The Biggest Money Mistakes w/Financial Coach & Author, Kembala Evans

Ready to reframe your financial picture? Let’s take a good look at your relationship with money. Hopefully, there are many things working well, but there may be mistakes you’re making that you weren’t even aware of. Our guest, financial guru, Kembala Evans wants to help you find ways to make your money work for you instead of against you. Words like budgets, savings, credit scores  and emergency funds can give you hope instead of fear. You just need a proper introduction to what they can mean for you and your personal and financial freedom and an understanding of how to easily implement them into your lifestyle. 

At Imagine Yourself, we typically focus on mental and spiritual health, but because our state of mind and our relationships can be so impacted by money matters, we wanted to dive into this topic. It seems especially relevant given our recent economic issues related to the pandemic.  Financial Coach, author, and speaker Kembala Evans is our expert guest, and she has the receipts! She’s written two books: Get Your Money Right and Drop the Debt Weight.  

In this episode, you’ll get tips on spending, saving, improving your credit score and reducing debt that you can truly work into your lifestyle. There are many things you can do that you may have never even thought about before.  This is everyday money management anyone can practice. 

We talk about how to get smarter and more confident about what you’re doing with your money and finding areas where you can make your money grow. We also talk about how money can affect your relationships and how to talk about it with your partner and children or grandchildren if you have them. 

 If you’re ready to start evaluating your habits and beliefs, and look at what’s working and what isn’t, press play. It could be the first step to real financial peace of mind.

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Transcript

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:02]:

Welcome to Imagine Yourself, where we help you imagine your next chapter of life with grace, gratitude, courage, and faith.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:10]:

Hello, Imagine Yourself family. We are here today to talk about money. If you never got the opportunity To truly understand the fundamentals of how to make the most of your money, then lean in as we talk real talk. I don't ever want to hear another fast cash call 1-800. You know it's a scam, which is we're not going that direction today. Sandy and I want To hear about real results with a real money expert, Kembala Evans. She is a financial coach with 20 plus years of experience, the author of the book, Get Your Money Right, and her latest book, Drop the Debt Weight. And I believe that her saying, no one will ever care more about your money than you, is right on target.

Lanée Blaise [00:01:01]:

So, Kembala, we want to welcome you to Imagine Yourself. Thank you for helping us with money.

Kembala Evans [00:01:06]:

Thank you so much for having me today, Lanee and Sandy, it's just a pleasure to be here with you and your imagine yourself audience. When I think of the word imagine, I I can't help but say this. I hope it's okay. When you're talking about imagination and you're talking about imagine, it always draws me to what Albert Einstein said in terms of imagination is everything. It's the preview to life's coming attractions. So just your format in terms of no matter where you are right now in your life, you can Have that life that you're desiring or achieve those goals that you have for yourself. You just have to use that mental capacity And learn from others what works so you can put that into action in your own life.

Kembala Evans [00:01:49]:

So that's very powerful, and I'm just so honored to be here today with you ladies.

Sandy Kovach  [00:01:54]:

Well, we're honored to have you, Kembala. And it is something that, that we're trying to help people imagine themselves in a better financial position. But what is it you think that makes it so hard for people to even be honest with themselves about money, and why is it so weighty and hard for people to talk about?

Kembala Evans [00:02:13]:

Well, you're absolutely right, Sandy, that money is a Topic that can be very challenging for people to talk about. Some people view it as a subject that's actually taboo. I feel that when it Comes to money. A lot of how we learn about money and the habits that we form around money come from our household. So how was our environment when it came to money? Were our parents open and teaching us and talking about money and talking about the Struggles as well as the things that went well, or was it something that no one really talked about? Is it something that brings shame where we don't wanna talk about it? Is it a pain point in our lives that makes us shun from it or wanna bury our head in the sand? So I think there's a lot of factors that Cause us to treat that topic like that.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:02]:

Is it possible that we can kind of change in a generational way? I mean, it feels almost like this is a therapy session in a way as far as changing the course of the way that we pass these things on to our children or even if it wasn't Passed on to us in a positive way, how can we start to get used to the idea of taking money matters into our own hands, Educating ourselves, realizing we don't need to have a PhD in money, you know, but we can use The resources of something as simple as this podcast to use tips to incorporate, to start us off on the right thinking and the right Doing right away.

Kembala Evans [00:03:38]:

It's interesting, Lanee that you used the word therapy session because money is more than just 1 plus 1 equals 2. Right? A lot of when it comes to money management and achieving your financial goals, etcetera, is driven by the fact that we are creatures of habit. And it's Really about behavior. When it comes to some people, say they're in a tough stressful situation, they may turn to the food To calm those emotions or calm those nerves. For other people, they tend to spin. They just go on a shopping spree and buy all of this stuff, Or they might feel that certain items or possessions help give them self worth. And because of that, They are extending themselves beyond their means.

Kembala Evans [00:04:32]:

So there's a variety of factors that plays into how we handle money personally. When you talk about generational, I totally agree with you wholeheartedly that generationally, we can shift it. So even if you grew up and you didn't have a lot, all it takes is to really build that knowledge so you can do things differently. Or in some cases, We could see because our parents did struggle what not to do.

Sandy Kovach  [00:05:00]:

And people are more curious about it these days. I don't know if it's because of social media, or our education system might be doing a little better. Although, I I still think some of the math that we learn could be replaced by something more like budgeting and things like that that we could learn in school. Let's jump into a few tips. Hopefully, you know, somebody can benefit from this and pass it along to people they know as well.

Kembala Evans [00:05:25]:

Yeah. So, Sandy, something you just talked about is math. So numeracy is very important when it comes to money management. And, the schools some schools across America are incorporating personal finance as an actual Requirement to graduate, but there's not many states that are doing that. So we should see that shift, hopefully, as more states understand the importance of, driving financial literacy, so that Americans can become better consumers, happier. Because when you have that money stress, it's been tied to health situations, and it impacts you in so many different areas of your life. So when I talk about tips, you know, that's so broad. So I wanna kinda talk about this in different angles.

Kembala Evans [00:06:15]:

When I wrote my 1st book, Get Your Money Right, What I wanted to do there is I I've been a financial coach as Lenay mentioned, and I can only meet with so many people. So what I said is if I could take some things that are the core principles of money management and Pass that on to someone that would make meaningful change in their lives, what would that be? And that's what became the 7 keys to unlocking a better financial future. So some of your guests have actually touched on some of the things when it comes to money. Like, 1 guest was talking about the importance of having a mindset. So when it comes to personal finance, I think the most important thing is to get your mind right. Because sometimes we limit ourselves Through what we're saying, through our thoughts, and, of course, our actions follow that. When we think about even today, you know, how we started our day, I'm sure you have in mind. Okay.

Kembala Evans [00:07:11]:

I'm gonna wear this. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. And then all your actions follow that sequence. So that's where your mind is so powerful when it comes to personal finance. If you are saying to yourself, I can never save something, Well, you're not gonna save it because you're gonna find every other use for that money but saving. So so what I'm gonna say For those people that are struggling saving, because I've worked with people that told me they can't save anything. I think what we wanna first start with is standing the money that you have right now.

Kembala Evans [00:07:45]:

So when I say understanding the money that you have right now, I'm saying look at your income. How much are you bringing in every month? And then let's take a step back. Let's go old school like Lanee likes to do. Right? Pen and paper. Right? Pen and paper. Okay. How much are you bringing home every month? Now what do you have to pay every month? What are those necessities? What are those utilities? The electric bill, cable, cell phone, etcetera. List out what those are and how much you spend on that.

Kembala Evans [00:08:15]:

And then once you do that, you also wanna look at what are your savings goals. Say, an emergency savings account. You know, when I think about COVID and the impact of the pandemic, there were so many people that didn't even have $400 saved For an emergency. And when it came to the job situation and the jobs that were hurt the most, those people were really in a tough situation because in many cases, they were interacting with people in their jobs and those businesses shut down. So having an emergency savings is very important. So when we talk about savings goals and we talk about emergency savings, that's gonna be at least 6 months Of all of those needs that we just talked about. So if you have rent, you have utilities, insurance, etcetera. Do you have in your savings account liquid? Meaning that you can go get it right now.

Kembala Evans [00:09:09]:

I'm not talking about your 401K.

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:11]:

Yeah. That's for retirement. You don't wanna get that.

Kembala Evans [00:09:13]:

No. I'm not talking about that in terms of saving. I'm talking about a savings account that you can go to, say, if the tire blows on the way to work and you need to Replace the tire. Say the fridge goes out and you need to do something about refrigerator. Do you have that money accessible?

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:29]:

Do we, as a culture, rely so much on credit that we're not even thinking about stuff like that. Is do you think that feeds into it? Because there's so many ways kind of Lanee was doing that thing at the beginning of the podcast, you know, call 1-800 easy credit, you know, and all this. Is it just were those people now that were so is that why we're not thinking emergency savings?

Kembala Evans [00:09:48]:

I think sometimes credit can make you feel numb to the amount of money that you have. The first thing that I do when I'm talking and working with people is I understand how did you learn about money, And then we go through that exercise that I was just talking about, looking at your income and looking at your expenses. And then Through that lens, we can see if credit is the problem. If I'm just paying that money minimum payment, it's been very eye opening. So many people, like, Do their gas. They do their groceries. All of this on a credit card, but then they're gonna do the minimum payment on that credit card. So to your point, It's an excellent point.

Kembala Evans [00:10:30]:

Credit can, if you allow it, cause you not to see the problem. And that's why I want you to Remember? I'm not saying credit. I said your income. So I need you to look at what you were bringing in and what you were spending. So let's look at that. And is that negative or is that positive where you have something left over? And let's be honest with ourself. You said something earlier about honesty. We have to be willing to see the problem in order to fix the problem.

Kembala Evans [00:11:02]:

A lot of that is

Lanée Blaise [00:11:03]:

the problem as well. People tend to want to bury their heads in the sand and think that they will either win the lotto One magical day or that they will one day just get some influx of money that will make things change. And I wonder how many people are really even willing to do that 1st paper and pen exercise to really get it all down because it's not, In my opinion, that part of the exercise is not intimidating. I like basic. Again, I don't expect anyone but You, Kembala, to have, you know, the actual expertise level. So I just think that, what about those people who Kinda like Sandy said, wanna continue to do the credit card thing and wanna continue to think they'll just win the lotto as opposed to making some shifts, and changes in their habits.

Kembala Evans [00:11:59]:

They have to be willing to make the decision that they wanna change. Sometimes it may be I wanna be a homeowner. There is different goals that we may have that our current habits are, putting us in a bad position for realizing those big ticket, you know, financial where where they're really gonna look at your credit report and stuff like that and how you're living. And I think that that can be a wake up call. I think what makes this very interesting is when people are in relationships. Because, some of the people that I work with, you know, they might have a secret credit card that they're running up and their husband knows nothing about it. These are different things, but it weighs on them personally. And so how can you change that behavior? But I think that the first thing you need to do in order to fix any problem is be willing to ask for help.

Kembala Evans [00:12:55]:

So you have to see that there is an issue and that you have to be willing to ask for help. I do wanna talk a little bit about the lottery because When I was at this conference and I had the pleasure of hearing from Dick Gregory, where he was talking about in the city of Chicago, when they look at who's playing the lottery the most, it's the poorest zip codes that are playing the lottery the most because we're we're putting all of that Hope in that dream on that windfall. What's very interesting of people that do win the lottery is a lot of them end up broke anyway. Because what's very important is that you have that fundamental skill in how to manage your money. So I really feel That in order to drive change, we have to be willing to look at everything the way it is. And instead of taking that money to play the lottery, Why don't we start funding that emergency savings account? And what I find very, you know, insightful is when people bill that first $1,000, It the sky's the limit. Then they feel like, oh my gosh. I've done so much.

Kembala Evans [00:14:02]:

I've heard stories also where people, say they had a smoking. They were always smoking. And they said, oh my gosh. I never thought about how much money I'm spending on cigarettes. Never mind the fact that this is bad for my health, in which Your health is your wealth too. They started taking all the money that they were using for cigarettes every week and they started stashing it Away. And they were just amazed at how much money they had when they felt that they had no money. So instead of I I wanna challenge your listeners, those that are Loyal lottery players to just not play the lottery this week and take all that money that you're spending on lottery tickets.

Kembala Evans [00:14:41]:

You know how many times you look at that lottery ticket and you're like, dang. I have not even one number. This is crazy. These are dollars. These are real dollars. So take that money that you are spending on the lottery ticket and start to build your savings account.

Sandy Kovach  [00:14:54]:

I love that. That's awesome. Now personally, I'm not a lottery player, but I a lot of people that I know, friends and family are. And that could go for anyone. So let me ask you, especially as somebody who's written this book, drop the debt weight. And we I wanna talk a little bit more about that. We touched on debt. So we've got the emergency fund, and we've got paying down the debt.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:15]:

Are these done in parallel ways? Or do you think the emergency fund is something that you wanna get people started on first?

Kembala Evans [00:15:24]:

I feel that it's very important to have that security, so you want to have a total approach to doing both. So if I'm a person that has credit card debt, which that's another thing in terms of this COVID pandemic, A lot of people have run up their credit cards. So when you look at your credit card statement, there is a little graphic there That tells you if you continue to pay this minimum payment, how much time it's gonna take you to pay off this Debt. So what I want you to do is just look at that one time. Then I want you to look at that going back to Getting all your income, getting what your necessities are. And if I've been paying a $30 may minimum payment, let's Try to drive that up to $50. You know? Look at your budget and see is there a way that I can do that while building this emergency savings account because It's very important to have money set aside for emergencies because that's another way people get in debt. They get in debt because they don't have that savings account.

Kembala Evans [00:16:31]:

And debt can be quite costly because, say, someone misses a payment, that credit card can jump up to 30 something percent in interest, Which that adds to a lot of dollars later on.

Sandy Kovach  [00:16:43]:

Thirty something percent? Are you kidding me?

Kembala Evans [00:16:46]:

Yes. If you have a default interest rate, I have worked with some people that are looking at 30 something percent in interest. Wow. And that and that's another thing is that When Linae was talking about people bearing their head in the sand, I'm gonna say I'm a little older. I remember watching Fred Sanford When he used to get his bills, and this is from Sanford and Son, which is a sitcom, and he used to just put them in the drawer. He has not opened these bills. There are real people that we are in the 2000's that absolutely do that because they don't even wanna see it. And I try to stress to them the importance of checking that bill because the bill could be inaccurate.

Kembala Evans [00:17:24]:

And you can have all this debt and someone ran up your credit card bill and it wasn't even you. So let's be willing to open that and look at it. Another thing that I think is eye opening is when you have people look at their expenses, Sometimes I've had people that are paying for multiple Internet providers. They didn't know they were doing that. So there's some money here. Oh my gosh. I was paying for this, and I didn't even know it. People put everything on auto.

Kembala Evans [00:17:51]:

Some people are paying for gym memberships that they never use. So let's look at the finances. Let's look at let's look at your statement. What are you paying? That could be your emergency savings account if you just do some due diligence in looking at where is this money going.

Sandy Kovach  [00:18:05]:

And in this subscription economy, I have the Disney Channel and or or Disney plus and, Hulu and, you know, Spotify and Apple, and some people have, like, all of it. Do we really need 3 music subscriptions and 18 TV subscriptions?

Lanée Blaise [00:18:21]:

Mhmm. And even things like you said, take a really good look at it. Take a look at your credit card statement. They do tend to provide the 1-800 number there so that you can call because I did realize that I had this little penguin web account thing that I didn't notice it. Now my kids are now teenagers. They don't care about this little penguin. But it was 7.99 a month. And I don't know how I had I don't know if I overlooked it or if it popped back up again, but some way it was on there.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:51]:

Call that 1 800 number and get that 7.99 taken off There that's a recurring fee. Every little bit really does count. It does add up. It's not impossible to Change things in the other direction.

Kembala Evans [00:19:05]:

Excellent point. Another way we can save money is looking at your insurance. So many people just every time they're just renewing that insurance. Well, you could. I know there's a GEICO commercial saying you can see. Well, you really can. Right? So let's shop around insurance, to see if you're getting more competitive of an offer.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:25]:

With streaming services and with cable providers and satellite TV services, things like that, again, shop around and make them Give you what you deserve.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:37]:

I have kind of a weird question, and I was thinking about this as you were talking about credit scores. And I saw something on Facebook. You've heard of Dave Ramsey. Right? The big money guru.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:49]:

He doesn't believe in credit. And he went on to say that he doesn't even have a credit score. His credit score is 0, and that people shouldn't be so worried about their credit score. I was like, what? That can't be right. maybe he if you're a billionaire. he has, cash on hand for a mortgage. But doesn't the average person need a credit score? Why would he say that?

Kembala Evans [00:20:13]:

Dave Ramsey, you know, he has Quite a story in terms of his debt story. And as a result of his debt story, he's adopted certain practices. I don't agree with him on not Having a credit card, I believe a credit card is an excellent tool. But like Ayn Rand said, it will take you wherever you go, but it will not Replace you driver. So how you are managing that credit and if you manage it responsibly, you could Do really well. I've earned 1,000 of dollars in cash back from Discover card, paying my bill and bill at you know, full every month. So you can maximize that if you're able to manage it. Some people look at credit as free money.

Kembala Evans [00:20:54]:

And if you treat it as free money with no plan of Paying it off, then you're in a debt trap. I wanna go to your point in terms of credit score. A credit score is very important. To your point, if you have millions of dollars in a bank and you wanna go buy this house that's 1,000,000 of dollars, then, no, you don't need any lender, right, because you have your money. So your credit is your bank account. If you're a normal person, your credit score really does impact you, and it can impact your life. Beyond just applying, Say for a mortgage. A mortgage, they're gonna look at your creditworthiness.

Kembala Evans [00:21:27]:

How often are you paying your bills? If you have a credit card, is it maxed out? This tells them a lot about whether or not you're gonna be a good customer for them. They're looking at also How much they're gonna charge you as a result of that credit score. So if you have a very low credit score, if you do get approved, you're gonna be paying High interest rates. And I've seen people on car loans paying over 20%, which I think is ridiculous. But, again, it goes back to your credit score. So another way your credit impacts you is in the insurance premiums. Insurance premiums, they actually look at your credit score Because, again, in the financial industry, they're always trying to minimize risk. And so if you are someone who is not, You know, managing your finances properly, it could negatively impact you in terms of your premiums.

Kembala Evans [00:22:16]:

Also, when you say you're moving somewhere new, if you have great credit, you don't have to have a deposit For this, you don't have to do this. So that saves you money. And, also, I will say that your credit impacts you, it could impact you in a relationship. I know someone that will not date someone that their credit scores are certain way because it tells them about stuff. I'm like, really? But, yes, it could impact your love life. So your credit score matters so many different ways.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:43]:

I also wanna add tag on to this too besides just the life aspect. I want people to understand it's not impossible to turn your credit score around either. I have family members Who set their mind upon a goal, and they had help this particular family member had help from their realtor. They were looking for a new home, but they weren't gonna qualify. And their realtor, who's a wonderful person, she passed the torch over to a trusted Financial lender to build up a few months program less than a year To get from point a to point b with that credit score. And it feels like it was a miracle or phenomenal, but it did turn it around from The 600 up to the mid 700, and that is a wonderful place to be, a wonderful goal to have, an attainable goal to have with some discipline, with some guidance, and with that goal in mind.

Kembala Evans [00:23:46]:

We are on the Imagine Yourself podcast. So let's say your credit score is 500. Let's imagine your credit score being 700. You know? Think about it. Yeah. It all starts with thinking, and Lanee brings up an excellent point. Just because it's that today doesn't mean it has to stay that way.

Kembala Evans [00:24:11]:

You can change it and achieve your goal, whatever it may be. I've worked with someone that had a credit score of 532. I remember it. Because they were trying to buy a house, and they said, there's no way I'm gonna get anything. And they were absolutely right. They would not give them anything. And so what we did was we got their free credit report where you go to annual credit report .com. You're entitled to a free credit report every year.

Kembala Evans [00:24:39]:

And because of COVID, they were even offering them weekly. So you wanna look at that. And sometimes There's errors in the credit report that could be negatively impacting your score. So let's look at that credit report and let's look at who's the companies that are reporting you. Are they reporting you in its accurate information or it's not? If it's not accurate information, the first thing you wanna do is you wanna contact that merchant, And then you wanna contact the credit reporting bureau so you can dispute what's on your credit report. So Lanee is absolutely right That just because your credit is one way oh, I do wanna say the person with 532 today, many years later, they are in the 800. Oh. Because you change your habits.

Kembala Evans [00:25:24]:

And I believe that one of these struggles that this person had is that they didn't know. Not doing certain things will negatively impact, your life. So the more you know, the more your money can grow And the more your credit can improve. And going back to the debt book for a second, one of the biggest factors in your credit report is you wanna pay your bills on time. That's very important to pay your bills on time. Another thing you want to do is you want to have a low credit utilization. And what I mean by that is, say, Sandy has a new credit card, and the credit card has a credit limit of $1,000. The best habit for Sandy will be to always pay off her credit card bill and not buy more than she can afford to pay off every month.

Kembala Evans [00:26:14]:

But if she does have to carry a balance, you wanna keep that credit utilization down to 30%, which means on that $1,000 balance, you don't wanna go above $300. Interesting. That that really impacts your credit. And, also, you know how you get in line at the store. And they're like, oh, you wanna save 10% On $24.99, no. Thank you. No. But, be careful about opening up new accounts.

Kembala Evans [00:26:39]:

You wanna limit that, Especially if you're in the market for a house. And also beware of you were talking about get rich quick scams earlier. Another thing is credit repair. Some companies that are just like, oh, I'm gonna just do all this for you. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. So when it comes to your credit, you can fix it yourself. All you need to do is understand it. I do participate on a credit chat Weekly on Wednesdays on Twitter.

Kembala Evans [00:27:07]:

Well, I'm not always there Wednesdays, but they have it every Wednesday. And you can glean a lot of different information. The more you know, the better you can do.

Sandy Kovach  [00:27:16]:

this is your area of expertise, especially with your new book, Drop the Debt Weight. So I know there's a lot more info there. How do we get our hands on that?

Kembala Evans [00:27:24]:

Drop the debt weight .com is my website, and you can purchase 1 there. You can even purchase the autograph copy, And you can go to other booksellers like Barnes and Noble, big Books A Million, Amazon .com, and you can find it there. And also, I'm gonna be offering your listeners right now a special package. This special package It's gonna be giving you get your money right with get your money right, talks about credit and how to improve your credit. It talks about ABCs of money And drop the debt weight, where if you have that debt and you wanna pay it down, whatever the debt is. Is it mortgages? Is it student loans? Is it Credit cards, whatever have you. Drop the debt weight. I'm gonna give you both of those for $22 on my website.

Kembala Evans [00:28:09]:

So, again, that website Is a drop the debt weight .com.

Sandy Kovach  [00:28:13]:

And we will link up to that on our website, imagine yourself podcast.com. For sure, That's a great deal because that's a life changer right there. I love it.

Kembala Evans [00:28:23]:

And and it makes a great gift if someone's constantly asking you for money.

Sandy Kovach  [00:28:29]:

to do passive aggressive gift.

Kembala Evans [00:28:32]:

You know what? Give them knowledge. They say, You know, knowledge pays the best interest. Right?

Lanée Blaise [00:28:38]:

You are on to something right there, Kembala. I know also you are on social Media and have your personal finances website as well.

Kembala Evans [00:28:47]:

I have a blog, which is gain money control.com. And then I have a personal website, which is kimballa.com. But the deal for the books is gonna be on drop the debt weight, and I'll link it on the other 2 as well. And hope. I think 22, both of those for $22 because I want in 22 for you to realize your financial goals, Whether or not that's building up that emergency savings account or whatever your goals are, I believe that you can achieve those. It's just about The more you know. And so these books are packed with different tips on how you can get rid of that debt, how you can improve your Credit score, how you can start building that savings, etcetera.

Sandy Kovach  [00:29:28]:

Yep. Definitely good deal. Definitely a great gift for the holiday season and beyond. Yes. Just before we wrap up and have Kembala, give us a a good word, I think whether we're talking about the holiday season, or whether we're talking about life in general, the economic times are gonna be up and down. We're gonna have inflation. We're gonna have high interest rates. We're gonna have low interest rates.

Sandy Kovach  [00:29:49]:

We're gonna have this and that. Just stay aware of the conditions, whether it's gonna benefit you or not benefit you, and to be honest with yourself. So I just thanks, Kembala, a lot of these things that you've talked about, I just were things I just never thought of. And I think that's Part of our problem is we don't stay aware, so I appreciate it.

Kembala Evans [00:30:10]:

You're welcome. It's been a pleasure. One point that I do want to make That this conversation just made me think about is I was reading a book by someone they called doctor Love, Which is called Living, Learning, Loving. What I loved about that book is one of the things that he talked about was when he grew up, they didn't grow up Very rich, but they had love at the center of everything. And he talked about even, you know, having to wear a certain coat that didn't look as fashionable as as everyone else, because of the financial constraints that he had. And he said one of the best things that his parents did give him was Understanding why he is different. So when we do have financial struggles, I think it's very important That you let your children know so that they can learn the reason why because that will help them to be better stewards later. And he said it was through that learning that it impacted his life so much, and it helped him make better financial decisions as well Because sometimes we have to stand in our truth.

Kembala Evans [00:31:22]:

If you're at this holiday season in this juncture and you just Can't simply afford to buy all of this stuff that your kids may want, then maybe we just need to have a heart to heart and say, you know what, everyone? We're not gonna be able to have Christmas like we used to have it. And it's because, mom and dad, you know, we're in a different financial position. You know, so having those conversations and those talks, I think is very crucial because so many times, especially in this day of age where we have the cards, right, As we the kids, we used to say, money grows on trees. Right? They don't understand what it takes to have that money because we've come to this electronic Society. So having those moments where you can teach and impart that wisdom in your children, I think, is very important. And I will just close with this. I remember this little boy who who his family. I was on a field trip, and he was saying their house was being foreclosed.

Kembala Evans [00:32:18]:

And he was, like, so sad. And he was, like, telling me how his dad is going to get the counters out so they can sell it for money. You know, he was telling me all this stuff. You know, I tried to make him feel comfortable about the transition because they were just moving to another place, But he never really understand that whole foreclosure problem, the fact that he couldn't afford to live where they were anymore. So as parents, I'm a parent myself. I just feel that it's very important that we impart those struggles on our children So that they can have a better understanding.

Lanée Blaise [00:32:52]:

It teaches them character. It teaches them compassion. It teaches them wisdom on how to Perhaps plan different things when they become adults. It's not happy thing to do, but it is very freeing, And it is very impactful in a good, honest way.

Sandy Kovach  [00:33:10]:

Yeah. There's definitely ways to do it.

Kembala Evans [00:33:12]:

Ways you can do it. Maybe it's they want something that's $500, and you don't have that $500. You know what? We're gonna save this for pay for this, and I'm gonna put $50 towards this. You know, and then let every month watch that grow. And then when we go buy it, it's gonna be so exciting because we've saved all this money for it. So do what you can with what you have.

Lanée Blaise [00:33:33]:

Absolutely. I almost wanna just go away with that, but I know that at the very end, we always do still wanna Bring it back to imagining yourself. Like Kembala said earlier, we are in the driver's seat. Sometimes we might need a driver's manual, which would Very likely be Kembala's books, and sometimes we actually even need a financial coach in our life. But at the end of the day, we really want you to imagine and believe that you can get your financial situation right, that you can drop the debt weight, That you really can attain financial help in this season and in every season yet to come. Thank you, Kembala, for joining us. Thank you all for listening.

Kembala Evans [00:34:17]:

Thanks for having me.

Sandy Kovach  [00:34:19]:

Hope you found this conversation valuable to get more information, and a link to Kemba's book offer. We will have that at imagine yourself podcast.com and in the show notes. We hope you'll connect, subscribe, give us a rating, and until we have something new to imagine, take care of yourself. And thanks for being a part of the Imagine Yourself family.