00:00Hey there, I'm Kayla Walker, Media Maven and Lifestyle Authority, and today your host for
00:08Currency Conversations, where we're getting black women comfortable talking about money.
00:13And who else to talk about the money than these women? I'm joined by Sandra Davis,
00:17who is the CEO of Sage Financial Solutions. Yes, ma'am. As well as Lynette Kalfani-Cox,
00:23B, money coach. And today we are talking about the B word, ladies, budget and spending.
00:32I hate budgeting. I'm like, I don't want to budget. I feel like I've been working too hard. I've been
00:37doing what I'm supposed to do, and I want to spend my money the way I want to spend it.
00:41And that's human nature, honestly, because most people feel like that. I think for me,
00:45part of it is recognizing that there's no one strategy or one technique that's always going
00:52to work for you, or that, frankly, always works for everybody else either. And so I think part of
00:57the key to realize is that it doesn't matter what you call it. If you want to call it a budget,
01:02managing your cash flow, a spending plan of action, if you have a strategy and it's working for you,
01:07great, you're doing just fine, I'm sure. And you're watching it, too, because I think a lot of times
01:11people will, you know, the new year, new you, right? And then you do this budget thing, and you put all
01:16the numbers together, and you put it next to your exercise plan, and then two or three months in,
01:21maybe not. So it's not just enough to set it up. You have to make sure that you're doing what you
01:26said you wanted to do. So I don't have a hard and fast budget. But what I do is I put my money in
01:31categories of how I want it to flow, and then I might need to adjust. And I might need to adjust
01:37in real time. I just know that if I say yes to one thing, I'm saying no to something else.
01:42If I want to go out to dinner today, and I'm going to spend more than my allocated amount that I know
01:47that I want to do, then I know I have to make an adjustment. The budget is not about restricting
01:52myself. It's not about, oh, you can't buy that, you can't do that. It's about choosing how I
01:57allocate my resources and what I want to spend my money on. And so how does your spending throughout
02:02the month reflect that? Because I'm at that stage in my life, too, where I'm like, this is fun, this is
02:06great, gaining the money, keeping the money. But what about when I don't feel like working so that the
02:10money works for me? I actually had to change careers at 40 plus. I was actually 44 when I went back to
02:16school and got a master's in financial planning. What I had to learn was that I had not saved
02:20enough. I had to shift my thinking. I deserve to live well in my old age. And I know a lot of black
02:27women that are struggling in their elder years because they didn't know to save early. So I know
02:34I'm going to have to work well into my 70s because what I didn't do early. So I don't do shame. I don't
02:41do, oh, I wish I had. I don't do any of that. And also just a note from that, it's never too late.
02:45You just have to start. And the idea to not have shame around wherever you are, I think is really
02:50crucial. You have a budget, whether you know it or not. Money comes in, money goes out. So that's
02:55why using a tool like, you know, the Chase Budget Builder can help you look at what's coming in and
03:01what's going out so you can make some decisions about what you want to be doing. And the thing is,
03:06I think a lot of times people are afraid of being in the red, right? So they're afraid of getting to the
03:11bottom of that budget. And there's more month than money. I've been self-employed for 30 years.
03:16I would not be okay if I only had one income stream. So I have multiple streams. So I know
03:21what's coming in. I don't always know when it's coming in, right? So when a lot is coming in,
03:27I have to hold on for those lean months. So that rainy day fund, and you know, some people call it
03:32emergency fund. I call it a rainy day fund because the rain is always coming. The rain is always coming.
03:39And can I tell you something else? What symbolizes that rain and why it's important to think about,
03:44you know, potentially multiple streams of income, because there could be multiple shocks to that
03:48budget. There's a lot of things that can go wrong. Divorce is one of those financial realities that
03:54a lot of us are going to go through. I was married for 13 years. It didn't work out. But I learned a lot
04:00of, frankly, painful financial lessons because I was the one who had to pay alimony and child support.
04:07You know, we had joint custody and I always had my kids with me. But because I had been
04:12an entrepreneur and I was the breadwinner in the family and my ex was a student the whole time we
04:17were married, I was paying a grip, okay? Like almost seven grand a month. So if you're not careful,
04:24and if you haven't planned, and if you haven't saved, and if you don't manage your funds appropriately,
04:31I think as women we need to be honest about that conversation. Black women often are holding
04:36it down for a lot of people. For a lot of people. Right? So our money is often not just our own.
04:42This was so good. More of us need to get together and have these currency conversations. So I'm
04:47daring you. Get your girlfriends. Talk about the money. Don't keep it a secret. We're trying to get
04:51to 20,000 black women. The more of us that are on board, the better we are. So make sure you're going
04:57to essence.com slash currency conversations, creating financial goals, and making a commitment
05:02to yourself because we want you to be financially strong, sis. And use chase.com slash budget builder
05:07to help you build the budget and spend wisely because the more we know, the more we can all grow.
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