LaShara Lashawn

How are you doing so far??

I don’t want to say today because your day could be just getting started or you could be in the middle of your day or who says you have to look at it by the day it could mean so far in your life or with your goal… so answer how you wish. Feel free to let me know in the comments if you like.

One of my best pieces of advice is to stack stack stack and stash. Put the coins anywhere, under the mattress , in the sock drawer, the piggy bank wherever. You just never know when you are going to need touch it. We have been trying to instill the mindset of saving with my baby cousin who is now 6. “BIG 6” as he says when you ask his his age. Every time I see him I pour out a few coins in his lil bank, no “brown coins” only “silver.” Which means NO PENNYS only dimes, nickles and quarters. I don’t think he is aware of the golden dollars. I think I will bring him some of those next time. So I give him coins when he’s not looking and then give him a few dollars after asking him a series of questions.

It’s fun watching him show me his bank as he lets me feel how heavy its getting. I make it seem much heavier then it really is. Its exciting to him, so I love it. I wish I had someone to do that for me when I was younger. Who knows how much money I would have saved up. I enjoy saving now but it can be tough when you lack discipline. There is always something I want to buy or do and I have to tell myself NO! Id rather me say it than my debit card when I’m at the register. That’s so embarrassing. I used to feel so much pressure putting my debit card in my wallet at the end of a transaction, like hurry up hoe , get the card in the slot and get the hell out the way!!! I just would feel like all eyes where on me when the cashier attempts to hand me my change or card and receipt and I’m taking what seems like forever to put it all away.

Now I’m over it and I don’t care, yal gone have to wait. You waited for me to take my method of payment out so just wait as I put it all back. Thank you. I don’t tell friends I’m trying to save for something because I feel like after that all they wanna do is spend money! I start getting text messages with links to different events, vacations, parties and they know I love to have a good time. I learned to not listen to my friends cause once its said and done they aint gone be there for that bill or that notice. Recently I got a call and the voice on the other end was heated! I knew this by the “let me tell you what this boy did..” Oh no I thought what did my lil cousin do? So I braced myself for the worst. Did he break a window, steal something, beat someone up, write on the walls again, flood the bathroom. I don’t know but my mind is racing to the point where I missed the first few seconds on the story.

There is a candy house in the neighborhood and I haven’t personally been to this one yet but they got candy of course. My cousin has a group of friends that run up and down the block all the time and I guess this particular day they wanted to get candy. Apparently only some of them had money and my cousin remembered his bank and decided he wanted to ball out! His mother tells me how she seen him and another boy come in the house real fast and then leave out but she didn’t think nothing of it. Maybe they got a ball or went to the bathroom. She continues to tell me how she went upstairs and looked in his room and seen that his bank was broke and change was everywhere, this lil foo cracked the bank and balled out. At this point I’m in tears, its not funny but it really is because I can just picture her face after she finds scattered change all over the place and her son gone!

I asked her if she went to go get him. Apparently at the time she didn’t know where he had gone, so all she could do was wait. About an hour later in walks MR. BIG BALLER with his crew trailing behind, hands full of candy and snacks! His mother interrogated them something serious. She wanted to know who had money and who didn’t and how much did it all cost! The other boys were sent home and crying and empty handed was my small 6 year old cousin. He went from the man of the day to a money-less and candy-less baby. I felt bad for the little guy, he just wanted to have fun and get some candy for him and his friends. Nevertheless there was a lesson to be learned. He was saving for a reason and he shouldn’t have cracked his bank without his moms permission. While hes working his life away to make the money back where are his friends? At least one of them knew where he got the money but no one stopped him as he bought out the candy house as if he was Jay-Z buying out the bar.

I think of this all the time when I want to do something that goes against my money goals or plans. Who is gonna be there when I don’t want to get up to go to work after being out crazy late? When the rent needs to be paid and I’m short a couple hundred because I just blew it on a trip. No one. I’ll be just like my cousin, sad and crying wondering how I let them convince me. Yes, I just placed blame, because that’s what people do! Word of advice don’t crack the bank just yet. Lessons on saving can happen at any age look at my 6 year old cousin.