The Stories Our Money Tells

It's deeper than you think

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to say this whenever talking about money,

"It's more than just the mechanics of dollars and cents. Liabilities and Assets. It's more Psychological and extremely PERSONAL!"

Which is why, whenever anyone talks about money in a mechanical and robotic manner, IT BOTHERS ME! Usually, these kinds of people never help anyone (Painting with a broad brush. There are those who like this style. I just don't like this style and so therefore the style sucks 😜). They usually end up making people feel worse for the bad decisions they have made rather than helping them do better.

We, as human beings, are not machines. We are not logical. We weren't created to be logical. Logic helps the process, but logic is not our primary response to situations. We, as human beings, are EMOTIONAL creatures. We respond to emotions WAY MORE than we do to reason. People who love to present themselves as super logical creatures who always optimize for the best options never relate to us. Plus, they end scaring people away. I see a lot of these people in the personal finance space. The problem I have with these people is that they scare people into the hands of those who are trying to steal from and abuse the ignorant people who are just seeking help and Hope.

Anyway, one of the easiest way to get people to respond, is to tell STORIES. Stories gets the mind to open up and think in new ways. To imagine the unknown. To do something we are often too scared to do,

We create stories even without realizing we are creating them (the brain is a powerful thing). Some stories can be great, and some can be destructive. Recently, I realized a story I had been talking myself. And it wasn't a good one.

But first quick backstory to how I came to this realization (Yeah, we doing this thing Naruto style flashback, to add context and delay the actual plot line so the author has time to continue the story 🤭).

I was watching YouTube, as I do when I have free time cause I can never get enough YouTube. In my subscription feed, there was a vid from TEDx and I love TED videos. Usually, whenever anyone starts talking about personal finance stuff I just passively listen cause most of the content is about the same. But every so often someone shares something great. Plus, someone (don’t know who) said,

"if you ever feel like you can't learn something new about a subject, you can never improve in life".

So yeah, that challenged me.
But the speaker in the video talked about how no matter how hard he worked out, he just wasn't losing any weight. He believed his diet was in the right place, so he was getting frustrated with the results and beginning to lose hope. Until one day in a random convo, someone mentioned his chocolate addiction which of course he refuted. He was so challenged about it, that he went back to his budget to PROVE that he didn’t spend that much money on chocolate.
Well he was WRONG!
But that got him to start focusing on the right things and moving in the right direction.

I decided to run this thought experiment on myself. I already track my expenses well, so it won't be hard to see anything out of whack. In my head, I was sure there wouldn't be anything off in my spending. Because I'm a RATIONAL processor of information who makes the best choices with every life decision (please read the sarcasm).

So I logged into my Mint account and looked over my last couple months. Yup, I was right everything was where it was supposed to be. Except for one section: Transfers and Investments.
Another backstory (told you we Naruto-ing this thing), I am weird in the fact that I have about 15 different checking and savings accounts.

“Why?” You ask.

I need to try them all out for YouTube (SUBSCRIBE). But in reality, it's cause I like to separate my money for specific purposes.

• So I have my main checking accounts for bills with Wells Fargo

  • I know eww, Wells Fargo. Can't help it. Had the account since 11th grade and it’s a pain to change all my auto bill pay. I’M LAZY

• Then I have a checking account with Discover cause it's gives a Cashback of 1% on everything.

• Then I have a SoFi account to save for vacations cause it has a World Debit and Credit Card

• Then I have my Emergency Fund with Ally cause I like the Money Market Account they offer.

• Then I have a Chime Account cause they gave me $75 for opening the account and now it's my Giving account for whenever someone asks me for money.

• One Finance for saving for a House Down Payment

• So on and so forth.

I could keep going but I think you get the point.

As you can see with this many accounts transfers between accounts are a very regular thing for me. Random sidenote: I really need all banks to get better plumbing and communicate better with each other. So, I can move money faster than the 1-3 days that we currently have. However, the reason the transfer category stood out this time was because of three transfers I had made on a random Thursday afternoon. Two to Fundrise and One to DiversifyFund (Prime Trust LLC).

Testing Fundrise date is when the transaction was completed

Testing DiversifyFund but showed on my Statement as Prime Trust LLC.

At first, this seemed like nothing out of the ordinary but why did I make TWO Fundrise investments?

So, I used a strategy I learned while working at a Lumbermill. It's called the 5 Why's. Essentially, I will keep asking why until I find the Root Cause beneath the decision.

Let's walk through my 5 Why's:

1. Why did I randomly choose to invest in Fundrise and DiversifyFund that Thursday afternoon?
   My sister had asked me about DiversifyFund and since I was bored at work on the day. I had time to start researching both platforms. I had previously heard of Fundrise through you guessed it, YouTube. So, it was a good chance to learn more about it while comparing it to a competing service. My research was inconclusive, so I decided to invest in both and try it out.

2. Why did I want to invest in either?
   Cause it's seemed like a good way to get into Real Estate. Plus, I've been sitting on cash for so long while trying to save for a house down payment and it was getting frustrating waiting.

3. Why am I getting frustrated saving for a house?
   Cause seems like I might have missed my chance to buy a house and seeing the market just keep running from me is frustrating. Plus, I'm tired of living by the rules of others. I want my own kingdom.

And that's when I realized the story I had been telling myself. I had come to believe that I wouldn't be able to buy a house or own my own kingdom. Which is why using something like Fundrise of DiversifyFund seemed like the better option. (Both platforms are essentially Real Estate Investment Trusts that allow you to buy real estate like stocks with some caveats but I am not going into that in this write up).

But that isn't true AT ALL.

I realize that in the short term it feels great to see an account that says, "Invested in these random real estate properties." But in the long term it doesn't fulfill what I truly want. Which is a place to call home. A place where I can host my family at any time. A place where my little sister can come hide whenever she is having a rough go of things. A place where I can house friends who just need time. A place where I can welcome my future bride.

So yeah. Money isn't just dollars and cents.

It is the way we tell a story of who we are.

By how we choose to use it.
What story does your money tell? Email me @ ramblingmindshow@gmail.com when you find out.

Remember GENEROSITY > greed.

God Bless EACH and EVERY single one of y'all.

And I'm OUT. ✌🏾

-Kelechi