#MyModernWealth

You're listening to Finances Demystified with Dominique Broadway, the podcast that provokes the conversation of money, demystifies all your finances, and shows you how to bring all of your dreams to reality so that you can live your very best life on your own terms. Welcome back to another episode of Finances Demystified. I am super excited about today's topic, which is My Modern Wealth. And this podcast is sponsored by Charles Schwab and the My Modern Wealth campaign. So wealth, generating wealth, making wealth, getting wealthy, whatever you want to call it, is something I'm super, super passionate about. It's something that I am personally working towards, building wealth so I don't have to work forever, y'all. I'm not trying to be working forever. And so when Charles Schwab reached out to me in reference to this campaign, I was super excited to, to really finally have that conversation about wealth and like what it means. And that's really what this whole podcast is about today. It's basically just talking about what wealth means to me and how you too can get into a wealthy mindset so that you can start building wealth. Now, as you know, everybody wants to be wealthy, right? But not many people can really define what wealth truly means to them. So I had to go and pull out the dictionary, y'all. Well, not the real dictionary, I Googled it, but I went to the Merriam-Webster dictionary online and I pulled the definition of wealth. And the definition of wealth is essentially an abundance of valuable material possessions or resources. When I first heard about, or when I first heard this definition, I was like, hmm, abundance of valuable material possessions. So things— I started thinking about people that have like a lot of things, but that doesn't really equate to what wealth means to me. Now, for most people, the vision of wealth often includes like a super dope car or a large home in Beverly Hills or in Bora Bora or in Bali or somewhere of that nature overlooking the hill with like a dope fancy infinity pool. However, for me, the more I thought about wealth, it didn't really have a lot to do with money at all. Not the money in my bank account, which, you know, although we need our coins to support our goals, but it really had a lot more to do with my time freedom. It wasn't about, like I said, the flashy cars, the big house, but it really made me think about my lifestyle. My lifestyle and the time freedom and what I like to call lifestyle design and truly creating a life that I desire on my own terms. And that's another one of the main reasons or another big reason why I became an entrepreneur is because I knew that by becoming an entrepreneur, although you work extremely hard and you do work long hours, you can create that flexibility to work from wherever you want to work and to create that time freedom so that you can work when you want to work at the same time if you you have control over your schedule and you've done what I like to call lifestyle design. Now, when I was thinking about my wealth, I also thought about my, my parents, my, my family, my friends, and all of you guys who are constantly supporting me, uplifting me, and making me feel loved. And these were like some of the things that I felt like made me feel wealthy, which was not necessarily surprising. But when you think about wealth, most people, that's not what they're thinking about. Now don't get me wrong, I love money. I love making it, watching it grow as much as the next person. And for you to be able to create that ideal lifestyle that you want, you have to have money to support your goals. As you know, most things take money. All things in life pretty much take money. So that's why I love to work with so many people to help them demystify their finances and bring all their dreams to reality. So If you are just beginning your wealth-building journey, or if you're trying to figure out how to feel wealthier, um, I wanted to give you guys just a couple places to start on your wealth-building journey. So first things first, live below your means. Now people hate when I say that, like they really do. It's like no one ever wants to hear that they have to stop spending so much money. But that's really how the rich are getting richer, or how people are building wealth, because essentially the secret to building wealth is making sure that your income always exceeds your expenses. So if you're going out every month and you're— or every day or week or whatever— and you're making money and you're literally spending every single dime that you make I'm talking every single dime that you make, and then you're going out and putting everything else on a credit card. Do you really think you're ever going to be able to get wealthy? I can pretty much guarantee you no. And living below your means is really truly the key to building wealth. If you're able to keep your expenses low, this will allow you to put more money towards saving, more— put more money towards investing, put more money towards traveling, or any of the other things that you desire. If you're always spending more than what you're bringing in, like I said, I can guarantee you that you will never ever be able to build wealth. So the first thing you need to do is sit down and be real with yourself about how much money you're spending and how much money you're making. And if you're spending more than what you're bringing in, just pause the podcast right now and sit down and look at your budget and see what you can do to make that stop, because you're— all you're doing is literally giving away all the money that you're bringing in. Okay, the next thing you want to do is think about what makes you feel wealthy. Like, what makes you truly feel wealthy? And like I said earlier, wealth means so many different things to so many different people, but I think we can all agree that having more money does provide more flexibility in your life. Now, more money does not necessarily make you happy all the time, and that's like proven. But now I think I was reading an article that said like anything over $60,000 or no, I think anything over $75,000, you're just like, it doesn't change your happiness or something like that. But I mean, I think it depends on how many kids you have and blah blah blah blah blah. But anyway, um, how many people you're responsible for. But anyway, so, but essentially it's like, what does it mean? What does wealth mean to you? And if you're struggling with what wealth means to you, like, seriously, take some time and think about when you feel wealthiest. I know I always feel wealthiest when it's like the middle of the day and I know everyone else is at work and they're stressed out and I'm just like doing what I love and I'm doing it from a cool coffee shop or I'm doing it from, um, or I'm working from a pool or I'm on vacation. Or I always feel wealthy when I'm able to take these vacations and not even just for 3, 4 days, when I can take sometimes a 7 or 10 day vacation and still be able to make the same amount of money but work from wherever I want to work. Or being able to take vacations with my family, or, you know, trying new things. That's when I feel wealthiest. And if you can figure out when you feel wealthiest, you'll be able to create a lifestyle that will support, support that and support you feeling wealthy and creating a life that essentially makes you happy. Okay. So the next thing you want to do is look for ways to grow your wealth and make money. So look for ways to grow your wealth and make money. This is another huge key when it comes to building wealth. If you're able to take the money that you're making and invest it into stocks or mutual funds, ETFs, and we'll talk more about this in another show, real estate, um, anything else, you will be able to make money while you go out and do things that you actually enjoy. This, this, you know, leads to creating a more passive stream of income. We'll talk more about that too, but you have to look for ways to grow your wealth and make money. But like I said earlier, if you're living above your means, meaning that you're spending more than what you're bringing in, you'll never be able to get to this step. You'll never be able to have extra money to invest, to have extra money to do the things that you truly love. And that's how you get into that rat race or that cycle of just working and spending. Working and spending, working and spending, and never being able to get out of that cycle. And that's something that I realized early on, that I was not, not about that life. I was like, I'm not about to be out here working all day long and really not having anything to show for it, and not being able to control time, uh, control my own time. So I want you to look for ways to grow your money, to grow your wealth, and make money. But in addition to that, look for ways to make more money. That's another big thing. So we talked about earlier, like, living below your means is the key to building wealth. But sometimes for people, if there's no way to cut back their expenses, you got to go make more money. And that's always been the answer for me. I cut back as far as I can, and then the next step is to bring in more money. And that's a whole other wealthy mindset as well, understanding that you don't necessarily have to, you know, be in this, this poverty mindset. Develop a wealthy mindset. Develop a mindset that, that will allow you to, to, to know that you, you deserve and it's okay to make more money. You know, God wants us to be wealthy. He— it's actually in the Bible, but it's up— it's us a lot of times that sabotage ourselves and, and, you know, has a poverty mindset and does not allow yourself to, to make more money or to, to even think that you too can build wealth, okay? And the other thing I mentioned is creating a more passive stream of income. And sometimes that doesn't even necessarily have to be passive, but it's another stream. But passive income is essentially— is money that you can make while you're doing anything else, like while you're on vacation, or while you're out with your kids, or while you're sleeping. Um, and now with the internet, there's so many more ways to do that. Like, I was, um, reading something about, uh, the app. There's an app I use— oh, Poshmark— about Poshmark and how Poshmark has created so many people that are making like over $100,000 a year, and some making a couple million a year, which is crazy, just off of reselling their old clothes or, you know, just basically selling stuff online. And you can set this up where it can essentially become a passive stream for you. And so with the internet and you know, everything at our fingertips, it's so much easier to make money than it used to be. So another thing when I think about just wealth in general is like generational wealth, and that's something that's really important for me, and that's something that I wish more people thought about, was not just building wealth and having money for themselves now, but how are you going to elevate the next generation? How are you going to elevate your, your family and the people, your, your children or your nieces, your nephews, whoever the people that are going to be here when you're gone. Like, how are you going to elevate them? Are you going to be able to set, um, a stage for them to stand on and propel them and give them a jump start in life? Because so many people are born into poverty and they're born into these situations that they can never get out of. But, but it can be something as little as you putting away $50 a week or $50 a month for your, for your, for your loved ones so that you can start creating this generational wealth, so that you can leave a, leave a legacy, um, and so that wealth can be transferred down to the next generation, and so that the next generation can have a jump start on life. So for me, when I think about my modern wealth and what wealth means to me, it's what— it's lifestyle design. It's living life on my own terms. It's not being a slave to the dollar, but allowing me to enjoy making money, seeing my money grow, and working for me so I can truly live a life full of happiness and memorable experiences. So I would love for you to share with me what my modern wealth means to you. Definitely make sure that you're following me on Instagram, Twitter. On Instagram, it's @DominiqueBroadway. On Twitter, it's @MSFinanceCoach. And let me know, like, what does modern wealth mean to you? Hashtag #MyModernWealth. I would love to hear what it means to you. It may surprise yourself. But like I said, make sure that you're listening to this podcast because this is a good one. And this My Modern Wealth conversation is really going to set the tone for everything else that we'll be talking about in all the upcoming episodes and with all the guests that we have coming on board. So thanks for tuning in to another episode of Finances Demystified. I'm Dominique Broadway, your awesome host, and I will see you very soon.