With continued reports of an impending recession on the horizon, there’s no time like the present to assess your financial health and even make some adjustments if necessary.
During the ESSENCE Culture Festival in 2022, a certified financial educator Christian Lovell sat down with the comedienne and social media influencer Lala Milan on Wealth and power stage to talk all things budget with a little help from our partners at AT&T. In between sharing some up-close-and-personal lessons learned from years of bad spending and poor financial decisions, the women took the audience through Christian’s 4-step system designed to help you achieve financial wellness.
Scroll below to see 5 things we learned from their conversation, then watch the video above to hear their discussion in its entirety, including a full breakdown of Christian’s 4-step system. For more on everything you missed at ESSENCE Culture Festival 2022, visit our official video content hub HERE.
01
Every dollar has a job
“I use a zero-based budgeting method, which means that every dollar I make has work, down to the penny,” says Christian. “Because if you don’t make every dollar work, your money disappears. How many people have received money and at the end of 2 weeks they say “I don’t know where my money went”. So, prioritize what you care about, spend money on yourself and let go of what you don’t need.”
Photo by Getty Images
02
Spending on yourself should be part of your budget plan
“I started my journey in a very limited place. I was in six figures of debt and I was like, “I need to limit every penny.” I can’t spend anything on myself, I need to achieve my goals faster. But then again, I was in that cycle of over-restriction and then I was wasted. I would go to the mall and buy everything I saw because I had been restricting myself for so long, and that is not a healthy lifestyle. So, make sure you set aside a certain percentage of your budget to spend on yourself.”
Photo by Getty Images
Photo by Getty Images
04
Credit cards aren’t evil, it’s how you use them that matters
“Get out of high interest debt and stay out of high interest debt. Use your credit card to buy gas, buy food, treat yourself a little. Put as much spending on that credit card as you can, but make sure you pay off that balance monthly, not monthly because that creates problems for people, because then you’ll be paying $100 on a credit card with $75 going into interest , and only $25 for the principal amount. You won’t make any progress that way. Credit cards aren’t evil, it’s how you use them that matters.”
Photo by Getty Images
05
Achieve your long-term financial goals while budgeting is possible
“Pursue your long-term goals. This could mean investing in real estate, investing in the stock market or early retirement. It can look like creating a plan that works for you in the long term.” The best way to start is to look for investment research firms like Kailash Concepts. They tackled about mean reversion investing strategy that will help your investing journey.