Imagine Yourself Financially Fit w/Author & Personal Finance Expert, Kembala Evans
- Lanee and Sandy
- Oct 7, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 21, 2024
Let’s get fiscally fit! We’re flexing our financial muscles and securing a bright future for ourselves. We start by following the money and taking a good look at our personal finances with the President and Founder of KP Evans Financial, Kembala Evans, as she helps us gain insight on how to get, keep, and grow healthy money habits.
In the movie, Gemini Man, starring Will Smith, the main character meets his younger self face-to-face. What if we ran into our own older, future self? Would we be able to account for our financial situation? What would we say about the condition of our dollars and “sense”?
Dear Future Me,
How are you holding up? I know that you are looking at me to decide if I have done the best I could to make my life in the future as healthy and wealthy as possible. I want to assure you that I am on the right path and trying to make wise decisions.
Today, I listened to an Imagine Yourself Podcast that helped me focus on setting up a bright financial future for you! The guest, Kembala Evans, is a financial coach who is dedicated to helping everyday people improve their personal finances. This entire episode has me thinking about money in a whole new way.
I promise to be more intentional about becoming a good steward of “our” finances. I am willing to learn more about budgeting and saving and investing so that we can have a comfortable nest egg. I am willing to be honest with myself, use self-control when making purchases, and begin to tackle and conquer debt.
If I choose to ride on the big kid rides and invest money in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., I promise that I will not just blindly hand the wheel over to someone else, no matter what type of financial expert they seem to be. I will make sure to keep my eyes wide open, learning all that I can about finances so that we can climb to new heights of financial success!
Love, Me
Please join us in an enlightening episode about how to get the most out of your money. Kembala Evans, Founder & President of KP Evans Financial is our guest who guides us through to a bright financial forecast!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Sandy Kovach [00:00:01]:
Life can throw a lot at you, but imagine if your life were different, better, not because of what's coming at you, but because of what's coming from you. Let's get there together. Join us and imagine yourself.
Lanée Blaise [00:00:15]:
Hello to all my healthy, wealthy, and wise friends. I am Lanee.
Sandy Kovach [00:00:19]:
And this is Sandy, and I can already tell I'm gonna like what we're imagining today.
Lanée Blaise [00:00:23]:
Oh, we are imagining money, money, money. Honey. Yes. Because is there anyone out there who is completely happy right now just exactly where you are when it comes to your money situation.
Sandy Kovach [00:00:36]:
Last name of Forbes or
Lanée Blaise [00:00:39]:
Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. For the rest of us out there, could anybody use a little financial wisdom? We are imagining ourselves handling our money with finesse. We have a financial fitness guru here with us today to give us some practical tips to change our financial outlook for the better. She is Kimballa Evans, a financial coach with over 20 years of experience, dedicated to helping everyday people improve their personal finances. She's the founder and president of KP Evans Financial, which is a personal finance education and coaching firm that is focused on educating, motivating, and empowering people to take control of their financial future. She is also an author of the book Get Your Money Right and she wrote that because she wants to help people turn their finances around, and she even has an upcoming book, Drop the Debt Weight. But overall, we want to welcome you, Kimballa Evans, to our show.
Kembala Evans [00:01:41]:
Thank you so much, Lanee and Sandy. It's a pleasure to be here with you speaking about that topic, money.
Sandy Kovach [00:01:48]:
Many of us do not do a very good job with it, so we're looking forward to getting some tips.
Lanée Blaise [00:01:52]:
Kembala, when it comes to turning your finances around from upside down to healthy, wealthy, and wise, what's the first thing to do?
Kembala Evans [00:02:02]:
One of the things that I love about your podcast is the name, it's Imagine Yourself. I think that that's so powerful because as Albert Einstein once said, imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. So you have to kinda do that change from the inside out. Starting within and taking that within, you know, what your goals and your vision is, and that really is the transformation that gets you where you wanna be.
Sandy Kovach [00:02:28]:
So to get people to imagine themselves in a better financial position, they have to be willing to look at things. And sometimes it's hard because people get overwhelmed. Right? Do you find that that's what makes it harder for people to look at their finances and get it straight, or is it something else?
Kembala Evans [00:02:45]:
It's a combination of a lot of things. When I meet with people from a coaching aspect when it comes to finances, it's easy to see the results where they are. But what I like to do is kinda go, how did we get here? And a lot of that happens actually in the home. What kind of lessons are we teaching our children about money? A lot of parents and even teachers don't have a high confidence level when it comes to teaching personal finance. And so some parents unknowingly may be teaching their kids poor money management skills.
Lanée Blaise [00:03:19]:
How can we turn that around? How can we teach our children and sometimes even ourselves the a, b, c's and 1, 2, threes of money?
Kembala Evans [00:03:27]:
Number 1 is really to get the knowledge. If I grew up and I had a parent that did not have strong money management skills, maybe I'd go visit the library and take a look at some of the personal finance books that are out there to help you build that knowledge. One of the things that's pretty unfortunate as it relates to America is that there's not a big emphasis on personal finance in our school system. When I look at the school system and what we're teaching, it's more numeracy. It's counting dollars and stuff like that, but we're not really teaching them about the budget. There are a few states that do have that as a mandatory class requirement, but we're not really teaching students how to manage their money. A lot of that is happening in the home. I think it's very important for someone who feels that they have a deficiency in that area to get the knowledge whether or not it's like listening to podcast like this or reading personal finance blogs or reading books.
Kembala Evans [00:04:27]:
Also, mentors. If you do have friends that have strong money management skills, not that taught to glean some different points of wisdom on how to manage your finances. That's what I did at the beginning when I was helping people. It was in college. Because when we were in school back in the days, of course, a lot of people actually got into financial trouble in college because they were giving away credit cards like it was candy.
Sandy Kovach [00:04:53]:
Yes. I remember that. I remember and
Lanée Blaise [00:04:54]:
they surprised us to go with it. Like, you know, you're a college student. You're, like, 18 years old. You're allowed to sign up for this. You're on your own, and they're gonna give you, like, a free back then, I guess, like, a Walkman or something. A Walkman. Yeah. Yeah.
Lanée Blaise [00:05:07]:
Yeah. When you listen to Michael Jackson. Exactly. And that was really a temptation that we might not have been ready for back then.
Sandy Kovach [00:05:13]:
Oh, my gosh. I had no idea. And I remember those credit card offers, and you have no idea what it means, the minimum payment. It's very easy to get into debt when you're young.
Lanée Blaise [00:05:24]:
Yeah. Kembala, I believe you would agree with me here that what if we challenge listeners out there to try to get hooked into some of the workshops, like financial workshops that are offered many times for free in our local communities?
Kembala Evans [00:05:41]:
I would definitely encourage that, and I'm glad that you brought that up because I used to be a Money Smart Week partner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and they offer a lot of different Money Smart Week workshops where your audience can actually go to money smart week.org and find out if they have any of those events in their area. But there's thousands of them, and a lot of them are actually held at libraries in very convenient locations.
Lanée Blaise [00:06:10]:
I have something that I'm just itching to talk about, Sandy. Okay? And it's one of those things. I don't wanna come off negative or petty, but I do have to bring this thing up. Many times on this podcast, we look at things in the real world and situations that we see on the news, and there have been celebrities. Sometimes you have success stories like maybe Will Smith and Willie Nelson and even Dave Ramsey, who went from kind of rags to riches, and sometimes even they went back and forth many times. Sometimes they get extraordinarily wealthy, like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Lanée Blaise [00:06:47]:
Did you know he got all this money at a young age, but then he lost it all, and he had to rise back up. And then there are other unfortunate stories that we've been seeing lately about poor Johnny Depp and different actors who get into financial trouble with the IRS. We have that terrible story of the poor, basketball player, Antoine Walker, who lost he gained and lost a 100 and 10. Yes. 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars.
Sandy Kovach [00:07:12]:
Oh my gosh.
Lanée Blaise [00:07:13]:
So I know that we're gonna talk about personal finances. And some of these things you say, well, I don't have these things going on in my life. But, technically, we do still have IRS issues to deal with. There are still gambling issues. There are still family situations. I think Antoine Walker had and MC Hammer had lots of family and lots of friends they were trying to give money to, and they weren't keeping track of it. We still have people who could come in, investors, and take advantage. Can you address some of this? Because it relates to the world, but it can relate to us too.
Kembala Evans [00:07:46]:
I think what I would say, first of all is that a lot of people when they look at those superstars or people that earn 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars tend to look down on them thinking that they were just stupid. But when we look at ourselves a little closer, how different are we than them? Especially when we're looking at how much we're spending versus how much we're earning, a lot of people actually are living paycheck to paycheck. There was a recent survey where 70% of the people that said they would have a financial problem if they didn't earn their paycheck. And sad to see when you talk about national events when we saw the whole government shutdown. Yeah. We saw a lot of impact of net paycheck where people that were employees had to go to food pantries, etcetera. What does that really mean? So kind of going back to your question about celebrities that are out there and what can we do. Even when you have a lot of money, being a good steward of the money that you do have is very important whether or not you're earning a dollar or 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars.
Kembala Evans [00:08:50]:
There are people that drive buses and they retire with 1,000,000 of dollars. Wow. You know, earning a modest income. My mom always taught me, it's not how much you make, it's how you spend it. There are doctors and lawyers and earning 6 figure incomes, and some of them are living paycheck. The paycheck and carrying credit card balances in excess of 6 digits. So it all goes down to when it comes to your personal finances, get personal. I think sometimes what happens with celebrities and big stars is they have someone that's gonna come and say, hey.
Kembala Evans [00:09:24]:
I'm a financial planner, and I can take care of your money. And we do some blind trust, and that's how some of these things happen. I mean, you've seen some professional athletes that have lawsuits because they've lost a lot of money. I think Tim Duncan comes to mind. Then I think what's very important, no matter how much money you make, is that you understand finances and that you don't rely totally on someone. And even if you are seeking someone to help you manage and grow your money, that you're keeping tabs on that person and you're looking and monitoring and being actively involved.
Lanée Blaise [00:09:57]:
I think you told me once. Doesn't Oprah Winfrey sign all of her own checks?
Kembala Evans [00:10:01]:
I don't think I told you that. One thing about Oprah Winfrey that I think is very powerful is that she, at one point, was spending too much money. And what she did to stop that is she said, when I'm going to buy something, I'm gonna pay cash. By paying cash, it made her have more of understanding, do I really need that or do I not? But she's really into making sure she makes smart financial decisions.
Sandy Kovach [00:10:25]:
Paying cash, is that something and I've heard that before. I think it's was it Dave Ramsey who was he's big on that. You know, everything
Kembala Evans [00:10:31]:
The envelope system. Right? Yeah.
Lanée Blaise [00:10:33]:
Yeah. Do you
Sandy Kovach [00:10:35]:
think that cash is the way to go because, usually, people are paying with debit or credit cards, their phones with Apple Pay.
Kembala Evans [00:10:44]:
My thought is that know yourself. There's really no cookie cutter solution out there for everyone. For me, when I have a lot of cash, I spend it. I just find some use for that dollar. Mhmm. And I'm more of a person that likes the assurance of a credit card. I also have the discipline to pay off the credit card where I'm earning the rewards for that credit card. I see it more as a tool.
Lanée Blaise [00:11:08]:
If you're the type of person in this society and you're gonna use, like you said, Apple Pay and credit cards, make sure that you have the cash to cover it immediately so that it doesn't become debt, so that it actually becomes a purchase that even though you didn't physically pay it with cash, you kind of figuratively paid it with cash.
Sandy Kovach [00:11:28]:
Right. It's not gonna Cover it. Earn interest because even if you buy something on sale, if you're paying it with a credit card and it has a 12% interest rate and you let it go, then you're paying probably more than it originally costs and sometimes by a lot. Right?
Kembala Evans [00:11:42]:
And if they miss, like, a credit card payment, that credit card rate could be, like, in a 30% range. Right? So say you're saving 25% on a blouse, but if you're charging it and you're not paying it off that month, you're paying actually an additional 30% for that blouse. And then every month that you're not paying it off, that interest continues to grow. It really is about what Lanee said, having that personal discipline whether or not you choose to use Apple Pay or credit cards or cash, that you're saying, I'm treating these other forms of digital payments as cash. So if I can't afford to pay this off at the end of the month, then I don't need to buy it. And it can be hard because we're in a now society where everyone has to have this now. Like, my daughter, not too long ago, I bought her an iPhone XR. And now she's seeing all this advertisement for the iPhone 11.
Kembala Evans [00:12:34]:
Oh. I want 11. It's like, don't buy into this advertisement.
Lanée Blaise [00:12:38]:
That's their job to get you to
Kembala Evans [00:12:40]:
get that. Marketing keeps people wanting more. And and and we need to always get back to what is the difference between a need and a want.
Sandy Kovach [00:12:49]:
Yeah. People can make you feel like you need it and Lanee and I have talked to other podcasts many times about particularly on things like Facebook, how good they are at targeting you
Lanée Blaise [00:12:57]:
and serving you ads. They know you want.
Kembala Evans [00:13:00]:
Yeah. Isn't it something how they just creep up? You may have been looking at something, and then 2 days later, it pops up. Oh, they never bought it. Right?
Lanée Blaise [00:13:07]:
So they are
Kembala Evans [00:13:08]:
coming after you.
Lanée Blaise [00:13:09]:
Targeting your temptation spots.
Sandy Kovach [00:13:11]:
Because I guarantee you, now that you and I are saying things about the iPhone 11 out loud, we're all gonna get served with ads.
Lanée Blaise [00:13:18]:
Yes. And then we're gonna be tempted by wanting it to and not and be dissatisfied with the wonderful phone that we currently have.
Kembala Evans [00:13:25]:
It's so funny because I was speaking to my neighbor, and I was telling her about some news article, and she's very frugal and savvy. I was like, oh, do you have your phone? I can show you this article. She said, you know what? I still have my flip phone. She does not even have a smartphone. Okay. She has her flip phone, and she's fine. But when you were talking a little bit, Sandy, about the pressures, we do have peer pressure, and peer pressure is real even with students today. Hey.
Kembala Evans [00:13:51]:
Do you have the latest one or you're getting made fun of because you don't have this or what have you? But sometimes that pressure comes within where some people feel that they have to have certain things to project a certain image, and that can get you in financial hardship as well.
Lanée Blaise [00:14:07]:
So there's sometimes an emotional connection, and sometimes Lanee the root of the issue is more your feeling of worthiness and your inner feelings. Once you overcome that, that can help you to not need these outer things to confirm your worth.
Kembala Evans [00:14:22]:
Exactly. So it's like you feel a void inside, and, oh my gosh. If I have these Gucci shoes, this void is completely filled.
Sandy Kovach [00:14:30]:
For the next 10 minutes until you see some other shoes.
Kembala Evans [00:14:32]:
Yeah. Yeah. So it goes back to you have to look inward and being honest with yourself. Because if you are, then you're able to curb all of that, And it's okay to be different also.
Sandy Kovach [00:14:45]:
So the being honest with yourself is not just being honest with what money you do have, but why you're spending it.
Kembala Evans [00:14:52]:
Exactly. Sometimes people may see, oh, my friend just bought this house. The whole keeping up with the Joneses, if you will.
Lanée Blaise [00:14:59]:
Kardashians. Yeah. Because I'm curious, Kembala, You've worked with so many people. Is that or what is the number one problem that you notice when you work with someone on their home finances?
Kembala Evans [00:15:12]:
People feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes we do things mindlessly because we just have so much we're dealing with. We kind of bury our head in the sand. One of the things that I will do is I'm looking at, okay, where is your money going? I would challenge you to take a look at and write down everything that you're spending money on for the next 30 days so you can get a true sense of where your money is going. Some people feel that they just don't make enough money. But then when we sit down and do this exercise and they actually see, I've had some clients that were paying for 2 different Internet providers when they only had one. So let's look at this. Or they're staying with a certain insurance company and never shopping around.
Kembala Evans [00:16:00]:
And so their rate is continuously going up, but then it takes time to do some of these things. And so many people have things on auto pay. Oh my gosh. I was auto paying this gym membership. I don't even go here. Look at what you're spending your money on and cut out some of these expenses that you're not even using or needing. And now let's take this money and start covering these other things. And it's also being able to make difficult decisions.
Kembala Evans [00:16:26]:
And that one is a big one. 1 of my friends is a psychologist. One of the things she say that parents today are having a problem doing is telling their children no. Oh.
Lanée Blaise [00:16:36]:
Yeah. You have to learn how to take a no in this life. That's right. If you
Sandy Kovach [00:16:40]:
say yes to your children every time, not only is it not good for them in the moment, it's not good for their future.
Lanée Blaise [00:16:46]:
And then they can't say no
Kembala Evans [00:16:47]:
to the moon. Right. Yeah.
Sandy Kovach [00:16:49]:
And as I understand it, Kembala, you said you saw this play out kinda in real life?
Kembala Evans [00:16:54]:
Back in the days when we were in college, one of my girlfriends noticed her account was overdrawn by 100 of dollars. And then Lanee, she got her credit card statements and noticed someone has been making charges on her credit card statement. We were trying to see who is this that's doing this. They would have had to have access to her room. She ended up filing a police report. When she filed her police report, they had the surveillance because when you're actually at the ATM, there's a little camera that sees who's doing these transactions. Long story short, she goes to the police station and watches it and sees it's her roommate. Her roommate had done all of these transactions.
Kembala Evans [00:17:31]:
And she cannot believe she had been given the roommate updates because she's confiding in the roommate thinking she has nothing to do with it. She comes back to her dorm, and the roommate has completely cleared and left town. Went all the way back to New Jersey. And we found out that the reason this roommate had done this was because her parents stopped giving her allowance.
Sandy Kovach [00:17:55]:
So they had been probably giving her a ton of money and then they stopped. And while that's an extreme example, it does show that by giving your children too much, it can really be detrimental.
Kembala Evans [00:18:09]:
It can also put you in extreme debt if you can't afford all of these fancy talking to your kids about that. A lot of parents try to hide talking to your kids about that. A lot of parents try to hide difficulties that they're experiencing, but I feel that there's meaningful lessons that can happen with that. I'm gonna tell you a personal story about myself is my parents got a divorce when I was young, and this is how I got in personal finance. My father had been the one that was managing all of the money. And so when they got a divorce, of course, now it's my mother who became a single mom with 3 kids that a lot of the responsibility fell on her.
Lanée Blaise [00:18:52]:
Mhmm.
Kembala Evans [00:18:52]:
And she had to learn how to do all the things that he had done. And so for me, I was like, I don't wanna be in that position where you're going through something that's really emotional and having to learn how to handle the finances. So to me, this was very important that I had strong money management skills so I didn't have to have that dependency on a man.
Lanée Blaise [00:19:14]:
I love that it's something that could have been a negative thing. It turned into a blessing. It changed the trajectory of your life. It turned you into a mentor for people, and I wanna ask a few questions. I know that people do sometimes need help from a professional. Also, they can look in your book. And in your book, Get Your Money Right, you remind us from the book of Proverbs, you say, where there is no vision, the people perish, and you dedicate an entire chapter on establishing your vision and goals. And Lanee, I've been talking to my younger siblings and my children about how they are just at the ripe age, the teenage years, the twenties, where they can do some very strategic things as far as IRAs or investing or things that are maybe lower risk or maybe even higher risk.
Lanée Blaise [00:20:03]:
There's all these YouTube videos that say you can become a millionaire 40 years from now if you only invest a certain amount of money per year at a certain rate. What should I do or who should I go to to help my children and younger sisters and brothers get there?
Kembala Evans [00:20:20]:
I think that it's very important that you find a certified financial planner who has that expertise in those investments. And that when you find someone, you're not just looking at, okay, does this person have a CFP? But you're also interviewing that person. Also, looking at the complaint database to see does this person have any past complaints against them.
Lanée Blaise [00:20:42]:
Good point. So no burning made up.
Kembala Evans [00:20:44]:
You know, that that's very important to make sure that this person has a good track record.
Sandy Kovach [00:20:49]:
Because there's a lot of people out there that don't necessarily have your best interest in mind. They have lining their pockets in mind. Right?
Kembala Evans [00:20:57]:
You're absolutely correct. And some of the investment vehicles that they use could be steered towards them getting the bigger commission rate.
Lanée Blaise [00:21:06]:
And and Or
Kembala Evans [00:21:07]:
they're not necessarily the right move for you.
Lanée Blaise [00:21:10]:
Or you might be a person who's more conservative or based on your age, if you're younger, maybe you can be a little more risky. If you're older and getting towards retirement, you can't. All these different things make me wonder, how do we if we wanted to reach out to you and if we wanted to get your book, either Get Your Money Right or the upcoming one, Drop the Debt Weight, what's the best way to do that?
Kembala Evans [00:21:34]:
Get Your Money Right. It's available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or you can check out my website, kimballah.com. The second book, which is drop the debt weight, that book is not available yet, but it will be coming out this fall. Excellent. It does come out, you should be able to find it on those sites as well. Yeah.
Lanée Blaise [00:21:54]:
And that's Kemballa, kemballa.com.
Sandy Kovach [00:21:59]:
So drop the debt weight, and debt is a weight. And we started talking about that a little in the beginning of the podcast. But do you think that that is the single biggest problem, or is it not saving, or is it a combination, or what is it that really makes it harder for people?
Kembala Evans [00:22:17]:
I think that debt is something that is the biggest problem for people right now. When I look at any type of conferences that I've attended, the most questions I have is related to debt. When we look at the state of America right now, student loan debt is crippling a lot of people. It's causing them to make a lot of different life decisions. I read 74% of the people have delayed contributing any money to their retirement because their single focus is to pay off their student loan debt. Wow. And that's really gonna hurt you later because as you know, when you make these investments earlier, you have more years compounding to grow your money. You're delaying that till student loans are paid off.
Kembala Evans [00:23:02]:
I have people that I've talked to that don't even see their student loans being paid off until they're in their golden years.
Sandy Kovach [00:23:08]:
Woah. That's heavy.
Kembala Evans [00:23:10]:
Number 1. And I can see people's eyes, the pain that it causes in marriages where, say, one person has 6 figures in student loan debt and they married someone who has none. It causes strife in the marriage. Like, I shouldn't have to pay this. This is yours. You know? And Did
Sandy Kovach [00:23:26]:
you just say 6 figures in student loan debt?
Kembala Evans [00:23:28]:
Oh, yes. Yes. Six figures. Now these people are professionals where they went to law school, but it's still real. Look at Barack and Michelle Obama. They didn't pay off their student loan debt till lately, but they went to very prestigious schools and they earned a lot of grades. So that's very expensive.
Lanée Blaise [00:23:45]:
But it seems like you are still offering hope.
Kembala Evans [00:23:49]:
That's very important is not losing hope and seeing yourself without debt. That visualization going back to imagining yourself, that's very instrumental. Some people just stayed in that state because they don't see a way out. But what we have to do is we have to say, there is a way out, and I'm gonna find it, and I'm gonna do it. I love seeing stories where people had 6 figures in student loan debt, and they paid it off on time in 10 years because they were committed to paying it off. It's sad when you see some people that are delaying stuff like marriage, families, everything because of student loan debt. To have real well-being, you have to look at everything in perspective. Now you should look at ways to curb your expenses and make certain sacrifices where necessary.
Kembala Evans [00:24:39]:
But to me, what's more valuable than money is time, and we don't know when our last day is. Mhmm. You were talking about Bill Gates earlier. He cannot buy time.
Lanée Blaise [00:24:49]:
No matter how
Kembala Evans [00:24:50]:
much money he has. Yeah. Exactly. Look at Steve Jobs. Right? When your time's up, your time's up. And it doesn't matter how much money you have in a bank, you're not gonna be on this earth anymore.
Lanée Blaise [00:25:03]:
So we need to make sure that we're taking quality time and making proper decisions and being wise stewards of our money, of our lives, of our time.
Kembala Evans [00:25:13]:
It's all a balance because then you have people on the extreme end where they don't wanna spend a dollar. Right? And then say they might die, and then whoever they leave their money to, they're spending it like a bandit. So you sat there and made all these sacrifices, and you didn't live.
Lanée Blaise [00:25:29]:
that in the Christmas Carol story because, yeah, you don't want to be
Sandy Kovach [00:25:33]:
It all goes back to that. Yeah.
Lanée Blaise [00:25:34]:
You don't wanna be an Ebenezer Scrooge, and you're so stingy with your money and stingy with your time and not loving and enjoying and thriving in your life. And it's not that thriving in life requires money either.
Sandy Kovach [00:25:48]:
No. We don't wanna make it all about, like, money is the most important thing.
Kembala Evans [00:25:53]:
There are people with money that are miserable.
Sandy Kovach [00:25:55]:
Oh my gosh. Yes.
Lanée Blaise [00:25:56]:
Yeah. Some of the most miserable people.
Kembala Evans [00:25:58]:
That's true.
Sandy Kovach [00:25:59]:
So money doesn't buy happiness, but it sounds like if people are in extreme debt, it definitely detracts a lot.
Kembala Evans [00:26:07]:
I think what's very important is for people to understand when it comes to debt and all of this, managing the money you do have well is very important. And the way you do that is you're looking at how much money you make and how much money you're spending. And, ideally, you want to keep more money at the end of the month than you're spending.
Lanée Blaise [00:26:28]:
I even heard that there's this 50, 20, 30 budget rule that advises us to divide our after tax income, and then you're only spending 50% on needs, 30% on wants, 20% on savings, and voila, you've got your balance. But actually, because we have you as an expert, I really would rather know, is there any particular advice or tips that you have for us overall?
Kembala Evans [00:26:55]:
It's very important to have a vision for where you want to be. And with that vision, create some goals to help get you from point a to point b. Once you have those goals, I want you to really work towards achieving those goals, try to find accountability partners, someone that you can work with, and hold yourself accountable if you cannot find someone. And along the way, celebrate your successes. Okay. I have a card, and it's $50 I have a balance on. And I paid that $50 balance. Celebrate that and keep moving and reaching higher and higher.
Lanée Blaise [00:27:32]:
I love it. Well, we always have a little takeaway at the end of our show. This one is just a really simple one. I want to offer this quote, which maybe some of you've heard before. Money makes a good servant, but a bad master. I also wanna encourage you all to engage with us. We have our imagine yourself podcast dotcom website. We have imagine yourself podcast at g mail dot com.
Lanée Blaise [00:28:01]:
We are very curious about some of the things in finances that have come to your mind. We're also always on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Please reach out to us. Also, consider getting these books that Kembala has put together for the purpose of financial education, financial literacy, and hope for your situation. Remember, she's at kembala.com. She does speaking engagements, and there's so many conferences and workshops that can help us all too. Overall, Kemballa, we thank you for coming to this show.
Kembala Evans [00:28:34]:
Thank you so much, and thanks for bringing a topic that most people feel is taboo to the forefront. Taboo. Ah. Interesting.
Lanée Blaise [00:28:41]:
They don't wanna talk about it. They don't wanna be honest about it.
Sandy Kovach [00:28:45]:
No. It's all about honesty
Lanée Blaise [00:28:46]:
again. Yeah. But thank you, Kemballa. Overall, we just want to say, imagine yourself being healthy, wealthy, and wise, being disciplined with your money, and handling your finances like a boss.
Sandy Kovach [00:29:02]:
Thanks for listening. Now, we'd like to hear from you. Got an idea for the show? Want to share your story or just say hello? Make sure you connect with us. You can do that at imagine yourself podcast.com and we'll talk to you again next time when we have something new to imagine.
