Money… It’s a gift, curse, and a necessity that we have been burdened with through the course of world history. Many of us believe that it is the answer to our survival… While others believe that it is the root of all evil and the bane of our existence. Some believe that a man’s soul can be manipulated and bought with its power and some people believe that its power will soon come to an end through metaphysics and natural selection. However you want to believe it this is our current reality, and we must live in it accordingly. By this I mean that we have to be responsible with it for money is our source of living the lives we have grown accustomed to. Unlike air or water, money does not come freely or at a low cost abundance. We only get so much of it to use at a time so that we can feed our families, take care of ourselves, and provide for the future of our people. As Black people we know this yet frivolously spend and waste our money by virtually throwing our lives and worth in this country away. In order to do the most that we can without money we must save and budget the money that we do have access to.

The first thing we must consider is that a problem exists. If one did not exist then we would occupy the middle to upper middle class more heavily than we do. We need money to live and survive, yet we succumb to poverty and other symptoms of lacking the funds to live our lives. We live our lives daily with images of what is supposed to be the good life. Lots of cash, a McMansion, a car you can barely afford with a woman who wears the biggest and best jewelry along with all of the latest high dollar fashions, is the way that our American dream is presented to us. The media gives these images all at once to portray the good life, and we fall for it every time. It then gives us an impossible goal to shoot for and leaves us falling over ourselves to get it. We then drive ourselves to living check to check and hand to mouth so that we can get the smallest taste of this fantasy. We spend and waste all the while others recognize the importance of budgeting and financial security. To change our thinking we must break the poor financial habits that we have been taught and also bad ones that we grew up with. Here are a few of these bad choices. Budgeting is more than proper… It is required for survival. Together we can avoid these deadly budgeting sins which are destroying our finances…

1. NOT HAVING A BUDGET & NO BANK ACCOUNT- This one is simple. We only get a certain amount of money to work with. Once our money runs out we don’t have a reset button to replenish our funds. If we simply spend our money without purpose then we will never have any to speak of. I understand that some of us grew up a certain way with no financial responsibility and some of us are used to living the same way we did in college. That’s understandable, but do keep in mind that you are more than likely an adult now and need to budget your money so that you can live independently. Without a budget you cannot plan for the next month let alone the future. You cannot afford to start over especially if you are the only one you can depend on. We also need a way to accurately manage our money as well. So many of us have lost our good standing with the bank due to negative standing and refuse to pay it back, lowering ourselves to paying 10% or more to cash a check. The bank account keeps you in charge of ALL your finances instead of losing up to 3 dollars in change because of holes in pockets or a kid with sticky fingers. Take charge of every cent. Too many of us have to “start over” for this very reason. We don’t have to start over if we continue to make sound financial decisions and plan accordingly. Tired or starting over? Then don’t. Make the choice to put a plan in place so that you do not spend beyond your means and so that if things go bad you have a solid back up plan, or in lay man’s terms… A BUDGET.

2. BUYING CHEAP, TO SAVE A BUCK- The saying, you get what you pay for is more true that you think it to be. At times I know that in the attempts to save our money we try to buy lesser quality gods and services. This can and will be a detriment to your cause of budgeting and saving money. Higher prices in products 95% of the time mean better quality. If you buy a cheap car for 5k… Then have to spend 20k in repairs over the next few months, it is not helping your cause. Sometimes we have to spend money to make money and in certain cases save money. Even when it comes to your children, buying cheap clothes and cheap food will force you to pay out more in the long run.  You will have to replace the clothes more regularly and your child will have to see the doctor more often due to poor health. It also can cost you at your job. How you carry yourself and your presence can keep you from a promotion. In the business world looks are everything. A good look will get you an even better opportunity when it comes to promotion time. Regardless of your skill set and ability, employers want to see a good looking workforce at the top. Wearing cheap clothes again does not help your cause.

3. TURN DOWN FOR WHAT?! FOR YOU FINANCES, THAT’S WHY! – One thing that I have noticed is that even when we do budget there is always an allocation for entertainment and fast fashion. The dollar amount normally is NOT what you should be spending on this particular vice. Face it. We will never be on the same level of frivolous spending as LeBron James, Richard Sherman, or Kanye West. We are also never going to be as fashionable as Beyoncé, Usher, or even Justin Bieber. These people are given free clothes to promote the clothing that you run out and buy, and the money that they blow comes from multiple sources and jobs. Knowing all this you have as yourself… 1. Do I have multiple sources of income? Do I get clothes for free, or do I get paid to be fashionable? If the answer is no to any of these questions… Sit down. Let me explain a few things to you. Fast fashion is just that… Fast clothing. It is not meant to be an investment, yet blacks invest in these crappy clothes every day to the detriment of their pocket book. Even while drinking at bars and restaurants has taken over our spending. If you know the negative zone is closing in on your debit card… STOP. Believe me, you do not impress anyone with buying the bar, nor are you relieving any stress by drinking yourself to death. You are actually bringing about a new stress by depleting your account. Turn down and save your budgeted dollars for something that will better you situation instead of tearing it down. Remember… Your overdraft protection is NOT A LINE OF CREDIT. Making purchases knowing you don’t have the funds will only lead to you not wanting to pay back the ridiculous fees you will accumulate and will lead to you defaulting on your bank account. This means you will be reported to an entity called “Check Systems” and you will no longer be able to open a viable checking account which will then force you to become part of the unwashed masses in the check cashing lines. This then adds an unnecessary expense to your budget every month.  Hold yourself in a higher regard… And again KEEP YOUR OWN MONEY.

4. THE RENT TO OWN… PAYDAY LOAN… CAR TITLE LOAN… CHECK CASHING TRAP- I understand that things get tough and the money isn’t always there all the time. However we are setting ourselves up for epic failure trying to use these services to our advantage. The WORST thing you can do is to take out one of these loans because the interest rates are predatory as well as racially biased. These white owned companies are designed to leech off the hard times of minorities crippling them to pad their pockets with our dollars. You can easily tell this by the fact that these “businesses” do not exist in predominantly white neighborhoods. Only in our areas do these places thrive. Sadly most of the time the loans are taken out because of our own folly. Here is the basic reasoning… I can’t pay my bills… Because I don’t have money… Because I spent said money… because I had other expenditures…Because other things took priority over my bills. Now actually seeing the logic on paper does it AT ALL make sense to you? Nothing should take priority over your bills. A good rule of thumb to keep this from happening is ROOF, HEALTH, SAVINGS, FUN. This should be your chain of priority. Following this will keep you away from these services completely. If the loan is for something like a trip or a fun night out then well… You don’t need your money anyway. As ridiculous as my statement was it is just as ridiculous to sacrifice your financial stability for the aforementioned activates. Again I say Black people… CONTROL YOUR OWN MONEY If you have worked for 10 plus years and saved all the money you spent on check cashing you’d have enough to pay your utilities at least 3 times.

5. SIMPLY ADMITTING THT YOU DON’T HAVE IT- Look we get it. You went to college, or at bare minimum have a job that pays a decent wage. Others have the opportunity to go out to the bar… Go on trips… Buy the latest cell phone, etc… You make good money but cannot afford to do the things that you want and feel entitled to as a human being that has joined the workforce. So what do you do? You allow your bills and other responsibilities to fall by the wayside so that you can maintain a standard of living that you otherwise cannot afford. This is what keeps others rich and you chasing your tail in the financial world. If we simply took a stern look at what we could actually afford paying back all debts and bills on time, you would not live the life you live today. In the financial world the rules state that to have good financial stability, you should have enough money saved to pay all your bills and utilities at least 3 times over. Most Black people unfortunately are not even doing that. In order to get that leeway you must accumulate the funds to do so. However if you are spending to the last possible cent at every turn trying to keep up with the joneses you will never get there. I know you are not going to want to hear this and I sound like someone’s mom… But if your friends can’t understand that you can’t afford to bar hop, vacation, or go shopping with them then they were never you friend’s to start with.  The world of money is not one of love and kindness, nor does it stroke your go. It is harsh and cold. Simply you must save yourself first to have any success in it. Remember… There is a difference between the guy who’s always at the party… And the guy who whenever he’s at the party does it right.

*Bonus Tip*

PAY YOUR BILLS ON TIME & IN FULL- I know it seems like a very blanket statement, but hear me out. While we try and budget our bills we tend to let some bills go purely for entertainment or other frivolous reasons, but consider this. If you have a bill that is 100 dollars per month and you only pay half of it…. You now owe about 180.00 going into the next week. Again… You only pay half. At the end of the following month you now owe $220.00 At this point you only budgeted for a bill of only $100.00 so now you are drowning. And roughly at years end you will have owed this company over, wait for it… $5,980.00!!! This same bill could have only cost you about $1,200 for the year only if you had paid on time. So when you think that partially paying a bill is going to free up some money… Believe me it will not. If you do fall behind, then don’t let it ride. If not then you will be facing an inflated debt that you caused. It’s not racism or the man keeping you down… It because you decided you needed that drink, those shoes, r that narcotic, or that particular vice instead of financial peace of mind.

Until next time Money makers… Make money, not excuses.