Throughout the month of April, Black Coffee Company will provide tips, fun facts, activities, and educational resources geared toward promoting/increasing financial knowledge, skills, and confidence.
This is Part 2 - "The Marathon Continues" of April is Financial Literacy Month series. Part 1 can be found here.
Day 11 [Information]: Financial Freedom is a Marathon
To kick things off, we start off this blog post with lessons from the great Ermais Asghedom also known as Nipsey Hu$$le. Nispey was the embodiment of community empowerment, financial freedom, and entrepreneurship.
On Hustlenomics – You learn all the secrets to the game on your way up. Most folk want to skip the process when you skip steps, you miss the lessons.
On Turn Up vs Own Up – It isn’t cool to be in the club spending all of this money, or having cars and jewelry – but you don’t own any real estate? a fourplex? If the answer is no, you’re not a real hustler.
Entrepreneurship – The new mindset is we don’t want advances, we want equity. We don’t want 1-off endorsements, we want ownership
Black Capital – Business models are built around our cultural currency. They develop the platform, implement structure & bring us in to raise value.
On Breaking the Chains – Own the supply chain from production to consumption. People take shots at Jay-Z but he’s the first Black artist to have vertically integrated business model where he owns the whole chain.
On Creating Value – I released 100 mixtapes and charged $1000 for each because I understood the economic principle of scarcity. The profit funded my independent label.
On Owning Real Estate – I own the block where I used to hustle from 8 am to 10 pm. I hustled, then I rented now me and David Gross will own in Crenshaw.
Day 12 [Information]: Budgeting
Budgeting is probably the number one thing you can do get yourself on a path to controlling your financial future. Theoretically, it is a very simple concept, but practically, it can be very challenging to implement. We have covered this topic in the past, thus we will just redirect you to our blog post "Live Well, Budget and Strive."
Day 13 [Information]: Saving
Having a solid savings plan can be a little daunting at times. It takes discipline and consistency. A common saving/budgeting practice is the Envelope method. Another method is to automatically transfer money into a high yield online saving account before you can get your hands on it and spend it. Out of sight, out of mind! A list of high yield online saving account can be found here.
AUTOMATE your SAVINGS and COMPOUND!
Day 14 [Activity]: Financially Intimate Date Night
A common cause of divorce in America is financial problems. Finances can be a challenging topic to discuss even if you are married to the love of your life. A successful relationship/marriage requires intentional actions and discussions about finances. For this activity, we encourage you to have re-occurring Financially Intimate Date Nights with your spouse/significant other. A Financially Intimate Date Night is allocated time for you and your spouse to discuss financial topics such as budgeting, saving, investing, and planning your financial future. So go ahead and set up your next date night/outing to be a Financially Intimate Date.
Day 15 [Information]: College Saving Plans
It is never to early to start saving for college for your children. Two popular methods to save for college for your children are through a 529 Plan and an Educational Saving Plan. Just your luck, we have written a blog discussing these two plans entitled "Shouldn't I be thinking about this...education funding and more!"
Day 16 [Activity]: Track your spending for a day/week
Pick a day or a week to track your spending. That's it! Are you buying coffee, gum, food, gas, clothes, medicine etc? Track it.The first part of saving is to know what your are spending.
Day 17 [Activity]: Create a bill check list
Are you receiving late fees every now and then because you cant remember when something is due? You are giving away money with those fees and NOT cutting down debt. A fee good practices are to set alerts (calendar events) on when your bills due, set a day of the month to do all bills and/or create a bill checklist that you complete each month
Day 18 [Activity]: Start a spending fund
When you have a designated place to send money and pull money from, you keep your financial affairs separate. It is good practice for when start your business and it helps you become disciplined - only spending from that account [for those specific things]. You can open an account for vacation/travel fund, household expenses, personal savings, car expenses, etc.
Day 19 [Information]: Credit Score Demystified
Your credit score can significantly impact you financially. From getting approved for a loan, to the interest rate you receive on a loan, to getting hired for certain jobs. For these reasons and many more, it is important to understand what is your credit score and how it is calculated. We have written a blog post entitled "Credit Score Demystified" that highlights the key components that go into calculating your credit score.
Day 20 [Information]: Compound Interest
"Compound Interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it, he who doesn’t, pays it.” -Albert Einstein
Principal - is the initial sum of money put into an investment.
Interest - is the amount earned on the principal over a period of time.
Compound Interest - is the interest earned on prior interest in addition to the principal.
