Never spend your money before you’ve earned it. – Thomas Jefferson
If I could rub on Aladdin’s lamp, I would wish for world financial literacy. Oh…And world peace.
However, what I really want is for more people to get involved with the family finances and build generational wealth for their future.
Within the last 72 hours, I have read that college students are unable to afford housing in Sacramento, Forever 21 went bankrupt, WeWork will be letting go of 2,000 employees, Sports Illustrated (SI) sacked half the staff.
In addition, that there is also an aging population and a doctor shortage due to issues with stress, debt loads in the $200,000-$500,000 range, not to mention under funding of residency programs; and that most of the growth in the job market is concentrated in only two areas: health services and education.
What your job is, should you choose to accept it, is to keep as many dollars in your bank account as possible. Unlike Tom Cruise’s message in Mission Impossible, this message will not self-destruct in five seconds.
If this were a financial hospital, I would want you to form a triage and determine which parts of your finances need most immediate care. Your bank account is the heart of your finances so let us perform a little CPR. Greenbacks Magnet style of course. This post is all about letting you know what you cannot do with your finances in order to grow your nest egg to a fortune. This reminds me of a sketch comedy show called You Can’t Do That on Television. Let me explain.
You Can’t Do That on Television is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that first aired locally in 1979 before airing in the United States in 1981. It featured preteen and teenage actors in a sketch comedy format similar to that of American sketch comedies Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and Saturday Night Live.
What I loved most about this show was that they would always say what you could not do followed by some hilarious punishments such as being covered in green slime. And nobody wants that! Who wants to have to wash all that slime out of your hair?
Let’s pretend that everywhere you go there is a bucket of green slime waiting to be poured on your head for any financial missteps that you make. You may think twice about maxing out that credit card or renting that posh pad in the SoHo district for $4,000 a month. I’m just saying.
Here is a list of things that you cannot do with your finances:
Overloading on Student Loan Debt such as paying $100,000 for a Sociology degree
Buying a car that costs more than your annual income
Paying for a family member’s vacation to Disneyland on your credit card because theirs is maxed out
Taking out Personal Loans for more than you can afford to repay
Buying a home for more than four times your salary
Spending on fancy jewelry
Going on shopping sprees at the mall just because its Tuesday
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about what you can do with your finances. The list is short and quite simple:
Save until it hurts aiming for 50% of your after-tax income
Invest in index funds such as the VTSAX at Vanguard
Open up a Roth IRA
Max out your Roth IRA
And that’s about it.
I know what you’re thinking. That’s it?! The list for what not to do was more than twice as long.
That is because there are endless ways to spend money, but the road to wealth is quite simple. Spend less than you make and invest the difference. Therefore, if your take-home pay is $75,000 a year and you spend $50,000 on living expenses, then you should invest $25,000 a year. No matter what the numbers are, the goal is the same. The way to get to your destination may change, as life happens, but keep the goal.
I must now bid you farewell. Do not worry. I will not be far away. I am only a tweet away.
This is not goodbye. As they said in the 1987 He-Man film, Masters of the Universe, we Don’t Say Goodbye, we say Good Journey.
I agree that beauty is not just physical. Beauty has many
forms, and I feel that confidence, self-respect, and loving yourself are some
of them.
These are some other beautiful things to behold:
A child at play; while living in a safe
neighborhood.
Reading a book on a beach at 1 o’clock in the
afternoon.
Taking a nap in a hammock.
Walking in Central Park.
Seeing the sun come up while vacationing on the
lake.
Seeing the sunset on the beach.
However, all of those beautiful things, albeit free; still
cost money to be able to do and enjoy them.
Many of these things require that you have some form of
prosperity or relative financial cushion to enjoy creature comforts that can
easily be taken for granted such as taking a nap in the afternoon beyond the
age of five.
Instead of having some semblance of wealth, you will need to
actually have a few coins in the bank in order to have any sort of comfort
EVER.
That being said, I had to stop and think. Why Do I Save So
Much?
I remember reading an article in which they decided to pose this similar type of question to Academy Award winning actress Halle Berry who is worth an estimated $80 million.
She answered that the reason she saves is because she knows
the business she is in (showbiz) this Hollywood stint may all come to an end
one day. Specifically, she says that she saves because she never knows
“when this trip will end.” And that she wants to have enough savings
to make sure she is secure, comfortable, and financially independent when the
paychecks stop pouring in and the fame starts to wane. In addition, she carries
tons of life insurance.
I too carry tons of life insurance!
If it’s good enough for Halle, then it’s good enough for me.
Halle is a saver.
Here is why I am a saver too.
WELCOME TO THE GOOD LIFE
When I was a kid, my
mother told me that if you could not be a good loser, then there’s no way you
could be a good winner. – Halle Berry
There’s a place in me
that can really relate to being the underdog. – Halle Berry
I always had to prove
myself through my actions. Be a cheerleader. Be class president. Be the editor
of the newspaper. – Halle Berry
By the time I left
school, I had a lot of tenacity. – Halle Berry
If you think money will change who you are, then think
again. Money just gives us a bigger stage to project who we already are.
Will Smith said it best: “Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.”
Many people may not know this but Halle Berry was elected Homecoming or Prom Queen at her high school. It was predominantly white. Not believing that she had won, the other contestant asked for a recount. Halle agreed. Halle won again. She demanded another recount. Halle refused. Halle then graciously accepted her crown.
If you think about that, you can see from a young age that Halle has always had to work for what she’s got. Being PRETTY is not enough!
I actually was on my school newspaper. It was one of the
only times in high school that I did not feel like I was being judged and I had
some say in what was going on around me. I too have always had to prove MYSELF!
I get it. No one believes what they can’t see. Seeing is
believing.
However, I was actually working towards my goals – buying a
home, getting a bachelor’s, finishing a Master’s – all tangible things that
people can observe my actions and see me doing such as studying, house
shopping, and walking across the stage to accept my diploma.
It was not until AFTER I had done all those things that people started to take me more seriously and show me SOME RESPECT!!
It just would have been nice to get a little more of it while I was the UNDERDOG and working towards MY GOALS with people around me that had WAY MORE PRIVILEGE.
I paid WAY LESS than $50,000 for a degree.
I paid WAY LESS than $1 million for a home.
I did that because I knew what I could afford and that I
didn’t want to be in debt forever.
I wanted freedom. And that doesn’t come cheap. You have to EARN your freedom through work.
CAREER IS IMPORTANT
Career is important,
but nothing really supersedes my roles as a mother. – Halle Berry
I never wanted to be a
model. My modelling career was nothing but a stepping stone to my acting career
and that’s all I ever saw it as. A pointless rock in the river that has to be
stepped on in order to get to the meaningful oasis of acting. – Halle Berry
Throughout my career I
have been talked out of things I wanted to do, and when I look back, I think I
should have followed my instincts. – Halle Berry
What’s the worst that can happen? If it doesn’t do well I can put on my big girl panties, deal with it and move on. – Halle Berry
I have learned that having a CAREER and not just a JOB is
important.
A job is what you do to pay the bills.
A career is what you do when you have passion for something
and can skip to work.
I decided at the age of 15 to get my degree as a STEPPING
STONE towards a career. I ended up working in Financial services which is right
up my alley as you can tell from this blog. 😉
However, I have mostly done the things I wanted to do and
rarely let myself get talked out of those things. Maybe that is why I am so
happy.
The secret to happiness: Do the things that make you happy
and don’t do the things that make you unhappy. The End.
No matter what. Good or Bad. MOVE ON. Keep moving forward. It’s
like Ariana Grande says, “thank you, next.”
I knew if I wanted to make more than minimum wage that I had
to get some skills or education. Not knowing what trade to do I went for the degree.
I knew not to just drift or stand still.
I didn’t want to end up at 35 with no savings, no home, no
family, and no decent job.
I had no shame working as waitress to make ends meet until I
could do better. I was making about $2.39 an hour plus tips.
Now I’m making and saving more than 40% of my income.
All things come in time.
BEAUTY FADES
Let me tell you something – being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory. – Halle Berry
While being called
beautiful is extremely flattering, I would much rather be noticed for my work
as an actress. – Halle Berry
A person’s self-esteem
has nothing to do with how she looks. – Halle Berry
Your preaching to the choir. Tell me something I don’t know.
Beauty is transitory alright meaning it is not permanent. CORRECT.
As you age, you will change. It is inevitable. So you need to be able to do something more than stand still, look pretty, and to quote Miss Congeniality, “be on stage with nothing to do but convert oxygen into carbon dioxide.” Haha
So enjoy your life! And pass me some more pizza 😂
INNER PEACE
The first step is
clearly defining what it is you’re after, because without knowing that, you’ll
never get it. – Halle Berry
If you set out to do
something and you give it your all and it doesn’t work out, be willing to
modify your goal slightly. Have the ability to look in another direction. A
small shift could guide you to the real purposes of your life. – Halle Berry
There have been so
many people who have said to me, ‘You can’t do that,’ but I’ve had an innate
belief that they were wrong. Be unwavering and relentless in your approach. – Halle
Berry
I’m not afraid of
portraying anything on-screen. – Halle Berry
I’m just going to live my life and be who I am. – Halle Berry
If you are a wrestling fan, then you have heard of the moniker BE FEARLESS from the Bella Twins.
And that is how you should live your life. Be fearless. Be
relentless in your pursuits. But always try to do the right thing.
During an interview for the cover of the April issue of
InStyle, which hit the Internet on March 12, Ciara said, “If you want to get
somewhere in life, you’ve got to have a compass. You’ve got to know where you
really want to get to.”
I have a pretty strong professional and Morale Compass. I
try to, like Spike Lee says, “Do the right thing.”
If you read my last post on The Rock, then you know that
being who you are can get you far in this world, but nothing happens without a
dint of hard work.
Academy Award winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones said in
the book Rise and Grind that she informed her parents at a young age she wanted
to be an actress. They did not approve until she got them an appointment with
her school guidance counselor.
They informed her parents that Catherine would never be
satisfied with being an accountant as she is too artsy. Let her PURSUE her
passion. Since Catherine was a good child and student, they agreed to let her
pursue her dreams and would support her!
At that point my mouth drops open. You could hear crickets and a pen drop. I could not believe it. All that from a conversation. WELL DONE! Never underestimate the power of your words.
AGE AIN’T NOTHING BUT A NUMBER
I see women in their
30s getting plastic surgery, pulling this up and tucking that back. It’s like a
slippery slope – once you start you pull one thing one way and then you think,
‘Oh my God, I’ve got to do the other side.’ – Halle Berry
I’m not sad at all
about turning 40. – Halle Berry
I’m not a fanatic
about exercising. For me, it’s about moderation and balance. – Halle Berry
I think I am at my best when my hair is short. It’s easier to take care of and more of who I am. Women are conditioned to think we need long hair. – Halle Berry
I think it’s always
best to be who you are. – Halle Berry
Be who you are.
If you ever saw the 1997 movie Selena starring Jennifer Lopez, then you may remember the scene where Abraham Quintanilla (played by James Edward Olmos) says that he learned a very important lesson in life, which is that you have to be who you are.
That is not just wisdom in old age talk. That is the TRUTH.
Everything have that was GOOD came from me being WHO I AM. Whatever you do or whomever you are…OWN IT!!!!
SUCCESS AT LAST OR IS IT?
Don’t take yourself
too seriously. Know when to laugh at yourself, and find a way to laugh at
obstacles that inevitably present themselves. – Halle Berry
I know I’m only one
human being and I’m only making one tiny contribution and it’s nothing more
than that. – Halle Berry
I think there’s a
certain level of trust that I have with women. I’ve always been honest, even
when I haven’t had good times in my life or my movie bombed or I’ve had great
success. I’ve owned up to all of it. – Halle Berry
People win Oscars, and
then it seems like they fall off the planet. And that’s partly because a huge
expectation walks in the room and sits right down on top of your head. The
moment I won the Oscar, I felt the teardown the very next day. – Halle Berry
I repeat, whatever you do…OWN IT!
I’m told that I am sassy and dominating. I take that as the
compliment I know it is supposed to be. 😉
Well this sassy Miss started doing the following with her money:
Savings Year
Monthly Savings Amount
End of Year Total Savings
2013
$50
$600
2014
$100
$1200
2015
$150
$1800
2016
$250
$3000
2017
$333
$3996
2018
$1,111.04
$13,333.06
2019*
$1,211.09
$14,533.06
As of this writing, I am on track to save $15,000 for 2019.
I have already set a saving goal of $16,000 for 2020.
I always look to the future because it is coming one day after all. So I set savings goals for the coming years of 2021-2025 of $17,000+ each and every year. My ultimate goal is to save $20,000-$25,000 each year. That would allow me to save $100,000 every 4 to 5 years.
I also believe in donating money to good and charitable
causes like Halle.
This is what Halle told MainStreet: ‘Many people utilize
charitable giving as a great tax write off, and it is. But more than that, for
me, charitable giving is a financial investment in the human spirit. When we
invest in each other, we invest in ourselves. There is no single investment
that I have pursued that has brought a greater return, than helping someone who
needs it.’
Well said, Ms. Berry.
So now you know why I save so much and how much I save.
