April 24, 2024 • 47 mins
Dr. Paris Woods returns to take us on a financial empowerment journey that goes beyond her triumphs to become your guide to financial literacy and independence., We discuss the FIRE movement and the importance of understanding the "why" behind each financial decision. We also share our investment missteps and the wisdom we gained from them, dissect common financial pitfalls, and emphasize the crucial role of emergency funds. We delve into the unique challenges families face, particularly within black households, stressing the necessity of increasing income and diving into the intricacies of investments, from cryptocurrencies to index funds. Finally, we celebrate the transformative effect of financial literacy and encourage you to pass on these lessons. Our discussion is about embracing our collective responsibility to ensure everyone can achieve a legacy of prosperity. So plug in, absorb, and share because we all advance when one of us grows.
Click on the links below to learn more about Dr. Paris Woods and purchase her book: The Black Girls Guide to Financial Freedom.
https://pariswoods.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Girls-Guide-Financial-Freedom/dp/1737606607
https://youtube.com/channel/UCLHtabwKhqgLCr6CehorJMA
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Give me a moment with your friend.
I've never been up to mythoughts before.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to the Only One Mic Podcast Calls you Rob,
brooklyn Drelyn dre j rob is off.
We're joined by a very, veryspecial returning guest coming
to join us once again.
Dr paris woods, how you doingthanks so much for having me.
I'm excited to be back yes, yes,and we happy to have you back
(00:46):
and, as a lot of our listenersknow, that, that paris sorry, dr
paris was is the author of theblack girl's guide to financial
freedom.
So, like I was telling youbehind the scenes, uh, paris,
that that last episode when youcame on and we, we had our
conversation about getting tothe financial freedom, you know,
(01:06):
getting to the bag, andeverything, as we said, that was
very informative and we had alot of people that was hitting
us up, you know, asking usquestions, and I'm like I'm not
the financial expert.
She was already on, you knowwhat I mean.
So it was like questions that Icouldn't answer and things like
that.
But I said I definitely wantedto have you back on the show to
give some new perspective, beingthat it is Financial Literacy
(01:29):
Month, so I couldn't let themonth go out without having you
on.
So, paris, if you can, forthose that's just now tuning in
and getting in tune with theshow, can you please give us a
little bit of your background?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, so I am a native St Louis in which I
always start there because it'sdefinitely been a full circle
place for me to be from.
But grew up sort of in yourstereotypical low income family
Right which, unfortunately,especially with what's going on
in the economy and what's goingon with all these layoffs, a lot
(02:07):
of people are findingthemselves in that situation, so
it can be more typical than wewould like for it to be.
But definitely grew upexperiencing lack.
You know we moved around a lotand I have to think back to
remember like what was it liketo sleep in my mom's car or to
sleep in family members'basements or to spend time
living in housing projects, likeall of those things are part of
(02:28):
my experience growing up andyou know I had a very loving and
supportive mother and familywho encouraged education for me
and so I did well in school andeducation became my personal
ticket out of poverty.
So I ended up getting a fullscholarship to Harvard
University where I did mybachelor's and master's degrees
(02:52):
and went right into educationbecause it was such a powerful
lever for me and I wanted otherfolks to have access and have
been working in education for 20years.
So I still sort of work ineducation with the intention of
helping young people accesseconomic mobility, but certainly
, I would say, even after allthose degrees and you know all
(03:15):
these really cool workexperiences certainly realized
that I had not received afinancial education.
And so at age 30, you know wehave all kinds of wake-up calls
at age 30, right, like I'm likeguys get married at age 30.
All kinds of things happen, butfor me, age 30 was a financial
wake-up call, and so that's whenI really had to pursue a
(03:36):
financial education for myselfand really start turning things
around.
And so the book that I wrote isreally me retelling that story,
reliving a lot of the mistakesthat I made so other folks can
learn from them, and then alsohelping folks either skip over
some of those mistakes orrecover from them and start to
experience the kind of financialfreedom that I really think you
(03:58):
know we deserve.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Right and now being at his financial literacy month,
I guess financial literacy isthe precursor to financial
discipline.
Can you tell us what are sometips that you have in terms of
being financially disciplined?
And especially, like the lasttime we spoke, we spoke more to
the younger people out here whokind of get money and it just
(04:21):
pipes right through their handsand they get a bunch of useless
things that they probably is notgoing to add up to nothing in
about another five years, butthat's a point of being, you
know, undisciplined financially.
So can you kind of give us sometips on what it takes to be
financially disciplined?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, it's interesting, you know, if I were
to go back to the person that Iwas at age 30, you know I was
following the rules that I hadbeen given by society.
So I got my fancy degrees and Ithought I deserve a new car.
So I went to a dealership andfinanced a new car.
That first degree was free, butthe second degree I paid all in
(04:59):
loans.
So I had student loans and thenI got to get some dental work
I'll take out a loan for that,right.
So you know, by the time I wasin age 30, I had accumulated
quite a bit of debt.
And you know, I remember youknow no one questioning me
taking out loans or questioningme financing a car and in my
(05:21):
mind I was doing the thingsyou're supposed to do, like
you're supposed to have creditcards and a card note and all of
those things.
So you know, the first thing Ithink we have to ask ourselves a
really challenge is ourthinking around the role of
money and the role of debt.
The whole first half of thebook talking about debt, like
(05:52):
reframing how debt is used andsort of some of the ways that
debt can harm us, particularlyif we want to be building
financial freedom right, soinstead of paying back debt, we
could be investing for thefuture.
And so often the reason why wedon't have wiggle room in our
budgets is because we're makingdebt payments, and so often the
reason why we don't have wiggleroom in our budgets is because
we're making debt payments.
So you know, the first part offinancial discipline has to do
with the mindset, like a mindsetaround the money that you're
bringing in, what your goals arewith that money and then the
(06:14):
choices you're making as itleaves your hands, hopefully
keeping more of it over timeinstead of spending it,
investing it so that it growsover time.
And you know, at the end of theday, the big thing I'm pushing
is automating the process.
So I'm as regular person asthey come like.
Getting into debt is easy forme.
(06:34):
When I see something nice, Iwant to get it, and so for me,
in order to master my behavior,it required automations.
It required sort of setting upsystems around myself to make it
easy to make good choices andmake it hard to make bad choices
or choices that didn't alignwith my personal goals, so that
(06:57):
when the inevitable temptationsarise throughout the month, I
didn't succumb to them.
So those are just, you know,some things that made the
biggest difference for me Firstof all, shifting my mindset
around money and then, second ofall, creating the systems
around myself so that I could beautomating the choices that
would lead me to the goals thatI had set for myself.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So when you say invest, I mean how did you start
?
I mean when you had this?
You know, you had this changeof mindset in your thirties.
When you say invest, what didyou start off investing in?
I mean, like, did you start offsomething simple like 401k?
Or I mean, did you go into thestock market?
Or how did you start off?
Yeah, so I like many of uscause.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I was on my debt freedom journey, like many of us
, because I was on my debtfreedom journey was reading and
listening to Dave Ramsey, okay,and so you know he, as part of
the baby steps, recommendedstarting to put away a
percentage of your income inyour 401k.
So that is where I started.
And then, you know, as Istarted feeling more in control
(08:01):
of my money, started seeingmomentum, started seeing the
debt disappear, I startedreading more about investing and
sort of thinking about well,what is the purpose of this?
Like, what am I creating in mylife?
And so often I think, like,identifying the purpose,
identifying the why, is themissing piece for all of us who
know what we should be doingwith our money.
(08:22):
Right, we all have an idea, alist of things that we should be
doing differently, but thereason why we're not taking
action on those things isbecause we really don't have a
compelling reason why, like,what kind of life are we trying
to create on the other side ofmaking these different choices?
So, you know, I happened toland upon a blog of a guy who
was following the FIRE FinancialIndependence, ret retire early
(08:45):
movement and just startedreading it, just started
learning about this community ofpeople who were investing to
give themselves sort of theultimate freedom, which is the
ability to live without needingto work.
You can continue to work, youcan work on and off, you can do
projects right.
But for you to be able tochoose to go to work you can
work on and off, you can doprojects right, but for you to
be able to choose to go to workbecause you want to be there and
(09:08):
because you don't need thatnext paycheck, and that was
compelling to me.
Freedom is one of my corevalues, and so it sort of opened
up this whole new world to meabout what freedom could look
like.
And even though it was a whiteguy's blog I was reading, as a
black woman I had to say, well,wait a minute.
Like I think there's a deepermeaning here.
(09:29):
To be a black woman, to haveyou know ancestors who are
enslaved in this country, and tohave gotten all these
opportunities, Like my communitypoured so much into me, and so
to think about you know what,what might these people have
dreamed of for me?
Like what price has alreadybeen paid that I just need to
walk into.
(09:49):
And so the financial freedom,the financial independence
movement resonated with me forthat purpose and so, because of
that resonance, I really startedfollowing the tenets of that
investment strategy, which isvery similar.
So we're still talking about401ks.
At a certain point many peopledon't know you can actually max
(10:13):
out your 401k.
There's a limit to how muchmoney you can put in there.
So, thinking about other places, opening a Roth IRA if you meet
the income requirements,because there's also an income
limit and even just opening up aregular brokerage account, so
in terms of the accounts.
But what's unique about theFIRE movement is that there's a
(10:34):
very simple investing philosophyusing index funds, and that
resonated with me as well.
So just thinking about the mathand the science, like people
have run all sorts ofsimulations to prove why index
funds are actually the smartestinvestment strategy, and not
just the simplest, but thatresonated with me as well.
So that's been the investmentstrategy that I've been
(10:58):
following since then.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Did you have any growing pains starting
everything off?
I mean, my only reason I'masking because I had growing
pains.
I mean I had the same idea,Well, not at 30, but at 35,
whereas I started like goingdirectly into the stock market.
I think I took like 15% of mycheck and I went directly into a
401k.
I think I put like 9% in theregular 401k, the other I put
(11:24):
into a Roth and my growing painscame, going like directly into
the stock market, Whereas Ididn't get index funds initially
.
You know what I mean.
I was actually just trying toget whatever I could get for
cheap.
You know what I mean.
I started off like that and Ilost a few dollars and that
didn't.
You know.
I had the growing pains comingup.
(11:44):
Did you have the same thing orno?
Did you just, you know, didyour research first and then,
you know, everything kind ofworked out smooth.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Oh man, yeah, I wish I were that good.
Right, things always gosmoothly.
I'll make a mistake Like that'swhat I, what can be true, and
figure it out and sort of comearound to something that works
better.
So I, you know, I've been thetype of person to read about
money ever since, you know, Iwas 16 and my friend's dad
handed me a copy of Rich Dad,poor Dad.
Money has been on my mind andso I had a Roth IRA right out of
college.
In my first job I set up a RothIRA.
(12:21):
You know, the mistake that Imade that so many folks make is
raiding that money, right.
So you save it up over time.
You're doing well.
Some emergency comes up and orsomething you just want, and you
go in there and rate the funds.
So nowadays, you know, when Italk about investing, I talk
(12:42):
about this as the most commonmistake, but I also talk about
sort of the difference betweenwhat the number in your
brokerage account means and thenumber in your checking account
right.
Because a lot of folks thinkwhen they open up their
brokerage account and see$10,000, that that's the money
that they have in that account.
That's not true.
That $10,000 actuallyrepresents the value of the
(13:07):
investments that you own.
So you might own who knows?
100 shares and even if thevalue goes down, you still own
that 100 shares.
And so I think you know forfolks who see the number go down
and start to freak out and theysell their shares now you've
just sold those shares at adiscount, like you still owned
them.
And you know.
(13:29):
For folks who follow FIRE, oneof the big studies that these
folks have looked at is a studycalled the Trinity Study, which
looked at these 30 year periodsin history and they tracked all
the way through the entirehistory of the stock market.
So we're talking about the GreatDepression, right like the
entire history of the trackstock market and over any 30
(13:52):
yearyear period in history, themarket has gone up and it's gone
up by around 7% for the past100 years.
That number is around 10%, andso sort of what these folks do
when you run the numbers is youstart to realize that if all you
did, if your entire investingstrategy was to buy index funds
that track even the entire stockmarket, just the total stock
(14:15):
market index fund and left itthere for 30 years, you would
make at least 7% to 10% on yourmoney, if not more, and you
might be in a really lucky 30years right where that number is
much north, much farther north.
And so it sort of reduces thestress and reduces sort reduces
the anxiety around constantlychecking your account,
(14:35):
constantly checking my up and mydown Do I need to sell, do I
need to buy?
Removes all of that anxiety andreally just a buy and hold
strategy for folks who areinvesting for the long, long,
long term.
So I like that.
I like low stress, I like lowanxiety.
I'm like life is stressfulenough.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I can't be stressed opening up my account and
looking at the number.
So that was a lesson that I hadto learn the hard way as well.
Yeah, finally invest and getinto the stock market.
I mean, how do you talk themout of not, you know, taking
money when things start goingthe wrong way?
I mean because I noticed I'vebeen working with well, I don't
(15:21):
counsel anybody, but you know,because I started investing and
I started getting good with itover the years.
So now when I see a young personthat might work with me or
something like that, I mightgive them you know what I know
and they start.
And then you got to tell themlike, listen, you got to calm
down.
You know you might lose a fewdollars or something, but you're
not losing money.
Like you said, you still gotthe shares.
So as long as you're investingto, you know, like you said, an
(15:44):
index company or somethingthat's on the, you know S&P or
something like that, then youshould be all right.
So how do you keep people fromcringing and pulling out their
money and getting out of theirearly?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, that's the hardest part, right.
I think I remember when we wereyoung and the things we didn't
listen to.
So what I tell young people todo, and even older people, is to
make sure we're doing things inthe right sequence.
So we don't start withinvesting, we start with saving
and making sure that you have arobust emergency fund in place
(16:22):
for the unexpected things thatwe know will inevitably arise.
Right, like your car is goingto break down, you're going to
have a medical expense, likesome emergency is going to come
up in your family, and you neverwant to put yourself in a place
where you're so stressed formoney that you now got to make
choices that don't align withyour values, whether that means
going into debt, whether thatmeans raiding the money that
(16:45):
belongs to your future self.
And so the way we prevent thatis by creating an emergency fund
.
Good rule of thumb three to sixmonths worth of your bills in
that emergency fund before youeven start filling up your
investment fund, which is longterm money.
To the buy and hold, long-termstrategy, I would say don't even
(17:12):
look at the brokerage account.
Like.
Don't even tempt yourself.
Automate the money that goes inthere, get it straight out of
your paycheck and just pretendit doesn't exist, like if you
could forget about it and wakeup 30 years from now and have a
lot of money in there.
That's the best case scenario,especially if you're like me and
good for temptation.
Then we got to get it out ofour awareness, out of our daily
(17:34):
decision-making and justautomated as much as we can.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Started to laugh.
I said you sound like.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Fannie Willis when you said you keep six months of
money in the house.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
That's another generation.
For months I'm going to havemine in a savings account, but I
appreciate her just having thatcash.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Right, right, right.
So you know, as you mentioned,you know off air that you were
about to get married and Iwanted to say congratulations on
that one.
Congrats, man, yeah, definitely, and starting your new life and
all.
So let's talk about family.
You know how does this work?
Because we I'm looking at thePew research and they're saying
like, the median income for theblack family in the U S
(18:16):
household is $50,000.
It's $50,000.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
So what are some tips you can have as a family in
terms of, like, managing debt?
Ooh, yes.
So this is also reminding me ofan important thing for us to
note, which is that we cannotbudget our way out of poverty.
So you know, I talk aboutmaking, managing and multiplying
money like it starts withmaking money and, on average, we
(18:55):
understand that people of colorare underpaid Black women
especially, are historically andtremendously underpaid, and so
it's hard to do any of thisunless you're bringing in more
money right in the front door.
So that's where I start andthat's where I encourage people.
When you're thinking about Idon't have enough money, you can
do the budgeting, you can workon saving and all of that, but I
really would emphasize, workingon earning and earning more.
So I think that's a good placeto start.
It's so interesting Thenthinking about combining your
(19:19):
finances with another person,because I mean you're bringing
more money Right.
So now you got two incomes, butyou also got two personalities
and two sets of values and youknow spending habits and all of
that.
So it's not just as easy asgetting double the income if you
are with someone who makes thesame amount, but it's back
(19:40):
through that same values process.
So when folks ask me, how do Iget my husband on the same
financial plan?
How do I get my wife?
Well, wait a minute.
That's not where we start.
Let's start with why.
What are y'all creating?
What is the future that you'redreaming of for yourself?
Why would you bother doing anyof this stuff, unless there's
some deeper reason?
So that's where I start andthat's where I encourage other
(20:01):
folks, particularly inrelationships.
We got to start with the why.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And you got to think about that before you get
married too.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah, you got to discuss that before you learn.
And it's good that you said youknow, good that you said you
know you gotta increase yourincome, because I think that's
the biggest problem.
I noticed that with you knowsome people I talked to about
you know, um, you know trying toinvest and stuff like that,
because I'm like you know youcan budget all you want, but if
you don't have the money,there's nothing really that you
can do.
(20:30):
And uh, sometimes I tell peoplewhich they, you know it seemed
like it's hard to do.
I'm like you might have to getthis, you might have to get a
second job, especially if youdon't.
You know you don't have thattype of job that you know, where
you make that kind of money,where you can do those type of
things.
So you know, sometimes yougotta double up and get that
second job you might need athird or fourth.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
It's 2024.
The way things are rolling, youknow what I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Right.
I mean, that's how I had thatlight bulb moment myself, I mean
.
So I was getting out of debtand it occurred to me I need
more money to get this donefaster and started taking on
side hustles and doingconsulting, right, and just
working seemed like every hour.
It's incredibly exhausting.
So I don't think that's a longterm plan.
(21:13):
I think at the time I wasprobably making 75K as an
executive director of anonprofit and then I was
bringing in enough side hustlemoney to like push me over six
figures.
And so that was a moment where Isaid I started to think, you
know, like wouldn't life begreat if I just had a six figure
job?
Like if I could just, in mynine to five, make six figures?
(21:39):
I'd be healthier, I'd behappier, I can make better
decisions, I'd be more creative,right.
And so that, I think, was thebeginning of me starting to
think, you know, I actually justneed to make more.
Like it's not about me liketrading more of my life away,
it's about me charging more forevery hour of my life that I'm
giving to a job.
So I would encourage folksespecially you got to do what
you got to do.
So if you work in two and threejobs.
(22:00):
That's fine, but at the end ofthe day, I want you to also
start brainstorming.
What could it look like to makemore, and then let's start to
think about the types of rolesor opportunities that could
drive your regular day jobincome up.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Also you're kind of, you're kind of unicorn, I
seventy five thousand.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I was already a lot Right.
Fifty K yeah, I'm also anoverachiever, so I'm like oh,
right, it's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
It's a good thing, it's the next goal.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, I'm also an overachiever, so I'm like Ooh,
right, right, right, it's a goodthing.
It's a good thing, it's thenext goal.
Yeah, I'm steady pushing it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
So, uh, what was something that you was telling
me about Dre, about the, uh,like a family investing plan?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, you know, recently, um, I've been trying
to get my family to get togetherand get like a um, like a group
investment.
You know where we all chip inand, you know, do maybe like a
little couple of dollars a monthor something like that, to put
together some money and put itinto like an investment group.
I mean, is that something thatyou suggest?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, it's sort of like I'd be curious sort of what
the goals are and what you guysare going to do with the money.
But I've seen lots of examplesof folks Like I have a friend
whose entire family it's sort ofwhat they expect of the family
to be given back and he now, ofcourse he's Sudanese.
(23:22):
So it's a lot of differentculture, right, because he had
the opportunity to come to theUS and, you know, makes a lot
more money than other folks.
It's almost like tithing, butwe're tithing back into the
family.
So that I mean that reallyappealed to me sort of thinking
about like, what does it looklike for us to pool our
resources?
And those of us who have moreresources we have a greater
responsibility to think aboutwhat we're doing with those
(23:45):
resources.
Another great example I have afriend who bought a couple
hundred acres of land in ruralMissouri formerly Black-owned
land in rural Missouri and sogetting it back into Black-owned
hands but has started areparations project where she's
accepting donations and then hasa community board that decides
(24:06):
where they invest that moneyback into the community.
So it's not straight out likeinvesting in index funds but
more so investing back into thecommunity.
So I think all of those aregreat ideas.
It's like folks who have ashared vision and want to join
together and do somethingcollectively.
I mean you can't lose.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, I think we got to do this more in the Black
community because I used to workat Bank of New York some years
ago and I used to work kind oflike in that area and I used to,
you know, see all of theseinvestment groups come through
and I'm like man, I used tothink like an investment group
was something that you did withyour job or some sort of
business or something like thatat the time and I didn't know
that you know, just a couple offamily members or something like
that could just get togetherand start something and I used
(24:44):
to look at you know some oftheir reports and everything.
And I'm like to see, you know,it's something I was telling my
brother.
I was like man, I want to seeour nieces and nephews and
everything like that getinvolved in this type of thing.
That way you know somewheredown the line that the family
wants to start some businessesand different things like that,
(25:04):
then we can also do that.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, use that money to do so.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
It's like folks for example, I invest with a friend
of mine who does multi-unit realestate development and you know
it's all legal Right Like I'mnot just handing her money and
saying I hope I get a return onthis, like there are documents
to be signed et cetera, but it'slike there's power in
aggregating funds to make evenlarger investments than you
could do alone.
(25:30):
So, you know, for folks who arejust getting started and just
trying to like what is a 401k,like start there, learn, but we
have additional resources topool.
You know, do your research,make sure that the things that
are being done with your moneyagree, like align, with your
values, and then let's aggregatethe funds and do bigger and
(25:52):
better.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
What are your thoughts on cryptocurrency?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Oh man, this is the one I hate.
You know what I do Tell us whyyou hate it.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Tell us why you hate it.
You know what I do.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I follow the advice of people who have more money
than I do, who are smarter thanI am Right, so I like to go to
conferences of folks who arealready financially independent
and wealthy and not working andjust living off their
investments to see, well, whatare you doing with your money?
Like, are we out here playinggames with our money or are you
still following the strategies?
And so what I have heard folkssaying is that, even though
(26:28):
cryptocurrency itself feels verymuch like speculating, like
it's a very risky thing to dowith your money, they are
investing in companies that areinvesting in the blockchain.
So the blockchain is thetechnology, like that's the
technological advancement thatcryptocurrency is built on, and
so it's like why not invest inthe organizations that are
(26:50):
investing in the technology that, whatever the next iteration,
the cryptocurrency that becomesmainstream?
I mean, there are hundreds ofcryptocurrencies.
Right, let's say the world doesmake that turn.
You sort of have your money,you're sort of betting on the
technology, and even still,those folks are saying that's
our fun money, like that's 10percent no more than 10 percent
(27:11):
of my portfolio that I'm doingfor fun and the rest is just in
our stable, predictableinvestments that we know are
going to do well over time.
So that would be myrecommendation.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
OK, that's a good idea, good recommendation,
because what did you say?
You follow people who aremaking money, I guess, or who
are good at it.
You know in so many words, andI think that's one of the what
is it?
It's not the laws, but you knowwhat is that book?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Richest man in Babylon.
I read, or something like thatyears ago I took that lesson to
heart.
I'm not taking your advice ifyou haven't been working.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Right, right, right, right, right, and that was one
of, like, the biggest things inthere, cause I was like again,
you know um, when I firststarted out investing, I think I
I should have probably tooksomebody else's and you know
somebody's advice and stop youknow, just not jumping in and
waste money and stuff like that,so that's good.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
I mean, the great thing is for those of us who
didn't mess up and learn thehard way, at least we can give
advice and folks, can you know,skip a couple of steps.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
So speaking of speaking of advice, I mean just
off the cuff, what is the worstfinancial advice you ever heard
or actually have received?
What's like the worst thing youcan.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Buying life insurance .
Oh, speak on it, my lifeinsurance OK yeah, I think I
mean there's all kinds of badadvice, but I it just.
It's one of the ones that irksme because, like we work hard
for our money, right, like Ireally believe we're trading
valuable hours, like the hoursof our life or the things we
(28:47):
can't get back.
It's a non-renewable resource,it's the most valuable
possession we have.
So if you trade that for money,like what you do with that
money is so important and Idon't want people to be taken
advantage of, and so so often Isee so many TikToks about that.
It's like a thing, because a lotof people get into jobs where
(29:07):
their job is to sell lifeinsurance, to tell people this
is an investment and you'regoing to get rich and this is
what the rich do, et cetera.
It's complicated and there arefees and there's all these ways
for you to lose your money, andpeople I feel like are getting
swindled over a hope and a dream, when there's really just the
(29:29):
things we're talking about areso simple, like anyone listening
to this today could go to theirjob and put some money in their
401k and find an index fund orgo to vanguard and open a roth
ira right, it's so simple, um,and we have been led to believe
that these things have to becomplicated and that you're not
smart enough to do it.
So you got to give your moneyto me and then I'm going to make
(29:52):
you rich.
And we just got to that.
That just troubles me Like Ireally hate to hear it.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, that's the beautiful thing, I think now,
because, um, like I said, I meanwhen you know when my parents
were coming up, you know thisstuff was, you know you had to
go get a broker and all thatother stuff like that.
Like now everything is prettymuch at your fingertips.
You can go online, you canstart your brokerage account and
do your own thing.
So you know no longer needreally like a middleman, to do
(30:19):
anything.
I mean, if nothing else, youjust need somebody to give you
some information or, you know,start you out, but you really
don't need to give anybody anymoney to get money.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, that's right you can get a book.
My book is in the library, likeyou literally don't have to pay
anyone any money to get thisinformation.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah, and I think that's the thing is that a lot
of people don't look for thesethings, especially what our
young people like.
I was talking to someone theother day who said, well, we was
talking about credit and theperson said, well, I have a
house and once I got my house, Ididn't care about my credit
anymore.
So you know, this is like thementality that a lot of people
have, but not knowing thatyou're going to probably need
(30:59):
this somewhere down the line forsomething else.
So, like, what's the bestadvice you can give young people
in terms of credit, because alot of them don't really
understand it.
So could you kind of break thatdown and give a message to the
young people in terms aboutkeeping a healthy credit history
?
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, it's multiple sides to this.
Yeah, I think this is thenumber one question young people
want to ask.
Like, if I'm on a panel orsomething with young people for
questions they want to know,tell me about credit scores,
like how low can it go?
How do I build it?
Right, and it's one of thoseinteresting things about society
that every young person knowsabout a credit score but every
young person doesn't know aboutan index fund, right?
(31:37):
So I'm struggling with that.
But I'm like we got to startmeet people where they are and
then we can layer on someinformation For the credit score
.
You know, I like to remind folks, like, the top three things
that we're even looking at withyour credit score has to do with
your balances.
How are you maxing out thesecredit cards?
(32:00):
Are you keeping it around 30%or less?
That's the golden ratio 30% orless of your balance.
If you have a $1,000 card,never put more than $300 on that
card.
Pay it off every month.
So at the end of the month thisshould be a 0% Um, but so the
utilization rate is what that iscalled Um.
And then the length of credithistory which you'll just build
(32:24):
over time Um, and then thinkingabout what.
The third one is I lost it offthe top of my head oh, on-time
payments, of course.
So making sure you pay yourbills on time.
I think those are reasonable,like I think if you, you know,
charge something, paying themoney back is a reasonable
(32:46):
expectation.
So I think for young people,you know part of it.
We're talking about yourintegrity.
We're talking about making wisechoices.
We're talking about and I thinkyou know I'm not a, so I'm not
a fan of credit cards, becauseI've gotten bitten a lot by
being an overspender, by saying,oh, I'm just going to charge a
(33:07):
little bit more this month andI'm going to pay myself back and
all this.
Like my brain can do all ofthose things.
So my recommendation is to setup really strong guardrails for
yourself.
I like to say find a bill, arecurring bill, your phone bill
or something like this.
Set it up on that credit cardfor auto pay and then don't
(33:27):
carry the credit card around inyour wallet.
It's not for everyday expenses.
If you're just building credit,put a bill on there, pay that
bill every month and your creditscore is going to go up and put
the credit.
You could cut the credit cardup and throw it in the trash,
right Like after you've got itset up on autopay.
What are you going to?
You're not going to be swipingthe card, so I would encourage
(33:51):
folks to be cautious, to listento their adults around them
who've gotten themselves incredit card debt and know how
easy it is to sort of be caughtin the debt trap and then to
build those smart guardrails sothat you don't sort of fall into
the same traps that a lot of ushave.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Would you suggest over-investing your 401k?
Like you know, recently IRecently I've done it I gave 15%
.
I think at the time my job wasmatching 6%, or something like
that.
Recently, someone was tellingme that once I got knowledge to
get into, investing myselfdirectly into the market, he was
(34:25):
like well, why are you puttingthe rest of that money in there?
You might as well just investit yourself.
What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yeah.
So once you get to the part, tothe point of your life, where
you've got all the basics doneright, you've got your emergency
fund set up, you got yourincome straight right, folks
will remind you that thegreatest culprit, the greatest
thing that's going to eat intoyour money, is taxes, and so
(34:52):
we've got to start getting smartabout our tax strategies, and
this is why we start with.
You know, these tax advantageaccounts.
Even better than the 401k isthe Roth IRA.
So what a lot of folks will do,if you have enough money to be
maxing out these accounts oryou're trying to build up to it,
is to start with the match Ifyou have that at work, because
(35:14):
that's I mean you'reautomatically doubling your
money to go max out a Roth.
Max out the Roth IRA, which youknow for folks who are learning
about Roths, it's after taxmoney, so you've already paid
the taxes, but all the growth?
So, years down the line, whenyou take the money out, all that
(35:38):
money is tax free, and that Imean it can't be beat, which is
why there's a limit on how muchmoney you can put into a Roth.
If you make too much money,they start to cap who can put
money into a Roth and you got to.
You know there's some tricksyou got to start doing to find
ways to access it.
So max out the Roth and then goback and max out your 401k,
which is another tax advantageaccount.
So folks are always going totry to max out the tax advantage
accounts.
Some folks will have HSAs,which is another tax advantage
(36:01):
account through your healthcare.
So maxing out the taxadvantages is key and then,
beyond that, of course, you cango get a regular brokerage
account.
That's certainly fine, but Iwould max those out first.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
That's good information right there, good
information.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah, most definitely .
So now we're going to switchgears.
Let's talk about the book.
Okay, I just want to follow upwith you on the book.
I know you mentioned it's inthe libraries.
Now all this information isthere.
What is the feedback thatyou've been getting on the book
since you put it out?
I know you've got to get aplethora of notes and emails and
(36:38):
people dropping in your DMs alltypes of stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
So just tell us you know the book, tell us about the
book and how it's affectingpeople out here.
Yeah, no, the book.
I mean, I have been completelyblown away, I think when I wrote
the book so I had this burningdesire to just get this
information out.
I'm like, how come nobody toldme this?
How come people in my communityaren't talking about this?
I'm just going to bring myBlack woman voice and do it
(37:05):
Right, like it just had to bewritten.
But even so, we put the bookout 2021 and almost $90,000,
90,000 books have been sold todate and just Okay, I applaud
that.
Wonderful and just Okayapplause.
Wonderful, no, it's crazy.
So when I say blown away likeI'm blown away in multiple ways,
(37:26):
including the sales, but peopleare constantly reaching out to
me to say this book has changedmy life I suddenly have hope.
I finally took action onsomething I've been meaning to
do.
So there's something about, Ithink, if I were thinking about,
what made the differencebecause I read a lot of books,
like there are a ton of personalfinance books is being able to
connect with the stories in thebooks.
(37:49):
I'm telling you know mypersonal story, but being able
to see someone you can relate tomake these mistakes, recover
from them, right starts to makeyou think you can do it too.
And because my background is ineducation, you know I definitely
approached it from this sort ofaction oriented.
It's almost like a textbook.
(38:09):
I have worksheets in there,right Like I really want you to
take action on these things andto make it digestible and easy
enough to understand.
So that was my hope, and so Ifeel like you know, it's such a
blessing for people to say, yeah, I did do that.
Yeah, I use the tool that yougave me and I opened that
account.
You know, I'm just so gratefulthat folks are receiving it and
that is actually making adifference for folks.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
You know it's funny to say, because I was telling my
brother this and I was like youknow, because once you start
investing you start gettingmoney or you start watching your
money grow, you know you getkind of excited about it, right,
and I was telling them that youknow, a lot of times I'll speak
to people at work and we'lljust talk about it, and then it
kind of makes you happy whenthat person actually goes out
(38:53):
and actually starts their ownbrokerage account and stuff like
that.
So you know, and then they'llcome back and ask questions.
And I got one young lady thatworks for me right now, man, and
like she's gone home everyFriday.
She's like you know, andre,what do you?
What do I invest in today?
What am I putting my money into?
And I'm like, wow, you know,it's beautiful to watch her.
You know, you know, be young.
And I said, man, I wish I wasthat young and somebody gave me
(39:15):
that information.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
You know on yeah, I mean time is on your side.
It's so tricky because whenyou're young you want to make
mistakes.
That's how you're going tolearn.
But for those young people whoare willing to take advice find
good people to take advice from,are willing to take it, Just
time alone.
It takes so much less money tobuild wealth if you start early
than if you start in your 40sI'm 40 now than if you start,
(39:43):
you know, in your 40s, like I'm40 now, Right, so like if you're
at my age or older, we got to.
You know, we got to move somebigger numbers to get where
we're trying to go.
Even for those of us, even ifyou are moving bigger numbers,
you can pay that forward bymentoring a young person to
start early with those smallernumbers and get there faster.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Have any of the bigger big name like financial,
quote unquote gurus reached outto you, probably after seeing
you speak or, you know, readingyour book or hearing someone
talk about you and, and you know, try to pick your brain about
certain things.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I don't know about that.
Um, I did.
Uh, I will tell you.
When I was writing the book, um, I reached out to a lot of
folks to say will you read mybook?
You know, you give me somefeedback and I was so lucky to
get yeses from some of myfavorite people and so their,
their names, are like in thecover, Like those are people I
(40:34):
personally reached out to to saywill you read my book and
review?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
it.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
And was able to put their quotes in there.
And then I loved so for a while, my book.
I think my book came out at thesame time, around the same time
as Tiffany Alashae's book, theBudgetnista.
So I remember someone hadposted something on Instagram
about both of these books andshe replied and said I love your
book, paris, you know, whichwas so dope.
(40:59):
I'm like, ma'am, you are acelebrity, you know.
Just those little things havereally stood out to me, but I
haven't, you know, gotten on thephone with anyone or anything
like that.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Well, at least not yet.
At least not yet.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Not yet.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
You know, what's funny is I remember like I'm not
a big fan of Dr Lamar Johnson,but I remember in the beginning
when he was talking aboutstarting school and stuff like
that, and that was one of thethings that I was intrigued by
because he was saying that howhe was going to teach kids
financial literacy and teachthem how to invest and stuff
like that.
And I was like man like youknow, he's a little weird for me
here and there but I was likeit would be nice to see somebody
(41:34):
that would come through, thatcould come through and start a
program like this and, like yousaid, start children out early
and understanding you knowwhat's going on, as opposed to
waiting until you know you get30 or 40 and trying to put
things together.
You know on a on a on a globalscale, or you know not well,
just, you know all over theUnited States, I should say, if
nothing else, you know,especially in the community, in
(41:54):
our community.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I agree, and they're, and I feel like schools are
hungry for this information.
A lot of states are starting torequire some sort of financial
literacy course for students inK-12.
So certainly appetite for it.
I just want to make sure thatwe have people of color
represented and folks you know.
(42:16):
Let's make it interesting,let's make it entertaining.
It doesn't have to be dry andboring, and you know, banker,
banker, boring is what I call it.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Um, hopefully we can bring some diverse voices into
the classrooms as well yeah, ateacher friend of mine actually
did that with her fifth gradeclass where they had like an
investment team.
They were in like a competitionand actually won in terms of
the investment team had to pick,I guess I guess was companies
or stocks that they had to gettogether and invest in.
(42:46):
They watched the stock, thestocks grew and the competition,
I believe, was whose stock wasthe highest at the end.
So they competed against otherschools for this and I thought
that was so cool.
But it was something that wasnot publicized and I'm like why
is not the whole school doingthis?
Or you know, I know sheprobably reached out to someone
(43:06):
to to get this started, a personlike yourself.
So it's like why is the wholeschool not doing something like
this?
Why is the whole it's not acurriculum based around this?
Speaker 1 (43:14):
it still baffles me till this day hopefully, uh,
maybe someone listening to thisis going to be inspired, just
like I was, to write the book,to create the curriculum that
normalizes, because I think therisk I feel like most often we
see investment clubs, the riskis sort of this gamification of
(43:35):
investing, when really investingshould be boring and basic and
just like this is what we all do, of course, like, of course,
okay, um, and so I thinksomeone's got to get creative to
make that engaging in and ofitself.
Um, folks understand just thebasics of what to do with your
money to build wealth withouthaving to do all the extra stuff
exactly exactly so, um, isthere going to be a second book
(44:00):
that you're working on?
Speaker 3 (44:01):
I know you got a lot going on right now, but is there
?
Are we getting that black man'sguide to financial freedom that
we talked about last?
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Maybe Dr Umar is going to write it, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
I don't know if I'll give Dr.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Umar, my money at this point.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
I don't know.
I'm waiting.
You know I'm open toinspiration.
It was inspiration that struck,that resulted in this book, so
if it hits me, I will do it.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
We'll see, sounds good.
Maybe you should do somethingautobiographical, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, you never know.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
You never know Is my life interesting enough.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Maybe, on this other side, we can talk about being
married and all the other.
Maybe, on this other side, wecan talk about being married and
all the other.
I know there's more for me tolearn in this next week, so
we'll see, Plus more money tomake.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Now you can split it down the middle, you know, throw
a lot more money into it.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
you know yeah the complexity, Even like I might
become a mom.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
You never know.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
There's lots more lessons to learn that I'm happy
to turn them around.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
God bless you with that mom thing, God bless you.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
I'll tell you what that kid is going to be sharp
when it comes to investing.
Oh yeah, man, I hope so.
I hope so.
Money mistakes here.
All right, so before we let yougo, can you let everybody know
what your handles are, wherethey can reach you at, where
they can get the book at?
Let us know what your handlesare, where they can reach you at
, where they can get the book at.
Let us know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah, author Paris Woods, on all social platforms,
and then the book is availableeverywhere as well.
The lowest price I've seen ison Amazon and that might be the
best place to start.
And then I have a free toolkitthat you can download to start.
(45:45):
And then I have a free toolkitthat you can download and the
URL is right on the inside ofthe book, but it's just
Pariswoodcom slash book bonuseswith just some extra trainings
and things like that to get youstarted.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
Okay, and I see you getting out there on the socials
making your shorts andeverything like that, keeping
the people informed.
I'm loving it.
I just want to let everybodyknow.
Go out there, you know, I meanif you're on the instagrams and
all of that and, uh, check out alot of this stuff, youtube, and
all check it out, all right.
So, dr paris woods, thank youonce again on a mission to help
(46:18):
more women of color build wealthwhile living a life they love.
That's right.
We appreciate you for that onesis, for real.
All right, and with that beingsaid, we're going to get ready
to sign off.
So, yeah, thanks again for onceagain, another informative
conversation.
All right, the Only One Mikepodcast is available on all
(46:40):
platforms you stream yourpodcasts on.
Also, check out our Only OneMike Podcast YouTube channel to
catch up on the past and currentepisodes and please don't
forget to rate the show andsubscribe.
Check us out on Instagram and xslash Twitter at the Only One
Mike P1, facebook and LinkedInat the Only One Mike Podcast.
And you can email us attheonlyonemike00 at g.
And you can email us at theonly one mic zero zero at
(47:02):
gmailcom, or call us at threezero, two, three, six, seven,
seven, two, one, nine, to haveyour comments and questions
played on the show.
We thank you once again foryour time.
Dr Paris was to be the audienceand we encourage you to please
speak your truth quietly andclearly and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant,because they too have their
story to tell.
(47:23):
So until next time, please keepin mind in fact this one is a
good one, paris, each one.
Teach one.
If you can't find one, talk tothe little ones and you'll see
they'll listen to feel themissing piece, to rise and shine
.
Thank you everybody for showingup and peace.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Peace.
Brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Give me a moment with your friend.
I've never been up to mythoughts before.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to the Only One Mic Podcast Calls you Rob,
brooklyn Drelyn dre j rob is off.
We're joined by a very, veryspecial returning guest coming
to join us once again.
Dr paris woods, how you doingthanks so much for having me.
I'm excited to be back yes, yes,and we happy to have you back
(00:46):
and, as a lot of our listenersknow, that, that paris sorry, dr
paris was is the author of theblack girl's guide to financial
freedom.
So, like I was telling youbehind the scenes, uh, paris,
that that last episode when youcame on and we, we had our
conversation about getting tothe financial freedom, you know,
(01:06):
getting to the bag, andeverything, as we said, that was
very informative and we had alot of people that was hitting
us up, you know, asking usquestions, and I'm like I'm not
the financial expert.
She was already on, you knowwhat I mean.
So it was like questions that Icouldn't answer and things like
that.
But I said I definitely wantedto have you back on the show to
give some new perspective, beingthat it is Financial Literacy
(01:29):
Month, so I couldn't let themonth go out without having you
on.
So, paris, if you can, forthose that's just now tuning in
and getting in tune with theshow, can you please give us a
little bit of your background?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, so I am a native St Louis in which I
always start there because it'sdefinitely been a full circle
place for me to be from.
But grew up sort of in yourstereotypical low income family
Right which, unfortunately,especially with what's going on
in the economy and what's goingon with all these layoffs, a lot
(02:07):
of people are findingthemselves in that situation, so
it can be more typical than wewould like for it to be.
But definitely grew upexperiencing lack.
You know we moved around a lotand I have to think back to
remember like what was it liketo sleep in my mom's car or to
sleep in family members'basements or to spend time
living in housing projects, likeall of those things are part of
(02:28):
my experience growing up andyou know I had a very loving and
supportive mother and familywho encouraged education for me
and so I did well in school andeducation became my personal
ticket out of poverty.
So I ended up getting a fullscholarship to Harvard
University where I did mybachelor's and master's degrees
(02:52):
and went right into educationbecause it was such a powerful
lever for me and I wanted otherfolks to have access and have
been working in education for 20years.
So I still sort of work ineducation with the intention of
helping young people accesseconomic mobility, but certainly
, I would say, even after allthose degrees and you know all
(03:15):
these really cool workexperiences certainly realized
that I had not received afinancial education.
And so at age 30, you know wehave all kinds of wake-up calls
at age 30, right, like I'm likeguys get married at age 30.
All kinds of things happen, butfor me, age 30 was a financial
wake-up call, and so that's whenI really had to pursue a
(03:36):
financial education for myselfand really start turning things
around.
And so the book that I wrote isreally me retelling that story,
reliving a lot of the mistakesthat I made so other folks can
learn from them, and then alsohelping folks either skip over
some of those mistakes orrecover from them and start to
experience the kind of financialfreedom that I really think you
(03:58):
know we deserve.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Right and now being at his financial literacy month,
I guess financial literacy isthe precursor to financial
discipline.
Can you tell us what are sometips that you have in terms of
being financially disciplined?
And especially, like the lasttime we spoke, we spoke more to
the younger people out here whokind of get money and it just
(04:21):
pipes right through their handsand they get a bunch of useless
things that they probably is notgoing to add up to nothing in
about another five years, butthat's a point of being, you
know, undisciplined financially.
So can you kind of give us sometips on what it takes to be
financially disciplined?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, it's interesting, you know, if I were
to go back to the person that Iwas at age 30, you know I was
following the rules that I hadbeen given by society.
So I got my fancy degrees and Ithought I deserve a new car.
So I went to a dealership andfinanced a new car.
That first degree was free, butthe second degree I paid all in
(04:59):
loans.
So I had student loans and thenI got to get some dental work
I'll take out a loan for that,right.
So you know, by the time I wasin age 30, I had accumulated
quite a bit of debt.
And you know, I remember youknow no one questioning me
taking out loans or questioningme financing a car and in my
(05:21):
mind I was doing the thingsyou're supposed to do, like
you're supposed to have creditcards and a card note and all of
those things.
So you know, the first thing Ithink we have to ask ourselves a
really challenge is ourthinking around the role of
money and the role of debt.
The whole first half of thebook talking about debt, like
(05:52):
reframing how debt is used andsort of some of the ways that
debt can harm us, particularlyif we want to be building
financial freedom right, soinstead of paying back debt, we
could be investing for thefuture.
And so often the reason why wedon't have wiggle room in our
budgets is because we're makingdebt payments, and so often the
reason why we don't have wiggleroom in our budgets is because
we're making debt payments.
So you know, the first part offinancial discipline has to do
with the mindset, like a mindsetaround the money that you're
bringing in, what your goals arewith that money and then the
(06:14):
choices you're making as itleaves your hands, hopefully
keeping more of it over timeinstead of spending it,
investing it so that it growsover time.
And you know, at the end of theday, the big thing I'm pushing
is automating the process.
So I'm as regular person asthey come like.
Getting into debt is easy forme.
(06:34):
When I see something nice, Iwant to get it, and so for me,
in order to master my behavior,it required automations.
It required sort of setting upsystems around myself to make it
easy to make good choices andmake it hard to make bad choices
or choices that didn't alignwith my personal goals, so that
(06:57):
when the inevitable temptationsarise throughout the month, I
didn't succumb to them.
So those are just, you know,some things that made the
biggest difference for me Firstof all, shifting my mindset
around money and then, second ofall, creating the systems
around myself so that I could beautomating the choices that
would lead me to the goals thatI had set for myself.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So when you say invest, I mean how did you start
?
I mean when you had this?
You know, you had this changeof mindset in your thirties.
When you say invest, what didyou start off investing in?
I mean, like, did you start offsomething simple like 401k?
Or I mean, did you go into thestock market?
Or how did you start off?
Yeah, so I like many of uscause.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I was on my debt freedom journey, like many of us
, because I was on my debtfreedom journey was reading and
listening to Dave Ramsey, okay,and so you know he, as part of
the baby steps, recommendedstarting to put away a
percentage of your income inyour 401k.
So that is where I started.
And then, you know, as Istarted feeling more in control
(08:01):
of my money, started seeingmomentum, started seeing the
debt disappear, I startedreading more about investing and
sort of thinking about well,what is the purpose of this?
Like, what am I creating in mylife?
And so often I think, like,identifying the purpose,
identifying the why, is themissing piece for all of us who
know what we should be doingwith our money.
(08:22):
Right, we all have an idea, alist of things that we should be
doing differently, but thereason why we're not taking
action on those things isbecause we really don't have a
compelling reason why, like,what kind of life are we trying
to create on the other side ofmaking these different choices?
So, you know, I happened toland upon a blog of a guy who
was following the FIRE FinancialIndependence, ret retire early
(08:45):
movement and just startedreading it, just started
learning about this community ofpeople who were investing to
give themselves sort of theultimate freedom, which is the
ability to live without needingto work.
You can continue to work, youcan work on and off, you can do
projects right.
But for you to be able tochoose to go to work you can
work on and off, you can doprojects right, but for you to
be able to choose to go to workbecause you want to be there and
(09:08):
because you don't need thatnext paycheck, and that was
compelling to me.
Freedom is one of my corevalues, and so it sort of opened
up this whole new world to meabout what freedom could look
like.
And even though it was a whiteguy's blog I was reading, as a
black woman I had to say, well,wait a minute.
Like I think there's a deepermeaning here.
(09:29):
To be a black woman, to haveyou know ancestors who are
enslaved in this country, and tohave gotten all these
opportunities, Like my communitypoured so much into me, and so
to think about you know what,what might these people have
dreamed of for me?
Like what price has alreadybeen paid that I just need to
walk into.
(09:49):
And so the financial freedom,the financial independence
movement resonated with me forthat purpose and so, because of
that resonance, I really startedfollowing the tenets of that
investment strategy, which isvery similar.
So we're still talking about401ks.
At a certain point many peopledon't know you can actually max
(10:13):
out your 401k.
There's a limit to how muchmoney you can put in there.
So, thinking about other places, opening a Roth IRA if you meet
the income requirements,because there's also an income
limit and even just opening up aregular brokerage account, so
in terms of the accounts.
But what's unique about theFIRE movement is that there's a
(10:34):
very simple investing philosophyusing index funds, and that
resonated with me as well.
So just thinking about the mathand the science, like people
have run all sorts ofsimulations to prove why index
funds are actually the smartestinvestment strategy, and not
just the simplest, but thatresonated with me as well.
So that's been the investmentstrategy that I've been
(10:58):
following since then.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Did you have any growing pains starting
everything off?
I mean, my only reason I'masking because I had growing
pains.
I mean I had the same idea,Well, not at 30, but at 35,
whereas I started like goingdirectly into the stock market.
I think I took like 15% of mycheck and I went directly into a
401k.
I think I put like 9% in theregular 401k, the other I put
(11:24):
into a Roth and my growing painscame, going like directly into
the stock market, Whereas Ididn't get index funds initially
.
You know what I mean.
I was actually just trying toget whatever I could get for
cheap.
You know what I mean.
I started off like that and Ilost a few dollars and that
didn't.
You know.
I had the growing pains comingup.
(11:44):
Did you have the same thing orno?
Did you just, you know, didyour research first and then,
you know, everything kind ofworked out smooth.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Oh man, yeah, I wish I were that good.
Right, things always gosmoothly.
I'll make a mistake Like that'swhat I, what can be true, and
figure it out and sort of comearound to something that works
better.
So I, you know, I've been thetype of person to read about
money ever since, you know, Iwas 16 and my friend's dad
handed me a copy of Rich Dad,poor Dad.
Money has been on my mind andso I had a Roth IRA right out of
college.
In my first job I set up a RothIRA.
(12:21):
You know, the mistake that Imade that so many folks make is
raiding that money, right.
So you save it up over time.
You're doing well.
Some emergency comes up and orsomething you just want, and you
go in there and rate the funds.
So nowadays, you know, when Italk about investing, I talk
(12:42):
about this as the most commonmistake, but I also talk about
sort of the difference betweenwhat the number in your
brokerage account means and thenumber in your checking account
right.
Because a lot of folks thinkwhen they open up their
brokerage account and see$10,000, that that's the money
that they have in that account.
That's not true.
That $10,000 actuallyrepresents the value of the
(13:07):
investments that you own.
So you might own who knows?
100 shares and even if thevalue goes down, you still own
that 100 shares.
And so I think you know forfolks who see the number go down
and start to freak out and theysell their shares now you've
just sold those shares at adiscount, like you still owned
them.
And you know.
(13:29):
For folks who follow FIRE, oneof the big studies that these
folks have looked at is a studycalled the Trinity Study, which
looked at these 30 year periodsin history and they tracked all
the way through the entirehistory of the stock market.
So we're talking about the GreatDepression, right like the
entire history of the trackstock market and over any 30
(13:52):
yearyear period in history, themarket has gone up and it's gone
up by around 7% for the past100 years.
That number is around 10%, andso sort of what these folks do
when you run the numbers is youstart to realize that if all you
did, if your entire investingstrategy was to buy index funds
that track even the entire stockmarket, just the total stock
(14:15):
market index fund and left itthere for 30 years, you would
make at least 7% to 10% on yourmoney, if not more, and you
might be in a really lucky 30years right where that number is
much north, much farther north.
And so it sort of reduces thestress and reduces sort reduces
the anxiety around constantlychecking your account,
(14:35):
constantly checking my up and mydown Do I need to sell, do I
need to buy?
Removes all of that anxiety andreally just a buy and hold
strategy for folks who areinvesting for the long, long,
long term.
So I like that.
I like low stress, I like lowanxiety.
I'm like life is stressfulenough.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I can't be stressed opening up my account and
looking at the number.
So that was a lesson that I hadto learn the hard way as well.
Yeah, finally invest and getinto the stock market.
I mean, how do you talk themout of not, you know, taking
money when things start goingthe wrong way?
I mean because I noticed I'vebeen working with well, I don't
(15:21):
counsel anybody, but you know,because I started investing and
I started getting good with itover the years.
So now when I see a young personthat might work with me or
something like that, I mightgive them you know what I know
and they start.
And then you got to tell themlike, listen, you got to calm
down.
You know you might lose a fewdollars or something, but you're
not losing money.
Like you said, you still gotthe shares.
So as long as you're investingto, you know, like you said, an
(15:44):
index company or somethingthat's on the, you know S&P or
something like that, then youshould be all right.
So how do you keep people fromcringing and pulling out their
money and getting out of theirearly?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, that's the hardest part, right.
I think I remember when we wereyoung and the things we didn't
listen to.
So what I tell young people todo, and even older people, is to
make sure we're doing things inthe right sequence.
So we don't start withinvesting, we start with saving
and making sure that you have arobust emergency fund in place
(16:22):
for the unexpected things thatwe know will inevitably arise.
Right, like your car is goingto break down, you're going to
have a medical expense, likesome emergency is going to come
up in your family, and you neverwant to put yourself in a place
where you're so stressed formoney that you now got to make
choices that don't align withyour values, whether that means
going into debt, whether thatmeans raiding the money that
(16:45):
belongs to your future self.
And so the way we prevent thatis by creating an emergency fund
.
Good rule of thumb three to sixmonths worth of your bills in
that emergency fund before youeven start filling up your
investment fund, which is longterm money.
To the buy and hold, long-termstrategy, I would say don't even
(17:12):
look at the brokerage account.
Like.
Don't even tempt yourself.
Automate the money that goes inthere, get it straight out of
your paycheck and just pretendit doesn't exist, like if you
could forget about it and wakeup 30 years from now and have a
lot of money in there.
That's the best case scenario,especially if you're like me and
good for temptation.
Then we got to get it out ofour awareness, out of our daily
(17:34):
decision-making and justautomated as much as we can.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Started to laugh.
I said you sound like.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Fannie Willis when you said you keep six months of
money in the house.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
That's another generation.
For months I'm going to havemine in a savings account, but I
appreciate her just having thatcash.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Right, right, right.
So you know, as you mentioned,you know off air that you were
about to get married and Iwanted to say congratulations on
that one.
Congrats, man, yeah, definitely, and starting your new life and
all.
So let's talk about family.
You know how does this work?
Because we I'm looking at thePew research and they're saying
like, the median income for theblack family in the U S
(18:16):
household is $50,000.
It's $50,000.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
So what are some tips you can have as a family in
terms of, like, managing debt?
Ooh, yes.
So this is also reminding me ofan important thing for us to
note, which is that we cannotbudget our way out of poverty.
So you know, I talk aboutmaking, managing and multiplying
money like it starts withmaking money and, on average, we
(18:55):
understand that people of colorare underpaid Black women
especially, are historically andtremendously underpaid, and so
it's hard to do any of thisunless you're bringing in more
money right in the front door.
So that's where I start andthat's where I encourage people.
When you're thinking about Idon't have enough money, you can
do the budgeting, you can workon saving and all of that, but I
really would emphasize, workingon earning and earning more.
So I think that's a good placeto start.
It's so interesting Thenthinking about combining your
(19:19):
finances with another person,because I mean you're bringing
more money Right.
So now you got two incomes, butyou also got two personalities
and two sets of values and youknow spending habits and all of
that.
So it's not just as easy asgetting double the income if you
are with someone who makes thesame amount, but it's back
(19:40):
through that same values process.
So when folks ask me, how do Iget my husband on the same
financial plan?
How do I get my wife?
Well, wait a minute.
That's not where we start.
Let's start with why.
What are y'all creating?
What is the future that you'redreaming of for yourself?
Why would you bother doing anyof this stuff, unless there's
some deeper reason?
So that's where I start andthat's where I encourage other
(20:01):
folks, particularly inrelationships.
We got to start with the why.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And you got to think about that before you get
married too.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah, you got to discuss that before you learn.
And it's good that you said youknow, good that you said you
know you gotta increase yourincome, because I think that's
the biggest problem.
I noticed that with you knowsome people I talked to about
you know, um, you know trying toinvest and stuff like that,
because I'm like you know youcan budget all you want, but if
you don't have the money,there's nothing really that you
can do.
(20:30):
And uh, sometimes I tell peoplewhich they, you know it seemed
like it's hard to do.
I'm like you might have to getthis, you might have to get a
second job, especially if youdon't.
You know you don't have thattype of job that you know, where
you make that kind of money,where you can do those type of
things.
So you know, sometimes yougotta double up and get that
second job you might need athird or fourth.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
It's 2024.
The way things are rolling, youknow what I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Right.
I mean, that's how I had thatlight bulb moment myself, I mean
.
So I was getting out of debtand it occurred to me I need
more money to get this donefaster and started taking on
side hustles and doingconsulting, right, and just
working seemed like every hour.
It's incredibly exhausting.
So I don't think that's a longterm plan.
(21:13):
I think at the time I wasprobably making 75K as an
executive director of anonprofit and then I was
bringing in enough side hustlemoney to like push me over six
figures.
And so that was a moment where Isaid I started to think, you
know, like wouldn't life begreat if I just had a six figure
job?
Like if I could just, in mynine to five, make six figures?
(21:39):
I'd be healthier, I'd behappier, I can make better
decisions, I'd be more creative,right.
And so that, I think, was thebeginning of me starting to
think, you know, I actually justneed to make more.
Like it's not about me liketrading more of my life away,
it's about me charging more forevery hour of my life that I'm
giving to a job.
So I would encourage folksespecially you got to do what
you got to do.
So if you work in two and threejobs.
(22:00):
That's fine, but at the end ofthe day, I want you to also
start brainstorming.
What could it look like to makemore, and then let's start to
think about the types of rolesor opportunities that could
drive your regular day jobincome up.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Also you're kind of, you're kind of unicorn, I
seventy five thousand.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I was already a lot Right.
Fifty K yeah, I'm also anoverachiever, so I'm like oh,
right, it's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
It's a good thing, it's the next goal.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, I'm also an overachiever, so I'm like Ooh,
right, right, right, it's a goodthing.
It's a good thing, it's thenext goal.
Yeah, I'm steady pushing it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
So, uh, what was something that you was telling
me about Dre, about the, uh,like a family investing plan?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, you know, recently, um, I've been trying
to get my family to get togetherand get like a um, like a group
investment.
You know where we all chip inand, you know, do maybe like a
little couple of dollars a monthor something like that, to put
together some money and put itinto like an investment group.
I mean, is that something thatyou suggest?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, it's sort of like I'd be curious sort of what
the goals are and what you guysare going to do with the money.
But I've seen lots of examplesof folks Like I have a friend
whose entire family it's sort ofwhat they expect of the family
to be given back and he now, ofcourse he's Sudanese.
(23:22):
So it's a lot of differentculture, right, because he had
the opportunity to come to theUS and, you know, makes a lot
more money than other folks.
It's almost like tithing, butwe're tithing back into the
family.
So that I mean that reallyappealed to me sort of thinking
about like, what does it looklike for us to pool our
resources?
And those of us who have moreresources we have a greater
responsibility to think aboutwhat we're doing with those
(23:45):
resources.
Another great example I have afriend who bought a couple
hundred acres of land in ruralMissouri formerly Black-owned
land in rural Missouri and sogetting it back into Black-owned
hands but has started areparations project where she's
accepting donations and then hasa community board that decides
(24:06):
where they invest that moneyback into the community.
So it's not straight out likeinvesting in index funds but
more so investing back into thecommunity.
So I think all of those aregreat ideas.
It's like folks who have ashared vision and want to join
together and do somethingcollectively.
I mean you can't lose.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, I think we got to do this more in the Black
community because I used to workat Bank of New York some years
ago and I used to work kind oflike in that area and I used to,
you know, see all of theseinvestment groups come through
and I'm like man, I used tothink like an investment group
was something that you did withyour job or some sort of
business or something like thatat the time and I didn't know
that you know, just a couple offamily members or something like
that could just get togetherand start something and I used
(24:44):
to look at you know some oftheir reports and everything.
And I'm like to see, you know,it's something I was telling my
brother.
I was like man, I want to seeour nieces and nephews and
everything like that getinvolved in this type of thing.
That way you know somewheredown the line that the family
wants to start some businessesand different things like that,
(25:04):
then we can also do that.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, use that money to do so.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
It's like folks for example, I invest with a friend
of mine who does multi-unit realestate development and you know
it's all legal Right Like I'mnot just handing her money and
saying I hope I get a return onthis, like there are documents
to be signed et cetera, but it'slike there's power in
aggregating funds to make evenlarger investments than you
could do alone.
(25:30):
So, you know, for folks who arejust getting started and just
trying to like what is a 401k,like start there, learn, but we
have additional resources topool.
You know, do your research,make sure that the things that
are being done with your moneyagree, like align, with your
values, and then let's aggregatethe funds and do bigger and
(25:52):
better.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
What are your thoughts on cryptocurrency?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Oh man, this is the one I hate.
You know what I do Tell us whyyou hate it.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Tell us why you hate it.
You know what I do.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I follow the advice of people who have more money
than I do, who are smarter thanI am Right, so I like to go to
conferences of folks who arealready financially independent
and wealthy and not working andjust living off their
investments to see, well, whatare you doing with your money?
Like, are we out here playinggames with our money or are you
still following the strategies?
And so what I have heard folkssaying is that, even though
(26:28):
cryptocurrency itself feels verymuch like speculating, like
it's a very risky thing to dowith your money, they are
investing in companies that areinvesting in the blockchain.
So the blockchain is thetechnology, like that's the
technological advancement thatcryptocurrency is built on, and
so it's like why not invest inthe organizations that are
(26:50):
investing in the technology that, whatever the next iteration,
the cryptocurrency that becomesmainstream?
I mean, there are hundreds ofcryptocurrencies.
Right, let's say the world doesmake that turn.
You sort of have your money,you're sort of betting on the
technology, and even still,those folks are saying that's
our fun money, like that's 10percent no more than 10 percent
(27:11):
of my portfolio that I'm doingfor fun and the rest is just in
our stable, predictableinvestments that we know are
going to do well over time.
So that would be myrecommendation.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
OK, that's a good idea, good recommendation,
because what did you say?
You follow people who aremaking money, I guess, or who
are good at it.
You know in so many words, andI think that's one of the what
is it?
It's not the laws, but you knowwhat is that book?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Richest man in Babylon.
I read, or something like thatyears ago I took that lesson to
heart.
I'm not taking your advice ifyou haven't been working.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Right, right, right, right, right, and that was one
of, like, the biggest things inthere, cause I was like again,
you know um, when I firststarted out investing, I think I
I should have probably tooksomebody else's and you know
somebody's advice and stop youknow, just not jumping in and
waste money and stuff like that,so that's good.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
I mean, the great thing is for those of us who
didn't mess up and learn thehard way, at least we can give
advice and folks, can you know,skip a couple of steps.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
So speaking of speaking of advice, I mean just
off the cuff, what is the worstfinancial advice you ever heard
or actually have received?
What's like the worst thing youcan.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Buying life insurance .
Oh, speak on it, my lifeinsurance OK yeah, I think I
mean there's all kinds of badadvice, but I it just.
It's one of the ones that irksme because, like we work hard
for our money, right, like Ireally believe we're trading
valuable hours, like the hoursof our life or the things we
(28:47):
can't get back.
It's a non-renewable resource,it's the most valuable
possession we have.
So if you trade that for money,like what you do with that
money is so important and Idon't want people to be taken
advantage of, and so so often Isee so many TikToks about that.
It's like a thing, because a lotof people get into jobs where
(29:07):
their job is to sell lifeinsurance, to tell people this
is an investment and you'regoing to get rich and this is
what the rich do, et cetera.
It's complicated and there arefees and there's all these ways
for you to lose your money, andpeople I feel like are getting
swindled over a hope and a dream, when there's really just the
(29:29):
things we're talking about areso simple, like anyone listening
to this today could go to theirjob and put some money in their
401k and find an index fund orgo to vanguard and open a roth
ira right, it's so simple, um,and we have been led to believe
that these things have to becomplicated and that you're not
smart enough to do it.
So you got to give your moneyto me and then I'm going to make
(29:52):
you rich.
And we just got to that.
That just troubles me Like Ireally hate to hear it.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, that's the beautiful thing, I think now,
because, um, like I said, I meanwhen you know when my parents
were coming up, you know thisstuff was, you know you had to
go get a broker and all thatother stuff like that.
Like now everything is prettymuch at your fingertips.
You can go online, you canstart your brokerage account and
do your own thing.
So you know no longer needreally like a middleman, to do
(30:19):
anything.
I mean, if nothing else, youjust need somebody to give you
some information or, you know,start you out, but you really
don't need to give anybody anymoney to get money.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, that's right you can get a book.
My book is in the library, likeyou literally don't have to pay
anyone any money to get thisinformation.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah, and I think that's the thing is that a lot
of people don't look for thesethings, especially what our
young people like.
I was talking to someone theother day who said, well, we was
talking about credit and theperson said, well, I have a
house and once I got my house, Ididn't care about my credit
anymore.
So you know, this is like thementality that a lot of people
have, but not knowing thatyou're going to probably need
(30:59):
this somewhere down the line forsomething else.
So, like, what's the bestadvice you can give young people
in terms of credit, because alot of them don't really
understand it.
So could you kind of break thatdown and give a message to the
young people in terms aboutkeeping a healthy credit history
?
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, it's multiple sides to this.
Yeah, I think this is thenumber one question young people
want to ask.
Like, if I'm on a panel orsomething with young people for
questions they want to know,tell me about credit scores,
like how low can it go?
How do I build it?
Right, and it's one of thoseinteresting things about society
that every young person knowsabout a credit score but every
young person doesn't know aboutan index fund, right?
(31:37):
So I'm struggling with that.
But I'm like we got to startmeet people where they are and
then we can layer on someinformation For the credit score
.
You know, I like to remind folks, like, the top three things
that we're even looking at withyour credit score has to do with
your balances.
How are you maxing out thesecredit cards?
(32:00):
Are you keeping it around 30%or less?
That's the golden ratio 30% orless of your balance.
If you have a $1,000 card,never put more than $300 on that
card.
Pay it off every month.
So at the end of the month thisshould be a 0% Um, but so the
utilization rate is what that iscalled Um.
And then the length of credithistory which you'll just build
(32:24):
over time Um, and then thinkingabout what.
The third one is I lost it offthe top of my head oh, on-time
payments, of course.
So making sure you pay yourbills on time.
I think those are reasonable,like I think if you, you know,
charge something, paying themoney back is a reasonable
(32:46):
expectation.
So I think for young people,you know part of it.
We're talking about yourintegrity.
We're talking about making wisechoices.
We're talking about and I thinkyou know I'm not a, so I'm not
a fan of credit cards, becauseI've gotten bitten a lot by
being an overspender, by saying,oh, I'm just going to charge a
(33:07):
little bit more this month andI'm going to pay myself back and
all this.
Like my brain can do all ofthose things.
So my recommendation is to setup really strong guardrails for
yourself.
I like to say find a bill, arecurring bill, your phone bill
or something like this.
Set it up on that credit cardfor auto pay and then don't
(33:27):
carry the credit card around inyour wallet.
It's not for everyday expenses.
If you're just building credit,put a bill on there, pay that
bill every month and your creditscore is going to go up and put
the credit.
You could cut the credit cardup and throw it in the trash,
right Like after you've got itset up on autopay.
What are you going to?
You're not going to be swipingthe card, so I would encourage
(33:51):
folks to be cautious, to listento their adults around them
who've gotten themselves incredit card debt and know how
easy it is to sort of be caughtin the debt trap and then to
build those smart guardrails sothat you don't sort of fall into
the same traps that a lot of ushave.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Would you suggest over-investing your 401k?
Like you know, recently IRecently I've done it I gave 15%
.
I think at the time my job wasmatching 6%, or something like
that.
Recently, someone was tellingme that once I got knowledge to
get into, investing myselfdirectly into the market, he was
(34:25):
like well, why are you puttingthe rest of that money in there?
You might as well just investit yourself.
What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yeah.
So once you get to the part, tothe point of your life, where
you've got all the basics doneright, you've got your emergency
fund set up, you got yourincome straight right, folks
will remind you that thegreatest culprit, the greatest
thing that's going to eat intoyour money, is taxes, and so
(34:52):
we've got to start getting smartabout our tax strategies, and
this is why we start with.
You know, these tax advantageaccounts.
Even better than the 401k isthe Roth IRA.
So what a lot of folks will do,if you have enough money to be
maxing out these accounts oryou're trying to build up to it,
is to start with the match Ifyou have that at work, because
(35:14):
that's I mean you'reautomatically doubling your
money to go max out a Roth.
Max out the Roth IRA, which youknow for folks who are learning
about Roths, it's after taxmoney, so you've already paid
the taxes, but all the growth?
So, years down the line, whenyou take the money out, all that
(35:38):
money is tax free, and that Imean it can't be beat, which is
why there's a limit on how muchmoney you can put into a Roth.
If you make too much money,they start to cap who can put
money into a Roth and you got to.
You know there's some tricksyou got to start doing to find
ways to access it.
So max out the Roth and then goback and max out your 401k,
which is another tax advantageaccount.
So folks are always going totry to max out the tax advantage
accounts.
Some folks will have HSAs,which is another tax advantage
(36:01):
account through your healthcare.
So maxing out the taxadvantages is key and then,
beyond that, of course, you cango get a regular brokerage
account.
That's certainly fine, but Iwould max those out first.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
That's good information right there, good
information.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah, most definitely .
So now we're going to switchgears.
Let's talk about the book.
Okay, I just want to follow upwith you on the book.
I know you mentioned it's inthe libraries.
Now all this information isthere.
What is the feedback thatyou've been getting on the book
since you put it out?
I know you've got to get aplethora of notes and emails and
(36:38):
people dropping in your DMs alltypes of stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
So just tell us you know the book, tell us about the
book and how it's affectingpeople out here.
Yeah, no, the book.
I mean, I have been completelyblown away, I think when I wrote
the book so I had this burningdesire to just get this
information out.
I'm like, how come nobody toldme this?
How come people in my communityaren't talking about this?
I'm just going to bring myBlack woman voice and do it
(37:05):
Right, like it just had to bewritten.
But even so, we put the bookout 2021 and almost $90,000,
90,000 books have been sold todate and just Okay, I applaud
that.
Wonderful and just Okayapplause.
Wonderful, no, it's crazy.
So when I say blown away likeI'm blown away in multiple ways,
(37:26):
including the sales, but peopleare constantly reaching out to
me to say this book has changedmy life I suddenly have hope.
I finally took action onsomething I've been meaning to
do.
So there's something about, Ithink, if I were thinking about,
what made the differencebecause I read a lot of books,
like there are a ton of personalfinance books is being able to
connect with the stories in thebooks.
(37:49):
I'm telling you know mypersonal story, but being able
to see someone you can relate tomake these mistakes, recover
from them, right starts to makeyou think you can do it too.
And because my background is ineducation, you know I definitely
approached it from this sort ofaction oriented.
It's almost like a textbook.
(38:09):
I have worksheets in there,right Like I really want you to
take action on these things andto make it digestible and easy
enough to understand.
So that was my hope, and so Ifeel like you know, it's such a
blessing for people to say, yeah, I did do that.
Yeah, I use the tool that yougave me and I opened that
account.
You know, I'm just so gratefulthat folks are receiving it and
that is actually making adifference for folks.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
You know it's funny to say, because I was telling my
brother this and I was like youknow, because once you start
investing you start gettingmoney or you start watching your
money grow, you know you getkind of excited about it, right,
and I was telling them that youknow, a lot of times I'll speak
to people at work and we'lljust talk about it, and then it
kind of makes you happy whenthat person actually goes out
(38:53):
and actually starts their ownbrokerage account and stuff like
that.
So you know, and then they'llcome back and ask questions.
And I got one young lady thatworks for me right now, man, and
like she's gone home everyFriday.
She's like you know, andre,what do you?
What do I invest in today?
What am I putting my money into?
And I'm like, wow, you know,it's beautiful to watch her.
You know, you know, be young.
And I said, man, I wish I wasthat young and somebody gave me
(39:15):
that information.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
You know on yeah, I mean time is on your side.
It's so tricky because whenyou're young you want to make
mistakes.
That's how you're going tolearn.
But for those young people whoare willing to take advice find
good people to take advice from,are willing to take it, Just
time alone.
It takes so much less money tobuild wealth if you start early
than if you start in your 40sI'm 40 now than if you start,
(39:43):
you know, in your 40s, like I'm40 now, Right, so like if you're
at my age or older, we got to.
You know, we got to move somebigger numbers to get where
we're trying to go.
Even for those of us, even ifyou are moving bigger numbers,
you can pay that forward bymentoring a young person to
start early with those smallernumbers and get there faster.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Have any of the bigger big name like financial,
quote unquote gurus reached outto you, probably after seeing
you speak or, you know, readingyour book or hearing someone
talk about you and, and you know, try to pick your brain about
certain things.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I don't know about that.
Um, I did.
Uh, I will tell you.
When I was writing the book, um, I reached out to a lot of
folks to say will you read mybook?
You know, you give me somefeedback and I was so lucky to
get yeses from some of myfavorite people and so their,
their names, are like in thecover, Like those are people I
(40:34):
personally reached out to to saywill you read my book and
review?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
it.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
And was able to put their quotes in there.
And then I loved so for a while, my book.
I think my book came out at thesame time, around the same time
as Tiffany Alashae's book, theBudgetnista.
So I remember someone hadposted something on Instagram
about both of these books andshe replied and said I love your
book, paris, you know, whichwas so dope.
(40:59):
I'm like, ma'am, you are acelebrity, you know.
Just those little things havereally stood out to me, but I
haven't, you know, gotten on thephone with anyone or anything
like that.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Well, at least not yet.
At least not yet.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Not yet.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
You know, what's funny is I remember like I'm not
a big fan of Dr Lamar Johnson,but I remember in the beginning
when he was talking aboutstarting school and stuff like
that, and that was one of thethings that I was intrigued by
because he was saying that howhe was going to teach kids
financial literacy and teachthem how to invest and stuff
like that.
And I was like man like youknow, he's a little weird for me
here and there but I was likeit would be nice to see somebody
(41:34):
that would come through, thatcould come through and start a
program like this and, like yousaid, start children out early
and understanding you knowwhat's going on, as opposed to
waiting until you know you get30 or 40 and trying to put
things together.
You know on a on a on a globalscale, or you know not well,
just, you know all over theUnited States, I should say, if
nothing else, you know,especially in the community, in
(41:54):
our community.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I agree, and they're, and I feel like schools are
hungry for this information.
A lot of states are starting torequire some sort of financial
literacy course for students inK-12.
So certainly appetite for it.
I just want to make sure thatwe have people of color
represented and folks you know.
(42:16):
Let's make it interesting,let's make it entertaining.
It doesn't have to be dry andboring, and you know, banker,
banker, boring is what I call it.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Um, hopefully we can bring some diverse voices into
the classrooms as well yeah, ateacher friend of mine actually
did that with her fifth gradeclass where they had like an
investment team.
They were in like a competitionand actually won in terms of
the investment team had to pick,I guess I guess was companies
or stocks that they had to gettogether and invest in.
(42:46):
They watched the stock, thestocks grew and the competition,
I believe, was whose stock wasthe highest at the end.
So they competed against otherschools for this and I thought
that was so cool.
But it was something that wasnot publicized and I'm like why
is not the whole school doingthis?
Or you know, I know sheprobably reached out to someone
(43:06):
to to get this started, a personlike yourself.
So it's like why is the wholeschool not doing something like
this?
Why is the whole it's not acurriculum based around this?
Speaker 1 (43:14):
it still baffles me till this day hopefully, uh,
maybe someone listening to thisis going to be inspired, just
like I was, to write the book,to create the curriculum that
normalizes, because I think therisk I feel like most often we
see investment clubs, the riskis sort of this gamification of
(43:35):
investing, when really investingshould be boring and basic and
just like this is what we all do, of course, like, of course,
okay, um, and so I thinksomeone's got to get creative to
make that engaging in and ofitself.
Um, folks understand just thebasics of what to do with your
money to build wealth withouthaving to do all the extra stuff
exactly exactly so, um, isthere going to be a second book
(44:00):
that you're working on?
Speaker 3 (44:01):
I know you got a lot going on right now, but is there
?
Are we getting that black man'sguide to financial freedom that
we talked about last?
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Maybe Dr Umar is going to write it, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
I don't know if I'll give Dr.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Umar, my money at this point.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
I don't know.
I'm waiting.
You know I'm open toinspiration.
It was inspiration that struck,that resulted in this book, so
if it hits me, I will do it.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
We'll see, sounds good.
Maybe you should do somethingautobiographical, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, you never know.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
You never know Is my life interesting enough.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Maybe, on this other side, we can talk about being
married and all the other.
Maybe, on this other side, wecan talk about being married and
all the other.
I know there's more for me tolearn in this next week, so
we'll see, Plus more money tomake.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Now you can split it down the middle, you know, throw
a lot more money into it.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
you know yeah the complexity, Even like I might
become a mom.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
You never know.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
There's lots more lessons to learn that I'm happy
to turn them around.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
God bless you with that mom thing, God bless you.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
I'll tell you what that kid is going to be sharp
when it comes to investing.
Oh yeah, man, I hope so.
I hope so.
Money mistakes here.
All right, so before we let yougo, can you let everybody know
what your handles are, wherethey can reach you at, where
they can get the book at?
Let us know what your handlesare, where they can reach you at
, where they can get the book at.
Let us know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah, author Paris Woods, on all social platforms,
and then the book is availableeverywhere as well.
The lowest price I've seen ison Amazon and that might be the
best place to start.
And then I have a free toolkitthat you can download to start.
(45:45):
And then I have a free toolkitthat you can download and the
URL is right on the inside ofthe book, but it's just
Pariswoodcom slash book bonuseswith just some extra trainings
and things like that to get youstarted.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
Okay, and I see you getting out there on the socials
making your shorts andeverything like that, keeping
the people informed.
I'm loving it.
I just want to let everybodyknow.
Go out there, you know, I meanif you're on the instagrams and
all of that and, uh, check out alot of this stuff, youtube, and
all check it out, all right.
So, dr paris woods, thank youonce again on a mission to help
(46:18):
more women of color build wealthwhile living a life they love.
That's right.
We appreciate you for that onesis, for real.
All right, and with that beingsaid, we're going to get ready
to sign off.
So, yeah, thanks again for onceagain, another informative
conversation.
All right, the Only One Mikepodcast is available on all
(46:40):
platforms you stream yourpodcasts on.
Also, check out our Only OneMike Podcast YouTube channel to
catch up on the past and currentepisodes and please don't
forget to rate the show andsubscribe.
Check us out on Instagram and xslash Twitter at the Only One
Mike P1, facebook and LinkedInat the Only One Mike Podcast.
And you can email us attheonlyonemike00 at g.
And you can email us at theonly one mic zero zero at
(47:02):
gmailcom, or call us at threezero, two, three, six, seven,
seven, two, one, nine, to haveyour comments and questions
played on the show.
We thank you once again foryour time.
Dr Paris was to be the audienceand we encourage you to please
speak your truth quietly andclearly and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant,because they too have their
story to tell.
(47:23):
So until next time, please keepin mind in fact this one is a
good one, paris, each one.
Teach one.
If you can't find one, talk tothe little ones and you'll see
they'll listen to feel themissing piece, to rise and shine
.
Thank you everybody for showingup and peace.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Peace.
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