April 29, 2025 • 24 mins
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Laura Finney.
She empowers businesses and individuals to succeed by offering strategic financial strategies, expert guidance, and tailored business solutions. As a dedicated Financial Professional, she is committed to empowering individuals through comprehensive financial education. Laura Finney has over 8 years of experience in the financial services industry. An expert in delivering personalized financial literacy programs, workshops, and one-on-one consultations, She helps clients achieve financial stability and success. She is passionate about assisting individuals in reaching both their short-term and long-term financial goals.
What inspired you to become a financial coach and financial literacy educator?
2. What are the most common financial challenges you see people in their 30s and 40s facing, and how do you advise overcoming them?
3. Can you share some basic budgeting tips for individuals and families who want to get better control of their finances?
4. What strategies do you recommend for people just starting to save for long-term goals like buying a house or retirement?
5. How can someone improve their financial literacy, and why is it important?
6. What are some misconceptions about money management that you frequently encounter, and how do you address them?
7. What role does emotional intelligence play in financial decision-making, and how can individuals manage their financial behaviors better?
8. How should someone approach investing if they're new to it and have limited funds?
9. What advice do you have for balancing paying off debt with saving for future goals?
10. Can you share a success story of a client who transformed their financial situation with your guidance?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald, a host the weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website Moneymaking Conversations dot com and clip.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
To be a guest. But Chris, submit and information will
come directly to me.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You know, I've just listened over the years and my
articulation has gotten better and my addiction. My wife corrects
me and I've listened to her. And because you have
to continue work your craft, you have to continue to
be able to take some form of criticism, whether it's
constructive or perceived. You might perceive it negative comments. But
(00:45):
if people are set there in there in a position
to make you sound better, be better, educate you and
to a winning situation, because I want. I want when
you guys hear me, to be able to hear the
words correctly and the information correctly. And that's what making conversations,
It's all about the interviews that I do on this
show and the information that this show provides.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It's for you, It's for everyone.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And I always tell people it's time to stop reading
other people's success stories and start living living your own life,
not anybody.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Else's, because it's you. It's you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
When you wake up, it's you. You know, God wakes
you up, It's that a lom clock sitting there. But
guess what, I always beat my alarm cock up. I
don't know why it's not so it's not waking me up.
And I'm here to tell you you can reach your
American dream. Just keep listening and listening with people, give
your advice.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Listen with people.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
You will tell you you need to do something that's
gonna make your life harder. It might be harder, but
it's gonna make it better because nothing's easy long term.
Nothing's easy long term. If you want to be a
guest on my show, please visit Money Making Conversation dot
com and click to be a guest button. Wow, let's
get strolled my guest today. Empowers businesses and individuals to
(01:57):
succeed by offering strategic find financial strategies, expert guidance, and
tailored business solutions. As a dedicated financial professional, she is
committed to empowering individuals through comprehensive financial education. Please work
in the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Laura Finny, How are
you doing, Laura?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I'm doing wonderful oversat how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We all are dreamers and I can't tell you how
to be successful. What is the I would say frustrating
because you know you've got a system, You've done this
enough to know. But what are some of the mistakes
that people make when you're trying to plan a proper
financial strategy for them?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You know, I was thinking about that, honestly question while
I was listening to your other guests, and I'd probably
say the biggest one is listening to or taking advice
from someone who don't know what that person's long term
goals and dreams are. People put you know, products and
services in plates based on information they hear, or course
(03:06):
that they took, or you know, someone's podcast, and honestly,
I really appreciate that because I love them when people
are doing something to save for the future. But a
financial plan is more than just saving. It's allowing you
to be able to live life on your terms. And
that comes with very very strategic plan and to make
(03:26):
sure that number one, you don't have to go back
to work when you decide to retire or like I
like to say, live life on your terms, because nobody's
really retiring. But when.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Financial position, nobody's really retiring. Please please tell my audience that.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Please tell my audience, no one really retires. You know,
we're not great Grandma sitting on the front porch with
some lemonade and back of course in the chair. We're
not doing that. What retirement means now, which I now
call living life on your terms, it is being able
to say, Okay, I'm in a financial position to never
have to work again at this age and be able
(04:05):
to do whatever I want to do, which is, you know,
either do more philanthropy work or travel or actually, you know,
embark on a passion that they had outside their full
time job.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Let's get started him. I want to ask you a
couple of questions. And my first question I want to
do is what inspired you to become a financial coach
and financial literacy educator?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
What inspired you?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
It was it was two things, Rishan. The first one
was it was the day after my fiftieth birthday party
and you can only imagine how sober I was in
that moment, and my cousin asked me if I had
a financial plan for the future and what my retirement
looked like. And I didn't know how to answer that articulately,
so to speak. You know, we say, right, we plan
(04:49):
on never having to go back to work again, and
maybe rely on some social security along with it. And
then I realized that that wasn't it, and I realized
that I'd have to give up a lot of the
cables I watched, you know, ten or fifteen years from now.
That was the first thing, is that I didn't know
what I didn't know, and so having her explained to
me what that looked like was an eye opener. And
(05:12):
then the second one is I grew up in the
South suburbs of Chicago and my grandfather had over about,
I want to say, twelve to fifteen acres of land,
and it was farm land. We grew fruits and vegetables
and had pigs and horses and chickens, and he built
a concrete home on that land. But when I was nineteen,
my grandfather was dying of bone cancer, and my mom
(05:34):
and her two brothers said he needed to put a
wheel in place, and he said, I don't need to
do that. You and your brother's handle it well. F
loong story short, they didn't handle it. The boys wanted
to sell Mom wanted to keep it in the family,
and so she continued to pay the taxes on the
land until she passed away when I was twenty four.
Now I'm gonna get a little real here. I'm the
(05:55):
youngest of seven kids, and we have a very large family,
and all of grown folks in the family didn't pay
the taxes, so we lost the taxes the land to
tax sales. And so about five years ago I went
home and the area because you know, you always ride
past where you used to live and grow up, and
it was stant and come to find out Amazon was
(06:18):
building a distribution center on the land I grew up planning.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
On this story, don't getting wow Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So that's where my desire, my passion for helping uneducated
people become educated to really make some financial decisions that
will impact their lives, not just now but in the future.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, you know, and I appreciate that on the story,
and I try to be honest on this show. I
try to tell people about my mistakes. I try to
tell people that, you know, my life isn't rosy. I
tell them whether it's my health stupidity, because you know,
I've made some dumb decisions. I tell everybody bragging about
the fact I eat ice cream. I eat a gallon
ice cream a week. I tell people that the heartbeat.
(07:00):
Then all of a sudden, I got high blood pressure
and high cholesterol. Am I stunned? No, because you've been
doing stupid things. But I think that when you look
at so many stories about uh, you know, we had
land and or we and didn't understand how to pass
that land, and then you do hear some great stories
where the family understood how to create a legacies with
(07:25):
that land and get it to the next point. Now
you know if a number that you brought up was fifty,
and I reason I bringing that up because certain people
locked down certain age numbers where they go, I can't
do nothing else with my life.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I'm just gonna get to the finish line. But at fifty,
you didn't see it that way. You didn't see a
finished line?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
What? What? What? What? What kept you motivating?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I plan on living till one hundred and twelve.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
There you go, girl, there you go, Come on me
and you I'm telling me and you.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Lord to get it years to get it right.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
But I'm gonna be like Dick van Dyk.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Though Dick van Dyk, I'm still out there dancing, splitting acting.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
That's that's what Rashwan's going to be. I swear to you.
You you see me walking around slow, I'll be doing
my yoga. I be doing my stretching, my sit ups.
Because I be looking at people my age walk.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I go, I can't walk like that.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I can't walk like that.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, I gotta do my stretching.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And all those days and I wasn't doing that, and
I was realizing that if you allow age to win,
then the.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Results are bad, that's right.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And at fifty you said, no, that is not my
I don't you look at me and tell me when
I'm gonna die?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Don't you do that?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And so what the problem is is that, you know,
my birth certificate said fifty. I felt like I was
in my thirties.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
There you go, you know, well that's me.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I don't allow age numbers to define how I live
my life.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Say that to my audience one more time. Come on,
please please do not.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I do not allow age to define how I live
my life.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Now you know you've been repeating the live things on
your interview, because you've been saying some profound stuff to
my audience. Because see I always tell people this, Laura,
never allow ads to be an excuse on anything you
want to do. You know, yes, physically you may not
be able to do things, but if your mind's right
and you have the ability of plan, you have the
(09:19):
ability to create relationship you can win with. Here's my
next question. I want to ask you one of the
most common financial challenges you see people in their thirties
and forties facing, and how do you advise them overcoming them.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Oh, the biggest one I see with people in their
thirties and forties is the number one. They believe that
they need to pay off debt first, and you know
the golden rule is to always pay yourself first. That's
number one. And then the especially people in their forties,
they're putting away money and products that they cannot access
(09:55):
but will need access to as they get older, either
for investment purposes or planning on you know, different purchases
in the future. Some are still looking to buy their
dream homes and things like that, so they're saving, but
again not in all the proper buckets. That's number one,
and then number two, the biggest thing that they face
(10:16):
is feeling like they have time. They have time when
you said time to you know, put away money right now?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
They have time, right, But let's let's talk about that
real quick before we go to break because of the
fact that we all feel we have.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Time, and we do. We really do have time.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Because see, but you need a plan, you have to
need to have to start a playing somewhere. We're going
to start the plan at fifty sixty seventy, but it's
always nicer if you start that plan at thirty forty,
if you're really smart in your twenties. Because I kind
of did that a little bit lore but I didn't
understand what I was doing. See, that's making a plan
(10:58):
without a clear understanding of your plan.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Does that make sense to do that? You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
So that meant that I didn't value the long term
of what I needed to do with that plan. And
so because I look back and go, man, if you
just not even mess with that money and then just
just see where it would have been right now with
stock splitting and splitting again and splitting again and riding
through two thousand and eight, girl, you wouldn't even be
(11:28):
listening to me on this show. I'll be having money
making conversations at the house because I understood my plan.
And when you do financial literacy and financial education, that's
the number one question that I have to keep asking
myself is when am I going to listen to the
right people? And you wanted the right people to listen to,
(11:50):
So how do you get the word out about you? Laura?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It's two things. So what I'm really excited about that's
coming up where I'm going to focus solely on women,
but most of it comes from either networking events, hosting
my webinars, which I tend to do a lot of.
I host a lot of free online webinars, and then
I'm also invited to speak out at events and I
(12:15):
have a team of I like to call them my
young generation, which I so appreciate them, of people in
their twenties and thirties and being able to get them
out in the community because it takes a village. I
can't do it alone. So it takes a village to
really bring the awareness and have access to a demographic
I would normally have access to. So between me and
(12:37):
my team, there isn't one person I don't see that
I don't care where they're work, And I ask them,
do you see yourself doing this for the next twenty
thirty years?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
You know some I.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Don't know, if you know, if you'd asked me why
I was in my twenties, because I was still trying
to figure myself out, Laura, and you know, I was
working at IBM, and I knew that wasn't the job
for me, that wasn't my dream job. And so I
always tell people what you do between eighteen and twenty
(13:13):
two really defines what you can do for the rest
of your life, because that's when you're fearless. You're gonna
go do whatever you need to do. Nobody can't tell
you anything. That personality to sustain you should be the
sustaining personality in your entire life.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(13:55):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Speaking with Laura Finney.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
You know, she had a moment when she was fifty
years old, her fiftieth birthday, and guess what she told
me was Sean, I wasn't really clear because it was
my fiftieth birthday, but I knew I had to make
a change, and that my change was becoming financially literate.
She has eight years of experience in the financial services industry.
An expert in delivering personalized financial literacy programs, workshops, and
(14:25):
one on one consultations, she helps clients achieve financial stability
and success. She is passionate about assisting individuals and reaching
both their short term and long term financial goals. Now, Laura, budgets,
We hear that word a lot. Budgets. Like you said earlier,
(14:46):
you know, paying Young people tend to want to pay
off loans real quick on their credit cards. Now, can
you share some basic budgeting tips for individuals and families
who want to get better controls control of their finances.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yes. Number one, you have to have money. I like
to call it an increased cash flow. Every month. Every
month you should be in a position to save some
sort of money. And so there's like four categories that
I look at specifically where people are spending money when
it comes to their finances, and it's hanging out, dining out, shopping,
(15:27):
and personal care. Sometimes I see anywhere from five hundred
to most recently nine hundred dollars a month in any
one of those categories that people are spending, and that's
a lot of money going out. That's the first thing
it's really checked to see of those four categories, where
(15:48):
can you streamline your cash flow going out?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
They're hanging out and dining out. There hanging out and
hanging out and dining out.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's the first, really killers you're trying to streamline your budget.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Okay, okay, yep.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
And then the personal care. You know, I fire my
Biber because he charged me fifty dollars and my hair
is about a shortage yours. There just has to be
an accountability for the reasons. Now, you and I we're
in the public, you know, we that's that. But for
(16:27):
young girls going out spending you know, four or five
hundred dollars a month on hair is just unreasonable because
that's money that a hundred of that you can put away.
So the first thing is really to look at when
you're budgeting, how much can you really afford based on
your current lifestyle and the lifestyle you want to live later.
And the other one is to make sure that you
(16:48):
have an emergency fund. That one is so important. I
don't care. I tell people, if you can save a
dollar a day, you can have an emergency fund. It
doesn't take putting away, you know, one hundred dollars a
month or one thousand dollars a month. Just start where
you are so that we create a new habit of saving.
And so that's like the biggest thing for me right
(17:09):
now with helping people budget is to really budget what
you're eating every week. I have one client ask me
about how do you know avoid spending so much dining
out when you know we have to go to lunch
with clients. I says, well, said your had to go
to lunch with clients. Rashan, I'll do a walking meeting
up at Gifts Gardens in Ballground, Georgia. Right meeting and Kennis,
(17:32):
let's take a drive. I got fruit and nuts in
a car for us, and let's go have a meeting
in a beautiful environment. You can have a meeting in
the park, but most people feel like, you know, to
be a part of something they need to have this
persona that they can go out and eat three four
times a week, two three times a day. And that's
just unrealistic. You can't sustain that. But that would be
(17:53):
the biggest way is to really look at what your
expenses are and to really cut back on things that
are not a part of your necessity for every day living.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
You know, really when we look at the economy, like
I was filling up by truck the other day, and
you know, I just fill up, you know, and I'm
not saying because I got it. Guess what, I gotta
put gas in the vehicle. Okay, And so you can complain,
but guess what if you're driving, stop complaining. Okay, you
got it. I don't start walking. I can't walk because
(18:21):
everything I want to do is so far apart. And
so with that being said, the families, you know, you know,
what can you do? You know, when you got kids
that going to school, you got you maybe a single mom,
you might be even a single dad. You know, you
might be in a divorced situation, or you might be
a unified family. How do you look at trying to
(18:44):
make sure your child feels good about life but still
having a budget that doesn't break break the break, you know,
that allow you to have a future.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Oh two things. One is you got to be a
little bit creative.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Know when we were growing up, we didn't have as
many options for entertainment, right, we made our own entertainment
we had. I was talking to a young lady today
and talking about, you know, I'm gonna sit out in
the backyard with my grandsons and we get the chairs
around and we'll, you know, pull out the fire pit
and have some fun that way, right, Things that don't
(19:20):
cost money, so to speak. You know, if my grandson
wants me to take him to, you know, some jumping
place I'm looking at six, Well, here we go. I
took my five year old granddaughter.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
You want to take you check your cheese? Ok oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
We wanted to go to lunch and I said, well,
do you want some chicken nuggets on chicken salad? He
was like, no, I want a Caesar salad. So I
took her to this restaurant, got to Caesar salad and
she said, I want to dessert. Forty five dollars later,
I said, listen, I can't I can't say we can
(19:55):
only do this like once a quarter, right, because you
still got to be able to save. But the fun
thing is that I also know I can make a
really cheap but most delicious dessert, which you want. I'll
talk about you and your food at another time because
I'm totally intrigued. Okay, you take two dollars and create
the most amazing apple desserts that will have anybody asking
for more. So it really is just knowing how to
(20:19):
stretch a dollar, but know that you don't have to
go and support these other businesses and create generational wealth
for those families versus being creative in your own space.
Me and my daughters, we used to have slumber parties
in the basement.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Right right, right, right right, So it's.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
A little bit more about being a little bit more
creative as to what you can do to entertain your kids.
And there are tons of free parks in and around Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
You know this.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
This interview is about you and your brand that you've
been doing and building for eight years. When one contacts you, Laura,
what is the what is the process, what's the technique
and what do you how do you bring somebody into
your your your your formatter, your strategy to make their
lives financially better.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
The first one is a quick call. I want to
understand why you called or why you would like to
sit and talk so I can get a better idea
of where you are and what you want to do.
The second one is to really sit down and just
interview you so I don't like you're doing me right
now about everything that you want now and in the future. Basically,
what are you getting up for every day. It's not
(21:20):
to pay bills, it's not to go on vacation in
six months. What you get up for today is what's
going to affect you ten years from now in your life.
So let's focus on what that looks like. And then
the next appointment is coming back with a strategy with
ideas six steps starting from where you are now to
get you to where you want to be.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Wow, you know, I really look at myself when I
talk to an individuals like you in this financial literacy community.
There are so many misconceptions about money management and can
you address any of them?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I'm just you know, radio silence is bad, right, But
that's one of those ones that really gets me really
frustrated because when I do see it people don't manage
it well because again they're living for today and tomorrow
and next month and not for you know, down the road.
And I think that's the biggest thing is helping people
understand that. You know, that's the whole thing about chasing money, right,
(22:26):
you can't chase something. And you mentioned something that if
you don't mind, I want to circle back to about
like the single moms or you know, parents who are
living paycheck to paycheck, is we all know that you
have to increase cash flow. You can't save money based
on where you are now if it's already a struggle,
So how do you increase cash flow? And that's helping
these parents understand that you can't keep adding more hours
(22:49):
to your day. You can't take more time away for
your kids. But understanding and being in an environment and
having good contacts to talk about what residual income looks
like for you so that you don't have to go
out and work a second or third or fourth job,
but you can still increase that cash flow coming in
because sometimes it just sees what it is. You can't
squeeze another hour out of their day, right, But then
(23:10):
how do I manage that and manage that is knowing
that you have a financial plan and that's what you
get up for every day. Nobody can sway me to
take a trip, you know, because I know that in
the next three months, I want to do something else
with this money. But many people are like, my dear
friend that's listening, she's gonna kill me. But you know,
she wanted to take a trip to Jamaica and it's
(23:31):
gonna run her almost one thousand dollars. And I said,
what's your budget? She said, I don't have a budget.
I was like, it skills me.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Starts with a budget. And lor how can we get
in touch with Jazigh? Wrap up this show. You're fantastic.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
You can reach out to me via my website. There's
a contact form on the page. It's my first name
is Laura l A U r A. My last name
is Finny f I N N E y. The word enterprises,
so Laura's any enterprises with an S dot nex. They
can feel that out. Tell me why they want me
to reach out to them or why they're reaching out
to me, and I'll be sure to get back with them.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Ah, you're fantastic. Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations.
Masterclass Laurafinni Enterprises dot net.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Okay, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you listening to the
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(24:36):
your gifts.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Keep winning.
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald, a host the weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website Moneymaking Conversations dot com and clip.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
To be a guest. But Chris, submit and information will
come directly to me.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You know, I've just listened over the years and my
articulation has gotten better and my addiction. My wife corrects
me and I've listened to her. And because you have
to continue work your craft, you have to continue to
be able to take some form of criticism, whether it's
constructive or perceived. You might perceive it negative comments. But
(00:45):
if people are set there in there in a position
to make you sound better, be better, educate you and
to a winning situation, because I want. I want when
you guys hear me, to be able to hear the
words correctly and the information correctly. And that's what making conversations,
It's all about the interviews that I do on this
show and the information that this show provides.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It's for you, It's for everyone.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And I always tell people it's time to stop reading
other people's success stories and start living living your own life,
not anybody.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Else's, because it's you. It's you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
When you wake up, it's you. You know, God wakes
you up, It's that a lom clock sitting there. But
guess what, I always beat my alarm cock up. I
don't know why it's not so it's not waking me up.
And I'm here to tell you you can reach your
American dream. Just keep listening and listening with people, give
your advice.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Listen with people.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
You will tell you you need to do something that's
gonna make your life harder. It might be harder, but
it's gonna make it better because nothing's easy long term.
Nothing's easy long term. If you want to be a
guest on my show, please visit Money Making Conversation dot
com and click to be a guest button. Wow, let's
get strolled my guest today. Empowers businesses and individuals to
(01:57):
succeed by offering strategic find financial strategies, expert guidance, and
tailored business solutions. As a dedicated financial professional, she is
committed to empowering individuals through comprehensive financial education. Please work
in the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Laura Finny, How are
you doing, Laura?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I'm doing wonderful oversat how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We all are dreamers and I can't tell you how
to be successful. What is the I would say frustrating
because you know you've got a system, You've done this
enough to know. But what are some of the mistakes
that people make when you're trying to plan a proper
financial strategy for them?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You know, I was thinking about that, honestly question while
I was listening to your other guests, and I'd probably
say the biggest one is listening to or taking advice
from someone who don't know what that person's long term
goals and dreams are. People put you know, products and
services in plates based on information they hear, or course
(03:06):
that they took, or you know, someone's podcast, and honestly,
I really appreciate that because I love them when people
are doing something to save for the future. But a
financial plan is more than just saving. It's allowing you
to be able to live life on your terms. And
that comes with very very strategic plan and to make
(03:26):
sure that number one, you don't have to go back
to work when you decide to retire or like I
like to say, live life on your terms, because nobody's
really retiring. But when.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Financial position, nobody's really retiring. Please please tell my audience that.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Please tell my audience, no one really retires. You know,
we're not great Grandma sitting on the front porch with
some lemonade and back of course in the chair. We're
not doing that. What retirement means now, which I now
call living life on your terms, it is being able
to say, Okay, I'm in a financial position to never
have to work again at this age and be able
(04:05):
to do whatever I want to do, which is, you know,
either do more philanthropy work or travel or actually, you know,
embark on a passion that they had outside their full
time job.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Let's get started him. I want to ask you a
couple of questions. And my first question I want to
do is what inspired you to become a financial coach
and financial literacy educator?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
What inspired you?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
It was it was two things, Rishan. The first one
was it was the day after my fiftieth birthday party
and you can only imagine how sober I was in
that moment, and my cousin asked me if I had
a financial plan for the future and what my retirement
looked like. And I didn't know how to answer that articulately,
so to speak. You know, we say, right, we plan
(04:49):
on never having to go back to work again, and
maybe rely on some social security along with it. And
then I realized that that wasn't it, and I realized
that I'd have to give up a lot of the
cables I watched, you know, ten or fifteen years from now.
That was the first thing, is that I didn't know
what I didn't know, and so having her explained to
me what that looked like was an eye opener. And
(05:12):
then the second one is I grew up in the
South suburbs of Chicago and my grandfather had over about,
I want to say, twelve to fifteen acres of land,
and it was farm land. We grew fruits and vegetables
and had pigs and horses and chickens, and he built
a concrete home on that land. But when I was nineteen,
my grandfather was dying of bone cancer, and my mom
(05:34):
and her two brothers said he needed to put a
wheel in place, and he said, I don't need to
do that. You and your brother's handle it well. F
loong story short, they didn't handle it. The boys wanted
to sell Mom wanted to keep it in the family,
and so she continued to pay the taxes on the
land until she passed away when I was twenty four.
Now I'm gonna get a little real here. I'm the
(05:55):
youngest of seven kids, and we have a very large family,
and all of grown folks in the family didn't pay
the taxes, so we lost the taxes the land to
tax sales. And so about five years ago I went
home and the area because you know, you always ride
past where you used to live and grow up, and
it was stant and come to find out Amazon was
(06:18):
building a distribution center on the land I grew up planning.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
On this story, don't getting wow Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So that's where my desire, my passion for helping uneducated
people become educated to really make some financial decisions that
will impact their lives, not just now but in the future.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, you know, and I appreciate that on the story,
and I try to be honest on this show. I
try to tell people about my mistakes. I try to
tell people that, you know, my life isn't rosy. I
tell them whether it's my health stupidity, because you know,
I've made some dumb decisions. I tell everybody bragging about
the fact I eat ice cream. I eat a gallon
ice cream a week. I tell people that the heartbeat.
(07:00):
Then all of a sudden, I got high blood pressure
and high cholesterol. Am I stunned? No, because you've been
doing stupid things. But I think that when you look
at so many stories about uh, you know, we had
land and or we and didn't understand how to pass
that land, and then you do hear some great stories
where the family understood how to create a legacies with
(07:25):
that land and get it to the next point. Now
you know if a number that you brought up was fifty,
and I reason I bringing that up because certain people
locked down certain age numbers where they go, I can't
do nothing else with my life.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I'm just gonna get to the finish line. But at fifty,
you didn't see it that way. You didn't see a
finished line?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
What? What? What? What? What kept you motivating?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I plan on living till one hundred and twelve.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
There you go, girl, there you go, Come on me
and you I'm telling me and you.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Lord to get it years to get it right.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
But I'm gonna be like Dick van Dyk.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Though Dick van Dyk, I'm still out there dancing, splitting acting.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
That's that's what Rashwan's going to be. I swear to you.
You you see me walking around slow, I'll be doing
my yoga. I be doing my stretching, my sit ups.
Because I be looking at people my age walk.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I go, I can't walk like that.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I can't walk like that.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, I gotta do my stretching.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And all those days and I wasn't doing that, and
I was realizing that if you allow age to win,
then the.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Results are bad, that's right.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And at fifty you said, no, that is not my
I don't you look at me and tell me when
I'm gonna die?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Don't you do that?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And so what the problem is is that, you know,
my birth certificate said fifty. I felt like I was
in my thirties.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
There you go, you know, well that's me.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I don't allow age numbers to define how I live
my life.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Say that to my audience one more time. Come on,
please please do not.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I do not allow age to define how I live
my life.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Now you know you've been repeating the live things on
your interview, because you've been saying some profound stuff to
my audience. Because see I always tell people this, Laura,
never allow ads to be an excuse on anything you
want to do. You know, yes, physically you may not
be able to do things, but if your mind's right
and you have the ability of plan, you have the
(09:19):
ability to create relationship you can win with. Here's my
next question. I want to ask you one of the
most common financial challenges you see people in their thirties
and forties facing, and how do you advise them overcoming them.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Oh, the biggest one I see with people in their
thirties and forties is the number one. They believe that
they need to pay off debt first, and you know
the golden rule is to always pay yourself first. That's
number one. And then the especially people in their forties,
they're putting away money and products that they cannot access
(09:55):
but will need access to as they get older, either
for investment purposes or planning on you know, different purchases
in the future. Some are still looking to buy their
dream homes and things like that, so they're saving, but
again not in all the proper buckets. That's number one,
and then number two, the biggest thing that they face
(10:16):
is feeling like they have time. They have time when
you said time to you know, put away money right now?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
They have time, right, But let's let's talk about that
real quick before we go to break because of the
fact that we all feel we have.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Time, and we do. We really do have time.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Because see, but you need a plan, you have to
need to have to start a playing somewhere. We're going
to start the plan at fifty sixty seventy, but it's
always nicer if you start that plan at thirty forty,
if you're really smart in your twenties. Because I kind
of did that a little bit lore but I didn't
understand what I was doing. See, that's making a plan
(10:58):
without a clear understanding of your plan.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Does that make sense to do that? You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
So that meant that I didn't value the long term
of what I needed to do with that plan. And
so because I look back and go, man, if you
just not even mess with that money and then just
just see where it would have been right now with
stock splitting and splitting again and splitting again and riding
through two thousand and eight, girl, you wouldn't even be
(11:28):
listening to me on this show. I'll be having money
making conversations at the house because I understood my plan.
And when you do financial literacy and financial education, that's
the number one question that I have to keep asking
myself is when am I going to listen to the
right people? And you wanted the right people to listen to,
(11:50):
So how do you get the word out about you? Laura?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It's two things. So what I'm really excited about that's
coming up where I'm going to focus solely on women,
but most of it comes from either networking events, hosting
my webinars, which I tend to do a lot of.
I host a lot of free online webinars, and then
I'm also invited to speak out at events and I
(12:15):
have a team of I like to call them my
young generation, which I so appreciate them, of people in
their twenties and thirties and being able to get them
out in the community because it takes a village. I
can't do it alone. So it takes a village to
really bring the awareness and have access to a demographic
I would normally have access to. So between me and
(12:37):
my team, there isn't one person I don't see that
I don't care where they're work, And I ask them,
do you see yourself doing this for the next twenty
thirty years?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
You know some I.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Don't know, if you know, if you'd asked me why
I was in my twenties, because I was still trying
to figure myself out, Laura, and you know, I was
working at IBM, and I knew that wasn't the job
for me, that wasn't my dream job. And so I
always tell people what you do between eighteen and twenty
(13:13):
two really defines what you can do for the rest
of your life, because that's when you're fearless. You're gonna
go do whatever you need to do. Nobody can't tell
you anything. That personality to sustain you should be the
sustaining personality in your entire life.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(13:55):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Speaking with Laura Finney.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
You know, she had a moment when she was fifty
years old, her fiftieth birthday, and guess what she told
me was Sean, I wasn't really clear because it was
my fiftieth birthday, but I knew I had to make
a change, and that my change was becoming financially literate.
She has eight years of experience in the financial services industry.
An expert in delivering personalized financial literacy programs, workshops, and
(14:25):
one on one consultations, she helps clients achieve financial stability
and success. She is passionate about assisting individuals and reaching
both their short term and long term financial goals. Now, Laura, budgets,
We hear that word a lot. Budgets. Like you said earlier,
(14:46):
you know, paying Young people tend to want to pay
off loans real quick on their credit cards. Now, can
you share some basic budgeting tips for individuals and families
who want to get better controls control of their finances.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yes. Number one, you have to have money. I like
to call it an increased cash flow. Every month. Every
month you should be in a position to save some
sort of money. And so there's like four categories that
I look at specifically where people are spending money when
it comes to their finances, and it's hanging out, dining out, shopping,
(15:27):
and personal care. Sometimes I see anywhere from five hundred
to most recently nine hundred dollars a month in any
one of those categories that people are spending, and that's
a lot of money going out. That's the first thing
it's really checked to see of those four categories, where
(15:48):
can you streamline your cash flow going out?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
They're hanging out and dining out. There hanging out and
hanging out and dining out.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's the first, really killers you're trying to streamline your budget.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Okay, okay, yep.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
And then the personal care. You know, I fire my
Biber because he charged me fifty dollars and my hair
is about a shortage yours. There just has to be
an accountability for the reasons. Now, you and I we're
in the public, you know, we that's that. But for
(16:27):
young girls going out spending you know, four or five
hundred dollars a month on hair is just unreasonable because
that's money that a hundred of that you can put away.
So the first thing is really to look at when
you're budgeting, how much can you really afford based on
your current lifestyle and the lifestyle you want to live later.
And the other one is to make sure that you
(16:48):
have an emergency fund. That one is so important. I
don't care. I tell people, if you can save a
dollar a day, you can have an emergency fund. It
doesn't take putting away, you know, one hundred dollars a
month or one thousand dollars a month. Just start where
you are so that we create a new habit of saving.
And so that's like the biggest thing for me right
(17:09):
now with helping people budget is to really budget what
you're eating every week. I have one client ask me
about how do you know avoid spending so much dining
out when you know we have to go to lunch
with clients. I says, well, said your had to go
to lunch with clients. Rashan, I'll do a walking meeting
up at Gifts Gardens in Ballground, Georgia. Right meeting and Kennis,
(17:32):
let's take a drive. I got fruit and nuts in
a car for us, and let's go have a meeting
in a beautiful environment. You can have a meeting in
the park, but most people feel like, you know, to
be a part of something they need to have this
persona that they can go out and eat three four
times a week, two three times a day. And that's
just unrealistic. You can't sustain that. But that would be
(17:53):
the biggest way is to really look at what your
expenses are and to really cut back on things that
are not a part of your necessity for every day living.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
You know, really when we look at the economy, like
I was filling up by truck the other day, and
you know, I just fill up, you know, and I'm
not saying because I got it. Guess what, I gotta
put gas in the vehicle. Okay, And so you can complain,
but guess what if you're driving, stop complaining. Okay, you
got it. I don't start walking. I can't walk because
(18:21):
everything I want to do is so far apart. And
so with that being said, the families, you know, you know,
what can you do? You know, when you got kids
that going to school, you got you maybe a single mom,
you might be even a single dad. You know, you
might be in a divorced situation, or you might be
a unified family. How do you look at trying to
(18:44):
make sure your child feels good about life but still
having a budget that doesn't break break the break, you know,
that allow you to have a future.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Oh two things. One is you got to be a
little bit creative.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Know when we were growing up, we didn't have as
many options for entertainment, right, we made our own entertainment
we had. I was talking to a young lady today
and talking about, you know, I'm gonna sit out in
the backyard with my grandsons and we get the chairs
around and we'll, you know, pull out the fire pit
and have some fun that way, right, Things that don't
(19:20):
cost money, so to speak. You know, if my grandson
wants me to take him to, you know, some jumping
place I'm looking at six, Well, here we go. I
took my five year old granddaughter.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
You want to take you check your cheese? Ok oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
We wanted to go to lunch and I said, well,
do you want some chicken nuggets on chicken salad? He
was like, no, I want a Caesar salad. So I
took her to this restaurant, got to Caesar salad and
she said, I want to dessert. Forty five dollars later,
I said, listen, I can't I can't say we can
(19:55):
only do this like once a quarter, right, because you
still got to be able to save. But the fun
thing is that I also know I can make a
really cheap but most delicious dessert, which you want. I'll
talk about you and your food at another time because
I'm totally intrigued. Okay, you take two dollars and create
the most amazing apple desserts that will have anybody asking
for more. So it really is just knowing how to
(20:19):
stretch a dollar, but know that you don't have to
go and support these other businesses and create generational wealth
for those families versus being creative in your own space.
Me and my daughters, we used to have slumber parties
in the basement.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Right right, right, right right, So it's.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
A little bit more about being a little bit more
creative as to what you can do to entertain your kids.
And there are tons of free parks in and around Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
You know this.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
This interview is about you and your brand that you've
been doing and building for eight years. When one contacts you, Laura,
what is the what is the process, what's the technique
and what do you how do you bring somebody into
your your your your formatter, your strategy to make their
lives financially better.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
The first one is a quick call. I want to
understand why you called or why you would like to
sit and talk so I can get a better idea
of where you are and what you want to do.
The second one is to really sit down and just
interview you so I don't like you're doing me right
now about everything that you want now and in the future. Basically,
what are you getting up for every day. It's not
(21:20):
to pay bills, it's not to go on vacation in
six months. What you get up for today is what's
going to affect you ten years from now in your life.
So let's focus on what that looks like. And then
the next appointment is coming back with a strategy with
ideas six steps starting from where you are now to
get you to where you want to be.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Wow, you know, I really look at myself when I
talk to an individuals like you in this financial literacy community.
There are so many misconceptions about money management and can
you address any of them?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I'm just you know, radio silence is bad, right, But
that's one of those ones that really gets me really
frustrated because when I do see it people don't manage
it well because again they're living for today and tomorrow
and next month and not for you know, down the road.
And I think that's the biggest thing is helping people
understand that. You know, that's the whole thing about chasing money, right,
(22:26):
you can't chase something. And you mentioned something that if
you don't mind, I want to circle back to about
like the single moms or you know, parents who are
living paycheck to paycheck, is we all know that you
have to increase cash flow. You can't save money based
on where you are now if it's already a struggle,
So how do you increase cash flow? And that's helping
these parents understand that you can't keep adding more hours
(22:49):
to your day. You can't take more time away for
your kids. But understanding and being in an environment and
having good contacts to talk about what residual income looks
like for you so that you don't have to go
out and work a second or third or fourth job,
but you can still increase that cash flow coming in
because sometimes it just sees what it is. You can't
squeeze another hour out of their day, right, But then
(23:10):
how do I manage that and manage that is knowing
that you have a financial plan and that's what you
get up for every day. Nobody can sway me to
take a trip, you know, because I know that in
the next three months, I want to do something else
with this money. But many people are like, my dear
friend that's listening, she's gonna kill me. But you know,
she wanted to take a trip to Jamaica and it's
(23:31):
gonna run her almost one thousand dollars. And I said,
what's your budget? She said, I don't have a budget.
I was like, it skills me.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Starts with a budget. And lor how can we get
in touch with Jazigh? Wrap up this show. You're fantastic.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
You can reach out to me via my website. There's
a contact form on the page. It's my first name
is Laura l A U r A. My last name
is Finny f I N N E y. The word enterprises,
so Laura's any enterprises with an S dot nex. They
can feel that out. Tell me why they want me
to reach out to them or why they're reaching out
to me, and I'll be sure to get back with them.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Ah, you're fantastic. Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations.
Masterclass Laurafinni Enterprises dot net.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Okay, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you listening to the
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(24:36):
your gifts.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Keep winning.
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