BA Q&A: Budget, Budget, Budget ft. Lacey Robinson

professional learning for teachers and leaders seeking equity. She has over twenty years experience in education and focuses on helping educators in school systems disrupt systemic racism and its legacy. Lazy also is the new author of the amazing book Justice Seekers, Pursuing Equity in the Details of Teaching and Learning. Welcome to the Stew, Well, back to the stew Lacy, how were.

president and CEO, Miss president and CEO. It's like a forty million dollar organization.

through her, her her brain and body. Okay, so you're gonna ask me some questions, So well one first, is it gonna be a business question? Careate, well, career child? You good business? Financial question? What's the first question you want to ask you?

I believe it's called Smarty Pig. Or there's other ones where you can calculate based upon your state, what your take home will actually be okay, because you know, let's just say you're making forty thousand. Now you know it's not forty thousands if by twelve child, because you know, if I could and everybody got to get their touch, everybody a little taste, right, So you want to know

exactly what you're going to make. And this goes for anybody, no matter what your job is your first job, what you're going to make, so you can get clear and start to create a budget before you even start working. So let's just say you find out, I don't know, like every two weeks you're going to be making fifteen hundred dollars. Then you can start asking yourself. I would like, I want you to start to budget in on are the more expensive this is? But what I did, this

is literally me. I was graduating. I decided I wanted to be a teacher early childhood education. My parents basically acted like I said I wanted to be a drug dealer. So I remember, I was like, okay, I knew I was graduating, I had got I had a job lined up. I was making thirty nine thousand, that's what they offered. And my sister at that time told me, go on this site so you can see what you're going to make.

I had never heard of that. I was like, okay, And then when I saw I was maybe like, I don't know, I can't remember, maybe in that twelve hundred every two weeks range. Vaguely, I vaguely remember something in that range. And then I had to look at I asked myself, like the most expensive thing that I have to pay for is likely going to be housing. And if I'm being honest, I know everyone does not have this capability. But I stayed home for one year after

graduating to get myself together. So if you have the opportunity, because I know it's not available to everyone, if you have the opportunity to, you know, stay home or at a place that's low cost right after graduating for a little while, six months to a year to get yourself together, take that opportunity. That's one. If you don't have that opportunity, that's okay. Because the second thing I did was I moved in with my sister and I decided, let's put

our money together. And so I found me a roommate. It doesn't have to be your sister, could be your cousin, that could be your friend, whoever, but a roommate that you think is reasonably responsible. And we started to like apartment looked like collectively, and we found a place. At the time, it was eleven hundred dollars, which you know that was many moons a chat, because yes, right, but here's the thing, even then, eleven hundred was low, but we were able to get it because we thought outside

the box. I didn't just look at regular apartments. This was a house being rented out by a woman who actually had a daycare center next door. So she was more concerned with with who's living all here than making a ton of money. So I remember like her wanted

to meet me and my sister. She was like, Okay, I'll keep it at eleven hundred because you guys, see my good girls who gonna live here and not be tearing up and drinking and partying because that was important for her business, you know, so you wanted to look out. I was looking outside the box for or so look outside the box for housing, and that it doesn't always have to be this traditional in the house or what you know in an apartment. If you can get yourself

a roommate two or three, it's not forever. So that way, you could keep your car slow. And one of the things I did while I was able to move home is I saved and bought my first car. Used girl, I have not had a new car like when I was in college. My father, because I had four sisters, for three of us, he leased a car for us that we all had to share. So that just meant like I was a like, you know, like on on Saturday morning where the mom's be taking all the kids,

that was me. He was like, you want to use that car that you better take this one for her hair appointment. This one the soccer SoC I said, Tom A sucker, Mom. I ain't got no kids, but I want to got caught out since it was the least it was. It was like the year like models. So that was the first and last time I ever had a new car. I have you I'm forty three years old and I have yet to see the inside of a brand new car. My first car I saved up.

I think it was like twenty five hundred dollars or three thousand dollars, and I purchased it, you know, like from the auction myself, you know, got it. Like I had a good mechanic in mine in my neighborhood who you know, like helped me to figure out what car was not going to be like you know, all busted. I kept that car. It was a ninety nine Nissan Ultima, and I kept that car until it was two hundred

and sixteen thousand miles on it. So I'm just saying, you have to do all that but it was very helpful to not have a car note, you know, and it kept my insurance low. So the key is right after when, especially when you're starting off in this life professionally, is to keep your monthly expenses low. How can I keep my housing expensive low? Can I stay home? Can I get a roommate? How can I keep my car or travel traveling expenses low? Can I you know, can

I save up? I would not be getting anybody's new car, even my car now when I purchased it was two years old, because cars depreciate meaningly, lose their value right after, you know. Like so in every aspect of my life, I was like do we really need at the time, cable was like big, do we really need cable? Or

just internet? So we just had internet, you know. I made sure, like when we purchase furniture other than although I don't buy like I call it sawt furniture, meaning like because people be having big books, child, we're not doing all that, but you know, I'm talking about like wood furnaces that you could wripe down. I would go to rich neighborhoods because typically once like once every few months or so, neighborhoods have typically like a bulk trash day, right, yeah.

And so what I found out is the week before bulk trash day, oftentimes people have garage sales because they much rather you know, like get rid of stuff. So I would go to the wealthiest neighborhood I can find in my area and go to their little garage sALS girl, and give me some good furniture for you know, one

hundred dollars two hundred, you know, like. And so that's the thing is that I mean it might feel like when that sounds like broke living, it wasn't because I was able to keep my living expenses far below what I made, and it allowed me to not have to work in the summer because you know, like as a teacher, So I didn't have to work in the summer to enjoy my summer. And then I saved up enough because

I started to work on the side. I started the tutor and babysitting things on the side because I knew I wanted to purchase a home. And so after two and almost three years of saving, I had like twenty ors so thousand dollars saved, and I put a down payment on a condo and then my sister paid me rent. Okay,

that's what we do. You don't give a no discount, no no, but do you see, Like the key is as soon as you start making money before it even hits, figure out your financial plan and create that budget ahead of time, and then live well below your means and do not forget. Especially as an educator, you likely have access to a four or three B or four to one K. I was just about as job. Don't wait.

I know too many educators who thirty years later are like, wait, automatically you might have a pension, which is rare these days. You might, but the likelihood is you don't. You have to actively put money into like whatever that retirement account is that's being offered through your school, and it's important

that you don't just put the money in. You want to make sure that it's being invested, because people will put the money into the account and not realize that they will just put it into a savings account for you unless you actively say it needs to be invested, and you might be like we had on investing. You don't need to know. This is what you're gonna want. You're gonna put your money in like you're gonna say, okay,

take your one hundred dollars whatever. Every pay period, it's going to go into your account like at your four or three B or four to one K or whatever your school is offering or you're wherever you're working is offering, and then you're going to look for something called a target date fund. A target date fund is an easy way to invest without having to know how to do anything. A target date fund is just for this. It says, when what year do you think you're going to retire?

So if you're twenty five, you might set it for thirty five years from now when I'm sixty five, whatever whatever time that is, and you're gonna find a target date fund that say's close to that year, So it'll be like TDF twenty fifty TDF, you know, so you'll find a target date fund closer to the year of retirement that you're thinking because it's usually target day funds are usually every five years. They'll give you right and then you're going to put your money into that target

date fund. So, like I said, you want to make sure that you're not just saying, hey, take the one hundred dollars out, put it into the TVF twenty fifty target date Fund. And what makes it so special is that the target date Fund is going to rebalance itself every year based upon how close you are to retirement. Because the closer you are to retirement, the list less risky your investment should be. If you twenty ninety percent of your investments might be stocks, if you're sixty ninety

percent might be in bonds or cash. You see what I mean. But you don't have to worry about all that. But the Target day fund will rebalance on your behalf and so like, if you do that, you are better than eighty well not better, but financially more secure than more than eighty percent of people. Like, So get your budget on before you get your money, and make sure from day one that you are putting money in your retirement account and use the target date funds. You don't have to worry about it.

that not me. Okay, So you know you want to lean into the people that you pay for professional advice. Certainly you can share what I've said, but you want to choose for yourself and leading to the people that you pay for professional advice from. But we're gonna be right back and black with b a q A. And if you have a question that you want to answer, you can go to brindabision podcast dot com, click and answer, click like contact us there. You can email us at

Brindabision Podcasts at gmail dot com. You can slide into the dms on ig at brandabision podcast dot com. We welcome me and Mandy, welcome all of the question ons on business, career, personal finds. All right, we'll be back in black in a minute. And we're back and black and brand We're in the stud with Lacy Robinson. Lacy is the new author of the book Justice Seekers, Pursuing Equity and the Details of Teaching and Learning. Lazy pop

quiz about your book. Okay, so if I am, what is what's the difference that, like, maybe a seasoned teacher versus a brand new teacher? Like, what are those two two educators going to get from your book? If I'm seasoned and you know I've been at a ten to thirteen years child, I'm tired versus like, I'm so excited, you know I'm brand new. What what are those two educators going to get?

we wake up, we brush our teeth, we do. That's why we have all these dagon song tea in preschool because you got to get the kids on board, like clean up clean, you know, So you have to make the plan ahead of time. So same thing, you know, like mentee, who's gonna be making six figures one? Let's see how much that really shakes out to be? You know, fine, Like I said, I don't know if a smarty pig,

but there is. I will have to find the link and give it to your money or our producer the link for a site where you can just you can just google too, like how much is one hundred thousand dollars in my state? Like breaking down like what my paycheck? Oh you know what it's called paycheck city. That's what

it's called paycheck paycheck curtain. Okay, so you will go and you put in your two hundred hundred whatever it is, put in your state, because it's actually going to withdraw the state taxes, and you will see this is what your paycheck will actually be, what every or and then you put in how often you get paid every two weeks, bi weekly, whatever, so you want to know what that is, And then look at your current bills now and then ask yourself, off the top, how much of this am

I going to make into it? Like what I call a savings bill, you know, so let's just say I'm just making up a number. You're gonna be making it extra thousand dollars a month, right, So you might say to yourself, I would really love I'm already saving two hundred bucks a month. I would really love to get myself, you know, up to like maybe add another five hundred

onto it. That's a new bill. So that way, when it comes in, I would want to know what is my first paycheck coming because I'm automating having that five hundred join that two hundred into that savings account. Even better, you can literally do a split it before you get it. You can go down to HR and say, before you give me my money, here's how I want you to split my money. Four bank accounts. Checking account number one

for my This is a like a spending account. This is kind of like where your money lands that you use for your debit card. You know, you go food chopping, you get your hand on nails on the kids. Okay. Checking account number two your bill's account. Add up your bills, and you should know every two weeks how much money needs to be in that bill's account, and you can let them know, this is how much for my paycheck

to put in that bill's account. Savings account number one, this is emergency unexpected savings, so you know, you might tell yourself, you know, one hundred and fifty, two hundred and three hundred, whatever that is, that's gonna go there. And then savings account number two and the fourth account is going to be long term savings. This is when you're saving for something big, either saving to invest savings and purchase a.

much you're gonna get. And if you do that, then you can literally live under your means without having to think about it because and you give yourself a little

raised in every category. So you might say to yourself, Okay, i'm making an extra thousand, I'm going to absorb a three hundred to increase my lifestyle, and the seven hundred I'm gonna so some of that because you'll say, like, okay, in my checking account that's attached to my debit card, you know, an extra three hundred k land there, and

I could do whatever I want with it. Or maybe you're going to purchase something and you're like, okay, I'm financing it temporarily and it's gonna be an extra hundred bucks a month. But you can tell yourself, allow yourself to absorb some of that new income and the rest you're going to have chopped up. If you do a split it before you get it, you will not miss it.

I promise you. It will just land and you will swipe your card and knowing you're not you're not swiping bill money because you don't have a debit card for your bills account. You're not swiping emergency savings, and you're not swiping your long term savings. Your two checking should be at your regular bank wherever you bank now, and your two savings should be at an online only bank

because it has a high yield savings accounts there. Or instead of getting paid zero zero zero zero zero zero point one percent, you might get four almost five percent on the money that you have saved there. If you do that, sick, you're going to be good at a good you gotta be great. But yeah, that's great. Honestly, if you do that, every single time you get a bump, you get a raise, you get a's pre planned for the money. You will see that you will make whatever

your financial goals are. You'll be closer and closer. And because you have two little kids, and you know, the last thing I will say is at that, you know, making you know six figures of multiple six figures. You know, it's not a bad idea to consider infusing a certified financial planner into the mix. You know, it's not so like for me because I'm like growing wealth, Like I meet with my actually I have my meeting with her Angelie and my financial planner next week, but you don't

have to meet with them regularly. You can literally get a certified financial planner that you just like they help you create a plan and it's a one off it's like twelve hundred dollars yea create a plan. You could just do that, or you can have someone that you speak to regularly, maybe you hire them for the year,

annually or just kind of project base. You just say, hey, you know, sometimes there anywhere from like one hundred and fifty bucks an hour to three hundred dollars an hour to just basically talk through a financial thing that you're working through. So the key is you want to pay out of pocket, never of percentage of what you have invested, because that's going to be very expensive down the line.

But like, especially if you have children, a financial planner will help you create plans for them, you know, if you want them to go to school or whatever. They'll help you with estate planning. But it has to be a certified financial planner. That's the gold star, the gold standard in the financial space. A c FP player hated degree. So you know, yeah, if you do that, you'll be good.

This is what I have seen from some of my friends who are like foot in the CEO to space, but also oftentimes they can't speak for money because of the position that they hold, which is okay, you know, but they are allowed to consult. Well, obviously you have to make sure that that is allowed within your the space where you work. Like I had a friend who who teaches people how to get like procurement like you know, and so, but she worked for the city, like you know,

like looking at people's rfs and deciding. So it was you know, she but she had to ask like, hey, I teach people how to secure procurement. But then she's on the other side looking at people who want, you know, to secure procurement with the city, so she certainly had to ask. She actually and subsequently switching to another job that paid really well but allowed her to also have

this business that she's starting. So consider consulting. Consider you know, I'm creating an LLC in a business, So not just consulting as like, hey, I'm Tiffany consulting. No, there's so many, so many tax benefits to a business because the government knows that like the back of this economy is built on the small businesses, and so as a result, there are so many tax benefits that are not available to

the individual. So I would start, you know, like a lazy Robinson LLC and you know, and so allow the people to pay me through that, and then that way I can write off, like, girl, this hair, don't do yourself? Would I pay for this hand because guess what, I'm taping something next week, and so would I pay the one hundred two hundred dollars to get my hair retighten? Best believe budget needs to pay for that. Okay, there's certain clothes that I literally set aside that a just

budget needs to close. Like I'm I'm pretty much a tomboy outside like the stage and so I'm like budget needs to have a set aside money for that and even better, like I was doing rent the runway, which is even better because it really proves I'm literally just renting these clothes for the time being for this particular business. So you want to be able to write things off by having and securing like having a business also too.

The beautiful part of is is that this is what I learned from my friend who has a procurement business, is that then you can qualify for a small black woman owned business and allows you, you know, to potentially get even more contract work. And then I would also you know, like one of my one of my really great friends, Tony, she's also my attorney. Shout out to Tony Moore, the best attorney in the world. A sister,

because you know, we love a smart sister. Tony used to remind me, I remember one time I was working with I'll just keep it like, I was working with people who I didn't trust, and I was they did something that was kind of underhanded and I was like, ooh, and Tony found it in one of our contracts. I said, ooh, grum about to tail her off and told her to She said Tiffany, everyone doesn't need to know how smart you are. And I was like, come here, come out.

Everyone doesn't need to know how smart you are. There are instances where it is best for people to underestimate you so they can show their hand and you can move accordingly. And I was like, what so I can't tell her off? She's said now because she was like, look how she's exposing all of these things and as a result, we're putting it in a contract. And look how you've locked in a contract that is overly unfavorable and you're because she does not know how smart you are.

So she's just telling me on And I was like, oh, girl, I guess you know. But she was right, you know, you know, she was like calling a girlfriend and fuss fuss with a girlfriend, you know, be like girl, you know you know, She's like, that's what you call them for. But now let them expose their hand and think that you don't know, you know, mean, while I'm over here, it's like, she said, what notpen in a contract? What

else does she say? So I say that to say that where you work, if you know that this is not your forever, forever, forever spot, you don't have to bring all of your brilliance here. Everyone you can set aside like and this is for me to the side and work on projects that you plan to launch when you're not there. You know, come on, you know that's what I would be doing.

you know, this doesn't take away from the company. But you don't have you don't you don't owe it to anyone to give your you know, your life's blood in every drop of brilliance now where they say that at no, you don't have to do all that, you know. So yeah, so that's what I would say is that, like get your a LLC consider some consulting work also too. You know, you've got a really great network and so you know, asking people in your space I'm very candid how you

make money? Literally, I was asking, you know, I was just asking in front of my yesterday. I was like, well, girl, how are you making money like that? She was like, oh, I'm doing this, and I'm like, oh, that's funny. I was just like, Okay, good to know because when you do that, because you want your friends in the space when they figure out a new way to make money to tap you on the shoulder and you're like, child, look, I just learned how to make money in this way.

Here's the thing you want to try. And like I said, again, save some of that brilliance for you. Test that your hypotheses in the space that you're in now. But save some brilliance for you if you have it in your mind that one day you're going to step out and just be you yourself. This is for anyone you know listening. You know you don't owe to anyone to give all your things. Everyone doesn't need to know how smart you are. You know you can say some things for yourself. There's

nothing morally wrong with that. And so yeah, and then you know, the beautiful thing that, like my friend Cabra always reminds me, is that you are like you know, the sauce sold separately, you know, like it's you. You're like, you know sometimes you think you said, oh, you know, someone's going to be able to do the things. No, because the sauce is sold separately, you know, like everybody can baked chicken, but is it flavored sins?

call I can make. There is always someone who I can help who is willing to pay for that help always, And so I might not make as much as i'd like, but I'm not going to be broke.

would love you. So I like to have guest speakers sometimes, so once a month you get a live lesson and sometimes it's me, sometimes it's a guest speaker, like the we have a guest speaker coming. Doctor Ortiz, who I mentioned, is the Vice superintendent of the City of Newark. She's coming to talk about curriculums. Like, you know, you all want to make these courses and you want to sell curriculums. She's like, here's what they ought to look like. So

she's teaching that class, which I'm excited about. There's also a weekly like kind of like chats business chats with the other mentees that you get to do digitally. There's a monthly networking session that is so much fun that they do. And also I like to come meet the mentees in person. So when I have a speaking engagement in the city, I'm making my business to go out to dinner with about twenty to twenty five and we have all the time.

to saying other educators. If you're an educator, or you know an educator, or your friends with an educator, you mad to educator, you gave birth to an educator child, go ahead on over and get you justice seekers. Lacey Robertson's new book, Pursuing Equity in the Details of Teaching and Learning because children truly are our future and without education, that is glean. What does glean stand for? Again?

You know, we going to the hospital. So it really it's you and how you treat this child that's going to depend on how you gonna meet them later on their life, because you're going to meet them later on their life.

But we need, you know, we need us still here and to know that not only are you here, you are in you know, like you are on top, you know, like you are leading an organization that is leading other you know, educators. So we're just really grateful for you.