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Tag Archives: personal finance
Young, Black & Paying Things Back
In previous blog post about paying my o/d back, I mentioned that I had £1,710 left to go. I brought myself back to the office today, even though it is Sunday, to crank out some copywriting work & do some much-needed cold campaign work to drum up new business, as I went to the beach yesterday.
How much I paid back
I also put away £22.77 in my o/d account today, which means there is £1,687.23 to clear.
For me, I have gotten to the point where I want to take control of all spheres of my life: I want to be that young woman who is finding new business every week, working hard to deliver for clients, enjoying my life, and building a career without worrying about money.
I’m hungry to be successful.
Are you young, black and paying things back?
Love can make you broke
If I only knew what I know now, perhaps I would be a few hundred pounds richer.
I have heard many stories about how money is the number one reason why people break up, and I am not surprised. The type of stress that money brings into life is not a joke. The stupidest financial mistake I made for love was getting this overdraft because I wanted to see my old flame as we were long distance.
We did not last – but the overdraft did!
I wish I never did it, but I did and now I am trying to eradicate it. It’s interest free until July 2012 so I have some time to clear it.
My current financial situation is that I have around £1,710 of the overdraft to clear, but I have around £700+ in savings in my other account.
Moral of the story: Don’t make stupid financial decisions for sex – it is never worth it!
Taking control of my financial life in 2012: an update
I have some good news, and I just hope it remains good news.
In the past week, after receiving payments from clients, I managed to put some money away into paying back my overdraft.
I paid back around £249 ($392) this week, which means £1,710 ($2,696) left to go.
I really need to ensure that I don’t withdraw from this part, as then it leaves me at square one. This means I had to freeze myself from my million challenge to pay this thing off – millionaires are not in debt, and honestly I need to get this sorted before I started trying to save for 1m. I realise in January that I was not being realistic as I have this to pay, moving out payments – just need to be realistic and focus!
Wish me luck!
Overdraft Update – Feb ’12
Why was I treated badly in the bank as prospective business customer?
I went to two banks today: Stanbic Bank & Barclays Bank Tanzania.
I went there to enquire about specific business accounts that I am looking to get because I want to see if I can change the financial structure of my work so I can ramp things up.
Example 1
I get to Stanbic Bank in Mayfair Plaza in Mikocheni in the morning and there are hardly people there. I speak to the lady at enquiries about who I speak to about business accounts. I spoke to this young customer service executive and after ignoring me initially to the point where his supervisor was like ‘speak to the customer’, he then remembered that I was there – and we started talking.
I spoke to him and explained that I wanted to get a brochure on the business accounts that Stanbic provide because I want to see how fees work such as making international payments, receiving cheques or electronic payments.
He told me that their business accounts were for ”businesspeople”. Well that’s mindnumbingly clear – if I am coming to ask for a business account, why wouldn’t I be interested in a business account?
The result? - He gave me a sort of blank look and looked in the back office. Came back empty-handed to say that there are no business account brochures at that branch. Yes you heard me correctly – no business account brochures for prospective customers to look through so they can shop around for the best deal.
Needless to say I left empty-handed.
Example 2
After that Stanbic fail, I headed over to Barclays Bank Tanzania that also has a branch in Mikocheni. I waited for a while, the security guard seemed to know who to speak to rather than the cashier which points to who actually should be behind the withdrawal desk! Anyway, I then spoke to the business account liaison and needless to say, it was again terrible customer service. I asked him for all the things I would need (a laundry list trust me) to open a business account here and he gave me a sheet of paper from Barclays Bank that was covered with scribbles from annotations from a previous client.
I asked him: ”can’t you get me a new one?”
To which he said: ”We only have this one left – sorry, should I photocopy it for you?”
It is this lack of attention to detail that irked me. I need to have attention to detail to my work or I don’t get clients or worse, I could lose the ones I have. Why didn’t he think as the business manager at Barclays that he needed to get new checklists, not shitty ones with annotations on them.
The result? – After speaking to him, I just found him to be a bit patronising and lazy. With such a huge lack of attention to detail for prospective customers who are clearly shopping around (he also did not know account fee charges for their business accounts), what is the point going with such a shit presentation?
Verdict: I am wondering whether they would have treated me like this had I been wearing a Rolex, a suit and if I had a swinging dick. Honestly, why are prospective customers treated badly in some banks. Does it matter that I am a woman with a business or in traditional societies such as Tanzania, is it really the men who are taken seriously?
What do you think?
Do you stick to your daily budget?
Yesterday, I assigned a budget for myself in order to start making some serious changes to my life.
20,000 Tanzanian shillings (£8/$12) for the day
- 1,700 TZS: sending a letter to my bank (I walked to the post office to save transport money)
- 800 TZS: An auto-rickshaw back home
- 2,000 TZS: Phone credit
Total: 4,500 – this left 15,500 left over which I did not use so I rolled that amount over onto today.
How do you encourage yourself to stick to your daily budget?
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My Million Challenge Update #2: Small savings made in past few days
Do small savings for my challenge make that much of a difference?
Earlier this week, I made saved that £100 from my savings for the Million Challenge which I have detailed here .
Today I added some more money and the next increment pencilled away for my challenge is £6.46 which means £106.46 is now put away for my challenge.
+ £6.46 means the amount that I set for myself (£1,3m) has gone to £1,299,893.54 so I still have to save, invest & work with my businesses to make this amount.
How do you motivate yourself to save for yourself? I’d love to know what you all think in the comments!
Edit: £6.46 converts to $9.89 USD
Is Russell Simmons trying to cash in on black women’s money?
[Note: I'm not African-American but I know Charcoal Ink has many African-American readers and of course my partner in crime Memphiz is African-American, so I thought this post would interest you]
I stumbled across an advert for Baby Phat pre-paid debit card when I was reading Necole Bitchie. I was so surprised that Baby Phat had stepped into personal finance and there was not more noise about it! I clicked on the advert and started doing more research about this venture and I have to say that it makes me feel a little…queasy.
Here are some chunks from the press release:
The Baby Phat Prepaid Visa RushCard shares its great features with the Prepaid Visa RushCard, also developed by hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons. But instead of the basic black design of that card, the Baby Phat Prepaid Visa RushCard comes in playful pink and displays the slinky Baby Phat feline logo that has come to be known by the fashionable worldwide.
Maybe I am a sour puss but honestly, Russell Simmons has branded a debit card for women?? I don’t know – I just feel like personal finance should always be left to the professionals. Russell Simmons is a successful businessman in music, and I know he is using Baby Phat’s fashion pull to sell personal finance? Financial advisors normally have work for several years, even decades to be taken seriously by customers. I don’t think there is anything wrong with making money (hell, I want to make a lot of it) but I just don’t think a debit card by a fashion company makes any sense.
Is Russell Simmons being serious?
Clearly he is because this card is not a credit card, it is a debit card and one of the marketing factors they are using to flog the card is that you don’t overspend on it. I just don’t understand why a Baby Phat consumer would specifically apply for a Baby Phat-branded debit card if it literally does the same thing as a standard VISA debit card you get from your bank. Advantages are said to include no overdraft fees and it helps people rebuild their credit, according to this website.
Will you be applying for this card? Do you think Russell is trying to cash in on black women? Let me know in the comments.
Taking a Leap of Faith
If you’ve been keeping up with the blog you might have noticed I haven’t been posting as much lately, and that’s mainly due to me working a lot. I am currently working two jobs, a full-time job at an Engineering company and a part-time job in Human Resources which are totally different from each other. It’s been really hard trying to work, write for the blog, work on my creative projects and keep my sanity. The reason I’ve been working so much is because I plan to relocate in October to a different state. Continue reading
