Opt Into Making Your First Trade with Dominique Broadway

Welcome to the Black Girl Burnout Podcast. Kelly here, and today's guest is Dominique Broadway. She's a visionary in the world of financial literacy and now a bestselling author of the book The Wealth Decision. Dominique is relentlessly committed to making wealth a tangible reality For All. She's super engaging and helps us demystify our finances. This episode is incredibly powerful because now that we've learned a little bit of how to negotiate like we did earlier in the week, we're going to learn how to invest. In an episode that aired last year, Dominique Broadway broke down step by step how to engage and complete your first trade. We are bringing that segment back because when I tell you she laid it all out, she laid it all out. By the end of this episode, if you are not already investing, or if you've been investing in a kind of robo-investment series, this is going to give you the empowerment and the courage and confidence you need to go open up your first independent account and to make your first purchase of a stock. Don't let this episode go by you without you doing this activity. I promise you, it's so so easy, so within reach for you. This year is all about healing, and one of the areas we need to heal is our finances, is our future, is our belief in ourself, and the fact that these kinds of conversations about investing and trading are not for other people or not too hard for us to understand. Follow along with the episode, and please, please, please make your first trade. Let's let Dominique teach us how to do it.

Okay, we are back with Dominique Broadway. I want to keep the conversation going by transitioning into investing, which I think for a lot of Black women are a mystery. It is a mystery. And so if we could get started today with building a wealth portfolio, making that wealth decision, how does investing factored into that?

Yeah. So investing is, I mean, maybe I'm a little biased, but I think one of the most important things that we can do as Black women. It's so simple to do. I'll tell you how to do it in a second, but it's a very simple thing. And it's something that I originally got really intrigued with the world of investing. Like when I was in my teens, I realized really early on that I did not want to always have to work like trade hours for dollars. You know, working at like Macy's or Target and things like that when I was younger, getting paid $5, $6, $7 I'm like, this cannot be the end-all be-all. Obviously I knew I would go to college and make more money, but I was really intrigued to figure out how wealthy people were, one, getting wealthy, but also growing their wealth. It was pretty much 3 ways. It was real estate investing and entrepreneurship. I had already dabbled in entrepreneurship. I didn't have enough money to buy a house. I figured I would really just dive into the world of investing. And what I learned in it was just literally how, and I hate to use the word simple, but how simple it can be. To select some of the best investments, which I always tell people to make a list of the companies that you love, that you frequent, that you follow, that you admire. And that is like literally how you decide you can make that first list of what investments you want to make. My very first two investments when I was 16, I had about $50. I put $25 into Apple stock and you guys know that panned out and then $25 into Jones Soda, which did not pan out very well. And you continue to add more money into those respective companies over time and then started adding more, more and more money into it. Um, and so just being able to see, even at the age of 16, how I would put my money in, go to sleep or whatever, not look at it for a couple days, and now that $50 maybe has grown to $75, and I did no physical work or labor. And that's when I was just like, okay, I'm on to something here, right? Um, now obviously with the stock market, it has its ups and downs, but if you ever look at any stock market chart over time, it always goes up. North, right? No matter what it does. And so, for me, it has been just a game changer, which is why I think it's so important for, for, especially for Black women to see that we don't have to work so hard for every single dollar. You know, I'm on a mission for women to work smarter, not harder, which is why so many women face this burnout. They're working so hard. You know, as Black women, we're taught that we can, you know, yes, it's great that we can do all the things we can, we can cook, we can clean, we can make the money, we can do all the things, which is great. But sometimes you don't have to do all the things, right? And there's smarter ways that you can do it. So, uh, that's why I feel like investing is just so important. It is, it is literally, uh, going out, you go out, you make your money, you're bringing it in, and now your money is working for you, right? So one of my favorite things is to give your dollars jobs. So when I make money, once it is made and now into my territory and my bank account, this is not its time to start to sit there and be lazy. No, because I went out and did something to make this money. So money, you can't come in here and just be sitting lazy. You have to go and make money for me. Right. And that's why I say assigning dollars, various jobs. Some of it's going to go and, you know, maybe pay the mortgage. That's this job. Some of it's going to go into my retirement account. Some is going to go into just the wealth building portfolio. Some is going to go into the kids' investment portfolio. And these dollars have jobs to multiply themselves, not sit and be lazy, but to multiply themselves. And this is why I think that this is, this is so important because it helps more people to start to reach those levels of wealth. I mean, you're not going to save yourself. Yourself to wealth. I mean, you could, but it's going to take you a lot longer, right? A whole lot longer. And I think this is, this is really just why the whole investing concept is, is so important.

So what do you say to people who have anxiety around investing? Like, there's people out there who have debt. They're saying, I don't make enough money to invest, or I still have, you know, a huge amount of debt. Should I be focusing on paying that off? How do you help people manage their anxiety when it comes to investing and their ignorance about investing? Because I do think in the community, it's like, that's just for white folks, or it's so complicated. Like I said, when I heard that phrase, which is, you know, this, the Roth, the IRA, I was like, what is that? Over my head. How would you address people who are struggling with that?

Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is you have to like start to look at your finances. Most people who have anxiety when it comes to finances, when it comes to investing, it's just a lack of knowledge and comfortability, right? So anytime you fear something, it's just typically because there's unknown, there's things that you don't know. But once you get familiar with something, and we have tens of thousands of students that have literally proven this to us, they're like, oh my God, I was so scared of the markets, but now that I understand it, I'm not scared anymore. I get it. It's, it's very simple. Um, and so that's how, that's why I think is, is the first thing that people need to do is honestly take a second, sit down, look at all their finances, see where they currently are, right? And then I always say, make a, a little list of just a couple companies. It could be 3 to 5 companies, right? It could be, you know, Apple, because I have Apple iPhone, and Chipotle, if you like Chipotle. Um, you know, Starbucks, if you go to Starbucks, whatever it may be. And these are companies, these are all Meta, which is, you know, Facebook and Instagram, which we're all on. These are companies that I just listened to. These are all companies that you're familiar with. The easiest way to get comfortable with the stock market specifically is to start just checking out companies that you're familiar with because it's not intimidating. You go, you look at Starbucks stock, you're like, oh my God, I went to Starbucks this morning. I understand this. They're making an announcement. They have new, uh, what did they just come out with? New spicy lemonades. Okay, cool. This may make their stock price go, you know about that. It's very comfortable, right? And so, I think what this activity has helped, I've seen a lot of just, you know, help a lot of children and also adults to see, oh my gosh, I know Nike. I wear Nike. Let me read about Nike. And I'm like, let's read about it. Let's see what products they're having coming out. That is literally what we call fundamental analysis. So now we're just sitting here. We're researching the products that Nike is coming out. We're researching the CEO of the company. We're researching, You know, what other collaborations they have coming out and they think we're just researching. It's like, yes, we're researching, but congratulations, you just did fundamental analysis. And they're like, what? I'm like, look how simple that was. It's like us just reading the news and reading the gossip about the companies and what's happening with them. That is literally fundamental analysis. And then you can start to see the walls fall down. They're like, okay, well, I can do this. I'm reading about Starbucks every day anyway. I'm reading about Tesla every day anyway, you know? And so that simple activity has really helped a lot of people to break that barrier. I think that's the most important thing. So, like I said, with all things, fear comes with the unknown, the uncertainty. And if you make a list of companies that you're already familiar with, you're like, okay, I— this isn't scary. I know Chipotle. I know about their burritos. I know about the chicken. You know, we can start to get more familiar.

Yeah, I agree with that. And so in the next step, then let's say we've made our list. We know what we like. We know what we're consuming. Where do we go from there? How do you, because that's the other big mystery. It's like, oh, I love Nike, but loving Nike is okay. I have my money. What do I do? And how does your programming help people connect to that? Because I think that's the piece that's also would, would be helpful for our listeners to hear.

Yeah. So with, with our courses, our Finances Demystified and Wealth Demystified programs, we literally demystify all of the extra, you know, intricate things that go into it in helping people to understand what's the best things to invest in for them. So outside of like, hey, I like this company, now you're going to learn how to actually do deeper fundamental analysis on the company and technical analysis to see what their price target is, how far can they go. We also teach trading as well, so you can trade, trade the stocks every day if you want to, right? But let's say if you didn't do any of that and you're just like, Dominique, tell me how to do it right now. I'll tell you. So let's say you made your list of 3 to 5 and let's just say, let's do, I was, I was actually trading Apple today, did some really great trades on Apple today. So Apple, I did some Nvidia today, but let's do a couple we know. So we'll just do Nvidia and not Nvidia. Let's do Apple and Starbucks, two companies we know. Okay. So if you're like, okay, Dominique, I like Apple and I like Starbucks and I have $200. Cool. Now the next step that we want to do now that we know that we like these companies Don't worry about trying to time the market or anything because your first thing that you're trying to do here is just to create a, a long-term portfolio, a wealth portfolio, right? So the next step is to actually open a brokerage account. So once you do that, you'll be able to actually make those investments. So you can go, you can any brokerage account that you like. It could be Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Public, whoever. I tell everyone, I don't care. Just pick a company. Don't get you know, caught up in decision fatigue, just pick one and go with it. Okay. Um, one of the major ones, obviously. So pick one of the major ones, E-Trade, whoever it is, um, open your account and then you have to figure out what type of account you want to open. So like you mentioned earlier, do I need a Roth IRA or a regular IRA or 401(k) or whatever it may be? I always recommend for people just start with the individual brokerage account just to get going, you know, because sometimes you can get caught up in like, which account do I need? And I think that I like to remove any, um, decision that's going to stop people from actually taking action, right? So sometimes I'm like, let's go with the simple stuff. We can get fancy later. Um, just open up a regular individual brokerage account. And once you do that, you fill that application out just like you're filling, opening up any regular checking account. Um, and then you'll link your, your, your checking account to it. And then you can transfer that $200 over or $100, whatever you want to start with. Um, and then from there you'll search for Apple. Apple, you look for it says buy, boom, hit buy $100 of that. And then what's that one? Search for Starbucks, boom, buy. And then you buy $100 of that. And we have some videos in our courses that show you how to do it, but it can be as simple as that. Then from there, you'll look and you'll see, wow, I own $100 of Apple and I own $100 of Starbucks. That's the simplest way I can break it down for you, um, right there. And then later on over time, uh, the goal would be to do what we call dollar cost averaging. Okay, so dollar cost averaging is when you're taking that set amount and, um, having it set to go automatically at a set interval. So for most people that are in our programs, they're setting it up. And also for even for my younger children, I have it set to go every single month, right? So let's say even for my children, there's a set amount that is purchasing Apple stock or Nvidia stock or whatever every single month on, I don't know, the 3rd of the month or whatever it may be, but it's a set it and forget it. I don't have to to think about it. As life is constantly going on, I don't have to think about, oh my God, did I buy my investments? Don't worry about that. But if you could set it and forget it, it can be one of the— it's, it's wealthy people's one of their favorite ways to build wealth, right? I call it lazy investing, but it's not really lazy, but you know what I'm saying? You don't have to do anything at all. You're literally setting it one time and it's just literally, you know, purchasing these shares. Over time, you'll look up and your portfolio will have grown because these automatic investments would have taken place. In addition to the market fluctuations, the market going up, sometimes it may go down, but overall, over time, the market always goes up. Okay, the stock market sees on average about 12% a year. Some of these other, like, new AI companies, they're seeing 100% returns or 200% returns. And so that is, like, the simplest way to start like right now. It's the simplest way.

Yeah, I think you really broke it down very easy, and that— I think that is the point, that there is no— there's no reason not to, right? We're not— we're not saying invest thousands of dollars if you don't have it. We're not saying go, just start. And I think it's the exercise that builds confidence, like actually doing it, right? You put $100 in, you're like, okay, that was scary, but I did it. Oh, I see it. I see it works now. I see— I come back in a month, check on it, a couple a little bit more in, right? And the set it and forget it piece is key because if you do not put that into your life as like a lifestyle, the same way you said, oh, you're definitely going to forget it. Like, just like we automate our bills, we automate— like, we're not going to let our mortgage or our rent payment lapse, right? We have to automate investing. And it's like you said, start with something you feel not so anxious about, you can part with. But once you see it going, you're like, okay, I'm going to double my investment.

Yeah, triple it.

Okay, this is working for me. And the minimum too, because a lot of people think, like you mentioned earlier, that you need a lot of money. And you don't, um, you literally can start with— at most of these firms with a dollar. Literally, you can literally— and that's another thing. Another thing too is called fractional shares, and a lot of people don't know that they can buy a fraction of the share. So let's say if Apple is currently trading at like $190, let's just say, but you're like, I don't want to buy $190 right now, maybe I don't have the budget, whatever it may be, you could literally go into the brokerage account and just say, okay, I want to buy a dollar today. Or $2 today. It's not going to get you a whole share, but it's going to give you a fraction of that share. So it's going to tell you like, okay, okay, Kelly, this $2 is going to get you 0.00000 whatever percent of the share. And then over time you can keep adding money in and eventually you may have 1 share and then 2 and 3 and 4. And so, uh, I think that's a great way, like you're saying, for people that like, I need to ease in, I can't just throw it all in. Cool, girl, I gotta wait for you to do that too, you know. Um, and it can be very, very simple and you'll start to see your money growing for you and you'll just become more confidence. One of the best ways to, um, become more confident in your finances and also in wealthier decisions.

So perfectly said. Everyone listening, there's no excuse not to take out a couple of dollars. At least you— there's no, no one who doesn't have a couple of dollars to go walk through that process. And like you said, the trading sites make it so easy to be able to get in that— don't let that be a reason you don't invest. Invest today. It's so important and it's so easy now. It's never been easier and more accessible to get to your investing and build that wealth. Dominique Broadway, thank you. We have one more conversation question I want to talk to you about as we close out. This has been amazing. So informative. I know our listeners are like pen and paper is to talk about joy. And the connection to wealth and talk about the difference between becoming rich and becoming wealthy. So when we close out our conversation with you, Dominique Broadway Broadway, when we come back, I want to dig into that and hear about how wealth is linked to joy. So more to come.