Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. I'm your host, Tanya
Sam and today we are joined by the host of
(00:21):
Greenwood Dailies and Greenwood Officials, Certified Financial Planner, Riyanka. Riyanka,
welcome back to the podcast, but actually first time on
the podcast, but longtime, longtime family members listen, longtime family
and I'm just excited to be here me too. I mean,
this is like what we It's one of those jobs
that it's like, is this a job? Is this fun?
(00:41):
Like we get to talk about all the things we love, money, building, wealth, family,
helping people. This is incredible. Yeah, this is something I mean,
this is something that I absolutely love. I'm passionate about
and I'm so happy that there is a platform where
we can talk directly two our culture about personal finances
(01:01):
because this is a topic that we just can't talk
about enough. I agree, And you know, nineties seconds is
not enough time for you to fully discuss and dive
into the topics you cover on Greenwood Daily. So this
is our opportunity to expand on some of those episodes
that I feel really have impact for our audience, not
just the Greenwood family, but as our family grows into
include the gathering spot, valence, et cetera. We just want
(01:24):
to be able to spread these valuable words, gems and
financial wisdom to so many people. So today's episode, you know,
I want to be able to expand on something you
talked about, first generation wealth building. So I want to
open up the floor to you there, let's dive into that,
because is just never enough, right. So this is a
(01:45):
topic that is near and dear to my heart, first
racial and wealth building because I myself am a first
generation college graduate and also a first generation wealth builder. Um,
I hope my parents passed on so well to me.
I don't think that's happy me, right, but um, they
have done a lot of sacrifices and done a lot
(02:05):
of things for me in order for me to get
to where I am today. Um. And with that, if sometimes,
as a first generation wealth builder who has graduated college,
who is doing well in their career, there is this
feeling of now I need to support everyone who has
helped me get here, right, And I'm not saying that
(02:27):
there's anything wrong with that. However, as a financial planner.
As a certified financial planner, I have seen and history
has shown us um publicly from celebrities like mc hammer
or other celebrities who have taken care of everybody else
and not their selves first. Right. So a saying that
(02:48):
I share with my clients and to anyone that I
speak to is always put on your financial oxygen mask
on first. So just like in the plane, right, what
what do they say, even if you have a child
sitting next to you, or or elder parents or elder
family members sitting next to you, put your oxygen mask
on first, and then help others. And so this is
(03:09):
a a saying and also just a lifestyle that I
just encourage others to do as well, because it is
self preservation first. And I know it sounds horrible, and
you know, going back to this idea of like, you know,
we're this first generation that has been able to sort
of build wealth for our families. You know, it's it's
that idea of the black text, and for Black Americans,
(03:30):
you know, it's not it is not uncommon for those
of you know, for those who have made it to
the next stage in life, right, this maybe a more
comfortable middle class, you've got this double income that's helping
to maybe at a corporate level, you know, you can
take a couple more vacations, but there's a lot of
extended family members that it becomes really hard to understand,
like what is to do the right thing. So your
(03:51):
analogy of put your own financial oxygen mask on first
makes sense because you can't help others without helping yourself first. End,
as we've seen for all these celebrities, spreading yourself too
thin serves nobody. It doesn't, it doesn't. And to add
on to this, this is so okay, we hear the
saying and then it's like, okay, well what am I
(04:13):
going to do about it? Right, because there's my mom
that I'm helping, or my uncle and always calls and
ask for five dollars, and then with inflation, now he's
probably gonna start asking for twenty, right because now things
have gone up. But you don't got it. If you
don't got it, you don't got it. And here's the
thing I think also, it's this idea of the guilt. Right,
so you'll think of the classic example of you know,
(04:36):
let's say this is a let's call them our first
generation wealth builders. They've got their middle class home, double income,
they've got their kids they can take a vacation, and
their mom, or maybe it's their auntie. You know, you
call and you're saying, hi, auntie, how are you. Well,
it's a little cold because I couldn't pay my heat bill,
and you're like, okay, yeah, I wanna pay. Here's a
hundred dollars. Let me help you, Let me help you,
help me help you because they need it, right, And
(04:58):
it's it's hard because it pulls on our heart strings.
But you've got to sort of set boundaries for your family,
and so them seeing you, it's like, okay, well they
got it. However, what I share is always have goals, right,
so always have a budget. Nobody likes talking about the
B word, but let's talk about it. If you don't
(05:19):
like the B word, let's call it a spending plan.
But if you don't have intention of where your money
is going, you are going to wonder where it went.
And so what that is the worst. That is like
the slow leak of slowly, Oh yeah, you don't know
where If you don't budget for that is a great one.
You don't know where it went. And that's the thing
(05:39):
when you look back at the end of the month
and go, okay, expen how much on what that's and
then it's like, dang, what happened. So this is what
I share. If you are in this situation where you
are a first generation wealth builder, where you are the
financial pool for your family, it's okay. However, I encourage
you to have a line item in your budget for
(06:02):
your family on a monthly basis or or a bi
weekly basis. How however often you get paid, put money
in that line item for that family, for for your
family members, whether it's twenty five dollars every other week,
fifty dollars every other week. And when that uncle calls
you don't ask you for twenty dollars. You look at
that line item, you got it. Boom, here you go.
When Auntie calls you and ask for fifty dollars, you
(06:24):
look at that line item, Boom, you got it. And
someone else calls, hey, baby girl, I need a hundred dollars.
Thank you so much for having helping me last month.
I can't pay you back, but can I get another
hundred dollars? And you look at the line item and
now with zero, you have a choice to make because
if you say yes, you are taking from yourself and
(06:44):
your goals. So you're pulling from a potential vacation that
you've worked hard for. Your you're working a line to
five a college, fine, you're working a nine to five
plus on the weekends, right so that you can take
your family to a hard earned vacation. But then you
start pulling money out of out of those accounts because
it's just like, well, you know, unto each she really
(07:05):
helped me when I was younger. She let me stay
with her over the summertime. So I'm gonna send her
this hundred. But what you're doing is saying no to
your to yourself and to your future goals. And so
it is a hard pill to swallow. But you have
to start saying yes to yourself. Because there is no
loan for retirement. Okay, there is loan for retirement. So
(07:28):
you have to pay yourself first. You have to put
money to your four old one K, your TSP four
oh three B, whatever line of work that you do,
you have to put money in there. Please, please, please please.
I am a financial planner, and there are some clients
who unfortunately cannot retire. They are plastic surgeons sixty years old,
(07:50):
and I am having a hard time in this conversation sharing.
I'm sorry. Yes, you've earned more. You've earned six figures,
almost seven figures, your entire for decades, for decades, and
they cannot afford to retire because their lifestyle is in
such a way that their retirement that the amount that
(08:10):
they have saved over the past thirty years can it
can last time for three years? Oh my gosh, it
can last years. Also, what Rianka, I love this. It's
not just you know, anti calling and asking for twenty dollars.
This what we need to do is educate at all
levels of the income earning spectrum, because you spend as
(08:31):
much as you come in. So this isn't us just
you know, and we're not let's we're not lecturing people.
We are really out here trying to wave the red
flags so that people don't make these mistakes and end
up in these situations, so that we can do better
because we didn't get a lot of these messages from
our parents, and now you know, they're looking to us,
and we're looking to help our children do better than us.
(08:52):
Something else too, that I would recommend is when you
are giving if there is a family member that's constantly
asking have an attachment to those dollars and and and
maybe it's now time for you to It's so easy
to just give money, and it's just like, yeah, here
you go, here you go, but maybe take some time
to learn their habits. And it's like, what's causing them
(09:15):
to continuously ask you for money? Now? Has lifestyle creep
happened to them? Has? Are they frivolously spending? Are they
eating out too much? Because now you are not necessarily
helping them keep their lights on, you're helping them with
their lifestyle. And it's just like it's not fair to you, right,
So have some attachment. Um. I remember one family member
(09:39):
asked me for a fifty dollars. I'm like yeah, and
and let's talk about a budget. Oh why we gotta
do all that? I just need to damn you don't
know this, just say right. So something else too that
(09:59):
I encourage first generation wealth builders is that if your
parents are the ones who so when I when I
speak with UM clients or prospective clients, I not only
ask about them if their first generation wealth builders, I
also ask is there anyone else that you are financially
responsible for. And if the answer is yes, I dive
deeper because if that family member passes away, most likely
(10:23):
my client, my client, it's going to be financially responsible
for that, for for final costs and funeral burial. If
that person needs a caregiver, my client is most likely
responsible for either now caregiving, right, so moving to be
closer to this family member and now working and being
a caregiver. And so I always extend the conversation and
(10:47):
say who else are you financially responsible for? And now
let's put some protection in place. Another thing is just
what policies do this family member have? Do they have
life insurance? Do they have long term care insurance? And
so it's it is yes, a heavy lift, and there
is a burden that comes with being the first generation
(11:09):
wealth builder. It's kind of like being the first generation uh,
you know immigrants where you have oh yeah, this was
the story in my family. My dad was a first
generation Both my parents were first generation immigrants to Canada
and you know, had family that we're back in Ghana,
West Africa, where you know, just life. Life was very
different at the time when my dad chat and he
(11:31):
came as a doctor. The oldest of thirteen. So there's
like all these hierarchies like nuances that we place on ourselves,
on our families, etcetera, for taking care of others. But
you know, as we've evolved as a society and all
of these things factor into it. But I do think
when it comes down to it, boundaries, you know, you
have to be able to set boundaries. As you know,
(11:51):
we're first generation wealth puttals, but we're also forming these
new families and family in our community. Is everything right,
But we need to have boundaries but also be able
to have the conversations. And I think one of the
things is being able to pause and ask, well, what
do you need this money for? How can I help?
And how can we use the knowledge that we've gained
as first generation wealth builders to help fix the wrongs
(12:12):
and patterns that we have of the past. So being
able to say, like, listen, I know you don't want
to talk about estate planning or a budget or this,
but we know that this is the sensible and financially
responsible thing to do. So we've got to have these
tough conversations and it is so hard. I mean with
my parents too. My dad is you know, he passed
away last year at eighty seven, and we went through
(12:33):
all of this, Well, where is the will? We'll stop
asking about that. You're my kids. Like the dynamics in
families were very different, right, But we're different kids than
our parents were to their kids too, So we've got
to sort of push the needle on a lot of
those questions. Yeah, and I always say, blame it on me, right,
So my clients are going through the estate plane and
process they're going through, do they have enough life insurance?
(12:55):
They're going through all of these and just blame it
on me, just like, hey, mom my Godrianka, that's taking
a bit bullet, y'all. But give it to the outside
of the family. He was like, yes. So my financial
planner said you know or or or put it like
this like, oh, I'm working on my estate plan. This
has been very enlightening and it made me think, mom
and dad, where can I find your estate planning documents?
(13:16):
And then they'll probably say leave it an open end
it and not saying do you have an estate planning
you know document and then they can share with you
like oh, we don't have one, or we do and
it's fifteen years dated, which sister or a state planet,
and I've seen that happen before. Of course it's not
(13:37):
that was not a nice conversation. UM A state planning
documents needs to be reviewed every five years because life
events happen so well. Okay, Rihanka, I loved this episode.
You know, what we're just trying to do is give
space to have some of these conversations, you know, casually,
to drop the gems, drop the hens, leave you guys
the bread crumbs, to take you to financial to success.
(13:58):
And this is a really important one and it's hard,
and you know what, I'm the big takeaways Blame your
financial advisor. Literally, this is what this means in your
life for there there just set the roadmap and they're
there to take the blame and buffer some of the burden.
But use them for what you know, use them for
the opportunity they're giving you. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, this is
(14:18):
such an important conversation. So Tanya, thank you so much
for giving us a platform. Green with Daily on a
daily basis, we are shedding light on so many different topics,
whether it's taxes, small business owners, protecting your wealth. So
I encourage everyone to tune in UM either Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.
(14:40):
We're everywhere. Make sure you tune in to green with
Daily on a daily basis. Thank you, Rihanka, our favorite
co host and family member. Alright, money Movers, that's all
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can they find you? Tell us now, yes, you can
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(15:01):
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