In this powerful episode, Morgan kicks things off with a heartfelt meditation dedicated to Black women entrepreneurs—the visionaries, the builders, the dreamers. From hair braiders to boutique owners, candy-store founders, and beyond, this moment honors the resilience and brilliance shaping communities every day.
Then, Vanessa takes us on a deep dive into financial planning, breaking down the essentials of retirement strategies. She clarifies the key differences between a 401K and an IRA and introduces the concept of a Freedom Circle—a transformative way to invest in your future alongside others.
To round out this week’s theme of financial empowerment, Sandria returns with her expert tips, ensuring you're equipped with the tools needed to thrive on your path to lasting economic independence.
Tune in, get inspired, and take control of your financial destiny!
Important Disclaimers:
While this episode provides helpful information, we are not medical or financial experts. Please consult your doctor for personalized advice. And always consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment or retirement planning decisions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
The. Disrespected person in America.
Is the black woman? But still like dust, all right?
Pretty girls in the VIP they came with drain.
(00:30):
They'll need ideas. The revolution will not.
Be televised brother. You are like a new Joe John.
Even if you are not ready for the day.
It cannot always be night. Freedom, freedom, freedom.
(00:57):
Where are. You welcome to self-care school,
y'all. My name is Morgan.
I'm on the line with my friend Vanessa.
Are you there, Vanessa? Hey y'all.
Listen, wherever you are walkingon this beautiful planet, on
this beautiful day, I want to let you know that you belong
(01:19):
here. You're welcome here.
You got a sister of 1,000,000 black women who are cheering you
on. Y'all, let's walk it out today.
We start as we always do, with our porch meditation.
As women are gathering, their tying, their sneakers are
opening their front door. The sun is shining.
They're going onto their porch. Vanessa, how you doing, girl?
I'm doing amazing. What's up y'all?
I'm feeling so good, Morgan. I've been incorporating a lot of
(01:41):
the stuff in self-care school and then I've been listening
with my ear to the streets for what women are saying, and it
just feels so good. Yeah, bless, bless.
I woke up this morning with an epiphany.
I was like, poverty is a lie. We are the bag.
We are the richness. Like we are the actual value.
(02:02):
We made the country rich. It's a lie.
And then this morning my friend came over, we was eating, we was
having a good old time. We was having a dance party.
The windows is open. And then I was like, let's play
some that OT Genesis. And I was like, I got to play
this on the podcast. Yeah, they ain't gonna like her.
They ain't gonna like her. I'll be getting to the money.
(02:25):
Everybody, man. I think of getting too much
money. Everybody, man, I'll.
Be getting in the money. Everybody mad, Vanessa.
Like that's how I feel like we'dbe showing up.
We are the bag, y'all. Poverty is a lie.
Rebuke it. Rebuke it.
Let's get started. Y'all All right What we learned
(02:47):
in the day circle. We learned we're going to teach
2 very simple things today, Morgan.
Simple but complex in terms of their impact on their lives.
We're going to teach how to planfor retirement.
We're going to teach how to start a freedom circle.
And before we teach those things, y'all, we're going to
step into our driveway now that we've done our porch meditation
because I do want to do a self-care audit for us.
(03:07):
And Morgan, what you just were saying as you're playing that
song and talking about our worthis so important.
And so as we stand in our driveways right now and we start
to audit our own mindsets and behaviors, my first question for
everybody is if you feel like your financial situation
reflects your worth as a person,take a step back.
(03:30):
If you do business at a black-owned bank, take a step
forward. If you do not know how much you
owe in total debt right now, take a step back.
If you know the difference between a four O 1K and an IRA,
(03:53):
take a step forward. If you've avoided opening a
bill, checking on an account, oranswering a financial call in
the last month, take a step back.
If you know your credit score right now, take a step forward.
That was a good audit. It is a good odd and I wonder
(04:15):
where people just look around right now.
Wherever you stand, did you haveto take a step back?
Did you have to take a step forward?
Did something hit at your heart chakra when I said it?
Did it just make bring some sortof raise your blood pressure a
little bit or make you feel likea little bit of shame?
All of those things really, really matter for this week's
conversation because it is it isdivine, Morgan.
(04:37):
It is divine how we are going toexperience and bring about
financial freedom and economic freedom in our lives.
We're going to talk a little bittoday about some of the
traditional stuff and certainly some of the systems around
traditional retirement, but thenI want to talk about how you can
build your own system right away, right now.
First of all, in August, Morgan,it'll be five years since I got
(04:58):
divorced. So let's celebrate five years.
Is it been really right? It's been a really powerful and
eye opening five years for me because I was married jaw for
almost 19 years. And in that marriage, my
ex-husband controlled all of ourfinances, like all of our
(05:19):
finances, like down to when I ordered DoorDash, he'd be like,
yeah, like don't do that. And he can.
He paid our taxes, he did all ofour savings.
And the crazy part about this Morgan is and I you couldn't
have told me this when I was in the marriage.
I saved all my money into his 401K and IRA out of my paycheck
automatic deposit and not in my own name, not didn't even have a
(05:43):
car to put credit when I got divorced y'all.
And though we lived in all the biggest behind the gates houses
of real house House housewives of Atlanta, I left that marriage
with my credit score in the dumps with not one asset to my
actual name. With having for over 10 years
put every single savings that I had gotten from a girl trek into
(06:03):
his name into his savings account and I had a lot of shame
around it. And it has taken me almost this
five years just to catch up on paying my taxes because I felt
so overwhelmed by how to do it because growing up I wasn't
taught how to do those things. And part of the reason I even
(06:24):
got into that marriage is it felt relaxing to have somebody
what I thought was take care of those things.
But then what I didn't realize is that nobody was taking care
of you if you walk away with nothing to your even own name
and no actual even ability to show for your own good name what
you have done for yourself. So I just want any person out
(06:45):
there who feels like, Oh my God,I'm in my 40s.
I haven't even started a 401K orOh my God, I'm behind on these
bills or Oh my God, whatever. To know that like every single
day right here in this moment isan opportunity for us to just
make new decisions for ourselvesand to unpack all of that and
the ideas that we have around worth and around money and to
(07:06):
start to take our power back. So this conversation for me is a
conversation around how do we take our power back?
Yes. Listen, we done did 100 episodes
of Black History boot camp. I thought I knew everything
about you and. The whole history.
You move on forever and ever andmy sister for longer, but Dang.
Right. Thanks for.
Hearing that, no, I mean, you must have actually had some
(07:27):
feelings about it because you'd be telling me everything, but
I'm like, Dang, B. I had to.
First of all, I paid rent in my marriage.
I paid rent in my marriage. I just want to let y'all
understand, It's deep y'all. We can have a whole therapy
session about this. I walked away with 1 Volkswagen
and I still had to pay the Volkswagen off in his name in
order to keep it for myself to drive.
Wow. And so yes, and I am taking my
(07:52):
power back and I want to actually start with the
solidarity spotlight for someonewho has helped me over the past
two years. Last, at the beginning of last
year, I was actually gifted a series of sessions with a
powerful financial planner. And she has a beautiful book her
some women might know of the book.
(08:12):
Her name is Paris Woods. She's someone who's not just
talking about financial freedom,she's living it and teaching it
in the ways that center Black woman's reality.
And she's the author of a book that I recommend called The
Black Girls Guide to Financial Freedom.
Testify today you helping somebody, I'm telling you your
vulnerability is really, really beautiful and I'm really proud
(08:35):
of you. And I thank God that you got
this testimony girl I got. I thank God you're even on the
other side to be able to talk about it because when you're in
the middle, you can't even utternothing.
So on the other side you could talk about it.
I'm just really proud of you. I'm really happy for you.
Thank you. Yes, OK y'all, yes Morgan, we're
going to learn two life saving skills.
We're going to learn them beforeyou guys in this walk.
(08:55):
So don't worry y'all. Our first life saving skill is
how do you plan for retirement? We can't not know the
definitions to some of the most basic stuff or at least how it
functions or at least how we canaccess it.
So we're going to start at the most basic stuff, which is a
four O 1K. A 401K is a retirement savings
account offered through your job.
You contribute pre tax money from your paycheck and it grows
(09:16):
tax deferred until you withdraw it after the age of 59.
Some employers will match your contribution.
So that's literally free money. It's automatic and long term and
you can build a sustainable nestegg over decades.
I will say that only 43% of black women have access to a
401K through work. And so that's why we're going to
(09:37):
talk about some alternative. It is in just a second, but a
four O 1K is something that if you are a part of those 43% of
women that you should deeply consider as one of your
strategies for saving for retirement.
The second thing, Morgan, is notthe IRA, but the an IRA and it's
called an individual retirement account.
(09:58):
And I actually didn't know this.An IRA is just a DIY40 1K.
Anybody can open it. You can open it yourself.
You put in after tax money and your investments grow tax free
or tax deferred. It gives people not covered by a
401 KA way to save for retirement and they have some
(10:19):
flexible investment options. The trick is though, that you
need extra income to invest. It takes a lot of financial
literacy time and consistent discipline.
And there are a lot of fees and paperwork and penalties involved
if you do early withdraw. And black women have the highest
rates Morgan of early withdraw from their 401 KS because we
(10:41):
experience emergencies and crises at higher rates and we
are the caregivers for so many different people.
So for some people actually you have to consider if you think
you're going to need to access your money in an emergency way,
like is it really to put it in a401K?
Because then you have to pay theinterest and the fees and you
have to pay the taxes on it immediately in order to get it
(11:02):
out. So there are some some
considerations there that peoplehave to consider.
A lot of people who then are concerned about four O 1 KS or
Iras just use a traditional savings account, right?
It's a basic bank account. It earns interest.
It's supposed to be used for short term savings or
emergencies. It's safe, accessible and
insured by the FDIC, which your mattress is not Morgan.
(11:24):
So that's why some people would recommend just a traditional
savings account. But the trick of a traditional
savings account is that the national average interest rate
is oftentimes hovering somewherearound 1%, like 1 to 2% in terms
of the way your money grows. So for some people, it's like,
is that really a good bang for your buck?
But it might just be the smartest thing if you just need
(11:45):
at least a small emergency nest egg and the smart and and that
you need to develop a discipline, right?
So for me, when I was talking toParis Woods Morgan, this was
actually about me just even developing A discipline around
not accessing all of the income that I make immediately because
it was all going into one account.
So she was just like, if you at least just at the beginning,
just say, I'm going to put this money somewhere else.
(12:07):
It's not even about the interestrate or even how it grows
necessary. It's about the discipline of not
living off of 100% of your income.
That was one of her number one investment advices that we just
simply we have to figure out a way to actually lower our
expenses and make some harder choices so that we are not
dependent on 100% of our income,which I know is hard to do, but
(12:28):
we're going to talk about again,a solution to that in just a
minute. And then the last way that you
can save for your retirement, y'all, is investing in the stock
market or real estate. Obviously, it's powerful because
investing is mostly in this country how generational wealth
has been built. There's some barriers for Black
women, right? A lack of access to financial
education can sometimes make it hard to understand what to do.
(12:51):
And there's a fear of risk when every dollar that we have is
needed right now. Like I've put in the stock
market what that's going to mean.
And we've historically been excluded from those wealth
building assets like especially like land and home equity.
I think there's also, I think there's also moral objection
sometimes. Yes, absolutely.
Talk about that for a second. Yeah.
(13:12):
I mean, the stocks that are soaring are the ones that are
exploitative or have real high profit margins.
And the way they have real high profit margins are through
exploitative, exploitative laboroften or extractive practices,
right? So if it's a technology company
and you really do want to investin it, you know that they're
mining from the Congo and pillaging the continent.
(13:32):
Or if it is, you know, a clothing brand that is soaring,
you know, that they are have sweatshops, you know, in
Southeast Asia somewhere. And so there's it's hard to
invest your money in a system that is predicated on the
exploitation of resources and people.
And so I think a lot of people just be like, yeah, you know,
(13:57):
like, I mean, you want to earn money and you want to do it.
I'm not discouraging people. There are like options.
You can look, you can look up stocks that are moral or green
or have a have good labor practices.
And it's what I do with my investment.
And I just encourage other people to do the same because we
don't have to buy into profit atany cost.
(14:18):
That's exactly right, Morgan. Yeah.
And I'll bring it home for some people who may be seeing this on
the news but not understand how it's connected.
But a lot of what's been happening on university campuses
across the country where there have been like these uprising on
the campuses has been the students putting pressure on the
universities to divest from particular investments that they
(14:43):
think are fueling either genocide or war or all sorts of
other things that they don't stand for.
And so there's been traditionally, even since the
South African apartheid days andbefore that, student movements
on campuses have been out at theforefront of trying to say that
capitalism is a big fuel to the fire around inequality and
(15:05):
injustice in this world. And they've put a lot of
pressure on campuses. And some campuses have said,
yeah, we're going to follow along.
And we are listening to the students.
And some campuses have not. I'm here in DC and Georgetown
University over the last literally last week was just
going through this and they cameout and said, no, they're not
going to divest from some thingsthat the students were asking
them to divest from. But then that also gives you
information, y'all, even as you're, as we're talking about
(15:27):
student loans, like where do youwant to take out student loans
to invest in an institution thatis really harming a lot of
people? Or is it going to harm you
eventually? So that's how we can start to
make more conscious decisions. Credentials maybe aren't even as
powerful as they as they are saying they are, because why
would we want to even be credentialed by institutions who
don't value our life? Yeah, so girl.
(15:48):
Yeah, yes, Morgan. So all that to say, y'all.
Shout out HBCU. Shout out to HBCU.
That's right. Oh, it ain't it ain't it ain't
it ain't it ain't. For a moment, I'm sorry.
So the question becomes, Morgan,with all of those traditional
ways that we can invest in our retirement and, and, and invest
(16:09):
and save our money, right? The question becomes, OK, well,
what are the alternatives to that?
What are the alternatives that we can create for ourselves?
And traditionally, because we have had to make a way out of no
way, because we have had to be people who were had ingenuity.
(16:29):
There have been things that we have developed in our community
across the continent and the diaspora that are still going so
strong today. First of all, mutual aid
societies, especially after slavery and through Jim Crow,
people paid dues to these mutualaid societies.
Like shout out to the ilk, shoutout to the Mason, shout out to
(16:49):
all these folks where it's like they weren't just social clubs,
y'all? After Jim Crow, there was
something and especially throughout on the South and in
the East that became really popular.
And those are rent parties, Morgan just old school, just
black women charged admission, sold food, played music, and
then they paid the rent for eachother.
(17:11):
And this is powerful because there we have GoFundMe now,
right? There's this whole kind of thing
around GoFundMe. And I was thinking about it and
I was like, but you don't get the community with Go Fund Me.
You don't get the music party, you don't get the party, you
don't get the things that make you feel better inside because
to not be able to pay your rent has dire consequences.
(17:33):
Renata talked to us about that on yesterday's On Mondays
episode, right? And so to be in community with
other people who are rallying for you and the physicalness of
that, there's something to that,right?
We can feel good about seeing the GoFundMe numbers go up, but
there was something powerful andmore.
Efficient. Well, because we used to be
entrepreneurial and we got sold a bill of goods that we have to
(17:55):
be charitable. But really, you have to be
charitable. When you have the have and the
have nots, then then you bestow your wealth upon someone in a
charitable or philanthropic way.But if everybody's equal, then
you have an exchange of goods and that's entrepreneurship.
You figure out I got to pay the rent.
What can I give to people so I could pay the rent a good time?
(18:15):
Great. Come on to this party.
Help me pay my rent. We all equals.
Do you understand what I mean? There is an.
Exchange. There's a marketplace.
There's a marketplace even amongthose who don't have that much
is an exchange in value. And what I have and what I can
give. I can braid your hair if you do,
if you keep my kids, you know what I mean?
And so the, and we have to get back to that understanding our
economies. And then the last example I
(18:39):
have, Morgan, is something that I know you're particularly for
familiar with on the continent, which is SU SU's.
So in Africa, in the Caribbean especially, rotating savings
groups, SU SU's are really essential and really important
and they've helped people get the down payment on their
(19:01):
houses. They've helped people to save
for college for their kids, and they've helped people.
Tell people where this is, who is.
Yeah, it's it's a rotating savings group and programming.
Actually I'm calling it a freedom circle because I'm going
to teach people how to make create their own in just a
second, but I thought you shoulddrop it.
Oh yeah, no, that is that's the second skill.
(19:21):
Y'all, we're going to learn how to create a freedom circle right
on this call. You can call it Isusu if you
want, but what I want to teach people is how to do something
that we're calling a freedom circle.
And you won't have to plead yourcase for the money.
Because the idea is that every single month you and a small
group of trusted people in your life, my recommendation, y'all,
these are the steps, is that youfind 3 to 5 people you trust,
(19:46):
three to five people you trust. And I want you to collectively,
you're going to text those people and you're going to be
like, let's get on a Zoom, let'sget on a WhatsApp.
I want to talk about us doing a freedom Circle and you guys are
going to collectively set your contribution dollar amount.
And for the sake of this exercise, we're not going to
(20:07):
start large. Your options are this set your
contribution amount at either $25.50 dollars or $100, right?
Then you set the. There, you don't make money.
That's right. There you go.
(20:27):
But I don't want people to feel like you can't, like overwhelmed
because what we learned, we learned this on the liberation
line about minimum basic income,right?
It's a little bit of money goes a long way to really help a
person in a vine or help transform them.
And the idea is that you could try yourself right through all
those traditional ways that I said to try to save up each
(20:49):
month and, and, and make hope that you get there one day.
But you could do it through thisfreedom circle in a way where
you're guaranteed through a rotation of who gets the pot of
money each month that you will get a lump sum of money to use
in a powerful way. And you will create a discipline
around savings. You will create a community
(21:10):
around savings. And then and you will create a
manifestation circle because youall will meet on a monthly basis
in this freedom circle to just talk about your financial
dreams. You'll create a ritual around
it. You'll make it joyful, you'll
make it sacred. You could say a prayer, you can
light a candle, you can play some Nina Simone.
But on a monthly basis, you and these three to five people can
(21:33):
really talk about all of the other stuff and unpack the stuff
that we've talked about in this episode through this freedom
circle. So you set a rotation.
Who gets the pot each month? You.
So if we each you find 10 people, you each put in $100.
That means every single month somebody's going to get $1000
that they can actually use. And the power of that Morgan is
(21:53):
divine even in the how what we understand around divine
compensation and manifestation. And it's powerful in terms of
your ability to plan for the things that you're going to
actually need. And in case of emergency, you
can actually petition the group that you need this rotation to
come to you sooner or you need the rotation that month.
But because you guys have a consistent rotation of
(22:16):
contributing the money, everybody knows they're going to
get their money back. And you may not right now have a
discipline of putting an extra $100 aside each month, so this
gives you a way to do it with collective.
In mind and not with. Accountability, and not just
with the individual that's. Real accountability.
Like accountability. Yes, it's real accountability
(22:39):
and there's a couple of tools out there that help groups like
this actually. So there's an actual app called
the Susu app SUSUA SPP Susu app.It's on Android and iPhone and
it will help you create a group and it tracks who paid, who
received, who sends it sends reminders, it keeps track of
everything for you. There's another app Morgan is
(23:01):
built by some Nigerian Americans.
It's called Zirtu ZIRTUE. It's for lending with trusted
relationships. So it actually allows you to for
people to request money for you guys to share money for you to
create shared groups. And you don't have to be worried
about like keeping track of it your actual self.
So that's a really powerful one as well that I would recommend
(23:22):
for people out there that they can use.
So thank you, thank you, thank you y'all.
I promise to God. I thought to this to myself.
I was like, I'm going to start afreedom circle.
First of all, let me just be honest about this.
My God bless my Aunt Cynthia. My Aunt Cynthia tried to start a
freedom circle with our family like 3 years ago.
And we got into a whole end fight around who we was going to
(23:43):
trust to hold the money every month and wasn't going blah,
blah, blah. And we couldn't, we couldn't
figure out the details. And people had so much shade
towards each other that she really had the vision of how it
should go. But that's one of the other good
things about a freedom circle isthat nobody is holding the money
each month. You all are actually pulling the
money intentionally to give it to a specific person each month.
(24:03):
So there's a lot of families outthere who I really think could
benefit from this. And I'm going to personally
choose three people in my family, two of my cousins and
one of my aunties. And we're going to, I'm going to
start a freedom circle with themjust as a start because it will
even help me. I'm already allocating money to
help with certain things, but tobe able to plan for it and to be
able to consistently give it in a way.
(24:25):
Because that's one of the things, Morgan, the the
unpredictability of crisis in our lives and the impact of that
unpredictability of the crisis in our lives that takes such a
financial toll. So this is about creating the
systems and the structures so that when life lives, because
it's going to life, we don't feel anxious or we don't feel
worried, or we know who is our trusted crew in our trusted
(24:47):
community. And that alone alleviates
stress, it eliminates worry, andit makes you feel like you're a
part of community. So that has to me like healing
properties. I like it.
I like the concept of it becauseit's like ancient and it's
collective economics and it whatit does is it it takes the
anxiety around money and it alleviate some of that.
(25:11):
You know what I mean? So you stay, so you get used to
giving each other money. Yes.
You know, we're so scarce now with money as I'm just take it
like you don't want to loan it, you don't want to talk about it,
you know, but this like creates some like, I don't know, some I
some fluidity around it, some money flow around it all the
(25:34):
time. So I like it.
I hope everybody else is into itas well.
I want to do a quick 62nd recessnow.
Morgan, this is going to be a affirmation recess for y'all.
I think it's going to feel really, really good.
I just want everybody to take a deep breath.
We're going to play. Money flows to me.
So we're just going to let this wash over you.
Wherever you are, baby, you've already returned back home.
(25:56):
If you're out in the park, if you're on the treadmill, we're
going to just take a recess moment to just manifest for
ourselves the life of our dreams.
And you asked some really great questions yesterday, Morgan, on
Monday show, just to help us visualize.
And I want to ask one more question today for people during
this recess. And that for me is a serious
question. And it is at what age do you
(26:18):
genuinely want to and see yourself retiring?
Because you have to name it without fear.
It's one of the things that Paris Woods taught me.
She was like, I'm planning to retire at 50 and I was like,
what? And she was just like, maybe I
still might want to keep workingat 54 or 56, but I want to have
the ability and the freedom to retire at 50.
(26:38):
It was a real number for her. And so I just want people to
think about what is that number for you?
All right, let's do the meditation, y'all.
Just 60 seconds money. Flows to me isoline never
lessly. Money flows to me isoline, never
lessly. Money flows to me easily and
(26:59):
never Leslie. Money flows to me easily and
never Leslie. I am abundant.
All that I need and all that I want come straight to me because
I know that I'm really young. Every day I rise, I look around,
I see millions loving what I seebecause I know I'm so fruitful.
(27:25):
I'm so fruitful. I'm so fruitful.
Yeah, money flows to. Me all right y'all Money flows
to me easily and effortlessly. That was our girl S star ES TAR.
(27:50):
You can check her out on Spotify.
Y'all, I hope that you feel that.
I hope that you believe that. I hope that you draw it to you.
All right, y'all, it's teaching Tuesday and today as we're
talking about these two powerfullife saving skills, how do you
save for retirement and how do you start a freedom circle?
We're going to bring in our homegirl, Soto Sandria from Chicago.
(28:11):
She comes with us every Tuesday with some powerful interviews
with experts out in the field. And today, she's interviewing
Shabazz. Shabazz is the founder of Brown
Girls Do Invest. All right, Sandra.
All right, Shabazz. Hey y'all, it's your home girl
host so dope, Sandra Chicago's very own.
And today I'm joined by Bahia Shabazz, the CEO and Director of
(28:36):
Financial Strategy at Decimalitics, and also the
founder of Brown Girls Do Investwhere they help Black women
invest in the stock market, invest in real estate and
acquire multiple streams of income.
Today, Bahia is teaching us the life saving skills of investing
in prevention and how to build an emergency fund.
(28:56):
Bahia, welcome to self-care school.
Thank you for having me. Hello.
Everyone, when we think about investing in health and
Wellness, we may not always think about our finances and
prioritizing our finances for Wellness speak to us a little
bit about this mindset shift of investing as prevention, so.
(29:18):
Let me start out by saying that a mindset is very important when
it comes to health and Wellness.The first thing that we need to
do is change the way we think about ourselves as well as our
future. I set my intentions with the
night before of what I would like for my day to consist of
and that entails how I'm going to treat myself, the boundaries
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that I'm going to set in place, as well as what I plan to do
with my finances as well as my health.
There is not a day that does notgo by that I do not look it to
see what am I eating, what am I drinking, what steps am I taking
toward my health and Wellness, what funds am I spending and as
(30:03):
well as holding myself accountable.
But I got that way by knowing that I deserve it.
I deserve it in each and every one of you deserve the best that
you can put out towards yourself.
That is so true. And I remember hearing a saying
that, you know, money that you don't plan for anything can
happen. You know, like you have to tell
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your money where you want it to go.
And that's a big part of investing in your prevention as
well. So now getting into the actual
numbers of money, what is a simple process for building an
emergency fund, especially if you are on a limited income or
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maybe you are an entrepreneur and your income shifts
throughout the year. How can we build an emergency
fund? Well, the first step I would
like to say is give yourself grace.
You may think to yourself, wow, how could they save $20,000 in
one year when I cannot even save$20,000 in 10 years?
(31:07):
It's OK. So what I need for you to do is
to understand, and I like what you just said, everything has to
be accounted for because that's one of the things that I share
with brown girls doing best. Every penny must be accounted
for. It's just like having
disobedient children. If you do not tell me what to
do, it would. Go all over the place.
(31:27):
Yeah, so, so, so it's the. Same thing with your money.
So looking at your your paycheckand actually itemizing on a
budget sheet what exactly you want to do from paying your
rental mortgage all the way downto hanging out leisure time with
your girlfriends. Sometimes you feel as though you
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do not have it. It's because you have not
planned for it. So when you're looking at your
net income and your net is actually, you know, after your
taxes, after your insurance, if you're investing in your 401K or
457 or 403B, what you're bringing home that's deposited
into your account is what you need to base your emergency
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fund. So when it comes to your
emergency fund, ideally you wantto save at least 12 months of
expenses, not income expenses. And yes, I said 12 months
because we've seen over the years how three months is not
sustainable because some people are unemployed for longer than
three months. You're thinking about a
percentage that you that you want to save as opposed to
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sticking with a dollar amount. Start out with something as low
as 1% and as you manage how to discipline yourself and being
consistent, then you increase over time.
Thank you. So much Bahia, back to you,
Vanessa and Morgan. Oh, Morgan, that was so good.
Thank you, Sandria. Thank you, Shabazz, for your
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expert advice and for lending your voice to today's episode.
All right, Morgan, it's a wrap for today's episode.
It's a wrap for today's walk. We are two days into this week
on economic freedom. I pray to God that already some
doors are just opening for women, some Aha's are happening,
that you're feeling less shame or worry about your financial
(33:14):
situation, and that you have some really good tools and
resources over these last two days, from visualizations to
real understanding around your 4O1K that can really help you.
We're going to be back tomorrow.It's going to be workshop
Wednesday, so we're going to keep this information going
We're. Talking about starting a
business tomorrow? Y'all starting?
Your business get. Your get your notebook, bring
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your business ideas, get ready to do your Shark Tank pitch.
I can't wait. All right, I can't wait either.
I'm all 1 today, I'm telling youthe Holy Ghost.
Yes, look and get some of that Holy Ghost, Morgan, y'all that
Morgan got. Speaking of the Holy Ghost,
we're going to close out with mygirl Glorilla, because Glorilla
be having the Holy Ghost, she'd be having it in her voice.
(33:57):
She'd be having it in her spirit.
My favorite quote from her is atthe end of the day, the day got
to end but. So we're just going to close
out. This is like a 22nd clip of
Glorilla, just to keep us in mindset around our hustle and
our manifestation. We'll see y'all tomorrow.
(34:17):
And you'll hustle, make your money and like you got to have
something figured out to like you got to have go and you just
got to work towards. You got to manifest like it's a
whole lot of power when you're tone and you just got to speak
into exist existence and work towards.
We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
The. Disrespected person in America.
Is the black woman? But still like dust, all right?
Pretty girls in the VIP they came with drain.
(00:30):
They'll need ideas. The revolution will not.
Be televised brother. You are like a new Joe John.
Even if you are not ready for the day.
It cannot always be night. Freedom, freedom, freedom.
(00:57):
Where are. You welcome to self-care school,
y'all. My name is Morgan.
I'm on the line with my friend Vanessa.
Are you there, Vanessa? Hey y'all.
Listen, wherever you are walkingon this beautiful planet, on
this beautiful day, I want to let you know that you belong
(01:19):
here. You're welcome here.
You got a sister of 1,000,000 black women who are cheering you
on. Y'all, let's walk it out today.
We start as we always do, with our porch meditation.
As women are gathering, their tying, their sneakers are
opening their front door. The sun is shining.
They're going onto their porch. Vanessa, how you doing, girl?
I'm doing amazing. What's up y'all?
I'm feeling so good, Morgan. I've been incorporating a lot of
(01:41):
the stuff in self-care school and then I've been listening
with my ear to the streets for what women are saying, and it
just feels so good. Yeah, bless, bless.
I woke up this morning with an epiphany.
I was like, poverty is a lie. We are the bag.
We are the richness. Like we are the actual value.
(02:02):
We made the country rich. It's a lie.
And then this morning my friend came over, we was eating, we was
having a good old time. We was having a dance party.
The windows is open. And then I was like, let's play
some that OT Genesis. And I was like, I got to play
this on the podcast. Yeah, they ain't gonna like her.
They ain't gonna like her. I'll be getting to the money.
(02:25):
Everybody, man. I think of getting too much
money. Everybody, man, I'll.
Be getting in the money. Everybody mad, Vanessa.
Like that's how I feel like we'dbe showing up.
We are the bag, y'all. Poverty is a lie.
Rebuke it. Rebuke it.
Let's get started. Y'all All right What we learned
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in the day circle. We learned we're going to teach
2 very simple things today, Morgan.
Simple but complex in terms of their impact on their lives.
We're going to teach how to planfor retirement.
We're going to teach how to start a freedom circle.
And before we teach those things, y'all, we're going to
step into our driveway now that we've done our porch meditation
because I do want to do a self-care audit for us.
(03:07):
And Morgan, what you just were saying as you're playing that
song and talking about our worthis so important.
And so as we stand in our driveways right now and we start
to audit our own mindsets and behaviors, my first question for
everybody is if you feel like your financial situation
reflects your worth as a person,take a step back.
(03:30):
If you do business at a black-owned bank, take a step
forward. If you do not know how much you
owe in total debt right now, take a step back.
If you know the difference between a four O 1K and an IRA,
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take a step forward. If you've avoided opening a
bill, checking on an account, oranswering a financial call in
the last month, take a step back.
If you know your credit score right now, take a step forward.
That was a good audit. It is a good odd and I wonder
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where people just look around right now.
Wherever you stand, did you haveto take a step back?
Did you have to take a step forward?
Did something hit at your heart chakra when I said it?
Did it just make bring some sortof raise your blood pressure a
little bit or make you feel likea little bit of shame?
All of those things really, really matter for this week's
conversation because it is it isdivine, Morgan.
(04:37):
It is divine how we are going toexperience and bring about
financial freedom and economic freedom in our lives.
We're going to talk a little bittoday about some of the
traditional stuff and certainly some of the systems around
traditional retirement, but thenI want to talk about how you can
build your own system right away, right now.
First of all, in August, Morgan,it'll be five years since I got
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divorced. So let's celebrate five years.
Is it been really right? It's been a really powerful and
eye opening five years for me because I was married jaw for
almost 19 years. And in that marriage, my
ex-husband controlled all of ourfinances, like all of our
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finances, like down to when I ordered DoorDash, he'd be like,
yeah, like don't do that. And he can.
He paid our taxes, he did all ofour savings.
And the crazy part about this Morgan is and I you couldn't
have told me this when I was in the marriage.
I saved all my money into his 401K and IRA out of my paycheck
automatic deposit and not in my own name, not didn't even have a
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car to put credit when I got divorced y'all.
And though we lived in all the biggest behind the gates houses
of real house House housewives of Atlanta, I left that marriage
with my credit score in the dumps with not one asset to my
actual name. With having for over 10 years
put every single savings that I had gotten from a girl trek into
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his name into his savings account and I had a lot of shame
around it. And it has taken me almost this
five years just to catch up on paying my taxes because I felt
so overwhelmed by how to do it because growing up I wasn't
taught how to do those things. And part of the reason I even
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got into that marriage is it felt relaxing to have somebody
what I thought was take care of those things.
But then what I didn't realize is that nobody was taking care
of you if you walk away with nothing to your even own name
and no actual even ability to show for your own good name what
you have done for yourself. So I just want any person out
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there who feels like, Oh my God,I'm in my 40s.
I haven't even started a 401K orOh my God, I'm behind on these
bills or Oh my God, whatever. To know that like every single
day right here in this moment isan opportunity for us to just
make new decisions for ourselvesand to unpack all of that and
the ideas that we have around worth and around money and to
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start to take our power back. So this conversation for me is a
conversation around how do we take our power back?
Yes. Listen, we done did 100 episodes
of Black History boot camp. I thought I knew everything
about you and. The whole history.
You move on forever and ever andmy sister for longer, but Dang.
Right. Thanks for.
Hearing that, no, I mean, you must have actually had some
(07:27):
feelings about it because you'd be telling me everything, but
I'm like, Dang, B. I had to.
First of all, I paid rent in my marriage.
I paid rent in my marriage. I just want to let y'all
understand, It's deep y'all. We can have a whole therapy
session about this. I walked away with 1 Volkswagen
and I still had to pay the Volkswagen off in his name in
order to keep it for myself to drive.
Wow. And so yes, and I am taking my
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power back and I want to actually start with the
solidarity spotlight for someonewho has helped me over the past
two years. Last, at the beginning of last
year, I was actually gifted a series of sessions with a
powerful financial planner. And she has a beautiful book her
some women might know of the book.
(08:12):
Her name is Paris Woods. She's someone who's not just
talking about financial freedom,she's living it and teaching it
in the ways that center Black woman's reality.
And she's the author of a book that I recommend called The
Black Girls Guide to Financial Freedom.
Testify today you helping somebody, I'm telling you your
vulnerability is really, really beautiful and I'm really proud
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of you. And I thank God that you got
this testimony girl I got. I thank God you're even on the
other side to be able to talk about it because when you're in
the middle, you can't even utternothing.
So on the other side you could talk about it.
I'm just really proud of you. I'm really happy for you.
Thank you. Yes, OK y'all, yes Morgan, we're
going to learn two life saving skills.
We're going to learn them beforeyou guys in this walk.
(08:55):
So don't worry y'all. Our first life saving skill is
how do you plan for retirement? We can't not know the
definitions to some of the most basic stuff or at least how it
functions or at least how we canaccess it.
So we're going to start at the most basic stuff, which is a
four O 1K. A 401K is a retirement savings
account offered through your job.
You contribute pre tax money from your paycheck and it grows
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tax deferred until you withdraw it after the age of 59.
Some employers will match your contribution.
So that's literally free money. It's automatic and long term and
you can build a sustainable nestegg over decades.
I will say that only 43% of black women have access to a
401K through work. And so that's why we're going to
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talk about some alternative. It is in just a second, but a
four O 1K is something that if you are a part of those 43% of
women that you should deeply consider as one of your
strategies for saving for retirement.
The second thing, Morgan, is notthe IRA, but the an IRA and it's
called an individual retirement account.
(09:58):
And I actually didn't know this.An IRA is just a DIY40 1K.
Anybody can open it. You can open it yourself.
You put in after tax money and your investments grow tax free
or tax deferred. It gives people not covered by a
401 KA way to save for retirement and they have some
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flexible investment options. The trick is though, that you
need extra income to invest. It takes a lot of financial
literacy time and consistent discipline.
And there are a lot of fees and paperwork and penalties involved
if you do early withdraw. And black women have the highest
rates Morgan of early withdraw from their 401 KS because we
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experience emergencies and crises at higher rates and we
are the caregivers for so many different people.
So for some people actually you have to consider if you think
you're going to need to access your money in an emergency way,
like is it really to put it in a401K?
Because then you have to pay theinterest and the fees and you
have to pay the taxes on it immediately in order to get it
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out. So there are some some
considerations there that peoplehave to consider.
A lot of people who then are concerned about four O 1 KS or
Iras just use a traditional savings account, right?
It's a basic bank account. It earns interest.
It's supposed to be used for short term savings or
emergencies. It's safe, accessible and
insured by the FDIC, which your mattress is not Morgan.
(11:24):
So that's why some people would recommend just a traditional
savings account. But the trick of a traditional
savings account is that the national average interest rate
is oftentimes hovering somewherearound 1%, like 1 to 2% in terms
of the way your money grows. So for some people, it's like,
is that really a good bang for your buck?
But it might just be the smartest thing if you just need
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at least a small emergency nest egg and the smart and and that
you need to develop a discipline, right?
So for me, when I was talking toParis Woods Morgan, this was
actually about me just even developing A discipline around
not accessing all of the income that I make immediately because
it was all going into one account.
So she was just like, if you at least just at the beginning,
just say, I'm going to put this money somewhere else.
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It's not even about the interestrate or even how it grows
necessary. It's about the discipline of not
living off of 100% of your income.
That was one of her number one investment advices that we just
simply we have to figure out a way to actually lower our
expenses and make some harder choices so that we are not
dependent on 100% of our income,which I know is hard to do, but
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we're going to talk about again,a solution to that in just a
minute. And then the last way that you
can save for your retirement, y'all, is investing in the stock
market or real estate. Obviously, it's powerful because
investing is mostly in this country how generational wealth
has been built. There's some barriers for Black
women, right? A lack of access to financial
education can sometimes make it hard to understand what to do.
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And there's a fear of risk when every dollar that we have is
needed right now. Like I've put in the stock
market what that's going to mean.
And we've historically been excluded from those wealth
building assets like especially like land and home equity.
I think there's also, I think there's also moral objection
sometimes. Yes, absolutely.
Talk about that for a second. Yeah.
(13:12):
I mean, the stocks that are soaring are the ones that are
exploitative or have real high profit margins.
And the way they have real high profit margins are through
exploitative, exploitative laboroften or extractive practices,
right? So if it's a technology company
and you really do want to investin it, you know that they're
mining from the Congo and pillaging the continent.
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Or if it is, you know, a clothing brand that is soaring,
you know, that they are have sweatshops, you know, in
Southeast Asia somewhere. And so there's it's hard to
invest your money in a system that is predicated on the
exploitation of resources and people.
And so I think a lot of people just be like, yeah, you know,
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like, I mean, you want to earn money and you want to do it.
I'm not discouraging people. There are like options.
You can look, you can look up stocks that are moral or green
or have a have good labor practices.
And it's what I do with my investment.
And I just encourage other people to do the same because we
don't have to buy into profit atany cost.
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That's exactly right, Morgan. Yeah.
And I'll bring it home for some people who may be seeing this on
the news but not understand how it's connected.
But a lot of what's been happening on university campuses
across the country where there have been like these uprising on
the campuses has been the students putting pressure on the
universities to divest from particular investments that they
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think are fueling either genocide or war or all sorts of
other things that they don't stand for.
And so there's been traditionally, even since the
South African apartheid days andbefore that, student movements
on campuses have been out at theforefront of trying to say that
capitalism is a big fuel to the fire around inequality and
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injustice in this world. And they've put a lot of
pressure on campuses. And some campuses have said,
yeah, we're going to follow along.
And we are listening to the students.
And some campuses have not. I'm here in DC and Georgetown
University over the last literally last week was just
going through this and they cameout and said, no, they're not
going to divest from some thingsthat the students were asking
them to divest from. But then that also gives you
information, y'all, even as you're, as we're talking about
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student loans, like where do youwant to take out student loans
to invest in an institution thatis really harming a lot of
people? Or is it going to harm you
eventually? So that's how we can start to
make more conscious decisions. Credentials maybe aren't even as
powerful as they as they are saying they are, because why
would we want to even be credentialed by institutions who
don't value our life? Yeah, so girl.
(15:48):
Yeah, yes, Morgan. So all that to say, y'all.
Shout out HBCU. Shout out to HBCU.
That's right. Oh, it ain't it ain't it ain't
it ain't it ain't. For a moment, I'm sorry.
So the question becomes, Morgan,with all of those traditional
ways that we can invest in our retirement and, and, and invest
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and save our money, right? The question becomes, OK, well,
what are the alternatives to that?
What are the alternatives that we can create for ourselves?
And traditionally, because we have had to make a way out of no
way, because we have had to be people who were had ingenuity.
(16:29):
There have been things that we have developed in our community
across the continent and the diaspora that are still going so
strong today. First of all, mutual aid
societies, especially after slavery and through Jim Crow,
people paid dues to these mutualaid societies.
Like shout out to the ilk, shoutout to the Mason, shout out to
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all these folks where it's like they weren't just social clubs,
y'all? After Jim Crow, there was
something and especially throughout on the South and in
the East that became really popular.
And those are rent parties, Morgan just old school, just
black women charged admission, sold food, played music, and
then they paid the rent for eachother.
(17:11):
And this is powerful because there we have GoFundMe now,
right? There's this whole kind of thing
around GoFundMe. And I was thinking about it and
I was like, but you don't get the community with Go Fund Me.
You don't get the music party, you don't get the party, you
don't get the things that make you feel better inside because
to not be able to pay your rent has dire consequences.
(17:33):
Renata talked to us about that on yesterday's On Mondays
episode, right? And so to be in community with
other people who are rallying for you and the physicalness of
that, there's something to that,right?
We can feel good about seeing the GoFundMe numbers go up, but
there was something powerful andmore.
Efficient. Well, because we used to be
entrepreneurial and we got sold a bill of goods that we have to
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be charitable. But really, you have to be
charitable. When you have the have and the
have nots, then then you bestow your wealth upon someone in a
charitable or philanthropic way.But if everybody's equal, then
you have an exchange of goods and that's entrepreneurship.
You figure out I got to pay the rent.
What can I give to people so I could pay the rent a good time?
(18:15):
Great. Come on to this party.
Help me pay my rent. We all equals.
Do you understand what I mean? There is an.
Exchange. There's a marketplace.
There's a marketplace even amongthose who don't have that much
is an exchange in value. And what I have and what I can
give. I can braid your hair if you do,
if you keep my kids, you know what I mean?
And so the, and we have to get back to that understanding our
economies. And then the last example I
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have, Morgan, is something that I know you're particularly for
familiar with on the continent, which is SU SU's.
So in Africa, in the Caribbean especially, rotating savings
groups, SU SU's are really essential and really important
and they've helped people get the down payment on their
(19:01):
houses. They've helped people to save
for college for their kids, and they've helped people.
Tell people where this is, who is.
Yeah, it's it's a rotating savings group and programming.
Actually I'm calling it a freedom circle because I'm going
to teach people how to make create their own in just a
second, but I thought you shoulddrop it.
Oh yeah, no, that is that's the second skill.
(19:21):
Y'all, we're going to learn how to create a freedom circle right
on this call. You can call it Isusu if you
want, but what I want to teach people is how to do something
that we're calling a freedom circle.
And you won't have to plead yourcase for the money.
Because the idea is that every single month you and a small
group of trusted people in your life, my recommendation, y'all,
these are the steps, is that youfind 3 to 5 people you trust,
(19:46):
three to five people you trust. And I want you to collectively,
you're going to text those people and you're going to be
like, let's get on a Zoom, let'sget on a WhatsApp.
I want to talk about us doing a freedom Circle and you guys are
going to collectively set your contribution dollar amount.
And for the sake of this exercise, we're not going to
(20:07):
start large. Your options are this set your
contribution amount at either $25.50 dollars or $100, right?
Then you set the. There, you don't make money.
That's right. There you go.
(20:27):
But I don't want people to feel like you can't, like overwhelmed
because what we learned, we learned this on the liberation
line about minimum basic income,right?
It's a little bit of money goes a long way to really help a
person in a vine or help transform them.
And the idea is that you could try yourself right through all
those traditional ways that I said to try to save up each
(20:49):
month and, and, and make hope that you get there one day.
But you could do it through thisfreedom circle in a way where
you're guaranteed through a rotation of who gets the pot of
money each month that you will get a lump sum of money to use
in a powerful way. And you will create a discipline
around savings. You will create a community
(21:10):
around savings. And then and you will create a
manifestation circle because youall will meet on a monthly basis
in this freedom circle to just talk about your financial
dreams. You'll create a ritual around
it. You'll make it joyful, you'll
make it sacred. You could say a prayer, you can
light a candle, you can play some Nina Simone.
But on a monthly basis, you and these three to five people can
(21:33):
really talk about all of the other stuff and unpack the stuff
that we've talked about in this episode through this freedom
circle. So you set a rotation.
Who gets the pot each month? You.
So if we each you find 10 people, you each put in $100.
That means every single month somebody's going to get $1000
that they can actually use. And the power of that Morgan is
(21:53):
divine even in the how what we understand around divine
compensation and manifestation. And it's powerful in terms of
your ability to plan for the things that you're going to
actually need. And in case of emergency, you
can actually petition the group that you need this rotation to
come to you sooner or you need the rotation that month.
But because you guys have a consistent rotation of
(22:16):
contributing the money, everybody knows they're going to
get their money back. And you may not right now have a
discipline of putting an extra $100 aside each month, so this
gives you a way to do it with collective.
In mind and not with. Accountability, and not just
with the individual that's. Real accountability.
Like accountability. Yes, it's real accountability
(22:39):
and there's a couple of tools out there that help groups like
this actually. So there's an actual app called
the Susu app SUSUA SPP Susu app.It's on Android and iPhone and
it will help you create a group and it tracks who paid, who
received, who sends it sends reminders, it keeps track of
everything for you. There's another app Morgan is
(23:01):
built by some Nigerian Americans.
It's called Zirtu ZIRTUE. It's for lending with trusted
relationships. So it actually allows you to for
people to request money for you guys to share money for you to
create shared groups. And you don't have to be worried
about like keeping track of it your actual self.
So that's a really powerful one as well that I would recommend
(23:22):
for people out there that they can use.
So thank you, thank you, thank you y'all.
I promise to God. I thought to this to myself.
I was like, I'm going to start afreedom circle.
First of all, let me just be honest about this.
My God bless my Aunt Cynthia. My Aunt Cynthia tried to start a
freedom circle with our family like 3 years ago.
And we got into a whole end fight around who we was going to
(23:43):
trust to hold the money every month and wasn't going blah,
blah, blah. And we couldn't, we couldn't
figure out the details. And people had so much shade
towards each other that she really had the vision of how it
should go. But that's one of the other good
things about a freedom circle isthat nobody is holding the money
each month. You all are actually pulling the
money intentionally to give it to a specific person each month.
(24:03):
So there's a lot of families outthere who I really think could
benefit from this. And I'm going to personally
choose three people in my family, two of my cousins and
one of my aunties. And we're going to, I'm going to
start a freedom circle with themjust as a start because it will
even help me. I'm already allocating money to
help with certain things, but tobe able to plan for it and to be
able to consistently give it in a way.
(24:25):
Because that's one of the things, Morgan, the the
unpredictability of crisis in our lives and the impact of that
unpredictability of the crisis in our lives that takes such a
financial toll. So this is about creating the
systems and the structures so that when life lives, because
it's going to life, we don't feel anxious or we don't feel
worried, or we know who is our trusted crew in our trusted
(24:47):
community. And that alone alleviates
stress, it eliminates worry, andit makes you feel like you're a
part of community. So that has to me like healing
properties. I like it.
I like the concept of it becauseit's like ancient and it's
collective economics and it whatit does is it it takes the
anxiety around money and it alleviate some of that.
(25:11):
You know what I mean? So you stay, so you get used to
giving each other money. Yes.
You know, we're so scarce now with money as I'm just take it
like you don't want to loan it, you don't want to talk about it,
you know, but this like creates some like, I don't know, some I
some fluidity around it, some money flow around it all the
(25:34):
time. So I like it.
I hope everybody else is into itas well.
I want to do a quick 62nd recessnow.
Morgan, this is going to be a affirmation recess for y'all.
I think it's going to feel really, really good.
I just want everybody to take a deep breath.
We're going to play. Money flows to me.
So we're just going to let this wash over you.
Wherever you are, baby, you've already returned back home.
(25:56):
If you're out in the park, if you're on the treadmill, we're
going to just take a recess moment to just manifest for
ourselves the life of our dreams.
And you asked some really great questions yesterday, Morgan, on
Monday show, just to help us visualize.
And I want to ask one more question today for people during
this recess. And that for me is a serious
question. And it is at what age do you
(26:18):
genuinely want to and see yourself retiring?
Because you have to name it without fear.
It's one of the things that Paris Woods taught me.
She was like, I'm planning to retire at 50 and I was like,
what? And she was just like, maybe I
still might want to keep workingat 54 or 56, but I want to have
the ability and the freedom to retire at 50.
(26:38):
It was a real number for her. And so I just want people to
think about what is that number for you?
All right, let's do the meditation, y'all.
Just 60 seconds money. Flows to me isoline never
lessly. Money flows to me isoline, never
lessly. Money flows to me easily and
(26:59):
never Leslie. Money flows to me easily and
never Leslie. I am abundant.
All that I need and all that I want come straight to me because
I know that I'm really young. Every day I rise, I look around,
I see millions loving what I seebecause I know I'm so fruitful.
(27:25):
I'm so fruitful. I'm so fruitful.
Yeah, money flows to. Me all right y'all Money flows
to me easily and effortlessly. That was our girl S star ES TAR.
(27:50):
You can check her out on Spotify.
Y'all, I hope that you feel that.
I hope that you believe that. I hope that you draw it to you.
All right, y'all, it's teaching Tuesday and today as we're
talking about these two powerfullife saving skills, how do you
save for retirement and how do you start a freedom circle?
We're going to bring in our homegirl, Soto Sandria from Chicago.
(28:11):
She comes with us every Tuesday with some powerful interviews
with experts out in the field. And today, she's interviewing
Shabazz. Shabazz is the founder of Brown
Girls Do Invest. All right, Sandra.
All right, Shabazz. Hey y'all, it's your home girl
host so dope, Sandra Chicago's very own.
And today I'm joined by Bahia Shabazz, the CEO and Director of
(28:36):
Financial Strategy at Decimalitics, and also the
founder of Brown Girls Do Investwhere they help Black women
invest in the stock market, invest in real estate and
acquire multiple streams of income.
Today, Bahia is teaching us the life saving skills of investing
in prevention and how to build an emergency fund.
(28:56):
Bahia, welcome to self-care school.
Thank you for having me. Hello.
Everyone, when we think about investing in health and
Wellness, we may not always think about our finances and
prioritizing our finances for Wellness speak to us a little
bit about this mindset shift of investing as prevention, so.
(29:18):
Let me start out by saying that a mindset is very important when
it comes to health and Wellness.The first thing that we need to
do is change the way we think about ourselves as well as our
future. I set my intentions with the
night before of what I would like for my day to consist of
and that entails how I'm going to treat myself, the boundaries
(29:42):
that I'm going to set in place, as well as what I plan to do
with my finances as well as my health.
There is not a day that does notgo by that I do not look it to
see what am I eating, what am I drinking, what steps am I taking
toward my health and Wellness, what funds am I spending and as
(30:03):
well as holding myself accountable.
But I got that way by knowing that I deserve it.
I deserve it in each and every one of you deserve the best that
you can put out towards yourself.
That is so true. And I remember hearing a saying
that, you know, money that you don't plan for anything can
happen. You know, like you have to tell
(30:26):
your money where you want it to go.
And that's a big part of investing in your prevention as
well. So now getting into the actual
numbers of money, what is a simple process for building an
emergency fund, especially if you are on a limited income or
(30:46):
maybe you are an entrepreneur and your income shifts
throughout the year. How can we build an emergency
fund? Well, the first step I would
like to say is give yourself grace.
You may think to yourself, wow, how could they save $20,000 in
one year when I cannot even save$20,000 in 10 years?
(31:07):
It's OK. So what I need for you to do is
to understand, and I like what you just said, everything has to
be accounted for because that's one of the things that I share
with brown girls doing best. Every penny must be accounted
for. It's just like having
disobedient children. If you do not tell me what to
do, it would. Go all over the place.
(31:27):
Yeah, so, so, so it's the. Same thing with your money.
So looking at your your paycheckand actually itemizing on a
budget sheet what exactly you want to do from paying your
rental mortgage all the way downto hanging out leisure time with
your girlfriends. Sometimes you feel as though you
(31:48):
do not have it. It's because you have not
planned for it. So when you're looking at your
net income and your net is actually, you know, after your
taxes, after your insurance, if you're investing in your 401K or
457 or 403B, what you're bringing home that's deposited
into your account is what you need to base your emergency
(32:09):
fund. So when it comes to your
emergency fund, ideally you wantto save at least 12 months of
expenses, not income expenses. And yes, I said 12 months
because we've seen over the years how three months is not
sustainable because some people are unemployed for longer than
three months. You're thinking about a
percentage that you that you want to save as opposed to
(32:33):
sticking with a dollar amount. Start out with something as low
as 1% and as you manage how to discipline yourself and being
consistent, then you increase over time.
Thank you. So much Bahia, back to you,
Vanessa and Morgan. Oh, Morgan, that was so good.
Thank you, Sandria. Thank you, Shabazz, for your
(32:53):
expert advice and for lending your voice to today's episode.
All right, Morgan, it's a wrap for today's episode.
It's a wrap for today's walk. We are two days into this week
on economic freedom. I pray to God that already some
doors are just opening for women, some Aha's are happening,
that you're feeling less shame or worry about your financial
(33:14):
situation, and that you have some really good tools and
resources over these last two days, from visualizations to
real understanding around your 4O1K that can really help you.
We're going to be back tomorrow.It's going to be workshop
Wednesday, so we're going to keep this information going
We're. Talking about starting a
business tomorrow? Y'all starting?
Your business get. Your get your notebook, bring
(33:35):
your business ideas, get ready to do your Shark Tank pitch.
I can't wait. All right, I can't wait either.
I'm all 1 today, I'm telling youthe Holy Ghost.
Yes, look and get some of that Holy Ghost, Morgan, y'all that
Morgan got. Speaking of the Holy Ghost,
we're going to close out with mygirl Glorilla, because Glorilla
be having the Holy Ghost, she'd be having it in her voice.
(33:57):
She'd be having it in her spirit.
My favorite quote from her is atthe end of the day, the day got
to end but. So we're just going to close
out. This is like a 22nd clip of
Glorilla, just to keep us in mindset around our hustle and
our manifestation. We'll see y'all tomorrow.
(34:17):
And you'll hustle, make your money and like you got to have
something figured out to like you got to have go and you just
got to work towards. You got to manifest like it's a
whole lot of power when you're tone and you just got to speak
into exist existence and work towards.
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