So, I just finished reading, The Black Girl's Guide to Financial Freedom, by Paris Woods, and let me say, this is a must read. Although it's target audience is Black women, there are a lot of helpful insights and advice that anyone can learn from. The book is roughly 180 pages, so its a reasonable short read. However, it packs a lot of information that can be useful to those who are entering their financial independent journey, or to those who are ready to make a change to their financial approach to life.
I honestly wish I had discovered this book, or others like it, before attending college. I would have made a lot of different financial choices for the better. But, oh well, the only thing I can do now is learn and pass it on to my descendants so that they are capable of making more informed choices.I was not informed, my mother was not informed, and her mother was not informed either. Part of breaking generational cycles is taking the necessary steps that is actually needed to break them. How can I pass on the wealth of knowledge to my son if I have no knowledge or insight? A large percent of black families do not possess the financial wisdom as our other counterparts, and it's time for us to start acknowledging and changing that fact. In her book, Woods stated how the average White Bostonian (as in people from Boston) a net worth of $247,500 and the average Black Boston resident has a net worth of $8. Yes, that's right. Eight measly dollars. Now, this does not mean that the Black residents do not have money. What it means is that Black people owe just as much as they earn or own. We are tethered to our jobs, struggling to make ends meet, which causes an unending game of chasing behind debt.
Well, this book provides a great introduction to managing debt and building wealth. It gives multiple options on how to approach your debt, how to increase income, and how to set goals based on your financial freedom and desires. In part one of her book, she discusses the three most leading factors that contributes to most people's debt: credits, cars, education/student loans. She discusses the pitfalls that comes with these factors. And for the most part, we all know where we have gone wrong these things, right? Let's not be delusional. We've all made a financial decision that wasn't in our best interest, we just didn't know it at the time. Some examples of this would be opening every store credit card that you could possibly imagine, or maxing out your credit cards on luxury purchases that will take you forever to pay off (because of course, something in life happens that throws off your planned payment schedule that you convinced yourself when you were making the purchases). Or buying the newest sports car that has an extremely high monthly car note, and you hadn't even considered the cost of maintenance and other issues that could rise from having the vehicle. You also may not have considered how much student loan debt that you were putting on yourself as you took out the maximum amount of loan that was available, because that was always "tomorrow's" problem.
We all have made at least one of these financial mistakes before, if not more. What I appreciated about this book is that she listed solutions for addressing and getting out of these financial pitfalls.And not just some quick get rich scheme that will get "millions" rich overnight. She gave solutions that are realistic, tangible, and results-driven. The options she gave helps you to transition your thought process on money and financial management thinking. Like I said, I wish I would have read this book before I started my financial journey in my adulthood.
But you know what I always say. We can't change the past. We can only work towards manifesting our future.
The past year of 2024 was a rough one for me. I had so many financial obligations that I wasn't able to increase my finances in the way that I had desired. I can truly say that his was the first year that I felt like I was running in place. And I honestly, and most certainly know that I don't ever want to feel like this again. As I was approaching the new year, I had made a resolution to get out of debt. I had made a resolution to read at least 25 books this year on finance and I've taken step towards reducing my monthly expenses and prioritizing paying off my debt. And I have now set a resolution to have all of my debt paid off (including my student loans) in the next 5 years.
Now if it's one thing about me, if I set my mind on it, it's as good as done.
So, final thoughts, read this book. There's always something new that you can learn in financial planning.
It's time for us to take accountability, and understand that we are responsible for our own learning and wisdom.
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