Unlocking Financial Security: The Importance of Emergency Funds and Building Wealth

Welcome back to another episode of Own Your Keys, where listeners are empowered to take control of their finances and their future. In this episode, the hosts dive into the topic of financial vulnerability.

Financial vulnerability is a pressing issue for many, especially in urban communities where the cost of living is high. Without an emergency fund, even minor setbacks can lead to major financial crises.

The lack of emergency savings leaves individuals and families exposed to risks such as sudden medical bills, car repairs, or job loss. This vulnerability can have long-lasting consequences on health, well-being, and future financial security.

To address this, the Money Masters community discusses practical tips and strategies for building emergency funds tailored to the urban lifestyle. They also explore the role of community support networks and government policies in mitigating financial vulnerability.

Money Masters are encouraged to join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #OwnYourKeysPodcast. Share your experiences with financial vulnerability and the steps you've taken to protect yourself and your loved ones.

So, stick around, grab a pen and paper, and empower yourself to overcome financial vulnerability and own your financial future.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Own Your Keys. Remember, the key to financial freedom starts with you.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

be working at McDonald's and in the reality of the concept, of the concept of saving money.

Speaker 2: 0:08

It's simple, right, yeah?

Speaker 1: 0:10

it's been, it's been less than you are.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Why can't we is so simple, like I don't know, like y'all tap in about this so simple.

Speaker 3: 0:36

Why is it? Why is it that and this? You got all your keys, you got all your and this is the Nobody. Stop this. They call it watch this. It's time to talk like balance, love and marriage all the true topics no updates.

Speaker 2: 0:53

What you? You like this stuff. So what's up you guys? Welcome back to the on your keys podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:05

I'm your host, mink and I'm jay golday, aka mr, on your keys.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Y'all was good, was good, I want him to change his um intro thing. I don't know. You know I do a lot of things.

Speaker 1: 1:22

You know. So I mean the money connects, it's the bank. It's for me what you want, what you want me to be Like. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:35

Mm, what's up, though? Nothing much. It was good to see you. It's good to see you too. I guess I just woke up with you. I know I was gone. Yeah, you are, you are. So let's talk about.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Because I was reading a topic and the topic was talking about how people should not focus on having an emergency, and at first I was kind of okay. I'm like I was trying to see like exactly where were they going with saying this. Right, and then, as um, I started reading more through the article. I kind of, you know, started to see, you know, people are now um for clickbait. They're saying things like that to get you to click on it, and so then you read through it and then it's kind of like you know, and then you know they have those, um, radical people that feel different ways about different things, and so the thing that they were saying was you know that you shouldn't just necessarily focus on an emergency fund because you want to be able to access your.

Speaker 2: 2:39

There's not a lot of places to put your money where you're going to be able to access it as quickly, but then also where it's going to be continually growing. You see what I'm saying. So they were like yeah, you know, there's there's not really a lot of places there that you can put your money. It's still going to grow, but then you're able to quickly access it. And so they were just saying that was the basis of it.

Speaker 2: 3:02

And so, for me, I felt, I felt, um, I felt weird about it because I was like, I'm like, you know it's, we're in a time and again, you know, for not even a full four years out of the pandemic that you know people are, people are struggling so much financially. People struggle so much financially during covid and and it really was because no one was expecting that, right, you know what I'm saying, and so emergency funds are for unexpected occurrences.

Speaker 2: 3:31

And then you know people. I mean, we just had never experienced anything like that. People didn't have money saved, people didn't have, you know, alternative means of income, they didn't have alternative jobs, you know alternative ways to bring income in, just a lot of different things. We weren't as people weren't really as focused on their health, you know, um, and I think that when you think about what we, what I talk about a lot is financial wellness, just being in a place to where, as for, especially for women we're in our season of me, right, it takes you to really put a lot of emphasis on those things so that you won't have to get ready.

Speaker 2: 4:06

You'll already be ready. You kind of see what I'm saying, and so I I think I like what the article was saying in some instances about being able to quickly access your money, but then also I think that it's misleading for people to think that they don't need an emergency phone because you know it's definitely misleading it's so misleading because you need to have something to and I hate calling the fallback because fallback phone but you need to have something in the in the event that something happens, you need to have money, so I'm wondering what do they consider quickly?

Speaker 1: 4:39

quick to access, you know, um, if you got, if you can get to a bank, then I think that's quick access enough. Yeah, something you know. Quick enough and don't get it twisted like. I'm all for double dipping, I'm all for making sure that you know you maximize the return on an investment in any way possible but your emergency fund is not designed for you to build a wealth portfolio.

Speaker 2: 5:04

That's not exactly what it's for. Yeah, you know. For you to, for you to get to a point to where you have six, preferably nine to a year's worth of um, uh, household expenses saved.

Speaker 1: 5:17

That's the goal. And and and that and that just continues to accumulate. You know over time now, if you can put it into a vehicle that it can gain, that it can earn as well, then that's cool. But you got other buckets for that, right. You know you build an investment portfolio. It's for that, right. You know you allocate money for investments, allocate money for retirement.

Speaker 2: 5:39

That's not the allocation for your emergency fund Right, allocation for your emergency fund right. And I think also one of the things too that you know was pretty profound to me was, um, what you know people are in a again, you know COVID, the pandemic. It put a lot of people, more people, I think, in survival mode also, you know. You know you come from those type of households where all you, all you were, all you wanted to do, your environment was just surviving COVID. You was already, yeah, the way you your environment was just surviving.

Speaker 1: 6:06

Covid, you was already. Yeah, it escalated that the way you treat your money was already survival mode. Right and we got to think, like you know many. Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Oh yeah, I think it's over I think it's almost like 60%, 60%, yeah, 60% of the paycheck to paycheck, and it ain't because we don't make enough money.

Speaker 2: 6:25

Yeah, a pay check, the paycheck, and it ain't because we don't make enough money.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Yeah, a lot of times it's not. It's not because we don't make enough money, it's not because it's opportunities, because the financial habits and our discipline we haven't disciplined ourself enough to put money into places that are going to continue to give us, you know, leverage. Right, that's going. That's going to sustain us if we lose a job. That's going to sustain us. If we lose a job, that's going to sustain us. If you don't want to work overtime this week and you're not going to be tripping because you can't work 80 hours and you're going to miss out on some money.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Yeah, you know what I'm saying and I think also you know when you are in survival mode with your money, you're not thinking about trying to save You're thinking about saving.

Speaker 1: 7:06

And another thing, too, is if you're in survival mode and you have the forces work against each other right, and you have a lot of debt.

Speaker 2: 7:09

That's the thing too. I think that you know we don't talk about, because over 70 percent of americans.

Speaker 3: 7:13

That's another thing you know, and it's more of us as black as black, you know um people.

Speaker 2: 7:18

You know we're in even more debt and a lot of it comes from student loans. We're in debt because we're trying to pursue higher education, but then the higher education that we're pursuing and we are accumulating this debt for is not putting us in a position to where we're able to be have a sustainable income. You know we're we. We may be more qualified than mark or joseph or billy but you know we're gonna make less than mark joseph or billy.

Speaker 3: 7:43

You see what I'm saying, and then just imagine like seriously we're making less than them.

Speaker 2: 7:47

We have more debt than them because, and even when it comes to us being able to access resources that are going to put us in a, put us in a better place financially, it's harder for us to even access those resources because you know of the systemic barriers that have been, that have been placed there, purposely placed there, for us not to be able to, you know, excel, grow and be able to sustain. So I think it is one of those things that when you are thinking about you know, especially for relationships, you know, um, thinking about, okay, what am I going to put up? How do I allocate money, you know, to the side for savings, because this is the thing. Another thing that the article said was you know, oh, if you're thinking about, if you're trying to put up money?

Speaker 2: 8:30

for uh when that car breaks down. That's just life. Life happens right. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself which I want to research the two people that had this article, who wrote this article and, um, you know, like I said in the beginning, one of them is one of those radical financial people but, but they're but they're also not people of color.

Speaker 2: 8:51

You see what I'm saying, and I think that that's the thing that people of color, like black people, will attach ourselves to. Things like that that'll be like oh, I don't need an emergency fund because we don't want to build a habit to build, to do those kind of things anyway but we're listening to people that don't even come from the same struggles that we come from, that don't even have the same issues that we have. You see what I'm saying?

Speaker 2: 9:12

that that probably come from generational wealth, but they telling us not to do the things that they families have done so that they can be able to tell us what not to do so is it just playing?

Speaker 1: 9:21

to like what you said? The systemic yeah, you know, I remember going on a job interview that required you to have a degree. But when they check my credit report I got denied the job because I had an expensive student student loan debt. So I have to pay for myself to go to school, get the degree, get the, get the, get the degree with a host of getting the job. Go on the job interview, get the knife for the job because I got the debt that I have to use.

Speaker 2: 9:46

Why don't you get the degree right? And I think that's, I think that that is.

Speaker 1: 9:53

I'm saying predatory, but I do in a way, I'm saying like I think that that was designed. Yes, exactly that was a systemic design. For you know, you gotta think like, as african americans, we're still behind the curve, even even in today's society. We still have not caught up where we would have been of slavery didn't exist. If slavery didn't exist, we will be so far ahead when it comes to just business, when it comes to, you know, financial, financial education, when it comes to investment they was already doing that.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Yeah, they was invested, we were, we were the stock that they were in, but they were, so they was investing right there was a vest that years before we even knew what investing was right well, we had that we had to do. We had to learn about just how to get income when it was already investing it was already making moves, so by the time, you know, the generation of generation of weather.

Speaker 1: 10:43

By time we got the opportunity to do the same thing. It was taken from us had to rebuild and do it again, and then the barriers was it was continued to be put in place for us to not be able to, to, to develop that.

Speaker 2: 10:55

Right, and the truth of the matter is I don't think that we look at. You know how the financial systems were designed. The financial systems were not designed with us in mind. The banking systems were not designed with us in mind. We were not sitting at the table with the jp margins and you know all of those different people that were that. I'm saying jp margaret, because that was way far along, but what I'm saying is those people that design, yeah that design the banking systems, the um, the stocks you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 11:24

Nasdaq, um s s p 500, all of the like, the education system. We were not. We were not in mind, and if you think, about it.

Speaker 1: 11:34

We were in mind just not not in mind to, to, to benefit, to benefit from.

Speaker 2: 11:39

But what I was also going to say was we weren't sitting at those tables, we weren't saying papa joe needs this, like we were not. That's not what it was. The financial systems were designed for our counterparts to be able to access. So when you think about us not being able to access these things and just like Navy Federal. You see the big scandal that they had. They denied over 50% or more. I would have to get the correct number Of their African-American applications for home ownership like this is this.

Speaker 2: 12:13

This is like a big thing, that, that they looked into this, like purposely denied. And you know, when you think about home ownership, guys like again, real estate is one of the richest commodities. You know why? Because when you own land, they're not making any more land. You see what I'm saying like. That's why we talk about owning your keys, because ownership equals everything. You see what I'm saying, like when you own something.

Speaker 1: 12:38

People can't take that stuff away from you.

Speaker 2: 12:39

It's not like when we were in the 1950s and all of that, and we owned homes and we couldn't even paint our homes because the rules that they made if you were a black person and you work and you were able to purchase your home.

Speaker 2: 12:52

They still put rules against how we were able to even decorate our own homes on our own street, cut our grass. You see what I'm saying. And then y'all get to the point to where, now, even in this day, even in now, right now, denying us the opportunity to be able to build generational wealth for our families. You see what I'm saying? Because equity, equity is real.

Speaker 2: 13:14

You see what I'm saying equity, equity could be, could be the one thing between you and your and your next level up. You see what I'm saying, and so when you think about, like banking systems out there that are predatory, that are actually doing these things, putting these blocks up for us to not be able to, for us and I be able to grow financially, it really does look at who we are as a people, right, because why is it that people, why is that people are so afraid for African American people to come up financially? That's a real question.

Speaker 1: 13:45

Well, I mean, you know, the thing about it is that when you look at, when you look at all of the barriers that has been put in place, redlining just even access to capital when it comes to business owners those are things that were designed for us to be able to still be marginalized, and mainly it's because, as African-Americans, we are so resilient, we're so creative. Yeah, and those barriers are put in place because, from way back then, you know, they know that, as a people, if we ever were able to assemble and understand how to work together and what our real value was, then we'll be unstoppable for us. Right was there will be unstoppable force, right, you know, and it's just, it's, it's just crazy to look at, you know, to think about how, how how much work has was put in to just stop a certain dynamic of people that's right.

Speaker 2: 14:41

Yeah, that's so real and it's so and it's really scary you know, but I don't think that again, we and it's people out here that are assembling that are trying to do you know like even you have like earn your leisure. That is educating and that is what is there to educate us as a people.

Speaker 3: 14:57

That's there to provide resources to us as a people but we have to actually, we have to believe in the resources and we actually have to be disciplined enough to tap into the resources to not be so consumed with consumerism because the resources of be here for us and we know this just from us being together.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Right, we you can have, god can bless you with a good thing, but because you're so focused on the materialistic aspect of everything, you lose everything that you have, that you can build sustainable wealth, build sustainable income that's going to continue to pay you for years and years and years. Even just us, the things that we've, you know, accomplished and lost.

Speaker 1: 15:36

You know you're in a position where you're making over seventy thousand dollars a month and you're not even working 40 hours yeah you see what I'm saying and you don't have nothing to show for it that gets to a point to where that means you got to look at you, you know and that's just like what you just said about you know y'all owning your keys. It's like it's about ownership of everything.

Speaker 1: 15:58

Yeah because, sometimes you got to look at, you got to take ownership of the stuff that you're doing in your own life, and why? Why is not bringing the kind of life that you want? Yeah, you got to own that. And then you got to, you got to do something about it. Right, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 16:11

So ownership in, in, in, in the grand scheme of things, ties into everything that we do. You got to take ownership of your head, of your habits. You got to take ownership of your relationships. You got to take ownership of your business. You got to take ownership of things, of you, of your future. So that's the real foundation, right, and back to what you, what we were just saying about um, about the emergency fund. You know society wants us to feel like that building wealth you have to have, you got to have this grand, you know grandiose type of um, of life. You know that you gotta, you gotta have all of this money. You gotta be a start from this, from this, uh, from from this dynamic. You know, and that's not the case the reason why we talk about habits is because that's the foundation of everything. When it comes to your finances, you could be working at McDonald's and the reality of the concept of saving money is simple, right it's spend less than you earn.

Speaker 1: 17:46

It's simple, right, yeah, it's spending less than you earn.

Speaker 2: 17:48

But why can't we do that? It is so simple, Like I don't know, Like y'all tap in about this.

Speaker 1: 17:53

It's so simple.

Speaker 2: 17:54

Why is it that?

Speaker 1: 17:57

And this is the thing when you study trauma financial trauma, which our people have, you got to think. Our financial trauma goes all the way back to slavery. Before we were slaves. The kings and the queens and that was that came from Africa. They were, they were wealthy people, people had, people had money, people wealthy, you know, they, we did. We're used to living a certain type of life. So going through 400 years of oppression and then after that, still being oppressed in different ways, you got a thing like alright, well, man out my desires, I just, I just want, I want this stuff now. Yeah, I Haven't been able to have these things for all of this time. So every generation of people Wants that stuff now. They want the now that, the now gratification. They want the, they want the drip, you know. So they want the labels, they want to look nice and they don't want to wait to build to get it right.

Speaker 3: 18:50

You, feel what I'm saying so.

Speaker 1: 18:51

When you have, when, when we talk about financial trauma, your desires and your habits put you in a place to where you are not able to build wealth. It don't matter what your income is because, like I said, you could be, you could be earning minimum wage. But if you are out, but if you got the discipline to put your money into certain buckets until you can, until you can get a raise on that job, until you get a promotion, until you get the degree or when you get a a better, a better income, then that, then those buckets start to get, get higher and it's crazy because when you think about discipline and consistency, it really does equal success.

Speaker 2: 19:28

Because like what you are saying it's like a lot of us, because we're, because we're so we. It's so hard for us to delay gratification and we want it right now. It's like we won't live and be consistent.

Speaker 3: 19:43

We won't live and we won't do the discipline we won't be disciplined and we won't be consistent to live a certain way for a year or two so that we can live a way that other people not going to live for the rest of their life and that and I think too long because it takes too long.

Speaker 2: 19:56

But then, when you think about this, when you think about still struggling for two years, or just still, you know, you end up doing it anyway.

Speaker 1: 20:05

You end up doing it sometime longer than what you. Then what it would have been.

Speaker 2: 20:10

Yeah, you just did it right the first time and so when I, when I was talking about the emergency fund, we were talking about money but, but the emergency fund is really what? What emergency, or how, or how um, what's the word I want to use? Or how, the emergency fund really is you? Like them, like how much are you willing to invest right now? Like this is an emergency right now for you to really decide what type of life do you want to live for the rest of your life?

Speaker 1: 20:42

it ain't about no tires going on going out.

Speaker 2: 20:44

It's like yeah, it's that money?

Speaker 3: 20:46

is there? Those things, those?

Speaker 1: 20:47

things happen, but you building the emergency fund for your life, yes, for your free life.

Speaker 3: 20:52

You know what I'm saying and that's how you got to look at it.

Speaker 1: 20:55

You got to look at it like no, I'm building this because some of us are out there working two or three jobs. So if you're building a fund, to where you decide one day, man. You know what I want to spend sunday with my family.

Speaker 1: 21:14

I'm not going to work and I'm not, and I'm not going to feel deprived, right, or feel, you know, obligated that I gotta go to work because if I don't I'm gonna miss a couple hundred dollars. Yeah, because you got this money on the side like nah, I'm good, like I could, I could take this time to build these memories, to have with my family, and I'm not tripping on this job because that's really what you're not gonna get back because we we talked about this just recently.

Speaker 2: 21:34

Um, like last year, you know it's been. It's been almost a year since I have went on like a vacation, and that's true is it's literally been over a year and a lot of it was just because we've been on vacation, because I had a vacation, this man, you have been on what I was. Okay, you know what you, you just probably on vacation without you anyway, like I was saying, um, but see you, you don't make me lose my train of thought but uh, what I was, what I think I was, gonna do?

Speaker 1: 22:12

I don't even remember what I was saying you were saying you were saying, um, you hadn't been on, you hadn't been on vacation in over a year, and I think you was talking about like, about the emergency fund and how that ties into like oh yeah but, yeah, just being able to.

Speaker 2: 22:26

That was the thing that I was saying. I did not want to go on a vacation, like it's time that we were going vacation. And I'm not even going to say you know the type of money that we would spend. I probably have said it before and I just was like you know, it's so much. We have accumulated that too, just by being just, I'm saying just by a way of build, building wealth, a way of ownership.

Speaker 2: 22:49

You know, and sometimes when you go into investments and things like that real estate investments, different type of investments, business investments it may not pay you, you may not um have a profitable year, you may not be positive on on your cash flow right then and there, but the plan is eventually, the plan is maybe in two years, the plan is maybe in two years, the plan is maybe in five years, whatever that is, whatever you have plan, you put together um for the roi. That's what you focus on, right and so for. For me, I was like I, when I go on my next vacation, it's some things I want to have accomplished, it's some debts that I wanted to have paid off, and I felt like, instead of going on these vacations, spending all of this money, I wanted to be able to put, let's put this money into this, let's put this money into this to pay down on certain debts.

Speaker 2: 23:34

So, saying all that, to say you know you have to really be in a position to where you you're like, where you want to go as a family, as a unit.

Speaker 2: 23:43

That's the most important thing, and being able to say no, like it's okay to say no, it's okay, even going to your family, like I remember this and this is one of the things I'm going to say before I wrap um, I would go to my family's house, like every weekend, and things like that, and it's the same thing, same thing, same thing. You start looking at your goals. You start, really, when you really have vision, boys and I'm not talking about a vision, but I'm talking about like a strategy for a bit of vision but you got the strategy to plan and you start looking at this plan and you like, well, this Saturday that I sit over here and I'm drinking with my family and you know gossip, and shooting a breeze or whatever right I could have, I could have did this, this, this, this, and the goals are not going nowhere.

Speaker 2: 24:23

And if your goals ain't going to where you're not going anywhere either, and I think that once we start really looking at that as a people, as really saying, okay, where am I now, where do I want to be? And then building the discipline, because that's the hardest thing the discipline which equals the hat is to really get there. Whatever, you're trying to build the emergency fund right? The emergency fund is not just a monetary thing.

Speaker 3: 24:47

Right, it's the like you put yourself in emergency, say you know what this is I just don't want to do this anymore.

Speaker 2: 24:52

This I want to do something different.

Speaker 3: 24:54

You know what I'm saying. I want my life to be.

Speaker 2: 24:55

I don't want to just survive, I want to go on a vacation and feel free not worry about oh, I only got this little bit of money to spend, or whatever.

Speaker 1: 25:02

Even if you give yourself a budget for what you spend on your vacation, it ain't even into your bills right and I won't say you know, the emergency fund is preparation for the harvest. There's a reason why people win the lottery, or people get settlements for insurance checks or people. People get large sums of money all the time and it only lasts for a short period of time. It's a reason for that. It's because that cash infusion going to somebody that has not prepared for a habit to be able to handle that kind of money, they lose it because you're not you.

Speaker 2: 25:34

You haven't prepared for you haven't developed the discipline and environment trumps the world every single time, so it don't matter if you got a lump sum of money anybody, anybody listening to this?

Speaker 1: 25:43

can attest. If you've ever been in that situation and you haven't developed a habit of putting money to the side, of paying yourself first of, of depriving you not, no, not depriving yourself of of, um, sacrificing a portion of your income for for something else, that money is going to be lost in a substantial amount of time because that discipline you can't, you can't, you can't go around that habit. Yeah, so it all starts with building the habit from the foundation. So we talk about the emergency fund. That's why we said the emergency fund is for you, right, it's, it's, it's there. It's there for things that may happen, but it's for you. It's for you to build this, because one day you may win the lottery, one day you may get a large settlement, but if you don't know how to handle it, it's just as bad as your podcast may take off one day you may go viral and now you got all these brands.

Speaker 2: 26:30

You know that's, that's you know coming at you and I've heard even, uh, even, one of the big, um, you know brands, you know content creators say she, said she was really living paycheck to paycheck as a full-time content creator, because she was, she wanted to have all of the designer stuff.

Speaker 2: 26:47

You know, like so saying all that to say you guys, you know this is just really a conversation, just like we were saying this about us, you know, coming together as a community, as a people, whether you in a relationship, whether you single, whatever and especially you, in a relationship y'all already know, like y'all, two are your biggest investments anyway.

Speaker 2: 27:04

So you might as well come together, have the conversation and help each other to build that consistency, to build that discipline, so that y'all can really build what you're trying to build, so that, yeah, you may have to live like this for a year or two, but then you can really live like that for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2: 27:17

So, deciding what that is for y'all and coming together, you know, as a unit, so we sign off. It's your own, your keys podcast. Make sure that y'all subscribe. Make sure that y'all subscribe. Make sure that y'all leave us a comment review a five-star review because y'all know that helps us grow. Follow us at the on your keys on instagram me simone on instagram or at jay goday on instagram, and y'all know that we love y'all and I don't know what else I'm saying.

Speaker 3: 28:04

Peace Money been working for me. I'm kicking back on recline. I own it, just like the moment. Everything I became my hustle could take the blame to let them find my name. Gotta walk through the rain. Gotta go through the pain. You gotta soak up the game, create your own lane, switch gears never change. Level up and gain. You can have everything, long as you do one thing you just gotta own your keys. You just gotta own your keys. You gotta own your keys, everything you do.