Lately, I keep having conversations with people who say they just can't seem to save money. Many people blame it on the recession but I know plenty of people in the African American community who were broke far before the recession yet many of these people worked every day. I truly believe if you work
eight hours a day for five days a week then you should be able to save and invest some portion of your paycheck. I feel what often happens however is that we don't keep track of where we're spending money and what we're spending money on. For instance, I try to write down every purchase I make, even if it's a seventy five cent candy bar, because that could've been $.75 saved. Once we became of aware of how we spend then we can become aware of how we can save and how we can invest. For most of us two things are constant, a paycheck and bills. Those two things are constant but we should work on adding another constant, saving. Just as we're forced to work for a paycheck, and we're forced to pay our bills, we should force ourselves to save. Even $10 a week adds up to over $500 at the end of the year (which is more than many of us have saved up) and I'm sure that most of us waste $10 a week. However, when we do that we're essentially taking money right out of our children's pockets.
What our community continues to lack is money that passes through the generations therefore the way we spend our money directly affects our children and our children's children. If we take a more active role in saving then our children won't have to face these same battles because we will be able to pass down wealth to our children once we start saving and investing in a proper manner. My main point, even in a recession, even when you think you're broke, there's always a dollar or two that you can stash away for a rainy day or for your children. If you don't take full control of your finances they will quickly take control of you. For years we've struggled just to barely make it but I feel that if we put a little discipline we can do more than surive, we can thrive, and so can the generations that come after us. Peace.
Feel free to leave a comment regarding how you may be saving, what problems you may be having in saving, or a comment on the article in The Seed by Brandon Ball or even on the video below where Chris Rock discusses the difference between being wealthy and being rich.
4 comments:
Damn.. i guess it isn't so funny when you factor in that the majority of that scene was true... i think that was the first time I haven't laughed at the clip.
I would encourage people to get an account with out a debit card or atm, kinda like a PayPal or with some sort of credit union. That way if you are putting $10 a check in there it's more difficult to run up somewhere and spend it or get it out.
I find myself asking the same questions. How is it that I can work everyday and not save at least 10 percent of my paycheck. The answer is 2 fold 1) because like most people I spend money to compensate for other emotional voids, 2) I don't like to keep track of what I spend because I already know that the evidence will reaffirm part 1. So the question becomes what is the solution. For me I had to get serious about what I wanted to accomplish financial. I first started a zero budget. Meaning I spend all my money down to zero , on paper before I spend any of it. You can create this in excel however I had a problem with reconciling what I actual spent and what was on paper, so now I use mint.com (which is free) and my excel spreadsheet. The second step is to create a emergency fund and try to starting with a 1000.if you don't have that much just start with 10. With the goal being to eventually have 3 to 6 months of expenses saved within a year or so. Indirect has a online bank account that has no minimal balance or monthly fees. They also have one of the highest savings rates in the country and the account is backed by the fdic. So there is really no excuse as to why you can't save. If you want to find other accounts with high saving rates go to bankrate.com. The information and means to build wealth for generations are out there we just need to go get it. Remember wealth starts with we. So we need to get it together.
Peace.
this is a huge issue Brother! thanks for picking it up! talk about synchronicity but I'll stick to the point. An elder and i spoke today about African Wealth picking apart our history on a global level, that which has passed throughout generations "that" legacy of colonialism and the structure it maintains to deconstruct the inevitable, self Realization and the Creative principal which acts on the foundation of creating liberation of being and doing other than what keeps you enslaved. I dont mean to sound abstract but "Wealth" is truly a state of mind, so is captivity so is debt, health, et al.
On a personal "real world" level and because my Saturn in in Taurus and Ive got this artist way in the world I know the technicalities of money mismanagement and the necessity of intentional structure within the paradigm. I also know how these issues tend to stem from a spiritual undercurrent that needs to be properly aligned and understood from within. The wonderful gift is all things can be properly aligned and transformed. Change is constant! No matter how man-made this paradigm is we/the Universe can collectively change it!
Oh on another personal level is that I believe most African American's or people rather fail to 'trust' one another (dont trust/or know their true selves), take this man-made reality as the All and all that comes w/it, thus fail to create working solutions/alternatives to the problem, are so busy believing the hype formula/propoganda that [Education = good Job + House + Consumerism] that we fail to OWN or understand what OWNERSHIP really means. I mean its more than $40M home or sports team. This changes nothing of our Collective Karma.
Dr King worked to solve our issues and most of us have not taken the time to honor his legacy in its full capacity, even on a small scale. One Love Ria Takharu
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