- 35 minutes ago
In this masterclass conversation, financial expert, Chadrick Kennedy whose lived the journey open up about what he wish he'd known sooner — and what he wants you to know now. From building credit to creating businesses, from investing your first dollar to passing wealth down to the next generation, this session meets you where you are and takes you where you're trying to go.
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00:00Chadrick Kennedy shares practical strategies to build wealth, create
00:05financial freedom, and build a legacy that lasts. Please welcome Chadrick Kennedy.
00:13Thank you, thank you, thank you. Good morning, good morning, good morning, good
00:19morning. My name is Chadrick Kennedy and I am excited to be on the suede stage
00:27this morning with you lovely people and so you're here this time of morning it
00:32means one of two things one you really really love me or you really really love
00:38the idea of wealth management making money right and so by the time this is
00:43over with hopefully we can meet both both of those conclusions right as I go so
00:50just so you know it's gonna be me it's microphone and you all and so this stage
00:56just built and designed beautifully for us to be interactive and so I'll have
01:01some notes and some questions I have some things I want to share with you all but
01:04be thinking about a couple questions because if we have time we're certainly
01:07gonna tap in with you guys see what's on your mind right and so first question I
01:15want to kind of answer and address because most of you haven't heard me
01:18speak before it's a little bit about why I'm here why I got involved with wealth
01:24management why I chose that as a career a few decades ago and so I can tell you
01:29this growing up my family made it very clear that my my my generation we were the
01:37first in our family to have the full opportunity as we were thought as we
01:41were told as we thought that America has to offer that these United States have to
01:46offer my parents had to walk down streets that were not as friendly into
01:51workforce that was not as friendly and so I was told our dreams are our limitations
01:57and so my dreams were big they had the audacity to show me the nice things that
02:04life has to offer and so I decided I want that for myself I want that for my
02:09family I want that for everyone around me and so you know growing up in New
02:15Orleans especially I went to school with I'm gonna put this down I like my hands
02:20to be free like my hands to be free here so for me growing up here you know with
02:28prestigious families that some people knew in sports like the Mannings and some of
02:33the restaurant families I got to hear how their lives went and so there are
02:38things like they would summer summer is a verb to some of those folks right you have
02:43enough money you don't have to be in one place throughout the year and so you know
02:50that always intrigued me a number of people they just they like luxury brands
02:55they're like not just nice ties nice suits nice clothes there's a particular
03:00lifestyle that I was interested in as I got older I realized maybe it's not so
03:07much the lifestyle it's the freedom of choice the freedom to decide what I'm
03:13going to do Monday through Friday that's what that's what I later learn and so I
03:21went to school to actually be a civil engineer I've always been a math nerd but
03:26I also was a college football player and while I was in school I got tired of
03:30seeing my athlete heroes who were retired and on desperate times so 30 years ago about 30
03:39years ago I wrote a business plan to manage money for professional athletes and entertainers
03:44the next year the NFL Players Association created their financial advisors program that was
03:51confirmation for me that I needed to do a career switch right that was the validation I needed
03:59many of us will meditate we'll pray asking for something to validate to confirm what's on our
04:04mind what's on our spirit that's what it was for me and so I poured my education my time my
04:11resources into developing those skills to serve wealthy athletes who I felt like who I felt had an
04:21opportunity to invest and develop and uplift their communities as well as themselves because I didn't
04:29see it happening what I learned quickly in that journey is that I really really love working with the
04:36schoolteacher the government employee right the everyday middle-class scratching to middle-class or
04:46leaping-beyond-class family in our communities because there weren't a lot of resources to guide this
04:54process and we we looked and I say we as in financial planning professionals look to serve that need serve
05:04that purpose and so that is what has molded my career choices and the businesses that we've developed
05:13so that's a little bit about how we got started or grab another prompt before I had some questions
05:22you didn't always know what you know now what's something you wish someone had taught you about
05:26money much earlier in life this is a great one and I am gonna ask for a show of hands
05:33how many people
05:33ever heard save for a rainy day we've all heard that right I really appreciate my parents my
05:41family for giving me that one right but you know what they didn't tell me there'll be several rainy
05:46days they did not tell me that when you're building whatever your career is whatever your path is in
05:55this world you're gonna have several rainy days what the biggest thing that I've learned is a lot of us
06:02get excited about hey we've got some money how do we invest investing is always exciting all right
06:09people want to know where do I put my money but the first thing we should always do is have
06:14a plan
06:14the plan is what's going to inform you about what to do with the money when you receive it and
06:22most not
06:23most all good plans are going to start with one process and corporations and entities have a good name for
06:30it they call it risk management and for us as individuals we usually hear oh the insurance person we
06:38gotta go see the insurance person that process needs to be transformed we need to think about
06:45it as if we are an entity a corporation and it's about risk management your car insurance really has
06:51nothing to do with your car if you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank and you drive
06:59a
06:59ten-year-old car if a tree falls on that car you don't need the insurance you have the money
07:04to replace it
07:05it is a shift of financial responsibilities a shift of financial risk that risk management process is
07:12always the first step in a good financial plan another similar lesson that I would say is if you have
07:21an
07:21investment opportunity that's really really exciting slow down making money until you are significantly
07:31wealthy it's not super exciting but it is not anything that needs to be mysterious it is not
07:39anything that needs to be that is unattainable everyone has the opportunity no matter what you do for income
07:47right and so some people think well wealth is for the wealthy it's for the rich you're either born into
07:52it or
07:53you have to be a business owner that's not the case that's not the case I think it's becoming cliche
07:58now
07:59millionaire next door but that's a real thing that's a real thing if you are a good steward of your
08:05resources you know and I highly recommend working with a planner you can figure out exactly how to
08:12create a path to wealth to retirement to financial freedom based upon where you are in your income and your
08:22aspirations right next let's see what is the biggest mindset shift someone has to make before they can actually build
08:36wealth you have to believe you have to know that it's attainable some people think well I like my job
08:46I'm very
08:47comfortable you know working 40 50 hours a week and I don't really see beyond that I guess I can
08:54I'm only
08:55gonna have the retirement that the company the employer provides me it's not the case retirement wealth is
09:03not just for business owners now what helps it absolutely multiple income streams with most of us have heard that
09:11right but what does that look like that is where again that plan have you done that risk management now
09:19we can start to talk about well what's our plan to grow our income if there are opportunities for multiple
09:25streams of income because we want the income to fuel the plan the cash has got to come from somewhere
09:32right and so I'm going to give you this tool that everyone should do at some point I want you
09:40to
09:40download four months of your bank statements yeah I heard a oh from the crowd yes this is the joke
09:49I
09:49have with our our physician clients people will get undressed in a doctor's office faster than they will
09:56financially in our office but I'm selling you do it for yourself first download four months of your
10:03bank statements and let's take a look at where your money has gone this is this is mirror work right
10:10this is when you really get to look at yourself and look if you're someone who loves travel you're okay
10:18with spending a significant percentage of your income on travel for me what was I willing to sacrifice
10:24a luxury car for some people it's oh I'm gonna go out three weekends a month instead of four when
10:32you do that that self-analysis I promise you you will find money in your existing spending that now can
10:40fuel the plan that you worked on right this is something that's attainable and accessible for everyone
10:46you don't have to be you know have to have a huge $300,000 income if you've got you know
10:54if you are if
10:56you feel like you're living check to check this is where you kind of pull back and make some hard
11:01decisions right what's more important to you now again also this is there's nothing here that is
11:08mysterious there's no there's no there's nothing that's unattainable and I would also say no one
11:18has ever failed a plan where they address their risk management and pay themselves first how many
11:25have heard the concept of paying yourself first all right it's a pretty common thing what does that
11:31actually mean that means when you are paying your bills the first bill you pay is your savings account
11:42and why why is that because most of us have grown up in a way and we've developed a skill
11:47set over time
11:48right where if we're getting too close to the end of the month it's if the bill needs to be
11:54paid we're
11:54gonna find a way to get it paid but if we're getting close to the end of the month are
11:58we gonna find a
11:59way to fund our savings probably not probably not so we want to reprioritize that no one's plan has
12:07ever failed if they put themselves first fund your plan fund your plan so either through discipline
12:17because you're focusing on one source of income or you have the opportunity for multiple sources of
12:23income now if you're entrepreneurial multiple sources of income is an exciting concept for you and you
12:32absolutely should always try to figure out how to have those businesses those side businesses to increase
12:39the fuel for your plan what do you do if you are again one of those people who are very
12:46comfortable with
12:46your job and you don't really see yourself doing anything else we're gonna go back to risk management
12:55if you are focusing on that one source of income what's your risk anyone you can just they lay you
13:04off
13:04that is your risk if you if your whole plan is depending on one source of income your risk is
13:11losing that
13:12source of income so what do we do in that scenario number one couple things number one we should
13:18always have an emergency reserve what's the math around that what does that look like people say six
13:25months I love that I love that can I get another somebody said three months but somebody nailed it with
13:32the year too so here here's my math after almost 30 years look at the bills that come in the
13:40mail if you
13:41have one source of income you need that number times six right if you have two sources of income either
13:50because you have a spouse or you have two sources of income multiply that number times three give
13:56yourself a little cushion there right but here's the one that trips up the most people that we see if
14:03you are I'll say a high income earner right and I'll say that's a hundred and twenty thousand a year
14:09more you probably have the type of job that if something happens to that job you can't quickly
14:15replace it in six months right so if that's the case how much should we have saved at least a
14:23year at
14:24least a year doesn't mean that all of that money needs to be in a savings account but you need
14:30to really
14:31really really focus on getting to that level of savings above all else because otherwise you're
14:37at risk and if you have a year or two years where you are not able to fund your plan
14:43what happens to
14:44your plan that retirement age starts getting pushed back right and so it's really really critical that we
14:52understand the risk management part of the plan now we talked about how you know if you hear you hear
15:03a
15:03really exciting investment opportunity how you probably want to slow down on that one because the
15:10investments are not usually going to be all exciting so where where do we invest so we already talked about
15:21savings for your emergency reserves right that's a savings or a money market account you know it's
15:27not going to be exciting but it's going to do what it's supposed to do right the next thing is
15:33home
15:34ownership home ownership is going to be the bedrock of your plan after you've developed that emergency
15:42reserve that emergency reserve also makes helps to make sure that you can stay in that house barring one of
15:50those downturns right and that's why that's the order of things after your house what are we doing
15:58or I should say concurrently with our house we are maximizing our time and plans at work and I love
16:08how much dialogue happens around what we call the water cooler experts at everybody's job that's great
16:15have that dialogue we want people talking about especially us talking about how do we take advantage of the
16:21benefits at work how do we take advantage of the supplemental benefits the retirement benefits what what do what is
16:29our
16:29company offer us that we can't do better for ourselves and if you aren't clear about that because your company
16:36doesn't provide benefit advisors find again financial planner to help you sort through all that to
16:43make sure you're maximizing that opportunity well now once you have done what set up your emergency reserve
16:52you own some real estate in these united states right you are maximizing your employee benefits
16:58and you can get into some of the investing that we see a lot of folks want to promote
17:03but now it's more appropriate because you can actually have the foundation think of it as you
17:10know we hear solid as a rock rock is a foundation the first things that we talked about are kind
17:15of
17:15immovable right and so when we talk about those investments mainly we hear about the stock market
17:20what's what are the two guarantees of the stock market anyone know
17:27somebody's nailing it it's gonna go up and it's gonna do what go down that's a guarantee
17:32so you want to be built financially you want your structure built so that you can ride that wave
17:38and sustain right that's what that's there for all right all right here's a popular question
17:51if someone is trying to pay off debt save for emergencies and invest all at once what should they
17:57prioritize this is a common question when i hear this in the office in the elevator it tells me two
18:06things one you don't have a plan so we're gonna have we're gonna help you with that right number two
18:12you just got some money let's celebrate right some money has just hit your hand or it's on the way
18:19and
18:20you are excited about the stressful decision of figuring out how to deploy this money in the best
18:27way to help me in my life right and so the answer to question number one is again we're gonna
18:33push
18:34investments to the side and then we're gonna look at debt versus savings i look at debt three ways good
18:42debt bad debt oppressive debt good debt is the debt you can write off can i write off the interest
18:51to this
18:51loan is it a student loan up to a certain point is it a mortgage that allows me to write
18:56off some of
18:56the interest your tax preparer will be the best person to help you answer that question that's your good
19:02debt your bad debt is any retail debt that's any loan that you have to pay back and the interest
19:10rate is
19:10higher than what you make in your savings account right which is most debt what's oppressive debt
19:18double digit 12 20 20 20 plus percent you have to attack that first you have to attack that first
19:29that is going to keep you from your goals attack it with a vengeance like really passionately as bad
19:38as you want to get free that's how you want to approach it then we want to start funding savings
19:43then we want to get into our bad debt right all right i've got less than a minute if someone
19:50has
19:50a good question i'll take it good fast question anyone i love the mic so i'll just keep talking through
19:59it
20:12what's my stance on life insurance that's a great question life insurance is a part of that risk
20:18management portfolio consult with someone who can offer all types of life insurance because then they
20:24have no motivation to sell you something if i only have hammers in my back pocket i need you to
20:31buy
20:31nails so life insurance you want to consult with a professional who's independent and offers all types
20:36all right now look as much as i love this microphone and i hope y'all love me my time
20:41is up
20:44it has been amazing connecting with you all i hope that everyone is a little bit better and further
20:49along in their wealth management journey thanks to this y'all have a great morning and enjoy essence
20:53fest and the city of new orleans
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