June 3, 2025 • 54 mins
In this enlightening episode of Black Girls Eating, hosts Candace and Tanorria dive deep into the often-avoided topic of money with their special guest, Jon, a financial advisor at Prudential and beloved family member. Together, they explore the significance of financial education, particularly within the Black community, and how understanding money can empower individuals to break the cycle of economic disadvantage.
Jon shares his journey from being a young man with dreams of entrepreneurship to becoming a trusted financial advisor, emphasizing the importance of education and awareness in managing finances. He discusses the challenges many face in building wealth and the necessity of having a financial plan that includes saving, investing, and preparing for the future. The conversation highlights how societal perceptions can affect financial decisions, particularly for Black individuals navigating a consumer-driven world.
Listeners will appreciate Jon's candid insights on the balance between enjoying life and being financially responsible. He encourages everyone to prioritize their financial health while also recognizing the importance of self-care and mental well-being. With practical advice on creating emergency funds, leveraging high-yield savings accounts, and the significance of generational wealth, this episode is packed with valuable information for anyone looking to improve their financial literacy.
As the episode unfolds, Candace and Tanorria foster a warm and engaging environment, making money talk feel approachable and relatable. Tune in for a conversation that not only demystifies financial planning but also inspires listeners to take control of their financial futures with confidence and clarity.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Candace (00:07):
Welcome to Black Girls Eating. a conversation about
justice, black girl magic, and well
seasoned food. We are Black Girls Eating
and welcome to our podcast.
>> Tanorria (00:18):
This episode was brought to you by Christ Church Cathedral.
Follow them on Instagram at
thatchurchonthecircle or go to their website
cccindy.org for more information.
>> Candace (00:29):
How are you?
>> Tanorria (00:30):
I am. I am living and breathing and I'm grateful for
that. So I'm here.
>> Candace (00:36):
Amen, sister. Amen.
>> Tanorria (00:38):
Feeling good after our last live
podcast recording.
>> Candace (00:42):
I know, right? So much fun.
>> Tanorria (00:44):
Exciting. We're such a big deal
sometimes.
>> Candace (00:48):
All the time sometimes.
>> Tanorria (00:51):
but yeah, I'm. I'm pretty proud of us for that. And
so I'm excited to keep the momentum going
this season.
>> Candace (00:59):
Yeah.
>> Tanorria (01:01):
And, yeah, talk about some good stuff.
So I'm just gonna dive in about this guest
because I'm. I'm. I'm feeling all, like,
excited and proud with this. So,
we're talking about money today, y' all, which
m. When it comes to black girls eating, we talk about all the
things. And this is a topic we have not really discussed.
(01:23):
I mean, we talked a little bit about real estate, but, we
haven't talked about money yet. And this is a really important
topic. And we have an expert
to discuss this today.
>> Candace (01:34):
Talking about the dollar, dollar bills, y' all.
>> Tanorria (01:36):
Yeah. So, friends, listeners,
ladies and gentlemen, and. And everyone, we have
my family. He's my little big brother,
John. I'm
so excited to have him. I call John my little
big brother because he is younger than me. Not by much, but
he's younger than me.
>> Jon (01:55):
But.
>> Tanorria (01:55):
But, when it comes to the category of men who,
have protected me ever since I was a little girl,
John is definitely one of them. So I love this.
he is family. We grew up together. He,
has seen every bit of my awkward.
Just every single bit of it.
>> Jon (02:14):
That's an understatement, right?
>> Tanorria (02:17):
but, John is a financial advisor for
Prudential, and I have
watched him from a distance,
just really build his
credibility and his credentials and make a name
for himself in the financial world.
He is the guy that everyone in the family
goes to. and what I appreciate the most
(02:40):
about John is that he makes sure that,
our community, specifically the black community, is
educated. And he is the person that can answer the
questions and break things down for people, and
that's really, really important to him. He also serves on the
board for Riley Children's Hospital.
He is a basketball legend,
(03:01):
from Burbuff High school, from year
2000, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're not even going to say what year that
was.
>> Jon (03:07):
Newly crowned hall of Famer.
>> Tanorria (03:09):
Oh, yeah, I just recently
saw that. And, John has,
a love in his life that he is absolutely obsessed with. And
we just love seeing black women. Love women.
and he's also a girl dad to the cutest little
Mia that has ever walked to this earth.
So, welcome, welcome.
>> Jon (03:31):
Thank you. I appreciate it. This is. We are
family. all three of us are. I'm going to
consider family because I'm a huge fan, of both
of you. I'm proud and humbled in order
to get the chance, in order to be on here. I know we're going
to keep it real because we're family. I try to keep it
simple. but I also think that, you know, kind of God
has given me my ministry of giving this education
(03:54):
and information to everyone and not just the
ultra wealthy. And I think that's how we, we break the
cycle.
>> Tanorria (04:01):
Yeah.
>> Candace (04:01):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
yes. I remember meeting John at
the live show for Butter.
Yes. I'm excited that we were able to
get you on, number one, just because this information is
so needed. But you said a word that
absolutely set my ears on fire. You said that it's
ministry. So thank you for sharing your ministry with
(04:23):
us, because it is. This is such an important topic,
especially right now.
>> Jon (04:28):
Yeah, yeah. My phone has been ringing, you
know, off the hook just because. And I do always say, when it
comes to business, I'm not red, I'm not blue, I'm green.
And there is a lot of clickbait
out there. There's a lot of misinformation. we
are in a world right now that I
understand, but I don't
(04:48):
fully. Well, I don't accept it.
>> Tanorria (04:51):
Yeah.
>> Jon (04:52):
But at the exact same time, it is our job
in order to give information in order for no matter
what circum. You're in. To be better for
it. Because with all the social
injustice, with all the taking
rights back and all that kind of stuff, it makes it a lot worse if you're
broke.
>> Candace (05:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> Tanorria (05:14):
That's an excellent point. Yeah.
Yeah.
>> Candace (05:19):
And then we don't think about how expensive it is
to be broke.
>> Jon (05:24):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, expensive is an interesting word
because if we don't take care. I mean, one, I think
it's independent. anytime you have to ask somebody
for something, then you don't own it. they're in
control, they've got leverage. I Think that's where it
comes to education. I always
say you need to work with someone you know, like and trust
(05:44):
simply because this is my expertise.
this is my specialty. I don't go to other people's
jobs and tell them how to do it. and
there's so much information out there, it's hard to decipher
what's truth, and what's entertainment.
So I am always about hiring
a professional to do things, because that's what they
(06:04):
do, I mean, for a living.
So that's what I just try to be. For anyone that,
you know, cross my paths. No matter how much money you have,
I do think it is a ministry. And this is coming
from a pk. My dad's a minister. you know, he's
also a financial advisor. but I'm blessed that God
has put me in a position where I never have to
(06:25):
turn anybody down. I don't have to worry about
taking care of my two girls. And the financial thing,
it's about breaking that cycle, giving the information.
And then for us, black people, generational wealth.
Because being a private school kid and
meaning that my parents sacrificed everything to get
me the opportunities that I had. I saw
(06:45):
what my friends, parents, and grandparents were
doing for them. And
we are a couple generations behind that.
So there has to be someone in order to crack that code,
in order to give the blueprint, the Cliff Notes,
in order to, get us to that point.
>> Tanorria (07:05):
Yeah. Yeah. We need
people like that. And
I'm gonna circle back to ask the.
Our first, question that we always ask. But this is so good that
I'm gonna ride with this, too. But, like,
I. The hardest part about it is,
like, there is the education component, but before we
even get to the education component, there's the awareness. Everything
(07:28):
that you're saying, Jon it is
disheartening that so many people,
specifically in the black community, don't even realize
they need, let alone finding the
right resource to walk them through it.
But just like the simple awareness that
it's necessary, that there's benefits to it, that there's
advantages to it, that it's like there are people
(07:49):
put in place to help help you, because for so
long, our community
was either rejected or
wasn't considered, you know, wealthy enough or,
you know, the list goes on and on and on for all of the
reasons why someone wouldn't trust
a, professional to manage their money. But
(08:10):
there are people like you that we have
that can, you know, hold our hand, be honest with
us. have our best interests at heart.
Say the hard things about money because
I think that that's lacking as well.
and so, yeah, it's rare that
we have the right people in our corner to do
(08:30):
that. But just even having the awareness that.
>> Jon (08:32):
You need those people, you said it
perfectly. I mean, minorities have been taken
advantage of for a very long time
when it comes to financial institutions, which creates a lack
of trust. And with a lack of trust,
that creates an inability in order to
even spend the time, in order to get
(08:53):
to know the deeper parts of financial services
or financial wealth. And I can see it because in
my industry, I mean, it's less than 4%
black. You know, when my dad started
in 1988, he was the only black
advisor in his whole entire firm.
And I still, and generally
the only black advisor
(09:15):
in a lot of my circles. Now. I do
think it is getting better. M.
But if you don't have someone that is in your
community that you know that you have a personal
relationship with that
you can go to. Because, I mean, my parents taught me two
things, right. You don't talk to strangers and you don't talk about
(09:36):
money. And now this is something that I do every single
day. There, there is a
distrust when someone doesn't understand
where you're coming from, doesn't understand that you
need financial literacy 101 because you've never had
access to this. You know, a lot of times
I'm starting from like an
elementary education.
>> Tanorria (09:58):
Yeah.
>> Jon (09:58):
You know, ground floor. And that takes time
and that takes empathy and it really does
take a passion
that's beyond finances.
Because don't get me wrong, I was an advice
advisor. I'm never going to have a minimum. I'm going to
work with everyone out there at the same
(10:18):
time. This is a business and you only have a certain amount of time.
So you do have to be strategic.
but what that happens to do is those people that
don't have the resources that really, really need the
education, they're left
out.
>> Tanorria (10:35):
Yeah.
>> Jon (10:36):
And that is where we have to figure out. I don't want to call
it pro bono work, but that is where
time, talents, treasures, whatever
percentage of my personal bandwidth
needs to go to that demographic
or that subset. I do think it is important. Or
we are constantly just going to be going round and
(10:57):
round and never get further.
>> Candace (10:59):
Yeah, that's, incredible.
So I want to know. I'm just going to ask it because this is
great.
>> Tanorria (11:05):
Yeah, go for it. Please do, John.
>> Candace (11:07):
So when did you fall in love with financial
education?
>> Jon (11:13):
Oh, So, I mean, to go back again. So my
dad's a financial advisor. I owe him
everything, when it comes to the business
side of my mind, because he showed me how to do it.
I fell in love after grad school. It
was one of those things that my. I never wanted to follow in my dad's
footsteps. I wanted to. I never wanted to
(11:34):
write his coattails. I wanted to do my own thing. I didn't want
people to think that I was just, you know, following
him and everything was handed to me. but then we had
a conversation after graduation,
and he told me, what is it that you want to do? And
for me, I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to make a
positive impact in the community. but
(11:54):
I also wanted to. I wanted
to. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And one of the
things that I started to see in him is that
people were thanking him for the work that
he had done for them when they didn't want him to do
it. Meaning that he's going to retirement
parties and they're coming up to him and saying,
(12:14):
hey, you know, because of you, we could retire when and how we
want to, and we're going to do XYZ and were going to
graduation parties, and their kids are able
to go to whatever school they want to,
not have 100%, you know, debt. And they're
thanking him for educating them on
taking action when they didn't want to take
action. Because we are a society of consumers, not
(12:36):
savers or investors. You know, I get caught
all the time on my Instagram, and that's why I have
so many shoes. Like, you know, like, I'm not perfect
either when it comes to that. we are a society of
what do you have the materialistic things and not
kind of what you're putting away for your family or for your
financial future. So when I saw the impact that he was
(12:57):
making on people's lives, it really
started to hit me of. I just didn't want to sell a
widget because somebody needed it. I wanted to
be able to look back and say, hey, I changed somebody's
life. And then I was
27 at the time, and
a lot of us, man, we were fresh in our careers.
(13:17):
We barely had any money. We were spending
everything. Credit card cowboys is what we call it when we're in
broader pool back in the day. And young
professionals didn't have
another young professional that understood what they were going
through in order to help them accumulate.
You know, you can only say $50 a month. What financial
(13:39):
advisor wants to work with you? Well, you got to start
somewhere. So I started to see that my peers
needed what I could offer. And
even though you had to work five times as hard because
your average case size, your average client
was smaller, all of a sudden
when m. You do right by people when they don't have
anything, they're going to be with you for life, and then they're going
(14:02):
to tell people about you. And then when
you see the impact, because now I'm 43
years old, my clients and my friends, they've got
two, three kids, they've changed jobs, they're
CEOs, they're executives. And when you can
grow with them and you had a small part of that,
it kind of comes full circle of,
(14:22):
yeah, God put this on my heart for a reason.
There were some ups and downs. You know, sometimes
my parents had to help me out in order to make sure my mortgage was
paid. But in the, in the long run,
you know, I'm very, very humbled and blessed that
I'm, here today. And I'm not at the top of the hill at any stretch of the
imagination. But I do love getting calls
(14:42):
and saying, hey, I know you work with so and so they said
you're a stand up guy and that you're going to take care of me.
I want to meet. That's the highest compliment I could get.
>> Candace (14:52):
Wow, that's great.
>> Tanorria (14:56):
John. You, you talked about how
we are a, consumer based society and
you hashtag capitalism. But
I, I have a question for you,
as a financial advisor, as someone who is
watching, you know, how people
are managing their money or lack thereof,
(15:19):
and knowing that
especially within the black community, there has to be
a sense of,
rest, caring for yourself,
recognizing, that you are worthy and you have value and
you deserve nice things. Because so many
people in the black community come from a scarcity
(15:39):
mentality. Where is that
fine line for you? Knowing that it's like,
okay, you need to save, you need to be responsible.
But also, like, the studies have
shown that some spending or
having some nice things, however you acquire them,
like, it does help your mental health and, and
resting is necessary, and resting as resistance.
(16:02):
And where's that fine line for you?
>> Jon (16:05):
So, I mean, bringing it full circle in, I mean,
so Tenoria, I mean, Tanoria's brother
is my big brother. We grew up five houses
down from each other, and we came
from, I'm trying to
figure, I mean, Kmart,
layaway. Yeah, I mean, I
(16:28):
remember getting IOUs for Christmas because
my parents might not have had money
then. We were trying to get everything on sale,
making sure that, I mean,
hammy, whatever it is, I understand that.
So I do think that we need to
thrive and not just survive. I personally, as
a financial advisor, think that the more efficient I am with
(16:50):
your money, the more that you can do some things. I
joke that when I was first in the business,
me and my buddies went to Vegas for a bachelor party.
One of my friends right next to me looked at me in the morning and
said, hey, because you're my financial advisor now, I guess we can't do
this right. And I laughed.
If I'm doing my job correctly, I hope you can do it
(17:11):
more. I think it's all about paying yourself first.
that is the biggest thing. And paying yourself first is
understanding what you want for yourself. And then
that is the dream. And then you have to have
a plan in order to get that. And then
you have to implement behaviors
that align with it in order to then achieve it.
(17:32):
So for me, you know,
pay God first, pay myself second. Whatever I
have left, I can do whatever I want to with
it simply because my priorities are taken
care of. So I am a sneaker head.
I've got a phenomenal shoe collection right
now. The thing about it is, people might think I'm
(17:53):
wasting money, but as long as it doesn't take money away
from me, retiring young and wealthy, me
make making sure me and my daughter can go to whatever
school she wants to in 18 years. Making sure our
mortgage is paid, that our lifestyle is taken care
of, making sure we can still go on vacations as
long as the priorities are taken care of. What I do
(18:13):
with the other money with my clients, I don't care about.
I got clients that want to travel the world and
see fish. Like fish shows, like the jam band.
I personally like basketball, so I like to go to
Butler games and Pacer games and we go to Colts
games. I buy a lot of shoes. We just got a shipment
yesterday. We got matching shoes, Angie and I. That's
(18:34):
cool. Just pay yourself first. But I know what
my number is. I know the percentage of
my income that I need to save on a regular basis
to take care of what I want
to take care of and what's important to me
after that. You need to live your best life.
We work too hard, we sacrifice too much.
(18:54):
And I remember when I
only got a pair of shoes on the first day of school,
and then for my birthday, right? And
then I was around all these other Kids, I could get it
whenever they want to. It also makes me feel great when
I'm. And some nice dress, clothes,
M. You know, I feel like money. I feel like
(19:15):
wealth. I want to be able to have a nice watch. I want to make sure
that my hair is cut and my beard is trimmed,
and I want to make sure I can splurge on my
parents or splurge on my family.
But you cannot sacrifice
looking wealthy and rich to the outside
and under the hood. It's completely messed up.
(19:38):
And that is what social media unfortunately does,
is we always see these little memes and
videos about, well, the billionaire has on
some khakis and a raggedy shirt, and these
millionaires have on a half million dollar watch and,
200 T shirt and blah, blah, blah.
I can't judge them because I don't know what their situation
(19:59):
is intimately. But
you should be able to do both. Now, you might not be
able to do everything, but there
is a balance to being able to do both.
Because we did not come
to this earth, just to save money, and we
didn't come to this earth just to, you know,
(20:20):
spend money. There's a balance. And I think
that's one of the conversations that I like to have with people, is what's
important to you and what are your priorities? Let's
name them. 1, 2, and 3. And then let's make a plan.
And then after that, I love to follow
my clients on social media. And they, everyone's going
on spring break right now or kids are going
(20:41):
somewhere, then you can still celebrate that. Just make
sure you take care of yourself first.
>> Tanorria (20:47):
Hey, friends, it's Tenoria. My
first ever cookbook is Staples +5 is available
wherever cookbooks are sold. It was voted one of the best
cookbooks in 2020 by glamourmagazine.
You can purchase it at
tenoriastable.combooks and make sure to
tell me what your favorite recipe is.
>> Candace (21:05):
Hey, y' all, it's Candace the spice slanger. Here
is your food. Bland, unseasoned.
Let's spice it up with seasonings from Foodlov Talk.
Catch me online@foodlovedtalk.com
Be seasoned, y' all.
>> Tanorria (21:19):
I think the biggest takeaway for me in
that is that oftentimes
we were raised on the whole pay God first,
pay yourself second. But the pay yourself second second
part was only what you put in savings.
Not paying yourself is taking care of your whole
life, right? That's a big
difference that people need to hear, right?
>> Jon (21:42):
And I think the mental health thing, I mean, that is one of the things that I
personally struggle with is I don't
take enough time off because
of work, because of what I want.
But you have to, because I can't bring my
B game and my C game because I am running
so thin and I'm so stressed and I'm tired.
(22:03):
You have to protect yourself. You have to take the
time to get away, have a reset, because when
you come back, then you're even better. You know,
it's just like working out. You're not supposed to work out seven days a
week. You know, your muscles need
to rest, they need to rejuvenate, and then you even
get better by taking rest. It's the exact same thing
(22:23):
of taking care of yourself first in multiple
different ways. Multiple different ways. For
me, my family is my
life. But my safe space
is going to a basketball game. And I'll go to a
basketball game and not say a word the whole entire time
because that's my time. That is
(22:44):
my, you know, that's my spot. And
then I feel better after. Everyone's got to have that.
And the investment in going to those
games and doing that is also an investment
in yourself. So that
is part of my plan. And people forget that
financial advising and wealth management and all that stuff isn't
(23:04):
about just stocks, bonds, ETFs and like
savings and banks and stuff like that. It's everything.
It's everything because
I mean, I saw something yesterday. the average age
you live till you're 78, but people want to work
till they're 65. That's bad math.
It's bad math. Right.
(23:27):
but you also have to just make sure you take care of yourself health
wise, mentally and financially in order to maybe cut
that 65 to 60, get a little bit
more time. but everyone's plan is different.
So start young, start early.
>> Candace (23:41):
I'm so glad you brought this up because I think,
especially just as women
and black women, the idea of
us splurging on ourselves is always
taken as well. Who does she think she is and where does she
think she is to be able to do that or do this?
Like just the conversation around
(24:03):
Meghan Markle and her Dutch.
>> Tanorria (24:06):
Yep.
>> Candace (24:07):
Like just the simple fact that black women can have
luxury cookware. When people don't realize that, it's not
just that it's luxury, it's the fact that it's a tried and true brand.
>> Tanorria (24:17):
Right.
>> Candace (24:17):
That many people invest in. I have a piece
that's older than me.
>> Tanorria (24:22):
Yeah, It's Going to be passed down for.
>> Candace (24:23):
It's going to be passed down. And so I think. But just. Just
the fact that we like nice things
is always put under the
microscope. And it's so jarring to me as a
black woman to, you know, reach this level
of success, to have people look at me like I'm crazy
when I have a nice bag or have a nice car
or go on vacation or just, you know, simply in the grocery store.
(24:46):
Like, people looking at you crazy. Now when you buy more than
one.
>> Jon (24:49):
Dozen eggs, like, because we have
ptsd, I mean, I think that. I
mean, so being a young black
man in
Indiana, M. Whenever I
go outside of the Loop
465, you gotta be careful, you
know? Like, I. I joke about this
(25:12):
all the time, is like, if I could afford a Range
Rover, right, I wouldn't buy
one simply because
the judgment that I would get with so many
people. I drove a Toyota
because one, there are people that
would not do business with me being
(25:33):
a young black man that drove a range
because they're going to think a certain way about me. I
have to make sure that there is no excuse
for someone not to work with me. You almost have
to dumb down yourself in order to make other
people comfortable, which is
really, really sad.
(25:54):
I, think it sucks
that we have to think about that. But having a certain
bag, having a certain car, living in a
certain neighborhood or having a certain house,
man, people don't think, hey, man,
John went to burbuff, went to DePaul, played basketball, got
his NBA. You know, he's in finance, man.
(26:14):
People from the outside, before they even get to know the
resume, are like, yo, what's he doing?
Right? That might not be on the up and up. it
might even be to the case of like, hey, he manages
money. is he legit? Where
is my stuff? Let me double check. That
is an unfortunate reality
(26:36):
that we have, and I don't believe
we should. But I also have learned
it's not how it should be, it's how it is.
And in order for me to do
the things I want to long term, man,
sometimes I gotta suck up my man, suck up my
pride, you know, and almost succumb to
(26:56):
it to the point where I want to be, where I never have to
do it again. Because I got friends that make
so much money and they over here in pajamas
and nobody's saying nothing to them.
And unless I'm in a suit, I can't get
the time of day. So I will tell this real quick, and
I'm sorry, I'm taking over this. My
(27:18):
first week as an executive at JP Morgan.
Nobody knew who I was in the whole state, right? So
my boss was like, hey, we're doing the secret shopper thing.
So I want you to go to this branch and I want you to,
man, wear your Jordans, wear some nice jeans,
wear a hoodie and see how they act towards you.
man, everybody
(27:40):
start coming around, wanted to make sure like,
hey, are you in the right spot? What do you need?
Now mind you, man, my
Jordans are fresh and they're clean and I
got nice jeans on and I got a nice hoodie. Like
I was still put together. Go to another
branch down the street. He said, hey, change your clothes.
(28:01):
Where are my dress clothes? Hey sir,
how you doing? Like nobody was worried about
me or anything. That's reality.
And that's, that
is just reality. And I think that right there
makes us not be our true selves
because we are scared of the
(28:22):
ramifications of actually being that.
>> Tanorria (28:24):
No 100%.
>> Candace (28:27):
And I think, I think though.
>> Jon (28:32):
M.
>> Candace (28:32):
I can speak for me, I can't think for everyone here.
I think we are so tired of that having
to code switch that some of
us have just decided if I walk
into your establishment and whatever I'm
wearing and you treat me that way, I'm not coming back. It's the
same thing with finding out that our favorite Red
(28:52):
Circle store double down on removing
DEI policies. Like if this is how you're going to treat people that
spend their money, then we don't have to spend money with you. And I think
that's well within our right to decide.
We're not going to spend money with people who decide to
judge us based on our clothing and they've never met
us based on what we drive.
>> Jon (29:12):
Power we have as black people. The power we
have as black people and our
spending power is something
that is understated. I don't have the number in front of
me, but I was at a summit a couple months ago and we talked about
this. I mean the percentage of the
GDP in the US that comes
from US M is so
(29:35):
large. Like we have the leverage and we have the power
in order to enact change.
Unfortunately, we're not given
that. That confidence because nobody wants
you to know that.
Nobody wants you to know that. Because I mean
that store that you're talking about and we're not even going to name it because
they're getting no fleet free publicity, right?
(29:57):
Oh, we haven't, we haven't been in three months, and we will
absolutely drive 10 miles out the
way, and we will go to two, three different
stores to get everything that we need to. Because
it's a thing of principle, though. You are
telling us you do not care about us.
Why would I fund you with my dollars, even to the point
(30:18):
of I might not invest in certain
companies? Because if I do, then that's me
just saying, it's okay. You're gonna make me some money,
so it's okay. That's also, like, social
awareness when it comes to, you know, whether
it's who you work with. I've had a lot
of people that have said, hey, I was picking between different people,
(30:38):
and I went with you because you a brother and I
want to support you. I've had, you know, like,
it could be that or different companies are saying, hey, Jon like, when
you're creating this portfolio, blah, blah, blah, these are things that I don't agree
with and make sure they're not in my
portfolio. M. And that's how we really
can amplify our. Our
(30:58):
dollars and our say, make people stand
up and pay attention.
>> Tanorria (31:03):
Yeah, well, I was. When you
were talking about, you know, the challenges with how
you dressed and people making judgments and things like that,
I was thinking to myself that
especially in 2020, when there
was the huge civil unrest and everyone was like,
everyone should be doing something. And I was like,
(31:24):
everyone has a part to play, but not everyone has the
same part to play. Right. So
Candace and I are the two
individuals who are over here screaming from the
rooftops, that's not okay. We're not doing it. And
we are going to make it very, very known all the time.
You're probably going to get sick of hearing it, because that is
(31:44):
the influence we have. That's the platform that
we have, whether it's black girls eating or our own
respective platforms. One based on being
creatives, being entrepreneurs, being,
community involved, the way Candace is with,
working for Flanner and things like that. But then you, Jon
over here, you have to approach
(32:04):
it strategically and differently.
You. You have no choice, because that's how you have to
run your business. And that's also how you
are going to make the most effective impact
based on your expertise and based
on your skill set and based on the platform
that you have. And so it's like everyone
(32:24):
has a different role
in this. We're not all expected to do
the same thing. We're not all expected to raise
the same hell in the same way.
>> Jon (32:36):
I think. How I think about it is.
You got to play a role in order to get invited to the
party. And then once you're in the party, you
got to do your thing. Like, I take what I do
very, very seriously because I know there's not many
of us. And what I do and if I don't kill
it, that could be the excuse for
(32:57):
the next person not to get the opportunity.
And when you're in that party or you're in that room
and you kill it and they. And
anyone just sees that you are competent, you add
value, that you're a good person, that you do
things the right way, then you
can then make change from the inside. but I think a lot
(33:18):
of times, and I had to learn this the hard way is like
I was too stubborn at the very beginning
and then I didn't get asked to the party. M.
You have to do it from the inside
because if you're on the outside, it doesn't matter.
You know, and whether it's right or wrong, that's really
just the rules of the game right now. And you
(33:40):
know, the very last position that I had at
J.P. morgan, I was very, very fortunate in order to
have some really good people around me to help me navigate
that complicated organization. And then one of the
things that I would say before leaving and
starting, you know, my own thing,
is the ability in order to step into the first butter
(34:01):
and seeing the things that they were doing and the
change that they wanted to make and meeting with, you know,
Molly and Alan and being like, I see your vision and my.
I sent somebody a picture and said, we have
to be a part of this next year. And we
ended up being one of the top sponsors the next year to
it. But if I wouldn't have done it a certain
(34:22):
way in order to get access to certain people that
could amplify the impact that I wanted to
make, then it never would have happened. So
you kind of got to go at the right pace. You kind of got to, you
know, play the game a little bit, always being true to yourself,
but understanding it's a long game, not a short game.
>> Tanorria (34:40):
I think about like Shonda Rhimes,
creator, producer, writer for
Grey's Anatomy and a whole library of other things.
I. I read her book and she
always talks about being the first at something. The first black
woman, the first woman. And
she's setting the standard for her daughters and
(35:01):
for other creators and other
people of color, et cetera, et cetera.
Just if you look at, just take Grey's Anatomy for
example. And look at the trajectory
of that show. And at the beginning of Grey's Anatomy, it was always
about this white woman falling in love with this
white man.
(35:21):
And now when you watch Grey's Anatomy,
she's barely even part of the show anymore.
And also, Shonda has proven her value.
She's proven her worth. She's probably proven her excellence.
She has made networks, millions, billions
of dollars. Now she can do whatever she wants.
She can put whatever she wants on tv,
(35:41):
she can address any social topic that she
wants. And no one bats nine.
but she had to, like, get in there first and.
And make everyone fall in love with the white woman.
Falling in love with the white man.
Yeah.
>> Jon (35:58):
And because she did that, though, the next writer
that looks like her, that comes from the same
background of her, that trajectory
might not take 15, 20 years. it might
take five. Or, you know what? Now she's got so much power
that she said, hey, I'm, who I am.
Hey, come with me.
>> Tanorria (36:17):
Yeah.
>> Jon (36:18):
And I'm gonna get you in that room. And because I vouch
for you, you're gonna be good. And you can do it on day
one. I mean, that's why, like, my
dad, without him, I wouldn't be to where I
was, because, man, my dad came from South Carolina, didn't know
anybody here, and grinded
247 to allow me
to get the opportunity that I had,
(36:41):
which shortened my trajectory. So I want to
give everybody before us, that sacrifice
so much even to get to where we are today. Because I always
try to be the positive person in
anything. And there's a lot that's messed up going, like,
things going on, but at the exact same time, I can see
progress. Or let me say this, I could see
(37:02):
progress. Now I'm a little bit
iffy, depending on when you talk to me, but
still, I mean,
we gotta. I don't know. I'm gonna be positive. It's,
it's. It's a really messed up world right now.
>> Tanorria (37:16):
It's gonna get worse before it gets better, but it will get better.
>> Candace (37:19):
Talk about that. Let's just kind of jump into that really
quickly. So what can people
do right now
to prepare themselves? Like where, let's say
you have, you know, a small savings, or you have a
401k, you have a 529, or let's say you don't have any of
those things. What can you put in place
(37:39):
right now to help you to start
looking at what wealth building and what financial
planning can look like? Because one One part of it,
too, is also end of life planning. And
I don't think we talk about that a lot at
all in our community. So what can people do?
One small, two small things that they can do to kind of
(38:00):
get themselves started, especially as we look about
what's happening right now in our world.
>> Tanorria (38:05):
And I want to add to that. I know you said
start young, and m. I am so grateful for
you and my brother and your dad and
my time working, working at the credit union that
I understood that. but if I think
about the analytics of our listeners,
the analytics of our listeners are mostly women,
(38:27):
and they are mostly between the ages
of, I'm gonna say, 28 and
50. So that's not
necessarily starting young. So what
would you have for, based on
Candace's question, all age ranges,
not just young.
>> Jon (38:46):
And this is not a selfish plug because I
want people to work with someone most and
foremost. It doesn't have to be me. Talk to an
advisor. Talk to
a professional, okay? And find a
professional that you know like and trust.
Okay? That is going to be the first thing that I'm going to say
now. I tell people, one, you need to have
(39:09):
an emergency fund. Okay? So there's a
couple things. Make sure you have some savings that
if, God forbid, XYZ happens, it's not going to
put you in a financial bind. Because that thing can
snowball. When you have a financial emergency and it could be
something in the house, you know, you're putting it on a credit
card and now you're paying 27% and you're paying the
minimum. Then you're just going to be behind the
(39:32):
eight ball and you're going to be behind eight balls for the next 30
years. That's how credit card companies make their money,
right? I will also tell you that
especially right now, because of interest rates, a high yield savings
account, not just a generic savings account.
Some banks are paying you 2/10 of a percent on your
money. Some others are paying you 3.5 or
(39:52):
4. Get all the free money that you can. If you're saving
for retirement, make sure you're at least putting enough in
for the match. Get that company's free
money. Okay?
I mean, those are, those are the two things, I
think. And here's another thing that I would say is
generational wealth, which is very, very important to me.
(40:13):
Man, nobody wants to talk about dying, but we're all
going to die. Okay? when I pass this earth, I
hope that I left it better than worse. And
I know I want to leave a financial legacy, whatever that means.
Here's one of the things that I learned from my private school
counterparts. When they've got these
houses, when their kids are going to private
school and stuff like that, man, their grandparents
(40:36):
are having life insurance or
accounts that they're inheriting
that allows them to do that. Not all of that
is coming from the parents. Cash flow. The
grandparents had forethought in order to make sure that
generations after generations were taken care
of. I think that's huge.
To make sure that God forbid,
(40:58):
prematurely if something happened to me. The last thing I want
is for Mia and Angie in order to be in a situation
where their lifestyle dramatically changes. They're
grieving, but also it's being very
efficient with your money. Okay, so what I
will say is, if I told you that between
now and age 65, you put
(41:19):
in $50,000, but when you pass away
it was going to give somebody a million, would you do that?
>> Candace (41:26):
Absolutely.
>> Jon (41:27):
Okay. That's life insurance, everybody.
That legitimately is life insurance. So you're telling me I
can leverage $50,000 to
produce a million tax free?
And what happens in is that then that goes to
Mia, my daughter, and then I teach her that,
and then she rolls it into the next. And now all of a
(41:47):
sudden you've got generational wealth, whether it's real
estate, whether it's life ins, whether it's investment
accounts is
playing chess, not checkers.
Right. Like two steps ahead.
So work with an advisor. Because these concepts
I'm, saying very simply, but to implement
(42:08):
them and to get them to work correctly is the
complicated part where a specialist needs to be
able to do that for you. So that's
just a couple things.
>> Candace (42:19):
That's good.
>> Tanorria (42:22):
That'S good. One more question, Candace, before we
ask our last question.
>> Jon (42:27):
Okay.
>> Tanorria (42:28):
We talk a lot about luxury
and being deserving of nice
things and all of that on the podcast.
But I also have to recognize that there
are plenty of people who
don't have any money. they are
functioning barely even paycheck to paycheck.
(42:48):
They to tell them to set
aside X amount of dollars a month
to save sounds impossible or
feels impossible to them. what
would you say to those folk?
>> Jon (43:03):
One, you're not alone. I
think we feel as though we're the only one and we're in the
worst situation. M. I would also tell you that
the people that you probably look at that
you feel have all this money and
are living a certain lifestyle, I see it all the time.
It's just flexing. And when you look underneath the
(43:24):
hood, it's not what you thought.
And they're not taking care of certain responsibilities.
So as an individual, you can
only do what you can do. And
it's. I. I always have this
cliche of, like, my job is to have your money
work as hard for you as you do for, Doesn't really
(43:44):
matter how much money you have,
but just make sure it's efficiently used.
And the less money you have, even the more important
that is because you don't have it to waste.
>> Tanorria (43:56):
Yeah.
>> Jon (43:56):
I also will say that I'm not big
on budgeting because I'm not
a budgeter. I pay myself first. Whatever I have
left. I just do whatever I want to and I
figure it out. But
what I will say is there's also certain things that we think
are necessities and we, like, think we have
(44:16):
to have that we really don't.
So, like, I don't know, you might be getting DoorDash
five days a week. I mean,
do you really have to. You want to buy,
like, the new J's that come out, but you already have 20
pair of shoes? Like, if your priorities are
really to stop the cycle, then we do have to
(44:37):
sacrifice. And that is an ego thing that I
had to learn of having to say no to things.
Sometimes my friends ask me to do stuff and it's
really hard to say no, I don't have the money.
>> Tanorria (44:49):
Yeah.
>> Jon (44:50):
You know, we never want to say that.
I'm better at doing it now because what
my priorities are, are more important to
me. But you just have to know what your priorities
are and be okay sacrificing in order to
get them. But I would want to say is
you're not alone. And
(45:11):
people. You think they got it going on and have no war in the world.
Man. It's not always that.
>> Tanorria (45:18):
Yeah.
The friends that you had a hard time saying that to, you
probably have better friends now, too.
>> Jon (45:28):
I. I think it's.
I think it's getting to. I think I'm more comfortable with
myself now than I might have been in
the past. Whether it was immaturity or
whether I was trying to prove to someone
that I was at some point or that I was at some
level and things, and now it's not as
(45:49):
important.
>> Tanorria (45:49):
Yeah.
>> Jon (45:50):
You know,
my. My friends and they. And you know what, though? They probably
didn't even care, and I thought that they would or that
they were going to hold it against me or they were going to be gossiping behind my
back. About John can do xyz, blah blah, blah.
Like, you know, and it wasn't even that. If
anything, they probably tried to help me out or
(46:10):
try to figure it out. But it's an ego thing. Money
is a lot of ego. I mean,
whether it's to fulfill ourselves, whether it's to fulfill
somebody else. But
nobody can spend your money.
Like, you know, like, this is my situation. I'm gonna make
the best of my situation. And you know what,
(46:31):
if anyone else has a problem, they can kick rocks. As
long as you are taking steps to get better and to
do the best that you can, that's all anyone
can ever ask. And any judgment after that,
the people really probably don't need to be in your life.
>> Tanorria (46:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
>> Candace (46:51):
This isn't good.
>> Tanorria (46:53):
Yeah, it has.
>> Candace (46:54):
I'm glad we're making a money talk. Not feel so
scary.
>> Jon (46:59):
Yeah, yeah,
that. I mean, you know what though? That is one of the things that
I hope I bring to anyone that I do
talk to is I want to make money cool.
Like, like, you know, because like, and make it easy
to talk about and be able to be transparent and genuine.
I purposely don't wear a suit to work. I
(47:20):
wear a dress shirt and some dress pants, but I never wear a coat.
I probably have one button too many
undone. You know, I got my chain
showing a little bit. But like, I want to make
money. Cool. Financial literacy, cool. Being
financially independent, cool. And when people
can't relate to you,
then there's a guardrail there for that
(47:42):
trust, you know,
I like being friends with who I work with. Now of course there's
privacy and all that kind of stuff, but this needs to be a
relationship, you know, communications,
understanding each other. I,
try not to be, you know, the status quo.
and hopefully that builds trust. And then
(48:04):
the advice that I give is seen in a different way
because I'm just like you. Like, I will tell you about my
pitfalls. I'll tell you about all the dumb stuff that I
did that I do, how I'm not
perfect. I'll let you know what I do currently.
And sometimes thank God I had my dad as a
financial adviser because I can justify not doing what I'm
(48:24):
supposed to do just like anybody else. Like, this is
real. Everything shouldn't be like, I'm perfect.
And if you don't do xyz, then there's something wrong with
you. Nah, this, like this, this is real life.
>> Tanorria (48:36):
Yeah. Yeah.
We have one last question for you. This is
not necessarily a money question. It is
an question of insight and we
ask it to every guest. It. People always tell us
it's too deep, but we're going to keep asking.
(48:56):
Jon what would you tell your six
year old self today? My six
year old self or your younger self?
Yeah.
>> Jon (49:14):
I mean,
don't follow that girl to college.
>> Tanorria (49:23):
I knew you were gonna say something, crazy.
>> Jon (49:25):
I mean, honestly. I mean, honestly.
I mean, that didn't happen to me, but I do think
it's very, very important. Your younger self,
like with me, I mean, girls were
so important to me, and probably
made a lot of my decisions when I was young,
like, sway one way or the other.
(49:47):
And I would say,
don't do something today that your future
self would regret. And I think that's
easier said than done. But
I, I mean, instant
gratification, can mess up your
life. And I think
(50:07):
that's what I would have.
I mean, that's what I would. I would have told my younger self a lot of things.
I mean, I would have told myself that I had plenty of time to
party and you don't need to do it right
now and take advantage of, you know, the
blessings and the gifts that you currently had when you were in high school and
college. you know what? I would have told myself
(50:28):
that my dad was doing the best
thing for me, of not trying to be my best friend when I was
growing up and trying to make me a man and to love him for
it then. I'm blessed that I know
that now and our relationship is different.
Yeah,
>> Candace (50:46):
That'S good.
>> Tanorria (50:47):
Yeah, that is good.
That is good.
Jon thank you for being here.
>> Jon (50:57):
Thank you.
>> Tanorria (50:58):
this was really good. I knew you would have
such good insight to share. I had no doubt about that.
But I think that you have
definitely given our listeners a lot to, to
think about and a lot to process. and some glimmers of
hope too. Even though we didn't talk in great detail about
the world we live in right now, I still feel like you
gave us a sense of reality which we need,
(51:22):
three and a half years.
>> Jon (51:23):
Three and a half years. Just get through it.
>> Tanorria (51:25):
Exactly, exactly.
we are going to post,
John's contact information and how you can best get
a hold of him if you'd like to work with him on
our website, and socials.
but ultimately, at the end of the day, find someone you know,
like, and trust to help you navigate the,
(51:46):
the tricky, tricky world of money.
>> Jon (51:48):
So, yeah, I appreciate y' all. I
appreciate the platform. I, love what y' all
are doing. thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of it.
And, hey, y' all just keep shining and
keep helping, and be in that positive
light. I'm a big fan.
>> Candace (52:04):
Thank you so much, John. Thank you. Thank
you so much.
>> Tanorria (52:08):
All right, friends.
>> Candace (52:08):
All right, friends.
>> Tanorria (52:09):
Until next time.
>> Candace (52:11):
Bye.
>> Tanorria (52:12):
Bye.
>> Jon (52:13):
Later.
>> Candace (52:14):
Black Girls Eating the podcast is
sound engineered and Produced by David McKissick.
It's recorded at Nexus Impact
Center Creative Suite.
Follow Black Girls Eating the podcast on Instagram at. Ah,
Black Girls Eating. Follow Tanoria at
Sonoria's table. Follow candace@,
(52:34):
foodloftalk. Thank you for listening.
Welcome to Black Girls Eating. a conversation about
justice, black girl magic, and well
seasoned food. We are Black Girls Eating
and welcome to our podcast.
>> Tanorria (00:18):
This episode was brought to you by Christ Church Cathedral.
Follow them on Instagram at
thatchurchonthecircle or go to their website
cccindy.org for more information.
>> Candace (00:29):
How are you?
>> Tanorria (00:30):
I am. I am living and breathing and I'm grateful for
that. So I'm here.
>> Candace (00:36):
Amen, sister. Amen.
>> Tanorria (00:38):
Feeling good after our last live
podcast recording.
>> Candace (00:42):
I know, right? So much fun.
>> Tanorria (00:44):
Exciting. We're such a big deal
sometimes.
>> Candace (00:48):
All the time sometimes.
>> Tanorria (00:51):
but yeah, I'm. I'm pretty proud of us for that. And
so I'm excited to keep the momentum going
this season.
>> Candace (00:59):
Yeah.
>> Tanorria (01:01):
And, yeah, talk about some good stuff.
So I'm just gonna dive in about this guest
because I'm. I'm. I'm feeling all, like,
excited and proud with this. So,
we're talking about money today, y' all, which
m. When it comes to black girls eating, we talk about all the
things. And this is a topic we have not really discussed.
(01:23):
I mean, we talked a little bit about real estate, but, we
haven't talked about money yet. And this is a really important
topic. And we have an expert
to discuss this today.
>> Candace (01:34):
Talking about the dollar, dollar bills, y' all.
>> Tanorria (01:36):
Yeah. So, friends, listeners,
ladies and gentlemen, and. And everyone, we have
my family. He's my little big brother,
John. I'm
so excited to have him. I call John my little
big brother because he is younger than me. Not by much, but
he's younger than me.
>> Jon (01:55):
But.
>> Tanorria (01:55):
But, when it comes to the category of men who,
have protected me ever since I was a little girl,
John is definitely one of them. So I love this.
he is family. We grew up together. He,
has seen every bit of my awkward.
Just every single bit of it.
>> Jon (02:14):
That's an understatement, right?
>> Tanorria (02:17):
but, John is a financial advisor for
Prudential, and I have
watched him from a distance,
just really build his
credibility and his credentials and make a name
for himself in the financial world.
He is the guy that everyone in the family
goes to. and what I appreciate the most
(02:40):
about John is that he makes sure that,
our community, specifically the black community, is
educated. And he is the person that can answer the
questions and break things down for people, and
that's really, really important to him. He also serves on the
board for Riley Children's Hospital.
He is a basketball legend,
(03:01):
from Burbuff High school, from year
2000, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're not even going to say what year that
was.
>> Jon (03:07):
Newly crowned hall of Famer.
>> Tanorria (03:09):
Oh, yeah, I just recently
saw that. And, John has,
a love in his life that he is absolutely obsessed with. And
we just love seeing black women. Love women.
and he's also a girl dad to the cutest little
Mia that has ever walked to this earth.
So, welcome, welcome.
>> Jon (03:31):
Thank you. I appreciate it. This is. We are
family. all three of us are. I'm going to
consider family because I'm a huge fan, of both
of you. I'm proud and humbled in order
to get the chance, in order to be on here. I know we're going
to keep it real because we're family. I try to keep it
simple. but I also think that, you know, kind of God
has given me my ministry of giving this education
(03:54):
and information to everyone and not just the
ultra wealthy. And I think that's how we, we break the
cycle.
>> Tanorria (04:01):
Yeah.
>> Candace (04:01):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
yes. I remember meeting John at
the live show for Butter.
Yes. I'm excited that we were able to
get you on, number one, just because this information is
so needed. But you said a word that
absolutely set my ears on fire. You said that it's
ministry. So thank you for sharing your ministry with
(04:23):
us, because it is. This is such an important topic,
especially right now.
>> Jon (04:28):
Yeah, yeah. My phone has been ringing, you
know, off the hook just because. And I do always say, when it
comes to business, I'm not red, I'm not blue, I'm green.
And there is a lot of clickbait
out there. There's a lot of misinformation. we
are in a world right now that I
understand, but I don't
(04:48):
fully. Well, I don't accept it.
>> Tanorria (04:51):
Yeah.
>> Jon (04:52):
But at the exact same time, it is our job
in order to give information in order for no matter
what circum. You're in. To be better for
it. Because with all the social
injustice, with all the taking
rights back and all that kind of stuff, it makes it a lot worse if you're
broke.
>> Candace (05:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> Tanorria (05:14):
That's an excellent point. Yeah.
Yeah.
>> Candace (05:19):
And then we don't think about how expensive it is
to be broke.
>> Jon (05:24):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, expensive is an interesting word
because if we don't take care. I mean, one, I think
it's independent. anytime you have to ask somebody
for something, then you don't own it. they're in
control, they've got leverage. I Think that's where it
comes to education. I always
say you need to work with someone you know, like and trust
(05:44):
simply because this is my expertise.
this is my specialty. I don't go to other people's
jobs and tell them how to do it. and
there's so much information out there, it's hard to decipher
what's truth, and what's entertainment.
So I am always about hiring
a professional to do things, because that's what they
(06:04):
do, I mean, for a living.
So that's what I just try to be. For anyone that,
you know, cross my paths. No matter how much money you have,
I do think it is a ministry. And this is coming
from a pk. My dad's a minister. you know, he's
also a financial advisor. but I'm blessed that God
has put me in a position where I never have to
(06:25):
turn anybody down. I don't have to worry about
taking care of my two girls. And the financial thing,
it's about breaking that cycle, giving the information.
And then for us, black people, generational wealth.
Because being a private school kid and
meaning that my parents sacrificed everything to get
me the opportunities that I had. I saw
(06:45):
what my friends, parents, and grandparents were
doing for them. And
we are a couple generations behind that.
So there has to be someone in order to crack that code,
in order to give the blueprint, the Cliff Notes,
in order to, get us to that point.
>> Tanorria (07:05):
Yeah. Yeah. We need
people like that. And
I'm gonna circle back to ask the.
Our first, question that we always ask. But this is so good that
I'm gonna ride with this, too. But, like,
I. The hardest part about it is,
like, there is the education component, but before we
even get to the education component, there's the awareness. Everything
(07:28):
that you're saying, Jon it is
disheartening that so many people,
specifically in the black community, don't even realize
they need, let alone finding the
right resource to walk them through it.
But just like the simple awareness that
it's necessary, that there's benefits to it, that there's
advantages to it, that it's like there are people
(07:49):
put in place to help help you, because for so
long, our community
was either rejected or
wasn't considered, you know, wealthy enough or,
you know, the list goes on and on and on for all of the
reasons why someone wouldn't trust
a, professional to manage their money. But
(08:10):
there are people like you that we have
that can, you know, hold our hand, be honest with
us. have our best interests at heart.
Say the hard things about money because
I think that that's lacking as well.
and so, yeah, it's rare that
we have the right people in our corner to do
(08:30):
that. But just even having the awareness that.
>> Jon (08:32):
You need those people, you said it
perfectly. I mean, minorities have been taken
advantage of for a very long time
when it comes to financial institutions, which creates a lack
of trust. And with a lack of trust,
that creates an inability in order to
even spend the time, in order to get
(08:53):
to know the deeper parts of financial services
or financial wealth. And I can see it because in
my industry, I mean, it's less than 4%
black. You know, when my dad started
in 1988, he was the only black
advisor in his whole entire firm.
And I still, and generally
the only black advisor
(09:15):
in a lot of my circles. Now. I do
think it is getting better. M.
But if you don't have someone that is in your
community that you know that you have a personal
relationship with that
you can go to. Because, I mean, my parents taught me two
things, right. You don't talk to strangers and you don't talk about
(09:36):
money. And now this is something that I do every single
day. There, there is a
distrust when someone doesn't understand
where you're coming from, doesn't understand that you
need financial literacy 101 because you've never had
access to this. You know, a lot of times
I'm starting from like an
elementary education.
>> Tanorria (09:58):
Yeah.
>> Jon (09:58):
You know, ground floor. And that takes time
and that takes empathy and it really does
take a passion
that's beyond finances.
Because don't get me wrong, I was an advice
advisor. I'm never going to have a minimum. I'm going to
work with everyone out there at the same
(10:18):
time. This is a business and you only have a certain amount of time.
So you do have to be strategic.
but what that happens to do is those people that
don't have the resources that really, really need the
education, they're left
out.
>> Tanorria (10:35):
Yeah.
>> Jon (10:36):
And that is where we have to figure out. I don't want to call
it pro bono work, but that is where
time, talents, treasures, whatever
percentage of my personal bandwidth
needs to go to that demographic
or that subset. I do think it is important. Or
we are constantly just going to be going round and
(10:57):
round and never get further.
>> Candace (10:59):
Yeah, that's, incredible.
So I want to know. I'm just going to ask it because this is
great.
>> Tanorria (11:05):
Yeah, go for it. Please do, John.
>> Candace (11:07):
So when did you fall in love with financial
education?
>> Jon (11:13):
Oh, So, I mean, to go back again. So my
dad's a financial advisor. I owe him
everything, when it comes to the business
side of my mind, because he showed me how to do it.
I fell in love after grad school. It
was one of those things that my. I never wanted to follow in my dad's
footsteps. I wanted to. I never wanted to
(11:34):
write his coattails. I wanted to do my own thing. I didn't want
people to think that I was just, you know, following
him and everything was handed to me. but then we had
a conversation after graduation,
and he told me, what is it that you want to do? And
for me, I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to make a
positive impact in the community. but
(11:54):
I also wanted to. I wanted
to. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And one of the
things that I started to see in him is that
people were thanking him for the work that
he had done for them when they didn't want him to do
it. Meaning that he's going to retirement
parties and they're coming up to him and saying,
(12:14):
hey, you know, because of you, we could retire when and how we
want to, and we're going to do XYZ and were going to
graduation parties, and their kids are able
to go to whatever school they want to,
not have 100%, you know, debt. And they're
thanking him for educating them on
taking action when they didn't want to take
action. Because we are a society of consumers, not
(12:36):
savers or investors. You know, I get caught
all the time on my Instagram, and that's why I have
so many shoes. Like, you know, like, I'm not perfect
either when it comes to that. we are a society of
what do you have the materialistic things and not
kind of what you're putting away for your family or for your
financial future. So when I saw the impact that he was
(12:57):
making on people's lives, it really
started to hit me of. I just didn't want to sell a
widget because somebody needed it. I wanted to
be able to look back and say, hey, I changed somebody's
life. And then I was
27 at the time, and
a lot of us, man, we were fresh in our careers.
(13:17):
We barely had any money. We were spending
everything. Credit card cowboys is what we call it when we're in
broader pool back in the day. And young
professionals didn't have
another young professional that understood what they were going
through in order to help them accumulate.
You know, you can only say $50 a month. What financial
(13:39):
advisor wants to work with you? Well, you got to start
somewhere. So I started to see that my peers
needed what I could offer. And
even though you had to work five times as hard because
your average case size, your average client
was smaller, all of a sudden
when m. You do right by people when they don't have
anything, they're going to be with you for life, and then they're going
(14:02):
to tell people about you. And then when
you see the impact, because now I'm 43
years old, my clients and my friends, they've got
two, three kids, they've changed jobs, they're
CEOs, they're executives. And when you can
grow with them and you had a small part of that,
it kind of comes full circle of,
(14:22):
yeah, God put this on my heart for a reason.
There were some ups and downs. You know, sometimes
my parents had to help me out in order to make sure my mortgage was
paid. But in the, in the long run,
you know, I'm very, very humbled and blessed that
I'm, here today. And I'm not at the top of the hill at any stretch of the
imagination. But I do love getting calls
(14:42):
and saying, hey, I know you work with so and so they said
you're a stand up guy and that you're going to take care of me.
I want to meet. That's the highest compliment I could get.
>> Candace (14:52):
Wow, that's great.
>> Tanorria (14:56):
John. You, you talked about how
we are a, consumer based society and
you hashtag capitalism. But
I, I have a question for you,
as a financial advisor, as someone who is
watching, you know, how people
are managing their money or lack thereof,
(15:19):
and knowing that
especially within the black community, there has to be
a sense of,
rest, caring for yourself,
recognizing, that you are worthy and you have value and
you deserve nice things. Because so many
people in the black community come from a scarcity
(15:39):
mentality. Where is that
fine line for you? Knowing that it's like,
okay, you need to save, you need to be responsible.
But also, like, the studies have
shown that some spending or
having some nice things, however you acquire them,
like, it does help your mental health and, and
resting is necessary, and resting as resistance.
(16:02):
And where's that fine line for you?
>> Jon (16:05):
So, I mean, bringing it full circle in, I mean,
so Tenoria, I mean, Tanoria's brother
is my big brother. We grew up five houses
down from each other, and we came
from, I'm trying to
figure, I mean, Kmart,
layaway. Yeah, I mean, I
(16:28):
remember getting IOUs for Christmas because
my parents might not have had money
then. We were trying to get everything on sale,
making sure that, I mean,
hammy, whatever it is, I understand that.
So I do think that we need to
thrive and not just survive. I personally, as
a financial advisor, think that the more efficient I am with
(16:50):
your money, the more that you can do some things. I
joke that when I was first in the business,
me and my buddies went to Vegas for a bachelor party.
One of my friends right next to me looked at me in the morning and
said, hey, because you're my financial advisor now, I guess we can't do
this right. And I laughed.
If I'm doing my job correctly, I hope you can do it
(17:11):
more. I think it's all about paying yourself first.
that is the biggest thing. And paying yourself first is
understanding what you want for yourself. And then
that is the dream. And then you have to have
a plan in order to get that. And then
you have to implement behaviors
that align with it in order to then achieve it.
(17:32):
So for me, you know,
pay God first, pay myself second. Whatever I
have left, I can do whatever I want to with
it simply because my priorities are taken
care of. So I am a sneaker head.
I've got a phenomenal shoe collection right
now. The thing about it is, people might think I'm
(17:53):
wasting money, but as long as it doesn't take money away
from me, retiring young and wealthy, me
make making sure me and my daughter can go to whatever
school she wants to in 18 years. Making sure our
mortgage is paid, that our lifestyle is taken care
of, making sure we can still go on vacations as
long as the priorities are taken care of. What I do
(18:13):
with the other money with my clients, I don't care about.
I got clients that want to travel the world and
see fish. Like fish shows, like the jam band.
I personally like basketball, so I like to go to
Butler games and Pacer games and we go to Colts
games. I buy a lot of shoes. We just got a shipment
yesterday. We got matching shoes, Angie and I. That's
(18:34):
cool. Just pay yourself first. But I know what
my number is. I know the percentage of
my income that I need to save on a regular basis
to take care of what I want
to take care of and what's important to me
after that. You need to live your best life.
We work too hard, we sacrifice too much.
(18:54):
And I remember when I
only got a pair of shoes on the first day of school,
and then for my birthday, right? And
then I was around all these other Kids, I could get it
whenever they want to. It also makes me feel great when
I'm. And some nice dress, clothes,
M. You know, I feel like money. I feel like
(19:15):
wealth. I want to be able to have a nice watch. I want to make sure
that my hair is cut and my beard is trimmed,
and I want to make sure I can splurge on my
parents or splurge on my family.
But you cannot sacrifice
looking wealthy and rich to the outside
and under the hood. It's completely messed up.
(19:38):
And that is what social media unfortunately does,
is we always see these little memes and
videos about, well, the billionaire has on
some khakis and a raggedy shirt, and these
millionaires have on a half million dollar watch and,
200 T shirt and blah, blah, blah.
I can't judge them because I don't know what their situation
(19:59):
is intimately. But
you should be able to do both. Now, you might not be
able to do everything, but there
is a balance to being able to do both.
Because we did not come
to this earth, just to save money, and we
didn't come to this earth just to, you know,
(20:20):
spend money. There's a balance. And I think
that's one of the conversations that I like to have with people, is what's
important to you and what are your priorities? Let's
name them. 1, 2, and 3. And then let's make a plan.
And then after that, I love to follow
my clients on social media. And they, everyone's going
on spring break right now or kids are going
(20:41):
somewhere, then you can still celebrate that. Just make
sure you take care of yourself first.
>> Tanorria (20:47):
Hey, friends, it's Tenoria. My
first ever cookbook is Staples +5 is available
wherever cookbooks are sold. It was voted one of the best
cookbooks in 2020 by glamourmagazine.
You can purchase it at
tenoriastable.combooks and make sure to
tell me what your favorite recipe is.
>> Candace (21:05):
Hey, y' all, it's Candace the spice slanger. Here
is your food. Bland, unseasoned.
Let's spice it up with seasonings from Foodlov Talk.
Catch me online@foodlovedtalk.com
Be seasoned, y' all.
>> Tanorria (21:19):
I think the biggest takeaway for me in
that is that oftentimes
we were raised on the whole pay God first,
pay yourself second. But the pay yourself second second
part was only what you put in savings.
Not paying yourself is taking care of your whole
life, right? That's a big
difference that people need to hear, right?
>> Jon (21:42):
And I think the mental health thing, I mean, that is one of the things that I
personally struggle with is I don't
take enough time off because
of work, because of what I want.
But you have to, because I can't bring my
B game and my C game because I am running
so thin and I'm so stressed and I'm tired.
(22:03):
You have to protect yourself. You have to take the
time to get away, have a reset, because when
you come back, then you're even better. You know,
it's just like working out. You're not supposed to work out seven days a
week. You know, your muscles need
to rest, they need to rejuvenate, and then you even
get better by taking rest. It's the exact same thing
(22:23):
of taking care of yourself first in multiple
different ways. Multiple different ways. For
me, my family is my
life. But my safe space
is going to a basketball game. And I'll go to a
basketball game and not say a word the whole entire time
because that's my time. That is
(22:44):
my, you know, that's my spot. And
then I feel better after. Everyone's got to have that.
And the investment in going to those
games and doing that is also an investment
in yourself. So that
is part of my plan. And people forget that
financial advising and wealth management and all that stuff isn't
(23:04):
about just stocks, bonds, ETFs and like
savings and banks and stuff like that. It's everything.
It's everything because
I mean, I saw something yesterday. the average age
you live till you're 78, but people want to work
till they're 65. That's bad math.
It's bad math. Right.
(23:27):
but you also have to just make sure you take care of yourself health
wise, mentally and financially in order to maybe cut
that 65 to 60, get a little bit
more time. but everyone's plan is different.
So start young, start early.
>> Candace (23:41):
I'm so glad you brought this up because I think,
especially just as women
and black women, the idea of
us splurging on ourselves is always
taken as well. Who does she think she is and where does she
think she is to be able to do that or do this?
Like just the conversation around
(24:03):
Meghan Markle and her Dutch.
>> Tanorria (24:06):
Yep.
>> Candace (24:07):
Like just the simple fact that black women can have
luxury cookware. When people don't realize that, it's not
just that it's luxury, it's the fact that it's a tried and true brand.
>> Tanorria (24:17):
Right.
>> Candace (24:17):
That many people invest in. I have a piece
that's older than me.
>> Tanorria (24:22):
Yeah, It's Going to be passed down for.
>> Candace (24:23):
It's going to be passed down. And so I think. But just. Just
the fact that we like nice things
is always put under the
microscope. And it's so jarring to me as a
black woman to, you know, reach this level
of success, to have people look at me like I'm crazy
when I have a nice bag or have a nice car
or go on vacation or just, you know, simply in the grocery store.
(24:46):
Like, people looking at you crazy. Now when you buy more than
one.
>> Jon (24:49):
Dozen eggs, like, because we have
ptsd, I mean, I think that. I
mean, so being a young black
man in
Indiana, M. Whenever I
go outside of the Loop
465, you gotta be careful, you
know? Like, I. I joke about this
(25:12):
all the time, is like, if I could afford a Range
Rover, right, I wouldn't buy
one simply because
the judgment that I would get with so many
people. I drove a Toyota
because one, there are people that
would not do business with me being
(25:33):
a young black man that drove a range
because they're going to think a certain way about me. I
have to make sure that there is no excuse
for someone not to work with me. You almost have
to dumb down yourself in order to make other
people comfortable, which is
really, really sad.
(25:54):
I, think it sucks
that we have to think about that. But having a certain
bag, having a certain car, living in a
certain neighborhood or having a certain house,
man, people don't think, hey, man,
John went to burbuff, went to DePaul, played basketball, got
his NBA. You know, he's in finance, man.
(26:14):
People from the outside, before they even get to know the
resume, are like, yo, what's he doing?
Right? That might not be on the up and up. it
might even be to the case of like, hey, he manages
money. is he legit? Where
is my stuff? Let me double check. That
is an unfortunate reality
(26:36):
that we have, and I don't believe
we should. But I also have learned
it's not how it should be, it's how it is.
And in order for me to do
the things I want to long term, man,
sometimes I gotta suck up my man, suck up my
pride, you know, and almost succumb to
(26:56):
it to the point where I want to be, where I never have to
do it again. Because I got friends that make
so much money and they over here in pajamas
and nobody's saying nothing to them.
And unless I'm in a suit, I can't get
the time of day. So I will tell this real quick, and
I'm sorry, I'm taking over this. My
(27:18):
first week as an executive at JP Morgan.
Nobody knew who I was in the whole state, right? So
my boss was like, hey, we're doing the secret shopper thing.
So I want you to go to this branch and I want you to,
man, wear your Jordans, wear some nice jeans,
wear a hoodie and see how they act towards you.
man, everybody
(27:40):
start coming around, wanted to make sure like,
hey, are you in the right spot? What do you need?
Now mind you, man, my
Jordans are fresh and they're clean and I
got nice jeans on and I got a nice hoodie. Like
I was still put together. Go to another
branch down the street. He said, hey, change your clothes.
(28:01):
Where are my dress clothes? Hey sir,
how you doing? Like nobody was worried about
me or anything. That's reality.
And that's, that
is just reality. And I think that right there
makes us not be our true selves
because we are scared of the
(28:22):
ramifications of actually being that.
>> Tanorria (28:24):
No 100%.
>> Candace (28:27):
And I think, I think though.
>> Jon (28:32):
M.
>> Candace (28:32):
I can speak for me, I can't think for everyone here.
I think we are so tired of that having
to code switch that some of
us have just decided if I walk
into your establishment and whatever I'm
wearing and you treat me that way, I'm not coming back. It's the
same thing with finding out that our favorite Red
(28:52):
Circle store double down on removing
DEI policies. Like if this is how you're going to treat people that
spend their money, then we don't have to spend money with you. And I think
that's well within our right to decide.
We're not going to spend money with people who decide to
judge us based on our clothing and they've never met
us based on what we drive.
>> Jon (29:12):
Power we have as black people. The power we
have as black people and our
spending power is something
that is understated. I don't have the number in front of
me, but I was at a summit a couple months ago and we talked about
this. I mean the percentage of the
GDP in the US that comes
from US M is so
(29:35):
large. Like we have the leverage and we have the power
in order to enact change.
Unfortunately, we're not given
that. That confidence because nobody wants
you to know that.
Nobody wants you to know that. Because I mean
that store that you're talking about and we're not even going to name it because
they're getting no fleet free publicity, right?
(29:57):
Oh, we haven't, we haven't been in three months, and we will
absolutely drive 10 miles out the
way, and we will go to two, three different
stores to get everything that we need to. Because
it's a thing of principle, though. You are
telling us you do not care about us.
Why would I fund you with my dollars, even to the point
(30:18):
of I might not invest in certain
companies? Because if I do, then that's me
just saying, it's okay. You're gonna make me some money,
so it's okay. That's also, like, social
awareness when it comes to, you know, whether
it's who you work with. I've had a lot
of people that have said, hey, I was picking between different people,
(30:38):
and I went with you because you a brother and I
want to support you. I've had, you know, like,
it could be that or different companies are saying, hey, Jon like, when
you're creating this portfolio, blah, blah, blah, these are things that I don't agree
with and make sure they're not in my
portfolio. M. And that's how we really
can amplify our. Our
(30:58):
dollars and our say, make people stand
up and pay attention.
>> Tanorria (31:03):
Yeah, well, I was. When you
were talking about, you know, the challenges with how
you dressed and people making judgments and things like that,
I was thinking to myself that
especially in 2020, when there
was the huge civil unrest and everyone was like,
everyone should be doing something. And I was like,
(31:24):
everyone has a part to play, but not everyone has the
same part to play. Right. So
Candace and I are the two
individuals who are over here screaming from the
rooftops, that's not okay. We're not doing it. And
we are going to make it very, very known all the time.
You're probably going to get sick of hearing it, because that is
(31:44):
the influence we have. That's the platform that
we have, whether it's black girls eating or our own
respective platforms. One based on being
creatives, being entrepreneurs, being,
community involved, the way Candace is with,
working for Flanner and things like that. But then you, Jon
over here, you have to approach
(32:04):
it strategically and differently.
You. You have no choice, because that's how you have to
run your business. And that's also how you
are going to make the most effective impact
based on your expertise and based
on your skill set and based on the platform
that you have. And so it's like everyone
(32:24):
has a different role
in this. We're not all expected to do
the same thing. We're not all expected to raise
the same hell in the same way.
>> Jon (32:36):
I think. How I think about it is.
You got to play a role in order to get invited to the
party. And then once you're in the party, you
got to do your thing. Like, I take what I do
very, very seriously because I know there's not many
of us. And what I do and if I don't kill
it, that could be the excuse for
(32:57):
the next person not to get the opportunity.
And when you're in that party or you're in that room
and you kill it and they. And
anyone just sees that you are competent, you add
value, that you're a good person, that you do
things the right way, then you
can then make change from the inside. but I think a lot
(33:18):
of times, and I had to learn this the hard way is like
I was too stubborn at the very beginning
and then I didn't get asked to the party. M.
You have to do it from the inside
because if you're on the outside, it doesn't matter.
You know, and whether it's right or wrong, that's really
just the rules of the game right now. And you
(33:40):
know, the very last position that I had at
J.P. morgan, I was very, very fortunate in order to
have some really good people around me to help me navigate
that complicated organization. And then one of the
things that I would say before leaving and
starting, you know, my own thing,
is the ability in order to step into the first butter
(34:01):
and seeing the things that they were doing and the
change that they wanted to make and meeting with, you know,
Molly and Alan and being like, I see your vision and my.
I sent somebody a picture and said, we have
to be a part of this next year. And we
ended up being one of the top sponsors the next year to
it. But if I wouldn't have done it a certain
(34:22):
way in order to get access to certain people that
could amplify the impact that I wanted to
make, then it never would have happened. So
you kind of got to go at the right pace. You kind of got to, you
know, play the game a little bit, always being true to yourself,
but understanding it's a long game, not a short game.
>> Tanorria (34:40):
I think about like Shonda Rhimes,
creator, producer, writer for
Grey's Anatomy and a whole library of other things.
I. I read her book and she
always talks about being the first at something. The first black
woman, the first woman. And
she's setting the standard for her daughters and
(35:01):
for other creators and other
people of color, et cetera, et cetera.
Just if you look at, just take Grey's Anatomy for
example. And look at the trajectory
of that show. And at the beginning of Grey's Anatomy, it was always
about this white woman falling in love with this
white man.
(35:21):
And now when you watch Grey's Anatomy,
she's barely even part of the show anymore.
And also, Shonda has proven her value.
She's proven her worth. She's probably proven her excellence.
She has made networks, millions, billions
of dollars. Now she can do whatever she wants.
She can put whatever she wants on tv,
(35:41):
she can address any social topic that she
wants. And no one bats nine.
but she had to, like, get in there first and.
And make everyone fall in love with the white woman.
Falling in love with the white man.
Yeah.
>> Jon (35:58):
And because she did that, though, the next writer
that looks like her, that comes from the same
background of her, that trajectory
might not take 15, 20 years. it might
take five. Or, you know what? Now she's got so much power
that she said, hey, I'm, who I am.
Hey, come with me.
>> Tanorria (36:17):
Yeah.
>> Jon (36:18):
And I'm gonna get you in that room. And because I vouch
for you, you're gonna be good. And you can do it on day
one. I mean, that's why, like, my
dad, without him, I wouldn't be to where I
was, because, man, my dad came from South Carolina, didn't know
anybody here, and grinded
247 to allow me
to get the opportunity that I had,
(36:41):
which shortened my trajectory. So I want to
give everybody before us, that sacrifice
so much even to get to where we are today. Because I always
try to be the positive person in
anything. And there's a lot that's messed up going, like,
things going on, but at the exact same time, I can see
progress. Or let me say this, I could see
(37:02):
progress. Now I'm a little bit
iffy, depending on when you talk to me, but
still, I mean,
we gotta. I don't know. I'm gonna be positive. It's,
it's. It's a really messed up world right now.
>> Tanorria (37:16):
It's gonna get worse before it gets better, but it will get better.
>> Candace (37:19):
Talk about that. Let's just kind of jump into that really
quickly. So what can people
do right now
to prepare themselves? Like where, let's say
you have, you know, a small savings, or you have a
401k, you have a 529, or let's say you don't have any of
those things. What can you put in place
(37:39):
right now to help you to start
looking at what wealth building and what financial
planning can look like? Because one One part of it,
too, is also end of life planning. And
I don't think we talk about that a lot at
all in our community. So what can people do?
One small, two small things that they can do to kind of
(38:00):
get themselves started, especially as we look about
what's happening right now in our world.
>> Tanorria (38:05):
And I want to add to that. I know you said
start young, and m. I am so grateful for
you and my brother and your dad and
my time working, working at the credit union that
I understood that. but if I think
about the analytics of our listeners,
the analytics of our listeners are mostly women,
(38:27):
and they are mostly between the ages
of, I'm gonna say, 28 and
50. So that's not
necessarily starting young. So what
would you have for, based on
Candace's question, all age ranges,
not just young.
>> Jon (38:46):
And this is not a selfish plug because I
want people to work with someone most and
foremost. It doesn't have to be me. Talk to an
advisor. Talk to
a professional, okay? And find a
professional that you know like and trust.
Okay? That is going to be the first thing that I'm going to say
now. I tell people, one, you need to have
(39:09):
an emergency fund. Okay? So there's a
couple things. Make sure you have some savings that
if, God forbid, XYZ happens, it's not going to
put you in a financial bind. Because that thing can
snowball. When you have a financial emergency and it could be
something in the house, you know, you're putting it on a credit
card and now you're paying 27% and you're paying the
minimum. Then you're just going to be behind the
(39:32):
eight ball and you're going to be behind eight balls for the next 30
years. That's how credit card companies make their money,
right? I will also tell you that
especially right now, because of interest rates, a high yield savings
account, not just a generic savings account.
Some banks are paying you 2/10 of a percent on your
money. Some others are paying you 3.5 or
(39:52):
4. Get all the free money that you can. If you're saving
for retirement, make sure you're at least putting enough in
for the match. Get that company's free
money. Okay?
I mean, those are, those are the two things, I
think. And here's another thing that I would say is
generational wealth, which is very, very important to me.
(40:13):
Man, nobody wants to talk about dying, but we're all
going to die. Okay? when I pass this earth, I
hope that I left it better than worse. And
I know I want to leave a financial legacy, whatever that means.
Here's one of the things that I learned from my private school
counterparts. When they've got these
houses, when their kids are going to private
school and stuff like that, man, their grandparents
(40:36):
are having life insurance or
accounts that they're inheriting
that allows them to do that. Not all of that
is coming from the parents. Cash flow. The
grandparents had forethought in order to make sure that
generations after generations were taken care
of. I think that's huge.
To make sure that God forbid,
(40:58):
prematurely if something happened to me. The last thing I want
is for Mia and Angie in order to be in a situation
where their lifestyle dramatically changes. They're
grieving, but also it's being very
efficient with your money. Okay, so what I
will say is, if I told you that between
now and age 65, you put
(41:19):
in $50,000, but when you pass away
it was going to give somebody a million, would you do that?
>> Candace (41:26):
Absolutely.
>> Jon (41:27):
Okay. That's life insurance, everybody.
That legitimately is life insurance. So you're telling me I
can leverage $50,000 to
produce a million tax free?
And what happens in is that then that goes to
Mia, my daughter, and then I teach her that,
and then she rolls it into the next. And now all of a
(41:47):
sudden you've got generational wealth, whether it's real
estate, whether it's life ins, whether it's investment
accounts is
playing chess, not checkers.
Right. Like two steps ahead.
So work with an advisor. Because these concepts
I'm, saying very simply, but to implement
(42:08):
them and to get them to work correctly is the
complicated part where a specialist needs to be
able to do that for you. So that's
just a couple things.
>> Candace (42:19):
That's good.
>> Tanorria (42:22):
That'S good. One more question, Candace, before we
ask our last question.
>> Jon (42:27):
Okay.
>> Tanorria (42:28):
We talk a lot about luxury
and being deserving of nice
things and all of that on the podcast.
But I also have to recognize that there
are plenty of people who
don't have any money. they are
functioning barely even paycheck to paycheck.
(42:48):
They to tell them to set
aside X amount of dollars a month
to save sounds impossible or
feels impossible to them. what
would you say to those folk?
>> Jon (43:03):
One, you're not alone. I
think we feel as though we're the only one and we're in the
worst situation. M. I would also tell you that
the people that you probably look at that
you feel have all this money and
are living a certain lifestyle, I see it all the time.
It's just flexing. And when you look underneath the
(43:24):
hood, it's not what you thought.
And they're not taking care of certain responsibilities.
So as an individual, you can
only do what you can do. And
it's. I. I always have this
cliche of, like, my job is to have your money
work as hard for you as you do for, Doesn't really
(43:44):
matter how much money you have,
but just make sure it's efficiently used.
And the less money you have, even the more important
that is because you don't have it to waste.
>> Tanorria (43:56):
Yeah.
>> Jon (43:56):
I also will say that I'm not big
on budgeting because I'm not
a budgeter. I pay myself first. Whatever I have
left. I just do whatever I want to and I
figure it out. But
what I will say is there's also certain things that we think
are necessities and we, like, think we have
(44:16):
to have that we really don't.
So, like, I don't know, you might be getting DoorDash
five days a week. I mean,
do you really have to. You want to buy,
like, the new J's that come out, but you already have 20
pair of shoes? Like, if your priorities are
really to stop the cycle, then we do have to
(44:37):
sacrifice. And that is an ego thing that I
had to learn of having to say no to things.
Sometimes my friends ask me to do stuff and it's
really hard to say no, I don't have the money.
>> Tanorria (44:49):
Yeah.
>> Jon (44:50):
You know, we never want to say that.
I'm better at doing it now because what
my priorities are, are more important to
me. But you just have to know what your priorities
are and be okay sacrificing in order to
get them. But I would want to say is
you're not alone. And
(45:11):
people. You think they got it going on and have no war in the world.
Man. It's not always that.
>> Tanorria (45:18):
Yeah.
The friends that you had a hard time saying that to, you
probably have better friends now, too.
>> Jon (45:28):
I. I think it's.
I think it's getting to. I think I'm more comfortable with
myself now than I might have been in
the past. Whether it was immaturity or
whether I was trying to prove to someone
that I was at some point or that I was at some
level and things, and now it's not as
(45:49):
important.
>> Tanorria (45:49):
Yeah.
>> Jon (45:50):
You know,
my. My friends and they. And you know what, though? They probably
didn't even care, and I thought that they would or that
they were going to hold it against me or they were going to be gossiping behind my
back. About John can do xyz, blah blah, blah.
Like, you know, and it wasn't even that. If
anything, they probably tried to help me out or
(46:10):
try to figure it out. But it's an ego thing. Money
is a lot of ego. I mean,
whether it's to fulfill ourselves, whether it's to fulfill
somebody else. But
nobody can spend your money.
Like, you know, like, this is my situation. I'm gonna make
the best of my situation. And you know what,
(46:31):
if anyone else has a problem, they can kick rocks. As
long as you are taking steps to get better and to
do the best that you can, that's all anyone
can ever ask. And any judgment after that,
the people really probably don't need to be in your life.
>> Tanorria (46:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
>> Candace (46:51):
This isn't good.
>> Tanorria (46:53):
Yeah, it has.
>> Candace (46:54):
I'm glad we're making a money talk. Not feel so
scary.
>> Jon (46:59):
Yeah, yeah,
that. I mean, you know what though? That is one of the things that
I hope I bring to anyone that I do
talk to is I want to make money cool.
Like, like, you know, because like, and make it easy
to talk about and be able to be transparent and genuine.
I purposely don't wear a suit to work. I
(47:20):
wear a dress shirt and some dress pants, but I never wear a coat.
I probably have one button too many
undone. You know, I got my chain
showing a little bit. But like, I want to make
money. Cool. Financial literacy, cool. Being
financially independent, cool. And when people
can't relate to you,
then there's a guardrail there for that
(47:42):
trust, you know,
I like being friends with who I work with. Now of course there's
privacy and all that kind of stuff, but this needs to be a
relationship, you know, communications,
understanding each other. I,
try not to be, you know, the status quo.
and hopefully that builds trust. And then
(48:04):
the advice that I give is seen in a different way
because I'm just like you. Like, I will tell you about my
pitfalls. I'll tell you about all the dumb stuff that I
did that I do, how I'm not
perfect. I'll let you know what I do currently.
And sometimes thank God I had my dad as a
financial adviser because I can justify not doing what I'm
(48:24):
supposed to do just like anybody else. Like, this is
real. Everything shouldn't be like, I'm perfect.
And if you don't do xyz, then there's something wrong with
you. Nah, this, like this, this is real life.
>> Tanorria (48:36):
Yeah. Yeah.
We have one last question for you. This is
not necessarily a money question. It is
an question of insight and we
ask it to every guest. It. People always tell us
it's too deep, but we're going to keep asking.
(48:56):
Jon what would you tell your six
year old self today? My six
year old self or your younger self?
Yeah.
>> Jon (49:14):
I mean,
don't follow that girl to college.
>> Tanorria (49:23):
I knew you were gonna say something, crazy.
>> Jon (49:25):
I mean, honestly. I mean, honestly.
I mean, that didn't happen to me, but I do think
it's very, very important. Your younger self,
like with me, I mean, girls were
so important to me, and probably
made a lot of my decisions when I was young,
like, sway one way or the other.
(49:47):
And I would say,
don't do something today that your future
self would regret. And I think that's
easier said than done. But
I, I mean, instant
gratification, can mess up your
life. And I think
(50:07):
that's what I would have.
I mean, that's what I would. I would have told my younger self a lot of things.
I mean, I would have told myself that I had plenty of time to
party and you don't need to do it right
now and take advantage of, you know, the
blessings and the gifts that you currently had when you were in high school and
college. you know what? I would have told myself
(50:28):
that my dad was doing the best
thing for me, of not trying to be my best friend when I was
growing up and trying to make me a man and to love him for
it then. I'm blessed that I know
that now and our relationship is different.
Yeah,
>> Candace (50:46):
That'S good.
>> Tanorria (50:47):
Yeah, that is good.
That is good.
Jon thank you for being here.
>> Jon (50:57):
Thank you.
>> Tanorria (50:58):
this was really good. I knew you would have
such good insight to share. I had no doubt about that.
But I think that you have
definitely given our listeners a lot to, to
think about and a lot to process. and some glimmers of
hope too. Even though we didn't talk in great detail about
the world we live in right now, I still feel like you
gave us a sense of reality which we need,
(51:22):
three and a half years.
>> Jon (51:23):
Three and a half years. Just get through it.
>> Tanorria (51:25):
Exactly, exactly.
we are going to post,
John's contact information and how you can best get
a hold of him if you'd like to work with him on
our website, and socials.
but ultimately, at the end of the day, find someone you know,
like, and trust to help you navigate the,
(51:46):
the tricky, tricky world of money.
>> Jon (51:48):
So, yeah, I appreciate y' all. I
appreciate the platform. I, love what y' all
are doing. thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of it.
And, hey, y' all just keep shining and
keep helping, and be in that positive
light. I'm a big fan.
>> Candace (52:04):
Thank you so much, John. Thank you. Thank
you so much.
>> Tanorria (52:08):
All right, friends.
>> Candace (52:08):
All right, friends.
>> Tanorria (52:09):
Until next time.
>> Candace (52:11):
Bye.
>> Tanorria (52:12):
Bye.
>> Jon (52:13):
Later.
>> Candace (52:14):
Black Girls Eating the podcast is
sound engineered and Produced by David McKissick.
It's recorded at Nexus Impact
Center Creative Suite.
Follow Black Girls Eating the podcast on Instagram at. Ah,
Black Girls Eating. Follow Tanoria at
Sonoria's table. Follow candace@,
(52:34):
foodloftalk. Thank you for listening.
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