Lauryn:
So many opportunities to be on your podcast and I finally nailed you down to get you on mine. You actually just said yes and like scheduled immediately and I was like, oh, I feel honored and privileged, like the real deal Holyfield.

Naseema:
Well, first of all, the way my brain works, if I hadn't done it, I was like, I'm not gonna let Lauryn down.

I'm not gonna let Lauryn down. Let me do it right now because I just appreciate how much you always show up for me and I was like, I know if I don't do this right now, I'm gonna forget and she might feel a certain kind of way and I'm just like, we're not gonna have that, no.

Lauryn:
Well, I appreciate you, girl, but we got to talk about some of the things, like you're super mom, I already know it, the people are gonna know by the end of this episode.

I'm sure some of your listeners are gonna tune in and be like, oh, this is some stuff I never knew. I'm gonna ask all the questions, get all the tea, but we need to start way back at the beginning. Before you were somebody's mama, you were somebody's child.

So tell us a little bit about your upbringing and what kind of money messages you were hearing as you were a child.

Naseema:
Wow, so a lot to unpack there, and I think it's important to talk about your childhood because it often dictates how you operate with your money as an adult, right? S,o for me, I grew up with a single dad. My mom left when I was five years old, so very early on in life, I had to run my household, and when it came to money, there really wasn't any, so there wasn't a lot of talk about it.

I remember getting $5 for the week for lunch for school in high school because we had like off-campus lunch. Other than that, like I got lunch at school, or I made my lunch, or I brought my lunch, and like that was pretty much the money conversation until it was time to go to college and I got into USC. And first of all, USC is now like $90,000 a year.

Lauryn:
Yes, honey, the way college is set up nowadays.

Naseema:
Right, it is, but like back then, it was like $45,000 a year and for me, I had never like when they sent like their financial aid package, like I got in, you know, first of all, that was a crazy story, but I got in and then, you know, I was just like got this financial aid package and I was kind of like, I did not know how to feel because I had never seen that many numbers like written on a piece of paper that pertained to me.

Lauryn:
But at least you had some awareness around it. Some people just be like, I look at these numbers, I'm going to sign this paper.

Naseema:
But I didn't. I mean, I looked at it, but I didn't because like the only thing that was ingrained in me was your way out or your path to success is by getting into the best school that you can, landing that job and all those kind of things. There was no conversation around paying for it.

We did talk about scholarships and all that kind of stuff, but for me, it was like by any means necessary. You just go and then you kind of figure it out at the back end. So I just looked at it and I was like, okay.

And then I got into school, I guess it was pretty much loans. I remember signing loan documents like two inches thick. And I remember my signature changed because I signed so many loan documents.

I was like, I'm not writing out this signature that many times, but not even knowing what I was signing. And then I got this bill and they had like changed my parent contribution as I was enrolled in school. And I said to my dad, I was like, they said you owe this money.

And he was like, I'm not paying that. And I don't have it and I'm not paying it. And so I went to the financial aid, and I told him, my daddy said he's not paying it, and he doesn't have it.

And they were like, okay. And they gave me a grant. So for six years of USC, which is $45,000 a year.

And I got a full scholarship for grad school, I should say. I only came out with like $40,000 in student loan debt.

Lauryn:
Okay, so 40 grand total.

Naseema:
Yeah, 40 grand total. But that was just for that. But anyway, so that was my experience with money early on, like kind of like not having it and not having the skills to navigate around money.

Also, like those lessons of like, I hear like, it's funny, like when I hear other people talk about their decision to go to college, it's like the price is factored in. I was like, y'all look at stuff like that. I didn't look at stuff like that.

Lauryn:
Those Gen Zers, you know.

Naseema:
I didn't know how to look at stuff like that. But also like a lot of the things that I grew up with that affect like the way that I manage money is that I started making money really early.

Like, I had to learn how to do hair really early because my dad didn't do our hair because he didn't know how.

Lauryn:
How many of y'all was it?

Naseema:
It was it was me and my sister and we're a year and a half apart. So y'all super tight.

We're not at all. We're like polar opposites. Like we all like on the other side.

I have always been. But I, you know, I used to have to do her hair. And then so I did other people's hair.

And so I made money doing that. I babysat like so like my thing was I always knew how to make money. But the other thing is I also grew up like I grew up in kind of like the hood.

But I went to school in one of the most affluent parts of Oakland. And like the houses that surrounded my school were like million-dollar homes, and all this kind of stuff. And so everybody there, you know, kind of lived like this privileged life.

Meanwhile, I'm like taking three buses to get to school, you know.

Lauryn:
Do you think you internalized anything about money at that time frame? Because like, we're younger, we don't know a whole lot about money. But like, you know, a lot of guests have come on and said like they got to college and they realized like the difference in like some people that are paying out of pocket for college versus, you know, what they used to get to college.

Was that kind of a defining moment for you, taking those buses?

Naseema:
Yeah, so like when I was younger, I was just like, that's not for me. We live a totally different life. Like wealth wasn't something that was possible for me because it's for people who look like the other people.

It was me, and my sister was the black kids at school, and then everybody else. And so it meant that like I could not see myself as a wealthy person. And then I went to the University of Spoiled Children where people were riding around in Lamborghinis.

And again, I had a bus pass, you know, like. So again, it just felt like wealth wasn't for me. It was like this is like I just grew up in a way that that really wasn't possible unless I worked really, really, really, really, really hard to get it.

And so that was kind of my equalizer, like, yes, I didn't get into USC because of sports or I didn't get into USC because of privilege. And what is it called when your parents go there? Like legacy. I got in, you know, off of my marriage, and what I could do was work really, really hard.

So for me, being successful financially was about how hard I can work in climbing that corporate ladder.

Lauryn:
What did you decide to major in?

Naseema:
So I was initially pre-med, and then I took all those science classes in organic chemistry and all of that stuff. And I was just like, you know what? And then I figured out what doctors did, and I was like, I don't really want to do that.

So then I switched to more like a healthcare administration path, but I was through public policy. So did my undergrad public policy and management with a certificate in ambulatory care management, and then went on and got a master's in healthcare administration.

Lauryn:
And what were you planning to do with your degree?

Naseema:
I was planning to run hospitals and healthcare organizations, and I did.

I got into this prestigious healthcare administration training program, and where I worked in finance, member service, compliance, like all those areas, to get a really broad knowledge in healthcare administration, and then realized I hated it, but I loved what the nurses did that I worked with. And so I quit. I told them I was retiring because they didn't need to know my business, and I went back to school.

I went back to school to become a nurse and eventually a nurse practitioner.

Lauryn:
Okay. So, as you said, I think this is interesting because pretty much nobody takes a linear path.

They're not like, oh, I did this, and I did this. And you're like, I started over here, but then I took this hard left turn, and then I took a hard right. And so now here.

So when you decided to be an MP, was that like, I like this now, is this what I want to do? I want to be what I grew up?

Naseema:
No, but I did not even use my MP. I never used my MP because when I was getting my MP, I started working as a nurse, a labor and delivery nurse. And I just loved it so much that I just wanted to stay doing it.

And also, I had like a really traumatic experience in nursing school, which was like some bullying going on. And then I realized that as a labor and delivery nurse, I made more than MP. So in order for me to work as an MP, and this is something just unique to the San Francisco Bay area, like, because I made so much as a nurse, I would have to take a pay cut to work as an MP.

And so I was like, no, I don't want to do that. So.

Lauryn:
Right. If it don't make dollars. It don't make sense.

Naseema:
So I still keep my license up.

However, I just don't practice as a nurse practitioner. Now, if I want to use it in the future, I will. But as of right now, I'm still a full-time staff labor and delivery nurse.

And people are really surprised, especially when I share my salary, because I do make quite a bit of money as a nurse.

Lauryn:
Okay. So let's talk about, like you said, the transition.

And we started here. We did one thing, went over to the other thing, but you're still wearing a few other hats. So let's talk about some of those other hats, one of which is mom.

Tell us what else you do besides just nursing, because it's not just nursing at all.

Naseema:
So I started a platform in 2016 called Financially Intentional. It was when my daughter was turning one, and I was just like, I make too much money to be this broke and I needed to figure out what was going on.

So I need to figure out my finances, if not for me, but for her. And so I set out on this journey in 2015 when she was one to figure out my finances. And then I have this whole group of friends that I've known since like 12, 13, and we all have daughters.

And I was like, I wanted to share what I was learning with them. So in 2016, I created this platform called Financially Intentional. And it was just to document my journey of getting my finances together, like mainly my debt payoff journey, so that I make it more approachable for people, because I know the personal finance space was really intimidating for me, because I didn't see people that look like me.

I was told you have to have this amount of money to do certain things. And so I was just like, yo, like once I got into it, it's really not that hard. And let me just break it down in a way that people can understand.

Started the journey, it was literally just for my group of friends. And then as people were seeing me paying off these massive amount of debts, it kind of just like grew into what it is right now. And so now it's mainly like me as my life has evolved, like from one kid to three and from paying off a million dollars in debt to now having a million dollar net worth, like it literally from 2016 tracks that journey along the way and the opportunities that it's provided for me.

Lauryn:
So many things you just said. You know, this is the mom and money series. And so I like just for the moms out there, you know, we do so much, we sacrifice so much for our children, but they also make us better.

And so it kind of sounds like to me, like a defining moment for you was looking at your daughter and being like, I don't want you to be living, you said, earning money, how I'm earning money, but also not have a dollar to show for it. And I want to be able to teach you something better than what I know right now. So let me get myself together.

Naseema:
Exactly. And just to have something in place. If something were to happen to me, I need to know that she was going to be taken care of because I was a single mom.

So I was just like, yeah, I wanted to make sure she's going to be straight. Like I got to, if I'm not going to do this for myself, I got to do it for her.

Lauryn:
The second thing you said was that “I had a bunch of debt. I paid off a million dollars of debt.” She didn't say a hundred thousand yards. She didn't say 10,000.

She said $1,000,000 of debt. And now she has $1,000,000 net worth. So tell us a little bit about like where the debt came from, like what happened? I know there was like a bankruptcy somewhere along the way, like how we get way back there and to get way back up here.

Naseema:
So the bankruptcy happened like before. And so the result of the bankruptcy was that the bankruptcy happened, like when I was probably in my first year of nursing, I did file bankruptcy.

And that was like the result from like decisions I had made during that financial crisis. I had a lot of houses; nobody was paying for them. I had two foreclosures, two short sales, and then had to file for bankruptcy.

So that was before. So what that, what position that put me in was that I didn't have credit card debt. I had just gotten to the place where I could buy a house, but I was still reestablishing my credit.

But what was good is I didn't have, I couldn't really have credit cards. So that wasn't part of the mix of this debt payoff, but I did have a lot of student loans. I love to brag about how I only graduated.

I graduated from USC with only $45,000 in debt. But when I went back to school for all that nursing at the public school at the UC, I racked up an additional, some additional debt, which my total debt was around $180,000, which after paying it off was over $200,000. So that was part of the debt.

Then everything else was just normal stuff. It was the down payment. I borrowed against my 403B to put a down payment on my house, cars, braces.

I got married at one point, got a divorce, paid for some of his stuff, paid for a divorce, paid the IRS debt because of the way I had to file while going through a divorce. So it was just like things that, just normal things. So at the end of it, when I had about $50,000 left and most of that was further from the expenses of the divorce, then I decided to sell my house.

And I live in Northern California. During that time, median home prices were about $750,000, which is in the millions now. So I sold my house, and that was about 500,000 of that debt.

So like 300 something thousand of it, of the debt was those consumer debt. So the large parts was student loans, everything else, that normal debt that we take on. And then the rest was selling my home in the Bay Area, which put it up to like $975,000.

So I rounded it up to a million because it's easier to say.

Lauryn:
Amen. Hallelujah.

So, I mean, I don't think we should discount, like you said, the debt payoff because whether it is selling a home, like you said, a lot of people think of oh, a house is good debt and it's just debt, period. It's debt.

Naseema:
You owe somebody, you paying interest on it, it is still debt. Yeah.

Lauryn:
100%. And I think a lot of us say, I'm debt-free except for, and that's another sentence that we use, it's like, you're not debt-free then.

And it's not the worst thing in the world. Maybe your plan is to pay your house off over 30 years. That's completely fine.

But let's just call it what it is and also understand that, like you said, there's some flexibility and there's different ways you can move when you decide to get rid of all the debt. So for me, part of my story was at one point I had a house, well, I messed up two houses along the way, but I remember holding onto the house and being in a situation where I was like, someone was renting it, and it wasn't covering the mortgage. So I was putting in a rest every month, and I'm just like, but the market is going to come back at some point eventually.

And when I finally got rid of that house, I also sold short, and I was just like, but I don't owe anybody anything. And that was the first time I had ever been, like you said, specifically like debt-free. And I had never had credit card debt up to that point or anything like this.

It was like, oh, I had the good debt, but it felt so good to be like, I don't owe nobody nothing. What I have in my bank account is mine, and that's it. Yeah.

Just like the mindset around that debt. Sometimes I think we have to have some conversations and like reframe that for some people.

Naseema:
Yeah. I think because it's tied up in like this American dream kind of thing and people want to idealize that kind of debt, but it's still like debt, like ways, there's a tangible feeling of like the pressure from debt for a lot of people. And we have to acknowledge that whether it's good or bad debt, that freedom is that, that feeling is unmatched. Like this is great.

And that's what I work hard for, for my kids. And that's why I set them up the way that I set them up. So as soon as I paid off my debt, I started investing aggressively because around that same time, I learned about the fire movement, financial freedom.

And I was like, wait a minute. So you mean like, I don't have to climb this corporate ladder to be successful. I can just start stacking.

And that's another reason why I don't work towards my MP is because like, the next step would be to go and be an MP and like do all these things prestigious-wise, even though it didn't make any financial sense, but you know, everybody's like, why aren't you an MP? Why don't you want to advance your career? Cause I make really good money. It helps me to meet my goals, and I love what I do. Why would I change that? And so I was just like, yeah,

Lauryn:
Hold on, hold on.

We got to pause right there. I made good money. The money I earned allows me to be able to reach my goals.

And I love what I do. Like I said, people just get lost on the, we have to climb the corporate ladder. You know, we have to break all the glass ceilings.

We have to fill in the blank. You got to get the bigger house. You got to get the better car.

You have, you have to have to have to, you got to do what's right for you. And it sounds like that's what you chose was like, this is what's right for me.

Naseema:
Yeah. A lot of people just don't even know why they're doing it. They're doing it because of some kind of external validation that they get. And what I really had to think about was like, what is important to me? What was important to me was getting freedom over my time, getting to do the things that I get to do, not what I have to do, and what is going to give, like set me on that path the fastest.

And for me, it was using the job that I had to accelerate that path. And so I started by investing aggressively and then learning how to invest for my daughter. And then when I had my second daughter immediately setting up investment accounts for her.

And when I had my third daughter, she had investment accounts in utero, you know, so it was just those things that have helped me to accelerate that path to financial freedom for myself, but also for my kids so that they don't have to feel that weight of what I felt like going to school, trying to figure out how I'm going to pay for it and like working and paying off student loans and not being able to afford the things my colleagues could afford because they didn't have student loan debt, or they had a family to help them out. Like I like to say, I'm setting my kids up like Chad. And who was Chad? Chad is that entitled dude that you work with in the office and his parents, his parents pay for his college, his parents pay for his car, his parents paid for, you know, the down payment on his house.

So now every dollar that he makes is only accelerating, like wealth building. And he's able to accelerate that early on in his life so that he can live the life that he wants to and not have to worry about money. And so, yeah, they're going to be like Chad.

Lauryn:
I love it. I love it. I love it.

And so as you think about how your mom being, you know, they said you're, you're, you're doing money so that these kids can be okay. But how are you talking to your children about money on a regular basis? Like what are they learning? How is it different than the upbringing that you had, where money was not being talked about?

Naseema:
It's totally different. My kids are included in the conversations.

They're included in my brand. So like they get to have unique conversations about money. And I just talk about it in an age-appropriate way.

And sometimes you don't even know that they're listening until like, one time we were taking my neighbor to the movies. We went to the movies with my neighbor, and you know, my daughter was like, oh yeah, like I have like all this money in my investment account. And he was like, what is an investment account? Like, what is that? She was like, yeah, I have my money in there.

And you know, the money just grows over time. And then she was six or seven, saying this. And she's like, yeah, like, what do you mean? Like, you don't have an investment account? At first, she was like, well, how much money do you have in yours? And he was like, I don't know what that is.

And she's like, oh my God, like, you don't want to go to the movies when you know what I'm doing for you. Like what's going on? Or like things like, like my step-mom likes to shop. Like, and so she goes to the grocery store, and like, she buys all of these groceries at once.

And my kids are with her. And my six-year-old was like four at that time. And she was like, why are you putting all these things in your grocery basket? You don't even got a lot of money like that.

My mom has a lot of money and she don't buy groceries like this. And it's true. I live right by the grocery store, so I just buy what I need.

Right. And so, but they're able to identify those things. So just age-appropriate conversations around money, but it's really like the best lessons you can teach your kids is to model it.

So more is caught than taught. Right. Like whatever you model for your kids, they're going to pick up on.

And if you're modeling like a struggle lifestyle around money, that's typically what they're going to pick up. For me, it's more about abundance, and it's more about managing what we have. And it's more about saving for the future.

Lauryn:
So as far as like pieces of the puzzle that you're implementing with them, do they have like piggy banks? Do they get allowances for chores? Are you like sitting down with them on a weekend and saying like, okay, here's how your investment account grew, or here's what I put into it. Or is it like you said, more just like modeling, but you know,

Naseema:
More modeling for my oldest, she does have, she has an app, it's called Acorns Early Now, where it's like an allowance app. And then she has a debit card that goes with it.

And she could just spend, you know, what's on her debit card and all that kind of stuff. That is one part of modeling. But the other part is, she's actually like, we work with Acorns.

So she's on a lot of their advertisements. She does a lot of that kind of stuff. So she has a job.

She actually has a job. And then part of that is like, now she has a job, she can save for retirement. And so she has a retirement account and all those kinds of things.

And so, like modeling that kind of stuff, like she's working early, she's putting her money away early, and she knows how it grows. The other things I taught my kids, like from the time my youngest was two, and then my oldest was there four years apart, so she was six, I started an investment account for them. And you would think, well, how would you teach a two-year-old about investment? But I taught them things like, there's a McDonald's across the street from my house, I'd love to go to McDonald's.

And I'm like, yeah, we can go to McDonald's or you can own a part of McDonald's. And I use this app called Stockpile. And Stockpile, instead of listing the names out, like the ticker symbol for McDonald's, it'll show the McDonald's sign.

And so I set us like $20 a month aside for them to invest in the things that they consume in. So they say every month, okay, what do you want to invest in? Okay, this month, I want to invest in Roblox. And this month, I want to invest in McDonald's.

And then at the end of the month, we'll see who had the highest returns. And then other thing it teaches them is, is that my oldest daughter will not buy anything unless she sees that the stock price is in the red. Because she knows that if the stock price is down, she's getting it on sale, right? Where counterintuitively, like most people don't buy into stocks unless they're booming, right? She's like, I'm not doing that.

So teaching her so many lessons just within that. And then I just gamify it for them. So they compete against each other to see if they're picking the right stocks.

And it's not about stock picking. It's really about knowing that you're an owner of a company versus just a consumer of it. And so just lessons like that, age-appropriate lessons like that.

Lauryn:
I love it. I love it. I love it.

I know you're also, like you said, doing some things to make sure that their education is either taken care of. You said one, you started saving for, like you said, in utero. So, as far as the process of what your goal is for your children, like, did you set a goal for them at 18, my daughter will have X, Y, Z, or I want my daughter to have this, and this is why I'm doing it or?

Naseema:
Right. So when I first started investing for them, the only thing I had set up was like a 529 for my oldest daughter. And the goal was all I'm funding, because we just talked about how crazy college is expensive. All I'm funding is $100,000.

My goal is to have $100,000 for each of them in their account by the time they're 18. Now, for context, I started that account when she was three. I stopped investing in that account in 2020 or 2021.

I'm only in the span of the time I had that investment account, only invested like $37,000. Well, that account is now at $95,000, and she's 11.

Lauryn:
Wow. So she's going to have her 100,000, right? More than. And when this is the thing that people don't understand, like how, you know, putting your money aside and letting compounding, taking advantage of compounding earnings, is going to actually grow your account.

Naseema:
Right. It has done its thing. And that's why I stress for people to start investing as early as possible, even if it's just like 20 or $50 a month. And I don't, like I said, I don't touch that account.

And now, you know, it'll be well over $100,000 without me doing anything to it by the time she graduates from high school. But it also serves as a family bank because I don't really contribute a lot to my other kids accounts because that account will grow. And then the beauty of a 529 is you can change the beneficiary at any time.

So it just kind of rolls down, and it'll fund stuff for my other daughters, and it'll just trickle down and continue to grow. Also, the other benefit of a 529 and how I was able to set that up for my daughter in utero is because you can have a 529; you can start a 529 at any time because you can change the beneficiary. So what I did was it was an account earmarked for my baby.

I just set up a 529, made myself the beneficiary. And then after she was born, just change her to the beneficiary. But during that time in utero, it was growing.

Lauryn:
100%. And I did the same thing. So actually, one thing I'll pause and say, because maybe somebody is like, what is this number? Like 5-1-2-3-4? What? 529 is an investment account that you set up for education specifically.

And depending on what state you live in, you might even get a state tax deduction for contributing to your 529 plan.

Naseema:
Which I don't, by the way.

Lauryn:
Yeah, right. There's a lot of states that don't. But it is something you should definitely look into. You don't necessarily need a financial advisor to set it up or anything like that.

You can do it on your own as long as you just read, follow instructions, and you too can get started investing. The idea is that you would set up something. You could choose an account as an example and say, my child is going to graduate high school in 2050.

And they would just say, OK, the money is invested this way. And every year, it gets a little bit more conservative. So you don't even have to be an investment guru.

I know that's one of the things that holds a lot of moms back from being able to get started. I want to make good decisions for my child, but I don't know nothing about money. So how do I even get started? A 529 plan is a great thing to do because you just put the money in there.

Like I said, choose the date that they're going to graduate, and it'll be invested on your behalf, and get more conservative as you get closer to time. And when I say conservative, that means they're going to do things that are less risky to start to protect that money, versus on the front end, when your child is one or two years old, they could be a little bit more risky. But risk is where you get the growth.

So look into a 529 plan. It's like $50, $20. Whatever you can do, the money is going to grow over time, and you will have more than you would have had if you didn't do anything.

Naseema:
Definitely. And a lot of people are always like, but what if my kid doesn't go to college? I look at it like a family bank. Again, it can go to the next person.

It grows tax and penalty-free. I feel like you should have the account. It doesn't have to be your biggest account, but it should be something that you're considering if you have kids and you do want to potentially pay for their education.

It could be used for homeschooling expenses. It could be used for K-12 education. It can be used to pay off up to $50,000 of your own loans.

It's just so many different ways that it can be used. I think it's silly not to have a 529.

Lauryn:
I love it. I love it. Okay. So as we start to kind of wrap up, I want to think about some of the things.

We talked about your past. We've talked about kind of the present. What are the goals that you have for yourself and for your children for the future?

Naseema:
Really, I feel like financial independence is about doing the things that you want to do, right? And I love being a nurse.

I don't like the time away that it takes from my family. And so I'm looking forward to in the future, being able to take more time off to spend these years with my family, that is, you know, these fundamental developmental years, because we only have what, 18 summers is what they like to say, right? With our kids. And that doesn't sound like a lot.

And so, you know, like focusing on either mini retirement or, you know, taking short stints off of work because, I mean, I could always go back to being a nurse, you know, but I won't be able to get back these years for my kids and trying to like figure out, you know, like the firing community kind of stresses like front-loading your work and putting those investments away and then being able to retire early. I'm trying to figure out a place where I've already front-loaded a lot of my investments. I'm kind of already costified, which means that I don't have to invest anymore in my retirement account and I'll be cool for retirement.

I'm kind of at that point. So I'm trying to figure out like what that balance is between like work, working as a nurse and investing aggressively and being able to take time off and spend time with my kids. And ideally, like I said, I want to be able to spend as much time as possible with them, exploring the world, showing them things like doing some world schooling stuff.

So just like figuring out what that balance is and putting those things in place. So that's where I'm at, like using my financial resources right now in order to live the life that I want to live as opposed to reaching towards this big astronomical number to kind of just stop working, like bridging that gap a little bit.

Lauryn:
I love it. I love it. Also, because you're a girl after my own heart. But there's so many people, like you said, I love opening people's eyes to the idea of like we don't have to wait till we're 65.

We don't have to hurry and do everything hard, hard, hard, to possibly be able to do it at 55. Life is life today. We've got to make the most of it today.

One of the things that really turned the path that I was on, I became a financial planner, and one of the clients that came to me, a prospective client, she was like, I'm reaching out because my uncle died two months ago and he died the day after his retirement party. And she was like, I don't want that life. She was like, it just hit me like a ton of bricks.

We were so close. You know, he worked his whole life. He worked so hard to be able to retire, and he did not get to live his retirement out.

And she was just like, I don't give a what everybody else is saying. How can I start retiring right now? And it is, it's all about, you said, choosing, making wise financial decisions because I want to live till I'm 90, and I want to make sure that I have a roof over my head and I can eat when I'm 90. But at the same time, I don't want us to, to delay being able to go to Trinidad tomorrow, which is what I'm getting ready to do.

And closing my calendar and going about my business while still being financially responsible and making sure that, you know, my daughter's going to be okay in the future.

Naseema:
So yeah, it's like the financially responsible YOLO, you know?

Lauryn:
Yes. I like that. Financially responsible YOLO.

All right. So as we wrap up, we do this thing called the final sprint.

And this is like, I'm going to ask you some questions. It's sprint-ish. We're just going to, you know, answer them how you see fit.

That's what I'm going to say. The first question is you have $20 in your pocket right now. What are you spending it on?

Naseema:
My God, that's a good question.

A rapid fire question. Probably some food.

Lauryn:
What you going to buy in California for $20?

Naseema:
With $20, if I know I just have $20, I'm buying some groceries, something that's going to last, like something that I can cook and that's going to last me like a couple of weeks.

Lauryn:
Girl, $20 in California could last a couple of weeks. We didn't do a whole another show about how you go grocery shopping.

Naseema:
Oh my God. You don't know what my grocery budget looks like. I know how to make stuff stretch. Okay.

Right. I'm like, hold up. Wait a second.

We're cooking a pot of beans. We're cooking some soup. We're cooking some lentil.

We're cooking something that's cheap and is going to stretch. Yeah. Because you can't do nothing with all food.

Lauryn:
This is true. We do need to nourish ourselves. Worst financial advice that you've ever received?

Naseema:
Don't invest while paying off debt.

Lauryn:
Yeah. That is a bad advice. What is your best money habit?

Naseema:
I think my best money habit is paying myself first.

No, actually my best money habit was actually surrounding myself with people that I aspire to.

Lauryn:
I like that. Yes.

Because if you're the smartest person in the room, you say, find yourself a new room. Right? Exactly. All right. Finish this sentence. That awkward financial moment when?

Naseema:
I don't know. It's not too awkward.

I think the only thing about awkward is like, this is good. I'm in the personal finance space, but I'm very much still learning. So my financial journey is not as linear as people think.

I have ups and downs. I have setbacks. And sometimes it's kind of hard to be like, oh, you're supposed to be like the expert, but you made this money mistake.

So the awkwardness comes in, and being able to be vulnerable and share that. Like, yeah, I do make money mistakes. Yes. I paid off a million dollars in debt. No, I'm not debt-free right now. I still have debt.

Lauryn:
Right. I did it. But then what happened was?

Naseema:
What happened was life.

Lauryn:
Right. Exactly. No, for sure.

For sure. So those could be awkward conversations, but also like very necessary conversations. Exactly.

All right. Something you do for fun that doesn't cost anything.

Naseema:
Oh, go to the park with my kids.

Lauryn:
That's a good old fashioned one.

Naseema:
Yes. Take drives down the good old California coast.

Lauryn:
All right. This one is kind of like we went here, but we'll see if you answer differently or if you say something similar. So our final question is, can you share with us one thing that you would like to prove about your finances in the upcoming year?

Naseema:
Just get into a place where I don't have to work as much.

So that means that my business has to do a little bit more heavy lifting so that I don't have to work as a nurse. So some of my passive income things are not passive, but not so passive, but so that I don't have to clock in, like leave my kids with a babysitter.

Lauryn:
I like that. Some of the things that are less demanding from a strict time standpoint that can earn you money.

Naseema:
Exactly.

Lauryn:
I love it. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, your journey.

People are going to be blessed by this episode. I know it. I know it.

So now take a moment. Shout yourself out. Tell us where we can find you, how we can support you, what you got going on, what do we need to know to make sure we stay in touch and we can continue to lift you up.

Naseema:
So I am at Financially Intentional. I mostly hang out on Instagram, but you can pretty much find me everywhere as Financially Intentional or Naseema. I would love for you to join me in one of my free trainings I hold every month.

And you just do that at financiallyintentional.com/class. And then I'm really responsive to the DM. So if you ever have any money questions, anything you're perplexed about, just holler at me, and I'd love to help you.

Lauryn:
She is available, y'all. She did not say talk to my assistant, call somebody to call somebody to get to me. She says a lot of my DMs, and I will help you.

I love that. And the mom tribe has to continue to help one another.

Naseema:
Exactly. Exactly.

Lauryn:
All right, Naseema. Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Naseema:
You're very welcome. It's my pleasure.



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