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Money Management

Jan 16
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5 Financial Lessons Taught By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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SYNDICATED | By Lynnette Khalfani-Cox | January 15, 2020

In memory of one of America’s most pre-eminent heroes, here are five financial lessons we can all learn from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy.

Lesson No. 1: Don’t wait for economic change—create it.

How many times have you complained about your workplace, your low pay or something unfair that happened to you economically? Maybe a company denied you a job, some insurer rejected your insurance claim or a bank turned you down for a much-needed loan, and you’re convinced your misfortune was racially motivated.

Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong. Either way, how do you plan to fix your circumstances and move forward positively?

Or perhaps you’re simply longing for better pay and more career success, but you’re stuck in a cubicle waiting to be recognized for your hard work while others are promoted left and right all around you.

Well, Dr. King didn’t just moan about social and economic injustice. He worked hard to change such wrongdoing. He protested. He lobbied. He went to jail. He sacrificed.

In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in April 1963, King wrote:

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

What are you willing to do to create the economic realities you desire?

Lesson  No. 2: Financial freedom is worth fighting for.

One of my favorite sayings from Martin Luther King, Jr. is this:

“There is nothing in all the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth losing a job for; it is worth going to jail for. I would rather be a free pauper than a rich slave. I would rather die in abject poverty with my convictions than live in inordinate riches with the lack of self-respect.”

Those are powerful words. And I like to think that King meant “freedom” in every sense of the word—including financial freedom.

In my opinion, though—and I really hate to say this—too many African-Americans who want financial freedom aren’t willing to seriously fight for it, nor take enough risks to get it.

We’ll fight for all sorts of things–just turn on The Real Housewives of Atlanta to see crazy fights over a bunch of nothing. But how come more of us aren’t out there fighting to teach our kids to be financially literate; fighting to help more Black men graduate from college, or fighting against poverty—even though we live in the richest country on the planet?

Winning these battles will promote generational and national economic security.

Lesson No. 3: Sometimes you need to step out on faith and take a risk.

One of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most memorable quotes was when he said,

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

Having faith and taking risks are necessary components to building wealth and managing one’s finances. So what are some ways to take prudent risks and achieve financial freedom?

You could start by doing something as simple as tuning out all the noise, the commercialism and (…continue reading at Ebony.com)

Dec 07
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3 Ways to Rethink Your Finances for the Holidays

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It might be time for an attitude adjustment. In fact, with the pressure to overspend and take on debt to meet the demand and expectations of the holidays, an attitude adjustment may be just what you need for both your emotional and financial health.

It’s not surprising that, during the “season of giving,” many of us feel stressed by the depressing realization that we just can’t afford to live up to what we feel is being demanded of us, by ourselves as well as others—not to mention by retailers. The holiday shopping season may only remind us of what we can’t afford and what we don’t have.

Without an attitude adjustment, this can rob us of all the joy we are entitled to—not only during holidays, but every day. Worse than that, many of us try to fill the “joy-void” by buying stuff we can’t afford to feel better and in the holiday spirit, only to experience the guilt and remorse of a financial hangover when the bills come due.

Among the biggest barriers to making good money decisions, is the habit of worrying that we don’t have enough and obsessing over how to get more. Changing this requires you to adjust your attitude, and create a mindset of disciplined abundance, not desperate deprivation. Here’s how:

1. Learn to Enjoy What You Have, Where You Are

If financial planning feels like punishment, you won’t stick to it. So budget for your bills, savings, and paying down debt, but also include something for you to enjoy, monthly. As long as it’s within your budget, it’s okay.

2. Be Grateful

Stop thinking in terms of what you don’t have—the flyest car, the biggest house, the latest clothes—and be thankful for having a roof over your head, food to eat, good health, family, friends, and faith.

3. Join a Support Team to Deal With Your Money Issues

Try debtorsanonymous.org to find meetings where you can discuss your financial challenges with others and gain new perspectives on your relationship with money. You can also try to form a support team yourself.

You may not have as much as you want to be able to give or feel you deserve to have, but there are plenty of others who have far less. Operating from a position of gratitude and abundance is the first step to achieving a wealth-building mindset.

Originally posted December 2020
Originally appeared on BlackEnteprise.com December 2019
Contributor: Alfred Edmond Jr
Photo: iStock.com/Dean Mitchell

Dec 02
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Working Toward Financial Freedom

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To celebrate and recognize how our Minters are achieving their financial milestones, we reached out to everyday Mint users like you, to share their stories. 

We connected with Becca, a 27 year old personal finance entrepreneur from New York to learn more about her journey with Mint! Check it out below. 

I’ve always loved personal finance and recently created my own brand to help other women learn about finances as well. When it comes to my journey with Mint, I’ve been using it since 2015 to help set and maintain my budgets, and I check the app every day to categorize my new transactions. And that’s actually one of my favorite things about the Mint app — seeing my transactions automatically appear so I can quickly categorize them and see how they affect my budgets.

Usually when I wake up in the morning or before work, I’ll open Mint and look at my latest transactions to make sure they’re in the right categories and then see what that does to my budgets overall. This makes it quick and easy to always know where I stand. It also helps to be able to see all of my transactions from different accounts in one place so I can check to make sure there are no transactions that aren’t mine! You always need to check to make sure there isn’t fraud!

I also use Mint’s trends feature to see how my spending has changed over time. Lifestyle creep can affect all of us (when our income goes up we end up spending more instead of saving more). I like to look back and see how my spending has changed over time to identify any areas of lifestyle creep that I may want to reign in. 

One of my financial goals is that I am constantly trying to grow my net worth so that I can have as many options as I want as I get older. If I want to retire early then I want to be able to have the financial freedom to do that. If I want to continue working and live a lavish lifestyle I want to have that option. I want to have as many options as I can, which means I need to be saving as much as I can now. Mint helps me make sure I keep my spending in check in order to make that happen. 

Mint has constantly been helping me with this goal, and one of my milestones is that I recently hit a net worth of $300K! Without Mint helping me start my financial journey and keeping me on track to my budgets I could have never done this.

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