Black Girl Finance – Let’s Talk Money

As a black woman, I was happy to read Black girl finance – Let’s talk money because finally I found a book written by not only a black person but a black women. This isn’t about race but rather seeing someone like me whom I can look up to, aspire to be and be happy to have ‘representation’. Now, this is not to say people from other ethnicities can not read this book because that would be a wrong conclusion as this little gem packs wallop of information and you would be doing yourself disservice if you ignore it.

Over the last couple of months I have been reading a tonne of books on personal money management to investing in the stock market. I am no Warren Buffet or John Bogle but the knowledge I have gained from reading their books has truly changed my life. And not one to stop half way, I have been scowling the Amazon Books section for more recommendations when I stumbled upon ‘Black Girl Finance – Let’s talk money. With only 176 pages, I was able to devour this book in one seating and below I share my thoughts.

BLACK GIRL FINANCE – LET’S TALK MONEY

In most ethnic minority families, money is not an open subject and growing up all you learn is you need to work twice as hard for it but you never really talk about it. I shared in a “which debt repayment method is better…?” that when I got myself into debt, I couldn’t even come clean to my own parents because I was ashamed and couldn’t exactly explain how I got into debt. Over the years I have learned that we need to break cultural stigmas within our communities and talk openly about money so we can teach the next generation the best way to manage money and saving.

One thing I want to mention is that because I have been educating myself over the last couple of years on better money management, the topics covered in the book I was well versed in already but I think so those starting out or want to check their knowledge, this books is it. Written by Selina Flavius, she shares her own experiences with money within her family and her struggles managing money. I love that she is working hard to help other women get a handle on their finances and gives case study examples of some of her clients. The entire book is filled with easily digestible knowledge for every level.

Selina has done a great job covering various topics from money mindset to investing and assets and below I share a snippet of each section in her book.

• Chapter 1: Money Mindset – our money mindset is often shaped by our childhood, when we were young we were often told ‘money doesn’t grow on trees or money is the root of all evil’. These messages defined our attitudes towards money as we grew older and it’s time to wake up and change our mindset towards money. Sure money doesn’t grow on trees so let’s think about ways to earn more money.
• Chapter 2: Budgeting – if there is one thing I have been constantly talking on this blog its budgeting and the importance of it. I have shared my ‘realistic budget that actually works‘ and how you can create your own. Budgeting is so important, you need to understand how much you earn and where you are spending your money, as you saving enough or paying off debt?
• Chapter 3: Your Net Worth – until I bought my home, I never thought much about checking my current financial situation aka my net worth. To be able to understand your own net worth, you need to know your assets (totally value of them) and your liabilities (total of them) and the difference between these two is your net worth. I recently calculated mine and I was surprised to see that it is just under £300k.
• Chapter 4: Your Credit Score – I recently shared tips on how to improve your credit score because this is so important. What people don’t often realise is that every credit application you make in the future, the acceptance will rely heavily on your credit score. You need to ensure the information on the report is accurate, request changes to be made if not and stay on top of your bills.
• Chapter 5: Tackling Debt – this is another topic I have shared multiple times on this blog. There are so many ways you can tackle your debt, you can either follow the Avalanche Method or the Snowball Method both of which are mentioned in the book.
• Chapter 6: Financial Goals – apart from buying my home, I had not really had many financial goals in the past and most people ignore them too but they are so important. I have both short term goals and long term goals and in the book Selina gives you a few boxes you can populate with your goals and dates when you wish to accomplish them. I have written both my goals in my note book and every so often I check it to see how I am doing.
• Chapter 7: Savings – I don’t think I need to say much here because everyone understands the importance of saving. Whether you only have £5 a month to save, it’s better than nothing, start slow and do not be intimidated because you are not stashing out thousands at a time.
• Chapter 8: Building an Emergency Fund – another type of saving that everyone should have. Again for me my emergency fund was created a few months before I bought my house, it is important to have at least 3-6 months worth of bills saved you for those emergencies that might take you by surprise. The Insurance can only do so much and there is a lot that they don’t cover which needs to come out of your own pocket.
• Chapter 9: Investing – once I have finished all my reading from my favourite moguls I will share tips on investing. I have been investing for 7 years now and I am fortunate to be a ‘success story’ with my investments. I love the Selina does touch on this topics and ease many a people their fears about investing. It is so easy to start investing now, you can start from as little as £1.
• Chapter 10: Assets – this is the part of the book I found most intriguing as I have not delved much into assets apart from knowing what I currently have but not thought much about how to increase them. Assets are things that you own and can sell like property, bonds, shares in a company and such. Everyone needs to think of ways to increase there assets and reducing their liabilities.

I really enjoyed reading Black Girl Finance – Let’s Talk Money, finally representation but also sound knowledge sharing have been given in this book and I recommend it for everyone – you will be surprised what you can and will learn from this little nugget.