September 9, 2024 • 28 mins
In this episode of The Mindfully Rich Podcast, I break down the stages of financial wellness: Financially Healthy, Financially Coping, and Financially Vulnerable. Drawing from her experience as a Financial Educator, she explains how high-income earners can unexpectedly slip from Financially Healthy into Financial Vulnerability due to life events such as job loss, medical expenses, or lifestyle inflation.
I want you to understand critical strategies for avoiding and recovering from financial setbacks, including diversifying income streams, tightening budgets, and building emergency savings. Gina provides eye-opening statistics about how many high earners live paycheck to paycheck and actionable tips for long-term financial stability and recovery.
Whether you’re thriving or struggling financially, this episode will help you understand where you stand on the spectrum and guide you in making informed decisions to secure your financial future.
Key Takeaways:
- Recognize your current financial phase
- Diversify your income streams
- Live lean, even when income increases
- Build and maintain an emergency fund
- Invest in your skills for long-term stability
Don't miss out on strategies to rebuild and protect your financial well-being!
Visit www.iammindfullyrich.com for more tips and to schedule your consultation with me!
📲 Follow on Instagram: @mindfully_rich_podcast
🎙️ Hashtags: #MindfullyRichPodcast #FinancialWellness #MoneyManagement #FinancialRecovery
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, hello and welcome back to the Mindfully
Rich podcast, your weekly lookat life and finances with a
twist, where we talk aboutimproving your overall
relationship with money andbuilding better financial habits
.
On each episode, I'll discussreal life situations and give
y'all practical advice.
The point of this podcast is tohelp you stay in your financial
(00:21):
lane so you won't end up broke.
I'm the creator and host theGina Richie Richardson.
Now let's jump into today'sconversation.
What's up, y'all?
What's up?
Okay, look at what time it is.
Okay, you probably got thisepisode in the morning Four
(00:42):
weeks straight.
Okay, yes, I'm making it a bigdeal because I am super excited
that I have been consistent.
Okay, your girl is back.
I am having a good time.
Y'all enjoying the episodes.
I'm loving that.
I'm loving all of the feedbackthat I've been receiving.
Thank y'all so much.
It is making me feel so good.
I am so excited for this newiteration of the Mindfully Rich
(01:07):
podcast.
So, if you are new, welcome.
We are the rich gang over hereand this is a one woman show,
and so, yeah, you just about tobe kicking it with me.
I'm going to be your friend inyour head for the next 30
minutes.
Thank you and welcome.
Okay, so we have been talking alot about a really deep topic,
(01:30):
talking about the fall from sixfigures to scraping by.
This is the last episode ofthis series.
Y'all know I love a series and,if you knew, go ahead and go
back.
I got 131 whole episodes thatyou can listen to and you will
see that there are so manydifferent series that I have
done.
But I wanted to do this seriesfor my high income earning
(01:53):
audience, and the reason why Idid that is because I've done so
many different series, so manydifferent series.
Jesus Christ, did y'all hearthat?
Oh, my goodness, jesus Christ,did y'all hear that?
Oh, my goodness, I've done alot of episodes.
Okay, this is 132 right now.
Okay, so it's 131 of thesethings out there, and I've done
different series before, but Iwanted to do this one because it
(02:15):
hit close to home, and it hitclose to home with not only
myself but a lot of people thatI know out there who were once
at six figures, who are tryingto get themselves back to the
place where they were at, orthose high earning income folks
that I know who have wentthrough some of the things that
(02:36):
we've been talking about inthese series so far.
So if you haven't checked outthe previous episodes because
this is episode four to a wholeseries and that series is called
the Fall from Six Figures toScraping by Make sure you go
back and you go check it out,just because it all makes sense.
Excuse me, y'all All right?
(02:57):
So let's go ahead and go backto last week's episode where I
talked about the climb back,restoring your income.
Oh, my goodness, this episodewas so therapeutic, just as the
rest of them have been, but itwas so therapeutic for me just
to discuss, just because Italked about rebuilding your
(03:17):
income streams and regainingthat financial stability.
Y'all going to hear me say thisa lot.
I'm very repetitive.
I'm repetitive when I'm doingfinancial wellness workshops too
, because I want to make surethat you're getting it.
It all starts with our income,with the money that we are
bringing in, and so anytime thatmoney has slowed down in any
(03:39):
area because let's say that youhave multiple streams of income,
so anytime it slows down, ithas decreased that is when we
start experiencing those fallsand remember, just like with a
regular fall, if I fall down acouple of steps, I may be cool,
but if I fall down a flight ofsteps, meaning I have failed in
(04:00):
income tens of thousands ofdollars, then you're going to
feel that impact a bit harderthan if you just fell down a
couple of steps.
And so we talked about that.
And so this week I amtransitioning us, and so let's
just go ahead and move into themindful money moment.
And so this week I want to talkabout financially healthy,
(04:23):
being financially healthy andgoing from being financially
healthy to being financiallyvulnerable and understanding the
phases of our financialwellness.
And so this is going to take usback, but also take us into the
future, just because I wantedto re-educate y'all on these
terms that I learned, and so I'ma certified financial educator
(04:45):
and when I do my financialwellness workshops, I do a lot
of research.
I do a lot of studying offinances, of looking at what's
going on with the world, who'shealthy, who's coping, who's
financially vulnerable and whatthat picture looks like, and I
think that that is a good guide.
And so let me just go ahead andgive credit where credit is due
(05:06):
.
I research a lot through theFinancial Health Network.
I'm looking at the research andreports that they have put out
and thank God that they do this,especially being a practitioner
of finances, I love being ableto go there, go to their website
, look at the research that theyhave put time and effort into,
to seeing what's going on, tosee where we stand, whether that
(05:30):
is demographically differentstates, you have different
genders, different races.
I love studying thisinformation about these terms
that they came up with, becauseI believe that these terms help
us with painting a picture ofwhat our financial well-being,
what it looks like.
(05:51):
And so, if you're financiallyhealthy, for the most part, you
can just imagine yes, you'rethriving financially, meaning
you have more income than youhave expenses.
You probably have manageabledebt, you're able to invest, you
have disposable income, youdon't have any major stresses
when it comes to your financesbecause you have your finances
(06:14):
in a healthy position.
When you're financially coping,this means for me, you are
paycheck to paycheck.
You are just managing to stayafloat.
Can't?
No bills come in?
That ain't normally supposed tobe here, okay, you are sending
them back like Deborah Cox?
Nobody's supposed to be here,okay, what are you doing here?
(06:35):
Nothing unexpected can happen.
If it does, it's going to throwyou off, throw you off
completely financially.
So that's what financiallycoping is, and financially
coping leads to beingfinancially vulnerable.
This is a place where, whenwe've been talking about
scraping by, when you're in thatscraping by stage, when you are
(06:56):
in that stage where you areliving off savings in one of our
episodes that we talked aboutyou are in a financially
vulnerable space.
You are struggling with yourbasic needs, that paycheck to
paycheck.
The paycheck ain't even enoughto pay the bills that you got.
Okay, you're in constantfinancial distress and being in
(07:18):
constant financial distress ishurting your health because you
are stressed out, you areworried, you are having anxiety
about bills being due.
Y'all probably like girl, howyou know, I didn't been there.
Okay, I understand what thatlooks like, and falling from
being in a financially healthyspace to being in a financially
(07:39):
vulnerable space is what we'regoing to be talking about, which
is the same thing as the titleof the series the fall when you
are going from that high incomeearning capacity to that fall
down where you're not thereanymore.
So now I'm just using thoseterms to say from financially
being healthy to beingfinancially vulnerable, because
(08:03):
I want us to understand whatthat looks like, because we want
to try our best not to get backin these positions,
understandably, knowing that youmay not be the cause and a lot
of times you're not the cause ofyou being in this situation.
A lot of times, this is comingfrom unexpected life events.
(08:26):
This is the thing, right?
This is when my faith comes inso much, because I'm always
thinking I have so much control.
I think if I do the right thing, all of the right results are
going to happen.
If I work this job, if I dothis, if I do that, things are
going to stay the same.
But there are unexpected lifeevents, like losing a job, like
(08:49):
being laid off, like being cutyour hours being cut, like
sickness happening, likerelationship statuses changing,
like family circumstanceschanging All of these unexpected
(09:09):
changes, life events thathappen in all of our lives.
If it hasn't happened to you, Ipray that it doesn't.
But for the people that'slistening, when it's happened,
it has taken us from beingfinancially healthy to being
financially vulnerable, and itwasn't something that we asked
for, it wasn't something that weexpected, it wasn't something
that we thought would happen tous, but it happened.
And this is the thing whenyou're financially healthy,
(09:30):
you're putting yourself in aposition where you're prepared,
but this is the thing Ifsomething else doesn't happen to
help you while you're in thatstate.
So you may have preparedyourself for three months, you
may have prepared yourself forsix months.
That state so you may haveprepared yourself for three
months, you may have preparedyourself for six months, but in
that seventh month, if thatchange hasn't happened, you risk
now being in a financiallyvulnerable spot and
(09:53):
unfortunately, we are at thehand of waiting for the next job
, waiting for the income to comein, waiting for whatever that
change is so that we can getback into the place that we once
was, or surpassed that, so thatwe can thrive, because nobody
wants to financially just besurviving.
And that's what being in afinancially vulnerable space,
(10:16):
what that looks like.
I want to also talk about whenyou're financially vulnerable
because you're in anunderemployed state as well.
I'm going to do a whole episodeon being underemployed, because
I don't believe that we talkabout this enough.
But your girl love talkingabout it.
Okay, I need to be the change.
Okay, I need to make surepeople talking about it, because
(10:38):
being underemployed is just notmaking enough money, and I see
that a lot.
I've been looking at TikTok alot y'all, especially on career
talk.
I don't know why I'm there, butapparently the Lord want me to
get a message out of some sort,and so there are a lot of people
who are talking about beingunderemployed and I want you to
understand this.
(10:59):
If, at the job you startedwhenever you started, it has not
increased you at the rate ofinflation, you are probably in a
position where you are nowunderemployed because that job
at one point in time was enoughto pay for the lifestyle that
you had in that particular year.
But as the years are continuingto go, most jobs are not paying
(11:23):
you at a rate of inflation.
They are not increasing yourpay at the same rate that
inflation is going up.
So that's the reason why a lotof people you need a two income
home and for us people who got aone income home, we over here,
like you need a two-income home.
And for us people who got aone-income home, we over here,
like we got to make two-incomepeople money okay, because we do
(11:47):
not want to be in a positionwhere we are now in an
underemployed position.
That's the reason why it's verykey, if you're going into jobs
now, to make sure you arelooking at the rate of pay,
looking at the salaries andmaking sure you are equating,
all right, not only how much doI need to make today, but how
much do I need to make for atleast the next three years and
thinking about what am I goingto do in those next three years,
(12:09):
because inflation is going tobe going up, especially if
you're a renter.
You want to make sure that youare paying attention to those
things, because child life isexpensive.
Okay, so you see how easy it isto go from being financially
healthy to going to financiallycoping, to even being in a
(12:30):
financially vulnerable territory.
It's not hard, and if you'renot paying attention to it, if
you're not being very mindful ofthat, it can happen to you just
like that.
So that's the reason why we dohave to make sure that we are
being very intentional, verymindful over our finances,
understanding once again thatnumber one thing our income,
(12:51):
those income streams that wehave, so that we can always know
where we're at in comparison toour expenses, in comparison to
the inflation that's going tohappen.
So you can be prepared, becausethe idea is to make sure that
we are staying financiallyhealthy by any means necessary.
And so I want to talk to y'allabout a few stats.
(13:13):
So I look these up.
I want to make sure that y'allare aware of this, because I
feel like I'm really good as afinancial guy, because I coach
so many different people, somany different economical
backgrounds, and there's amisconception of thinking that
because someone earns sixfigures, that they just made it,
they all the way there, and sixfigures can be.
(13:35):
This is the thing.
It can be anything in asix-figure range, right?
You would be surprised at howmany six-figure earners are
living paycheck to paycheck.
As a matter of fact, the statthat I look up from paymentscom
said 47% of six-figure earnersare living paycheck to paycheck.
I want to give you another stat, and this is for California,
(13:55):
just because I live here.
This is for California, justbecause I live here In
California.
In order to live comfortably,you have to make an income of
over $113,000 annually.
That is also from paymentscom.
Another stat 63% of Americansreported living paycheck to
paycheck as of 2023.
(14:15):
I don't know why I said it likethat 23.
I don't know why I said it likethat.
I made that feel like it wasgoing to be deeper than what it
was.
But what's not funny is the 63%of Americans that reported
living paycheck to paycheck, andthat's according to
smartassetcom.
And so another one is many highearning.
(14:36):
I don't know why this is atongue twister when I say it all
together.
Many high earning incomeindividuals end up financially
coping due to rising costs ofliving and lifestyle inflation,
where spending increases withtheir income Y'all.
So I've been saying this, but Ialso wanted to make sure that I
(14:59):
got some facts to support this,just so that you can understand
what our economy is looking like.
And I have to be that one thatpoints out these things because
I'm mindfully rich.
I want to make sure that youare being very mindful about
your finances so that you canhave the riches that you want,
especially when it comes to yourfinancial riches.
(15:21):
And so I want to go back to it.
Just because your income is socrucial, because the income is
the make or break in whetherwe're financially healthy, we're
coping or we're vulnerable.
So I talked about the climblast week and talked about when
you're diversifying your income,when you're building those
(15:43):
multiple income streams, justbecause your income.
I want you to always look atyour income as being the
foundation to your house.
That is the foundation to yourhouse.
You can have multiple incomestreams that are creating that
foundation.
You got to figure out whatthat's going to be just because
you don't want to be in thatcoping area or that financially
(16:06):
vulnerable area.
So you have to make sure that,if you haven't built your income
streams to be as strong as youneed them to be, I'm going back
to the climb.
You need to make sure thatyou're doing that.
I'm going back to the climb.
You need to make sure thatyou're doing that.
I know we think our jobs are sosecure.
I'm seeing so many people gothrough reductions at their jobs
right now.
Then what?
(16:27):
What are we going to do then?
I'm seeing a lot of people whohave been in situations where
they've left their jobs where itwasn't their fault, something
happened where they're no longerneeded there.
When they tell them theirservices are no longer needed at
those jobs anymore, what dothey do?
So we have to make sure that,yes, I'm relying on this income.
(16:49):
They're paying me a good wage.
Yes, but what else?
What else?
I want to make sure I'm beingthat person that's telling you
what else are you going to do?
And I talked last week abouthaving income come in from
entrepreneurship, from yourbusiness, that side hustle,
whatever it is that you're doing, but I really want you to make
(17:09):
sure that you're looking at that.
Just because our economy isvolatile right now, I don't want
you to be left being vulnerable.
I don't want you in that space.
I don't want you in thatscraping by space.
I don't want you to be leftbeing vulnerable.
I don't want you in that space.
I don't want you in thatscraping by space.
I don't want you in survivalmode.
I want to make sure that yougot everything that you need so
that you can thrive All right.
And so when we thriving Italked about when you're in a
(17:30):
financially healthy space, yourincome it surpasses your
expenses, tightening up yourbudget Child, I got to tell
y'all last week.
After the episode last week, itinspired me to go take a look at
all of my expenses and I waslooking at my subscriptions.
So I went to Apple.
So all my people who gotiPhones.
(17:52):
I went to Apple and went to notApple.
I went to subscriptions so Icould see all of the
subscriptions that I was payingfor.
I got rid of so much stuff andit probably was like over a
hundred dollars of stuff a month.
Y'all may say, oh, that'snothing but a hundred dollars
here, a hundred dollars there,all of that stuff add up to big
money.
Okay, so you want to take alook at things like that.
(18:13):
How can you tighten up?
How can you trim the fat?
How can you do those things?
And I know I talked about thislast week, but as a financial
educator, I like to repeatmyself to make sure that
everybody is getting it.
Okay, I want to make sure thatyou are listening, that you are
understanding that, because youdo got to tighten up and you do
(18:35):
have to make sure and it'ssomething about, it's some about
looking at your bank statement.
I don't know what it is thatbank statement child, because
you can't lie to that one.
So I'm going to give thisadvice again.
I gave this in some episodes.
Oh, it's been a while since Isaid this, but one of my
favorite methods to do with myclients is to have them print
out their bank statements, havethem take out three markers.
(18:58):
You're going to have one markerand it's the thing if you spend
on your credit cards, you'regoing to be using this for your
credit card statements as well.
So your bank statements andyour credit card statements for
the month.
So you're taking those threemarkers.
One is going to be for anyincome that's coming in.
You're going to carry that downto the bottom so you can see it
.
Another market is going to befor all your planned expenses,
(19:21):
the expenses that you weresupposed to pay for, the ones
that you knew that you weregoing to pay for.
The last market is going to beto highlight all of the things
that you did not plan on gettingwithin that month, and you're
going to go through it.
You're going to look at thatand that's going to help you
with tightening up your budgetso that you can understand.
(19:41):
This is where I be going wrongthrough the month.
I don't know what your guiltypleasure is, but your statements
, they're going to show you.
Ok, because we got to get tightand right.
Ok, I said that last week, yougot to get tight and right and I
wanted to bring that up againjust because, if we want to be
financially healthy, it's worthme mentioning and saying twice
(20:04):
Once you get back into afinancially healthy spot.
That's when we got to rebuildour savings.
We got to rebuild the three tosix months.
I talked about this last week.
I am reiterating this againjust because for those people.
When I did this surviving off asavings episode that was a hard
(20:25):
episode for me to do because itwas a hard reality and it was so
therapeutic for me to even talkabout that.
But we got to rebuild ourselves.
Just because nobody ever talksabout, after you save the money,
what happens when I got tospend the money.
So when you got to spend themoney, now we got to rebuild the
(20:46):
money and don't nobody likethat.
And I had this question askedto me quite a bit how many
savings accounts should I have?
And I don't like to save all inone spot, so I like to have
different accounts that dodifferent things.
Just because I don't want to bespending out of the vacation
account on the emergencyexpenses or spending out of my
maintenance account on vacation.
(21:08):
I want to make sure I treat mysavings as line items in a
business.
This is for maintenance, thisis for vacation, this is for
emergency savings.
You may get down to a placewhere I no longer have any of
those things anymore becauseI've been using that to live off
of.
Now we got to rebuild.
Now we got to be strategic whenwe're rebuilding, but you got to
(21:30):
understand how much can yourebuild with.
When you do get to a placewhere you are trying to get back
to being financially healthy,you get the income streams
coming in, understanding howmuch money do I have coming in,
how much money do I have goingout, how much money can I save?
That is the hardest thing for alot of my clients to understand
(21:51):
.
They're like I want to save, Iwant to save, I want to save,
but they don't have any extramoney to save.
Where's that money coming from?
What are you stopping doing sothat you can now put this money
in savings?
Or what income are you nowgoing to bring in so it can now
go into your savings account?
Money isn't hard, but us aspeople, we make money especially
(22:14):
hard because we think that it'slike magic somewhere.
But it's not.
We have to understand we're incontrol of where we're going to
get these income streams from.
How are we going to make themoney?
Right Now, we ain't in controlof if it's going to stay when we
do get it, but we're in controlof where we're going to go so
that we can get those incomestreams flowing in.
(22:35):
We're also in control of thoseexpenses.
Now I do understand that thereare some expenses that just pop
up and boom, now you got a bill.
I get that.
I understand that, but we wantto try to make sure that we are
minimizing those expenses, thosedebts, as much as we can, so
that we can build ourselves backup when it's time to start
building ourselves back up.
(22:57):
So this episode doesn't have anytips, but the key takeaway that
I want you to understand,because this is going to sum up
this whole series whichfinancial phase are you in?
Are you accepting the financialphase that you're in?
Because when you're financiallycoping, I don't know what it is
.
We do not want to accept that.
(23:18):
I do not want to accept that Ican no longer do the things that
I used to be able to do when Iwas financially healthy.
I don't want to accept that Ican't go on vacation when I want
to.
I don't want to accept that Ican't just be going out to eat
when I want to.
I don't want to accept that Idon't have any extra money.
I don't want to accept that Iam now drowning in debt.
(23:38):
I don't want to accept that myexpenses are now outweighing my
income.
What do you need to accept sothat you can now accept it, so
we can stop scraping by and wecan start thriving.
What do you need to accept sothat you can now get up, figure
(24:00):
out what you need to do next?
What do you need to accept sothat you can now start getting
the help that you need, so youcan get up and you can get to
where you're supposed to go?
You still got more in you.
You still have a journey to goon.
You are learning something inthis particular season that
(24:20):
you're in and what you'relearning is going to help you
with thriving in your nextseason.
But we got to get through it.
So what do you need to acceptnow about the financial season
and phase that you are in now?
What are you needing?
Because you need to get that.
I needed to get that.
I didn't want to accept that.
(24:42):
The longer you don't acceptwhere you're at, the longer
you're going to stay in thatparticular financial phase
because you are not in a mindsetthat is telling you the reality
of your situation.
You are in la-la land somewherethinking, nope, I'm this.
I'm still where I used to be.
I get it.
(25:02):
It sucks coming down.
I know better than anyone.
I don't know why I'm on God'sstrongest soldier list, but I've
done it too many times and Idon't like it, but I'm saying
this again what do you need toaccept so that you can move
(25:24):
forward?
Because that is what we'redoing in this new season.
We are moving forward and I'mgoing to get a little spiritual
on you.
Okay, you are being refinedright now.
I want you to know that,whatever it is that you are
going through, other people aregoing through it with you.
So I hope that you feel seen.
(25:44):
I hope that you feel heard andknow that you are being refined
right now.
You are being built strongerand I want you to come out of
this stronger, but it's going tostart with your acceptance of
understanding the phase that youare in right now so we can get
you back to being financiallyhealthy.
I want to speak life into youone more time and let you know
(26:05):
that you are resilient, that youare going to have the doors
that need to be open in yourlife.
They are going to be open andthey're going to be wide open
and they're going to give youthe reward that you need.
But you have to get up.
I had to hear this and it hurtme so much because so many times
(26:27):
.
You want to just lay down, youjust want to be sorrowful about
it.
You think that it's over, butit's not over.
You're still here.
You woke up, your eyes are open.
That means that something iswaiting for you on the other
side of this and you're going tosee it and you're going to tell
me about it.
You're going to DM me so thatway I can tell everybody else
about it.
(26:47):
Okay, and so just wanted tospeak life for a second.
I hope that y'all have enjoyedthis series and, like I said,
this has been a very therapeuticseries for me, because this is
some things that I needed totalk about, and not only was I
talking about it for me, but Ifelt in my heart, somebody else
that is listening also needed tohear this, and this is going to
(27:08):
live.
I love that this now has legsand it gets a chance to move all
across the world.
And, speaking of the world,y'all make sure y'all sharing
this thing far and wide withyour friends, with your circle.
Okay, one woman team?
Okay, it only gets out if y'allsend it out, okay, and hey, to
all the new listeners.
(27:28):
I didn't get a chance to geteverybody.
I was going to list all thecities, but I don't want to
embarrass y'all on here.
I don't even know if that'sembarrassing.
I think it's cute.
I think it's cute, I'm going todo it next time.
And also, I didn't have all ofthe details prepared for
advertisements Next episode.
I promise I'm going to havethat, because I've had a lot of
people ask me about how they cansponsor the podcast, how I can
(27:51):
advertise, what can I do?
I'll have all those details fory'all next time.
And so, because we've beentalking about being financially
healthy, vulnerable and coping,once again, you know your girl
is a financial guide.
I want to assist you on yourjourney.
All of my appointments arevirtual, so you could be
anywhere, don't forget.
I am accepting new clients forSeptember and October, so go
(28:15):
ahead.
Check out my website.
Iammindfullyrichcom Gives youall of the information that you
need so that you can get started.
Schedule our complimentaryconsultation.
My schedule is up to date.
I want to be there for you foryour comeback.
Let's do it together, okay?
And don't forget to follow thepodcast on Instagram at
(28:35):
mindfully underscore, rich,underscore podcast.
Did I leave anything out?
I don't think I did.
Don't forget.
Listen, listen, listen.
Go on back to the episodes thatyou didn't listen to after this
one, and I don't want to startrambling, so that's all I got
and got, no more.
And until next time when I hity'all with another one.
Hello, hello and welcome back to the Mindfully
Rich podcast, your weekly lookat life and finances with a
twist, where we talk aboutimproving your overall
relationship with money andbuilding better financial habits
.
On each episode, I'll discussreal life situations and give
y'all practical advice.
The point of this podcast is tohelp you stay in your financial
(00:21):
lane so you won't end up broke.
I'm the creator and host theGina Richie Richardson.
Now let's jump into today'sconversation.
What's up, y'all?
What's up?
Okay, look at what time it is.
Okay, you probably got thisepisode in the morning Four
(00:42):
weeks straight.
Okay, yes, I'm making it a bigdeal because I am super excited
that I have been consistent.
Okay, your girl is back.
I am having a good time.
Y'all enjoying the episodes.
I'm loving that.
I'm loving all of the feedbackthat I've been receiving.
Thank y'all so much.
It is making me feel so good.
I am so excited for this newiteration of the Mindfully Rich
(01:07):
podcast.
So, if you are new, welcome.
We are the rich gang over hereand this is a one woman show,
and so, yeah, you just about tobe kicking it with me.
I'm going to be your friend inyour head for the next 30
minutes.
Thank you and welcome.
Okay, so we have been talking alot about a really deep topic,
(01:30):
talking about the fall from sixfigures to scraping by.
This is the last episode ofthis series.
Y'all know I love a series and,if you knew, go ahead and go
back.
I got 131 whole episodes thatyou can listen to and you will
see that there are so manydifferent series that I have
done.
But I wanted to do this seriesfor my high income earning
(01:53):
audience, and the reason why Idid that is because I've done so
many different series, so manydifferent series.
Jesus Christ, did y'all hearthat?
Oh, my goodness, jesus Christ,did y'all hear that?
Oh, my goodness, I've done alot of episodes.
Okay, this is 132 right now.
Okay, so it's 131 of thesethings out there, and I've done
different series before, but Iwanted to do this one because it
(02:15):
hit close to home, and it hitclose to home with not only
myself but a lot of people thatI know out there who were once
at six figures, who are tryingto get themselves back to the
place where they were at, orthose high earning income folks
that I know who have wentthrough some of the things that
(02:36):
we've been talking about inthese series so far.
So if you haven't checked outthe previous episodes because
this is episode four to a wholeseries and that series is called
the Fall from Six Figures toScraping by Make sure you go
back and you go check it out,just because it all makes sense.
Excuse me, y'all All right?
(02:57):
So let's go ahead and go backto last week's episode where I
talked about the climb back,restoring your income.
Oh, my goodness, this episodewas so therapeutic, just as the
rest of them have been, but itwas so therapeutic for me just
to discuss, just because Italked about rebuilding your
(03:17):
income streams and regainingthat financial stability.
Y'all going to hear me say thisa lot.
I'm very repetitive.
I'm repetitive when I'm doingfinancial wellness workshops too
, because I want to make surethat you're getting it.
It all starts with our income,with the money that we are
bringing in, and so anytime thatmoney has slowed down in any
(03:39):
area because let's say that youhave multiple streams of income,
so anytime it slows down, ithas decreased that is when we
start experiencing those fallsand remember, just like with a
regular fall, if I fall down acouple of steps, I may be cool,
but if I fall down a flight ofsteps, meaning I have failed in
(04:00):
income tens of thousands ofdollars, then you're going to
feel that impact a bit harderthan if you just fell down a
couple of steps.
And so we talked about that.
And so this week I amtransitioning us, and so let's
just go ahead and move into themindful money moment.
And so this week I want to talkabout financially healthy,
(04:23):
being financially healthy andgoing from being financially
healthy to being financiallyvulnerable and understanding the
phases of our financialwellness.
And so this is going to take usback, but also take us into the
future, just because I wantedto re-educate y'all on these
terms that I learned, and so I'ma certified financial educator
(04:45):
and when I do my financialwellness workshops, I do a lot
of research.
I do a lot of studying offinances, of looking at what's
going on with the world, who'shealthy, who's coping, who's
financially vulnerable and whatthat picture looks like, and I
think that that is a good guide.
And so let me just go ahead andgive credit where credit is due
(05:06):
.
I research a lot through theFinancial Health Network.
I'm looking at the research andreports that they have put out
and thank God that they do this,especially being a practitioner
of finances, I love being ableto go there, go to their website
, look at the research that theyhave put time and effort into,
to seeing what's going on, tosee where we stand, whether that
(05:30):
is demographically differentstates, you have different
genders, different races.
I love studying thisinformation about these terms
that they came up with, becauseI believe that these terms help
us with painting a picture ofwhat our financial well-being,
what it looks like.
(05:51):
And so, if you're financiallyhealthy, for the most part, you
can just imagine yes, you'rethriving financially, meaning
you have more income than youhave expenses.
You probably have manageabledebt, you're able to invest, you
have disposable income, youdon't have any major stresses
when it comes to your financesbecause you have your finances
(06:14):
in a healthy position.
When you're financially coping,this means for me, you are
paycheck to paycheck.
You are just managing to stayafloat.
Can't?
No bills come in?
That ain't normally supposed tobe here, okay, you are sending
them back like Deborah Cox?
Nobody's supposed to be here,okay, what are you doing here?
(06:35):
Nothing unexpected can happen.
If it does, it's going to throwyou off, throw you off
completely financially.
So that's what financiallycoping is, and financially
coping leads to beingfinancially vulnerable.
This is a place where, whenwe've been talking about
scraping by, when you're in thatscraping by stage, when you are
(06:56):
in that stage where you areliving off savings in one of our
episodes that we talked aboutyou are in a financially
vulnerable space.
You are struggling with yourbasic needs, that paycheck to
paycheck.
The paycheck ain't even enoughto pay the bills that you got.
Okay, you're in constantfinancial distress and being in
(07:18):
constant financial distress ishurting your health because you
are stressed out, you areworried, you are having anxiety
about bills being due.
Y'all probably like girl, howyou know, I didn't been there.
Okay, I understand what thatlooks like, and falling from
being in a financially healthyspace to being in a financially
(07:39):
vulnerable space is what we'regoing to be talking about, which
is the same thing as the titleof the series the fall when you
are going from that high incomeearning capacity to that fall
down where you're not thereanymore.
So now I'm just using thoseterms to say from financially
being healthy to beingfinancially vulnerable, because
(08:03):
I want us to understand whatthat looks like, because we want
to try our best not to get backin these positions,
understandably, knowing that youmay not be the cause and a lot
of times you're not the cause ofyou being in this situation.
A lot of times, this is comingfrom unexpected life events.
(08:26):
This is the thing, right?
This is when my faith comes inso much, because I'm always
thinking I have so much control.
I think if I do the right thing, all of the right results are
going to happen.
If I work this job, if I dothis, if I do that, things are
going to stay the same.
But there are unexpected lifeevents, like losing a job, like
(08:49):
being laid off, like being cutyour hours being cut, like
sickness happening, likerelationship statuses changing,
like family circumstanceschanging All of these unexpected
(09:09):
changes, life events thathappen in all of our lives.
If it hasn't happened to you, Ipray that it doesn't.
But for the people that'slistening, when it's happened,
it has taken us from beingfinancially healthy to being
financially vulnerable, and itwasn't something that we asked
for, it wasn't something that weexpected, it wasn't something
that we thought would happen tous, but it happened.
And this is the thing whenyou're financially healthy,
(09:30):
you're putting yourself in aposition where you're prepared,
but this is the thing Ifsomething else doesn't happen to
help you while you're in thatstate.
So you may have preparedyourself for three months, you
may have prepared yourself forsix months.
That state so you may haveprepared yourself for three
months, you may have preparedyourself for six months, but in
that seventh month, if thatchange hasn't happened, you risk
now being in a financiallyvulnerable spot and
(09:53):
unfortunately, we are at thehand of waiting for the next job
, waiting for the income to comein, waiting for whatever that
change is so that we can getback into the place that we once
was, or surpassed that, so thatwe can thrive, because nobody
wants to financially just besurviving.
And that's what being in afinancially vulnerable space,
(10:16):
what that looks like.
I want to also talk about whenyou're financially vulnerable
because you're in anunderemployed state as well.
I'm going to do a whole episodeon being underemployed, because
I don't believe that we talkabout this enough.
But your girl love talkingabout it.
Okay, I need to be the change.
Okay, I need to make surepeople talking about it, because
(10:38):
being underemployed is just notmaking enough money, and I see
that a lot.
I've been looking at TikTok alot y'all, especially on career
talk.
I don't know why I'm there, butapparently the Lord want me to
get a message out of some sort,and so there are a lot of people
who are talking about beingunderemployed and I want you to
understand this.
(10:59):
If, at the job you startedwhenever you started, it has not
increased you at the rate ofinflation, you are probably in a
position where you are nowunderemployed because that job
at one point in time was enoughto pay for the lifestyle that
you had in that particular year.
But as the years are continuingto go, most jobs are not paying
(11:23):
you at a rate of inflation.
They are not increasing yourpay at the same rate that
inflation is going up.
So that's the reason why a lotof people you need a two income
home and for us people who got aone income home, we over here,
like you need a two-income home.
And for us people who got aone-income home, we over here,
like we got to make two-incomepeople money okay, because we do
(11:47):
not want to be in a positionwhere we are now in an
underemployed position.
That's the reason why it's verykey, if you're going into jobs
now, to make sure you arelooking at the rate of pay,
looking at the salaries andmaking sure you are equating,
all right, not only how much doI need to make today, but how
much do I need to make for atleast the next three years and
thinking about what am I goingto do in those next three years,
(12:09):
because inflation is going tobe going up, especially if
you're a renter.
You want to make sure that youare paying attention to those
things, because child life isexpensive.
Okay, so you see how easy it isto go from being financially
healthy to going to financiallycoping, to even being in a
(12:30):
financially vulnerable territory.
It's not hard, and if you'renot paying attention to it, if
you're not being very mindful ofthat, it can happen to you just
like that.
So that's the reason why we dohave to make sure that we are
being very intentional, verymindful over our finances,
understanding once again thatnumber one thing our income,
(12:51):
those income streams that wehave, so that we can always know
where we're at in comparison toour expenses, in comparison to
the inflation that's going tohappen.
So you can be prepared, becausethe idea is to make sure that
we are staying financiallyhealthy by any means necessary.
And so I want to talk to y'allabout a few stats.
(13:13):
So I look these up.
I want to make sure that y'allare aware of this, because I
feel like I'm really good as afinancial guy, because I coach
so many different people, somany different economical
backgrounds, and there's amisconception of thinking that
because someone earns sixfigures, that they just made it,
they all the way there, and sixfigures can be.
(13:35):
This is the thing.
It can be anything in asix-figure range, right?
You would be surprised at howmany six-figure earners are
living paycheck to paycheck.
As a matter of fact, the statthat I look up from paymentscom
said 47% of six-figure earnersare living paycheck to paycheck.
I want to give you another stat, and this is for California,
(13:55):
just because I live here.
This is for California, justbecause I live here In
California.
In order to live comfortably,you have to make an income of
over $113,000 annually.
That is also from paymentscom.
Another stat 63% of Americansreported living paycheck to
paycheck as of 2023.
(14:15):
I don't know why I said it likethat 23.
I don't know why I said it likethat.
I made that feel like it wasgoing to be deeper than what it
was.
But what's not funny is the 63%of Americans that reported
living paycheck to paycheck, andthat's according to
smartassetcom.
And so another one is many highearning.
(14:36):
I don't know why this is atongue twister when I say it all
together.
Many high earning incomeindividuals end up financially
coping due to rising costs ofliving and lifestyle inflation,
where spending increases withtheir income Y'all.
So I've been saying this, but Ialso wanted to make sure that I
(14:59):
got some facts to support this,just so that you can understand
what our economy is looking like.
And I have to be that one thatpoints out these things because
I'm mindfully rich.
I want to make sure that youare being very mindful about
your finances so that you canhave the riches that you want,
especially when it comes to yourfinancial riches.
(15:21):
And so I want to go back to it.
Just because your income is socrucial, because the income is
the make or break in whetherwe're financially healthy, we're
coping or we're vulnerable.
So I talked about the climblast week and talked about when
you're diversifying your income,when you're building those
(15:43):
multiple income streams, justbecause your income.
I want you to always look atyour income as being the
foundation to your house.
That is the foundation to yourhouse.
You can have multiple incomestreams that are creating that
foundation.
You got to figure out whatthat's going to be just because
you don't want to be in thatcoping area or that financially
(16:06):
vulnerable area.
So you have to make sure that,if you haven't built your income
streams to be as strong as youneed them to be, I'm going back
to the climb.
You need to make sure thatyou're doing that.
I'm going back to the climb.
You need to make sure thatyou're doing that.
I know we think our jobs are sosecure.
I'm seeing so many people gothrough reductions at their jobs
right now.
Then what?
(16:27):
What are we going to do then?
I'm seeing a lot of people whohave been in situations where
they've left their jobs where itwasn't their fault, something
happened where they're no longerneeded there.
When they tell them theirservices are no longer needed at
those jobs anymore, what dothey do?
So we have to make sure that,yes, I'm relying on this income.
(16:49):
They're paying me a good wage.
Yes, but what else?
What else?
I want to make sure I'm beingthat person that's telling you
what else are you going to do?
And I talked last week abouthaving income come in from
entrepreneurship, from yourbusiness, that side hustle,
whatever it is that you're doing, but I really want you to make
(17:09):
sure that you're looking at that.
Just because our economy isvolatile right now, I don't want
you to be left being vulnerable.
I don't want you in that space.
I don't want you in thatscraping by space.
I don't want you to be leftbeing vulnerable.
I don't want you in that space.
I don't want you in thatscraping by space.
I don't want you in survivalmode.
I want to make sure that yougot everything that you need so
that you can thrive All right.
And so when we thriving Italked about when you're in a
(17:30):
financially healthy space, yourincome it surpasses your
expenses, tightening up yourbudget Child, I got to tell
y'all last week.
After the episode last week, itinspired me to go take a look at
all of my expenses and I waslooking at my subscriptions.
So I went to Apple.
So all my people who gotiPhones.
(17:52):
I went to Apple and went to notApple.
I went to subscriptions so Icould see all of the
subscriptions that I was payingfor.
I got rid of so much stuff andit probably was like over a
hundred dollars of stuff a month.
Y'all may say, oh, that'snothing but a hundred dollars
here, a hundred dollars there,all of that stuff add up to big
money.
Okay, so you want to take alook at things like that.
(18:13):
How can you tighten up?
How can you trim the fat?
How can you do those things?
And I know I talked about thislast week, but as a financial
educator, I like to repeatmyself to make sure that
everybody is getting it.
Okay, I want to make sure thatyou are listening, that you are
understanding that, because youdo got to tighten up and you do
(18:35):
have to make sure and it'ssomething about, it's some about
looking at your bank statement.
I don't know what it is thatbank statement child, because
you can't lie to that one.
So I'm going to give thisadvice again.
I gave this in some episodes.
Oh, it's been a while since Isaid this, but one of my
favorite methods to do with myclients is to have them print
out their bank statements, havethem take out three markers.
(18:58):
You're going to have one markerand it's the thing if you spend
on your credit cards, you'regoing to be using this for your
credit card statements as well.
So your bank statements andyour credit card statements for
the month.
So you're taking those threemarkers.
One is going to be for anyincome that's coming in.
You're going to carry that downto the bottom so you can see it
.
Another market is going to befor all your planned expenses,
(19:21):
the expenses that you weresupposed to pay for, the ones
that you knew that you weregoing to pay for.
The last market is going to beto highlight all of the things
that you did not plan on gettingwithin that month, and you're
going to go through it.
You're going to look at thatand that's going to help you
with tightening up your budgetso that you can understand.
(19:41):
This is where I be going wrongthrough the month.
I don't know what your guiltypleasure is, but your statements
, they're going to show you.
Ok, because we got to get tightand right.
Ok, I said that last week, yougot to get tight and right and I
wanted to bring that up againjust because, if we want to be
financially healthy, it's worthme mentioning and saying twice
(20:04):
Once you get back into afinancially healthy spot.
That's when we got to rebuildour savings.
We got to rebuild the three tosix months.
I talked about this last week.
I am reiterating this againjust because for those people.
When I did this surviving off asavings episode that was a hard
(20:25):
episode for me to do because itwas a hard reality and it was so
therapeutic for me to even talkabout that.
But we got to rebuild ourselves.
Just because nobody ever talksabout, after you save the money,
what happens when I got tospend the money.
So when you got to spend themoney, now we got to rebuild the
(20:46):
money and don't nobody likethat.
And I had this question askedto me quite a bit how many
savings accounts should I have?
And I don't like to save all inone spot, so I like to have
different accounts that dodifferent things.
Just because I don't want to bespending out of the vacation
account on the emergencyexpenses or spending out of my
maintenance account on vacation.
(21:08):
I want to make sure I treat mysavings as line items in a
business.
This is for maintenance, thisis for vacation, this is for
emergency savings.
You may get down to a placewhere I no longer have any of
those things anymore becauseI've been using that to live off
of.
Now we got to rebuild.
Now we got to be strategic whenwe're rebuilding, but you got to
(21:30):
understand how much can yourebuild with.
When you do get to a placewhere you are trying to get back
to being financially healthy,you get the income streams
coming in, understanding howmuch money do I have coming in,
how much money do I have goingout, how much money can I save?
That is the hardest thing for alot of my clients to understand
(21:51):
.
They're like I want to save, Iwant to save, I want to save,
but they don't have any extramoney to save.
Where's that money coming from?
What are you stopping doing sothat you can now put this money
in savings?
Or what income are you nowgoing to bring in so it can now
go into your savings account?
Money isn't hard, but us aspeople, we make money especially
(22:14):
hard because we think that it'slike magic somewhere.
But it's not.
We have to understand we're incontrol of where we're going to
get these income streams from.
How are we going to make themoney?
Right Now, we ain't in controlof if it's going to stay when we
do get it, but we're in controlof where we're going to go so
that we can get those incomestreams flowing in.
(22:35):
We're also in control of thoseexpenses.
Now I do understand that thereare some expenses that just pop
up and boom, now you got a bill.
I get that.
I understand that, but we wantto try to make sure that we are
minimizing those expenses, thosedebts, as much as we can, so
that we can build ourselves backup when it's time to start
building ourselves back up.
(22:57):
So this episode doesn't have anytips, but the key takeaway that
I want you to understand,because this is going to sum up
this whole series whichfinancial phase are you in?
Are you accepting the financialphase that you're in?
Because when you're financiallycoping, I don't know what it is
.
We do not want to accept that.
(23:18):
I do not want to accept that Ican no longer do the things that
I used to be able to do when Iwas financially healthy.
I don't want to accept that Ican't go on vacation when I want
to.
I don't want to accept that Ican't just be going out to eat
when I want to.
I don't want to accept that Idon't have any extra money.
I don't want to accept that Iam now drowning in debt.
(23:38):
I don't want to accept that myexpenses are now outweighing my
income.
What do you need to accept sothat you can now accept it, so
we can stop scraping by and wecan start thriving.
What do you need to accept sothat you can now get up, figure
(24:00):
out what you need to do next?
What do you need to accept sothat you can now start getting
the help that you need, so youcan get up and you can get to
where you're supposed to go?
You still got more in you.
You still have a journey to goon.
You are learning something inthis particular season that
(24:20):
you're in and what you'relearning is going to help you
with thriving in your nextseason.
But we got to get through it.
So what do you need to acceptnow about the financial season
and phase that you are in now?
What are you needing?
Because you need to get that.
I needed to get that.
I didn't want to accept that.
(24:42):
The longer you don't acceptwhere you're at, the longer
you're going to stay in thatparticular financial phase
because you are not in a mindsetthat is telling you the reality
of your situation.
You are in la-la land somewherethinking, nope, I'm this.
I'm still where I used to be.
I get it.
(25:02):
It sucks coming down.
I know better than anyone.
I don't know why I'm on God'sstrongest soldier list, but I've
done it too many times and Idon't like it, but I'm saying
this again what do you need toaccept so that you can move
(25:24):
forward?
Because that is what we'redoing in this new season.
We are moving forward and I'mgoing to get a little spiritual
on you.
Okay, you are being refinedright now.
I want you to know that,whatever it is that you are
going through, other people aregoing through it with you.
So I hope that you feel seen.
(25:44):
I hope that you feel heard andknow that you are being refined
right now.
You are being built strongerand I want you to come out of
this stronger, but it's going tostart with your acceptance of
understanding the phase that youare in right now so we can get
you back to being financiallyhealthy.
I want to speak life into youone more time and let you know
(26:05):
that you are resilient, that youare going to have the doors
that need to be open in yourlife.
They are going to be open andthey're going to be wide open
and they're going to give youthe reward that you need.
But you have to get up.
I had to hear this and it hurtme so much because so many times
(26:27):
.
You want to just lay down, youjust want to be sorrowful about
it.
You think that it's over, butit's not over.
You're still here.
You woke up, your eyes are open.
That means that something iswaiting for you on the other
side of this and you're going tosee it and you're going to tell
me about it.
You're going to DM me so thatway I can tell everybody else
about it.
(26:47):
Okay, and so just wanted tospeak life for a second.
I hope that y'all have enjoyedthis series and, like I said,
this has been a very therapeuticseries for me, because this is
some things that I needed totalk about, and not only was I
talking about it for me, but Ifelt in my heart, somebody else
that is listening also needed tohear this, and this is going to
(27:08):
live.
I love that this now has legsand it gets a chance to move all
across the world.
And, speaking of the world,y'all make sure y'all sharing
this thing far and wide withyour friends, with your circle.
Okay, one woman team?
Okay, it only gets out if y'allsend it out, okay, and hey, to
all the new listeners.
(27:28):
I didn't get a chance to geteverybody.
I was going to list all thecities, but I don't want to
embarrass y'all on here.
I don't even know if that'sembarrassing.
I think it's cute.
I think it's cute, I'm going todo it next time.
And also, I didn't have all ofthe details prepared for
advertisements Next episode.
I promise I'm going to havethat, because I've had a lot of
people ask me about how they cansponsor the podcast, how I can
(27:51):
advertise, what can I do?
I'll have all those details fory'all next time.
And so, because we've beentalking about being financially
healthy, vulnerable and coping,once again, you know your girl
is a financial guide.
I want to assist you on yourjourney.
All of my appointments arevirtual, so you could be
anywhere, don't forget.
I am accepting new clients forSeptember and October, so go
(28:15):
ahead.
Check out my website.
Iammindfullyrichcom Gives youall of the information that you
need so that you can get started.
Schedule our complimentaryconsultation.
My schedule is up to date.
I want to be there for you foryour comeback.
Let's do it together, okay?
And don't forget to follow thepodcast on Instagram at
(28:35):
mindfully underscore, rich,underscore podcast.
Did I leave anything out?
I don't think I did.
Don't forget.
Listen, listen, listen.
Go on back to the episodes thatyou didn't listen to after this
one, and I don't want to startrambling, so that's all I got
and got, no more.
And until next time when I hity'all with another one.
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