[00:00:00] Bob Wheeler: Whether you consider yourself to be a saver or a spender, understanding your money habits is an essential life skill. It’s not simply about understanding how much money you need to save and how much you can afford to spend, but also about understanding the emotional drivers behind these decisions as well.

Are you aware of your financial behavior when it comes to saving or spending money? And what factors influence or drive you to do. So in late January, 2023, I scoured the halls of Pod Fest Expo and asked some of the attendees the hard-hitting question, are you a saver or a spender? And during these conversations, we also explored how guilt can influence the financial choices we make.

How people from different cultures have different views and approaches to money strategies people use to manage their finances and avoid debt, and how families navigate conversations around. If you would like to bring a little money mindfulness to your life, follow us on Instagram at Money. You should ask.[00:01:00]

I’m Bob Wheeler and this is Money You should Ask, where we explore why we do what we do when it comes to money.

My team and I would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to all of the wonderful guests who appeared on our show today. We truly appreciate the valuable perspectives they shared and their willingness to openly discuss their unique insights and experiences with. , if you would like to learn more about our guests, stick around to the end of the show or check out their links in the show notes.

[00:01:50] Lori Adam-Brown: What’s your name? My name’s Lori Adams Brown. And what’s the name of your podcast? A World of Difference.

[00:01:55] Bob Wheeler: Are you, are you married? Yes, I am. Mm-hmm. . And are you the spender or the [00:02:00] saver, or are you on the same page with your husband?

[00:02:02] Lori Adam-Brown: Um, we’re pretty similar to be honest. I would say, uh, depending on the situation and what we’re saving for, probably overall, I tend to save a little more.

Um, but we’re both pretty good with money and we generally pretty much agree on that, so, yeah.

[00:02:17] Bob Wheeler: Cool. And do you talk to your kids about,

[00:02:19] Lori Adam-Brown: Yes, I do. And I have a daughter who’s 15 who teaches the rest of us about money because she’s like trying to make $10,000 a month when she’s still in high school. So a little entrepreneur in

[00:02:29] Bob Wheeler: the family.

So , that’s pretty cool. And do you have family meetings around money? Uh,

[00:02:34] Lori Adam-Brown: my husband would really like to schedule every Friday to have a financial check-in. And it’s, uh, we’ve tried it, we’ve had it on the calendar and we often missed it. So not a priority? Yeah, well it’s just more like, do we have to sit and talk about that on a Friday?

like doesn’t feel.

[00:02:49] Bob Wheeler: Do it on a Sunday, early morning, Sunday, early morning. Oh yeah. Because

[00:02:51] Lori Adam-Brown: that’s exactly what you wanna talk about when you’re in bed on a Sunday

[00:02:54] Bob Wheeler: morning, . Totally. Uh, do you share a joint bank, a bank account, or do you have separate accounts?

[00:02:59] Lori Adam-Brown: We have a joint [00:03:00] bank account, which is kind of funny because when we got engaged I just had this weird assumption we would have different bank accounts.

I don’t know why. I know it’s cuz I was raised by like a feminist mom who was raised by a ro Rosie the Riveter, and. My grandma was in la like a literal, literal riveter during the war, and her fiance was overseas and she couldn’t have a bank account back then. This is pre Rrb G giving bank accounts to women, and so my grandma, my mother’s mom, Made all this money in California, put the money in her fiance’s bank account, and then he died in the war and then his family took all her money.

And so I think there was something inherently in my upbringing where it was like, you need to make sure you have your own bank account. So when I mentioned that to my fiance, the time he is kinda like. Wait, you don’t trust me to share a bank account with you? And I kinda thought, yeah, that’s true. And it would make more sense cuz we don’t make a lot of money now cuz we were young and just married and so I was like, yeah, we should probably have a joint bank account.

[00:03:50] Bob Wheeler: Oh my god, that sounds traumatic. I’m, I’m feeling traumatized. Right. What would be one thing you would say to your younger self that you would say, Hey, pony up on this, or focus on [00:04:00] this a little bit more as you get older in regards to your finances?

[00:04:03] Lori Adam-Brown: I think that, um, preparing for multiple income streams, I would’ve probably told my younger self to do things in your life that understand, like a side hustle earlier kind of thing.

So, cuz you know, I, I work in tech, I work in business at Silicon Valley. I’m the senior manager of a talent development now for Hives Solutions and we’re like a global company. But I have a podcast that’s kind of a fun hobby that I really enjoy. And I think multiple income streams is just kind of the.

[00:04:26] Bob Wheeler: Totally is. What’s the mission and hope of, uh, your podcast?

[00:04:31] Lori Adam-Brown: Yeah, so a world of difference. We’re about celebrating our differences and making a difference together. I feel like the best way to make a difference is to bring the differences around the table, more diversity around the table. All the data shows that you make better decisions, make greater social impact.

So come on, check us out. We love having new people.

[00:04:48] Bob Wheeler: That sounds awesome. Thank you so much. You’re welcome. Great. Hey, so what’s your name? Uh, Jim. Jim Bo Goon. Great. And you’re working on a podcast. What’s the current working title of your podcast?

[00:04:57] Jim Burgoon: So the current working title is the A one A Collect. [00:05:00] And it’s really about to speak to faith-based business owners and entrepreneurs who work more on the creative side who want to do this thing, but they don’t fit in

[00:05:08] Bob Wheeler: the mold.

Okay, so let me ask you this. Are you a spender or a saver? I

[00:05:13] Jim Burgoon: tend to be a spender. I want to be a saver,

[00:05:16] Bob Wheeler: but, and what makes you want to be a, a, a saver more, like you spend, you’re thinking maybe you should go to the other side. Like what is, what is going on in your mind when you say, uh, I should probably do better?

Yeah,

[00:05:28] Jim Burgoon: so I’m starting to think of legacy cuz I really want to get to a place where my kids have stuff and then even in old age I want things as well and I’m a free spirit, so I’m kind of following the impulse control right now. Mm-hmm. , while my wife is like, Hey, we need to do this. And so I’m trying to come more into the line of, hey, we do need to have long-term things for legacy, for life later than I am.

And so that’s why I’m trying to get that mindset around there.

[00:05:53] Bob Wheeler: No, absolutely. Are you still paying off holiday debt from Christmas and all the holidays 2022? [00:06:00] I am not, no. And did you, did you budget for the holidays or did you just hope it all worked out?

[00:06:06] Jim Burgoon: Both my wife budgeted and I kind of prayed and hoped so, but it was one of those things, though, we did something real, and we’ve done this for the last couple years, my wife and I, we decided we weren’t going to go in debt for things that people may never use.

and so we are more into let’s have an experience together than let’s give you gifts that’ll

[00:06:24] Bob Wheeler: rust. You know? I think that’s so awesome. I don’t give a lot of gifts at the holidays because I figure it’s supposed to be the spirit of giving of myself maybe, and not so much material stuff. Mm-hmm. , maybe that’s just me being frugal, but I find I don’t need gifts from other people.

I’m happy to just be in connection.

[00:06:40] Jim Burgoon: Yeah, I’m right with you. I don’t need a whole lot of gifts, but give me an experience, even if it’s just coffee. I love the experience, the conversations, the, the memories you create. I think those are so much more priceless than if something I may use for a

[00:06:51] Bob Wheeler: while. Do you ever make expenditures that you don’t tell your wife since you’re this, you’re this, you’re the spender.

I,

[00:06:59] Jim Burgoon: there was a [00:07:00] time, we’ve been together 23 years and there was a time that happened often. Okay. I am much better at telling her, Hey, I spent this, but it’s usually after the fact, so it’s kinda like, um, I should have talked to you

[00:07:11] Bob Wheeler: first, but oh my God, 23 years. I, I thought you were 23 years .

[00:07:17] Jim Burgoon: I get, I get that a lot, but I am going to be 45 and yes, we’ve been together 23

[00:07:21] Bob Wheeler: years.

Wow. And do you have open conversations around your finances, whether it’s kids, parents, spouse? Yes,

[00:07:28] Jim Burgoon: absolutely. Because I believe open conversation brings truth and truth brings. And so if you’re trying to hide things, then you just literally are going to be in a real bad place when everybody finds out the truth.

So why not have the

[00:07:39] Bob Wheeler: truth first? Absolutely. It’s gonna come out. It’s gonna come out. Thank you so much. Can you tell me your name? My name is

[00:07:45] Hana Baba: Hana Baba.

[00:07:46] Bob Wheeler: And what is the name of

[00:07:47] Hana Baba: your podcast? It’s called The Stoop. Stories from across the black

[00:07:51] Bob Wheeler: diaspora. Awesome. So are you a spender or a saver? I think my husband would

[00:07:56] Hana Baba: say I’m a spender.

[00:07:59] Music: But is he wrong [00:08:00] or right? He’s right. .

[00:08:02] Hana Baba: Absolutely right. Absolutely. I don’t, I have problems saving, but that’s why we have two

[00:08:07] Bob Wheeler: incomes. There you go. And are you paying off holiday debt from 2022 or are you clean? We are.

[00:08:15] Hana Baba: We are clean. I know it’s surprising, but we are very clean. Thankfully. Thankfully,

[00:08:20] Bob Wheeler: thankfully.

And how was that, uh, pure luck or did you plan ahead and strategize for the

[00:08:24] Hana Baba: holidays? I think we needed to, to do some planning. Um, I come from an immigrant family and so there’s a lot of gifting and money that goes out that is not intended originally, but like, you know, the cousin needs something somewhere.

The aunt needs something somewhere. And in our community and our culture, You kind of have a responsibility to take care of the whole family, which can be a whole nother can of worms in, in this society. That’s hard. Um, but so, you know, we kind of made, we made, we made it work. We

[00:08:59] Bob Wheeler: made it work. [00:09:00] That’s awesome.

You know, um, you mentioned that about being an immigrant and having to care for the rest of the family, and I know that there’s a lot of communities where I talk to people who, if they’re the successful one, they have to carry the whole forward, the whole family forward. That can be a lot of pressure. How do you navigate that?

[00:09:17] Hana Baba: Sometimes it can be frustrating, right? Because there’s this idea of, well, you’re the family that’s in America and dollars are growing in the trees, and of course you’ll take care of us. There’s a little bit of guilt as well, of course. Oh my goodness. So it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a game, right? Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, um, it’s balancing ego, it’s being humble as well.

It’s, it’s forgetting about yourself a little. Um, and, you know, just

[00:09:46] Lori Adam-Brown: a balancing

[00:09:47] Bob Wheeler: act. Absolutely. Well, you know, I, I think, um, guilt is the international language. .

[00:09:53] Hana Baba: I mean, it’s guilt and then when it’s a deep cultural ancestral, oh yeah, we take care [00:10:00] of each other. You know, when that stuff comes up in the immigrant experience where we are here in this very individualistic society, right?

You’re here to make your money, you pay your. It’s, it’s hard to, to have spare money to just send all over the world, but, you know, so, but that guilt, I feel like the guilt works. Sometimes it feels bad, but it keeps me connected to those people. So it’s tricky.

[00:10:28] Bob Wheeler: It’s tricky. So do you and your husband have a joint account or do you have separate accounts?

Do you get to have your own fun money? How does

[00:10:35] Hana Baba: that work? So in my culture, again, the good part. A woman, a wife’s money. And in our, and actually I’m Muslim and this is in the Muslim culture as well. A wife’s money is hers. Wow. Awesome. So we come to America and there’s this joint account business, and this idea of like coming into the marriage and you pull all your money together and that [00:11:00] it’s, it’s a, it’s a difference, right?

It, it makes you have to make some decisions. So we do have a joint account, but I also have my own. That’s awesome on

[00:11:10] Bob Wheeler: the set. We love that. We love that. Um, what would you say your biggest fear, if any, going into 2023? Is there any, any financial things that you worry about?

[00:11:22] Hana Baba: Um, I’m paying, we’re paying for a college tuition right now, and then we have a junior in high school who’s about to also next year be a senior and go to college.

So I would say kind of balancing that with the responsibilities of family back home. , uh, would be the biggest thing to we’re thinking about right now is how to balance both and also get a vacation. Yeah. For example, go to Hawaii. Go to Europe and not feel like, not, not feeling guilty about that, I think.

[00:11:52] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. And what is the mission of your podcast? It’s uh,

[00:11:55] Hana Baba: it’s says story driven podcast about. Black [00:12:00] life, black stories with the premise that black is not a monolith, it’s not, it’s African-Americans, but it’s also African immigrants, Caribbean immigrants and all of us share a lot and differ in a lot, and that’s what this podcast is about.

It’s about community. It’s about tackling some difficult questions and issues and being very honest. Like you’re sitting on a stoop, which is the name of our podcast. It’s like the casual, honest conversations that happen on

[00:12:28] Bob Wheeler: your front. I love it. Well, wish you well. I so appreciate you taking the time. So, hey, what’s your name?

I’m Jake. D And do you have a podcast?

[00:12:36] Jake D.: I do have a podcast. Podcast is talking

[00:12:38] Bob Wheeler: tractors. All right, Jake, so are you a saver or a spender? Yeah, I have

[00:12:42] Jake D.: strategies for both .

[00:12:44] Bob Wheeler: Okay. I do, yeah. All right. So you think about it, you don’t just impulsively spend

[00:12:48] Jake D.: rarely. All right, Rayley, do I impulsively buy anything expensive?

[00:12:53] Bob Wheeler: Are you still paying off holiday expenses from 2022 or are you in the clear? I’m in the clear on that one. [00:13:00] And what is your take on spending for the holidays so that you’re not in debt in January, February?

[00:13:06] Jake D.: Again to have a good strategy going into it. This year we did a big trip for our boys instead of buying a bunch of presents, I mean, Santa Claus still came, they still got their stuff right, but uh, we didn’t have all of the junk that just sits in the basement and we throw away or donate.

Later we went, went to Dollywood and we stayed at the Dream more and we went and stock Santa Claus and. Yeah, it was super cool. Thank you for asking that. Yeah,

[00:13:23] Bob Wheeler: that’s, yeah, that’s actually really cool. And Dollywood’s pretty fun. Dollywood’s pretty rad. Pretty rad. So, um, do you have a joint checking account with your wife or do you keep separate money that you can go and play with on your own?

I have

[00:13:37] Jake D.: cash. Yeah. I

[00:13:39] Music: keep, I

[00:13:39] Bob Wheeler: keep cash. Does your wife get to have cash? I always

[00:13:42] Jake D.: make sure that she has cash. Absolutely. I do. Uh, and then we have a joint checking. I think she still has a checking account and we have separate credit card accounts. Look, she runs the books and I’m good with that. So, yeah.

[00:13:55] Bob Wheeler: Do you talk to your kids about money openly or is that sort of an open secret?[00:14:00]

[00:14:00] Jake D.: Yeah, we definitely talk about the value of a dollar and this dollar equates to this candy and they, they both have savings accounts and they both have their own cash supplies as well. Right? So we, when we show it to ’em, like, here’s how much money you have in your wallet, man. What do you wanna do with it?

Oh, Pokemon cards. Okay. So like, they understand that this Pokemon. It was this dollars and now these dollars are gone. Now we have Pokemon. Does that

[00:14:21] Bob Wheeler: make sense? Yeah, that’s awesome. It’s it, being transparent about money is such a cool thing. Is there anything that you worry about financially as you go into 2023?

Yeah,

[00:14:30] Jake D.: everything. I worry about everything. Um, I think about that a lot. My, my group, my clients, we talk about it a lot and we, everything we’ve been doing for the last 18 months is prepping them for the next turn in the cycle, right? So, yeah, I think about everything.

[00:14:47] Bob Wheeler: And you, um, so you work with tractors and farm equipment, all that stuff.

You, you have a population of the country that’s probably maybe a little more rural, maybe a little more conservative if they’ve got, [00:15:00] uh, farmland and stuff do, like is there something that you see in that population that’s buying your equipment, um, that you have to worry about come recession time or anything like that?

So there’s a lot

[00:15:09] Jake D.: of indicators that we do look at. Home starts is a big one. Even though we’re not in real estate, uh, we’re on the front end of that, right? So, Developments, we pay a lot of attention to mining and min minerals. Mm-hmm. Gold specifically. And then we, we trade tractors as a commodity. Okay. So we pay attention to what’s moving where, like are, are big trucks moving to Australia?

Are they going to Africa? Right. Or general construction equipment, is it going to the Middle East or is it going to Canada or is it staying in the US In which cities. So yeah, those are kind of the big indicators

[00:15:38] Bob Wheeler: I’m thinking of right now. What is one thing that you would go back and tell your younger self if you could do it again?

What strategy would you give yourself? I

[00:15:46] Jake D.: would’ve went independent a lot earlier in life, right? I worked for big corporations for 20 years, well, actually they’re family owned corporations, but they’re, they’re big business corporations, and I was trying to build something within their walls that they didn’t wanna build.

So when [00:16:00] I left the walls of Caterpillar dealers and I started building things for myself, I felt so much better now, so much happier. My life just got a lot. Everything’s better, right? I, I think I had to be there. I had to. Go through those trenches to understand what to do, but I, I would’ve shortened that cycle by half.

[00:16:18] Bob Wheeler: Follow your passion. Thank you, Jake. Yeah, man. , what’s your

[00:16:22] Trevor Furness: name? My name is Trevor

[00:16:23] Bob Wheeler: Fes. And do you have a

[00:16:25] Trevor Furness: podcast? I do. It’s called the March of History, and then the YouTube channel that is Trevor Travels where I travel. The Trevor, are

[00:16:32] Bob Wheeler: you a spender or a saver? I’m a saver.

[00:16:34] Trevor Furness: I’m a budgeter. I used to be a banker, so I learned all about money from

[00:16:37] Bob Wheeler: banking.

Okay. And so was that, so you learned it from banking, but did your parents talk about money when you were

[00:16:43] Trevor Furness: a kid? To some degree. My dad liked to, uh, maybe hide the money, hide what was going on financially with the family from the kids. Right. Not from his wife. Right. He’s very good about sharing it with my mom, but with the kids, he didn’t want us to know how much you earned what was going on with the finances.

Eventually I got into college, I [00:17:00] said, dad, I need to know these things because I don’t know how much it takes to live. I don’t know what, what a good income is. And so then we got better about sharing it. Uh, so yeah, so my dad’s certainly taught me a lot. My mom’s taught me a lot. And just by making mistakes, right, by doing all the wrong things, by taking out too much in student loans and being saddled with tons of student loans and figuring out how do I get myself outta this mess?

That’ll teach you a lot.

[00:17:23] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. And with that, um, are there any things that you have financial fear around? Financial anxiety around as we go into 2020? Yes,

[00:17:32] Trevor Furness: certainly with a uh, podcast, it’s a wonderful, beautiful career, but you always are thinking, how do I monetize this? Right? How do I make sure that this dream of mine is not just a pipe dream?

It will become a long-term reality where I can support myself and my family going into the future. That’s part of being here at Pod Fest. It’s figuring that whole process out and talking to people that have done it before. So that’s certainly something that, you know, lives in my mind all the time, is how do I turn this podcast that is growing and has a great audience into [00:18:00] something that I can really live?

[00:18:01] Bob Wheeler: So it sounds like you’re destroying the myth that after one podcast you can be a multimillionaire from podcasting.

[00:18:07] Trevor Furness: It’s possible, but highly unlikely. It has not happened that way for me. But I, I think, you know, part of the process is failing, not failing, but. Maybe if you don’t have instant success, then you figure out what not to do and you find out more about yourself.

If you have instant success, everything comes easy. Well, eventually you will have road bumps in life. And when you have those, if success was too easy, then how do you know how to overcome the road bumps because you never had them earlier on in life. So I think it’s all part of the process. Absolutely.

[00:18:34] Bob Wheeler: What are some of your big goals for 2023? I

[00:18:37] Trevor Furness: would say to grow my podcast, to reach a, a greater audience. I haven’t done many interviews. This is actually my first ever interview. More interviews with other podcasters to spread by message to meet, you know, more of a community and spreading the message is a big part of podcasting.

Right. So I’d love to go on more shows.

[00:18:55] Bob Wheeler: What’s one thing you’d love to spend money on, regardless of if you have it or not, it’s [00:19:00] gotta

[00:19:00] Trevor Furness: happen. Yeah, it’s travel. I love to travel. So I spent the past two years living in Spain and spend, you know, most of the money I made as a part-time teacher there, just traveling around Europe, filming for my YouTube channel.

So it was part work right there. Could be return on in. But regardless if there is or not, I would’ve been traveling.

[00:19:16] Bob Wheeler: And if you could go back a few years in time, uh, you know, when you were 18, when you were 16, what would you tell your younger self around money?

[00:19:26] Trevor Furness: I would say you don’t need to go to the best college that’s the most expensive and take out huge mountains of student loans.

You know, that’s such a myth. Uh, I had it in my head in high school. And you make these decisions, these decisions when you’re 17, 18 years. It should go to the best college possible, and then it doesn’t matter the price, you take out student loans to afford it, and then when you graduate, you get the best job possible and you pay off the student loans.

Now, I did all those things, but it was way more difficult than I ever expected, right? So in hindsight, I would tell a younger me, you don’t need to take out six figures in student loans. You don’t [00:20:00] need to do that. That saddles you with an unbelievable burden, which you graduate. If you don’t like your career, it’s tough to transition when you.

Ball and chain around your foot. It’s tough to make life transitions like buying a house or buying income property. Right? So I would say, you know, go to community college. Go to a trade school. Go to a, a university that gives you financial aid and don’t come out of college just crushed by debt. Right.

Because it will affect all of the decisions that you make in your life.

[00:20:26] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. Absolutely. What is the mission and, and, and hope for your podcast?

[00:20:32] Trevor Furness: Uh, I wanna spread a love and awareness of history to the world. I think that history is fascinating. I think that often the way it’s taught in schools is maybe not so fascinating.

People tell me all the time, I don’t like history. Really just they don’t like the way that history was taught to them. A lot of times it’s the robe, memorization of dates and names. That’s exhausting. And, and if you come out of history class memorizing all these different dates and names, but hating history, you’re feeling that [00:21:00] you hate.

Then it’s been a failure, right? Because all those dates and names will not stay in your mind forever. They will, you know, be ejected eventually, and you’ll just never wanna pick up a history book. Ideally, what you should do is teach people to love history, right? To have a passion for it. Even if they don’t know all the dates and names, if they pick up a book on their own because they have a passion for the subject.

Now, that’s what really matters, is conveying that passion to.

[00:21:24] Bob Wheeler: That sounds awesome. Thanks so much. Um, so we’re here at Pod Fest and we’re with, uh, a group of international students that are here volunteering, and we’ve got,

[00:21:33] Divyashree Nanjappa: uh, de Ri, I’m from India. I’m Wick,

[00:21:36] Sathvik Nagesh: I’m from

[00:21:36] Kone Mamadou: India. I’m corn. I’m from ACOs.

[00:21:39] Bob Wheeler: So I’m gonna start off with an easy question for each of you.

Are you a spender or a saver?

[00:21:45] Trevor Furness: Uh, bolt.

[00:21:48] Bob Wheeler: You gotta save to spend.

[00:21:49] Sathvik Nagesh: Like, it depends. If I have a goal to buy something, I’m a saver or else

[00:21:53] Bob Wheeler: spender, always save. All right. I, I’m mostly saver. Yeah, mostly saver. No impulsive buyers here. No impulsive buyers. [00:22:00] As we go into 2023, it’s a new year. . Um, is there anything that you worry about financially?

[00:22:07] Trevor Furness: Like

[00:22:08] Divyashree Nanjappa: we are still students. Mm-hmm. , we don’t have that much worries, but sometimes when it comes to maintain all the money by yourselves, you’ll think to spend like what is need and what you want. It’s like, need or want. Yeah. It

[00:22:22] Trevor Furness: depends

[00:22:22] Bob Wheeler: upon that. and do you feel like you have a safety net with your parents so that you don’t have to worry school will continue?

Um,

[00:22:29] Trevor Furness: yes,

[00:22:30] Divyashree Nanjappa: because my parents, they pay for the fees for my school, so I have less worries

[00:22:35] Trevor Furness: about that.

[00:22:37] Bob Wheeler: Awesome. Well, so glad to have you here. How about yourself? Yeah,

[00:22:40] Sathvik Nagesh: like I actually stayed off some money just in case if something emergency happens. So I don’t think I have any fear if I have to be worried about that.

[00:22:48] Bob Wheeler: Okay. And how

[00:22:49] Kone Mamadou: about you? Um, for me, um, Too young, so I’m not too much expecting from my parents to spend on me anymore. So [00:23:00] I have a kind of fear. Yeah. But I’m not going to worry about that because being able to come here is a kind of challenge. And I think back home I will be, be able to, to figure out, to find a way to make money.

So I don’t, I’m not expecting more from my

[00:23:15] Bob Wheeler: parent. Okay. And so the question I have for you is, you know, you come to America and you get to see our excess and our abundance and all the wealth and all the crazy things. Is there something that when you come here you can still hold onto and say, this is my identity being from the Ivory Coast.

This is something I love about my culture, um, the way I view certain things that just you hold near and dear.

[00:23:42] Kone Mamadou: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. In my country, we don’t have that. It’s, I’m not going to say it’s a poor country. We don’t have that, uh, this development we have in us, but in my country, we, uh, make joke with everything.

Yeah, yeah. With everything. Nothing is [00:24:00] serious. Even education, even politics. Yeah. We, we don’t have, we are always happy. Even, even if you don’t have money or something that we can, I don’t know. We don’t have maybe car or we are not rich, but most of the time we are happy. We make joke with everything. Yeah.

That’s something I’m really proud of. Yeah. I being able to see people here with maybe big cars. When, whenever I go to school, my, my classmate do have cars. I don’t have cash. I use, I walk to school because it’s not that far. Sometime I feel like, okay, why do, why do, I don’t? But I feel like, okay. Yeah, it, it’s still okay being able to, to, to go to school.

Even if I don’t have a car. It’s something easy back home. I don’t have a car also, but I’m happy. Yeah. That’s something.

[00:24:47] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I can say I’ve been to many countries in Africa and everybody that I’ve met is incredibly happy. So that’s, that’s one that’s my takeaway from all the countries. So let me ask you a question, cuz I’ve been to.

[00:25:00] As a woman, Uhhuh , right? There’s a very strong caste system. There’s a very hierarchical order of things. Yes. Um, do you feel pressure to follow the, the old ways, the, the traditions? Or do you feel comfortable in standing out and saying, this is my voice, this is how I wanna show up in the world? I’m

[00:25:19] Divyashree Nanjappa: proud to say, to follow my culture.

It’s not like pressure. It’s what my whole family and the. India follows. It’s not like pressure or it’s not like uncomfortable to follow that. It, it feels like it’s with you. You can’t give up that, you know, it, it’s not like pressuring, expecting culture. That’s what the teachers from the, uh, childhood mm-hmm.

expecting. Elders expecting your own

[00:25:44] Trevor Furness: culture.

[00:25:45] Bob Wheeler: So as a male in Indian culture, is there pressure for you to like, marry within the culture, um, be the breadwinner, um, follow in the footstep.

[00:25:56] Sathvik Nagesh: I believe it used to be before, but now the newer generations are [00:26:00] open-minded and it’s like, it’s, it’s changing now and everything is actually good.

It’s not the same anymore.

[00:26:06] Bob Wheeler: Okay. And what about, um, in Ivory Coast, is there a pressure as a male to be a certain way?

[00:26:13] Kone Mamadou: In our culture, it’s the stability of, of men to take off of a family. Mm-hmm. . So we are not supposed to expect for, from our, our wife. any, and if even if your wife is working or doing something like that, you are responsible for the family.

You want to take care of people. Mm-hmm. , but thing are kind of changing. It’s not that, uh, I don’t know. It’s not that require anymore, but yeah, we still practice it some in some area. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:40] Bob Wheeler: What is a financial goal you have for 2020? Do you mean

[00:26:44] Kone Mamadou: the amount of money?

[00:26:45] Bob Wheeler: No. Just do you have a goal? I want to travel, I want to save up a certain amount of money.

I want a car. I don’t know. . Okay.

[00:26:51] Kone Mamadou: I, I was, I wasn’t expecting to be here in 2022. Okay. So being here is something Yeah. Big and maybe being [00:27:00] able to travel in maybe Europe country. Yeah. It is a goal for me. Maybe in 2023. Yeah.

[00:27:08] Sathvik Nagesh: Back home I was actually dependent on my parents. But after coming here, I’m, I’m the, I’m dependent on myself financially.

Awesome. Now I believe that I can pay my own tuition fees in instead of asking my parents.

[00:27:19] Jim Burgoon: Very cool.

[00:27:20] Trevor Furness: Yeah. , that’s awesome.

[00:27:22] Divyashree Nanjappa: I don’t spend that much money back home. Uh, but it’s not like I don’t even waste that much money after coming here. I came to know how my mother and father, they maintain the finance of the house.

I never expected this much hard, so. I get to know. No, the financial maintenance is too harder than anything else, so I’ll try to save money, like being even more responsible than earlier. .

[00:27:49] Bob Wheeler: Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate it. Thank you.[00:28:00]

A big thank you to our special guest, Lori AdamsiBrown, Jim Burgoon Hana Baba. Jake Dahn, Trevor Furness, Divyashree Nanjappa, Sathvik Nagesh, & Kone Mamadou.

Your openness and willingness to discuss your experiences with money was incredible. If you would like to learn more about our special guests, their podcasts, or social media, Check out their links in the show notes.