December 4, 2023 • 16 mins
This week on Money Moves, we are joined by attorney and media powerhouse Areva Martin. A Harvard Law School graduate, media sensation, and fierce advocate for justice. You've seen her on 'Good Morning America,' 'Dr. Phil,' and 'The Doctors.' A California Super Lawyer and best-selling author, Areva is not only a legal eagle in the courtroom but also a change-maker in the world of financial literacy. Her groundbreaking nonprofit, Special Needs Network, is transforming lives in disenfranchised communities. Join us as we delve into her inspiring journey, legal expertise, and commitment to making a positive impact on the world. In this episode, Areva shares how dismantling patriarchy is what led her to become the entrepreneur she is today, challenging norms and breaking barriers.
Host IG:@itstanyatime
Guest IG: @arevamartin
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Get comfortable with money. That's again very difficult for a
lot of women. A lot of women still feel like,
you know, money is something that men do. A lot
of women rely on men and their families, whether it's
a father or brother or you know, male figure to
help them make decisions and help. It's okay, but controlling
(00:21):
and you know, being in control of your money is
not okay. I think women should be in control whether
you're in a relationship or marriage or whatever. You need
to be in control of your money, not may doing jointly.
That's fine, but you know, you don't want to advocate
that responsibility to anyone because as a lawyer, I see
so many women who've been in relationships marriages, now the
(00:42):
marriage is breaking up, they have no clue about how
much money. You know they have, yes, where the money
has been used, you know what's in the retirement account
if anything, and you know they're having to now unpack
all of that and that's a really uncomfortable and vulnerable
position to be in.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hey, Money Movers, welcome back to another episode of Money Moves.
I'm your host Tanya Sam and I am so excited
about the powerhouse that is sitting in front of me today.
She's a Harvard Law School grad, an author, an empowerment
activist for financial literacy, and so much more. I am
delighted to have you here today, Hi Ariva, Welcome to
(01:27):
Money Move Well.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Hi Tanyell, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Oh my aunt Well, I'm so excited to have you
in the seat today because there's so much that you
have to share and to give so much guidance to
our audience today. But I want to start at the
beginning when I bring people into Money Moves. You know
that we are passionate about talking about financial literacy, creating
generational wealth and black and brown communities. But I want
(01:51):
to give our Money Movers audience a chance to get
to know you. And so let's go back to little Mariba. Okay,
tell us how you grew up and how you got
to where you are. You know, going to Harvard Law School,
being you know, a powerhouse legal authority is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Is this what you always envisioned? Not exactly, not exactly.
You know, people like to rewrite their history, so I
always knew I was destined for that. Well, that is
not the case with me. I grew up in Saint Louis,
in what was considered the North side of Saint Louis.
It was a very poor community. I grew up with
my godmother and my grandmother, and my grandmother was actually
(02:32):
a paraplegic. She was in a wheelchair because she had
been shot in a domestic violence incident, and it was horrible,
and my mother had moved away. I didn't meet my
father actually until I was eighteen. And you know, now
looking back on my life, when you think about the
way folks talk about black and brown communities, I would
(02:54):
be from one of those communities that is often characterized
and written out as being poor and you know, no
fathers in the home and lots of families on government assistance,
and you know, all the things that typically get said
about black communities except the part that folks who grow
(03:14):
up in those communities, although some of those things are true,
but what they failed to mention is the power of
those communities. And despite not having you know, fathers, and
a lot of instances, not having people with a lot
of education, not having a lot of money, those black
women in those communities are incredibly resilient and strong, and
(03:36):
they poured so much into me and my friends and
all of us who were you know, growing up together,
so that part of those kinds of communities often is
not talked about. And so I am very proud of
this community I grew up and it's called the car
Square Village, and we were a village and everyone, you know,
contributed to the nourishment and the protection and the love
(04:01):
of the kids in that community. And so where I
am today is a testament to those women. And there
were some mess so the few men in that community
who had a bigger vision and knew that there was
something else and that with hard work and education that
kids like me growing up in that community could just
(04:23):
have unlimited opportunity, potential and opportunities.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And here you are. I love that and thank you
because I think there's something very special in the power
of these strong women that all pitched in.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
To just raise neighborhoods. It really does take a village.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So when you think back to it, now you're in
LA you're quite successful. We'll get into that. But what
were the early mindsets that you were taught or maybe
not taught about achievement, wealth finances?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Do you remember some of them? And so I do,
and some of them are bad. I remember lots of them.
In fact, I've written a book about a lot of them.
One of the big the lessons I learned growing up
with my godmother was hard work. She was a janitor,
a domestic. She worked in the daytime in wealthy white
women's homes and then at night she cleaned offices, two
(05:15):
jobs a wealthy part of town. And I, at nine
ten years old, would go with her, not in a
daytime as much because I was in school, but at
night would go with her into these big, tall office
buildings and literally help her empty trash cans, backing floors,
clean toilets, whatever you do as a janitor working in
up building. Yeah, and you know that lesson was you know,
(05:37):
no job is too big, no job is too small.
And as a serial entrepreneur now who's starting multiple businesses
and have had to do the really menial labor type
task in my own companies, that was a valuable lesson.
And this is God, I tell you, with not even
a high school diploma, who worked as a domestic, owned
(05:57):
her own house, owned her own car, like bought a
new car every three or four years, and was like
the community bank. I mean, she was such a good
money manager. That people in the neighborhood would borrow money
from her. And this is again on a janitor's salary.
And I remember going when I went off to college,
she literally was able to send me money to help me,
(06:21):
you know, during the time that I was in college.
So it just goes. So that lesson was it's not
what you make, it's what you spend, and what you
say what you say, And that was the really powerful
lesson that stayed with me. And when I first when
I graduated law school, all my Hervard friends were moving
to LA, New York. So the group of us that
came to LA, most of them moved immediately to the
(06:43):
ritzy parts of town, got expensive apartments and overspending.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Right, can we call over spend spending because you've achieved Yes,
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
She could walk into a Mercedes dealer or a car
dealer and say, well, you know, I just graduated from
Harvard Law School and they, you know, okay, what do
you want? Right? I signed so mine mid Western values.
My first apartment four hundred dollars, one bedroom. I didn't
even have a car. I caught the bus and people
laughed at me because somebody nearly catches a bus but
I was her first off, no Harvard gride. Can you
(07:12):
imagine what taking no bus? But here Saint Louis. I
went to college in Chicago. People use public transportation, the
bus in the Chicago, the train. So I have a
problem the bus. Literally, I who walk out my house
and walk half of Why I get on a bus
to be downtime my job? Yep? Why not catch a bus? Absolutely?
First car ten year old Jetti, first car, not one
hundred dollars. And my friends laughed at me, made jokes,
(07:38):
made fun of me. And I remember this one woman
that I worked with, she was a more senior lawyer
in this big wall firmer I worked in. When I
first came to La she has to take me home
and she was like flavergasted and really irritated is a
better word, because of the neighborhood I lived in, Like
why do you live here? Afford to live here? And
(07:58):
this is a perfectly my neighborhood. So those were some
of the lessons that I learned that allowed me to
have the financial success that I've had because I started
out very frugal and I saved a lot of money,
and I kept my expenses really low and I was able,
(08:19):
and I lived in that apartment for a year and
then I bought my first home.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And you are very expensive, you know, smaller apartment to
knowing that you had to mention that you wanted to purchase.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yes, And I was saving. And I my first job
out of law school first and lawyers graduating from Harvard,
many of us make a ton of money, way more
than what were worth. I saved two checks a month.
One of those checks I saved. Wow, it didn't matter.
And so I was able to have the down for
because that I wasn't like I had a trust fund.
(08:53):
I didn't have family or you know, parents who were
going to help me with that lot of you know,
kids coming out of college have family, especially hard people
in the circles there. You know a lot of legacy,
second third generation, so you know, all the financial stuff
is already laid out. They enough to do much. But
that wasn't my case. So I knew whatever I got
was you know, I was gonna eat what I killed. Yes,
(09:15):
So I had to save my money. And in a year,
like a year and a half, I bought a house
in la And I tell you now, I have friends
much older than me who never bought a house in
LA because it's really hard unless you get really intentional
to save enough for down payment to own property in
Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So let's talk more about this intention and like the sacriface,
because you know, one thing I love about money moves is,
especially when I have women across from me, is being
able to candidly talk about money. And I find the
more and more we get comfortable as women talking about money,
the better we do, and so sort of dispelling these
myths that it's ghost for women to want to talk
(09:53):
about money, ask about salaries, you know, sit down and
we have our girl chats and our mimosas, but.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Like to spend the time talking about money.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And I just feel like this is such an empowering
thing for so many of us, Like we should be
talking about money. We should never feel shame about wanting
to have it to support our families, et cetera. So
now as you're you know, you've written a book, you
talk about this all the time. What are your high
level tenants that you're sort of preaching. I will say
(10:24):
this because this is a gospel, you know, for you know,
early entrepreneurs, whether they're in law school or not.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Well. First thing I teach preach is reject patriarchy, exactly
what you just said, because no one has ever told
their son don't talk about money. Yeah, don't be ambitious,
you know, don't try to get the highest salary, don't
go after everything that you want. But that's a lesson
that is total a lot of weomen and girls. And
(10:52):
so rejecting patriarchy is rejecting that notion that somehow your
gender should define your success, how you know, far and
how high you can go, what you can achieve in
this society. So you first have to get comfortable with that.
And it's even for me, yeah, you know. And I
think even for you.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Know, I'll budge into the brunch conversation and be like, hey, guys, okay,
we've talked about you know, our men, our families are this,
let's talk about our you know. And it takes a
while for people to ease into it. But I think
we're because a.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Lot of people have paid those messages, aliviated with those
messages about what is appropriate for girls and women versus men.
And it is sometimes very difficult. And you mentioned the
salary piece. I frequently tell people how much I make,
how much I've made, how much jobs are paid, and
a lot of people are uncomfortable with that, and people
use these life still talk about money all day long,
(11:46):
and I'm comfortable to be like someone will say something.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Of it, will tell us exactly how much you made
and you can physically see because.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
We've people recoiled from this that that is not appropriate
to ask people how much you pay for your house.
And out with the internet, you can find out a
lot of this, right right, so you just go google,
uh literally go inside someone's home. But so that's the
first thing that we reject, that reject the patriarchy, and
then get comfortable with money. That's again very difficult for
(12:17):
a lot of women. A lot of women still feel like,
you know, money is something that men do. A lot
of women rely on men and their families, whether it's
a father or a brother or you know, male figure
to help them make decisions and help. It's okay, but
controlling and you know, being in control if your money
is not okay. I think women should be in control.
(12:38):
Whether you're in a relationship, a marriage, or whatever. You
need to be in control of your money. Now you
may do it jointly, that's fine, but you know, you
don't want to abdicate that responsibility to anyone because as
a lawyer, I see so many women who've been a
relationships marriages. Now the marriage is breaking up, they have
no clue about how much money. You know they have slending, yes,
(13:01):
where the money has been used, you know what's in
the retirement account if anything, and you know they're having
to now unpack all of that. And that's a really
uncomfortable and vulnerable position to be in. So you want
to be in control of your money. And then you
know the basic you can't spend what you don't make.
And as I started my first business a year out
(13:22):
of law school, and people think when you go on
your own business, oh my god, that revenue is profit. No,
revenue is not profit. Revenue is revenue, and there's something
called expenses, and your profit is that revenue minus those expenses,
and it's in equation a lot of Yes, it's like Matt,
very simple. But people think when they own their own businesses,
(13:43):
you know they can live out of their revenue, not
their profit. And that's a big lesson that people have
to learn. You can you know, if you overspend, you
will find yourself you know, and so much trouble financially.
It's hard oftentimes, and a lot of entrepreneurs find themselves
in a tax trap absolutely because they are again living
(14:04):
out of that revenue, not setting aside the taxes that
you owe on that revenue, and not you know, accounting
for all of the expenses. So I told people, educate
yourself just money is not necessarily intuitive for people. And
if you just never have an accounting class or a
business class, or you know, go on YouTube university. You know,
(14:26):
there's the thing.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It's so there now with YouTube and Google University, all
these things, I mean sadly almost Instagram and TikTok. There
is amazing people out there who can teach you all
these wonderful things.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
So ooh, this education piece is so so and accessible
and accessible, and you know, it's okay not to have
everything all at once. That's a you know, you can't
live your life based on someone's best day on Instagram.
So lots of people are spending to make the selves
(15:00):
feel better and to give an appearance of you know,
having more than what they have. Absolutely, and if you
get caught in that trap, oh my god, it's just
an endless cycle, you know, it's a rabbit hole, there's
no bottom to it. And I see a lot of
people in debt for handbags and a couple Instagram class
(15:23):
talk real Well, you know handbag now like you have
five thousand dollars chanail bag. Yes, live in an apartment. Okay,
something's wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
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So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
(15:55):
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(16:16):
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Until next time,
Get comfortable with money. That's again very difficult for a
lot of women. A lot of women still feel like,
you know, money is something that men do. A lot
of women rely on men and their families, whether it's
a father or brother or you know, male figure to
help them make decisions and help. It's okay, but controlling
(00:21):
and you know, being in control of your money is
not okay. I think women should be in control whether
you're in a relationship or marriage or whatever. You need
to be in control of your money, not may doing jointly.
That's fine, but you know, you don't want to advocate
that responsibility to anyone because as a lawyer, I see
so many women who've been in relationships marriages, now the
(00:42):
marriage is breaking up, they have no clue about how
much money. You know they have, yes, where the money
has been used, you know what's in the retirement account
if anything, and you know they're having to now unpack
all of that and that's a really uncomfortable and vulnerable
position to be in.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hey, Money Movers, welcome back to another episode of Money Moves.
I'm your host Tanya Sam and I am so excited
about the powerhouse that is sitting in front of me today.
She's a Harvard Law School grad, an author, an empowerment
activist for financial literacy, and so much more. I am
delighted to have you here today, Hi Ariva, Welcome to
(01:27):
Money Move Well.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Hi Tanyell, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Oh my aunt Well, I'm so excited to have you
in the seat today because there's so much that you
have to share and to give so much guidance to
our audience today. But I want to start at the
beginning when I bring people into Money Moves. You know
that we are passionate about talking about financial literacy, creating
generational wealth and black and brown communities. But I want
(01:51):
to give our Money Movers audience a chance to get
to know you. And so let's go back to little Mariba. Okay,
tell us how you grew up and how you got
to where you are. You know, going to Harvard Law School,
being you know, a powerhouse legal authority is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Is this what you always envisioned? Not exactly, not exactly.
You know, people like to rewrite their history, so I
always knew I was destined for that. Well, that is
not the case with me. I grew up in Saint Louis,
in what was considered the North side of Saint Louis.
It was a very poor community. I grew up with
my godmother and my grandmother, and my grandmother was actually
(02:32):
a paraplegic. She was in a wheelchair because she had
been shot in a domestic violence incident, and it was horrible,
and my mother had moved away. I didn't meet my
father actually until I was eighteen. And you know, now
looking back on my life, when you think about the
way folks talk about black and brown communities, I would
(02:54):
be from one of those communities that is often characterized
and written out as being poor and you know, no
fathers in the home and lots of families on government assistance,
and you know, all the things that typically get said
about black communities except the part that folks who grow
(03:14):
up in those communities, although some of those things are true,
but what they failed to mention is the power of
those communities. And despite not having you know, fathers, and
a lot of instances, not having people with a lot
of education, not having a lot of money, those black
women in those communities are incredibly resilient and strong, and
(03:36):
they poured so much into me and my friends and
all of us who were you know, growing up together,
so that part of those kinds of communities often is
not talked about. And so I am very proud of
this community I grew up and it's called the car
Square Village, and we were a village and everyone, you know,
contributed to the nourishment and the protection and the love
(04:01):
of the kids in that community. And so where I
am today is a testament to those women. And there
were some mess so the few men in that community
who had a bigger vision and knew that there was
something else and that with hard work and education that
kids like me growing up in that community could just
(04:23):
have unlimited opportunity, potential and opportunities.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And here you are. I love that and thank you
because I think there's something very special in the power
of these strong women that all pitched in.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
To just raise neighborhoods. It really does take a village.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So when you think back to it, now you're in
LA you're quite successful. We'll get into that. But what
were the early mindsets that you were taught or maybe
not taught about achievement, wealth finances?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Do you remember some of them? And so I do,
and some of them are bad. I remember lots of them.
In fact, I've written a book about a lot of them.
One of the big the lessons I learned growing up
with my godmother was hard work. She was a janitor,
a domestic. She worked in the daytime in wealthy white
women's homes and then at night she cleaned offices, two
(05:15):
jobs a wealthy part of town. And I, at nine
ten years old, would go with her, not in a
daytime as much because I was in school, but at
night would go with her into these big, tall office
buildings and literally help her empty trash cans, backing floors,
clean toilets, whatever you do as a janitor working in
up building. Yeah, and you know that lesson was you know,
(05:37):
no job is too big, no job is too small.
And as a serial entrepreneur now who's starting multiple businesses
and have had to do the really menial labor type
task in my own companies, that was a valuable lesson.
And this is God, I tell you, with not even
a high school diploma, who worked as a domestic, owned
(05:57):
her own house, owned her own car, like bought a
new car every three or four years, and was like
the community bank. I mean, she was such a good
money manager. That people in the neighborhood would borrow money
from her. And this is again on a janitor's salary.
And I remember going when I went off to college,
she literally was able to send me money to help me,
(06:21):
you know, during the time that I was in college.
So it just goes. So that lesson was it's not
what you make, it's what you spend, and what you
say what you say, And that was the really powerful
lesson that stayed with me. And when I first when
I graduated law school, all my Hervard friends were moving
to LA, New York. So the group of us that
came to LA, most of them moved immediately to the
(06:43):
ritzy parts of town, got expensive apartments and overspending.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Right, can we call over spend spending because you've achieved Yes,
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
She could walk into a Mercedes dealer or a car
dealer and say, well, you know, I just graduated from
Harvard Law School and they, you know, okay, what do
you want? Right? I signed so mine mid Western values.
My first apartment four hundred dollars, one bedroom. I didn't
even have a car. I caught the bus and people
laughed at me because somebody nearly catches a bus but
I was her first off, no Harvard gride. Can you
(07:12):
imagine what taking no bus? But here Saint Louis. I
went to college in Chicago. People use public transportation, the
bus in the Chicago, the train. So I have a
problem the bus. Literally, I who walk out my house
and walk half of Why I get on a bus
to be downtime my job? Yep? Why not catch a bus? Absolutely?
First car ten year old Jetti, first car, not one
hundred dollars. And my friends laughed at me, made jokes,
(07:38):
made fun of me. And I remember this one woman
that I worked with, she was a more senior lawyer
in this big wall firmer I worked in. When I
first came to La she has to take me home
and she was like flavergasted and really irritated is a
better word, because of the neighborhood I lived in, Like
why do you live here? Afford to live here? And
(07:58):
this is a perfectly my neighborhood. So those were some
of the lessons that I learned that allowed me to
have the financial success that I've had because I started
out very frugal and I saved a lot of money,
and I kept my expenses really low and I was able,
(08:19):
and I lived in that apartment for a year and
then I bought my first home.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And you are very expensive, you know, smaller apartment to
knowing that you had to mention that you wanted to purchase.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yes, And I was saving. And I my first job
out of law school first and lawyers graduating from Harvard,
many of us make a ton of money, way more
than what were worth. I saved two checks a month.
One of those checks I saved. Wow, it didn't matter.
And so I was able to have the down for
because that I wasn't like I had a trust fund.
(08:53):
I didn't have family or you know, parents who were
going to help me with that lot of you know,
kids coming out of college have family, especially hard people
in the circles there. You know a lot of legacy,
second third generation, so you know, all the financial stuff
is already laid out. They enough to do much. But
that wasn't my case. So I knew whatever I got
was you know, I was gonna eat what I killed. Yes,
(09:15):
So I had to save my money. And in a year,
like a year and a half, I bought a house
in la And I tell you now, I have friends
much older than me who never bought a house in
LA because it's really hard unless you get really intentional
to save enough for down payment to own property in
Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So let's talk more about this intention and like the sacriface,
because you know, one thing I love about money moves is,
especially when I have women across from me, is being
able to candidly talk about money. And I find the
more and more we get comfortable as women talking about money,
the better we do, and so sort of dispelling these
myths that it's ghost for women to want to talk
(09:53):
about money, ask about salaries, you know, sit down and
we have our girl chats and our mimosas, but.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Like to spend the time talking about money.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And I just feel like this is such an empowering
thing for so many of us, Like we should be
talking about money. We should never feel shame about wanting
to have it to support our families, et cetera. So
now as you're you know, you've written a book, you
talk about this all the time. What are your high
level tenants that you're sort of preaching. I will say
(10:24):
this because this is a gospel, you know, for you know,
early entrepreneurs, whether they're in law school or not.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Well. First thing I teach preach is reject patriarchy, exactly
what you just said, because no one has ever told
their son don't talk about money. Yeah, don't be ambitious,
you know, don't try to get the highest salary, don't
go after everything that you want. But that's a lesson
that is total a lot of weomen and girls. And
(10:52):
so rejecting patriarchy is rejecting that notion that somehow your
gender should define your success, how you know, far and
how high you can go, what you can achieve in
this society. So you first have to get comfortable with that.
And it's even for me, yeah, you know. And I
think even for you.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Know, I'll budge into the brunch conversation and be like, hey, guys, okay,
we've talked about you know, our men, our families are this,
let's talk about our you know. And it takes a
while for people to ease into it. But I think
we're because a.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Lot of people have paid those messages, aliviated with those
messages about what is appropriate for girls and women versus men.
And it is sometimes very difficult. And you mentioned the
salary piece. I frequently tell people how much I make,
how much I've made, how much jobs are paid, and
a lot of people are uncomfortable with that, and people
use these life still talk about money all day long,
(11:46):
and I'm comfortable to be like someone will say something.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Of it, will tell us exactly how much you made
and you can physically see because.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
We've people recoiled from this that that is not appropriate
to ask people how much you pay for your house.
And out with the internet, you can find out a
lot of this, right right, so you just go google,
uh literally go inside someone's home. But so that's the
first thing that we reject, that reject the patriarchy, and
then get comfortable with money. That's again very difficult for
(12:17):
a lot of women. A lot of women still feel like,
you know, money is something that men do. A lot
of women rely on men and their families, whether it's
a father or a brother or you know, male figure
to help them make decisions and help. It's okay, but
controlling and you know, being in control if your money
is not okay. I think women should be in control.
(12:38):
Whether you're in a relationship, a marriage, or whatever. You
need to be in control of your money. Now you
may do it jointly, that's fine, but you know, you
don't want to abdicate that responsibility to anyone because as
a lawyer, I see so many women who've been a
relationships marriages. Now the marriage is breaking up, they have
no clue about how much money. You know they have slending, yes,
(13:01):
where the money has been used, you know what's in
the retirement account if anything, and you know they're having
to now unpack all of that. And that's a really
uncomfortable and vulnerable position to be in. So you want
to be in control of your money. And then you
know the basic you can't spend what you don't make.
And as I started my first business a year out
(13:22):
of law school, and people think when you go on
your own business, oh my god, that revenue is profit. No,
revenue is not profit. Revenue is revenue, and there's something
called expenses, and your profit is that revenue minus those expenses,
and it's in equation a lot of Yes, it's like Matt,
very simple. But people think when they own their own businesses,
(13:43):
you know they can live out of their revenue, not
their profit. And that's a big lesson that people have
to learn. You can you know, if you overspend, you
will find yourself you know, and so much trouble financially.
It's hard oftentimes, and a lot of entrepreneurs find themselves
in a tax trap absolutely because they are again living
(14:04):
out of that revenue, not setting aside the taxes that
you owe on that revenue, and not you know, accounting
for all of the expenses. So I told people, educate
yourself just money is not necessarily intuitive for people. And
if you just never have an accounting class or a
business class, or you know, go on YouTube university. You know,
(14:26):
there's the thing.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It's so there now with YouTube and Google University, all
these things, I mean sadly almost Instagram and TikTok. There
is amazing people out there who can teach you all
these wonderful things.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
So ooh, this education piece is so so and accessible
and accessible, and you know, it's okay not to have
everything all at once. That's a you know, you can't
live your life based on someone's best day on Instagram.
So lots of people are spending to make the selves
(15:00):
feel better and to give an appearance of you know,
having more than what they have. Absolutely, and if you
get caught in that trap, oh my god, it's just
an endless cycle, you know, it's a rabbit hole, there's
no bottom to it. And I see a lot of
people in debt for handbags and a couple Instagram class
(15:23):
talk real Well, you know handbag now like you have
five thousand dollars chanail bag. Yes, live in an apartment. Okay,
something's wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Thanks for listening to today's episode. If we helped you
make your money move, please share it with your community,
Subscribe and leave us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts.
Follow us on social media at Greenwood and visit us
at Gogreenwood dot com for more financial tips and remember,
money movers. If this were easy, everyone would do it.
So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
(15:55):
apply it to your life. Money Moves is an iHeart
Radio podcast powered by Greenland Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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Money Moose podcast powered by Greenwood so that you too
(16:16):
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Until next time,
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