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S3|E9: Financial Literacy for Gen Z & Turning Awareness into Action · Life. Money. You.® Podcast

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: All right, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Life Money Podcast.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Today, we're diving into a conversation that sits at the intersection of rising student debt, the cost of living, and overwhelming amount of financial misinformation and information available to young adults today.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're joined by Hassan, a former college football player who went from juggling early morning lifts, maybe late night study sessions and a tight budget, to becoming a strong advocate for financial well-being among student athletes and Gen Z learners.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Hassan, thank you so much for being here.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Will you take a moment to introduce yourself to our listeners?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, Danny.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Super happy to be here.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to chat and really talk about some of the things that weren't taught to us in school.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So to give you a quick background on who I am, I'm an award-winning author, podcaster, and one of the top public speakers for Gen Z.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm super excited to be here.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, got my start within um football, as Danny mentioned, and then went through a traumatizing knee injury that really um put me on this path that I am today.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And now I work with iGrad and Enrich Financial Wellness while I also do public speaking at conferences, uh, nonprofit organizations and schools around the nation.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hassan, today's college students are navigating historically high tuition costs, record loan debt, inflation that eats into every paycheck, and you know, different access to financial guidance.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious, and you alluded to it in your introduction, but as a young football player stepping on a campus for the first time, take us back to all of that.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Can you, you know, when did you first realize that money wasn't just a background detail, but something that could directly impact your day-to-day life?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: 100%, 100%.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So when I first realized it, so I was a volunteer scholar at Maryville College or Merville College, as they say in Tennessee.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was a volunteer scholar.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you go division three for sports, you cannot get an athletic scholarship.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be a volunteer or, you know, they have to kind of finagle it um to get the athletes that they want.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I volunteered 10 hours a week at the Boys and Girls Club while playing football and while, of course, being a scholar, you know, a student athlete.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So when I first realized how important, you know, finances was in my college um time, was when I got my first refund check.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And some of my friends were buying TVs, some of my friends were buying um, you know, clothes and shoes and different things of that nature.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided to do something a bit different.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I realized that the first semester, because you know, you get your refund check in the spring semester, um, you know, after you file your taxes and things.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I remembered when the first semester came around is that I ran out of money and I didn't have enough money to um do some of the things that I wanted to do.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna save half of this refund check so I can utilize this and I won't feel, you know, I won't feel bad or I won't have anxiety about not being able to pay this bill or not being able to do this or go out to this restaurant instead of eating the ramen noodles that I had to eat.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, at the end of my fall semester, my first fall semester.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's when I really realized like how important it was my freshman year.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then later going on into my, you know, fast-forwarding to my senior year, after I told my meniscus and had my senior, uh, my career-ending knee injury, I had to put my energy, my passion into something different, and was financial literacy.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I looked around and now being a senior and being on the cusp of being into the real world, looking at my, because I was a business management and a business management major with a minor in accounting and marketing, and looking at my peers who were uh communication majors and um, you know, different majors that didn't have to take my financial classes.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: If they were graduating college without this information, they were literally going into the adult world without being prepared to be successful.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what made me want to write my senior thesis over financial literacy after I tore my meniscus.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's what made me tell everybody, like, hey, I'm about to write my senior thesis, my research paper, and hopefully turn it into a book for young folks.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then my cousin was like, Hey, Hassan, I think you should start a podcast from that.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's what led me to starting my podcast, FYI Fly, for your information, financial literacy and investing.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, since then I've utilized that podcast to write a couple books.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: The books led to public speaking, and then that eventually led to my professional career with iGrad and Enrich Financial Wellness.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So everything is just a journey that builds upon each other.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: My mom likes to call it going from glory to glory.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I truly feel like this journey has been glory to glory.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love that.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I definitely have uh memory of the prerequisite business classes.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I did not major or minor in accounting, Hassan, but I did have to take two courses of accounting and pass them.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And those were probably some of the hardest classes I took to get my marketing major.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you mentioned senior year graduation, and right, graduation is different than living those years in school for higher education, but there's also a lot of new financial pressures.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So you mentioned a little bit of it in your explanation, but rising rent costs, just paying rent in general as a young adult, higher interest rates, right?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like understanding how interest works, compounding interest and um just living on your own, right?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Independently.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: And many young adults feel blindsided by this transition.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes it happens even before graduation, right?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like first freshman year on campus, they're kind of on their own.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious, how did stepping out of college athletics on campus and into the real world reshape your relationship or maybe even strengthen as you're describing that relationship with money?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's a great question, Danny.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think for me, I had to take like a deep dive into financial literacy because it encompasses so many different things from student debt, credit, budgeting, saving, investing, insurance.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I could literally go on and on about all the different things, yes, that financial literacy covers.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to do a deep dive.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I went out on social media, and I know we're gonna talk about that a little later, but I went out on social media and found um people that were putting out positive information that I thought was credible um out on social media.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time I had a podcast, so I reached out to them like, hey, you're doing some great information here.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to have you on my podcast.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that I talk about called a value exchange.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people, unfortunately, they won't, you know, just allow you to pick their brain or you know, pick their mind, but you have to have some type of value to exchange with them.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the value that I had was through the podcast.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey, you could come on my podcast, um, you could kind of tout yourself as that financial literacy expert, um, you know, gain more customers and things of that nature.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that led to them coming on my podcast.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm asking questions, getting answers, editing the podcast.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm consistently hearing this information from my podcast, from social media, and it's like reps.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a football guy, as you mentioned, so repetition is huge for me.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I was able to get reps of these important financial information.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the beautiful thing about learning financial literacy is whenever you learn, you can then earn from financial literacy.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I was doing.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was beginning to start investing, I began to um look into life insurance.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I got a great story about how life insurance saved my life one time.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, life insurance saved my life one time when I got let go from my position um that I was working.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I literally um withdrew from my whole life insurance policy.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it saved me for about two months while I was looking for a new position.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just a short and quick example of how impactful understanding financial literacy can truly, it's not just a math equation.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is real life, and understanding this can prepare you and can save you and really be that backbone or that peace of mind when unexpected events happen.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that is why I really dove right into financial literacy because I saw how impactful it truly is to understand it.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to dive into something you mentioned there too, but you talk about reps, right?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Repetition.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And when I think of that, I think of habits, right?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Those rituals that we practice on a daily basis that ultimately make us the people that we are.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to be someone who is dedicated to their finances, you got to do something about it every day, right?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so thinking about right our credit, right?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Credit is huge, and people often don't understand the relationship it has with debt, buying power, and what financial opportunities you can create for yourself.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm curious, Hassan, with the cost of borrowing increasing and misinformation, which we'll get into spreading quickly on the internet, many young adults are feeling intimidated.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Many Gen Zers don't know where to look for information.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start with credit, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: The measurable aspect of your buying power.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: What helped you understand it?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And what are you finding is helping Gen Zers today get a grip on something as foundational as their credit score?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Great question.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think what first got me um into credit was my mom.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: She got me a credit card um at 18.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: At that time when I was still in high school, I said, Mom, I'm not um fully educated on this.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You keep it, you use it for your groceries and you know, pay it off and you know, help help raise my credit.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you, mom.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my mom did the same thing.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you, mom.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, awesome, awesome.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of my first introduction to credit.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, unlike a lot of the stories that I heard about um credit cards and things of that nature, um, I guess because I went to a small school, we didn't have, you know, thousands of uh, you know, credit companies, you know, on the lawn as soon as we arrived to school.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I know not everybody has that same sentiment.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Some people, you know, they get that credit card as soon as they get on campus.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the thing that I would say is to really look at the resources that are out there as far as books, um, podcast, some credible social media um influencers, and I say some, so probably run that past, you know, if you're in school right now, uh, probably run some of the the content from that credible or for that from that social media influencer, maybe run it past your finance professor or you know, your career center um, you know, uh advisor, somebody who has more of a personal finance background to kind of say, hey, this is a good person you should listen to, or just asking uh mentors within the financial space.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what really helped me was interviewing people, talking to people, networking, um, finding mentors within this space, because it's sometimes just because they have a lot of followers doesn't mean the information that they're spewing out is credible.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And to that point, there was a financial influencer, won't say his name, of course.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: He partnered with a credit union to do a to do a social media ad.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this ad was influencing people uh to pull out a HELOC.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And for those that don't know what a HELOC is, that is a home equity um line of credit.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So basically pulling out the equity that you've paid down into your home and pulling that out as a loan and utilizing that hopefully for an asset to make you more money.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: But what this gentleman was um influencing people was to turn your backyard into a basketball court, Danny.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, he influenced people to turn their back their backyards into their dream basketball court.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: He turned his backyard into like a Celtic um color green.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was nice, it was nice, Danny, but it wasn't an asset, it wasn't something that we should be promoting our young people to do by pulling out uh a loan, which is a liability, and then putting it into another liability.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: That is literally taking a step back.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy has thousands, thousands of followers.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that is my example of or or my point of just because they have a lot of followers doesn't mean that we need to listen to everything that they may be saying.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you described it, but today's young adults are learning about money in a landscape that's more confusing and loud than ever.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think of right TikTok creators, they go viral for advice like what you just gave, and it's not always accurate or suiting for the person consuming it.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking right now, too, of like AI tools that can generate both really good explanations for financial topics, but also dangerously misleading ones.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And what I like to think of is, you know, AI is a tool, it's it's not a teacher, and you need to be discerning where you get your information.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I love the recommendation you gave about using your network to your advantage and people that are credible and that do have the background certifications, the know-how to lend that information.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: What are you hearing from you know younger athletes and Gen Z learners about how they grasp financial education concepts?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: How are what's the language, right?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: They're speaking to take control of their money.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's great.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of Gen Zers are ambitious.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: We we are an ambitious um generation.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: We want to get to our goals and our dreams, and we want to accomplish them faster than any other generation.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like also, we have to think about social media because we see some of people, some of the people that are our age accomplishing those goals.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to do the same.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's yes, we're ambitious, but it comes to a point where we're sometimes not living in the reality.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: The reality of hey, this person got this new car, this new nice car.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to do the same thing.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't have, I don't have credit.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So by people not even knowing the first steps to achieving some of these adult goals or um dreams that we want to accomplish, I think that is where the biggest disconnect is, is seeing the end goal or seeing where a lot of these people have ended up.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So whether that's people who are Gen Z or, you know, artists or actors or you know, some of the people that we all love and follow, seeing where they're at now, but not realizing some of the lucky breaks they had, or not realizing some of the education they've gotten.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or quite frankly, you know, some of the some of the people who were um privileged, um, you know, they got access to those things from the hard work from their um parents or guardians.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we're seeing that end result, and we're not seeing the the middle and the beginning of how it, how we, how they have gotten there.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that is kind of the biggest disconnect right now between Gen Z and what we're seeing.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it all stems back to getting the initial education, you know, coming to network and speak with great people like you and Alejo and all of the people um, you know, that work at your credit union, I think that is where we should all start.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And especially having people who are who are open and honest and transparent and authentic and don't look like, you know, you didn't hop on this call today with a with a suit and tie and and you know your briefcase.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, you and Alejo and so many people at your credit union are so approachable where people don't have to feel intimidated by having conversations with you all.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think that's where we really start is the education, because that education then leads to the confidence to do that positive financial action.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then once we have the confidence, then we're able to execute that positive financial action.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: So true.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, it's it takes one step, and people talk about that a lot, right?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's the hardest.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: The first step is the hardest.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: But building a habit of dedicating yourself, committing yourself to financial well-being is a necessary step.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's sometimes the hardest one is to be like, you know what, I'm gonna wake up every morning and check my statements and um make a point to have some financial goal for myself this week, whether it's not spending money eating out, whether it's a couple no spend days, whether it's um contributing a percentage more to your 401k, those types of conversations require a community, right?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like you just described it too, but a safe community, a safe place where people can talk with experience.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you said it, Hassan, but that's what we do at Life Money You is I have been in not the same shoes as Hassan, but I have had similar experiences with different outcomes.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm choosing to be vulnerable in this role alongside a lot of our fellow certified financial coaches who have also struggled with debt, may also be struggling to pay off student loans and are sharing their tips and tricks.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, also have a mom who might be in the hospital and struggling to pay off some forms of debt.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of vulnerable conversations we have.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And what we really try to get across, like Hassan is describing, is we're a community, we're a safe place, and we're all human.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're going through financial challenges together, and we're choosing to share these to help benefit other people, right?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of life, what happened with that insurance story?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: You have to tell us because I'm sure other people are curious.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: You left us on a cliffhanger.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Did that purposely.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I think it was around 2022.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I got let go from my job while I was, of course, building my personal brand, podcasting, speaking, and things of that nature.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I got let go from that job.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: But luckily in 2020, when I started the podcast, I interviewed a life insurance agent.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: So he told me the difference between term life and whole life, and just simply term life is for a term, you know, a certain time period, and whole life is for your whole life.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's certain um whole life policies that allow you to have a death benefit.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever you pass away, you have money passed down to your beneficiaries or whoever um you basically care about, those are your beneficiaries.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then there's also a living benefit where you're allowed to split your premiums or the amount that you pay monthly, and half goes to your death benefit, and the other half goes to an investment for you that continues to build, build, and build up as you pay your premiums.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever I lost that job in 2022, I had built up enough uh money in my living benefit that I was able to take out a loan on that uh money while the money was still being invested in the stock market.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I took out a loan and that money was still being invested in the stock market.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you all do research, there's a lot of great companies, like some won't say which ones, but there's a lot of great companies that have built their um business empire on whole life insurance by building up that fund and then borrowing from that while that money is still being built.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I was educated upon that in 2020 and it became useful and life-saving for me in 2022, which gave me about two to three months for me personally to put together not a resume, but a value resume is what I like to call it.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: So at that time, I felt that I built up enough value in my personal brand that I could list my skills and send this out to nonprofits and companies that I could provide hosting, um, radio show hosting, podcasting, public speaking, and those different types of skills for them.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And luckily, I one company reached out to me and made me their um radio show host, and I started a radio show for them.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what really got my start into um you know, a lot of the things that I'm doing now.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said, to That point, I just really want to emphasize how understanding financial literacy can truly save you when an unexpected event happens.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not a matter of if something unexpected will happen.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's more of when that unexpected event will occur.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever you have money to fall back on, that is what creates peace of mind.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: I I think my takeaway from our conversation, Hassan, is truly there are no shortcuts to financial freedom.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: It is a journey for everyone.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you get what you put into it, right?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: You get out what you put into it.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And if there's anything for you on the other side of this listening right now can do, it's dedicating time to your financial well-being every day or every week.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so something like that could look like subscribing to the Life Menu podcast, subscribing to Fly, um, you know, Hassan's podcast, and listening to it on a weekly basis, maybe finding an influencer or a credible figure that you trust and that you look up to when it comes to financial well-being and tuning into whatever that forum might be, right?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: On a weekly basis.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: And we talked a lot about time management in our pre-interview, Hassan, but can you just summarize that whole concept of time management for our listeners here today and how foundational it is to starting progress on your financial freedom journey?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna, while I do this, I'm going to interject something that is like on my heart to share.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe a listener is going through this, but I'm really big on goal-based actions.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard whenever you hear Hassan or Danny or your favorite financial influencer say, Hey, you should be saving money.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to wake up every day and check that bank account.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's really difficult for everyone to do that.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: But what I found was different, um, what I found um really switched my mindset was basing my actions on my goals, basing my actions and my priorities based on where I wanted to be.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, I met a beautiful young lady um through my grandmother, actually, which is a uh grandma.
• 24:30
  unknown: Yeah.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, which is a crazy story.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this young lady lived next to my grandmother um in Maryland.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: I uh my mom took me to Texas and I was raised in Texas.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, but I would always go back to Maryland for the summer and for holidays.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: But what's crazy, every time I would go back to Maryland, she would go to Atlanta with her father.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we'd never cross path.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, long story short, she graduated, and my Nana um she posted a picture on Facebook, and my Nana commented, and it got onto my uh Facebook profile, and I was like, Nana, who is who is that?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who is that?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um so Nana ended up introdu uh reintroducing us, uh, and we got connected in December of 2022, and we hit it off.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she ended up coming down to Florida for her birthday, and we hit it off.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, ended up starting dating in 2023.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And why I'm saying this story is because that is the reason I started to save money.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: She is the reason why I started to save money for a home because as I mentioned, she lived in Atlanta.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew I wanted to put us in a home out here in Florida, so that is why I started to save money and I created a high yield savings account and I did automated uh automatic um payments.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I automated my payments.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a huge fan of automation, automate, automate, automate.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: We all we talk about time management, we all have a lot going on.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to this, I'm sure you have a lot going on.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: You're probably doing something right now, yeah.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're doing something, literally, literally, you're doing something right now while you're listening to this.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So by taking five to 10 to 15 minutes to set something up automatically that will continue to benefit you um in the long run is a huge win.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, long story short, I set those automated payments up um from 2023.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of 2024, I was able to purchase my first home out here in Florida.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, congratulations.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome!
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Danny.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm telling you all that story is it and the reason is because I want you to find your why.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to find your reason why you're going to save money, why you're going to invest money.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's not if it's not somebody else, it's not selfish to do it for yourself.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: It I repeat, it is not selfish to want to be wealthy, to want to be fit, to want to be healthy for yourself.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is not selfish.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, whatever your why may be, find that and then craft your priorities.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Craft your time, your money, your energy, our biggest assets around your goals.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe that will help everyone um truly implement what we're talking about here today.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hassan, thank you so much for sharing your honesty, vulnerability, and experience with us today.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Your story truly reflects the financial reality that so many young adults and Gen Zers are navigating in this era.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: And your voice brings clarity to chaos.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: We understand this is a challenging time we're all living in, but you have support, whether you feel it or not, right here on this podcast.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And to our listeners, if this conversation resonated, please share it, subscribe, and join us next time on the Life Money Podcast.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Hassan, this has been great.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for tuning in.