More Money Podcast - The Power of Perseverance - Author of Moving Beyond Broke, Dasha Kennedy

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

I've got an incredibly inspirational guest for this episode! Dasha Kennedy, founder of the Broke Black Girl and author of Moving Beyond Broke: The Power of Perseverance in Personal Finance, shares her story of growing up low-income, surviving divorce and becoming a single parent, and learning about managing money on her own. On her personal finance journey, she realized she could help other women, especially Black women, in similar circumstances, which led her to create a massive community online where she now teaches others how to build generational wealth, increase your income, and ultimately move beyond broke once and for all.For full episode show notes visit jessicamoorhouse.com/432Follow meInstagram @jessicaimoorhouseThreads @jessicaimoorhouseTikTok @jessicaimoorhouseFacebook @jessicaimoorhouseYouTube @jessicamoorhouseLinkedIn - Jessica MoorhouseFinancial resourcesMy websiteMy bestselling book Everything but MoneyFree resource libraryBudget spreadsheetWealth Building Blueprint for Canadians course Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome back to the More Money podcast. I am your host, Jessi Moorehouse. And for this episode, I'm talking to Dasha Kennedy, who you may already know as the broke black girl on social media. She's a financial activist, speaker, and now new author of Moving Beyond

Broke, The Power of Perseverance in Personal Finance. Now, Dacia has built a massive online community that challenges traditional financial advice and provides real and relatable financial education for black women. With a background in finance and lived experience overcoming financial hardship, Dacia offers a raw and honest approach to money conversations centering on financial healing, wealth building, and economic justice. Welcome Dacia to the More Money Podcast. I'm so excited to have you on the show. Welcome.

Thank you. I'm excited about being here. Yeah. So you, I've been following you, I believe for, oh, how, what, you know, I want to know kind of your origin story because I feel like I've been following you and you may not know it passively for a long time. And you've been doing amazing stuff and have, you've grown such a crazy big audience, which I think is so important to have different voices and different perspectives. And now you have a book out, which is really exciting.

Yes. But just to catch people up, do you want to tell us a little bit about your story? How did you get into this world of becoming a financial educator and advocate? How did that all happen? Yeah. So I started working in the finance industry when I was about 19 years old and coming straight out of high school, going into the finance industry, I was hearing terms, phrases. People were having conversations about money I had never heard of. So I'm hearing people talk about things like 401Ks and investment portfolios, emergency funds. These are conversations I just never knew anything about. So that

kind of like got my wheels turning to learn more, but it really wasn't until I was in the thick of my own financial issues that I realized just how clueless I was about money. So it took me back to being that 19 year old girl in the finance industry and realizing like almost 10 years later, I still didn't know anything. Like nothing had changed. I still was not able to apply a lot of what I was hearing and learning because I just felt like it was positioned in a language that just went over my head. It wasn't simplified. It seemed like it was more hard than it had to be. So I just literally randomly one day woke up and was like, I'm about to try to figure

this stuff out and I want to document it on Facebook. So I started a Facebook group, The Broke Black Girl, which is what it is now. I started a Facebook group and I just started sharing my journey. When was that? Back in 2017. Holy. That's a long time ago. Yes.

It was 2017. Holy. Yes. That's a long time ago. Yes. It was 2017. I just, I woke up in November, 2017 and I started the group and I was just sharing what I had learned, what some things that was working for me. Um, so things that I was noticing when I would go out and I would seek professional help, I was wondering if anyone else could relate. And I was finding out that a lot of people, especially women that look like me, we were all running into the same thing. What did you do in the finance industry? What was your role there? So I started at a very low level position in the mailroom. I was stuffing

envelopes for accountants. So I'm like hearing water cooler conversations and I'm hearing them talk about like big number things. So I'm just ear hustling and listening. And I was just, I was just stuffing envelopes, you know, for them, but slowly but surely I started to learn more because I worked around accounting. So it was a lady I will never forget. She set a cross for me and the opportunity to work overtime came up and she pretty much was like you know if you want some overtime you can stay behind and help me because

the work that I did they didn't offer it and it was pretty much learning what she was doing she was doing accounting so I was like low-key learning it when I should not have been learning it but it opened up the door for me to start working under her, then learning more accounting, then I became working in the accounting department. So it was like a domino effect that I landed in the finance industry doing the work that I was doing. That's amazing.

I mean, I'm curious too, because you had that experience. Did you ever kind of discuss, because that know, that is a big problem that the language barrier basically, we use so many different terms. And that could be, and you know, when you're working with a financial professional, they use the terms and assume that you know what they're talking about, because they talk about that all the time. But most people don't know. Did you find that, you saw that, and do you kind of, you know, from your perspective,

working there, did you ever have an idea of like, oh, I think I know why people do that. For me, in my experience, I think a lot of financial professionals use the jargon as a way to be like, well, you can't do this on your own. This is way too complicated for you. I agree with that. And I think too, it's operating in the assumption that everyone is starting at the same space. So for a lot of people that are in the finance industry and they've been in the finance industry for years, that's their world.

So they're not even considering someone is coming in knowing the very basics, if anything at all. So they're just like spewing 401ks, investments, assets, liability. And you're like, what? Like, no, you know, if you don't hear those things on an everyday basis, you're not familiar with those things. So I learned very quickly that there was a huge barrier. And I just did not think a lot of like no shade to advisors because I know, you know,

they do their thing. So no shade to them. But I just don't think that they always operate in a space that people are coming in. No, I agree. I mean, that's one of the common things I hear from people myself is that they go to see an advisor for help because that's what they are told that, yeah, those people can help you. And then they go into a meeting and they leave it and they're like, I have no idea what the

hell happened. And that's not a good space. And so I feel like people like you and me as financial educators, we really do have an important service is providing that information. And that, I mean, being basically financial translators, that is really lacking. And like you said, too, there is, you know, like honestly, yeah, the financial industry is very male, very pale. And that can be very intimidating depending on who you are.

Even as a woman, I still find that kind of a big obstacle. So why was that like, okay, I want to speak to people who look like me, who've maybe had the same life experience because I want to try to kind of level the playing field because there should be more access, there should be ways for all of us to build wealth and just improve our finances. So what was the trigger for me? I built up the courage after working in the finance industry and I'm surrounded around all of this information and I still wasn't getting it.

I still didn't understand, even when I guess it was supposed to be made plain to me, I just still wasn't getting it. And I remember building up the courage to go seek out like one-on-one help. And so I sat down and it was with a man, a white man. I remember I sat down with him, I brought all of my documents and I'm feeling good. I'm thinking I'm doing the right thing.

Yes, and so he's like combing through my documents and he just started getting on me about the amount of money I was spending on food. And he's just like, oh, this is why you're not able to stick to your budget. You don't have any savings. You're not investing. Look how much money you're spending on food. And he just got there and he stayed there.

And he never once asked me like, why are you spending that much money on food? Because I would have the opportunity to tell him at the time I did not have a car, the area that I lived in was considered a food desert. There was not any grocery stores that were near me. So I was having to buy food from places like Walgreens or the corner store, which in most cases is going to be marked up super high. So all that he was seeing was just numbers and he was just looking at me as a number and thinking everyone's story is the same.

He didn't dig into me as a person, me as a mom, me as a black woman, the community that I lived in. And I started to just sit back and I'm like, I know this is happening across the board because it happened to me when I was 19. I'm hearing these things and I'm hearing people talk about it in a way that is expected that I should know those things, but that was not my reality. So when I actually went in to sit with someone one-on-one and I experienced that again, I just knew that it was happening across the board.

So I wanted to take on what I felt like was a challenge. I want to take on what I felt like was a challenge. I'm like, I want to make this relatable. I want to talk about it in a way that someone that looks like me, that grew up where I grew up, they can understand it and digest it and actually use it. And just simplifying things, I saw how not only I was able to use some of the advice, a lot of people that were in my Facebook group, they were able to do the exact same thing just by making it simple and plain so that everyday people could understand it. I had assumed too, just hearing that story, and again, that's such a familiar story I've heard over and over from people, is that that advisor also used a lot of shame blame kind

of tactics, which is not helpful. And you obviously want to not just educate and simplify, but also come from a place of like empathy and understanding. And like you said, asking those important questions, well, why instead of not asking any questions and just making assumptions, which is in my opinion, a bad advisor, that's not what they should be doing. So, why did you wanna really make sure

that you not only was that safe place that people could come to to better understand what the heck the financial people are actually trying to say, but you also want to make sure that you, you know, came from a place of like, I'm going to take care of you, I'm going to walk you through it and be just a relatable, you know, safe person to come to. Hence why it makes sense why you've grown such a huge audience because of the tone that you use. Yes.

I wanted people that joined the group because at the time that's all that I had was the Facebook group. I wanted people to feel safe, to feel seen, heard, validated, all of those things that I think makes a huge difference when you are really trying to get your money under control. It's a really humbling experience when you have to sit down and go through all of your financial documents and you have to face the music that a lot of the financial hardships that you maybe have endured, some of them were out of your control and then some of them you caused yourself.

You have to be in a safe space when you have to face that reality, especially when you're someone who thinks that you've been doing everything right. You're working, you're trying to pay bills, you're hustling day in and day out, then only to find out there was some things you could have did better, or there were some things that you just flat out did wrong.

You need to be in a safe space when you have to confront that reality and confront yourself about that as well. So I wanted the group to be positioned as a safe space. We're here for each other. We can help each other. And to me that made such a huge difference to have people show up and say,

hey, I maxed out my credit cards and not be shamed about it and getting help that they needed to say, hey, I'm struggling making it from paycheck to paycheck every week I'm short $20. So being a space where we can say, hey, I'm struggling, making it from paycheck to paycheck every week, I'm short $20. To be in a space where we can say, hey, maybe do this, maybe do this, try this. Oh, I tried this and it worked for me. And just being met with community, that's really what I wanted was people to be in community with other people that were on the same journey as them.

Yeah, that they can be uplifted and encouraged instead of berated for their mistakes because that's not helpful. The mistake is made, can't undo it. What we need is, like you said, community is such an important thing. That's ultimately what really drew me into personal finance is I didn't want to do this alone and I wanted to know, is anyone else dealing with this? Is it just me? And that's the biggest motivator is to feel like, oh, you're part of something and we're

all just doing the same thing. We're all struggling in one way or another. And so we need to encourage, and no one's perfect. Even that advisor, you wouldn't believe some of the stories I've heard from people who work in the industry, whether it was actually going on with their finances. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yes.

I can 100% relate because when I moved on from their finance industry, I went into banking and I worked in mortgage banking in the default department. So I spoke with a lot of people who were defaulting on their mortgages and they gave me scripts to say, so I'm just like following scripts. I don't internally know this stuff. None of this is like tried, tested and true for me. I was trained to say these things. So I'm trying to be as helpful as possible all while clocking out and having to take

the bus home because I can't afford to get a car. But I'm having to sit down and help someone work out being behind on a mortgage. That was the reality. So trying to help while also going through things. So that was my first peek that a lot of times advisors, people that work in the finance industry, they're just doing what they are required to do by their employer. That doesn't mean that they are immune for their own personal finance struggles because I saw it firsthand. Yeah. And also too, there's likely not that much flexibility.

Like you said, you had to use a script. I'm sure a lot of them are told like, please just stick to the scripts, just say this. And so you being kind of independent of that, you had a lot more flexibility and freedom to talk about things in a different way, which I think is so important. So I know things all started in 2017, which is eight years ago. Like, you know, like that's crazy. Now you have a book, which is, I mean, incredible. It's called Moving Beyond Broke. What inspired the title and what were you when you were kind of formulating the idea for this book? What was the real thing

that you wanted to get across? If you can kind of sum up, this was the message of one person can take something away from this book, this is it. With the book, one of my main goals was humanizing the personal finance journey. I think that sometimes when people are starting on their personal finance journey, it's a bunch of steps and rules and do this, don't do that. With the book, to me it reads like part memoir, part guide, because I get to share my story. I get to walk people through my experience with money starting at the age of 12 years old. So I wanted to humanize the experience. I messed

up a lot. Even when I thought that I knew a lot, I was still messing up. Life still happened and still derailed my finances in a way that I had no control over, but that didn't have to be where I stayed. So when I think about moving beyond broke, I wanted broke to be considered a starting point. There's so much stigma, even being in the finance industry, me and you see it, there's so much stigma around starting small, being broke. It's like the conversations people, they don't want to have those conversations. It's like we all want to be rich, we all want to have you know 100k, we all want to be millionaires, six figures, and those are the good conversations. That's where we want to have, you know, 100K. We all want to be millionaires, six figures. And those are the good conversations.

Be excited in conversation. That's where we want to get to. Yes. But the reality of it is a lot of us are starting at broke. And I believe those conversations are just important. And I wanted the book to be positioned to say like, we're here. People that are broke, that are starting from the bottom, that are facing all of these barriers deserve to be front and center in personal finance conversations just like the millionaire

expert who we always see all the time. I think those conversations were just important. Seems kind of obvious, but yeah, we all start from somewhere. Some people do start on third base though. Sometimes those are the stories that people are attracted to because we all just want to get there as soon as possible. But I mean, you know this, I know this too. Starting from kind of having $1,000 in my bank and that was all the money I had in my 20s and had to move out on my own and figure out how to pay everything.

So you start somewhere and you got to start small and it's's not gonna be easy and it's not gonna be quick. It's not gonna be fast. I think that's one thing that I always tell people is like, you've gotta be patient. That's one of the best things that you can do. So I would love to, you have so many great chapters in your book that really outline specific things. We're gonna go through this, we're gonna go through this. We're going to go through this.

So it has such a great blueprint for people to really use. I love some of the chapters that are a little bit different that I don't know. I've interviewed a lot of people on the show and I love that you have a specific chapter on parenting and also marriage and divorce. Those topics are so important, but are usually not in personal finance books. I want to come start with the parenting. You mentioned you're a parent. Why did you really want to make sure that you spoke to other parents? And what was some of the advice that you wanted to make sure got across?

Yes. When I think of parenting and money, I agree. I think it's a conversation that does not always, it's not always front and center when it comes to personal finance But it's so important because it can completely change your perspective about money I became a mom when I was 19 years old and it changed everything for me I now have to consider the livelihood of another person I always joke and I say if I didn't have a child I probably would have still been with my mom couch surfing. I would have been real relaxed because I didn't have any like real responsibilities. It was just me and I

was still relatively young but having a child and now it made me think about the future in a way I never I never considered. It made me more conscious of how I spent you know my money. Sometimes you may be more likely to be a little frivolous with your spending, but now when you know that someone else is depending on you to eat, to have clothes, to do all of these things, it now makes you more conscious of how you handle your money. Me being a parent, I wanted to include that in the book, especially as a mom, because I'm a single mom, a divorced mom, the way that the planning around my money had to change when life really happened, I think that was

so important to talk about. Because that's another part of the financial experience, being a mom, is the unpaid labor. So it's like, even when I'm not working, I'm always doing something. So I wanted to really zone in on their conversation about how my perspective changed about money once I had children, why it was important for me to consider all of the things that I would endure as a mom, the unpaid labor, the roles of financial planning for the future, retirement, all of those things kind of changed for me and also including my children on the personal finance journey. I talk about that in the chapter because my boys are older. They are right now 12 and 16. So I have, yes, my boys

they are there. I didn't know what your age was. I thought you're 25. So I'll take that. I'll take that. Yeah, that's wild. They are 12 and 16. And so I have to have personal finance conversations with them in a way that involves them because they are older now. So a lot of it in the chapter, it was super important for me to talk about money that way because I wanted people to know like, it was okay to like change my mind about money. Like I had a lot of thoughts and ideas and plans about money prior to having children, and it was okay to shift it a little bit.

I think that's so important, especially the topic of being a single parent. You're working to provide for your children, but then you also have to do all the work outside of that. It's ultimately, obviously, harder when you're in a one-income household or you're doing the majority of everything yourself compared to if there's two parents. I think that's, honestly, I don't know if I've really come across that in a personal finance book, but a lot of people are in the exact same situation. I think that's so wonderful that you want to put that in your book so others just like you can feel seen and heard and you're actually talking about this.

I'm curious too, one struggle I do hear from parents is the, you know, how to balance taking care of me financially, but then also my kids. Because I think often as a, when you're in a parental role, you just want to do everything for your kids. I'll think often as a, when you're in a parental role, you just want to do everything for your kids. I'll take care of me later. And then, you know, you're in your forties, fifties, and you're like, I don't have anything saved up for my retirement because I put everything into my kids.

How do you find that balance of taking care of you and your kids? To me, I think the, I think the word that sticks out is find because sometimes you're not going to be able to find it. You're going to have to take it. So for me, it was so important that I didn't get stuck into trying to figure out what would be a good balance, trying to find out how can I do this?

I knew that I needed to prioritize me first and I had to accept that prioritizing me first does not mean putting my children on the back burner. It does not mean that I can't save or invest for them, but it meant that I need to make sure the person in the front, which would be me, was okay. Because if I crumbled or if I collapsed, if I didn't have my stuff together, then they would fall apart anyway. My children would fall apart anyway. So it became very important for me to just take charge of that.

So I didn't spend a lot of time trying to find the good, be honest. I started small, even when I first started investing for myself, it was just a couple of dollars for me. Like I was testing the waters with $20 and maybe like $5 for my children. Don't seem like a lot, but I was building a habit. I was being comfortable with giving up some money each paycheck until I feel comfortable giving up some money each paycheck until I feel comfortable giving up more. But for me, it was just starting small, testing the waters and accepting that putting me first and prioritizing me when it came to my finances did not mean sitting my boys on the back burner. And it was very similar to if anyone's been

on an airplane, you know, they tell you like, oh, put your mask on first, then take care of your children. It's the exact same analogy. Yeah, exactly. And also too, especially I see a lot of older people in their 50s and 60s and they put everything into their kids. They forfeited saving for retirement so they can fund their kids' college funds. And now you're in a different situation.

It's harder to, what if you get laid off from work and then you can't find work for a little bit, you know, your kids probably can't afford to support your retirement. We're not really in that situation. So yeah, I completely agree. You need to take care of yourself so you can better take care of your family. So kind of talking a little bit about the chapter I love,

love don't cost a thing, marriage and divorce. You know, that's obviously, a thing, marriage and divorce. That's obviously, marriage is one thing and trying to figure out how do we manage our finances as a married couple, but then divorce is still, I think the rate is still 50%, most people get divorced. And so, how can that really impact your life? You had that life experience, how were you able to navigate that big life change

that really, I think, you know, I see this especially in my age range too, seeing a lot more divorce, that you have to change all of your plans because your plans are not gonna be the same. You're not gonna be retiring with your partner. You're not gonna be able to split whatever your savings is. Now you're on your own.

So how do people, if they're in that kind of situation, how do they navigate this big life change with their finances and make sure that they're gonna be okay? Yeah, I think that talking about marriage, divorce, and money is so important in relationships. And one of the questions that I get a lot is, how soon should you start talking about money when you're dating?

I'm a person, money exists from the very beginning, from the time you decide to go on a date, money exists. Who's gonna pick up the check? Where are we gonna go? If we're even going to be able to go, do I need childcare? All of these things that starts coming in, money exists in the center of it. And so I'm a person who believes those conversations

should start happening as soon as possible. And I think there's so much taboo around marriage and money, but especially around divorce. That's the topic no one wants to have. They want to believe everyone gets married, is going to stay married, is going to be good. And we just know that that's not the case. And so not having those conversations, we end up having a lot of women that unfortunately end up how I ended up my financial life, it derailed overnight. I went from being married in September, initiating a divorce in January,

right in the middle of getting a brand new job. And so I went from a two income household, let's say on a Monday and my Tuesday morning, it was just me. It was just me by myself. And so I felt it was so important to talk about that in the book because the great area with divorce is you're now at the mercy of someone else's feelings. And so we would like to think that in divorce that is like, oh, we're getting a divorce. The judge decides on what's going to happen tomorrow.

That doesn't happen. So it's like, for me, it was like 18 months. For other people, it could be years. You're in this gray area where there's nothing court ordered, but life is still happening. So I wanted to talk about that so that people understood what it looks like on the other side of marriage when you're in that courtroom. Why it's so important to have those conversations

because for me, we avoided money conversations altogether. Never talked about it until I was forced to talk about it in the courtroom. And I didn't want that to be someone else's reality. So going back to the beginning with the book, I wanted to humanize the personal finance journey. It's not always get a job, start investing, live below your means. Don't use credit cards.

Everything is going to be good. You're going to retire six figures. That's just not the reality. That is not the, it is just not, it just doesn't happen like that. So I wanted to humanize the personal finance experience so that people could see all of the ups and downs. I got married, which is what they tell you to do. Get married, have a husband, have children, two incomes. I did all of those things,

and then it still ended up in divorce. Life happens. So I wanted to talk about that because I just wanted to humanize it as nothing wrong. This is what you should do. If this comes up, this is what you can do. And it's not the end of everything. Because I do talk to a lot of women that are in my online community.

And when divorce is coming up or when marriage is coming up, they are really confused and sometimes scared about how to have those conversations, how to initiate those conversations, how to protect themselves financially, because a lot of the information is not there. So I wanted people who read the book to be comfortable with just knowing if you never need the divorce chapter, then good, but at least you have it if it ever comes up, at least you know what to do if it ever comes up. So what's your take on prenups? Do you think maybe they're a good idea or it depends? Oh yes. I am 100% pro prenup. I am 100% women initiating conversations about prenup. And I say that because growing up, and I talk about this in a book, growing up, I never

saw a TV show. I never read a book. I never saw a movie where a woman initiated a conversation about a prenup. It was always the man with all the money, positioning the printup to say, if you don't sign it, you're a gold digger. And that was it. That was the basis in my introduction to printups. It wasn't until I was like in my twenties that I even knew that women could ask for printups because my only experiences with it was what I saw on TV and read in books. So I didn't even know that it was a thing. I thought it was what I saw on TV and read in books.

I didn't even know that it was a thing. I thought it was like, you know, a man thing. So that right there tells you the stigmas that exist around prenups. I am in support of prenups because I think that is one of the for sure ways when you are in love, everything is good. We both in our right state of mind, we sit down and we want to say, even at the worst moment, I still want to make sure that you were financially protected. So even if worse comes to worse and we get divorced and it's over and maybe we don't even like each other. But right now in our healthy, lovey state of mind, let's make this decision to say that

even with the worst of it, I don't want to cheat you out of your finances and I hope you feel the same way about me. That's what to me a prenup is. And I also say that regardless if people agree with prenups, believe in prenups or not, the state has marriage laws. So either you're going to decide or you're going to let the state decide. And I know we can all agree we don't want the state really deciding too much of our business. So it's going to come down to it, someone making a decision about you financially, some way, somehow, it might as well be you

with a prenup. Absolutely, yeah. And the same is here in Canada. There's provincial laws and it's important to understand them, but yeah, it's also great to just have your own document, especially too, I'd say for women, especially if you want to have children and take some time off. And so you're not working traditionally, making your own money, but you are really important. There should be some mechanism to ensure that you do if there is a

divorce and you were out of work for 10 years, taking care of the kids, that you get compensated for that as you should be. Because typically if you were going to continue with that marriage, you would be compensated in that they'll take care of you for retirement. There's other things, but I see too many women that do that. They get divorced and they're like, now I have to start a new career and I have no money and what's going on? So we need to swim and protect ourselves from whatever could happen. Yes, and I, that's something else that I,

that I definitely wanted to be sure that I talked about was that when you are married, you are more likely to take on caregiving roles and that can impact your education if you are someone who wants to go back to school when you are caring for children, maybe, you know, caring for the household, even caring for family members, that can impact your time in the workforce if you're able to scale your career,

go back to school. And so it's like at the end of that, you spend so much time in unpaid labor doing other things for other people. What happens for you when you are ready to retire? You have to still prioritize yourself even in marriage and especially in the event of divorce. So I really wanted to drive home that topic because I know that it is something that a lot of people like to park a lot, but I think it's so important when it comes to finances. Absolutely. Yeah. People are just too focused, I think, on like, well, I don't want to muddy the water and talk about these really negative things when we're all lovey-dovey and in marriage. But I mean, I've been married for, I don't know, like now water and talk about these, you know, really negative things when we're all lovey-dovey and in marriage. But I mean,

I've been married for, I don't know, like now it's getting to the point where I can't remember how long it's been, maybe 12 or 13 years. I don't know. But, um, the longer we've been married, the more obvious it is how this is a love relationship, but this is also a business, you know, right? Money is, we have to make decisions about money all the time as a partnership. And so you need to be on the same page and you need to, yeah, just understand what's going on. And for me,

I've always been a woman that I'm like, I want to make sure that I take care of myself. So if this marriage, you know, doesn't work out, I'm going to be okay because I don't want to ever depend on someone else, especially man. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Thank you. Um, there's also in your final chapter, which I love, and this is, I feel like also a topic that's finally getting more attention, which is the topic of generational wealth, which again, I think is so important for especially women and people of

color, because typically we have not been, we don't have any generational wealth. It just gets passed down from man to man, generation to generation. Why was that something that you really want to also make sure we need to talk about this? Because this is, you know, I think lots of us can look at our family history and our ancestors and realize, oh yeah, there's no wealth being passed down. I want to do better for myself and for my kids or my relatives.

So tell me a little bit about what you really want to get across in that chapter. That honestly is my favorite chapter. I love the entire book, but that chapter is my favorite chapter. We all have favorites. Yes. That chapter is my favorite chapter because I have such what I believe to be an interesting perspective when it comes to generational wealth. All the conversations that when I

was first introduced to the term, it was centered around real estate, it was centered around investment accounts. So 401k is retirement. And that was the only way that I was introduced to how you build generational wealth and how you pass it down. So it always got me thinking, so what about the people who don't have access to those things, who may live their entire lives and they may never own a piece of property, they may never be able to, you know, max out a 401k and retire with millions of dollars. How do they still practice generational wealth in their families?

And it made me start looking at generational wealth really differently and in ways beyond finances to where you may not be able to pass down multiple properties and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the next generation in your family. But there are still skills that you can teach them wealth building skills, money earning skills. There are still important conversations that you can initiate. There are things that you can do that may cost you just a little bit of money. Well, you may not be able to get a property, but maybe you can cover child care or watch someone's baby in your family while they go to school. So now they're able to go to school and get a degree. So now they're able to make more money and you just help them save money simply because you're watching their baby. Or you may have a younger cousin that is trying to get a job, you know,

to get their get into the workforce. And instead of them having to spend all of their money on Ubers and lifts and public transportation, you're able to give them a ride to and from work. And the most common ways that does not seem like generational wealth, but it plays a part in it in the building process. So I think that when we have the conversation around generational wealth, I like to focus on the building part of generational wealth. And to me, building can look like so many different things. So I love that chapter so much because it shines light on how everyone can participate in building generational wealth. I talked about helping my sister with resumes. So I have a little brother, he went to college,

he has a degree in communications. So when I first started The Broke Black Girl, he would always like read over things, you know, for me, help me like best position my messaging. Now granted, that's his degree and he went to, you know, college for that, but I get to, you know, reap the benefits of it, which helped me with The Broke Black Girl.

So it's like all of those building stones that you can help out with when it comes to generational wealth that may not look like the traditional ways, but it still is the way that helps us propel and move forward. So I love that chapter so much because I wanted people, no matter the income, no matter the walk of life, to just consider what we have, whether it's a privilege or access or resource, it may not be money in the bank. It may not be a property. It may not be a high income driven business

that you can pass down, but there are still something that you can do to pass down to make it a little bit easier for the next generation that's coming up. Yeah, I mean, yeah, like we kind of touched on already, it's really about lifting each other up and especially within our own families, instead of us trying to have this mentality, which is very prevalent in North America, which is like every man for themselves or no, I had to go through this situation to get where I am. So you deserve to go through

the same experience instead of us trying to figure out a way that no one has to have that tough experience, you know, going up the corporate ladder or whatever the case is. We need to lift ourselves up. But yeah, especially within our families. And I assume a big part of that is having those early conversations, especially with your children or your nieces, nephews about personal finance. Because yeah, just like you, I didn't know anything about money and I had to educate myself in my 20s and I would love for us to all be in a place and hopefully we will in the future

where you know, this is getting taught actually in schools but also yeah, this we aren't going to be in our 20s, 30s, 40s being like what is an investment portfolio? It's like we should know these things and one thing you can do if you have that knowledge is to share it, which I know you're doing to your kids and to everybody else, which is great. No, I completely agree. And I think just initiating the conversations, you don't have to know everything. You don't have to know all of the terms and the jargon because even this, we'll just use investing for an example. If someone just would have told me, put a little money to the side, it's going to grow interest and turn into more money.

I want to figure it investing out years, you know, years ago, if you just would have said it, you know, like that. So it's like just having the conversations and being in spaces where it's OK to show up as you are, to show up as a beginner, to show up broke, because that doesn't have to be where you stay. And I feel like just having those conversations and being in those spaces just makes a huge difference to anyone that's on a personal finance journey. And yeah, like we also touched on it's, it's yeah, not about where you start.

We all start from somewhere and a lot of us are starting from zero, but it's where you end up. And part of that journey is really, you know, continuing to educate yourself, be patient with yourself and believing in yourself. I think that's the other kind of component that you really bring to the table is really encouraging people to believe in their abilities. If you don't know something, you can learn it. If you don't have a skill, you can acquire it. And then, you know, over time, I mean, I'm sure you're in a much better position financially than you were in 2017.

Now it's been eight years, which is pretty exciting to also to see, but then also to share with people like, look at what can happen if you just stick with it. Yes. I think that is one of the main things that I wanted people to, that I want people to take from the book. That's why the power of perseverance and personal finance, I think that is something that just gets glossed over so much. Like keep pushing forward. Don't give up, which is why I wanted to write the book in a way that shared my story so that

people can see that even when things started to get good for me and I thought that I was finally making it and then something happened and I had to get pushed back. I didn't give up. So to just see what can happen when you continue to push through, when you are resilient, when you are determined, there is so much more for you on the other side. So to say, okay, broke was my starting point, but that's not where I had to stay. I want so many more people to experience that feeling. Yeah. And I know that's exactly what you're going to continue to do, especially with this really thoughtful and well-written book, Moving Beyond Broke. Dasha, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It was a pleasure. I can't wait for people to get their hands on your book.

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. Before I let you go, of course, where should people, you know, if they want to find out where you're at online or grab a copy of the book, where can they find you? Yeah. So you can grab a copy of the book at my website, www.thebrokeblackgirl.com, as well as anywhere on my social media pages, The Broke Black Girl across all platforms. I mean, it's easy. Yes.

Whereas I'm like different on everything and I apologize all the time. Like, I'm sorry, there's an I sometimes in there, sometimes there's not. Well, thank you so much, Daisha. I am so excited for you and best of luck on your book release. Thank you so much. And that was my episode with Daisha Kennedy. Make sure to grab a copy of her new book, Moving Beyond Broke the Power of Perseverance and Personal Finance.

I will also, as always, be giving away a copy of her book as well. So if you'd like to enter to win, all you have to do is visit jessicamorehouse.com slash contest where you'll find her book and a number of other books that are featured on this season of the show that you can enter to win. And then I will, you know, pick a winner at the end of this season. So JessicaMoorhouse.com slash contest is where I can find all that information and also make sure to follow Daisha on social media and you can find her everywhere at TheBrokeBlackGirl. Well that's it for me.

Thank you so much for listening and again if you don't know this is also on my YouTube channel so you can actually watch all of my podcast interviews with my guests so you can see what they look like and just get a little more spice into it because you see us instead of just listening. But if you like to listen, keep on listening. I also love that you listen to this podcast, so thank you so much for that. And also in case you don't know, maybe you're brand new to this podcast, I also have a book out. It's called Everything But Money, The Hidden Barriers Between You and Financial Freedom. It is also out now. So grab a copy anywhere books are sold or you can learn more at jessicamorehouse.com slash book.

Well, that's it for me. Thank you so much and I will see you in my next episode. A more money podcast would not be possible without the amazing talents of video editor Justice Carrar and podcast producer Matt Rideout, who you can find at mravcanada.com.