in your wallet, not crumpled up and scattered all over the place. It’s a small, simple thing,
but it’s about something bigger: taking care of the money that takes care of you and not taking it for granted. Wealth is
a blessing from God, and it needs to be handled with respect on all levels.
Eventually I bought the book, took it home, and made copious notes about insurance policies, living wills, trusts, how to
save, and which 401(k)s, annuities, and IRAs would be best for me. I called my accountant and grilled him about all these
financial products I’d only vaguely understood before. I was determined to reach a level of financial sophistication. Nothing
less than my future was at stake. I thought long and hard about my financial goals. I don’t want to work this hard when I’m
sixty-five. I want to kick back and enjoy life, knowing I’ve taken care of my family and built a legacy for the children I
hope to have one of these days.
I wouldn’t wish that phone call on anyone. But as frightening as that going broke moment was, I feellike God was trying to
tell me something. Often in church, the pastor says that God is going to give you only what you can handle. He’s not trying
to put money in the pockets of people who haven’t gotten to a place where they can take care of it. He wants to bless you,
and He wants you to make the most of His blessings. I think He wanted to bless me even more, but He also wanted me to wake
up and pay attention to what was really going on.
Quality of Life
This isn’t just about materialism. For me, affluence doesn’t represent fancy cars, nice houses, jewelry, and all the toys.
Sure, I enjoy these things, but they don’t define me. I care more about the financial security that wealth brings, to me and
to my family. I want to be debt-free. I want to be able to provide for the people I love, as well as myself, and ensure that
I have the freedom to do things for my spirit and not just for my pocketbook. I want to be able to travel, pursue creative
projects that aren’t necessarily commercial, and support causes I care about, like education for inner-city kids. Accumulating
personal wealth and taking control of your financial future is about empowerment, not stuff.
This last recession just proves to me that we as individuals have to pay more attention. With all the greed on Wall Street
and crooks like Bernie Madoff allowed to run wild with our investments and gamble our futures away, we can’t afford to be
passive about our finances anymore. I know plenty of people who had millions and lost it all because they gave up control
to so-called investment experts, money managers, accountants, and lawyers and got robbed. By not paying attention, they cheated
themselves.
I’ve made similar mistakes. It was a steep learning curve for me. I have a semester of college, and I’m street smart, but
money came to me at a very young age, before I’d acquired any real investment savvy. I had some of the basics down. My mother
opened an account for my brother and me at the Howard Savings Bank (which no longer exists) and taught us both how to write
a check—something many adults in our community never learned how to do. Every week, we’d set aside some of our allowance and
put it in the bank. Every birthday and Christmas, our grandmother, my mom’s mom, Katherine Bray, would send us a crisp new
five-dollar bill (come to think of it, Nana Bray still does). That wasn’t money to blow; I might have taken out a dollar or
two to buy candy, but we stashed most of it into our savings account. And I continued that saver mentality all through my
teens.
My dad also taught us some valuable lessons about how to manage a buck. When I was ten, my mom was away on a trip and we were
staying with our father near downtown Newark. Dad was working double shifts, so we were basically latchkey kids, which was
pretty common in those days. To keep us
but it’s about something bigger: taking care of the money that takes care of you and not taking it for granted. Wealth is
a blessing from God, and it needs to be handled with respect on all levels.
Eventually I bought the book, took it home, and made copious notes about insurance policies, living wills, trusts, how to
save, and which 401(k)s, annuities, and IRAs would be best for me. I called my accountant and grilled him about all these
financial products I’d only vaguely understood before. I was determined to reach a level of financial sophistication. Nothing
less than my future was at stake. I thought long and hard about my financial goals. I don’t want to work this hard when I’m
sixty-five. I want to kick back and enjoy life, knowing I’ve taken care of my family and built a legacy for the children I
hope to have one of these days.
I wouldn’t wish that phone call on anyone. But as frightening as that going broke moment was, I feellike God was trying to
tell me something. Often in church, the pastor says that God is going to give you only what you can handle. He’s not trying
to put money in the pockets of people who haven’t gotten to a place where they can take care of it. He wants to bless you,
and He wants you to make the most of His blessings. I think He wanted to bless me even more, but He also wanted me to wake
up and pay attention to what was really going on.
Quality of Life
This isn’t just about materialism. For me, affluence doesn’t represent fancy cars, nice houses, jewelry, and all the toys.
Sure, I enjoy these things, but they don’t define me. I care more about the financial security that wealth brings, to me and
to my family. I want to be debt-free. I want to be able to provide for the people I love, as well as myself, and ensure that
I have the freedom to do things for my spirit and not just for my pocketbook. I want to be able to travel, pursue creative
projects that aren’t necessarily commercial, and support causes I care about, like education for inner-city kids. Accumulating
personal wealth and taking control of your financial future is about empowerment, not stuff.
This last recession just proves to me that we as individuals have to pay more attention. With all the greed on Wall Street
and crooks like Bernie Madoff allowed to run wild with our investments and gamble our futures away, we can’t afford to be
passive about our finances anymore. I know plenty of people who had millions and lost it all because they gave up control
to so-called investment experts, money managers, accountants, and lawyers and got robbed. By not paying attention, they cheated
themselves.
I’ve made similar mistakes. It was a steep learning curve for me. I have a semester of college, and I’m street smart, but
money came to me at a very young age, before I’d acquired any real investment savvy. I had some of the basics down. My mother
opened an account for my brother and me at the Howard Savings Bank (which no longer exists) and taught us both how to write
a check—something many adults in our community never learned how to do. Every week, we’d set aside some of our allowance and
put it in the bank. Every birthday and Christmas, our grandmother, my mom’s mom, Katherine Bray, would send us a crisp new
five-dollar bill (come to think of it, Nana Bray still does). That wasn’t money to blow; I might have taken out a dollar or
two to buy candy, but we stashed most of it into our savings account. And I continued that saver mentality all through my
teens.
My dad also taught us some valuable lessons about how to manage a buck. When I was ten, my mom was away on a trip and we were
staying with our father near downtown Newark. Dad was working double shifts, so we were basically latchkey kids, which was
pretty common in those days. To keep us
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