5 Ways to Have Financial Conversations with Dr. Nicole Garner Scott

Zaakirah Muhammad 0:10
Today's guest on the See Life Different podcast is Dr. Nicole Garner Scott. She is my first ever returning guest, formerly a guest on episode 41 titled Money, Wealth, and entrepreneurship, she is a highly sought after serial entrepreneur, financial expert and advisor. Nicole uses story and her experiences to empower others with tools to change their financial trajectories. With over a decade of experience and entrepreneurship, she believes that more opportunity to serve by helping to reduce the losses by structuring a well designed plan. She's an Atlanta native born and raised in College Park just like my brother and my sister. She's a mother, a wife and a financial professional. She's on a mission to also help mothers to set up and input money boundaries. Her mission is to help create financial breathing room for household for underrepresented communities and realistic wealth plan to fit any budget. She received her undergraduate degree from GSU her MBA in digital entrepreneurship from Strayer and was awarded an honorary doctorate for her work in business. She is also a recipient of the Mayor Phoenix Award which is the highest award bestowed in the city of Atlanta. Currently, Nicole has aligned her financial practice with Northwestern Mutual through the money plan. So we're going to talk about her unique posts in helping to build financial security and holistic conversations about money. Welcome Nicole.

Nicole Garner Scott 1:52
Continuously such amazing content in this space and very excited to be here.

Zaakirah Muhammad 1:59
Thank you and today's conversation where if necessary, woman have to have it. Black woman have to have it. And I feel like we're a better person than to have this conversation about money and wealth and just financial legacy.

Nicole Garner Scott 2:21
In our space, we normalize a lot of other conversations right? And I love it. I love to see the growth that we've we've normalized mental health or we're starting to you know, really get that out there. We've normalized not being a superwoman anymore. You know, normalized self care taking time. For yourself. But for some reason, when it comes to financial conversations, that still tends to be somewhat taboo. Because it's personal, right? It you feel like it's a reflection of your choices. You feel like it's a reflection of what you have your belief system, the traumas, the financial triggers, whatever it is, you feel like when you sit down and talk about money, it reveals a lot of that and so we tend to shy away from that conversation more than none, and I love just really being on this mission of making sure that we we just remove the mask, we remove any embarrassment. You'll be surprised you know, you never know what's going on in people's households and we make it look good on social media, but everyone has questions in regards to money. We feel like we know it so well because we've touched it since we were little right you. I mean from when you were little when your uncle used to give you $20 Or from you know, however, however money inserted into your life as a child you you've touched touch money and spent money and receive money. So you feel like you know money but when it comes down to how money is utilized as a tool, and the math is a strategy surrounding money. You know, many people need outside help they need a Money Team they need an advisor of planner a financial professional to sit down and talk with them and someone who's studying this and keeping their eyes on it all the time.

Zaakirah Muhammad 4:18
Yes, and I'm so glad you started with that because I feel like that later. We're starting to start when we have what will we code and not code about money that by now. So trauma that comes with money, and then the frugality versus, you know, living the luxuries of having it. So let's talk about the difference between that you've observed. I guess it starts in the mind talk with mindset. Um, what is the typical transition process? That really can help women to go from living mama to fubo to you know, living in abundance

Nicole Garner Scott 4:57
is really shifting from scarcity mindset that you have to have that courageous conversation with yourself about being honest that you are living in scarcity. And I say courageous conversations. There's there's a book by Brene Brown, who's an awesome, awesome woman who just talks about having that honesty with yourself right pulling back those those layers of the onion and really before you expect anyone else to be honest with you, you you having to be honest with yourself. But many of us have equated scarcity to our our enormous right so if you grew up in a very, very frugal home, then that just became the way right you're trying to be every price out there. When something is discounted at a rate, you're grabbing it whether you need it or not, because who knows you might need it in the future. And when you need it, you might not be able to afford it. You're you're making choices based upon what is the cheapest opportunity to bring this item into your life. And I grew up that way there therefore, you know, and that became my way of normalcy and so I started realizing that I was impacted quality of life. Right and on the on the reverse and you're overspending for those things anyway, right? So when you get a very inexpensive car and it's a limit, by the time it's all said and done by the time you've broken down by the time us a place this transmission got no breaks and says just that, you might as well get a new car, right and it takes you going through that a few times sometimes to wake up and be like, this could have been money well spent somewhere. Else. But the amount of cheese that I've lost the quality of life that I'm living in scarcity has hasn't served. And you know, I got to a place in my life I realize this this way of being just no longer served me in my life. And so I had to let go of a lot of that scarcity mindset, but also to education plays a big role and I don't and by all means I love school. I love to take anybody on. How is it for you if it's not for you, we all have our different opinions on that. But I'm talking about financial education, right? There's there's a lot of information that was purposely kept from our communities, right. You know, women couldn't even open up their own bank accounts until a few decades ago, but it wasn't I think a lot of us forget how new this is. You know, I see a lot of memes that shun older generations, but they didn't even have some of these rights like some of our grandparents or great grandparents couldn't even go out and purchase property. They couldn't go out and open up their bank accounts without a man signing off on that they couldn't you know, do a lot of things that we can financially do now without there being a man there to do that. So you know, so so a lot of these things are purposely kept information. was purposely kept and that's when you have to decide that you want to go out and seek the people around you that know that information that wants to make sure you're empowered with that information, and taking that information and using it to make very viable decisions. In regards to things. YouTube is great, but YouTube got to get yourself far. So far, you know, you have to get people that really understand financial strategy,

Zaakirah Muhammad 8:55
and I'm so glad you mentioned you know just how far some my far we've come at least when it comes to property because I agree I saw some memes and jokes and on about don't don't sell your grandma's house. You know and I exam people also debating especially you know where we are in a pandemic of like, renting is better renting it better. So, what are your take on that on what? What valve really people should go when it comes to the value of real estate

Nicole Garner Scott 9:34
you have to look at and really customize a plan that nice, right? Because a lot of people are getting into real estate investment, but they have emergency emergency funds that are fully funded that are in place. They have other parts of their portfolio that can withstand them, making riskier choices, they have you know, secure revenue feeds coming in, and then you have someone else that follows that same advice that was their last dollar, right like they put it all into real estate because everyone say real estate is the move that was gonna last dollar. That real estate investment was not a good investment and they pretty much wiped out everything behind them. And so I think that's where, while I love social media, and I love information, many times when people ask me like an affirmation, I'm like, hey DME, call me. Let's set up a me and let me assess everything that's going on with you right now. So that we make strong decisions because I might say hey, hold off and get your emergency fund in place. I make sure that should anything else happen because what happens right like you can be making all these great real estate moves. You can be you know, and business could be going crazy. There's no There's no cushion for you. Something happens in life. And then now you have to take all your gains that you just got from your investments and use them to pay for this emergency. So I'm very, very much about doing things that are laying the foundation. Have your defense strategy your proper insurances, your proper risk management things in place. Then having your emergency fund in place, understanding your cash flow, understanding, you know, how you spend why you spend getting to the root of that, and then building on top of that, and then knowing what your risk tolerance is in building you know, a plan and a strategy that matches that. And then also to you know, sometimes it's not it's not you have to do everything. You might have someone who makes these investments on your behalf you might have you know, open a brokerage account and you know, have people actively managing those things for you because even though you have the money who might not be the best equipped to do that, and then maybe you are you know, so it just kind of depends. And that's the thing when people go after like blanketed advice and they apply it to themselves, but they're not taking that extra step to see what is all the details that this person has in place. You know. I typically see a lot of individuals they'll they'll go after what is that big, shiny thing that everyone's talking about, you know, and when they're listening to that person, I'm not taking into account that this person has no mortgage they'll put their family gave in the house, right that their family gave them four properties. So So So So what so they lose 20,000 tomorrow, okay, you know, it's no big thing. You lose 10,000 Tomorrow, and you're ready to sue somebody, because what are you going to do to be able to bounce back so you know, doing a little food diligence in regards to that. And then really understanding that rich and wealth they don't they don't really have a look. Right. So so a lot of us tend to gravitate and follow what we feel like looks rich, and what we feel like looks well, and it's interesting I was talking to middle schoolers.

And so what is what does rich mean to you guys? What does wealth mean to you guys? And they, you know, they were all thrown out. It means like about Jordans I want or it means that we have the biggest house on the block or means and I was like, you notice I'm finding it as adults. We're sitting here they laugh, but their minds are thinking the same thing. Right, who you're following for financial advise us to do this house for who has the most journeys or who has said to us that and you have to get to the root of wealthiness gives you peace of mind. It gives you options, and it gives you the ability to live later on without running out of money. And so those are things that you can't really see, right, like people who are making very wealthy moves, you know, to make sure that generational wealth is left behind to make sure that they don't outlive their money. You can't see that per se on social media. You can't see that visually, but it's being done and so you have to kind of redefine in your mind. What is well, or you sound like the group of middle schoolers I was talking to the other day, it might not be as like, Oh, I get all the pink Jordans. It might not come out like that. But if you really sit down and think about it, it still sounds somewhat like that. Or who you're seeking. Your advice from, you know is many times we will be like oh wow, like you take advice from her. You know she I haven't seen her on a yet I haven't seen it is that's that can't be what we determined to you. You know, like, Wolf is is is an opportunity for you to be able to control the controllables that's something that's very important.

Zaakirah Muhammad 15:31
Yeah. I'm so glad you brought up that example because I was watching an interview the other day with a con and he brought up the example of there's so many music artists that he would work with. And it's like yeah, you see the music video you see the Bentley but you don't know that after that shoot, you know is finished. They went tonight they were turning that many they were turning Oh go chain, they don't own it. So I'm like yeah, I think that's what gets easily misconstrued is that, you know, those who do actually own it, like they won't know that they actually have more than one property more than one you know, source of income, you know, for their creativity. So, yeah, and speaking of a con he actually also just recently launched a Bitcoin currency. So speaking of talking about all this shiny new object thing, what about the Bitcoin conversation that's happening now?

Nicole Garner Scott 16:31
Past to Bitcoin conversation, that's when you really need to ally yourself with those. It's a very complex space, because everyone's talking about it. Is seems much more level down. People really understand it. And there are a lot of resources that are available, but I would align yourself with someone who is very best in the high level complexity of it. And not necessarily just continue to shoot off at the hill is a very volatile space, right meaning is highest, you know, and so with high risk Yes, there is high reward. Yes. There is high loss, you know, to vote. But I think he's gonna hold yourself to a lie with the professionals in that space. And to understand, you know, we have the metaverse is here. I mean, we could argue with the metaphors it's been a year and Metaverse has been here for decades. Now, it's just become made accessible to the average day person, but how money will how money will work in the AI space. I'm reading more and more about that. That's going to be very interesting, even though like you might be able to make money in the metaverse and then bring it back into the universe. A lot of I mean, how we're going to perceive things is going to be very, very drastically different you know, over the next couple of decades. And so it always it always is important to understand change as a constant. To understand that money was never the paper exchange or the car that's in front of you money as a representation of value exchange. Unless you once your mind wraps around that concept, then you really understand money, right? It's never it's never the what's sitting in purposely in your bank account. But what does that afford you what is the value exchange? What is the value proposition? That that's aligned with? When you are building up your wealth? What does that affording you to make sure that if you ever get sick, you can take care of it to make sure that if you pass away, your loved ones are still very well taken care of to make sure that you know should there be anything that you want to do for your children that you can do such as the value proposition so it behooves you to understand what's happening in the future. And to understand that change and understand that dynamic, but I'm still a big fan of there's experts in it and align yourself with such

Zaakirah Muhammad 19:35
that, right, you are so willing to learn so much to learn, and that's why we're here to help each other that now we're coming to the end of the conversation and so what are your tips for going into the new year? Having a well have those financial plan a financial plan that can be put in place starting today?

Nicole Garner Scott 20:08
And when you have a good plan, like especially our team, we have to have money and choices during the best times of your life. And then we also have to have money and choices during the worst times. And that's when you really want to have a plan. Right like it. I mean, by all means it feels good when everything's working well and everything's well oiled. When things start to bottom out and you have that plan in place. Then you know, it's just it's just getting through the emotional side of it, but you can trust the strategy in place. So if he says one, finding, you know, finding a good financial professional with a teacher spirit, you know, someone that understands that there is a financial information gap and they can, they're not just trying to push you into products, they're trying to make sure that you understand you have a very will a well versed understanding of how to optimize and what your long term plan is. I think that you have to before this year is over with you got to look at your finances and your finances and understand what your cash flow is right? I'm not going to the B word which is budget, but you know, we have to get very real as to what's coming in and what's going out. And what does that surplus that you have at the end of the day. And then you got to start, you know, creating a plan to give those extra dollars a job or those just start to disseminate. I think that you need to have your defense strategy in place. You know, so assessing where you are with like your life insurance understanding that there's death benefits and living benefits to life insurance. I think that you need to have a touch with your family members, right you over the holidays, or you know in any anytime that your family gathers is you know, do you does everybody have a will? Is that in place? Do you actually own your home and asking your parents? Do they have Do your parents and your grandparents have life insurance? Do they have long term care? You know, will you and yes you know if anything happens to your parents will that fall on you and your siblings or your your spouse, like just really going through a lot of those conversations is going to be very, very key. And then you could be proactive on things instead of being

Zaakirah Muhammad 22:43
reactive versus proactive. That's definitely a whole conversation in its own because there's so many emotional reactions that do come out of money and money make it is it is now sent. This is I know people got a lot of information and they're probably looking you up out there listening right now. So where can they find you on social media?

Nicole Garner Scott 23:14
SO if you want to know more about my initiative is The Money Plan INC. And then if you're interested in getting a financial call consultation with me and my team, you can go to themoneyplaninc.com. And I think that'd be great to really get your year in gear and make sure that you're tracking to your future right.

Zaakirah Muhammad 23:46
Now, I'll usually have like a three part series that love to ask every guest at the end of our conversation, but I'm kind of going to improvise a little bit for you. So you ready so where do you want to travel to not just the next best place but if there's some others out there, they're listening and they're trying to get ideas of where they could go within their financial budget. Where would you suggest to travel to within the next year?

Nicole Garner Scott 24:18
So listen, I have all the hacks when it comes to travel. All you have to do is just vote against the popularities. So if you're going so basically if we're on the expressway, you need to go against the traffic. You need to go if everybody is heading you know 85 South because they're all going out to work. You need to figure out what's going to take for you guys. So typically I'll travel during off seasons. I'll travel against tourism, so like if you go into the Caribbean, everyone tries to go to the Caribbean during the summertime, you know that's big. So if you could figure out a way to go during an advert time like in the fall, then of course you're gonna save money in that room. I have all the apps on the hopper at the hotel tonight. You know where they're sending out all those different things. So you just have to not travel. The travel industry took a very big hit during the pandemic and we're still kind of, we call it pandemic party. There's so many ways to travel deals. I think you just gotta if you're flexible with your date you got to an off time you go against the grain then yeah you can totally traveling your budget you know like to move to LA became like very popular on the pandemic risk became very popular with pandemic wood. You can still go there off times and make those times

Zaakirah Muhammad 26:11
I love the tips. And now what do you want your financial legacy to be?

Nicole Garner Scott 26:22
Making sure that become the CFOs of their homes in the most empowered. So no more of I'm not a numbers girl. I let my husband handle all of that. I don't really know no more of those conversations, you know, to have two heads is better than one. So if you are, you know cohabitating with someone or living with someone, I think it's better to have two people focus on that one. And then also to if, for instance, if in the instance you're the better one of finances then feel empowered to do such I think we have to let go of gender, gender boxes, who should do what or it doesn't even make sense if you're in a better cook than you could for some reason know how to cut grass better than I fed grass. Whoever the other needs to grab the random grabbing in. So yeah, just definitely making sure of that and then seeing as many people speak to your cultural sensitivities, our communities, mostly when it comes to finances. So always speaking to bring that conversation back to the forefront. You know, there there's a lot of different things that have gotten us to the places we are financially that that a lot of us take personal but it's because things were designed, there was a lot of systematic things that we're where we are right now. And so understanding that make sure people are aware of that, so that we can continue to empower and build on that level

Zaakirah Muhammad 28:11
where we got a long way to go where you are right there. Yeah, that midway for us, and I know you got us

Nicole Garner Scott 28:21
thank you.