Introduction of Kavette Miner Kane
00:00:11
Speaker
Hello and thank you for joining today's episode of Fabulous Fuckery. I'm your host, Baroness Brie. And today I'm joined by Kavette Miner Kane, owner of Marry More Life. Thank you for joining us today, Kavette.
00:00:29
Speaker
Thank you for having me Bri.
Financial Self-Sufficiency for Women
00:00:31
Speaker
Kavette is a woman who is on a mission. She is guiding women on their journey to self sufficiency by teaching them how to manage their money without losing their minds. Let me tell you how important that is to me ma'am.
00:00:47
Speaker
Thank you for doing the hard work because we all like to look cute, but we don't like to talk about the situation with our money. How does that, how does your service work for us? Well, I'm able to introduce women to understanding what their financial goals are, even reestablishing those financial goals, understanding why they may be afraid.
00:01:11
Speaker
to deal with their money. There's a lot of underlying emotional issues and some traumas in our lives that cause us to hold back from that, or even to overly express ourselves financially. And so by identifying those emotional triggers, then we're able to understand our habits and even transform our habits.
00:01:34
Speaker
Ooh, you just said a key word right there. Money is emotional. How do we... I know I'm an emotional spender. I've actually tracked it in a book for the last couple of weeks and I'm like, oh, okay, you were having a bad day. So we spent a couple extra dollars here. What are some tips that you offer for women to stop us from hormonally spending?
Treat Finances Like a Business
00:01:56
Speaker
Well, the first thing is to count your coins.
00:02:00
Speaker
So what that means is to be conscious of how much money you actually have to spend. And that comes with budgeting and cash flow analysis. So most of the time people hear about cash flow analysis is in reference to business. But I believe that we each individually are the CEO of ourself. And so we need to operate our lives the same way that business owners operate their businesses.
00:02:28
Speaker
in a mode so that we would be profitable and not fall into the red zone. Yes, I love that because most people, you know, everyone on social media is a boss CEO. So if we really boss up and realize we need to protect our money like we're a business, I think we'll be in better shape. Thank you for that tip because
00:02:47
Speaker
Hmm, you know I can tell you it's been it's been an interesting journey for myself, but what do you? What is the first step to counting my coins and making sure that I'm doing what I'm supposed to do responsibly?
Needs vs Wants
00:03:02
Speaker
Well, the first step would be to what I say, if you're out in a spending situation and you feel like you're going to buy something, even if you're at home and you feel like you're going to buy something online, my first reference is to pause before you purchase. And the reason that you're going to pause is because you want to think about, first of all, is this a need? Is it a want?
00:03:28
Speaker
How much money do I have in order to afford whatever I'm going to purchase? And then what is the return that I'm going to receive from this purchase? So those four things are going to contribute to helping us make better purchasing decisions. And that last one, what is your return, is going to help you to understand whether you're purchasing something for an emotional return, a true emotional return.
00:03:53
Speaker
or if you're purchasing something that's going to give you a financial return, which would be some interest.
00:04:00
Speaker
So what you're saying is that the fire selfie look is not a good return on my investment when spending money. We have a lot of people who are trying to look good, but not actually be secure on paper with the social media overwhelm that's kind of going on right now. What do you say to people who are more concerned about what their brand looks like than what their brand can actually purchase?
00:04:29
Speaker
The thing is that if you put your looks ahead of your budget and you end up putting yourself in the red, then you're not going to have a budget to maintain your business. So that's not a good look. I'm snapping my fingers over here. It's about being able to find balance.
00:04:51
Speaker
You know, are you able to manage your money in a way so that you have the things that you need and you're able to enjoy the things that you want?
00:05:01
Speaker
See, oftentimes what actually happens when we're emotionally spending is we're trying to fill a hole. We're trying to fill an emotional need. And if we don't have the money to handle that or to manage that, or we haven't budgeted it in advance, you know, like if you give yourself an allowance of money that you have to spend available each week, then you're fine. You already know what's available and you can go ahead and spend your money. And that is caring for yourself.
00:05:28
Speaker
But if you don't have the money or you don't know what money you have available and you go and spend the money anyway, then you're going to end up looking at an overdraft in your account, insufficient funds for something else that you needed to meet in your budget, you know, or just, and when that happens, you end up putting yourself at an emotional deficit. So,
Starting the Financial Journey
00:05:54
Speaker
You not only have hurt yourself financially based on your budget, but now you've hurt yourself emotionally because you feel the guilt and the shame and the judgment that goes along with that. Yes. Oh my goodness. So you were preaching right now. So what advice?
00:06:12
Speaker
do you give to a person who is starting over? There are people who just decide maybe from listening to this podcast that, you know what? You're right. I would like to start from scratch and be more responsible with my money. What steps would you tell them to take or what resources would you guide them to? Okay. Well, the first thing they can do is reach out to me at my website. That's www.marimorlife.com and fill out the contact form.
00:06:40
Speaker
By filling out that contact form, then that will put them in touch with me. We'll set up a clarity connection for 30 minutes where I will be able to find out what their financial interest is. In that process, I'm able to introduce them to what I call transform your mind and transform your money to thrive. And that program is a 21 day change. Now, most often you'll hear about 21 day challenges, you know, 21 day, you know,
00:07:09
Speaker
challenges that people are putting on. And the reason why it's 21 days is because it's been studied and statistics show that it takes 21 days to change a habit or to form a new habit. And so in 21 days, what I'm able to do is to help people to form new habits in the way that they think about their personal finances, their family finances, as well as their business or career finances.
00:07:38
Speaker
And in that process, create a routine so that they will be able to manage their money better on a regular basis. Now that's amazing. So you're offering a 21 day challenge to help people get their lives together. That is fantastic. And thank you for doing that work because in.
00:07:56
Speaker
my family growing up, we talked about finances, but I think that right now a lot of families aren't discussing finances. And now that we're in this pandemic situation nationwide, people are starting to open up a little bit more about their financial situations and admitting that they're not where they want it to be at this time this year. What do you say to someone who may have had a loss of revenue because of the pivots that needed to be taken
00:08:23
Speaker
How do you let them know that they can regain some of their finances or what's the best way to recoup some of their finances that they may have lost because there aren't any outdoor interactions where they may have made sales? Well, the difference right now is when you've taken a loss based on your projections, then you really have to kind of scale back and my suggestion is to
00:08:47
Speaker
initially even when you're making projections of what you expect to earn to simplify. So the greatest example I have from my personal experience is having survived Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. I went from living my regular life, working and being able to provide for my family on one day and within 36 hours, everything on the island had been destroyed and there was nothing.
00:09:17
Speaker
life had completely changed, but it wasn't just for me, it was for everyone who had experienced it. The challenge comes in when you don't have the money or the financial resources available to support that kind of devastation or that kind of trauma. Then a panic may set in because of scarcity. And that is, unfortunately, the majority of people.
00:09:42
Speaker
on the smaller scale where there are people who actually have earned enough money to not only be able to meet their required bill payments and to meet the needs for their families, but then also to have a savings or resource that they could go to, even if it's having good credit so that they would be able to use a credit card to handle certain emergency emergency circumstances, then they have another level of confidence because now there isn't that scarcity mindset that sets in for them.
00:10:13
Speaker
And so what I recommend for people to do is to just think about, you know, what are their needs versus their wants. And when they initially established their budget to make sure that they are simplifying to the point that everything they actually need is taken care of. And then they can see how much money they need or they want to have.
00:10:35
Speaker
for the things that are additional. Well, one, I want to congratulate you for rebuilding after the loss of what you were used to, Dora Maria, because that was a horrible period, and thank you for your honesty about that. My question for you is, in your journey, when did you realize you wanted to be a financial consultant and help people to live their best lives?
Kavette's Path to Financial Consulting
00:10:59
Speaker
I decided I wanted to become a financial consultant
00:11:05
Speaker
way back in, you know, in the, went in college because I actually, I changed my major the first three times in my first year. And I went from business management because I, I've always had the dream, even as a teenager of becoming an entrepreneur. And even back then I had several business plans that I was working on developing for different businesses that I wanted to own. And so in college, I knew I needed to have, you know, some education that would support me being able to
00:11:35
Speaker
create these plans into a reality. And so I went for business management and then within a couple of months I changed to business administration because I felt like that would give me a stronger foundation. And then a friend of mine from high school who went to same college approached me about a new major that had become available at Morgan State University, which was the finance major. And so I switched over to the finance major, you know, under his mentorship and guidance, and I was able to
00:12:05
Speaker
really find more strength in knowledge as well as in experience because I was able to establish a internship that I worked for four years while I was in college and it gave me a variety of experience in order to kind of make some choices about where I wanted to move in the financial services industry.
00:12:28
Speaker
I decided that I didn't want to be on the corporate side based on some of the experiences that I had. But I already knew that because entrepreneurship was always my goal. And so becoming an entrepreneur, even as early as 1998, when I started my very first business,
00:12:44
Speaker
was essential for me. And that was when I was still in college, because it was the beginning stages of me being able to create the dream. But my dream was being able to create a more pleasant life experience, even for others.
00:13:02
Speaker
So initially, I didn't start off working directly in financial services, but I thought that financial services and my financial education would help me in growing my business. Actually, it was in 2010 that I entered financial services as a life insurance agent.
The Role of Life Insurance
00:13:19
Speaker
And when I became a life insurance agent, it really changed my perspective in being able to understand how it is necessary for us to plan for our lives in advance.
00:13:32
Speaker
And not just for death, but for life. Because for decades and even a century, many people had thought life insurance was only for a death benefit. In the recent decades, life insurance has transformed completely. And there are so many living benefits with life insurance nowadays.
00:13:55
Speaker
that you're able to use a life insurance policy when you get sick for disability, for retirement planning. You can even use life insurance policies for college.
00:14:06
Speaker
or education planning expenses for mortgage protection and asset protection. And so understanding how these financial vehicles can drive us in the right direction is absolutely essential for us being able to have a beneficial journey so that we're able to continue to grow in our lives, but not only to grow for ourselves, but to grow for future generations.
00:14:33
Speaker
I love that because, okay, so it is very interesting to me that you just mentioned the life insurance piece because so many people have go fund me's when devastating event and you know, loss of life is a serious matter.
00:14:50
Speaker
And I realized after watching so many people have GoFundMe's for their families passing that growing up, my grandmother instilled in us that we need to have some sort of life insurance policy to make sure that our ending times, we don't need to put our hand out for anything.
00:15:09
Speaker
You know, I know that the cost of life insurance for some is very high based on pre-existing conditions and things of that nature. But what is a good way to get someone motivated to start looking into life insurance? I mean, as I'm approaching 40, this is a real thing that people really should have all of their adult lives but don't. How do you tell someone, or you know, how do I just have a regular conversation with a girlfriend and say, hey girl, you got life insurance?
00:15:40
Speaker
Absolutely, yeah. It's not something that comes across the kitchen table as often as it should, especially in our community. In other communities, these topics are discussed on a regular basis. And so you see that there's a greater level of protection and security because of it.
00:15:56
Speaker
In our community, that's exactly what we gotta do. We gotta say, hey girl, you got life insurance? Are you covered? What's gonna happen to your baby if you're not here tomorrow? Who's gonna take that baby? And the reason for that is because in so many situations, things don't turn out how we expect them to unless we have planned properly.
00:16:17
Speaker
for things to transpire in that way. And I can give you two illustrations of that. The first one would be a colleague of mine who was working with a girlfriend of hers for many years, talking to her about life insurance and putting together quotes. And her girlfriend just kept putting it off and putting it off. Unfortunately, she went to an event where her girlfriend was supposed to meet her and the girlfriend never showed up. She found out later from a relative that her girlfriend passed away that morning.
00:16:46
Speaker
before she could make it to the event. The problem is that her girlfriend had a young daughter. I think she was between the ages of seven and nine at that time. And there were no family members who were financially able to take responsibility for her daughter. And so her daughter ended up going into the state foster care system. Devastating. You can only imagine.
00:17:12
Speaker
I mean, she, she not only lost her mom, but now she lost her home. She lost her family. And now she's in this strange place, you know, with strange people who don't care for her the way that someone who, not the way that her mother would have cared for her. Right. And certainly we know that that's not what her mom would have wanted to happen to her.
00:17:33
Speaker
The challenge is that she did not just say, okay, let me just prepare this now, you know, because it is serious enough. I want to make sure that my daughter is going to have a place to live. She assumed that a family member would take her.
00:17:46
Speaker
I think we all do. We all assume. Yeah, absolutely. But it's unfortunate because a child costs money. Yes. And if you don't have the money to raise that child, there are certain circumstances where you have to make a choice. It's like, okay, am I going to now
00:18:06
Speaker
She had a sister who also had a daughter, but her sister was in a situation where she was just getting by taking care of her own daughter. And she's like, okay, well, what am I gonna do now? Take from my own daughter in order to give to my niece. I love my niece, but my responsibility is to my own child. And so that's the decision that she had to make. And we can't judge her because it's her decision to make. And there were no circumstances or no provisions
00:18:35
Speaker
set in place to make that an easier decision for her. If her sister had had that life insurance policy, then she could have easily had enough money for, you know, caring for her on a monthly basis, as well as enough money to grow for her college education in the future and to get her set off when she finished college to get her started in life.
00:18:59
Speaker
That's what a life insurance policy can do for us. It is the difference between leaving a legacy of generational wealth or generational debt. Well, you know what? That's a word. That's a lot. The second situation is actually my own situation. And that was what brought me back to financial services.
Personal Financial Struggles
00:19:22
Speaker
I actually left the financial services industry in 2012. I moved out of the country 2013, which is why I ended up in Puerto Rico, lived there, you know, and enjoyed life in Puerto Rico on the island for five and a half years. And then my father passed away in December of 2018. Sorry for your loss. Thank you so much. That transformed my life in the fact that now I was not
00:19:49
Speaker
able to continue living on the island the way that I had because then I had to come back to the States and support my sister in caring for his final affairs. We had to plan for his funeral and everything first.
00:20:01
Speaker
And then we had to handle his final affairs, including the things that people don't think about what happens when you die. So we had to handle his funeral expenses initially. Unfortunately, I had put myself in a position where I didn't have any money. I didn't even have enough money to contribute to my father's funeral at that time.
00:20:27
Speaker
It was because of the situation that I had allowed myself to be in where I was with a partner who did not have the same respect for money that I have and did not see the need to have a savings account, did not see the need to preserve some finances for protection in case of an emergency.
00:20:50
Speaker
And in case of emergency is when, not if, because we know that something is always going to happen. The question is whether or not we're going to be prepared to handle it.
00:21:00
Speaker
yes no thank you for that because i'll tell you it really it's really crazy right now and especially i mean here we are in the middle of a pandemic people who had amazing jobs five months ago have you know had you know i've been on the phone with friends talking them through how to get unemployment never had to file for unemployment before i don't know about unemployment but we had to call people and you know i think it's been a very humbling experience for people to say oh
00:21:29
Speaker
I've never navigated the world of unemployment before. How do we do this? And we call someone and they help us. And it's a wealth of resources out here.
00:21:39
Speaker
If we are right now in a time where we're watching our friends go through these things, we need to start preparing to make sure we're not going to go through these things. And you know, I'm a divorced mom and divorce is not easy. So having to realize that some of these, these, these plans have to be in place.
00:22:01
Speaker
we have to have a plan in place because who's to say the person that you were gonna rely on is able to help you. We have to have a plan in place, we have to. Absolutely, and I'm so glad you mentioned that. Absolutely, we do. And you mentioned a couple of things that are so poignant at this time. First of all, the fact that you were able to, even without your own experience in unemployment, to support your friends who now needed to go through that process,
00:22:31
Speaker
in getting the information that they needed to support themselves. What often happens, and we don't realize it, is that when we're involved in a trauma, and COVID-19 has been a global trauma, nonetheless, that we are not able, as human beings, we have been designed to care for other people. And I say that, I mean, if you even just look at our physical design,
00:22:58
Speaker
We can't see ourselves. When we look out, we see the world around us and all the other people that are existing there. The only time we can see ourselves is when we look in the mirror. So we're able to help other people easier than we're able to help ourselves. What that means is that when we experience a trauma, we need help. We need someone who's going to guide us, educate us first, then guide us, and then support us.
00:23:27
Speaker
through the process so that we're able to get the things that we need for ourselves. Because what we'll do is we will look out for other people more so than we'll look out for ourselves, but it's just by design. That's who we are. And that's an amazing thing. It means that we are interdependent on one another. The second thing you mentioned was that you're a divorced single mom.
00:23:53
Speaker
And I can relate to that because I'm actually in the middle of a divorce myself right now. And it was the death of my father that really pulled me out of an abusive situation that I didn't realize was as abusive as it was until I was able to get out.
00:24:14
Speaker
It was like when I left the environment, then the veil was lifted. And that's another reason why we can't see ourselves. If we have a friend or family member that we know is dealing with a traumatic or abusive situation, we need to not just sit back and say, oh, well, she's got to do that for herself. Because you know what? She's not going to be able to.
00:24:40
Speaker
It's just the way that we're designed. We need someone else to be able to see that, to reach out to us.
Recognizing Financial Abuse
00:24:46
Speaker
Initially, we may resist. Why? Because we can't see it. But that person lovingly is persistent and consistent with sharing the encouragement that we need, not badgering, not judging, not shaming, not trying to force someone to do something, but lovingly encouraging her to recognize
00:25:09
Speaker
the situation that she's in by looking at other positive situations and saying, you know what, this is what it should look like. Does your situation look like that? You know, because those were the first keys that really helped me to kind of see, Oh, wait a minute. That's what it should look like. Um, that's not happening here. You know, what, what, what do I need to change in order for my life to look more like that?
00:25:34
Speaker
more like what I want. And that's when we're able to make those decisions and to build our confidence and to take back our power. You know, you're absolutely right. We, you just said a whole lot right there because we are programmed to take care of each other, like you said, and the finances, women struggle the most post divorce than the male race.
00:26:03
Speaker
And we have got to do a better job of uplifting each other when people are going through these types of situations. So being financially responsible, regardless what you're going through, is the best way to do better. And I wish I knew a number of years ago that I needed to do better. And I do. I'm trying to do better. I think every day.
00:26:25
Speaker
is a goal. We have to do a better thing. No thank you for this information because right now I'm sitting here like I wasn't ready for that. So you know we have to be very honest and we have to get very clear on what we want to have. My goal is you know we have goals we set them out we make them plain
00:26:44
Speaker
And you know, I've decided that I have to do better. So thank you for this because I'm like, you're the next person you're going to see in your little email list is me. Sign up for the 21 way update because we all need to, you know, do a financial cleanup and we don't have to wait until the end of the year, until a new year to start being responsible. Every day is the beginning of a new day for me. And so it's like, let's start from scratch and let's forgive ourselves for our past, not knowing, and let's hire experts that can help us move forward.
00:27:14
Speaker
Absolutely. And you said two things that were absolutely key in this process. First of all, forgiving ourselves without forgiveness and without forgiving ourselves first. One of the things that I realized I had to do was forgive myself for allowing myself to be in this situation.
00:27:32
Speaker
And I did that because when we blame somebody else for things that happened to us, then we're not taking responsibility for the choices that we made to get into the situation. At the same time, we also put ourselves at a detriment because we're not able to take responsibility for the activities that are going to be required to get us out of it. We're giving people our power. Absolutely.
00:28:01
Speaker
Absolutely. And we cannot, if you're healing, you can't give your healing to somebody else. You just can't. Absolutely. So we have to take that responsibility and having an accountability partner is the best way has been proven to be the best way to take on that responsibility and to build your confidence and to continue moving forward, even when you don't feel like it. You know, um, and so that's, that's why I do what I do because I recognize that
00:28:30
Speaker
There have been three major traumas for me in the last three years of my life. And that is coming up on the anniversary of the Hurricane Maria, September 20th of this year, 2020. And so the first one now obviously is disaster, which was a major trauma. The second was the death of my father, which was a major trauma for me. And the third was,
00:29:00
Speaker
even right on top of that, right after the death of my father, going through this divorce. It's amazing what death will reveal for you about your living relationships. It is amazing. Yes, it will. No, trust me. You're preaching to the choir. I got divorced shortly after my grandmother passed. Oh, wow. And people revealed themselves in times of grief and trauma. Yes.
00:29:27
Speaker
Absolutely. And we have to pay attention. I love how Oprah quotes Maya Angelou and she says, when people show you who they are, believe them. Every day. The first time. She said, not the 29th, not the 30th, believe them the first time. Well, you know, and a lot of people, because we are in, you know, financial entanglements with this other person. Yeah. So it is very hard and people don't understand
00:29:56
Speaker
girl just lead that person. It sounds really good on paper and it sounds really good in the Tyler Perry movie, but in real life.
00:30:05
Speaker
You know, financial money, money situations are real. And a lot of people, even though they feel like they're an independent woman, you know, a lot of households, women still let their husbands take care of the finances because that's what we were taught because leave it to maneuver and all of that stuff said, this is what happens in a family. So no, we have to wait. Women have got to say, this is my role in my financial future, regardless if we're married or not.
Women's Financial Roles in Relationships
00:30:32
Speaker
Take those steps to move forward so we can be financially free not that we're preparing to leave our husbands if you're happily married listener send me your husband that we need to have more active rules and understanding our financial situations.
00:30:48
Speaker
and prepare for our futures. It's a lot of people right now that I work with that can't retire because they were living on the environment. And while they were turning up for 60 years, they hadn't saved a penny for their retirement. Yeah. And that's a critical place to be. When you think about
00:31:06
Speaker
That's one of the things I think that divorce has made more prevalent in my mind is recognizing, first of all, how easy it is to get married. You just go down and you pay for your marriage license and you're done pretty much. You sign up documents and you're done. In the process of divorce, there is so much more paperwork. There is so much more to consider. There are documents that you have to complete and
00:31:35
Speaker
assets that you have to consider. I think recently one of the most outstanding articles that I read was one about Beyonce and Jay-Z concerning how they revisited the prenuptial agreement that they had originally set out when they got married. And I said, and I thought to myself, as I was beginning this separation and divorce process, I thought to myself, man, how smart would that have been when I first got married?
00:32:03
Speaker
to have been able to sit down with my husband and to identify what our goals were financially, where we wanted to be, what we plan to do with children if we had children and we do have one child. And that complicates things for a lot of those independent women because what happens when you have a child is now you're responsible for a whole other human being and their wellbeing. And you want to make sure that you're putting them in the best position, not just for survival, but to thrive.
00:32:33
Speaker
And what I'm finding by talking to a group of women, I mean, I have friends who are in various stages of divorce and people seek me as a resource. And I'm like, well, first of all, honey, where's your attorney? Right. Because I did a lot of this on my own thinking I'm a smart person. I got this. And I will be honest with you, the court system in Maryland, I don't know what area where you're getting divorce.
00:33:01
Speaker
This is a horrible place to get divorced. And without legal assistance, a lot of people are screwing themselves. And a lot of people are just showing up in court, raw and bare emotion, not realizing that when you get to court, you are now telling all your family business in front of a room full of people who don't know you.
00:33:24
Speaker
And so there is no closed court for divorce court. You're heard in a room full of however many people are waiting so they can go next. And it is embarrassing to tell all your business. And the judge is sitting there looking at me like, ooh, girl, it's time for y'all. I remember y'all from last time, y'all have a good case.
00:33:47
Speaker
Your divorce will be everybody's business and in the same time you have to protect your business because now you are the CEO of your own finances. Absolutely. And you coming on right now talking about this is something someone needs to hear because
00:34:06
Speaker
Money is real and to float around like it isn't, we have got to do better. And you know, I know I see a lot of people talking about let's manifest and I like manifesting whatever my goals are as well, but I have to plan and make action in place. Absolutely. That is what manifestation is. If people realize it is the process of planning. If you don't have a plan, then you can't focus on what you're going to do with your money when you get it. And the thing is that just like that money came, it will leave you.
00:34:35
Speaker
And so the manifestation was a waste of your time. Sometimes the universe is like, well, you know what? I gave you the steps. You still playing on Instagram. Let me let the person you watching on Instagram get what you thought you wanted. Right. And so now you can feel some kind of way. And perhaps maybe this dream or this opportunity will come back to you. Because opportunity sometimes only knocks once.
00:35:04
Speaker
So, you know, we have got to get clear on what this looks like for us. So we can have really, really pretty brands. And it's a lot of celebrities right now coming out talking about how the pandemic has messed up their money. So if we had millionaires and thousandaires talking about this, then we need to, as regular lay people, get our finances in order and figure out what's next for us and our moves and, you know,
00:35:33
Speaker
that multiple stream of income and keep it going. Absolutely. See Bree, it's only with a plan that we will be able to keep our focus, to keep our minds open and what you pointed out about manifestation that we will actually create the reality that we want. The thing is that if we don't have a plan, then we won't even be focused enough to see the opportunities that are right in front of our face.
00:35:57
Speaker
And I say that based on this illustration. So you know what happens when somebody goes to get a new car, right? All of a sudden they drive off the dealer's lot and everybody else on the planet seems like they have the same exact car.
00:36:13
Speaker
You know, say maybe you got a red Camaro, you know, and now all of a sudden you see a red Camaro to your left, a red Camaro to your right. You see your neighbor has a regular, like, why did they go and get one? Cause I got one. No, no, no. They already had one. The thing was that you weren't focused on that red Camaro until it belonged to you. So you didn't see it. It's the same way with opportunity. Opportunities are constantly in front of us. They are around us abundantly.
00:36:43
Speaker
The question is whether or not we are in a position to be able to see them. If we have a plan that has focused us enough so that when those opportunities cross our path, we're able to take advantage of them and that's where we need to be prepared. So that's what I help my clients to do. I help them to start from the very beginning and I educate them.
00:37:07
Speaker
You know, it's this, this help is not just, you know, Oh, you need to be financially literate, you know, Oh, read this book and you're done. You know, financial education is a lifetime process for us because at different stages in our lives, our finances are going to grow in different ways. And sometimes we'll need to pull back and sometimes we'll need to take more risk and sometimes we'll need to just balance out.
00:37:33
Speaker
You know, and so being, being conscious though of where we are in life, where we're going in life and the opportunities that are in front of us will make us conscious so that we will be prepared to take advantage of what opportunities are available so that we can stay positive in our outlook, so that we can stay productive in our activity and progressive overall. That's all anybody wants.
Wealth vs Income
00:37:59
Speaker
is to continue to feel like they're making progress in their lives. And the thing is to not measure that based on dollars. What I've grown to understand is that wealth is not money. You know, wealth is not measured by money. Wealth is measured by money management.
00:38:22
Speaker
but not by the amount of money. And I say that because you can have a million dollars and be broke. If you're living paycheck to paycheck because you're spending every dime that you get, as soon as you get it, you're just broke on a higher level. That does not make you wealthy. Now you've got a lot of money, but that doesn't make you wealthy. At the same token, someone with a minimal income
00:38:46
Speaker
$30,000 to $40,000 a year could be absolutely wealthy because they're living within their means, they are taking care of their needs, and they have decided to set aside money for their wants. Whether that be an immediate want or if they are able to determine that they're going to express some self-control and prepare for their future wants. Now, with everything you have going on, because you are
00:39:15
Speaker
You are going to be out here. Let me tell you something. You're about to be real busy in a couple of weeks. Absolutely. Before you're going to be extra busy now, because we have to start preparing. 2020 has showed us its entire behind. Right. And we have got to say, all right, look, 2021, we ain't doing this no more. I have been
00:39:39
Speaker
you know i've had a good job where it's like okay i have this great job and then one day you're told okay don't report the work and you're like wait a minute now i ain't do nothing wrong but you have to say okay how in the future do i prepare for never to go through this again and just like you have the trauma of i don't want a bad relationship again you need to say i don't want a bad financial relationship again
00:40:03
Speaker
So I thank you for, you know, making me say first thing in the morning. Y'all we recording first thing in the morning. I don't record before 10 o'clock. Typically. I don't even, that this time is gone. I'm trying to do a better job of managing my time and saying, okay, you know what? If you don't get up into this time, you have got to get up and do the things that you said you need to do.
00:40:32
Speaker
And so thank you for holding me accountable to that because we have to have, like you said, accountability partners. We need to set goals. We need to have plans in place. What are our future plans? What am I going to happen to my kids? What, you know, now I'm sitting here like, is my will still good? Let me go pull my will document and, you know, double check some things because when you have children and you are divorced and
00:40:59
Speaker
You know, you're thinking, okay, well, just their father just going to take care of them. That may not necessarily be the case. You know, he may have had a new life in store and like, Oh, you know, I'm my new wife. Don't want me to handle kids. Wait a minute. What? I've seen these things happen where people just do what they want to do. So, you know, and I'm sitting here like, okay, I got to sit down and rethink this, but rethink that. So like I said, I'm about to join your 21 Dave challenge. So thank you for offering that. Thank you for joining. And so,
00:41:28
Speaker
Where can I tell my listeners to find you, to learn more about you? You can find me on social media at Facebook, Instagram, on Twitter, as well as on YouTube and LinkedIn. And what is the, spell out the name of your company for me? My company is Mari More Life. It's M as in Mary, A, R, I, M as in Mary, O, R,
00:41:58
Speaker
L I F is in Frank E and it's more and more life.com as well as more and more life on all of the handles on those platforms. Excellent. So what will happen is all of your links will be placed in the show notes and on the website. Thank you.
00:42:17
Speaker
No but thank you so much for coming and talking to us and talking some financial life into our situations. I hope that this has blessed someone and if you have any questions and want to talk about the show please send a message to hello at fabulousfuckery.com or on any of our social media platforms at FabSuckery. Have a wonderful day and we'll talk soon. You take care, have a great day. Thank you.