More Money Podcast - 257 The Power of Financial Literacy - Dr. JeFreda Brown, Financial Freedom Strategist & CEO of Provision Financial Education

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

You know how I came up with the title for this episode? It was actually from a listener who shared with me that she never knew the power of personal finance (and financial literacy) before she discovered books, blogs and podcasts like mine. And once she realized how powerful it can be, it changed her whole perspective on things. My next guest Dr. JeFreda Brown shares a similar realization in this episode. Before helping individuals with their money, she worked on the institutional side of things. But her passion for personal finance and motivation to teach others the powers of financial literacy led her to start her own company, Provision Financial Education, and dedicate her time to empowering others through her financial wellness programs. Seeing as discovering the world of personal finance changed my life and path forever, I couldn’t agree more that financial literacy is one of the most important things we need to bring more to the forefront. So if you like this episode, share it with your friends and family. Get the word out that your financial present does not have to be your financial future. All of this stuff can be learned, you just need to start somewhere and keep going. For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/257 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Momany Podcast. This is episode 257 of the show, and I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse. Welcome back. Only two more weeks left. Can you believe it? How is it? December 14th, and how is that possible? I mean, I'm not mad at it. Let's get rid of this year. Let's start a new year. Let's celebrate the holidays. But before that, let's, let's like end this podcast off with some really stellar episodes. So I have an episode today. I've got a bonus episode for you tomorrow. Yes, that's right. A second episode on Thursday, and then I'll be wrapping up season 11 of the Mo Money Podcast next week with the final episode. So excited. I've also, you know, been giving away a lot of stuff. I have not only a bunch of books I'm giving away,

I just announced yesterday on my Instagram, if you follow me, make sure to follow me at Jessica I. Morehouse. You can find more information about the giveaway I'm doing. I'll share more details at the end of this episode, so make sure to stick around. But this is a great episode. You're going to love it. I have Dr. Jafrita Brown on the show. She is a financial freedom strategist, and she helps empower individuals to make informed and positive financial decisions. And she's also the CEO of ProVision Financial Education because it is her passion and her life goal to help people develop strong financial health and wellness through financial education to help them learn proper financial management skills. So like right up my alley, most likely right up your alley,

which is why you're listening to the show. So we really dive into what are some key things she teaches her clients or students and why is financial literacy so important. So great episode for you. Before I get to that interview with Dr. DeFreda Brown, just a few words I want to share about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Mo Money Podcast is supported by Passive. If you've been a longtime listener of the show, then you know that I am a big fan of passive investing. I'm also a big promoter of DIY investing because you can save a ton of money on fees, which over the course of decades can make you thousands of dollars richer. Well,

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visit Passive.com slash MoMoney. Welcome to the MoMoney podcast, and Freed, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you so much for having me, Jessica. So excited to be here. Yeah. So you have a doctor. You're a doctor. So I'm always so impressed when someone has a doctor in front of their name, like, oh, that's fancy. Let's start by, can you share a little bit about yourself? You're now working in the personal finance field. You're educating people. You have a doctorate. Can you kind of share a little bit of your background? How did you get to where you are today? Okay, sure. Well, I actually,

I'm currently living in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi. So I'm currently living in Birmingham, Alabama, originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi. So I'm a southern girl at heart. And I actually have always been a numbers person. I've always always been really good in math. And I actually use numbers to remember things. That's how I remember things. And I associate things with numbers. So that's part of why I'm in finance because of the numbers part of it. But also, you know, with my need and passion for wanting to help people, I've always wanted to do something that will allow me to help people in some way. So when I first went to college, a lot of people are shocked when I tell them this, but I majored in engineering at first. And then I decided that I didn't want to do engineering. And since I had already taken a majority of the math courses, I just went ahead and changed my degree to math. So I finished my undergraduate degree in math. And then I decided that later I went back to get my master's degree. So at first,

I wanted to do accounting. So I got my accounting hours. And then as time went on, I decided that I really liked the finance aspect of it more than the accounting. And that's what's so funny about that is that people don't really understand that there is a difference between accounting and finance. Two totally different things. So I went back to obtain my finance concentration for my MBA. And at that time, I was working with the federal government. Well, I started working with the federal government after I got my finance concentration added on. And at that time, I was working as a federal auditor. So we would audit companies that have contracts with the federal government in the United States. And so I started learning more about that. And what's the ironic thing about that is my senior year of high school, I actually worked as a the federal government has a at that time had a student employment program. So I worked during the summer and during school as a student employee. And I actually worked in the contracting division.

So at that at that point, as a senior, I was actually getting experience and didn't know what would be in my future. So I gained experience on the contractors, on the federal government, the procurement side. And then later on as a federal contractor, I actually worked as an auditor auditing those companies that had those contracts. And so then I would encounter a lot of first time contractors who really didn't understand a lot about contracting and they would ask me questions. But of course, I couldn't tell them any, you know, give them any advice because I had to maintain my independence as an auditor. So I said, well, I think I should just start providing consulting services and be able to help companies who really need this because I have so much knowledge that I can help them with. So at that point, I left my job and went full time into consulting. And at that time, I actually had two companies. So this was my first company, Goshen Business Group, which strictly focuses on business and financial consulting for small to large size organizations and self-employed.

But there was still something pulling me toward finance. So and at that point, people were coming to me asking me to help them with their personal finances and asking me for advice. And so I started two years ago, I started provision financial education to really focus more on helping people with finances. And what really, really made me want to do it, too, was I really looked at the stats after I started reading some of the stats. My heart just broke of the position that people are in financially And to see not only are people struggling financially, but there are a lot of people who make good money and don't know what to do with it. So you have two ends of the spectrum.

So that's my background and how I got to where I am. Wow. I'm curious, since you've worked in both worlds, helping companies and individuals, what is like the biggest maybe similarity or difference between like, is there is there a lot of intersection or is to me, the biggest intersection is when I'm working with the small businesses, the smaller businesses, those who are the self-employed, because they're having trouble kind of deciphering between separating out the business finances from their personal. And a lot of them ask me, how do I pay myself? I don't I don't know how to pay myself. I don't want to get in trouble. Please help me. I don't I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.

So it really does cross cross over. And and then, too, you have with the big organizations, it comes into play where they have those employees and you have a lot of organizations who are starting to provide financial wellness programs more and more now for their employees. Because they realize that it's part of the overall health and wellness. It's not just the physical health aspect. The financial health and wellness is a part of that, categories. There's people who are making good money, but just don't have the financial literacy skill set to understand how to best manage it. And then there's the people that are just struggling financially in that they just lack of funds, don't have the money. What do you feel like, especially looking at stats and just with your experience, what do you think is actually the, the biggest problem? Is it financial literacy or is it just, um, the, the big divide between the high,

you know, earners and the low earners? I think it's, I really think it is financial literacy. And, and I say that because I actually recently was talking to, um, and this is this happens often. So so I call a lot of a lot of people I meet, I call them Google subject matter experts. Oh, yeah, because because they think just because they search information on Google that it's it's the end all to everything. They have it. They don't need anything else. And so they're like, well, we have this and we have that and we know this and we know that. So we don't really think we need the education part of it. We just really want to start doing what we need to do. And I'm like, that's the problem right there. People want to jump into it. They don't want to get the education. That's why a lot of people are in the place where they are now, whether it's on the struggling part

or the not knowing what to really have to manage their money because they don't want to get that education piece. Why do you think that is? Do you feel like, because I feel like when I talk to people and I've definitely heard, you know, had conversations with like, I just want to get started. Just tell me what to do. Sometimes it's like an impatience or it's that feeling of, oh my gosh, I've wasted so much time. I need to play catch up really quick. And they don't realize that in order to play catch up, you do need to take the time and patience to learn. Is that kind of your experience as well? Yes. Yes. And I actually, I have an actual curriculum that I use when I create courses and when I help clients. So I have curriculum for children and young adults and also for adults. And the very first thing that I teach

is financial psychology. And I also have my clients take a disc assessment, which helps them to really realize why they make the decisions they make, because then they're starting to see their perception about money, what's affected that, because none of us are born knowing how to manage money. So we learn it from somebody and who we learn it from may not necessarily have taught us the right way. And then it carries over into our adulthood. So we pick up those those behaviors and habits and And that affects our decisions. It's all based on emotions and motivations and goals and things. And people are not realizing that what they're motivated about or their emotions is affecting how they're making financial decisions. So they're thinking about, oh, I got to buy a house. But then they're like, okay, just tell me what I

need to do. But they're not realizing that their motivation to buy a home is affecting that decision of, okay, just tell me what I want to do, what I need to do, instead of actually going and learning what they need to learn. They need to learn how to develop a good budget and manage their money, save money, what it looks like once I purchase a home and what that's going to look like for my taxes and those types of things. So they need to be able to understand the whole aspect of personal finance. It's not just, oh, I got to buy a house and they don't realize that there's so many other components involved and you may be missing out on something because you haven't gotten that education. Yeah. What do you find? Because it sounds like you work with people of all ages.

Do you find it's harder to work with older individuals or like just adults because they have those ingrained behaviors compared to people that are younger and like easier to mold? Yes, I do notice a difference. There is a major difference. So I actually try to customize how I teach. And even when I post things on social media, I try to base it on the generations, like the Gen Xers, the baby boomers, the millennials, because everybody has a different outlook and perspective about life period in each generation group. And so, and that's another reason why I like to give the DISC assessment because everybody has a different perception at first. But but then once they they realize that this this information, this personal finance information is. Is not solely based upon where you are at this particular time in your life and what age you are, this is just what it is. It's just, this is how finance works. And so to be able to help them to get to that place where they understand that they need

to change their perception about how they view money first. And then once they do that, they can start looking at the education in a different light. Yeah, no, I definitely found that. Also, even just getting older, I think sometimes it's hard. And that's why it's sometimes so impactful working with someone who has an experience like yourself. We don't realize that we have these certain thoughts or motivations or behaviors with money because they're just ingrained in us and we think they're normal.

And everyone thinks like that, but then not, not usually. But what, I guess I think one thing, once you do kind of realize that you have that self-awareness, where do you start? Because I think a lot of people feel intimidated by like, how do you change a behavior? Like sometimes it sounds so, such a big task. It sounds like there's no way I can change. I'm an adult, I'm fully formed. How does that work? Especially with money, when you're dealing with it and you've dealt with it in a certain way for so long, it seems impossible to change. Yeah. That goes back to why I teach financial psychology first. Because a part of it is that I help people to understand that their their financial beliefs and their behaviors affect their financial decisions.

And then I help them to understand that they can change their financial behavior once they develop good financial skills and knowledge. So it comes with having and that's what financial literacy is. And my personal definition for financial literacy is having the needed skills and knowledge to make informed financial decisions about the things that matter most to you. So once people realize that having the needed financial skills and knowledge, they can make better financial decisions. And they can once they make those there, those changes that affects their they can start seeing the changes in their behavior because they're going to start thinking first before they just just do something. They're going to start realizing, oh, so what I thought was important before I started this course or this start learning this is not as important as I thought it was. And now this is more of a priority. So they start thinking differently and that affects

how they make the financial decisions from that point. One question I get a lot is how long is this going to take? Because some people I think want this to happen immediately. Like, so how long in your experience, how long does it take to change some of these behaviors? I actually have one course. It's a, if I was teaching it in person, it would be a 12 out. It would be a 12 week course. So it's the with the financial psychology, I always do it in two sessions because that that starts people's wheels to turning. I noticed that even I take little bits and pieces from my financial psychology curriculum. Sometimes I'll post different things on social media, little nuggets. And I noticed that when I post those things, people will comment and they'll

say, Ooh, you got my wheels turning. I'm thinking. So it immediately, immediately, they start thinking differently. Once they started, they start really seeing and understanding. Oh, so it's, it's an immediate, it's an instant process of them starting to start changing and seeing things in a different light. And then it's just about, I guess the other element is, is once you kind of get that inspiration or like the wheels are turning, like you said, maintaining that a lot of people lose steam. How do you maintain that so you don't go back to your old ways? What I always recommend is that a person gets somebody that's going to have them to keep them accountable. And I always tell them to

please do not talk to anybody that's going to be negative and ask you, why are you doing that? You know, don't try to try to find somebody who is always encouraging you, supporting you. And let that person be your accountability partner as you're going through this so that they can continue to keep you motivated and encouraged. And if it and I always tell them if that needs to be me, if I will gladly do it. So that's, that's a big part of it, that the accountability, being accountable and being responsible, because if it's someone who's an adult, then I try to remind them that you, especially if they have children or if they want to have children, you have to remember, remember future generations. You don't want to leave them in a bad place. You don't want to.

To me, it's embarrassing to not be able to leave anything for your future generations or to leave things in a mess where they have to come and pick it up. So just thinking about the ones that are coming behind you and keeping that at the front of your mind always, because that's the responsibility part of it. You're not only accountable, but now you have a responsibility because you have someone that's coming behind you, even if it's not an actual family member. You know, a lot of us are really indebted to our communities and we want to be, you know, very positive role models in our communities and help. You know, that's part of my school where I got my doctorate.

The big thing about my school was being a global change agent and positive social change. And that's a big thing. Now you want to be a light in your community. You want to bring some help to your community. So how can you contribute to your community and to the economy if you're not in a good position financially? I love that. I don't know if I've really thought of it like that for a while anyway, but you hear a lot about you got to stay accountable and do something to keep yourself accountable. Get that. But I think the responsibility element is almost maybe even a bit stronger. At least for me, it really touched something. I'm like, oh yeah. I think that's a big reason why. Because I think sometimes a lot

of us have a problem when we're just thinking about ourselves, like keeping ourselves accountable. Sometimes we need something more impactful and it could be like, well, how are you and your finances, your financial situation impacting your community, your family, your friends, the people that you're impacting? I think that might be that kind of anchor point that people are actually looking for. That's so interesting. Because you kind of mentioned families and teaching your children a little bit. And obviously, a big way to do that is to lead by example. And I think that's how a lot of people who seem to have their act together early in life, they probably had those role um, you know,

role models and their parents and like they, they were responsible with money. So they kind of already had those skills, um, for people that are, you know, adults that are trying to, um, improve their financial situations now, cause maybe they didn't get those skills earlier in life, but they want to pass on the good to their kids. How do they do that? How do they do that? How do they get started? I like to encourage families to be really interactive with the children. And this and this is a good thing, because not only are the children going to be learning, but the parents are the families are going to be learning as well. So it's a it's a family affair instead of just teaching children, because a lot of times when parents are telling children what to do, the child's going to rebel. So if it's if it's the parents telling the children, oh, let's do this is going to be

really fun and make it exciting and fun for the children and may provide some types of awards, rewards and, you know, there's like games and things. So I like to encourage them to do things like recently, I came up with an idea of where families can do. We always think about 21 day challenges for things. So I said, what about doing a 21 day savings challenge for families where they sit down and they help the children, They sit down and the parents, each parent comes up with one savings goal. And then they help the child come up with or children help come up with one savings goal. And then as they're giving children their allowance and those things, they're helping the child to understand the importance of saving the money and teaching them.

Because I think about when I was growing up, my grandparents helped me. They opened up a savings account for me and they would like different members of my family would purchase savings bonds for me and those types of things. But nobody ever sat me down and explained what a savings account was, why it was important, savings bonds. Nobody ever sat me down and explained to me what money was, how to use it, why it's important. But they just said, okay, you need a savings account. These are bonds. You got to save your money. But I didn't have an understanding of why. So I think it's really important for the families to sit down and they have that discussion. And then another thing that it helps children learn is patience.

They learn that this is a this is a long term thing is not something as quick and it's helping them. I think that's the biggest gift that parents can give their child to learn patience, because we just talked about how people just want to jump into things they don't want to learn and so if children can get that ingrained in them at an early age that it takes patience because the big thing about finance is time value of money so the time and value aspects, it takes time for money to grow. You can't you can't rush it no matter what you do. So patience has got to be a part of it. And I think that's the biggest thing in helping children and for those adults to understand that the patience part.

And it's a even with thinking about investing, that's a long-term thing. That's not something, I mean, you can get supplemental income from it, from interest and dividends, but it's not like, oh, okay, I'm going to put money in this stock and it's just going to blow up like that real quick. And I'm just going to have all this money. No, it doesn't work that way. You have to have patience and be willing to let it grow over time. Yeah, I know. And that's something that I know in a lot of financial literacy curriculum, there's always the part where it's like, if you started saving or investing at this age by 10 years later, you'd have so much. And it's like, we've seen that, but I think

how much more impactful would it be to actually implement it? Like sometimes it's hard to really grasp the numbers until you've actually done it. And then 10 years later goes by and you're like, how do I have that much money? How did that even happen? Because you actually did it. So what a gift you can give to your kids if you actually, you know, worked with them doing that, started, you know, helping them invest or even just putting money into savings and seeing that interest kind of come in and say, look at that compound. Look at that. What a gift that would be. Yes, definitely. You mentioned that I thought about that just now when I was younger. I was born in 1976. So when I was a little girl, it was the 80s.

So at that time, interest rates on regular savings accounts was awesome. So you can see your money growing in a regular savings account. You can't do that these days. So you have to have other places, you know, to put your money where it can grow and earn better interest. And I really like how you mentioned, too, that the importance of talking about goals. And I feel like how you mentioned too that the importance of talking about goals. And I feel like that was never really something talked about. I was always told, and I'm glad that I have these habits because they're, like you said, you start these early,

they're not even a big deal. They're just like natural, right? I'm frugal by nature. I'm very good at saving, but it took me a long time to really understand some of the other important elements. Like, well, why are you saving? Like the why? I was very good at saving, but it took me a long time to really understand some of the other important elements. Like, well, why are you saving? Like the why. I was very good at saving, but I never actually, like it took me a while to figure out why am I actually doing this? Because that's a really important element. And just, you know, having lots of conversations with parents considering, should I give my

kid an allowance or not? I think a lot of their worries, it's like, I don't want them to be spoiled or whatever. But it's like, but if you teach them that, you know, your allowance is an income and then the other elements of like, when you have an income, you have to figure out what are your expenses, what are your goals and really getting them started budgeting. They don't even have to know the word budgeting early on. They'll be set up so well. Yes, I agree. Totally agree. It's in the delivery of how you teach them. Like you said, you have to do it in a way where they will understand it and also enjoy it at the same time. I don't know about you because I know you do post a lot on

social media. I've been following a lot of different people and a lot of younger people have been seeing what they're talking about in terms of like money. And it seems like there's, they're lucky and there's so much more access to information than like compared to when I was getting, because you don't know, I think it wasn't really around even when I was a kid, when I was a teenager, a little bit more, but there was no such thing as, you know, Googling, you know, financial literacy or budgeting or anything like that when I was a kid, when I was a teenager, a little bit more, but there was no such thing as, you know, Googling, you know, financial literacy or budgeting or anything like that until I was more in like college. And so it's exciting, but it's interesting just to see what they're kind of, um, I think more attracted to. And obviously like the investing and like,

you know, side hustling and like making money is very attractive, which is great, but kind of worries me because I feel like, like we kind of mentioned, one of the problems is people earning money and not knowing what to do with it. And I feel like there's still a big gap there. There is a big gap there. I actually recently just read an article and it was actually a Canadian couple that was being interviewed in Toronto. And they actually mentioned that because they're in Canada, that they do a lot of search searches on the Internet. But they say that there was a huge gap in information because it seems to be more targeted towards the United States than other areas. So I was like, wow, that's very interesting because, you know, being in finance, we understand that, you know, you have to also look at the location of where

people are and be able to understand how things are done in those areas as well. So I think not only is there a gap in the information of people getting the information and the information being distributed, it's also being distributed in different ways where people still may not be getting exactly what they need because it's like a one size fits all type of thing. And you can't one size fit all finance, personal finance people. Yeah. Yeah. That's a big issue. It's like, there's, it's great that there's a lot more information, but it's there. That's also the problem. There's so much information. You also have to trust yourself and understand how to sift through it to find out what is

right and wrong. And like, I'm, I'm based out of Toronto. So I'm like, I totally know that growing up when I started getting into personal finance, almost all the books and, and, you know, big money experts were American. And so I'd always have to, if they talked about a 401k, I'd have to be like, well, we don't have that here. We have something different.

And always having to kind of translate what does that mean for me? And that's the other issue too, is like when it comes to personal finance, and I think a lot of people, as they build those financial literacy skills, they realize there's a lot of people talking about money out there.

But one thing you need to remember is they're not giving you specific advice. You need to have it with a lot of people talking about money out there. But one thing you need to remember is they're not giving you specific advice. You need to have it with a grain of salt kind of thing. And it isn't one size fits all. It isn't. Like someone can say something, but that may still not be right for you. And you have to determine that by yourself, which is difficult. Yes.

Yes. I totally agree. Definitely agree. Yeah. So I guess that's the other kind of thing in terms of financial literacy is like once you have that knowledge, also building those smart decision making skills and understanding how to, because I've talked to so many people that are like, well, I've worked with a financial advisor and they said this. And I'm like, at the end of the day, they're going to say what they think, but you still ultimately have to make the decision for you. And I think a lot of people have struggle with knowing how do I know if I'm making the right decision for me? I always say that I set myself apart because I actually, I'm not the type of finance professional or expert who just says, okay, you need to do this. That's not me. I am a teaching person. I like to teach people things and I like to explain to them,

this is why you have to do this. This is that. And I'm not just, and that's not where I ended. So I'm not going to just leave them there. So that's why it's so important that somebody that people have that person that they can go to, you know, consistently is an ongoing relationship. So they can sit down with them and help them to understand, OK, these are the things that I want to do. And so I'm not sure if they're going to work. So then they try it out. And if it doesn't work, then we come back to the table to see, try something else. So it's like a, I think that's another gap and something that's missing is that people don't really understand that with finance, it's a continuing thing. It's not just, OK, I want to sit down and talk to this person and they told me to do this and then that's it. No, it's a continuing relationship. So that person is continuing to help you to help you understand the decisions you're making and the goals that you have and to help

you to understand what's working, what's not. And if it's not working, then it's time to make some changes and adjustments to what you're doing. So that's the difference too. Yeah. Yeah. That's another important thing to remember. I think a lot of people think, no, I got it. I learned enough. I'm good. Moving on. Or like a versatile example. I know someone, I remember talking to them a long time ago and they're like, oh, you know, I paid, uh, you know, this fee only financial planner. They gave me a financial plan. So I'm good for the next 10 years. And I'm like, I, a lot of things could happen in 10 years. I hope they were joking. I'm like, um, you're good now. You have to, you have to always allow for contingencies. And plans change. Plans change. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's the one thing that I've had a lot more

conversations about lately, especially with what we dealt with in the spring with a bunch of big changes. Um, and so many people saw bunch of big changes. And so many people saw lots of big changes in their financial lives. It's like, you need to be flexible. Making a budget, for instance, isn't something that you set and forget we're good. Check it once a year. It's like it will evolve as the months go by, as your life goes by. It will always change. And that's okay. You got to be flexible. And I think lots of people think of finance as something very rigid, but it's actually very fluid. Yes, it is. That's one of the reasons why, even though I didn't know it at the time, I think that's one of the reasons why I couldn't stay in engineering, in engineering,

because engineering to me is like you're thinking inside of the box and I'm not an inside of the box thinker. So, you know, you feel that restriction. So like you said, finance is more free flowing and things are constantly changing and it's more flexible. So it's not just, okay, it's this way and that's just how it's going to be. No, that's not how finance works. So I think that's another part of education. People get the education, then they'll really understand that part of it.

Absolutely. And just implementing what they've learned throughout the years. And when you get that natural life experience, it becomes more clear. It just makes more sense. That's at least what I've been finding. As I get older, I'm like, every year makes a little bit more sense. It does. It does. It really does. Yeah. Well, before I let you go, cause I know you mentioned you, you have your own, you know, company and you work with clients,

but you also have a couple of the really cool things. So you have a t-shirt line called financialfreedomapparel.com. Why did you start that? I'm so curious about that. Actually, that was so over the last few years, I always find these really cool T-shirts and I like to post selfies of me in the T-shirts. And they're they're always really like cool things. And a lot of them, most times are financial related. And so every time I post a selfie of myself, people are like, oh, I like that shirt. Where'd you get it? And so I'm like, okay, so I'm helping other people grow their companies. Why not just have my own? And there's some messages that I want to share with people about money and finances. And my company is Christian based.

So I like to teach people what the Bible says about money as well. So my T-shirts, most times like the one that I have now, says wealthy is my destiny. And that's from the Bible, Deuteronomy 8.18, that says that God gives us the ability to generate wealth. So when we come up with good ideas, and then we need to learn how to, you know, implement those ideas to create wealth for ourselves and our families in future generations. So that's one of the things, one of the reasons why I like to speak things out loud.

And I feel like if somebody sees something that affects how they think as well. So if you're constantly seeing wealthy is my destiny, or if you're seeing one of my t-shirts says financial wellness is freedom, that's one of my big things. Financial freedom is a huge thing. That's part of a lot of what I do, financial freedom, because once you have that freedom,

you can have peace, you have overall wellness and good health. So being able to understand that is not just about the sitting down and getting education part of it, too. It can also be a fun part of something that you share with your friends and your family and coworkers and your children. So that's part of it, too. And I wanted to incorporate it with families as well. So not only do I have shirts for men and women, but I also have some children so that they start getting it ingrained in them at an early age that wealth is their destiny. And it's just something that seems to be growing because I'm constantly getting new ideas for different things for the shirts. I love that. I love that. Especially, yeah, I love the idea of just wearing something with

a positive message, but also you see it a lot in the mirror and stuff like that. It's eventually just going to get stuck in your brain and things are going to happen for the positive. That's amazing. And I know you also have a free online personal finance course called Financial Freedom Roadmap. Where can people find information about that to to check it out and get started? Actually, that's the website is Financial Freedom Roadmap dot com. And once they go on the website, they'll see a little short introduction video of me explaining the course. And then you could just register for it. And it's a really

short, like three-day video course, less than 10 minutes each video. And basically I'm talking about, in the first video, I'm talking about how to manage money. And I'm giving a little tip on what you can do to start learning how to manage your money. And then in the second video, I'm talking about saving and I'm giving a tip on what they can do to start saving. And in the third video, I talk about growth, what you can do to start growing your money. So it's like some little nuggets that I share each day over those three days and also helping them to understand the importance of, and that's, that's, that's my main focus of what I teach, how to manage, save and grow your money. So the courses, when I do my

courses or when I sit down one-on-one with the client, I'm always going to go over those three areas, how to manage, save, and grow your monies. And then everything that's involved in each one of those sections comes into play. So it's been, I think I launched, I actually launched that course right at the beginning of everything with the coronavirus. Yeah. Oh, really? Seems like a good time to do that. I wanted to have something for people. People need it more than ever. Yeah. I wanted to have something for them to help people and wanted to provide it for free and something that they can actually start doing immediately and help implement,

start doing immediately and implement it. Amazing. And before I let you go, I know people are going to want to find you on Instagram and social media. Where can they find you so they can keep in touch and see some of your inspirational messages that you put on Instagram? My actual website is drjefrida.com and that's J-E-F-R-E-D-A, Jafrita. Instagram, I'm under Dr. Jafrita Brown and also under Provision Financial Education. And I'm also on LinkedIn, Dr. Jafrita Brown and on Facebook under Dr. Jafrita Brown and Twitter under Provision Financial Education. Also, Dr. Jafrita Brown brand so it's you can find me either under my name or the company name on either one of those social media sites awesome well thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me i feel like this will be a good i always like some of

these episodes of like i always try to you know put myself in the listener's shoes i'm like oh for this episode will be the little kind of push that some people need to do one thing that scares them or one thing that will help them in the future with their finances. So they heard it from you. The stats don't lie. Yeah. So thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for having me. And that was episode 257 of the Mo Money Podcast with the wonderful Dr. Jafrita Brown.

Make sure to check her out on her website. It's just www.doctor, that's D-O-C-T-O-R, Jafrita, J-E-F-R-E-D-A.com. Or just go to the show notes for this episode to find links to all of our social media and more information about what we chatted about in this episode, jessicamorehouse.com slash 257. If you want to find show notes for any episode that you've ever listened to on the podcast, you can easily do that a couple of different ways. One easy way is just going to jessicamorehouse.com slash podcast. All of the episodes will be listed there. But also if you want to find the show notes for a specific episode,

just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash whatever the number of that episode is, which I always say at the beginning of the episode, like right at the beginning and sometimes at the end as well. And also make sure to check out her other website, financialfreedomapparel.com if you want to grab one of her t-shirts with kind of some fun, you know, tips and sayings on them, like she kind of mentioned in the episode. Oh, one other website. Oh, great. She's got so many great resources. She also has a free online personal finance course called Financial Freedom Roadmap. So you can find that at financialfreedomroadmap.com. Or again, find all the links that I just mentioned, show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 257. So many things to share with you because again, we're wrapping up the season very shortly. So stick around, just have a few words to share

about this episode sponsor that I am going to spill all of the tea. This episode of the Momenty Podcast is supported by Passive. Are you tired of spending time on spreadsheets to manage and keep track of your investments? Passive can help you invest, rebalance, and keep track of your account so you can get rid of your spreadsheets. Once you set up a portfolio, Passive will do all the calculations to keep it balanced, send you notifications when your portfolio needs attention, and you can even place your trades across multiple accounts at the click of a button. Another bonus, Passive is free to all Questrade clients. To learn more about how it all works and to sign up for an account, visit Passive.com slash money. And that's spelled P A S S I V. Once again, to learn more about how passive can help lighten your load as a DIY investor,

visit passive.com slash mo money. Okay, so here's another reminder, I am doing a huge book giveaway. And I'm going to be basically once next week's episode, the final episode of season 11 is out into the world. I am going to be drawing some winners. So all of the books that I'm giving away are up on, uh, online right now. If you go to Jessica morehouse.com slash contest, again, there's a link to the show notes. All of the books that I'm giving away are right there. So you can enter to win all of them or just a few of your favorites, whatever you want to do. I will be selecting winners. Yeah, basically, I guess December 23rd is when I'm probably going to do that. So I can kind of select some winners before Christmas because what a great little gift that would be to find out that you won one of the books

that I'm giving away. So make sure to go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest to enter to win one of those books. And like I mentioned in last week's episode, I did a contest with PC Financial, which is now wrapped. So hopefully you had time to enter. It was all going down on my Instagram page where I'm giving away, you know, PC Optimum points and free financial counseling sessions to some lucky winners. I will be announcing the specific winners on my Instagram as well as in my email newsletter list when I send out my next newsletter. So if you're not on my email list, you definitely should because I do send it out every second week or when there's something very important that I need to share with you. It's just like where all the important stuff is how I can kind of communicate with you. So if you go to jessicamaraz.com slash subscribe, that is how you can get in there.

I guess one of the things that I did announce on my email list and also within my Facebook group, and I may have mentioned this on the podcast, but I need to remind you, maybe you missed it. Some big things are going down. Basically, I'm shutting down my Money Life Balance community, my Facebook group that I've had for almost five years, which is actually crazy. I can't believe I started it that long ago. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I started it, but here we are. So basically, my initial idea was to shut it down and say goodbye and move on. And then a bunch of

people were like, no, don't shut it down. We like this group. I just kind of don't want to move on to the next chapter. I'm going to be starting some Facebook groups for my online courses that I will be launching in the new year. So it's kind of a great idea because people like just give it to somebody else to run. I'm like, that's actually a very smart idea. I don't know why I didn't think that. So I'm handing over the reins of the course to my friend, Alyssa Davies, who was on the show last season. She actually, well, I'll mention her again because I'm doing another giveaway that I'm going to mention. But you may know her. She is the blogger behind Mixed Up Money. And she's awesome. She's a friend of mine. She is going to kind of maintain the course as what it is, which is a safe,

non-judgmental space where you can talk about money, ask questions. Everyone is very positive in there. Basically, I created this group because basically after going on Reddit and being in other personal finance Facebook groups, I'm just like, these are not pleasant places or they don't feel safe to ask your kind of, you know, quote unquote, dumb money questions. So I'm going to start my own group. I did. I ran it for a long time. I'm ready to kind of do something else, but there's so many, I mean, there's over 2,600 people in the group. So,

uh, you know, let's, let's keep it going and see where it can go next with a new, you know, person at the helm. So, uh, you can still find it. She's probably going to rename it. It's all going to be switched over to Alyssa on December 30th, but find it. It's called the Money Life Balance Community. If you go to jessicamorris.com slash Facebook, I believe it still goes there, or just go to facebook.com slash groups slash Money Life Balance, get in there. And a lot of Canadians in there. So if you're looking also for Canadian centric, I mean, anyone could enter, but there's just a lot of Canadians in there. So if you're looking also for Canadian centric, I mean, anyone could enter, but there's just a lot of Canadians in there. That might be a Facebook group you want to join. So another contest, this is kind of my last contest of the

year. It is basically a celebration that we survived 2020. And also a big thank you for, for supporting me as you know, this kind of one-woman show who runs my own company by myself and is just doing what she can to be my own business person, but also create new, exciting, and I don't know, just approachable personal finance content. So through the podcast, through my YouTube channel, through my blog on my website, through my social media channels, through me doing public speaking, through whatever, what are the other things to do? Like all the other things that I do, you know, um, you know, online courses, my budget spreadsheets, my, you know, working with clients one-on-one. Um, I just want to say thank you for, for being there and being

so awesome. Um, so with that said, if you go to my Instagram page, just at Jessica I. Morehouse is my Instagram. You'll find a post with me with a bunch of stuff that I'm carrying. And I'm doing a huge giveaway to, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry, listener, if you're not Canadian. This is just for Canadians because I have to mail these things to people. And just pandemic wise, I think it'd be very costly to send things out. And also some of these things I'm giving away are gift cards and they're just Canadian gift cards. Um, so I'm sorry. Um, but here's what I'm giving away. I'm giving him four different prizes. Um, and I'll start with, uh, the fourth prize is a $25 gifts, uh, gift card to Tim Hortons. The third prize is a $30 gift card to Netflix. Second prize is a $50

Starbucks gift card. And lastly, the big HUNA. This is a kind of big prize that I made myself. I gathered all these things. I'm like, this is going to be like a really special, cool thing to gift someone. It's valued at $250. And what you get is you receive a copy of the 100 Day Financial Goal Journal by Alyssa Davies, a copy of Work Optional by Tanya Hester, a copy of The Credit Game by Richard Moxley, a copy of Talk Money to Me by Kelly Keene. All these people have been on the show just wondering. If you're like, oh, I have no idea about those books, you can find those interviews and then read the books or read the, you know, read the books, then listen to the interview, a $50 shoppers, drug Mart gift card, some fine tip gel pens by color Lex, which you

can use with your goal journal. That's the idea behind that. Um, a 12 ounce keep cup, uh, which I absolutely love, um, a 250 gram, uh, bag of coffee beans from a local Toronto coffee shop that I love to go to called Ethica Coffee Roasters. And lastly, just to set the mood as you're like reading books, making your coffee is a mini vanilla maple syrup candle, just to top it off, just to make it nice. So if you want to enter, all the information is on my Instagram. Just go to at Jessica I. Morehouse on Instagram. You'll find it, and then you can enter. And I wish you luck.

And also, I guess the important thing is I am going to close the contest midnight Friday, this Friday, Eastern Time, December. Oh, goodness. What is Friday? I forget. December 18th. December 18th is I'm going to be closing the contest and selecting winners because my idea is like, I would love to mail these out before Christmas. I don't know if

you'll actually get your prize before Christmas, but that's kind of the idea behind that. So make sure to do it. Get on there and enter and good luck. So like I mentioned, I have a very special episode tomorrow. The co-founder of Passive, who's been the podcast sponsor for the past few weeks is on the show to talk to us about diy investing so you're gonna not want to miss that episode so uh thanks so much for listening to this episode i'll see you back here tomorrow this podcast is distributed by the women in media podcast network find out more at women in media.network