LST Zine 2 | Page 18

You Say You

Getting Money

By Unique Williams

But We Ain’t Seen Nothing

Money… It’s the one thing that all black people tend to want to have and we feel it will allow us to live our wildest fantasies. You have so many people who are working two and three jobs just to achieve the “American Dream,” in which they think can be achieved through cash. Happiness has now been defined by this world as money, power and success. Yet, it seems that the only group of people to buy into this “American Dream” is minorities.

I remember growing up and seeing my mom and stepdad with money and I remember every two weeks like clockwork, after my mom would get paid she would say “We are going to enjoy ourselves, now the weekend is here” and enjoy ourselves we did. We went to the mall which as a child and even up to your teen years you absolutely love shopping. Hell, as an adult now I still love to shop, but what I hadn’t realize is that my mom like many of other minority parents was teaching me a habit that could end in disaster. As I grew older I began to crave material things and I would always look at a dollar as “I can’t take it with me so I mines well enjoy it while I have it”.

We are easily distracted by the lifestyle that is taught to us through social media, billboard ads and marketing executives.

But like my Granny always told me “To much of anything can kill you”, now the purchases of impulse spending and lack of budget didn’t kill me literally but Lord knows my credit score took a major hit because of my short-term addiction to credit cards. I would spend more than I saved. It wasn’t until about four years ago when I started working at a bank that I got a financial consultation through my colleague; where he practically was astonished at all the unnecessary money I was spending. I would buy designer handbags, shoes and eat out at work and home just because. Once we tallied my expenses compare to net pay brought home. I was spending at least 75% paying off credit cards and my car loan. This reality hit me hard, I began googling people who were climbing themselves out of debt began finding my resources.