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S1 E23 | Earn Your Leisure

01:23:16

DJ Scream and Big Bank share nothing but “Big Facts” in their podcast, as they chop it up with today’s popular figures in the entertainment industry.

On this installment of “Big Facts,” Big Bank and DJ Scream are joined by co-hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings of the investing podcast “Earn Your Leisure.” The guys stopped by to discuss what drove them to share the knowledge of finance, their popular show, and much more.

What started out as just a summer program teaching young students about financial literacy quickly grew into a movement thanks in part to their “barbershop-Wall Street” approach. “Coming from an educational background, so we know that the first thing when you teach kids is, you have to be relatable, in a sense,” Troy explained. “A lot of teachers, especially, they come in with their suits, their khakis on, and we was coming in hoodies and sneakers. So, right away, kids knew we spoke the same language ‘cause they saw what we had on. Once they came receptive with us, whatever we taught was easy.”

Now, it wouldn’t be a finance episode if the investing experts didn’t drop gems on learning how to make money, save money and ultimately “earn your leisure.” However, before someone can earn and spend how’d they like to, it all starts with your mindset.

“First, you gotta start with the mind. Before we even talk about money—and we talk about that—but your mentality is extremely important, right. This is why athletes and rappers go broke all the time,” Rashad began. “Because you can give somebody a lot of money, but if you have a poor mindset, eventually you’re just going to end up blowing it. Learn to save and learn discipline. These are things that are extremely important.”

Rashad stressed the significance of having discipline, stating that “you can tell a lot about somebody by little habits.” “If I see somebody that has no discipline at all, it’s going to be hard for them to discipline their finances,” he added. “So, learn discipline, Learn to save money on a continuous basis. Learn not to live beyond your means. Learn to try not to impress people; financial peer pressure is a big thing. You live in Atlanta, everybody in Atlanta got chains on, they going to the mall, they living the life, but you trying to keep up with them, but you don’t understand they might not even be in the position to keep up with themselves.”

The guests also debunked some of the myths surrounding the type of person that can invest. Whether you have a perfect credit score or a credit score of 500, almost anyone can fix their financial status, but you need some type of income. Rashad expressed that many people find themselves in economic hardships because of their slip-ups earlier in their lives. The expert broke down a few ways folks could avoid making long-term financial blunders.

“If I was 18 in that situation, the first thing I’d do is map out a road map,” Rashad began. “Get a job. That doesn’t mean you still can’t be an entrepreneur—we always encourage people to be entrepreneurs—but you’ll probably need some steady of an income coming in if you trying to save money.”

Rashad also advised young people to avoid “pitfalls” or situations that could cause lasting damage to their finances, like having a child that you’re not financially ready to provide for or being in bad relationships. “These is things if you catch that early on, you might not be able to recover from. These is real situations that we gotta talk about. You talking about child support, that could almost 50% of your paycheck. You 23-year-old with three kids… now you put yourself in a hole you might not be able to get out of… a lot of finances is actually what you are doing with your life,” he continued. “Get the job. Now, once you have a job, stay down till you come up. Realize it takes time before you can live the lifestyle that you want to live. Save, I can’t stress that enough. You got to save money, and then you got to invest money. And as you invest money, now hopefully, your income increases over the course of time.”

Still, one of the biggest mistakes Rashad said someone could make as their income increases is to raise their spending. “The key is to keep your spending flatline while your income increase. Now that difference, you can invest, you got more money to invest. That’s the name of the game is have your money work for you.” As Troy put it, “We encourage a 9-5, that’s key, but it’s what you do from 6 to 12 that will determine how long you work that 9-5.”

The guys also broke down the difference between stocks, the hype surrounding cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology.

As always, if you liked what you heard, be sure to stay tuned every week for another episode of “Big Facts.” Also, don’t forget to watch the latest show above!