Top Money Moves for your 50s

Introduction

Welcome back to another episode of Black Girl Fly by I'm your girl, Tenisha Nicole.

And I'm Tashaunda Dixon.

And today we want to continue the conversation. Yeah, we are in a series called Money Moves for Whatever Decade Entered the Decade. So today, we want to talk about money moves for your fifties. Dumb doo doo doo doo. Now, a disclaimer. Neither of us are in our.

15th or even close.

Closer than we think back.

Payments.

Like we think. But I was wondering to talk about this because I was in a conversation a couple of weeks ago, and, you know, I was it was a I was basically talking about finances and a lot of the crew in that in the space they were in their fifties and above. First of all, I was like, what can I tell you about finances?

Is It Too Late?

Because you have already experienced it all. But, you know, I remember like clearly hearing the theme from all of them. And it was basically like they were asking if it was too late for them to, like, change the trajectory of where they were in a you know, the the reckless optimist in me says. Of course not. Of course, you can start any day There is this quote that I love that says, you know, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The second best time to plant that tree is today is so I would just say overall, like, no, it's not too late to change the trajectory, to change your focus, especially if you're in your fifties. And you're thinking about, you know, kind of winding down what may have been, you know, your career.

Now I'm going to play you because I'm not as optimistic, but you made it harder for yourself if you hadn't done the things. I'm just keeping it.

Receiving room like.

Like. Yes. So, yes, you can make a difference but you have made it harder for yourself by waiting until you're 50 to do things. I'm going to you know, she can be optimistic, but I am going to call it out. Even though it's not impossible. It's going now. It's going to be harder.

It is going to be harder.

But you can still do something.

Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. 100% and I do take the optimistic side of me to most things. But I think it's real like we've done each decade up until now to let you know, like there actually are things that you should be working on.

And has been waiting 50 because you write. Then you can see it like you can see the edge like, oh, I can see it now. Let me.

What's Critical to Start in Your 50s?

Start. Exactly. Yeah. And I'm like, 50. We're not saying go back and do everything that you were supposed to in the decades before but there are some critical things that you probably need to start doing that you should have done right up until this point. And so I'm going to put you on a spot, but like what are some of the things that come to mind?

Like, you know, you didn't start in your thirties or forties, but you are critical to start now in your fifties.

I mean, I would say and it's so funny because this wasn't the first thing that came to mind earlier in my mind when I was thinking about finding stuff, but creating an alternate income like like don't. So I used to think it was all about like savings and investing and all those things and whatnot. But more than not, I'm finding that in your fifties you still need an income.

Hmm. And and that historically, you know, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, you could depend on your employer that you were in 50 and they were going to hold your job until it was retirement time. Right. But you can't depend on that anymore. So what I would say is start to diversify your income streams. Like, if, if you haven't done any of that yet, that is probably the most important part is because at this point you're still on this track, which means that you still need, you know, to be financially capable of providing for yourself.

Yeah. And so I'd say the first thing the probably the most important thing that comes to mind for me is not being so risk averse depending on one place for all of your income.

Right. And I mean, that's so real. Like with all the innovation in and like this shift, I don't want to say in technology, but just the way of working recently, you are seeing a lot of companies that have like, you know, middle managers who are up in age, like they're hiring the 20 year olds off the street to do their social media.

Right. The work looks different. And if you haven't kept up with if you don't want to be an Instagram manager or TikTok manager, I mean, those types of jobs are taking away from, I think, the other traditional jobs that we might have seen.

So not only that, like everything isn't as complicated as all the new social media stuff, but I mean, now people understand that there's a gig economy out there, right? Yeah. And so you can drive and pick up groceries, you can deliver food, you can fix people stuff. You can build something like like there's so many different things that you can do.

Yeah. And it's a it's an array of things that I mean, people are on Pinterest in an Etsy, and they're doing they're crafting old things that you used to consider a hobby now.

To be income generating. Yeah, I love that topic because I feel like by the age of 50, you probably have mastered something you know, outside of your work. And so I think if you've undervalued the value of that thing, like there are now so many areas in the gig economy.

That can I didn't want to be open about. I actually haven't talked to her in a really long time, but I had a friend who was like a close associate with me and she actually went to a point where she had a she was really young and she had to go on disability. She basically didn't have an arm and she, you know, whatever so she had to go on disability and she was facing like she I think she had time.

She let in her maybe late twenties, early thirties, and she had kids and they were like disability and you're only going to get by like a thousand bucks, 12 bucks a month. And she was like, What am I going to do? But I need to take this, cause I can't do the job that I used to do. Right. And so she did that.

But she was a huge crafter. Like, just I mean, she used to just do all kinds of stuff. And I saw her social media recently. And actually when my daughter was born, five years ago, she made me like these onesies with matching bibs, matching socks that had like her her my daughter's initials embroidered on it. And it was so cute.

It was the cutest thing. I still have it to this day. That's one thing when I get my baby, whatever. But I looked at her social media and she was featured and she has a business I think it's called I Craft out of Alabama, and she's kicking butt and taking names and she's no longer on disability. And she I mean, she's a boss now and she's doing this with her disability and she didn't have to depend on the government assistance.

And she found something that worked for her. And I just think that there's a story like that and everybody that there's something that you are into that you are uniquely designed to do. And now what ends up bringing this to the technology portion? It's not so much that technology you have to be a technology wizard. It's that technology has made everything so much closer.

Yeah. So before you couldn't find an audience who would want your embroidered baby onesies right? And now you can go to a Facebook maternity group. I'm just doing random thing out there. And all these people are looking for these these things.

All around the world. Yeah, right.

Yes. And you just opened up your customer base so much more than you could have done in the past.

Exactly. Yeah. So I think that's a great that is such a great tip to use your use your existing skills, your existing knowledge.

Passion.

Passion. Right. Maybe the things that you hadn't got to focus on in your career. This is an opportunity to explore a bit right? Yeah.

Scary Transitions

But I'm going to I'm going to reel this in, though, really.

Because I was going.

To but.

Go, hey.

I was going to take it somewhere else.

So you can go, well, I was going to say, I think maybe for a person in their fifties and I'm just speculating here, so don't kill the messenger over here. But I think it can be a little scary, right? Like, you know, making a transition like that. I mean, maybe you do it while you're still working a full time thing, but maybe there is an incident like the just talked about where you actually don't have a choice where you don't have the security of your job anymore.

Right. So what do you say to people who it might feel a little scary for.

So I would say that it's only scary for you because you're not acknowledging the risks that you're already sitting in.

Mm. Oh.

And I have to say this. I have been put in a situation specifically where, you know, I manage people for our organization and our organizations that we had goals, and this person did not meet the goals. And it doesn't matter how long that person has been there. In this case, there's the person who's been there for a really long time.

And I had to though we we do bonuses every year, I don't give the person a bonus. We do in merit increases, just costly bonuses. I don't give that person married increase. And the next step is they. You're done. Wow. Right. And so I think we we have placed emotional fear on stepping out on our own. But you're actually more responsible for your own situation when you're out on your own.

And so I'd say that's a perception thing. It's like it's like flying a plane. So I was talking to someone and he was saying he's like, oh, yeah, people in my family, I don't they don't ride in planes at all. They're scared of planes. And I was like, well, I'm scared of cars. And I was like, so the reality is that in order for somebody to get in that pilot's seat, they had to have so many hours.

And not only that, but they had a person sitting next to him who could also fly the plane. They have people in the air who actually control the plane for most of the flight, like they have all these people watching and guiding and controlling them. And they are there's so much more oversight.

Right, to ride.

That system of riding in that plane than a person who's more comfortable and getting in the car with people who can just get in the car and not have a license or with a car not be inspected or up to par.

Or that person be impaired. I mean, yes, somebody and someone else you know.

Yes. And then that's my point is that I, I think that we have put so much trust in organizations who provide us with jobs or, or careers and that they're going to continue to provide us those things. Right. And we have less fear for things that we do ourselves.

I just crazy.

Yes. Because and why that's crazy is because you care about you more than anyone else in the world. And so if push comes to shove, I think most people will do what it takes to eat.

Yeah. I I think you're right about that.

Yes. And so when when I say and I want to make sure I'm speaking to the 50 year old out there I know it's scary because you haven't done it before, but trust in yourself, in your determination and the opportunity that the other people around you who have done this or who you've seen has done that, they're not that much greater than you are.

Right? They just took more chances. Yeah, yeah. That if you look at them, they are not smarter than you. They are not more capable than you. They don't work harder than you. Right. It has made a different decision than you did.

Yeah. And that's what I mean. Not to not that you have to put other people down to put yourself up. You know, we had that conversation before, but I'm like, think about that. Advantages that your age has given you. Right. Like, you have had more life experience, you have more wisdom. And so I think you really have to look at your age as a benefactor.

Well, not only that, but people also perceive you that way, right?

Oh, my God. If I told your how important this has been for me. Yeah. Now, yes, go ahead. Spell it out. I'm like, I have had so much insecurity in my entire working career because of my age. I just dream about the day when I'm like, if I.

Could look at you and see that you're 50 and they just trust you and.

They won't take me seriously, early, right? And I won't have to prove that I know what I'm talking about. So. So, yeah. So y'all got that going for you.

Other Opportunities and Hard Realities

So so the thing that I want to do and I said I want to bring it back is that. Yes. So, so the first statement that I made was create another opportunity. If you're not dependent on one but don't just mean that money from that other opportunity, right? Bank all that money. If that's a, if that's an extra opportunity, that means that's extra.

Right? And so you do have to save more. You have to invest more than if you were in your twenties. And so take that money. You take whatever you're doing to really save and to do the things that you weren't doing before. Mhm.

And additionally, I think if you haven't done these in your earlier years, you need to be getting insurance policies like yesterday. Okay. Like it is critically important. We've talked about this on previous episodes, but like, you know, again, the only things that are guaranteed in life are death and taxes. Like you don't want to leave your family out you know, not knowing how to pay for things after you're gone.

Right. And their dependency may be on your income, that's one thing. But then also get a will establish like let people know around you, your loved ones, what your wishes are. Right? Like if you have not had those hard conversations that absolutely need to happen, like start having those, let your family members know how you want to be buried.

Like do you want to be cremated? Do you want to be, you know, buried in a certain plot of land? Like you need to tell people, do you want such things as like DNR would you be open to being in a coma for a while? You know what I mean? Like, you have to start thinking about these hard realities.

And the second important part is communicating them, right? So that people know and can act on your behalf if you're not able to.

Say, I'm sorry, I had to take it there, but I'm just like, those are some important things and I think I said also in a previous episode, I recently got disability insurance. And, you know, this is something that's not for everyone. But if you suspect that you might benefit or something like that, like short term care policies or disability policies, like exploring other options beyond just life insurance.

Yeah, I wasn't even going to add long term care insurance. So long term care you should start thinking about. So the fact of the matter is, and I want to make sure I say this, that everything that you've done and that everything that people do, we don't get into poor situations because we were just that stupid or because we weren't, you know, shopping or we went on crazy lavishly vacations.

Things happened to us. And so all the things that I was just talking about, about insurance and short term disability and all those things they're super important because most people who find themselves in Bynes, something happened to them that they couldn't control life like those things. That's why insurance is important. And so prepare for those types of instances where it's out of your control.

But the effects could be devastating.

Right, right, right.

Right. I mean, even if you save all your money from when you're 20, but then something happens to you and you can't work for two years, you're still broke. You're going to.

Go through it.

I don't. They just like if you wouldn't have saved it all.

Exactly. So.

So it's also about doing the savvy things that just protect you in case of of apparel that you just can't control.

Right? Yeah.

Significant impact.

Summary

I definitely agree with that. I guess if there is anything, if there's anything we had to say, to sum it up, I would say in your fifties, don't expect that it's going to be taken care of. So you don't expect.

Things to be the.

Same yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. Yeah. I'm like, for me, it's like people just waiting on, you know, the retirement they're going to get from the government. And I'm like, just don't expect that there's going to be what you need.

Yeah. And it was never meant to be all that, you.

Know, it never. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so there are things, folks. There are hope is not lost. There are still things that you can do. Let us know if you have any additional ideas for the topic. We'd love to hear from you. I know we did not cover everything but we wanted to make sure that. Yeah, I know there's so much, but we don't want to allow people in our fifties.

So that's it for today. Anything else you want to add? Oh, good. Okay, so until next time, folks. I'm your girl. Tenisha Nicole.

And I'm Tashaunda Dixon.

And we are black girl fly.