employees, the overwhelming majority of my employees are now
participants in the four Way K program. We are helping
them to build wealth and not just make money. It's
(29:57):
John O'Bryant re the book Financial Ducy for raw pre
order it. Tell your friends to subscribe to this podcast,
get your financial coaching through Operation Hope and change your life.
John O'Briant, Money of Wealth, I'm out Thank you at
df underscore Nicole on Instagram. Money and Wealth with John
(30:23):
O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Host
John Hope Bryant
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