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R &B Hi, I

2:08

am Ruchin McDonald, host of Weekly

2:10

Money Making Conversation Masterclass Show. The

2:12

interviews and information that this show

2:14

provides are for everyone. It's time

2:16

to stop reading other people's success

2:18

stories and start living your own.

2:20

If you want to be a

2:23

guest on my show, please visit

2:25

our website, moneymakingconversations.com and click the

2:27

be a guest button. Press submit

2:29

and the information will come directly

2:31

to me. know, I've just listened

2:33

over the years and my articulation

2:35

has gotten better. and my diction,

2:38

my wife corrects me, and I'm listening

2:40

to her. Because you have to

2:42

continue to work your craft. You have

2:44

to continue to be able to

2:46

take some form of criticism, whether it's

2:48

constructive or perceived. You might

2:50

can perceive it negative comments, but

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if people are set there in a

2:54

position to make you sound

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3:01

want when you guys hear me to

3:03

be able to hear the words correctly,

3:05

the information correctly, and that's what Money

3:07

Making Conversation is all about. The interviews

3:09

that I do on this show and

3:11

the information that this show provides, it's

3:13

for you, it's for everyone. And I

3:15

always tell people it's time to stop

3:17

reading other people's success stories and start

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living your own life, not

3:21

anybody else's,

3:24

because it's you, it's

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you when you wake up, it's you. You know,

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sitting there? But guess what? I always beat my

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alarm clock up. I don't know why. It's

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your American dream. Just keep listening and listen

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want to be a guest on my

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show, please visit moneymakingconversation.com and click

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the be a guest button Wow, let's

4:00

get stolen My guest

4:02

today empowers businesses and individuals

4:04

to succeed by offering

4:07

strategic financial strategies, expert

4:09

guidance, and tailored business

4:11

solutions. As a dedicated financial

4:13

professional, she is committed to

4:15

empowering individuals through comprehensive financial education.

4:18

Please welcome to Money Making

4:20

Conversations masterclass, Laura Finney. How you

4:22

doing Laura? I'm

4:25

doing wonderful, Rashad. How are you?

4:27

We all are dreamers and I can't tell you

4:29

how to be successful. What

4:31

is the, I wouldn't say frustrating

4:33

because, you know, you got

4:35

a system, you've done this enough

4:37

to know, but what are some

4:39

of the mistakes that people make

4:41

when you're trying to plan

4:44

a proper financial strategy

4:46

for them? You

4:51

know, I was thinking

4:53

about the honestly question while I was listening

4:55

to your other guest. And

4:57

I'd probably say the biggest one

4:59

is listening to or taking advice from

5:01

someone who don't know what

5:04

that person's long -term goals and

5:06

dreams are. People put, you

5:08

know, products and services in place

5:10

based on information they hear or

5:12

course that they took or you

5:15

know, someone's podcast. And honestly, I really

5:17

appreciate that because I love it when

5:19

people are doing something

5:21

to save for the future. But

5:23

a financial plan is more than just saving.

5:25

It's allowing you to be able to

5:27

live life on your terms. And that comes

5:29

with very, very strategic planning to

5:31

make sure that number one, you

5:33

don't have to go back to

5:36

work when you decide to retire

5:38

or like, I like to say live life

5:40

on your terms because nobody's really retiring. But

5:42

when you say that one more

5:44

time, Laura, say that one more time. Nobody's

5:47

really retiring. Please tell my audience

5:49

that. Please tell my audience that. No

5:53

one really retires. We're not great grandmas

5:55

sitting on the front porch with some

5:57

lemonade rocking back and forth in the

5:59

chair. We're not doing that. What retirement

6:01

means now, which I now call living

6:03

life on your terms, is being able

6:05

to say, OK, I'm in a financial

6:07

position to never have to work again

6:09

at this age. and be able to

6:11

do whatever I want to do, which is

6:14

either do more philanthropy work or

6:16

travel or actually embark on a

6:18

passion that they had outside

6:20

their full -time job. True. Let's get started

6:22

here. I want to ask you a

6:24

couple of questions. My first question I want

6:26

to do is, what inspired you to

6:28

become a financial coach and a financial literacy

6:30

educator? What inspired you? Oh,

6:33

it was, it was two things, Rishan. Uh, the

6:35

first one was it was a day after

6:37

my 50th birthday party. Um, and you can

6:39

only imagine how sober I was in

6:42

that moment. And my cousin asked me

6:44

if I had a financial

6:46

plan for the future and what

6:48

my retirement looked like. And I

6:50

didn't know how to answer

6:52

that articulately, so to speak. Um,

6:54

you know, we save, right? We plan on

6:56

never having to go back to work again

6:58

and maybe rely on some social security along

7:00

with it. And then I realized that that

7:02

wasn't it. And I realized that I'd have

7:05

to give up a lot of the cable

7:07

channels that I watched, you know, 10 or

7:09

15 years from now. That was the first

7:11

thing is that I didn't know what I

7:13

didn't know. And so having her

7:15

explain to me what that looked like

7:17

was an eye opener. And then

7:19

the second one is I grew up in

7:21

the south suburbs of Chicago and my grandfather

7:23

had over about I want to say 12

7:25

to 15 acres of land and it was

7:28

farmland we grew fruits and

7:30

vegetables and its pigs and horses

7:32

and chickens and He built a

7:34

concrete home on that land, but

7:36

when I was 19 my grandfather

7:38

was dying of bone cancer And

7:40

my mom and her two brothers said he needed

7:42

to put a wheel in place And

7:45

he said, I don't need to do

7:47

that. You and your brothers handle it. Well,

7:49

long story short, they didn't handle it. The boys

7:51

wanted to sell. Mom wanted to keep it in

7:53

the family. And so she continued

7:55

to pay the taxes on the land until

7:57

she passed away when I was 24.

8:00

Now, I'm going to get a little real

8:02

here. I'm the youngest of seven kids,

8:04

and we have a very large family. And

8:06

all those grown folks in the family

8:08

didn't pay the taxes. So we

8:10

lost the taxes, the land to tax

8:13

sales. And so about five

8:15

years ago, um, I went

8:17

home and the area, cause you know, you're

8:19

always a ride path where you used to

8:21

live and grow up and it was in stand

8:23

and come to find out Amazon was building

8:25

a distribution center on the land I

8:27

grew up playing on. Wow.

8:33

So that's where my

8:35

desire, my passion for.

8:38

helping uneducated people become educated to really make

8:40

some financial decisions that will impact their

8:42

lives, not just now, but in the future.

8:44

Well, you know, I appreciate that on

8:47

the story. And I try to be honest

8:49

on this show. I try to tell

8:51

people about my mistakes. I try

8:53

to tell people that, you know,

8:55

my life isn't rosy. I tell them

8:57

whether it's my health stupidity because,

8:59

you know, I made some dumb decisions.

9:02

I tell everybody bragging about the fact that I eat

9:04

ice cream. I eat a gallon of ice cream a

9:06

week. I tell people that in the heartbeat, then all

9:08

of a sudden I got high blood pressure and high

9:10

cholesterol. Am I stunned? No.

9:13

because you've been doing stupid

9:15

things. But I think that when

9:17

you look at so many stories about,

9:20

you know, we had land and we

9:22

and didn't understand how to pass

9:24

that land. And then you do

9:26

hear some great stories where the family

9:28

understood how to create a legacies

9:30

with that land and get it to

9:32

the next point. Now, you

9:35

know, if a number that you brought up

9:37

was 50. And I really not bringing that

9:39

up because certain people locked down certain age numbers

9:41

where they go, I can't do nothing else

9:43

with my life. This is it. I'm just going

9:45

to get to the finish line. But at

9:47

50, you didn't see it that way. You didn't

9:49

see a finish line. What,

9:52

what, what, what kept you motivated?

9:55

I plan on living till I'm 112. There

9:58

you go, girl. There you go. Come on. Me and you.

10:00

I'm telling you. Me and you. But,

10:02

but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but,

10:04

but, but, but, but, But I'm gonna be like

10:06

Dick Van Dyke, though. Dick Van Dyke, I'm

10:08

still out there dancing, splitting, acting.

10:12

You know, that's what Ruchin's going to be.

10:14

I swear to you. You see me walking

10:16

around slow. I be doing my yoga. I

10:18

be doing my stretching, my sit ups, because

10:20

I be looking at people my age walk.

10:22

I go, I can't walk like that. I

10:25

can't walk like that. I gotta

10:27

do my stretching and all those

10:29

things. And I wasn't doing that. And

10:31

I was realizing that. If you

10:33

allow age to win, then the results

10:35

are bad. That's

10:37

right. And at 50, you said,

10:39

no. That is not

10:41

my, don't you look at me and tell me

10:43

when I'm gonna die? Don't you

10:45

do that? Well,

10:47

the problem is, is that, you know, my

10:50

birth certificate said 50. I felt like I was

10:52

in my 30s. There you go. Well,

10:54

that's me. I don't allow age numbers

10:56

to define how I live my life. Say

10:58

that to my audience one more time.

11:00

Come on, please, please. I do not allow

11:02

age to define how I live my

11:04

life. Now, you know, you've been repeating a

11:07

lot of things on your interview because

11:09

you've been saying some profound stuff to my

11:11

audience because see, I always tell people

11:13

this, Laura, never allow

11:15

age to be an excuse on anything

11:17

you want to do. You

11:19

know, Yes, physically you may not be

11:21

able to do things, but if your

11:23

mind's right and you have the ability

11:25

to plan, you have the ability to

11:27

create relationships you can win with. Here's

11:29

my next question I want to ask

11:31

you. What are the most common financial

11:33

challenges you see people in their 30s

11:35

and 40s facing and how do you

11:37

advise them overcoming them? Oh,

11:40

the biggest one I

11:43

see with people in their 30s

11:45

and 40s is the number

11:47

one. They believe that they

11:49

need to pay off debt first. And

11:51

you know, the golden rule is to always pay

11:53

yourself first. That's number

11:55

one. And then especially people

11:57

in their 40s, they're putting

11:59

away money and products that they cannot

12:01

access, but will need access to

12:03

as they get older, either for

12:06

investment purposes or planning on,

12:08

you know, different purchases in the

12:10

future. Some are still looking

12:12

to buy their dream homes and

12:14

things like that. So. They're

12:17

saving, but again, not in all

12:19

the proper buckets. That's

12:21

number one. And then number two, the biggest thing that

12:23

they face is feeling like they have time. They

12:27

have time. When you say time, you know,

12:29

put away money right now. They

12:31

have time. Right. But let's

12:33

talk about that real quick before we

12:35

go to break because of the

12:37

fact that we all feel we have

12:39

time and we do. We really

12:42

do have time because see. But

12:44

you need to plan. You need to have

12:46

to start a plan somewhere. You're going to

12:48

start to plan at 50, 60, 70. But

12:50

it's always nicer if you start that plan

12:53

at 30, 40.

12:56

If you're really smart in your 20s,

12:58

because I kind of did that a

13:00

little bit lower, but I didn't

13:02

understand what I was doing. See, that's

13:04

making a plan without a clear

13:06

understanding of your plan. Does

13:10

that make sense to do that? That

13:12

makes sense. You know what saying? So

13:14

that meant that I didn't value the

13:16

long term of what I needed

13:19

to do with that plan. And so because

13:21

I look back and go, man, if

13:23

you just not even mess with that

13:25

money and then just just see where it

13:27

would have been. Right now

13:29

it's stock splitting and splitting again

13:31

and splitting again riding through 2008

13:33

girl You wouldn't even be listening

13:35

to me on this show. I'll

13:37

be having money making conversation at

13:39

the house Because I understood my

13:42

plan and when you do financial

13:44

literacy and financial education That's the

13:46

number one question that I have

13:48

to keep asking myself is when

13:50

I'm gonna listen to the right

13:52

people and you wanted the right

13:54

people to listen to.

13:56

So how do you get the word out about

13:58

you, Laura? It's

14:02

two things. So one, I'm really excited about

14:04

that's coming up where I'm going to focus solely on

14:06

women. But most

14:08

of it comes from either networking

14:10

events, hosting my webinars, which I

14:12

tend to do a lot of.

14:14

I host a lot of free

14:17

online webinars. And then I'm also

14:19

invited to speak out at

14:21

events. And I have a team

14:23

of, I like to call them my

14:25

young generation, which I so appreciate them

14:27

of people in their 20s and 30s

14:29

and being able to get them out

14:31

in the community because it takes

14:33

a village. I can't do

14:35

it alone. So it takes a

14:37

village to really bring the awareness and have

14:40

access to a demographic I would normally

14:42

have access to. So between me

14:44

and my team, there isn't one

14:46

person I don't see that. I don't

14:48

care where they're working, I ask them, do

14:50

you see yourself doing this for the next 20, 30 years? I

14:55

don't

14:57

know if,

15:01

you know, if you'd ask me why I was in

15:03

my 20s, because I was still

15:05

trying to figure myself out, Laura. And

15:07

I was working at IBM and

15:09

I knew that wasn't the job

15:11

for me, that wasn't my dream

15:13

job. And so

15:15

I always tell people, What

15:18

you do between 18 and

15:20

22 really defines what

15:22

you can do for the

15:24

rest of your life,

15:26

because that's when you're fearless.

15:29

You gotta go do whatever you need to do. Nobody

15:32

can tell you anything. That

15:34

personality should be

15:36

the sustaining personality in

15:38

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15:41

don't go anywhere. We'll be

15:43

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18:33

app. Welcome back to

18:36

the Money Making Conversations

18:38

Masterclass, hosted by Rashawn

18:40

McDonald. Money Making Conversations

18:42

Masterclass continues online at

18:44

moneymakingconversations.com and follow Money

18:46

Making Conversations Masterclass on

18:48

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18:50

I'm speaking with Laura Finney. You know, she

18:52

had a moment when she was 50

18:55

years old, her 50th birthday. And guess what

18:57

she told me, Rashawn? I wasn't really

18:59

clear because it was my 50th birthday, but

19:01

I knew. I had to

19:03

make a change and my change

19:05

was becoming financially literate. She

19:07

has eight years of experience in

19:09

the financial services industry, an

19:12

expert in delivering personalized financial literacy

19:14

programs, workshops, and

19:16

one -on -one consultations. She

19:18

helps clients achieve financial stability

19:20

and success. She is

19:22

passionate about assisting individuals in

19:24

reaching both their short -term

19:26

and long -term financial goals.

19:29

Now, Laura. budgets.

19:33

We hear that word a lot, budgets.

19:36

Like you said earlier, you know,

19:38

paying young people tend to want to pay

19:40

off loans real quick on their credit

19:42

cards. Now, can

19:44

you share some basic budgeting

19:46

tips for individuals and families

19:49

who want to get better

19:51

control of their finances? Yes.

19:56

Number one, you have to have

19:58

money. I like to call it an

20:00

increased cash flow every month. Every month you

20:02

should be in a position to save some

20:04

sort of money. And so

20:06

there's like four categories that I look

20:08

at specifically where people are spending

20:10

money when it comes to their

20:12

finances. And it's

20:14

hanging out, dining

20:16

out, shopping, and

20:19

personal care. Sometimes

20:22

I see anywhere from

20:25

$500 to most recently $900

20:27

a month in any one

20:29

of those categories that people

20:31

are spending. And that's

20:33

a lot of money going out. That's

20:35

the first thing is really check

20:37

to see of those four categories. Where

20:39

can you streamline your

20:42

cash flow going out? The hanging

20:44

out and dining out hanging

20:46

out and hanging out and dining

20:48

out. That's the first really

20:50

killers in your trying to streamline

20:52

your budget. Okay. Okay. Yep.

20:54

and the personal care, you

20:57

know. I'll

20:59

fire my barber because he charged me $50

21:01

and my hair is about as short as

21:03

yours. There

21:08

just has to be an accountability

21:10

for the reasons. Now you

21:12

and I, we're in the public.

21:16

That's that. But for

21:18

young girls going out spending, you know,

21:20

four or $500 a month on

21:22

hair is just unreasonable because that's money

21:24

that a hundred of that you

21:26

can put away. So the first thing

21:29

is really to look at when

21:31

you're budgeting, how much can you

21:33

really afford based on your current lifestyle

21:35

and the lifestyle you want to live

21:37

later. And the other one is

21:39

to make sure that you have an emergency fund.

21:41

That one is so important. I don't care. I

21:43

tell people if you can save a dollar a

21:45

day, you can have an emergency fund. It

21:47

doesn't take putting away, you know,

21:50

$100 a month or $1 ,000 a

21:52

month. Just start where you are

21:54

so that we create a new

21:56

habit of saving. And

21:58

so that's like the biggest thing for me

22:00

right now with helping people budget

22:02

is to really budget what you're eating

22:04

every week. I had one client ask me

22:07

about how do you avoid spending so

22:09

much dining out when we have to go

22:11

to lunch with clients? I said, who

22:13

said you had to go to lunch with

22:15

clients? Rashon, I'll do

22:17

a walking meeting up at Gift Gardens

22:19

in Ball Ground, Georgia. Right.

22:22

Meet me and Kenesaw. Let's take a drive. I

22:24

got fruit and nuts in the car for us.

22:26

And let's go have a meeting in a beautiful environment.

22:28

Right. You can have a meeting in a park. But

22:30

most people feel like, you know, to be

22:33

a part of something, they need to have

22:35

this persona that they can go out and

22:37

eat three, four times a week, two, three

22:39

times a day. And that's just unrealistic. You

22:41

can't sustain that. But

22:43

that would be the biggest way is to really

22:45

look at what your expenses are and to

22:47

really cut back on things that are not

22:49

a part of your necessities for everyday living.

22:51

You know, really, when we look at the

22:53

economy, like I was filled up by truck

22:55

the other day and, you know, I just

22:57

fill up, you know, and I'm not saying

22:59

because I gotta, guess what? I gotta put

23:02

gas in the vehicle, okay? That's

23:04

right. And so you can complain,

23:06

but guess what? If you're driving, stop

23:08

complaining. Okay, you got it. I

23:10

don't want to start walking. I can't walk

23:12

because everything I want to do is so far

23:14

apart. And so with that being said, the

23:17

families, you know, you

23:19

know, what can you do?

23:21

You know, when you got

23:23

kids that go to school, you

23:26

got maybe a single mom, you might

23:28

be even a single dad, you know,

23:30

you might be in a divorce situation

23:32

or you might be a unified family.

23:34

How do you look at trying to

23:36

make sure your child feels good about

23:38

life? but still having a budget that

23:40

doesn't break, break the, break, you

23:42

know, a lot of you to have a future. Oh,

23:45

two things. One is

23:47

you gotta be a little bit

23:50

creative. Okay. You know, when we

23:52

were growing up, we didn't have

23:54

as many options for entertainment, right?

23:56

We, we've made our own entertainment. We had,

23:58

I was talking to a young lady today

24:01

and talking about, you know, I'm going to sit

24:03

out in the backyard with my grandsons and we

24:05

get the chairs around and we'll, you know, pull

24:07

out the fire pit and have some

24:09

fun that way, right? Things that

24:11

don't cost money, so to speak. You

24:14

know, if my grandson wants me to take

24:16

him to, you know, some jumping place, I'm

24:18

looking at six. Well, here we go.

24:20

I took my five -year -old granddaughter. Check

24:22

your cheese. Check your cheese. OK, come on now. Oh,

24:24

gosh. They're going to put a name on it now.

24:28

You wanted to go to lunch and I said, well,

24:30

do you want some chicken nuggets or a chicken

24:32

salad? She was like, no, I want a Caesar salad.

24:34

So I took her to this restaurant, got

24:37

the Caesar salad, and she said, I

24:39

want a dessert. $45 later.

24:41

I said, listen, I

24:44

can't, I can't,

24:46

we can only do this like once a

24:48

quarter, right? Because you still got

24:50

to be able to save. But the fun thing

24:52

is that I also know I can make

24:54

a really cheap, but most delicious dessert, which you and

24:56

I will talk about you and your food at

24:58

another time, because I'm totally intrigued. So

25:00

how to take $2. and create

25:02

the most amazing apple desserts

25:04

that'll have anybody asking for

25:06

more. So it really is

25:08

just knowing how to stretch a dollar,

25:10

but know that you don't have to

25:13

go and support these other businesses and

25:15

create generational wealth for those families versus

25:17

being creative in your own space. Me

25:19

and my daughters, we used to have

25:21

slumber parties in the basement. Right, right,

25:23

right, right, right. So it's a

25:25

little bit more about being a little

25:27

bit more creative as to what you

25:29

can do to entertain your kids. And

25:31

there are tons of free parks in

25:33

and around Atlanta. You know, this interview

25:35

is about you and your brand that

25:37

you've been doing and building for eight

25:40

years. When one contacts you, Laura, what

25:42

is the process? What's the technique and

25:44

how do you bring somebody into your

25:46

format or your strategy to make their

25:48

lives financially better? How does that work?

25:51

The first one is a quick call. I

25:53

want to understand why you called or why you

25:55

would like to sit and talk. So I can

25:57

get a better idea of where you are and what you

25:59

want to do. The second one is

26:01

to really sit down and just interview you.

26:03

Sort of like you're doing me right

26:06

now about everything that you want now and

26:08

in the future. Basically, what are

26:10

you getting up for every day? It's not to

26:12

pay bills. It's not to go on vacation in

26:14

six months. What you get up for

26:16

today is what's going to affect you 10

26:18

years from now in your life. So let's

26:20

focus on what that looks like. And

26:23

then the next appointment is coming

26:25

back with a strategy with ideas, six

26:27

steps, starting from where you are now to

26:29

get you to where you want to be. Wow.

26:33

You know, I really look at

26:35

myself when I talk to individuals

26:37

like you in this financial literacy

26:39

community, there's so many

26:41

misconceptions about money management. And

26:44

can you address any of them? I'm

26:52

just you know radio

26:54

silence is bad right but that's one of those

26:56

ones that really gets me really frustrated because

26:58

when I do see it people

27:01

don't manage it well because again

27:03

they're living for today and tomorrow and

27:05

next month and not for

27:07

you know down the road and

27:09

I think that's the biggest thing

27:11

is helping people understand that. You

27:15

know, that's the whole thing about chasing money,

27:17

right? You can't chase something and you

27:19

mentioned something that if you don't mind I

27:21

want to circle back to about like

27:23

the single moms or You know parents who

27:25

are living paycheck to paycheck is we

27:27

all know that you have to increase cash

27:29

flow You can't save money based on

27:32

where you are now if it's already a

27:34

struggle So how do you increase cash

27:36

flow and that's helping these parents understand that

27:38

you can't keep adding more hours to

27:40

your day You can't take more time away

27:42

for your kids, but understanding and being

27:44

in an environment and having good contacts

27:46

to talk about what residual income

27:48

looks like for you so that you don't have

27:51

to go out and work a second or

27:53

third or fourth job. But you can still increase

27:55

that cash flow coming in because sometimes it

27:57

just is what it is. You can't

27:59

squeeze another hour out of their day, right?

28:01

But then how do I manage that? And

28:03

manage that is knowing that you have

28:05

a financial plan and that's what you get

28:07

up for every day. Nobody can sway

28:09

me to take a trip you know

28:11

because I know that in the next three

28:13

months I want to do something else with

28:16

this money but many people I like my

28:18

dear friend that's listening she's gonna kill me

28:20

but you know she wanted to take a

28:22

trip to Jamaica and it's gonna run her

28:24

almost a thousand dollars and I said what's

28:26

your budget she said I don't have a

28:28

budget I was like excuse me everything starts

28:30

with a budget hey look I can we

28:32

get in touch with you as I wrap

28:34

up the show you're fantastic They

28:37

can reach out to me

28:39

via my website. There's a contact

28:41

form on the page. It's

28:43

my first name, Laura, L -E -U

28:45

-R -A. My last name's Denny,

28:47

F -I -N -N -E -Y, the word

28:49

Enterprises. So, Laura, if any, Enterprises

28:51

with an S .net. They

28:53

can fill that out. Tell me why they want me

28:55

to reach out to them or why they're reaching out

28:57

to me and I'll be sure to get back with

28:59

them. You're fantastic. Thank you for coming on Monday Making

29:01

Conversation Masterclass. Laura. This

29:06

has been another edition of

29:08

Money Making Conversations Masterclass, hosted by

29:10

me, Rashad McDonald. Thank

29:12

you to our guests on the show

29:14

today, and thank you, our listening audience.

29:16

Now, if you want to listen to

29:18

any episode or want to be a

29:21

guest on the show, visit MoneyMakingConversations.com. Our

29:23

social media handle is Money Making Conversation.

29:25

Join us next week, and remember to

29:27

always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.