Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Hey, family, you know I
Speaker 1: love you and I got a question for you, maybe
Speaker 1: two questions. Do you feel like you're working just to
Speaker 1: pay off your credit cards? Do you feel like you
Speaker 1: live in paycheck to paycheck? Or have you wanted to invest?
Speaker 1: But it all sounds very confusing. Well, my next guest
Speaker 1: has all those answers for you coming up next on
Speaker 1: Checking In. Okay, y'all, I'm so excited about today's guests.
Speaker 1: We had been dming each other on Instagram for a
Speaker 1: while saying when you're gonna come on checking In or
Speaker 1: I've got to meet you. She is a sought after
Speaker 1: financial consultant and expert for shows like The Table, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Radio Business Insider. She's also an author, podcaster, educator, and
Speaker 1: yes she's a mama of three. Please welcome Brakel Curtis
Speaker 1: to Checking In.
Speaker 2: Hey, Michelle oh Man, that intro I was like, who's
Speaker 2: that honey?
Speaker 1: Listen and y'all she you might really know her as
Speaker 1: the Bougie Banker, which was definitely a catchy name on Instagram.
Speaker 1: I followed her immediately because there was something that she
Speaker 1: posted that was on the explore page, and it seems
Speaker 1: like we follow some of the same mutual good people.
Speaker 1: So I was like, Okay, I know we're gonna be
Speaker 1: in great company with each other.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm so excited to be here. When you followed me,
Speaker 2: I had to check out, like wait a minute, hold on, Michelle.
Speaker 2: So I'm just so excited. I called my mama immediately.
Speaker 1: Please, hey, mama. We started following each other because during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, the whole crypto and four X thing became
Speaker 1: something very popular, and I began following you because you
Speaker 1: were so educational. And there's a disclaimer, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: Yes she is a financial consultant, but you must speak
Speaker 1: with your own advisor because what she's gonna say to
Speaker 1: you are suggestions and not necessarily advice. So what I
Speaker 1: liked on your Instagram page, Raquel, was that you had
Speaker 1: great suggestions about banking, investment, and crypto and at that
Speaker 1: time for X can be considered an investment. So I
Speaker 1: began following you for some education and all that good stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad I did. So how did you get
Speaker 1: started in the field of consulting in the area of financing.
Speaker 2: This is a very long story of being broke. So originally,
Speaker 2: you know, I went to school with Sabanna State University,
Speaker 2: graduated with a degree in criminal justice, and I went
Speaker 2: on to become a directional officer. Now this entire time,
Speaker 2: I was like, that's my field. We had to take
Speaker 2: one semester of math. I'm good. And that's exactly where
Speaker 2: I stayed up until I was pregnant with my now
Speaker 2: ten year olds and a fight that broke out between
Speaker 2: two inmates, and in that moment I was thinking about
Speaker 2: doing my job and I ran to go break up
Speaker 2: the fight. One of the inmates fell on my stomach.
Speaker 2: I was placed on bed rest for the duration of
Speaker 2: that pregnancy, and then when she was born, you know,
Speaker 2: we didn't have a lot of money, and so I
Speaker 2: became a stay at home mom. So during that time,
Speaker 2: you know, obviously I loved my children, obviously, you know,
Speaker 2: I love that whole dynamic. But I really felt like
Speaker 2: I worked too hard not to feel myself grow as
Speaker 2: an individual anymore. So since we couldn't afford to send
Speaker 2: my daughter to childcare, I just got a job at
Speaker 2: the local daycare. I was making seven dollars and twenty
Speaker 2: five cents an hour and with a degree that was
Speaker 2: kind of hard to swallow over. But to do what
Speaker 2: you have to do. And I started paying attention to
Speaker 2: what management was doing, what the owners were doing, and
Speaker 2: I was like, you know what, you can figure this out.
Speaker 2: You're smart enough. So I started taking CDA classes, so
Speaker 2: just childhood certification classes on the weekend. And then I
Speaker 2: started watching people's children, which eventually bled into it being
Speaker 2: its own in home daycare. Now this point, I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh wow, I'm like doing the entrepreneur thing. This is great.
Speaker 2: But I was learning business and a few things transpired
Speaker 2: just with my family, and so I ended up closing
Speaker 2: down my daycare. A few years later, my youngest was born,
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm five to nine. I have an
Speaker 2: athletic build, so I think she was born. People were
Speaker 2: asking me, how did you snap back so quick? Says
Speaker 2: this year break. My daughters burned on July first, my
Speaker 2: brother's lack fifteen. How did you snap back so quick?
Speaker 2: And I have all of this experience from being a
Speaker 2: collegiate athlete, played basketball, ran track my whole life. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I can train them to help them get
Speaker 2: into shape. You know I could do this, So I
Speaker 2: started helping people, and I realized that I enjoyed it
Speaker 2: and I was doing very well at it. So I
Speaker 2: got my certification to be a personal trainer a few
Speaker 2: months after that. About six months after that, I opened
Speaker 2: the first women's only gym with childcare in my city,
Speaker 2: and so everything was going great.
Speaker 1: Way wait wait, wait, wait, the first gym with childcare
Speaker 1: in your city. And what city is this?
Speaker 2: This is Comington, Georgia. Wow, in the country, in the stix.
Speaker 2: So you know, I had seven employees, seventeen hundred square
Speaker 2: foot building. And then unfortunately, one day I was headed
Speaker 2: home and this older gentleman ran a red light. He
Speaker 2: t bowed my vehicle. I was putting in a neck
Speaker 2: brace for about six months. I had over sixteen spital injections.
Speaker 2: At that point, I could not work or work out
Speaker 2: for a year. So all of the hard work, all
Speaker 2: of the funds that I put into that space, I
Speaker 2: watched my accounts dream completely into the negative MM most
Speaker 2: of them closed out in the red. And so I
Speaker 2: was in a season to where you know, we had
Speaker 2: two income earner expenses on one source of income. We
Speaker 2: needed food stamps, couldn't qualify for them. You know, we
Speaker 2: were having conversations with each other like did you eat
Speaker 2: And he'd be like yeah, and he didn't eat, and
Speaker 2: he'd ask me and I didn't eat. But we made
Speaker 2: sure that food. And you know, maybe there was places
Speaker 2: where we could have reached out to, but there's a
Speaker 2: certain level of pride and ego that really came into
Speaker 2: that at the time, and you just didn't want people
Speaker 2: to know what was going on, you know. And so
Speaker 2: eventually I was able to go back to work, and
Speaker 2: what I realized I was doing. I was working at
Speaker 2: FedEx overnight, I was working at the front desk of
Speaker 2: a hotel during the day, and I was selling life insurance.
Speaker 2: And so I'm doing all this hustling and grinding and
Speaker 2: getting it and I'm realizing the entire time, I'm working
Speaker 2: this hard and nothing is coming out of it because
Speaker 2: I'm continuing to chase what that lifestyle looked like from
Speaker 2: being a business owner opposed to actually building wealth or
Speaker 2: even starting to build wealth, or what building wealth looked like.
Speaker 2: So how I ended up becoming a banker was you know,
Speaker 2: I had to have a hard look at myself because
Speaker 2: we were still living paycheck to paycheck even though we
Speaker 2: both were working, and things just were going south fast.
Speaker 2: So eventually it was just myself and my girls, and
Speaker 2: I had to have a hard look at my life
Speaker 2: and say, you know, is just the life that I
Speaker 2: want for my daughters And it wasn't. So I started
Speaker 2: watching YouTube videos, downloading templates, you know, trying to do
Speaker 2: everything that YouTube said I should do, and a budget worked.
Speaker 2: The templates worked for about two weeks and my two weeks,
Speaker 2: and as soon as life would happen, I would go
Speaker 2: right back to the same habits and behaviors that caused
Speaker 2: me to be broke the first time, you know. So
Speaker 2: I looked at my babies and I said, something's got
Speaker 2: to change. I started asking myself some really hard questions
Speaker 2: around money that had to do with my relationship and
Speaker 2: not the numbers. That point when I changed what that
Speaker 2: conversation looked like with myself, When I started checking in
Speaker 2: with myself.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on.
Speaker 2: Checking in with myself, I was really able to change that.
Speaker 2: I started to build learn study about financial literacy. I
Speaker 2: started to study investments. I started to get around people,
Speaker 2: places and things that spoke like and I was able
Speaker 2: to change from having closed out bank accounts to having,
Speaker 2: you know, multiple five figure investment portfolios, multiple five figure
Speaker 2: savings accounts, and at this point in time, I'm still hustling,
Speaker 2: I'm still getting I'm working these multiple jobs. And my
Speaker 2: best friend was a banker. She said, you know, you've
Speaker 2: gotten really good with money. Have you thought about taking
Speaker 2: this on as a career.
Speaker 1: Thanks? Friend. What's your friend's name, Lisa?
Speaker 2: Thank you girl, thankless. So I became a banker, and
Speaker 2: it was literally the best thing that could have ever
Speaker 2: happened to me. At this point in time, I had
Speaker 2: gone through so many up and down swings with money,
Speaker 2: and I'd finally gotten it together. So when people were
Speaker 2: sitting with me, I wasn't just opening accounts, I wasn't
Speaker 2: just getting credit cards for them. I was looking at
Speaker 2: the red in their account and I saw myself. So
Speaker 2: I started helping them build budgets that was holding them
Speaker 2: accountable to their budget. And I thought that this is
Speaker 2: my like, this is where I'm supposed to be, you know,
Speaker 2: And I wanted to climb that corporate ladder. But unfortunately,
Speaker 2: or fortunately, December third of twenty twenty, I walked into work.
Speaker 2: My manager let me know that due to the pandemic.
Speaker 2: They had to make some decisions and they had to
Speaker 2: let me go, and they let go of three bankers
Speaker 2: in my branch. They let go of thousands of bankers
Speaker 2: company wide. And I felt myself in that same position again,
Speaker 2: like I don't want to lose everything I just built.
Speaker 2: I worked so hard for it. So I leaned on
Speaker 2: my experiences from the past and being entrepreneur with my
Speaker 2: newfound knowledge of money management, and I said, you know what,
Speaker 2: I just want to help people. That's all I want
Speaker 2: to do is just continue to help people. So between
Speaker 2: December third and twenty twenty and today my book has sold.
Speaker 2: I wrote a book. I'm a first time authored. My
Speaker 2: book has sold in seven countries and it's dealing with
Speaker 2: their relationship with money.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is called Living Bougie and Balanced, Mastering your
Speaker 1: Money mindset, and it.
Speaker 2: You know, it's almost sold in every state in the US,
Speaker 2: and I'm really grateful for that. You know, my brand
Speaker 2: operates in over thirty countries now and I really give
Speaker 2: it to the grace of God.
Speaker 1: Now do you think had you not been let go
Speaker 1: from your job, would you have done the book?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: The pandemic birthed millionaires entrepreneurs because it pushed people out.
Speaker 2: Of comfort zones. Yeah, I cried, snot knows boohoo, like
Speaker 2: bad my friends like cried all the way home. And
Speaker 2: then the next day I woke up and I was like,
Speaker 2: it's time to get to it. You have it's Christmas time, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I have dark Yeah, it's time to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And by the way, what you did is actually recommended,
Speaker 1: where you give yourself, depending on the situation, twenty four
Speaker 1: to forty eight hours to mourn something, and then after
Speaker 1: that you got to get up and start looking at solutions. Now,
Speaker 1: it's not to say after that seventy second hour or
Speaker 1: beyond that you still won't feel sad, But I'm so
Speaker 1: glad within those forty eight hours you was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wipe these tears. Yes, I'm sad. It's something
Speaker 1: called feeling your feelings, right, And I'm so glad that
Speaker 1: you literally got up. You got up, So yeah, I
Speaker 1: am so happy for you. Now, in your book, you
Speaker 1: dive into healing the underlying relationship with money that we
Speaker 1: tend to ignore it before focusing on the numbers. So
Speaker 1: where do most of the underlying issues come from.
Speaker 2: So I'm a firm believer that our thoughts, behaviors, actions,
Speaker 2: all of those things are shaped from our childhood and
Speaker 2: our environments that we grew up in. And what I
Speaker 2: love about Checking In is that in chapter four you
Speaker 2: talk about that, you talk about your childhood. And this
Speaker 2: is such a good book, by the way, I love it.
Speaker 2: Thank you, welcome, and I have it here highlighted. You said, so,
Speaker 2: when I reflect, I have to start with the relationships
Speaker 2: I had with my mom and my dad, and I
Speaker 2: have to ask myself some tough questions. You know, there's
Speaker 2: something that we are told is that be careful how
Speaker 2: you raise your children, because they will grow up dating
Speaker 2: someone just like you. You heard that before. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: so the same thing happens with your relationship with money.
Speaker 2: So if you grew up in an abusive household right
Speaker 2: where let's just say it's verbally abusive, and you're constantly
Speaker 2: told you're stupid and that you know you're ugly or
Speaker 2: what have you, just all these derogatory things, the meaning
Speaker 2: things that you're told. When you start dating the person
Speaker 2: that you date, if they call you stupid, you're not
Speaker 2: going to recognize that as a red flag. You're just
Speaker 2: gonna be like.
Speaker 1: You're familiar with trauma, you're familiar with abuse, so it
Speaker 1: looks like I belong here absolutely.
Speaker 2: And where that difference is if you're a child who
Speaker 2: grew up in a loving and supportive household where they say,
Speaker 2: you know, you're intelligent, you can do anything, you're so beautiful.
Speaker 2: Then when you grow up, if you come across that
Speaker 2: type of person that calls you stupid or they don't
Speaker 2: speak liking to you, you're a hold up. Hold up,
Speaker 2: that's that's not me because you recognize that as a
Speaker 2: red flag. The same thing happens with your relationship with money.
Speaker 2: If you grew up and all you saw was your
Speaker 2: parents worked super hard for that money and all they
Speaker 2: did was spend it, or they argued about money all
Speaker 2: the time, or they were constantly tired because they were
Speaker 2: working all the time and just never had any space
Speaker 2: to live and breed, chances are that you grew up
Speaker 2: reflecting some of those same habits with your relationship with money.
Speaker 1: Wow, so how you saw your parents handle money is
Speaker 1: possibly how you will handle money.
Speaker 2: Your parents or your environment, or some people grow up
Speaker 2: with their grandparents, how the people they look up to
Speaker 2: may not have been their mom and dad maybould have been.
Speaker 2: You know, ann to your uncle. It's your environment. It
Speaker 2: shapes you, your habits, your behaviors, your triggers, it shapes you.
Speaker 1: You are so right. I remember growing up my mother
Speaker 1: wanted us to make sure that we had good credit too,
Speaker 1: and she would always say, you don't want to not
Speaker 1: be able to get a lollipop on credit. She would
Speaker 1: always stress to us about good credit. And so to
Speaker 1: this day I have probably got every alert possible to credit.
Speaker 1: Or when you pay your credit card balances at a
Speaker 1: certain time, you know it can positively or negatively affect
Speaker 1: credit because of certain cycles with credit, and trust me,
Speaker 1: I remember that. I also remember seeing investment envelopes come
Speaker 1: to the house like my mother was investing, and that
Speaker 1: was so good to see. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: a lot of the arguments stemmed across money. That's really
Speaker 1: a relationship killer if compromise or resolution around finances is
Speaker 1: not quickly figured out.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and there's another one too. Have you heard as
Speaker 2: long as you have a roof over your head, closing
Speaker 2: your back and footing your stomach, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: Stay in a child's place, yep. So I just think
Speaker 2: it's so interesting that growing up, we're taught the Golden
Speaker 2: rule about how to treat others, but we're not taught
Speaker 2: the Golden rule about how to treat money, when that's
Speaker 2: literally what we need to survive. And so for most
Speaker 2: of us, our first relationship with money was when we
Speaker 2: were already in debt because we went to college got
Speaker 2: financial aid. And then now we're in adults. Who has
Speaker 2: a negative relationship with money out the gate because now
Speaker 2: we're trying to swim upstream.
Speaker 1: Y'all. If y'all are in college and you're on the yard,
Speaker 1: do not. I don't know it, but back in the day,
Speaker 1: every credit card company was on the yard, honey, and
Speaker 1: they after you fill out the application, you get a
Speaker 1: free bag of peanut eminems or a calculator. Stuff you
Speaker 1: stuff you need, don't you do it?
Speaker 2: They had to shut them down from doing that. That
Speaker 2: was like predatory lending practices.
Speaker 1: Really, so they did. So this was between the years
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven and nineteen ninety nine when I was
Speaker 1: in college. So it's good to know that they don't
Speaker 1: do that anymore.
Speaker 2: If I'm here and you redreate it, you know, they
Speaker 2: find their ways. I was eighteen with a credit score
Speaker 2: seven twenty and didn't know it. You know, I grew
Speaker 2: up in an environment where my mom worked extremely hard
Speaker 2: and I had the benefit of being a spoiled brat.
Speaker 2: But I had zero value attachment to money. And my grandfather,
Speaker 2: he you know, did what he did. And by the
Speaker 2: time I was eighteen, I had a credit score seven twenty.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what credit was. Wow, I got my
Speaker 2: first credit card and max it out on my boyfriend. Good.
Speaker 1: That's a whole other episode. You was being sugar mama.
Speaker 2: I was a whole sugar mama.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus God blessed. We won't hold it against you.
Speaker 1: We've all done some I won't say stupid unwise. I've
Speaker 1: done some unwise things as it relates to love, relationships
Speaker 1: and money. Now, because you talked about the underlying issues,
Speaker 1: sometimes those underlying issues can create certain triggers as it
Speaker 1: relates to money. What's one of the steps that you
Speaker 1: would suggest so that folks can start feeling more positive
Speaker 1: about money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the first thing you need to do to start
Speaker 2: feeling more positive about your relationship with money is to
Speaker 2: definitely have the hard conversation first and then when you
Speaker 2: identify what your triggers are, you'll be able to start
Speaker 2: developing healthy boundaries around those triggers. So identifying what your
Speaker 2: triggers are is key. We all have a reason why
Speaker 2: we impulsively spend our money, whether it's a positive reason
Speaker 2: or a negative reason. And it could be argued if
Speaker 2: your friends and family members are a positive reason or
Speaker 2: if they're a negative reason. But there's still reasons why
Speaker 2: we do it. And so you could say that I'm
Speaker 2: going to take some time and I'm going to write
Speaker 2: down every positive reason as to why I impulsively spend
Speaker 2: my money and then draw a line down the paper
Speaker 2: and on the opposite side, you're going to write every
Speaker 2: negative emotion that's attached to why you spend your money impulsible.
Speaker 2: So maybe if you're you know, stressed at work or exhausted,
Speaker 2: you know those are reasons why. Now how you get
Speaker 2: into a happier place with this is everything that's in
Speaker 2: the positive column, you need to factor it into your
Speaker 2: money management plan because you're gonna do it anyways. It
Speaker 2: makes you feel good. Everything that falls in the negative
Speaker 2: column you should write if then statements around if I
Speaker 2: am stressed, then my response is instead of I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go and shop on Amazon or Fashionova and have these
Speaker 2: temporary moments of joy and then feel guilty about spending
Speaker 2: the money anyway, right fact, you're gonna say, if I
Speaker 2: feel stressed, then I'm gonna run a nice hot bath
Speaker 2: and play some relaxing music.
Speaker 1: Or that's free.
Speaker 2: It's free, or you know, I'm gonna get on the
Speaker 2: phone and just gossip, put my girlfriends or what have you.
Speaker 2: But change it from you spending the money to you
Speaker 2: doing an activity that will change the emotional attachment to
Speaker 2: why you're spending the money.
Speaker 1: Okay, y'all. When I do these podcasts, they just don't
Speaker 1: be for y'all. It's for me too, you know. And
Speaker 1: these are great notes. I have accounting in business management,
Speaker 1: but I love when they can tell a difference in
Speaker 1: a spending habit. Or you ain't used this credit card,
Speaker 1: let me tell you some There are certain emails that
Speaker 1: you get from your credit card company. If you haven't
Speaker 1: used it in like a week or two, they start
Speaker 1: sending you stuff to make sure you're still there, You're
Speaker 1: still alive, what's going on? I love when I get
Speaker 1: there I can look at a certain email and know.
Speaker 1: Oh it's because I haven't touched it, you know, And
Speaker 1: so that does make me feel good. So y'all, when
Speaker 1: I've got people on here, trust me, I'm listening for
Speaker 1: me too. So those were some great steps that you
Speaker 1: gave us. Have you found that it's true that if
Speaker 1: you stress about money or feel that you don't have money,
Speaker 1: that somehow it manifests into you not having money.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, come on, you have to change the conversation. And
Speaker 2: to be quite frank, the conversation didn't change for me
Speaker 2: until I changed my environment. You have to change your
Speaker 2: thought process because words are things, thoughts are things, and
Speaker 2: you will eventually speak into your life what you have
Speaker 2: or what you don't have. And so I started learning
Speaker 2: that concept really when I became a part of a
Speaker 2: company and they focused on personal development. And then I
Speaker 2: was encouraged to go out to a Bob Proctor event.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and then I.
Speaker 2: Was going to Believe Nation events and I was like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, Oh, wait a minute, and flip the
Speaker 2: whole script. So, yes, you can definitely speak wealth or telf.
Speaker 1: So we both are familiar with the leader of Believe
Speaker 1: Nation and how he would break down the word future. Yes, right,
Speaker 1: and how we discovered that the word future means the
Speaker 1: time or period of time following the moment of speaking
Speaker 1: or writing. Absolutely, we ain't God, but we show got
Speaker 1: a hand, a small pinky to do with our future
Speaker 1: by what we said, and that includes money. So what
Speaker 1: do you have to say to the person that's like
Speaker 1: Raquel ms boogie banker? I hear you, but I've been
Speaker 1: struggling with money all my life. I can never make
Speaker 1: I'm barely making ends meet. Y'all always talking about this
Speaker 1: positive speaking and what you say matters, but I'm broke.
Speaker 1: Baby daddy ain't coming through with the child support.
Speaker 2: Listen, because that was me once upon a time. I
Speaker 2: would definitely say this. You either have an income issue
Speaker 2: or you have an effort for issue. It's one of
Speaker 2: the other. And so if you have an income issue,
Speaker 2: then it can be fixed because it's just the activity
Speaker 2: has to change, which also equates to the effort that
Speaker 2: you put into your situation. The only person who has
Speaker 2: power over where you currently are and where you will
Speaker 2: or will not be six months to a year from
Speaker 2: now is you. So if you're constantly complaining about not
Speaker 2: having I mean, then that activity is not going to
Speaker 2: match for you to have the things that you desire
Speaker 2: to have, even if it's not well, maybe you just
Speaker 2: want to live comfortably, maybe you just want to be happy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but if the activity is not adding up to you
Speaker 2: getting there, you're never gonna achieve it. So the question
Speaker 2: really becomes, are you more complacent with complaining than you
Speaker 2: are for being in the search of growth? That's really
Speaker 2: the question.
Speaker 1: It's tight, but it's right, y'all. Don't want to hear
Speaker 1: that good preaching today the walls just say amen, because y'all,
Speaker 1: I'm not hearing nobody say amen out as they say.
Speaker 1: If you can't say amen, say out.
Speaker 2: Just taster Daniel say, y'all not hearing me?
Speaker 1: Okay, as he said, did you hear what I just said?
Speaker 2: Y'all?
Speaker 1: Did y'all hear what this woman just said? That stings,
Speaker 1: especially if you know that it's you, and the point
Speaker 1: of checking in is to have great testimonials of This
Speaker 1: episode changed my life. It snapped me back into a
Speaker 1: positive mindset, or it helped me evaluate my mindset when
Speaker 1: it comes to money, because a lot of people also
Speaker 1: think you have to already come from a thirty seven
Speaker 1: percent tax bracket to have wealth, or you can't have
Speaker 1: made as many mistakes as I've made so many mistakes, Michelle,
Speaker 1: I've done this. I've done that. There's no possible way
Speaker 1: that I can get myself out of this. And I'm
Speaker 1: telling you some of the worst of the worst have
Speaker 1: made complete changes in their life, not only in their
Speaker 1: mindset and their relationships, but with money. And you are right.
Speaker 1: Maybe your goal is to make sixty thousand a year
Speaker 1: because you know in your demographic sixty thousand a year
Speaker 1: is amazing. Those of y'all that live in New York,
Speaker 1: sixty thousand might not gut it. So it is okay
Speaker 1: to set certain financial goals for yourself, just like you said,
Speaker 1: as long as that effort is matching. I want folks
Speaker 1: that are listening to this episode to have like breakthrough
Speaker 1: with their mindset as it pertains to money and freedom.
Speaker 1: That a budget gives you absolutely, freedom, that good credit
Speaker 1: gives you, freedom, that a savings account gives you to
Speaker 1: where you know if something should happen. I got a
Speaker 1: couple months of income set aside, and listen, I have
Speaker 1: compassion for those that are like Michelle. I can't do
Speaker 1: a couple months of income right now because I do
Speaker 1: have children, or I take care of my entire household.
Speaker 1: You got twenty year olds that are the bread winners.
Speaker 1: So my heart goes out to you. But I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, if life goes the
Speaker 1: way it's supposed to go, you will be left standing
Speaker 1: after your loved ones that are in that house go
Speaker 1: on to heaven. So you got to have a place
Speaker 1: where you can dip back into and love on yourself financially.
Speaker 2: If I can say, Michelle, like you know that journey is.
Speaker 2: What I don't want to do is to make it
Speaker 2: seem like, well, I'm going to pick myself up by
Speaker 2: the bootstraps and here we go. Like you know, it's
Speaker 2: a very hard journey. There are a lot of conversations
Speaker 2: that you have to have with yourself, and sometimes you're
Speaker 2: going to be the only person who believes in yourself.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you're going to cry yourself to sleep at night.
Speaker 2: Because the thing is is that dealing with changing your
Speaker 2: financial picture is dealing with changing you, and so that's
Speaker 2: a whole personal development journey that you have to go through.
Speaker 2: And there's conversations that current you need to change so
Speaker 2: future you can appear right and So if you're saying like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm struggling, I'm living paycheck to paycheck, change the conversation
Speaker 2: and say why am I struggling? Why am I living
Speaker 2: to paycheck? What decisions have I made or have not
Speaker 2: made that are keeping me in this current financial situation?
Speaker 2: And what is it costing me to stay here? Especially
Speaker 2: if you have children.
Speaker 1: That's so good. Checking in is gonna be about breakthrough. Yes,
Speaker 1: we have fun conversations as it relates to mental health,
Speaker 1: and we have having conversations about mental health, but I
Speaker 1: love to talk about finances because mental health and finance
Speaker 1: do play. There is a psychology as it relates to
Speaker 1: how you view money. Now, let's talk about another part
Speaker 1: of stress and money and how do you find that
Speaker 1: women and men deal with stress about money differently.
Speaker 2: I think there's dynamics to it. So when you're talking
Speaker 2: about a household, like a married couple, right, there's a
Speaker 2: certain support system that they give each other. If the
Speaker 2: husband is the bread the breadwinner, then he feels the
Speaker 2: brunt of the stress because the wife is there to
Speaker 2: you know, kind of make things easier or help with
Speaker 2: the conversation. I've seen the dynamic kind of go back
Speaker 2: and forth. Seen where the husband will complain about how
Speaker 2: much money the wife is spending because he doesn't understand
Speaker 2: the dynamic of the household because he's always working, right,
Speaker 2: And I've seen it vice versa as well, where the
Speaker 2: woman is the head, she's the one that's bringing the money,
Speaker 2: who's paying the bills, and you know, the focus is
Speaker 2: a little different. I feel like men tend to focus
Speaker 2: on career more where women tend to focus on future,
Speaker 2: tend to focus on their kids and what their kids need. Yea,
Speaker 2: it's transparent in the future. When you're talking about individually,
Speaker 2: I can't say that I've noticed too much of a
Speaker 2: difference when you're just talking about two single individual people
Speaker 2: because they're focused on career development, advancement, you know, their
Speaker 2: financial picture. I don't really see too much of a
Speaker 2: difference there.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, you are amazing. You are amazing. Now you
Speaker 1: talked about at one particular time being a banker that
Speaker 1: has helped women all over the world stop living paycheck
Speaker 1: to paycheck. We found through lending Tree. They published a
Speaker 1: study that nearly eleven million homes ten point seven million
Speaker 1: homes are owned by single women, while single men own
Speaker 1: approximately eight point twelve million homes in the country. This
Speaker 1: comes despite American women making less than men in median
Speaker 1: earnings for twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: There's been studies that came out to say that women
Speaker 2: do a better job with saving, we do a better
Speaker 2: job with planning for the future in executing in that
Speaker 2: there have been studies there.
Speaker 1: Honey, we do a better job at planning for the future, honey.
Speaker 1: And we ain't waiting on you to buy the house.
Speaker 2: Said, but you give a woman, she will supply, okay, God.
Speaker 1: She bears the children, okay, for that reason, to bring multiplication.
Speaker 1: My mom would always tell she hates when I buy
Speaker 1: a house, why don't you wait for the man to
Speaker 1: do it? But that's that generation she was born in
Speaker 1: the fifties where the man did buy the house. As
Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned, I can buy this house. You
Speaker 1: just buy the other one. You just buy our beach house.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So you know I'm okay
Speaker 1: with that. What it is we are in the winter
Speaker 1: months leading up to tax season. Tax season is here
Speaker 1: chat what what are some of the mistakes that people
Speaker 1: make when filing on their own.
Speaker 2: Filing on their own that's the mistake. There are people
Speaker 2: who are tax professionals for a reason, you guys, Okay,
Speaker 2: there are simple mistakes that you can make in your taxes,
Speaker 2: such as just not putting information in correctly, not marking
Speaker 2: your deductions correctly that can really hurt you. Just stop
Speaker 2: being cheap, okay, Just pay for what will keep you
Speaker 2: out of the irsi's call log.
Speaker 1: I used to eat file. I used to do my
Speaker 1: own my very first job and like the mid nineties,
Speaker 1: I was working at a retail spot, and I used
Speaker 1: to do my own taxes. When you're only making ten
Speaker 1: g's a year, what's your claiming?
Speaker 2: What's you're claiming? Yeah, well, so.
Speaker 1: You're saying to get a tax expert to help you.
Speaker 1: What's another one The common mistake that people make when
Speaker 1: filing their own is maybe you doing your own and
Speaker 1: you know what about maybe another just mistake period as
Speaker 1: it relates to taxes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're just not setting up your withholdings correctly.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Marking down the way that you do your deductions is
Speaker 2: key because there's so many people that mess out on
Speaker 2: thousands of dollars every year because they're not properly marking
Speaker 2: out their deductions, making sure that even something simple like
Speaker 2: people will have their old address on their tax filings
Speaker 2: and so now they when they mail you or issue
Speaker 2: your check. If you're not doing direct deposit, it can
Speaker 2: cause all sorts of delays or you possibly you know,
Speaker 2: having to resubmit for your tax returns. So it's just
Speaker 2: the small things that we tend not to pay attention to,
Speaker 2: especially if we're in the process of moving and you
Speaker 2: haven't done your cowarding address and all of those things
Speaker 2: that can cause so many either delays or errors on
Speaker 2: your reports. So if you are stressing about filing your
Speaker 2: tax returns, sit down with the professional. Let them do
Speaker 2: their job, let them properly educate you, make sure that
Speaker 2: your information is correct, Come through your stuff, make sure
Speaker 2: it's right, make sure you have everything foiled properly, that
Speaker 2: your deductions are clear, and that they're correct. And I
Speaker 2: think those are the main things that people mess up
Speaker 2: on for sure.
Speaker 1: That's so good. Now, ladies and gentlemen, you are probably thinking, man,
Speaker 1: that's so good. I cannot afford a financial advisor. Some
Speaker 1: advisors you don't have to necessarily pay a flat fee.
Speaker 1: Some you just pay maybe a percentage to But when
Speaker 1: you go on the Bougie banker. It's the bougie b
Speaker 1: oh ujee banker underscore. She has amazing tips and guess what,
Speaker 1: there are ten tax filing tips on. There is a
Speaker 1: well of information. What's one step that people can do
Speaker 1: to start getting out from under that credit card debt?
Speaker 2: Yes, so you have a couple of options. I have
Speaker 2: people come to me and they ask if they should
Speaker 2: consolidate their debt. Right, so they'll be like, Ah, should
Speaker 2: I just get a personal loan and consolidate the debt?
Speaker 2: If you decide to go that route. My suggestion for that,
Speaker 2: if you want to consolidate, is that you go look
Speaker 2: at a credit union first, and then you also ask
Speaker 2: for the maximum amount of months that you have to
Speaker 2: pay off that balance transfer. Essentially, what you'll be doing
Speaker 2: you'll get a personal loan with the credit bank and
Speaker 2: they'll do a balance transfer of all of your credit
Speaker 2: cards onto that one loan, which will now drop the
Speaker 2: balances to all of your credit cards down to zero.
Speaker 2: And now instead of being responsible for seven different credit
Speaker 2: card payments that may equate to you know, seven or
Speaker 2: eight hundred dollars, now you have one loan to pay
Speaker 2: off where the loan payments may be three or four
Speaker 2: hundred dollars, and now you can apply you know, six
Speaker 2: hundred dollars towards that and get it paid off sooner,
Speaker 2: and the interest typically is lower as well, opposed to
Speaker 2: having you know, seven or eight credit cards. Now you
Speaker 2: just have this one responsibility to take care of.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The caution there though, is that now that you have
Speaker 2: all this available credits, you got to be responsible enough
Speaker 2: not to go back and use the credit cards and
Speaker 2: then have all the credit card that and the right.
Speaker 1: Honey, I am so guilty. And you pay that credit
Speaker 1: card down to zero and it says available credit limit
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand, and you're like, ooh, I.
Speaker 2: Do need a new dresser. I do, I do need
Speaker 2: some shoes.
Speaker 1: On that, but do it gotta be fifteen thousand? Now?
Speaker 1: The great thing about you, Raquel, is that you are
Speaker 1: a self professed travel junkie. Yes, so we can talk
Speaker 1: about buying things on a budget, maybe a dresser on
Speaker 1: a budget. There are certain things that online where you
Speaker 1: get a west elm or restoration hardware dresser for one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars that somebody just wants to get rid of.
Speaker 1: So you teach people on an average budget, how they
Speaker 1: can save for a vacation. Now, if someone has debt
Speaker 1: or doesn't have a savings should they go on vacation?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think you should. I don't think you
Speaker 2: should stop doing the things that make you happy, because
Speaker 2: there's a certain there's making a decision, and there's also
Speaker 2: like disregarding your peace of mind. Right, And if you're
Speaker 2: doing something that is taking away from your happiness or
Speaker 2: from your peace of mind, chances are you're not going
Speaker 2: to stay in that lean. So if I want a
Speaker 2: budget and I take away their ability to travel, or
Speaker 2: I take away their ability to go out to eat
Speaker 2: every once in a while, they're not going to stick
Speaker 2: to the budget because they're like, I can't live. What
Speaker 2: I always say is a budget gives you control. So
Speaker 2: if you don't have a savings account and you're still
Speaker 2: in debt, what you can do is you can say,
Speaker 2: you know what I do like to travel well, instead
Speaker 2: of traveling every single quarter, let me just plan for
Speaker 2: this one trip once a year until I get my
Speaker 2: financial picture together. But then you'll go through and factor
Speaker 2: in how much a typical trip will cost you. You'll
Speaker 2: take that number divided by twelve, and so now every
Speaker 2: month you may have fifty to fifty bucks that's going
Speaker 2: towards it, or one hundred bucks that's going towards your
Speaker 2: annual trip. So now you have something to look forward
Speaker 2: to where you're essentially rewarding yourself or staying on a
Speaker 2: financial plan. Now all this money that you're saving because
Speaker 2: you're not going on four trips a year, you're planning
Speaker 2: for this one trip. Now, now you can take some
Speaker 2: of that money, have it budgeted to pay down debt,
Speaker 2: and take another portion and have it budgeted so that
Speaker 2: you have your emergency savings out up. I don't want
Speaker 2: people to feel suffocated with their finances. It's all about
Speaker 2: living bougie and bounce. It's all about doing the things
Speaker 2: that you enjoy, but also so having control to where
Speaker 2: its financially makes sense.
Speaker 1: That's so good. You have been absolutely brilliant today, y'all.
Speaker 1: She's got lots of classes that teach about financial health.
Speaker 1: But you also offer a freebee vault of material and
Speaker 1: resources on your website. The website is bboogie dot com.
Speaker 1: But let me not speak for you. Tell us maybe
Speaker 1: one of the freebies that's on your website.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's spending trackers, saving calcers in there. There's free
Speaker 2: PDFs that I've just found over time through doing different resources,
Speaker 2: whether it's on money management, investing, what that looks like
Speaker 2: for you. I definitely encourage you guys to go grab
Speaker 2: your freebees because oftentimes it's just like exposing yourself to
Speaker 2: something new, you know, and that can really be helpful
Speaker 2: for you. And if I could say this, Michelle, you
Speaker 2: kept mentioning something called the Breakthrough, I'm actually I'm actually
Speaker 2: having a financial literacy and business development conference at the
Speaker 2: end of the month, and it's called the Breakthrough Experience.
Speaker 2: So it's all about breaking through the limiting bearers that
Speaker 2: you place on yourself, breaking into your financial success. So
Speaker 2: it's a financial literacy and business development conference. We have
Speaker 2: phenomenal speakers lined up. I'll be there, Eli Talks Money
Speaker 2: will be there and countless other speakers and people in
Speaker 2: the finance and business space that you may already know.
Speaker 2: So please come, y'all. I cultivated this space so that
Speaker 2: we cannot only talk about money management. We could also
Speaker 2: talk about how to build our wealth and most importantly,
Speaker 2: protecting it. I feel like so often we have these
Speaker 2: events where we're always talking about it's the money, get
Speaker 2: to the bag. Do this. We have to protect generational
Speaker 2: wealth and we have to learn how to create it first,
Speaker 2: you know. And so I really want to bring everyone
Speaker 2: to a space to have that conversation. I would love
Speaker 2: for you guys to come. The website is breakthrough exp
Speaker 2: dot com.
Speaker 1: All right, we in there like swimwear. Listen. I think
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I'm so engaged is because
Speaker 1: you've been through not having You've been through the Okay,
Speaker 1: I gotta get myself up. Okay, I can do this,
Speaker 1: and we are here today. Your book is translated into
Speaker 1: various countries and you are just helping and you're freeing
Speaker 1: people to get out of debt and to be great investors. Please,
Speaker 1: wherever you are, clap your hands, give love, give her
Speaker 1: a follow again. She's on Instagram at the Bougie Banker Underscore.
Speaker 1: Show her some love for kel Curtis. Thank you for
Speaker 1: checking in.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Michelle. This was amazing. You're awesome.
Speaker 1: You are welcome. You are welcome. Listen. This was so informative.
Speaker 1: Raquel aka the Bougie Banker just came with so much knowledge.
Speaker 1: She was just a web wanting to poor, poor, poor,
Speaker 1: everything that she has in her and I'm truly, truly
Speaker 1: thankful for her. Again. She's got many classes and books,
Speaker 1: stuff that is at no cost to you. At bbougie
Speaker 1: dot com, it's the word b b E b o
Speaker 1: u j e e dot com forward slash the Bougie Banker.
Speaker 1: Follow her on Instagram again. Her Instagram handle is the
Speaker 1: Bougie Banker Underscore, the b o u j e E
Speaker 1: b A n k E R Underscore. She's gonna help
Speaker 1: you budget, save, invest and help you continue to, you know,
Speaker 1: change your mindset as it relates to money, if that's
Speaker 1: what you desire. Okay, I'm so excited for folks that
Speaker 1: are on their way to a different type of freedom,
Speaker 1: and that freedom is financial freedom. Guess what you deserve it?
Speaker 1: Your family deserves it, your legacy deserves it.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 1: Please know that you're loved, and guess what you loved
Speaker 1: by me. There's absolutely nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 1: Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and The Black Effect. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
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