Remember that viral headline that said that 40% of Americans were thinking about quitting or changing their jobs? Today, the Labor Department said job openings rose at the end of May by 16,000, pushing the total to a new high of 9.2 million jobs in records dating back to 2000. Based on those numbers, it appears what has been dubbed The Great Resignation is still in play.  But why?  The pandemic is the patsy. It was a time of reflection. That is what this period of our lives should be called: The Great Reflection. And because of it we a did pros and cons list and decided to go with th ..read more

When we are on a diet and hit the plateau how do we usually conquer it? If it were me, I would make changes to what I’m eating and my current exercise routine. Just a few small shakeups here or there usually do the trick.  The same thing applies when you’re on the Black Girl Money Diet. In today’s task, we need to examine our money plateau. How do we do this? We need to classify our expenses as either a need or a want.  Is there a difference? Yes! So, what’s the difference between the two? Let’s take a look, shall we? Here’s how the dictionary defines need: require (something) becau ..read more

Question: What does Financial Freedom Mean to You? As adults, we are faced with monetary issues almost all the time. On one hand are personal demands and objectives while on the other are family bills, academic demands, business costs, etc. In many cases, unexpected occurrences can be a pain in the neck especially when there is little or no financial prowess to solve whatever comes up. This is the burden every mature person on earth seems to carry around in today’s world and women, being the pillars that make society work, are now involved more than ever. But how can one get above these wate ..read more

The plateau. Every woman that has ever been on a diet has experienced the plateau. The plateau is the part of the diet where no matter what you do you feel like you just can’t overcome the hurdle. You are stopped dead in your tracks. One step shy from obtaining your goal.  When I was thinking about my version of the Black Girl Money Diet. I thought, hmmm, doesn’t that sound like expenses? At least to me, it did.  Expenses are the monthly hurdle we must overcome every month. No matter what happens, they are there staring us down. Waiting to see how we conquer it.  Last time, we d ..read more

After any break-up what do women usually do? If this were a cheesy romantic comedy, I adore this genre, by the way, the countless clichés would have us eating Chinese takeout, crying to our best friend and getting a new hair duo.  That’s what the movies believe we would do. Suffer through the obstacles before we get to our happy ending. Last time we discussed why our relationship with money sucks. I revealed the three elements in a woman’s life that I believe contribute to the why. The keyword here: I. Every woman has her own unique experiences on the why. I asked the question and now, it ..read more

Dealing with the fallout of the pandemic has been tough. People have lost their jobs. There are people in my apartment complex who haven’t paid rent for months and don’t know how they will be able to manage things once California lifts the rent moratorium.  Unfortunately, there have been people who lost their lives due to the pandemic. An unforeseeable tragedy that left many Americans unprepared for hospital and funeral expenses. So, when I checked out a Youtuber I follow, I was surprised to learn in the last stimulus package, the government is reimbursing 9k to families whose love ones d ..read more

Question: What does Financial Freedom Mean to You? In the 90s, people were busy searching for their “5Cs”: car, cash, credit card, condo, and Country Club membership. Have we really thought about achieving financial freedom? However, to date, while some are still working hard to achieve their “5Cs”, the new millennia set their “5Cs”: ‘Career, Comfort, Children, Consideration, and Charity. I see life to be really simple, but we humans insist on complicating it to simplify things; instead of looking for the “5 + 5 C”, I will go for the “3 W,” which are “Work Without Concerns.” Have you heard s ..read more

Last week, I came across an interesting post on the Personal Finance Subreddit. The titled, $27,090.76 fraudulent claim DENIED by Capital One. What do I do? As the Reddit Poster did the play-by-play of what happened with his account, I knew the plot twist before I got to the ending: his son had racked up that amount on an app. The Reddit Poster did not want to believe that his son was the culprit. After conducting his AMA, it became apparent that this is what happened. His son’s denial led to his disbelief even though Capital One was adamant that no fraud was committed and he was responsible f ..read more

One of the major components of a successful annual financial health check is to make sure we review our credit report for accuracy. The status quo is to check it annually from one of the three main consumer credit bureaus. I do not follow the status quo. Why? Identity theft is out of control and I do not see that being curbed anytime soon.  Three years ago, the Equifax hack exposed the personal information of 150 million people. I was one of those people. As soon as I located my name on the list, I panicked, then I pulled my credit report. No suspicious activity was found on my report, at ..read more

Volume One You can’t be on a diet without dealing with the ever so embarrassing weigh-in aspect of it. I remember having to do those during my teenage Weight Watcher days. Every Wednesday, I had to stand before a group of women who were waiting to see my weight loss. It wasn’t so bad actually; the group leader Marilyn was a great motivator. I could always count on her for support.  Like those weekly check-ins, I believe one for financial health is just as important. What is a Financial Health Checkup? In layman’s terms, I review how things are going for me financially. I do one every mont ..read more