00:00Hey there, I'm Kayla Walker, joined by two very special women, Michelle Evank, CEO of Essence
00:10Communications, and Raquel Oden, Managing Director of JPMorgan Chase. Okay, so tell me, how did the
00:16two of you come together? How did Essence team up with JPMorgan Chase? We've been privileged to be
00:21partners with JPMorgan Chase, and through that partnership, you know, we've had discussions
00:27about how can we improve lives of Black women. We were completely aligned, all of us at Essence
00:34at a JPMorgan Chase, and then it was how can we come together and create this initiative. We know
00:40that Black women are most likely the breadwinners and contribute a significant amount to household
00:47income, but we also know that we can be more on top of our finances. The partnership with Essence
00:54really allows us to focus on the strong Black women that we know, and we know you've been a
00:59staple in that community, we've been a staple in the financial services community, so what better
01:03partnership? Our culture is for, you know, Black women to help Black women. We teach each other,
01:09we learn from each other, we talk with our friends about so much, but we don't always talk about our
01:16money. Why is money so taboo in our community? We never talk about it as we should. When I think
01:21about taboos around finances, I honestly think it's just something that was never talked about in our
01:26household. Yeah. You know, I happen to be a first generation, my parents were immigrants to this
01:30country, and their real focus was really like, how do we stay in this country? How do you get an
01:35education and a roof over your head? It goes beyond that, and I never want my daughter to feel like this
01:42isn't something we're not going to talk about. We got to stop making it a secret, right? And this is what
01:46we're trying to do here in this joint partnership is allow this to be a conversation at every one of
01:51our dinner tables, conversations in our church, conversations with our parents, because the idea
01:57here is that we want to pass on generational wealth, right, and have that conversation so it's
02:02not one and done, but we can think about our kids and our kids' kids, and I think that's the wealth of
02:08what we get to do. Kicking off those conversations, the women that I saw around me and that I loved and
02:13inspired me, I didn't see them save and take care of themselves financially. I met a guy who turned
02:23out to be my husband, and so I met him in my 30s, and he said, why don't you own a home? It was such
02:31a wake-up call. I had earned, you know, a decent amount of money, but I spent it. I didn't know how
02:39to save that it was important to save. No one ever talked to me about it. Right. I have this thing
02:44where they always say pay yourself first, and I think unfortunately how we look at it means pay
02:50yourself first means I spend all that I need to what's left I save. Yeah. I think we need to reverse
02:55that, right? When you say pay yourself first, it means I save first, I invest first, and then I spend
03:00what's left. It's never too late to start that saving journey. As a child, you know, we had an unexpected
03:06fire. We lost our entire house. We lost everything, and we all know life gives us so many of these,
03:12right? Absolutely. And I never want to be in that situation that when the unexpected happens,
03:17we have no options. Financial wellness, it gives you financial freedom. Freedom to live life,
03:22freedom to make decisions, freedom to have purpose. This is an area, you know, where we're not comfortable.
03:29You know, the first time I had to sit down with a financial advisor, I was, I was nervous.
03:34How did you develop the confidence to even start investing? Well, first I had to develop the
03:38confidence to make the appointment. That is important. You know, need to get the information
03:45and turn to our trusted institutions that can really advise us on what do we need to know
03:53in order to take the steps to secure ourselves financially and then secure our families. And I
03:59think part of the conversations that we have, especially here at JPMorgan Chase, is we need to
04:04allow our clients to feel comfortable to have this conversation. It's simply someone looking at you
04:09and saying, what are you saving for? It's a very normal question that you can quickly get your mind
04:15around. And what's the purpose of your money? What do you want your money to do? And then you simply say,
04:20do you feel like you have just enough, not enough, or more than enough? Yeah. We are going to be the
04:26largest inheritors of wealth. And as women, if we don't understand financial conversations now,
04:33we can't wait till those moments happen. And it should be noted that you can start small. A lot
04:37of times you think of savings and you think it has to be this big overwhelming task or this big chore,
04:42but you can start small. The point is to just start. And it's going to be 20,000 strong. We're all
04:46saving. We're all getting to that goal. Everyone. You can be a teenager, you're 20s, 30s, 40s,
04:53a grandmother. Let's all start together. And we'll start with 20,000 women,
04:58but we want 100,000 women, 200,000 women. We want this to be what's expected. I agree.
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