Speaker 1: Making money costs money.
Speaker 2: You ain't never lie.
Speaker 3: And I think people see where we are today, but
Speaker 3: nobody has any idea how hard we had to work
Speaker 3: to get to this point, other.
Speaker 2: Than our guest today. He knows he has some insight, y'all. Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm Kadeen and I'm devout and where the ellis's.
Speaker 1: You may know us from posting funny videos with our.
Speaker 3: Boys and reading each other publicly as a.
Speaker 2: Form of therapy.
Speaker 1: Wait, I make you need therapy most days. Wow.
Speaker 2: Oh, and one more important thing to mention, we're married.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, we are.
Speaker 4: We created this podcast to open dialogue about some of
Speaker 4: Li's most taboo topics.
Speaker 2: Things most folks don't want to talk about.
Speaker 1: Through the lens of a millennial married couple. Dead ass
Speaker 1: is a term that we say every day.
Speaker 4: So when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts,
Speaker 4: one hundred truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 1: We about to take pilot off to our whole new level.
Speaker 3: Dead ass starts right now.
Speaker 1: This story time is gonna take you back to I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say two.
Speaker 4: Thousand and eleven, twenty eleven to two thousand and fourteen
Speaker 4: is when Jackson was born.
Speaker 1: Those first three years. I'm going to give as visual
Speaker 1: as I can.
Speaker 4: What we were going through when we were at our worst,
Speaker 4: cause I don't think I've ever got this graphic about
Speaker 4: how bad it was at times. Twenty eleven, we had Jackson,
Speaker 4: we had got health insurance because Kadeen was working at MAC.
Speaker 4: I was not making any money, like at this point
Speaker 4: the money I had in the NFL was now an investment.
Speaker 4: I was working at Parice No, I was working at
Speaker 4: Poly Prep as a football coach and Paris Speed School,
Speaker 4: and I was also doing color commentary. So I was
Speaker 4: making roughly I would say seventy k at the time.
Speaker 4: We had the apartment. We had two mortgages, and we
Speaker 4: had three car notes. We had the car note for
Speaker 4: the f one to fifty, we had the car note
Speaker 4: for on Debbie, then we had the car note for
Speaker 4: the Audi. I was spending roughly eighteen hundred dollars a
Speaker 4: month traveling back and forth to Staten Island working at
Speaker 4: Parisi's Speed school, and I was only making twelve hundred
Speaker 4: dollars a month, So.
Speaker 1: I was in the red when it came to that job.
Speaker 1: But I was supplementing that.
Speaker 4: We're working at MSG varsity, also doing some commercials and
Speaker 4: stuff like that. But we were struggling so much with
Speaker 4: money that I had to make it a fun thing
Speaker 4: to only eat Daddy breakfast throughout the day. So I
Speaker 4: was watching Jackson, and I was watching Jackson to day
Speaker 4: because Jackson, I mean, because kay was working at mac
Speaker 4: and I was like, Jackson, we're gonna have for breakfast.
Speaker 4: And he was young, he was like two two turning
Speaker 4: on three, and he was like, daddy breakfast, and Daddy
Speaker 4: breakfast was grits, eggs, and bacon.
Speaker 1: But part of the reason why we were eating so
Speaker 1: much grits, eggs and bacon was because grits was.
Speaker 4: Extremely cheap and it was something that I could add
Speaker 4: sugar to to make it sweet. If I wanted to
Speaker 4: make it savor, I wouldn't put no sugar in there.
Speaker 4: And it was just something for us to get by,
Speaker 4: and I chose to just eat that because I didn't
Speaker 4: want to eat out. Kadeen was working at the mall,
Speaker 4: so she would get Johnny rockets here and there, and
Speaker 4: I was just kind of like, you know what, I'm
Speaker 4: not going to get on her about eating out because
Speaker 4: she's at the wall at the mall.
Speaker 1: And I'm at home, so all I did was eat
Speaker 1: grits and eggs.
Speaker 4: And there were times where we didn't even have bacon,
Speaker 4: and it would just be grits and eggs, grits and eggs,
Speaker 4: and k would come home and she would make dinner.
Speaker 4: We didn't eat out for three years. Listen to me, people,
Speaker 4: when I'm telling you, I'm not exaggerating. Kadeen and I
Speaker 4: didn't even go to TGI Fridays.
Speaker 2: For three years, and that was our thing.
Speaker 4: We didn't go on vacations. There were no designer bags,
Speaker 4: there were no clothes. People be making jokes on me
Speaker 4: now because I'll wear like the same shirt four days
Speaker 4: in a row, but that's from a scarcity mindset because
Speaker 4: I didn't buy any clothes. I would wear gym attire
Speaker 4: everywhere because I was always in the gym. And I'm
Speaker 4: giving you guys that story because you see us now
Speaker 4: and we're enjoying life now, but it is twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4: For seven years of our life, there was an extreme
Speaker 4: sacrifice to get us to here. So when people ask
Speaker 4: me what it takes to get to a level of
Speaker 4: comfort and financial security, it takes sacrifice, all right.
Speaker 2: Karaoke time. We don't want to be rich? Don't we
Speaker 2: want to be rich?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: I think most people I've got the question before, like
Speaker 3: would you want to be famous or rich? If I
Speaker 3: really had it my way, I'd just be rich and
Speaker 3: nobody wouldn't know, and I would just tell twenty one
Speaker 3: you do something.
Speaker 2: Can you hear a little rich flex? Bo me listen,
Speaker 2: that's just all for and that's just it.
Speaker 3: We want to hit the rich flex and we're going
Speaker 3: to hopefully tell y'all how to be able to flex. Yes,
Speaker 3: if you follow a couple tips that our guests have
Speaker 3: for you. If you are a nine to five worker
Speaker 3: just trying to build your estate, to save, to pivot
Speaker 3: to see what that next move is going to be?
Speaker 3: What are some of the basics that you need?
Speaker 4: And when we say nine to five, that's not a
Speaker 4: knock because Kadeen and I both will work.
Speaker 1: Well. She was working retail and I was working in
Speaker 1: the gym, and.
Speaker 4: We had set hours we had to work and use
Speaker 4: that income to build future revenues.
Speaker 3: That's effect and we work twenty five eight and that
Speaker 3: sh ain't funn all the time neither.
Speaker 1: No, it's not all right.
Speaker 3: Stick around y'all, will take a quack break and come
Speaker 3: back with our guests for today. All right, so today
Speaker 3: we're talking building your estate. What that looks like for
Speaker 3: you know, people who are just trying to save with
Speaker 3: a regular nine to five job. And when we say
Speaker 3: regular nine to five, we don't want to diminish the
Speaker 3: value in a nine to five job, but just say, hey,
Speaker 3: you know you're clocking in, clocking out, whatever your profession is,
Speaker 3: you still want to find a way to build your
Speaker 3: state and find ways to save effectively and still live
Speaker 3: your best life. So we brought a special guest in today,
Speaker 3: someone who has helped us over the course of what
Speaker 3: the last twenty something.
Speaker 1: Years, it's been about twenty years.
Speaker 3: About twenty years and us trying to figure out how
Speaker 3: we can stay afloat amidst so many ebbs and flows
Speaker 3: in life.
Speaker 2: From a financial perspective.
Speaker 3: So do you want to take that away and do
Speaker 3: this intro for our special guests?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: Sure, I don't even know how to introduce this young man.
Speaker 4: I've known him I was I've known him since I
Speaker 4: was born. I don't remember a point in my life
Speaker 4: where Sean wasn't here. He was a member of the
Speaker 4: Junior line, which was a young men's group that my
Speaker 4: father had a mentorship group had a sale Missionary Baptist
Speaker 4: church in the late alies, early nineties, all the way
Speaker 4: through my high school graduation.
Speaker 1: Which was in two thousand and two.
Speaker 4: And he is like an older I'm not gonna say
Speaker 4: like he is my older brother.
Speaker 1: I remember. It's a quick story.
Speaker 4: I remember when Brian and I wanted to go see
Speaker 4: Alan Iverson play and Sean had a car and he
Speaker 4: took us to see Alan Iverson play. Now, this car
Speaker 4: was old as shit, but it also speaks. It also
Speaker 4: speaks to who he is and what he was teaching
Speaker 4: us at the time. I think he had just graduated
Speaker 4: from college and he was working. And there were two
Speaker 4: guys in the group that I really really looked up to.
Speaker 4: And I'm not gonna shame anybody, but one guy in
Speaker 4: the group at the time, he was driving a brand
Speaker 4: new Infinity and Sean on and graduated college and was
Speaker 4: working on Wall Street, and he drove like was it a.
Speaker 5: Honda cordsan CenTra red Nissan. It was a red Nissan
Speaker 5: one side view mirror, one.
Speaker 1: One side few mirror. He drove us all the way.
Speaker 5: To Philly, and see what was coming on the right side.
Speaker 5: You have to It was a full look over the right.
Speaker 4: Shoulder, full body turn, Sean says to me, And Brian
Speaker 4: was just like, yo, because you know we call shotgun.
Speaker 4: You want to ride in the front, Sean says, Yo,
Speaker 4: whoever's riding in the front and the passenger side, don't
Speaker 4: roll down the window because they don't.
Speaker 1: Roll back up.
Speaker 4: So I rode to Philly in the front seat and
Speaker 4: I ain't touched the window because Sean told me what
Speaker 4: to do. As soon as Brian got in the front seat,
Speaker 4: he throwed the window out and all her Sean was no, no, not.
Speaker 1: The window.
Speaker 4: Completely disregarded and just But the funny thing is he
Speaker 4: he picked us up. It was me, my cousin, Devaughon,
Speaker 4: and Brian. He took us to go see Alan, obviously,
Speaker 4: who was my favorite player at the time. And I
Speaker 4: did have the braids at the time, and we rode
Speaker 4: in this old Nissan CenTra. But looking back on it now,
Speaker 4: we used to clown Sean for having this old car
Speaker 4: while working on Wall Street, and you know, we used
Speaker 4: to glorify the guys who are Sean's age who had
Speaker 4: new cars. But now I look at life, and I
Speaker 4: see where Sean is with his wife and his kids
Speaker 4: in his house and he's a financial advisor, and it
Speaker 4: all made sense why during the time he was focused
Speaker 4: on what was important and now what was flashy. And
Speaker 4: I just want to give that story to introduce Shawn
Speaker 4: is to why Sean is my statement because that always
Speaker 4: stuck with me. I'm not going to give Sean's title,
Speaker 4: because Sean gives all the times. I'm gon let Sean
Speaker 4: give his titles. But this is my brother. He's been
Speaker 4: a mentor, Dakota's godfather, a confidant, He's been so many things.
Speaker 4: That's why just saying a CPA would not even give
Speaker 4: him credit to who he really is.
Speaker 1: But this is my.
Speaker 3: Brother, and Sean for me, at least, as the most
Speaker 3: soothing voice, so like everything could be crashing around us financially,
Speaker 3: and it has over the course of the years been
Speaker 3: crumbling around us, and there's something about Sean's voice.
Speaker 2: Even my mom.
Speaker 3: Said that she's like, oh my goodness, like he just
Speaker 3: makes me feel like everything's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, And I love that for me.
Speaker 1: But that's the key. But that's the key, though.
Speaker 4: The key is showing to be like everything is going
Speaker 4: to be okay as long as you have a plan.
Speaker 4: So without further ado, my brother, my mental my big
Speaker 4: bro man, Sean Freeman, he appreciate you.
Speaker 5: Did appreciate you, Kay. I mean, you know, for me
Speaker 5: personally first just titles and all of that stuff. I'm
Speaker 5: a certified financial planner and for me, you know, just
Speaker 5: kind of coming up period, I've always kind of wanted more.
Speaker 5: I've always kind of been looking at the you know,
Speaker 5: a step ahead, what can I do to kind of
Speaker 5: continue to move from our situation that we knew about
Speaker 5: growing up there. You kind of know, know our neighborhood,
Speaker 5: you know where we're from. Kay, you know where we're from,
Speaker 5: you know our neighborhood, and you kind of watch all
Speaker 5: these things that are going on in the world around you,
Speaker 5: and you me as an individual, always wanted more. I
Speaker 5: always wanted I looked at what, you know, as the
Speaker 5: son of an immigrant, my mom coming to this country
Speaker 5: and doing all that she did with what knowing nothing,
Speaker 5: and me being in this country, being in New York
Speaker 5: and seeing all of the wealth around us, our little
Speaker 5: neighborhood and wanting that and not having you know, I
Speaker 5: couldn't talk to my mom about it. She didn't have
Speaker 5: the understanding of what was going on in the world,
Speaker 5: and I didn't either. So I go to college and
Speaker 5: you start taking classes. You start taking you know, you
Speaker 5: take finance classes, and you understand, you get a better
Speaker 5: understanding of how numbers work and how finance actually works,
Speaker 5: compounding compound interest. So, you know, at that point is
Speaker 5: when I kind of decided that this is what I
Speaker 5: wanted to do in the world. I wanted to be
Speaker 5: a financial advisor. I wanted to be a financial planner
Speaker 5: because I saw the opportunity from a from a wealth
Speaker 5: standpoint to move me from what I knew to where
Speaker 5: I envisioned I wanted to be. And so that's been
Speaker 5: my problem. I'm always looking at step ahead. I look
Speaker 5: I need, you know, Nicole tells me just live in
Speaker 5: the moment, and I'm doing better. I'm working on myself
Speaker 5: to live in the moment. But it's always been hard
Speaker 5: for me to live in the moment. I always look
Speaker 5: a step ahead for that car, you know, I'm looking
Speaker 5: a step ahead. I'm always looking at step ahead the
Speaker 5: car instead of the car. You know, we put that money,
Speaker 5: we bought a condo at twenty whatever. You know, everyone
Speaker 5: does these things. You know, I'm not special in any way,
Speaker 5: you know, but I decided that I wanted the money
Speaker 5: to go into real estate at that time. So, you know,
Speaker 5: it's been a long career, successful career. I'm you know,
Speaker 5: as you know, a partner at a within at a
Speaker 5: wealth management group within Morgan Stanley. You guys have been
Speaker 5: working with you guys since the beginning. And the thing
Speaker 5: about your situation is that it's typical of any financial individual,
Speaker 5: financial situation. It's personal, right. You had to go through
Speaker 5: what you guys went through in the very beginning as
Speaker 5: you're building this thing, this empire, this you know, what
Speaker 5: you've created for yourselves. You've had to you had to
Speaker 5: go through life and kind of understand what it's going
Speaker 5: to you know, how it's going to look, what it's
Speaker 5: going to be, and the challenges that are going to
Speaker 5: come about because you're pursuing moving yourselves forward. So you
Speaker 5: had high income, you moved, you had family issues that
Speaker 5: kind of inserted themselves that you have to address. And
Speaker 5: that's typical, like we all kind of have these different
Speaker 5: things that are going to affect our decision making process.
Speaker 5: But for me, it's also it's also about kind of
Speaker 5: taking a step back and assessing your own personal situation
Speaker 5: and making decisions within this environment that we're in every day,
Speaker 5: this economic environment.
Speaker 6: So you know, as far as.
Speaker 4: Real quick, I just want to I want to ask
Speaker 4: you because you're speaking directly to our listeners, and a
Speaker 4: lot of the things you always hear from from the
Speaker 4: listeners is how do how do I take my family
Speaker 4: to where you and coadeen to your family because they've
Speaker 4: been following us from the very beginning, and they remember
Speaker 4: us in the apartment, and you remember those times I
Speaker 4: took a page out of your book. I had an
Speaker 4: Audi A six, I got ridly out in six. We
Speaker 4: downsized in cars. We you know, we partner with other
Speaker 4: people to split rent. And I try to tell people
Speaker 4: there are a lot of sacrifices that go into wealth,
Speaker 4: wealth management and wealth building.
Speaker 1: But then they say, once.
Speaker 4: You make the sacrifices and you have the capital, what
Speaker 4: do you do? You know, they always say, well, what
Speaker 4: are you investing? They always ask me, Devoute, what are
Speaker 4: you invest in? You wear Nike? Do you invest in Nike?
Speaker 4: And I try to explain to them it's not always
Speaker 4: about just finding an investment to invest in.
Speaker 1: It's about having.
Speaker 4: Multiple streams of income number one, but finding ways to
Speaker 4: develop compound interest, like you always tell me.
Speaker 1: With the revenue.
Speaker 4: So can you speak a little bit about how you've
Speaker 4: helped us build our financial plan? You know, I know
Speaker 4: it's going to be different for us than this for
Speaker 4: other people because everyone isn't going.
Speaker 1: To do seven jobs like we were doing.
Speaker 4: But if you had to speak to a group of
Speaker 4: people who all work nine to five and looking for
Speaker 4: a way to help build their wealth, what would you
Speaker 4: say will be the first key steps?
Speaker 5: So I'm very I'm very careful about giving broad based
Speaker 5: guidance right because it is specific. So I'm thinking about
Speaker 5: a general nine to five person, right living in this
Speaker 5: in this economy. You have bills, you have your mortgage,
Speaker 5: I'm assuming your your rent. But if you have a
Speaker 5: nine to five job, obviously you have something. You have
Speaker 5: a four to one K, so you should put money
Speaker 5: into that four one K. You could look to start
Speaker 5: a business with some of that additional income. All of
Speaker 5: both of those things build wealth, and I think people
Speaker 5: sometimes kind of forget that the basics of just saving
Speaker 5: money and setting money aside is wealth. Building. You know
Speaker 5: you are. You know, if you consistently put money into
Speaker 5: a four to one K or younger person in their
Speaker 5: thirties and they do it till they're sixty, and you
Speaker 5: take advantage of the maximum contribution levels that are available
Speaker 5: to you in this country, you will have over a
Speaker 5: million dollars in assets in one account. That's you know,
Speaker 5: and I think people forget about. Everyone is looking for
Speaker 5: this magic pill of building wealth. Wealth is the increase
Speaker 5: of assets over time. And if you're working a nine
Speaker 5: to five, you have at your disposal a retirement account
Speaker 5: that you can put money into save, get compound interest,
Speaker 5: and if you do that consistently, you will have over
Speaker 5: a million dollars. A million dollars is a is a
Speaker 5: real number. That's a real part of your net worth.
Speaker 5: And in addition to that, owning a home, set of
Speaker 5: paying rent. And again this is general, we're talking about
Speaker 5: broad strokes, but if you own a home, you're paying
Speaker 5: down the debt, you're building equity. Whatever you purchase that
Speaker 5: home for nine times out of ten is going to
Speaker 5: appreciate in value. And as you're paying down the debt,
Speaker 5: you're increasing your wealth. So now you have a retirement asset.
Speaker 5: You have a piece of real estate that at a baseline,
Speaker 5: someone with a nine to five job that's working can
Speaker 5: do those things, and that's a wealth building. That's wealth building.
Speaker 5: And when we talk about wealth building, I don't always
Speaker 5: only look at it from an individual standpoint. You also
Speaker 5: got to look at what the impact is to your
Speaker 5: family generationally. You know, today's economy is going to look
Speaker 5: a lot different than the economy thirty years, you know,
Speaker 5: twenty years from now. For your kids as an example,
Speaker 5: you know, what we're doing today on an individual basis
Speaker 5: for your family is going to allow you to give
Speaker 5: your children opportunities that you didn't have to Instead of
Speaker 5: them renting, instead of them potentially paying for school, they're
Speaker 5: going to not have that sort of financial obligation. So
Speaker 5: you're passing the wealth that you have created for yourselves
Speaker 5: to them to make their path a lot easier. So
Speaker 5: that's the thing. So those are two basic things that
Speaker 5: can happen. Just paying attention to what's being offered to
Speaker 5: you through the workforce, through real estate and just owning
Speaker 5: and starting there. And if you have additional capital after that,
Speaker 5: that's where we start talking about additional You know, you're
Speaker 5: taking risks. But you guys have done all this. We
Speaker 5: know you have your full one ks, you have your home,
Speaker 5: you have you've done these things, these basic things I'm
Speaker 5: saying everybody should do. But now you're also taking advantage
Speaker 5: of smart planning as far as management and free cash flow,
Speaker 5: and you're building out a business for yourself. That's it's
Speaker 5: a risk though you're paying. You're putting a lot of
Speaker 5: capital into the things that you're doing, and you're and
Speaker 5: it's paying off. But it also could have gone the
Speaker 5: other way, right, but it's paying and actually in the
Speaker 5: beginning it did. You had your bumps.
Speaker 1: Those and flows.
Speaker 3: They're definitely exactly the true, the true uh in the
Speaker 3: terms of more money, more problems. It's like the more
Speaker 3: you started to make, it's like, shoot, more things that
Speaker 3: were coming up, and the more money coming in, there
Speaker 3: was still more money going out, you know. And Sean,
Speaker 3: we tell the story all the time about Deval retiring
Speaker 3: from the league and then the recession hitting and him
Speaker 3: taking the money that he had in the league and
Speaker 3: trying to do all of the right things with it.
Speaker 3: And we say all of the right things, meaning investing
Speaker 3: in property, and then eventually he put some money in
Speaker 3: some stock market, you know, investments and stuff like that,
Speaker 3: and then ended up losing that when the market crashed
Speaker 3: back in two thousand.
Speaker 2: What was that eight? That's eight?
Speaker 3: So what advice do you have for people who think
Speaker 3: about having that extra money and then wanting to play
Speaker 3: a little bit right, they want to invest in certain things?
Speaker 3: What are some I don't want to say sure routes
Speaker 3: for investment, but some that are going to be more
Speaker 3: advantageous for people looking to gain.
Speaker 5: So that's a question about risk. Kadane, Right, So you
Speaker 5: have a little extra You've done the basics, you have
Speaker 5: your own or some you know, you're building equity in something,
Speaker 5: you're saving money in a four to one k Now
Speaker 5: you do have extra money for yourself. Now it's risk
Speaker 5: in today's environment. And I said, you know, economy has changed,
Speaker 5: but in today's environment, you can get guaranteed returns on
Speaker 5: assets that are less risky than they were a year ago,
Speaker 5: so you can buy I've had a lot of questions
Speaker 5: about these eye bonds. Eyebonds at different times are paying
Speaker 5: you over six and a half percent today, I think
Speaker 5: it last time I checked, it was like six point
Speaker 5: eight seven five. That's a guaranteed rate of return by
Speaker 5: the government. Right, So you're talking about risk if two
Speaker 5: years ago that same risk free investment was not paying
Speaker 5: you that. So with extra money, you start you look
Speaker 5: at how you can put that money to work you
Speaker 5: and you rate that decision based on the risk you're taking. Today,
Speaker 5: someone with free cash flow can get good returns four
Speaker 5: or five six percent returns without taking a lot of
Speaker 5: principal risk. Principal risk is you putting your money into something.
Speaker 5: Your boy asked you to go invest in whatever it is,
Speaker 5: and you put that money in. You could get that
Speaker 5: money back with return or you could not. Today because
Speaker 5: of where we are in the economy and with interest rates,
Speaker 5: you're getting guaranteed returns that you weren't seeing before. So
Speaker 5: you look at that and you make your decisions. And
Speaker 5: number one, you take whatever little free cash flow that
Speaker 5: you have and you say, you know what, I'm going
Speaker 5: to set aside X amount of dollars and get guaranteed
Speaker 5: six percent rates of return on this portion of the money.
Speaker 5: I know that that's going to be there no matter
Speaker 5: what building equity. Once that's done, see you gauge how
Speaker 5: much additional money you have, and now maybe you want
Speaker 5: to take some risk by investing in stocks. Stocks have
Speaker 5: corrected significantly over the last year, so you're down twenty
Speaker 5: percent in some cases, double digits on average in a
Speaker 5: lot of cases. Put money into some stocks that that
Speaker 5: you know, companies that you know that have depreciated in value,
Speaker 5: and you plan on holding those for the long run.
Speaker 5: That's another level of risk. So you have bonds that
Speaker 5: are low risks, you have stocks that are going to
Speaker 5: give you more return potentially over time, but carry additional risk.
Speaker 5: And then you kind of continue to go up the ladder.
Speaker 5: Maybe you want to start a business again risk that's
Speaker 5: more risks than stocks and cash. But now you're kind
Speaker 5: of figuring out what it is you have left for
Speaker 5: yourself to do all of these things. And that's where
Speaker 5: an individual has to kind of assess their own situation
Speaker 5: and say, you know what I make out of one
Speaker 5: hundred percent overall money that I make, I'm setting aside
Speaker 5: fifty percent in my retirement. I'm putting money into my home.
Speaker 5: I have fifty percent left over. You know, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: I want to make sure that I have about a
Speaker 5: year's worth of expenses set aside. I'm going to put
Speaker 5: that into bonds. And then the difference is you talk
Speaker 5: as a family, as a group, as a community and
Speaker 5: say what am I going to put the rest of
Speaker 5: the money in to kind of get these returns that
Speaker 5: can push my wealth building. I'll go forward even faster.
Speaker 1: You know what.
Speaker 4: The thing I love about you, Sean was years ago
Speaker 4: when I was in the NFL, I was always looking
Speaker 4: for you. You know me, I'm always looking for ways
Speaker 4: to make money. How can I do this money? And
Speaker 4: all you kept saying to me was time. All you
Speaker 4: kept saying to me was the now. This takes time.
Speaker 4: Like this is a life investment. This isn't an investment
Speaker 4: where you put something in for two years and you
Speaker 4: expect a huge return. And I'll give the listeners who
Speaker 4: are listening some insight. When I first made it to
Speaker 4: the NFL, my salary was two hundred and seventy five K.
Speaker 4: And when you hear that, I was and this is
Speaker 4: coming from a kid from Brooklyn, I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm rich. And Sean was like, you're not rich. Like
Speaker 4: you're making good money, but you're not making.
Speaker 1: Terrell Owens money. You know, you're not making Tom Brady money.
Speaker 4: You're not making millions of dollars a year and I
Speaker 4: had the only income at the house. So this is
Speaker 4: a two person income and I'm making two seventy five.
Speaker 4: That's like two people making a buck thirty a piece.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: So when I was making that money, Sean was like,
Speaker 4: you want to buy some property, you want to make
Speaker 4: some investments, but you also need to start thinking about
Speaker 4: what businesses you want to start. But it doesn't need
Speaker 4: something that's not something that those businesses are going to
Speaker 4: turn around value in the next five years. Immediately you're
Speaker 4: trying to build something long term. And I kid you
Speaker 4: guys not I bought two property. My brother and I
Speaker 4: started some property and it took Kadeen and I ten
Speaker 4: years to build to a point where we felt comfortable
Speaker 4: saying we can make a move or pivot in a
Speaker 4: different direction. And the reason why I want to tell
Speaker 4: that story is because that was a ten year investment
Speaker 4: and that was with an NFL salary. So if you
Speaker 4: have people here who are working nine to five, who
Speaker 4: are making six figures, and you have two salaries, it's
Speaker 4: going to take time, but you can wealth build. But
Speaker 4: don't expect the wealth building process to be a year.
Speaker 4: Don't expect it to be. I invested it this in
Speaker 4: six months and now I'm filthy rich. It takes time,
Speaker 4: and as long as you have invested in the time
Speaker 4: it will take to see returns on your investment, you'll
Speaker 4: be doing well and doing yourself for a service. So
Speaker 4: I just want our listeners to know that everything that
Speaker 4: Sean is saying, we've already put in place. When I
Speaker 4: was in the NFL, I put my money in my
Speaker 4: four to one K, I bought property, we invest in stocks,
Speaker 4: we invested in bonds, and throughout the course of the
Speaker 4: ten years, when we went to make the pivot and
Speaker 4: move to LA I ended up selling those properties and
Speaker 4: using that money as a way for us to move.
Speaker 1: But that was a wealth building move.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: We was in the apartment for nine years, and as
Speaker 4: we got equity in those properties, we were able to
Speaker 4: take out the capital and build. So I really want
Speaker 4: to put that on people's hearts to let them know
Speaker 4: that this takes time.
Speaker 1: You can't rush this process.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: I was just going to say, you're absolutely right, and
Speaker 5: it's also work like. It's not easy. It's not in
Speaker 5: the basic things that we're talking about with the four
Speaker 5: one K, It's not easy. To give up twenty to
Speaker 5: thirty thousand dollars out of someone's income. Everything about it.
Speaker 1: Talk about it, right.
Speaker 5: It's not easy to set It's not easy to commit
Speaker 5: to owning a home and paying a thirty year mortgage
Speaker 5: on time every single month. It's not easy building you know,
Speaker 5: a business out like you know, people look at their
Speaker 5: everyone else's situation and kind of make judgments about that's
Speaker 5: what success looks like, That's what wealth looks like. But
Speaker 5: I you know, working with wealthy people when they're wealthy,
Speaker 5: when they're relatively wealthy to others, it doesn't feel it
Speaker 5: doesn't seem well, it's hard. It's hard maintaining the things
Speaker 5: that you're committed to. It's hard to build it. You know,
Speaker 5: you look at all of the work specific to you
Speaker 5: guys that it took to kind of move forward. And
Speaker 5: I'm not saying the journey is not over. It's just
Speaker 5: you're just moving forward. And you can speak to how
Speaker 5: hard daily it is to maintain where your move the
Speaker 5: wealth building, you know, and that's what people when I
Speaker 5: talk about, you know, when people talk about retirement, retirement
Speaker 5: is just not working anymore. And work is a real thing.
Speaker 5: Work is how you are building these these This work
Speaker 5: is what's going to build the wealth that you envision
Speaker 5: for yourself. But while you're in the middle of it,
Speaker 5: I can't say unless you were given something, If you
Speaker 5: were given millions of dollars by your family, maybe it's easier.
Speaker 5: But we're talking about people that get up every day
Speaker 5: and make hard and tough decisions and commit to those
Speaker 5: decisions and navigate those decisions every day until they can
Speaker 5: take a break.
Speaker 4: So you know, that's that's why I wanted to cut
Speaker 4: you off, not to cut you off. That's why I
Speaker 4: told a story about you driving that car, because that
Speaker 4: was a credit to the sacrifice you were making in
Speaker 4: your twenties to say, you know what, I'm not going
Speaker 4: to go get me an expensive car just because I
Speaker 4: work on Wall Street.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a condo.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then, to me, that's what people don't want to hear.
Speaker 4: Every time someone asked me, how did you do it?
Speaker 4: They expect me to give them like a three step
Speaker 4: method to make a million dollars in six months. And
Speaker 4: then when you tell them, well, I had an Audi
Speaker 4: and I didn't drive an AUTI for four years, me
Speaker 4: and Case shared a car. I took the train. We
Speaker 4: didn't go on vacation for four years. I didn't buy
Speaker 4: any clothes, we didn't eat out, we didn't yoh. Then
Speaker 4: they'd be like, oh, that's not really a plan. It's like, no,
Speaker 4: that's exactly what the plan plan.
Speaker 1: The plan is to sacrifice, you.
Speaker 3: Know, yes, yes, And it's just like living in the
Speaker 3: society we live in. Everything is about instant gratification. You know,
Speaker 3: this generation things that things are just super super easy,
Speaker 3: and then they're also contending with this aspirational lifestyle that
Speaker 3: so many people are trying to live up to.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: We did an episode which we already told the listeners
Speaker 3: that we were going to be speaking with you on
Speaker 3: an episode about wedding culture and how it's literally trash
Speaker 3: now because the average cost for a wedding in the
Speaker 3: United States right now is thirty grand. Where people are
Speaker 3: aspiring to have these one hundred thousand dollars weddings just
Speaker 3: to keep up with the viral moments on Instagram. And
Speaker 3: we spoke about you know, taking that money and making
Speaker 3: it more of an investment move versus a one day thing.
Speaker 5: I mean, and it's happening across the economy. K it's weddings,
Speaker 5: it's the cost of education, it's the cost of homes,
Speaker 5: all of these decisions, like everything that we are committing
Speaker 5: to costs money, and it's and it's a sacrifice. And
Speaker 5: people cannot appreciate your how hard it is to be
Speaker 5: in one situation. Looking at you, guys, the world may
Speaker 5: think it's easy. I damn, I know it's not easy.
Speaker 5: I know it's not easy. I know how heavy that
Speaker 5: load is. I don't know whoever may be looking at
Speaker 5: me on the outs, I may think it's easy. Oh
Speaker 5: how you know what? It is so specific to the individual,
Speaker 5: and there is no quick and easy fix. We want
Speaker 5: to make it easier for our children though, Yeah, that's
Speaker 5: for sure. We want to give them a little bit
Speaker 5: of a leg up, just like my mom did. My
Speaker 5: mom moved. My mom literally left Jamaica as a single
Speaker 5: black woman in her twenties to come here. Everything I'm
Speaker 5: doing is easy. This is not this is that's that
Speaker 5: was hard.
Speaker 1: That'spective.
Speaker 2: Some of the stories Shawn Sean from Shawn's family from Jamaica.
Speaker 5: My mom.
Speaker 3: My mom came up here at seventeen by herself, looking
Speaker 3: to become a nurse, started working at Burger King, you know,
Speaker 3: and worked her way up, so we share some of
Speaker 3: those stories.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and your family d came from this, I guess
Speaker 5: you know. My family came from the people man. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But I think the biggest thing that I want
Speaker 4: to implore with people is stop looking for quick fixes.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: Instagram and social media is not a real place, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It takes time, it takes discipline, it takes strategy, you know.
Speaker 4: And if and if there were three things that someone
Speaker 4: is what does it take to build wealth? I would
Speaker 4: say time, discipline, and strategy. If you have those things,
Speaker 4: and if you remain consistent over the course of time,
Speaker 4: you can build wealth. But most of the wealth you see,
Speaker 4: the most of the wealth you gain you won't even
Speaker 4: be able to see.
Speaker 1: Your children will see it. And that to me is
Speaker 1: the biggest aid.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're you are, You're not. The goal should never
Speaker 5: be to spend the money that we made. We're living,
Speaker 5: We're up every single day, we're working hard, we are maintaining,
Speaker 5: we're making good decisions. We're trying to grow this wealth.
Speaker 5: But at the end of the day, we're not trying
Speaker 5: to leave this earth with zero and have these kids.
Speaker 5: The things that are really important families starting from zero, right, right,
Speaker 5: So we're not spending or we're not going to have
Speaker 5: the luxury of all of this wealth building that we're
Speaker 5: talking about to use for ourselves. It's just not how
Speaker 5: it works. Anything I do for clients, all of the
Speaker 5: projections that I run, it's to maintain what they've built
Speaker 5: for themselves. So for you guys, it's going to be
Speaker 5: to maintain when you're when you finally decide that somehow
Speaker 5: you're going to slow down, both of you, we're going
Speaker 5: to want to have the assets that you that have
Speaker 5: worked hard to set aside working for you, so you
Speaker 5: can take a step back. But the kids, the boys,
Speaker 5: they're going to get that money and they're going to
Speaker 5: figure out how to grow it for their kids. It's
Speaker 5: not I'll go back. I'll just say it's not easy.
Speaker 5: Those three things that you mentioned, time, discipline, I think
Speaker 5: you said strategy.
Speaker 1: Is that the strategy. You have to have a strategy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you have to have a strategy and kind of
Speaker 5: be willing to work at that strategy. I don't know
Speaker 5: how many people out there and kind of you know,
Speaker 5: visualizing what you guys have and do, but it takes
Speaker 5: work and it takes the time to kind of execute
Speaker 5: on it so that it becomes something that's real, something
Speaker 5: that's helping you to build wealth. There's no easy there's
Speaker 5: no quick fix, there's no easy answer. It's an individual decision.
Speaker 5: But going back to kind of the original questions, there
Speaker 5: are some basic things that you can do and that's
Speaker 5: and those things, those basic things are not easy either.
Speaker 5: Like I said, you're giving up money that you're working
Speaker 5: for to achieve, retire you know, four one K, owning
Speaker 5: a home, and then anything you do after that is
Speaker 5: in order for sure.
Speaker 4: So how about those are the three things we're going
Speaker 4: to give them if it takes time, discipline, strategy, but ultimately,
Speaker 4: if you want to start now, if you work a
Speaker 4: traditional nine to five, look into a four on one k,
Speaker 4: look into purchasing a home, and if that means you
Speaker 4: have to save x amount of dollars per month for
Speaker 4: two years, this is what me and k have. We
Speaker 4: worked on another another podcast talking about saving for the wedding.
Speaker 1: Kadeen and I was like.
Speaker 4: If you if each couple saves a thousand dollars, each
Speaker 4: person in the couple saves one thousand dollars a month,
Speaker 4: that'll give you two thousand dollars a month, that'll give
Speaker 4: you twenty four thousand dollars for the year.
Speaker 1: If you do like.
Speaker 4: Kadeena and I did, and you say, you know what
Speaker 4: we're gonna do four years of just straight sacrifice. That's
Speaker 4: ninety six thousand dollars you can save over the course
Speaker 4: of four years. That is a down payment. If you're
Speaker 4: putting down twenty percent on a home, that is a
Speaker 4: down payment on ninety thousand dollars. Dude, at least a
Speaker 4: half a million dollar home. I think that's a nice
Speaker 4: start for a family who's looking to buy a home
Speaker 4: in America. Have so many dollars from home, and you
Speaker 4: could put down ninety k that.
Speaker 2: Metropolis like a New York or LA trying to find property.
Speaker 4: But you know, oh yeah, yeah, if you're in New
Speaker 4: York or LA, it's extremely different. But also where you
Speaker 4: live is also a decision you have to make.
Speaker 3: But another thing you said, de Val is also working together,
Speaker 3: because Sean, we get a lot of couples who write
Speaker 3: in just for our listener letters, and you know such
Speaker 3: and they are asking advice because one person in the
Speaker 3: couple tends to be a little bit more financially savvy,
Speaker 3: or may have more business acumen than the other, or
Speaker 3: one tends to be more of a spender than the
Speaker 3: other and doesn't understand the sacrifice involved. And we've been
Speaker 3: there too, Sean, you know that for sure, where Deval
Speaker 3: and I have had our moments where you know, if
Speaker 3: he's had to school me on certain things, or Shawn's
Speaker 3: had to call me and say, hey, you know, what's
Speaker 3: the budget, what's the plan? So being on the same page,
Speaker 3: I think is also very important if you're trying to
Speaker 3: legacy and wealth build with somebody that's a relationship for sure.
Speaker 4: I think we might have lost se On. We were
Speaker 4: on our way to closing out anyway, but I think
Speaker 4: we might have lost se On. Yeah, we lost on
Speaker 4: there his internet. We might be able to get him back.
Speaker 4: He's sacrificing on the internet as well. That's part of
Speaker 4: his wealth building plans.
Speaker 3: Now he's trying to sabotage us, giving all the secrets,
Speaker 3: the tips and tricks to be wealthy black people be aware.
Speaker 4: But no, but that's actually a key. When people asked
Speaker 4: me how I was able to do certain things. I
Speaker 4: bought property early and it was time for us to
Speaker 4: make some moves. I cashed in on those properties to be.
Speaker 3: Able to pivot because at the time I remember too
Speaker 3: Sean saying, like certain investments that you wanted to make,
Speaker 3: for example, buying your grandparents' house is not necessarily the
Speaker 3: best financially sound investment because it didn't really do much
Speaker 3: for you.
Speaker 2: But I mean, I think you had to write off
Speaker 2: in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I used it as a couple of write offs.
Speaker 4: I use it appreciation to write off my taxes and
Speaker 4: stuff like that. But also the property over time, because
Speaker 4: I held on to the property for I think twelve
Speaker 4: thirteen years, built a small amount of equity, so when
Speaker 4: I sold it, I was able to get about thirty thousand.
Speaker 2: Dollars and also build credit too.
Speaker 4: It helped me build my credit, help you building credits
Speaker 4: and the Michigan property.
Speaker 1: And this is also to tell y'all the truth.
Speaker 4: Part of the reason why when we had the topic
Speaker 4: about the house of the wedding, Coadem picked the wedding
Speaker 4: is because we already owned two properties, so we were
Speaker 4: thinking about buying our dream house, but we still already
Speaker 4: owned two properties, so we were still very fiscally responsible
Speaker 4: with that decision. Even though hindsight it wasn't the best
Speaker 4: decision both when we were ready to move to LA,
Speaker 4: I sold the Michigan property and now had access to
Speaker 4: seventy K.
Speaker 1: So you figured the thirty K to seventy K.
Speaker 4: They gave us one hundred thousand dollars, which gave us
Speaker 4: a next day to pivot and start rebuilding our life
Speaker 4: in la and.
Speaker 2: Taking the risks the risk for sure, So thank you, Sean.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if we're going to be able to
Speaker 2: get him back.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's going on?
Speaker 5: Sorry guy, that's my cord and drove.
Speaker 4: Oh, no, worry about, no where about. So actually no,
Speaker 4: we were actually going to get ready to close out anyway.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you hear your gods in the
Speaker 4: background screaming like the lunatic. Yeah, we were getting ready
Speaker 4: to close out.
Speaker 1: And thank you.
Speaker 4: During that time when you were going we were just
Speaker 4: talking about how purchasing the homes early on in our
Speaker 4: career actually helped us when we were getting ready to move.
Speaker 4: But at the time we were like, we didn't see
Speaker 4: the purpose of the investment, you know, and you and
Speaker 4: I know we did it to help my family. But
Speaker 4: over time, over those twelve or thirteen years, I was
Speaker 4: able to use it as some write offs and get
Speaker 4: some equity, so that when we were ready to pivot
Speaker 4: in LA, it was like, Wow, this is actually an
Speaker 4: okay long term investment. That's why it's always okay to
Speaker 4: buy property and get.
Speaker 2: Involved, to be aware of what's long term and short term.
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3: Well, Sean, I'm sure we could talk with you so
Speaker 3: many different things when it comes to finance, wealth building
Speaker 3: and all that good stuff. But just a little bit
Speaker 3: of insight I think would be so helpful to our listeners.
Speaker 2: So thank you for joining us to Dana.
Speaker 3: You're a busy, busy man over there helping people juggle
Speaker 3: all this money. Yeah, but we appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2: We love you.
Speaker 3: We thank you for everything that you love you bro,
Speaker 3: and you continue to do for the culture of educating
Speaker 3: us because you know, as a culture and as a community,
Speaker 3: these are the things that we don't necessarily always share
Speaker 3: with each other. So having platforms and forums like this
Speaker 3: are so important.
Speaker 1: And let me jump in real quick.
Speaker 4: When I was fifteen, Sean had a He started doing
Speaker 4: this wealth building stuff with us when I was fifteen.
Speaker 4: I remember you came to Uncle Charles's house. It was me,
Speaker 4: Jonathan DeVaughn, and it was about seven boy Scouts. And
Speaker 4: it's funny when someone takes initiative into helping the youth
Speaker 4: or helping people in the community, you don't know if
Speaker 4: you're affecting everybody a one person, but I know at
Speaker 4: that meeting, I was the one person that was listening
Speaker 4: and now look, and it started from that. I was like, wow,
Speaker 4: wealth building. And I was fifteen, and I remember, you know,
Speaker 4: some of the kids just like, oh my gosh, so
Speaker 4: what is this. I don't want to listen. And he
Speaker 4: came with pamphlets, he had folders, and I remember looking
Speaker 4: at this.
Speaker 1: Stuff and thinking like that I can have more.
Speaker 4: Ultimately, that's what we want our listeners to understand, that
Speaker 4: you can have more, but it takes time.
Speaker 1: So I love you, bro. I'm gonna give.
Speaker 4: You your flowers because you've been on this and you've
Speaker 4: been on me about this since I was young.
Speaker 3: So I guess I could technically thank Sean because that's
Speaker 3: one thing that's found very attractive about the Vale, y'all.
Speaker 3: I'll tell y'all, he had business acumen and financial acumen
Speaker 3: that I did not know about.
Speaker 2: But I found it very, very, very sexy.
Speaker 3: When he was telling me out all the plants he
Speaker 3: had to buy a brownstone, leave in the bottom level,
Speaker 3: rent out the top, make money, have passive income.
Speaker 1: I was like, ooh, eighteen, Sean was telling me.
Speaker 2: You Sean with you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, look, you gotta have you gotta have dream. You
Speaker 5: gotta dream. You gotta dream. You gotta latch onto your
Speaker 5: dreams and and and and latch onto them and work,
Speaker 5: work your butt off to to achieve them. You know,
Speaker 5: if you if you come up short, if you come
Speaker 5: up short, that's fine. You're still you're still knocking the
Speaker 5: go off the ball, so you know.
Speaker 1: But you're still in the game.
Speaker 4: Even if you come up short, You're still in the
Speaker 4: game as long as you don't quit. So you never fail,
Speaker 4: you know, because you know what I went through, even
Speaker 4: even buying properties early investing in the stock market when
Speaker 4: the recession hit, I was down bad. I happen to
Speaker 4: get cut during the worst time in the financial history
Speaker 4: in America since the Great Depression. But we were able to,
Speaker 4: with discipline and with your help, just build back.
Speaker 6: YEP.
Speaker 5: I wish there was a way to really express to
Speaker 5: your listeners how hard it was, though, Like I don't
Speaker 5: I don't know if that. I don't know if they
Speaker 5: can connect where you guys are today without how hard
Speaker 5: you had to work to get to where you are
Speaker 5: today and how hard the journey is going to be
Speaker 5: going forward. Everybody kind of looks at these things I feel,
Speaker 5: and they just see the moment and they don't really
Speaker 5: understand what it takes. Yeah, so I just you know,
Speaker 5: I will, I guess in part of I would just say,
Speaker 5: nect with your dreams and just be really ready to
Speaker 5: work your ass off to hit to hit those goals,
Speaker 5: because it's not going You can talk. I mean, I
Speaker 5: tell my kids and my family, I hear you. You know,
Speaker 5: I understand when you talk and you say you want
Speaker 5: to do these things and show me, you know, show
Speaker 5: me whatever it is, whatever that goal is, wherever you
Speaker 5: want to do, whatever you want to do in life.
Speaker 5: Let's take the steps now to get you get you there.
Speaker 5: So you know, I guess that the closing stop really,
Speaker 5: you know, I would, I would. I would encourage your
Speaker 5: listeners to not focus on the now, just really connect
Speaker 5: with the work that has to be done to get
Speaker 5: you to your individual dream, your individual goal.
Speaker 2: Dope, dope, and appreciate, thank you. So much, Sean. Thank you.
Speaker 3: All Right, y'all, we're going to let Sean go and
Speaker 3: we'll take a quick break and then we'll get back
Speaker 3: into listener letters after we pay some bills because listen,
Speaker 3: be talking money and it's got to get paid because.
Speaker 2: They're definitely show up at your door step.
Speaker 6: I love you, guys, love you to love you too, bro.
Speaker 2: Thanks Bro.
Speaker 6: We'll be back all right.
Speaker 4: So we're back now today. Because of the length of
Speaker 4: the show, we're only gonna do one listener letter.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna start it out.
Speaker 2: You ready, baby, Okay, go ahead. Do you know which
Speaker 2: one are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 4: First things first, Pop, Please, First things first, I recently
Speaker 4: started listening to your podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely not disappointed. Well, we appreciate you.
Speaker 4: I'm literally starting from the beginning anyway. I'm only eighteen, wow,
Speaker 4: and I graduate in a few months. I'm going into
Speaker 4: the military and then I'm going to my dream college.
Speaker 4: I'm currently with someone, and people classify young relationships as
Speaker 4: puppy love, but you guys met young as well. I'm
Speaker 4: like I like him a lot, maybe even love. I
Speaker 4: just have so many things going for me. He's great,
Speaker 4: with supporting me and I help him as well. So
Speaker 4: my question to you guys is should I commit to
Speaker 4: him or should I wait and see how everything plays out.
Speaker 4: I want that young and grow to get the type
Speaker 4: of love, but not everybody guys specifically want to commit
Speaker 4: so young, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Yeah, I know, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: I think we had a Listening letter in the Listening
Speaker 3: Letter episodes where it was similar. It was the girl
Speaker 3: who was twenty one and she was trying to think, like,
Speaker 3: is this my soulmate? I feel like he might be,
Speaker 3: And I'm always conflicted because I'm like, shoot, Kadeen now
Speaker 3: at thirty nine, wants to tell her a girl, just.
Speaker 2: Enjoy yourself, see how things play out.
Speaker 3: You know, do you you know, be the individual, learn
Speaker 3: who you are, learn.
Speaker 2: What you like you know.
Speaker 3: But then I'm also thinking about Kadeen at eighteen, who
Speaker 3: was madly in love with this man after two weeks
Speaker 3: and was just like, I love you, I want to
Speaker 3: be with you.
Speaker 2: Told my cousin I found my.
Speaker 3: Husband, and here we are twenty something years later, literally
Speaker 3: still together. But I will say the process was not easy.
Speaker 3: And if you're a new listener and you're listening from
Speaker 3: the beginning. Then you'll also learn about thou and my
Speaker 3: struggle in so many different points of our relationship. Trying
Speaker 3: to stay afloat is particularly in our book. We gave
Speaker 3: our the story of how we met and how things
Speaker 3: kind of played out over the course of the next
Speaker 3: ten years after that.
Speaker 2: What do you think, babe?
Speaker 1: I think for.
Speaker 4: An answer like this, you can't give a generic answer
Speaker 4: a question like this. You know, I can't say yeah,
Speaker 4: stick together, no, speak to each other if you want to.
Speaker 4: If you want to stick it, first of all, don't
Speaker 4: listen to nobody else.
Speaker 2: That part.
Speaker 1: If you listen to the people around you.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you listen to Kadeen and I
Speaker 4: story or if you Watchatima, everybody else around you was
Speaker 4: going to give you some messed up advice about your
Speaker 4: life because they're not in your life.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 4: The only person that knows about your life, and I'm
Speaker 4: talking about Kadeen and I as well, is you. You
Speaker 4: speak to that young man and y'all figure out what
Speaker 4: type of life y'all want to live. If he says
Speaker 4: he's in it for the long hold and he wants
Speaker 4: to do it from young age, y'all work on doing
Speaker 4: it and have fun doing it.
Speaker 1: If he's telling you how, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I want to take some time and I'm not sure,
Speaker 4: give him his time, and you find somebody who you
Speaker 4: want to build it with.
Speaker 1: But the only person who has that answer, Mama, is you.
Speaker 2: That is a fact.
Speaker 3: So good luck to you, Sis. You know, it could
Speaker 3: also be a thing where you guys just start working
Speaker 3: together and then seeing how things go, you might end
Speaker 3: up being great friends. Like Daval and I knew that
Speaker 3: we didn't want to be together when we met each other.
Speaker 3: That was like, that was like the thing.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be a boyfriend.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to be a girlfriend. I wanted to
Speaker 3: be in d streets having a good time. And then
Speaker 3: there was that undeniable connection, that vibe, that energy that
Speaker 3: we just could not shake.
Speaker 2: So maybe see where things go. You know, you said you.
Speaker 3: Like him a lot, you maybe even love You're not sure,
Speaker 3: you know, see where it goes, see where it goes,
Speaker 3: and just don't put too much pressure on yourself or
Speaker 3: on him, because you got a lot of life ahead
Speaker 3: of you.
Speaker 2: All right, Sis, that was a pretty easy one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, nice end to a great podcast episode. If you
Speaker 3: want to be featured as one of our listener letters.
Speaker 3: Be sure to email us at dead Ass Advice gmail
Speaker 3: dot com.
Speaker 4: That's D E A D A S S A d
Speaker 4: V I C at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: All right, Moment of true time.
Speaker 3: We're talking estate building, legacy building savings with Sean Freeman
Speaker 3: today with people who are trying to do that.
Speaker 1: Moment of truth.
Speaker 2: Moment of truth time.
Speaker 4: Takes three things to build wealth, discipline, time, and a strategy.
Speaker 4: And I'll put in this order discipline, a strategy, and time.
Speaker 4: If you have those three things, you can definitely build wealth.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter what type of job you have. Give
Speaker 4: yourself greats along the way, because it's going to be
Speaker 4: ebbs and flows. But you got to have discipline, You
Speaker 4: got to give yourself time, and you have to have
Speaker 4: a strategy that's.
Speaker 2: A really good one.
Speaker 3: Based on the conversation, I'm going to speak to people
Speaker 3: who are possibly single, possibly in relationships, couples. I think
Speaker 3: it's important to have conversations early on about finances, business acumen,
Speaker 3: financial acumen goals when it comes to finances, because that
Speaker 3: tends to be the number one stress stressor within relationships.
Speaker 3: Absolutely so, just making sure that you're on the same
Speaker 3: page about the trajectory of your finances, the investments that
Speaker 3: you plan to make, how you're planning to pool money
Speaker 3: together or divide money, because that tends to be an
Speaker 3: issue sometimes for couples. Just having the conversations early on
Speaker 3: will help to alleviate I think, some of the stress
Speaker 3: in the long run, because if you're not on the
Speaker 3: same page upfront about what your financial journey is going
Speaker 3: to look like, it can be a real detriment to
Speaker 3: your life and to your relationship. So having those conversations
Speaker 3: early on, I think is super super important, and try
Speaker 3: to learn from each other because usually, like I said,
Speaker 3: in a relationship, one person may be a little bit
Speaker 3: more financially savvy than the other. And in our case,
Speaker 3: it was de Val who was as we can see,
Speaker 3: because Sean was speaking to him early on, and those
Speaker 3: are things that stuck with him that he was able
Speaker 3: to apply to his life and then in turn to mind.
Speaker 3: So be open minded about it and have those conversations.
Speaker 3: Transparency is very key, especially with finances.
Speaker 4: By property investing your four on one K, if your
Speaker 4: company's going to match it, you put in fifteen thousand,
Speaker 4: they're going to put in fifteen thousand. That's fifteen thousand.
Speaker 4: You get free and you get to write it off
Speaker 4: on your taxes period. And oh, this is the last
Speaker 4: thing I will say. Oh, don't be afraid to go
Speaker 4: into your four on one K. If you have a
Speaker 4: good financial plan that's going to use that money, you
Speaker 4: do not have to wait until you sixty five. I've
Speaker 4: done this. I've seen plenty of people done this, and
Speaker 4: I've helped them with this. Take the penalty if did
Speaker 4: you know the reward is going to be greater than
Speaker 4: the penalty that you paid. And that's I had a
Speaker 4: friend had a friend years ago who was just like
Speaker 4: the vialle I'm thinking about opening up a subway and
Speaker 4: I was just like, okay, what's toping? So I don't
Speaker 4: have the capital, So I was like, you have four
Speaker 4: one K. He's like, yeah, but that's for my retirement.
Speaker 4: I said, well, list at the subway party of retirement.
Speaker 4: So if you got money in the four on one
Speaker 4: K and it's gaining interest, what if you took out
Speaker 4: a part of it invested in a sub and now
Speaker 4: that subway is making you more of.
Speaker 1: A return than you're four one k? And he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know what that's right.
Speaker 2: A lot of people are scared it for one K.
Speaker 1: Guess how many subways he got now three?
Speaker 2: Shut up?
Speaker 1: Started with one, Now he got three?
Speaker 2: All right, good shit, so we aired.
Speaker 3: Folks inspired, be sure to follow us on Patreon to
Speaker 3: see exclusive dead Ass podcast video content, and follow us
Speaker 3: on social media. You can find the podcast page dead
Speaker 3: Ass the Podcast on Instagram and I am Kadine, I
Speaker 3: am and.
Speaker 4: I am Devout And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 4: be sure to rate, review, and subscribe.
Speaker 2: That's it, baby, and get his money, all right.
Speaker 1: Dead Ass.
Speaker 4: Dead Ass is a production of iHeartMedia podcast Network, and
Speaker 4: it's produced by Donor Opinia and Triple. Follow the podcast
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