Episode Transcript:
Miesha Williams 00:00
Welcome to thenetworthy podcast, we're talking securing, saving, and investing the bag from side hustles, to main hustles and everything in between, let's get to it.
Miesha Williams 00:17
This episode was created using the anchor app, a free podcast creation tool, which allows you to record directly from your phone or your computer. I'm actually recording in my car right from my phone right now. You can download the anchor app or go to anchor.fm. To get started, believe me is the easiest way to get started with your podcasts download the anchor app today
Miesha Williams 00:50
What's good? So I still haven't figured out how I am starting these episodes off. I feel like everybody has like a thing that they do. I don't have a thing, I just get on here and I just start talking or I'm like, what's up? Or, I think I say hi everyone. Either way, whatever. Let's not dwell on that for too long. So I took a week off to help my niece transition to this online learning world. So she's in second grade, and she's with me during the school day, my guest room has basically like just turned into her little office. And when I say these kids are wild, these kids are wild. Kids really might be the funniest people on earth man, like, they're just like, tiny adult humans, and they just don't have any tact, they just say, whatever comes out of their mouth. So you know, as they're virtually learning, like when they're that young, you don't really want to give them headphones, because Okay, so I'm just okay, I did say she's in second grade, she's in second grade, and she's 7 years old. So yeah, when you're that, when they're that young, you don't really want to give them headphones, because they need help with everything, like using the computer switching tabs or, you know, whatever that they have to do during the class. So like when the teacher says it's time for them to, you know, move to something new. You want to be able to hear that so that you can help them. Because if not, they'll just be sitting there staring at the screen looking stupid, because, you know, whatever. So as she's in this class, and she's learning, there's always something wild, like, always something wild going on. Right? So the teacher had asked, what happened the teacher asked if they knew one of the little girls in class who hadn't been logging on, right. So I'm not gonna see a little girl's name, but they asked if they knew who she was. And one of the students answer and they're like, Yeah, I know we're but I don't like her like, nigga what? I know her but I don't like her. Like y'all are seven it's the first week of school. How are y'all beef and already? Like, no cut cards, no holding back, like, she's could've simply said yeah, I know who she is. She's like, nah. I don't like her, alright, damn. And then like, a little while later, she told one of the little, one of the little boys in class to use away in a sentence. And he's like, I wish I could get away from this class. She's like, Oh, you don't like it here. So I mean, my niece, she says some like pretty funny things too. But I don't know these kids are just really hilarious to me. Like they ask my niece, the asked her, you know, what's something that you're worried about? And she was like, the teacher. And she's like, What? You know me you've met me and she's just like, ehhh, like ehh, I don't know you that well, but I mean, it's just funny to me to see the things that kids pick up like, I don't know just pick up from their parents and I'm saying this because and I don't mean this in a rude way like, oh, their parents talk like this so they talk like this. That's not what I mean. But in the same breath, there's been some like pretty wild things that the parents have said in the background during these courses. And honestly, I love it I'm here for I feel like there should be a show about it. Showtime needs to pick it up like it's really funny. Like they're fumbling the bag if somebody doesn't pick this up as like a little short show, but this is not even what this episode is about. But whatever. So kids don't just pick up personality traits from their parents. Right? So like if you've met my mom, which why am I saying, if you met my mom, most of you have not met my mom. I think probably like two of you have met my mom. Like who am I talking to, if you've met my mom. But you know my mom is like a very confident woman and I joke all the time about like how she is like the original city girl. My mom was the original hot girl. Like she's very confident very amazing. You know anybody that meets her I'm not gonna say anybody let me say sorry, mom. But when my friends meet her, they're like really shocked and they just love her so much that she is like this vibrant and she birthed a child as conservative as I am or I wouldn't call myself conservative, conserved? reserved, reserved. There that's the word I'm looking for, reserved that my mom, you know, the way that she is that she birthed a child that is as reserved as I am. Even though we have different personalities because of her, I am able to walk like in my own confidence. And I am you know, I'm very pro woman and I say that a lot.
Miesha Williams 05:13
So I don't have kids, but hopefully one day they look at me, and you know, the blueprint of how I have shit, what am I saying how I have treated people, you know, is like, laid the blueprint for how you know, they are when they get older. So like, my, my mom's confidence was instilled in me, hopefully, what I'm doing is instilled into my children, even if they don't, their personalities don't match mine, which I would love for it to. But whatever, I'm rambling now let's, let's, let's move on. So, like I was saying, kids don't just pick up personality traits from their parents, you know, like a lot of people talk about their kids being their legacy, and you know, working to leave something for the next generation. And if you have kids, the decisions you make today can be the difference between them starting adulthood in debt or with you know, with like a little bit of coin in our pockets. Like we all talk about wanting to spoil our kids and want our kids to not want for nothing. And if you're like me, and don't have kids, but maybe, you know, one day you plan to then this, the decisions you make today are still just as important for the same reasons. And for me, it's not even just about kids it's about leaving something behind for my niece to because like I said, she is with me, this girl is stuck to me like glue. And she was quick to tell anyone who will listen to her that I am her favorite person, that's no cap. So of course, I want to build something for her, of course, I want to be around to make sure she's straight. And that her kids are straight. I mean, if that's the route that she has to take, and she's only seven who knows what she'll decide to do later down, you know, down the road. So in the previous episode, I had gotten into a quick introduction of my own views on capitalism. And I also mentioned how I'm anti capitalist and anti wealth. The first text I received when the episode was live was like, do you mean, anti wealth or anti excessive wealth, in which I responded to an I said. Well, wealth is excessive, right? So like, anti wealth or anti excessive wealth, wealth is already excessive. So what's the point of doing that extra word in front of it? And I stand on that, like, there may be times I contradict myself, but when it comes to this, I'm always stand 10 toes down on it. And after that, I had a few other people hit me to get an understanding of what I meant by wealth also. So before I go into my own little spill, ask yourself, that question, that question, how much money would you need to consider yourself wealthy? That's the question that I'm asking you right now. So low elevator music, how much money? Do you need to consider yourself wealthy like, when you think about it? on your own terms? Have you ever thought about it? What does that look like to you? What does wealth look like? to you at what point, would you have enough money in your pocket where you'll be like, Damn, I'm wealthy, because in my eyes, a million dollars is not wealth, you know, and dependent on what age you're retiring, you can have a million dollars and you'll still need to work like, you can retire with a million dollars still need to work depending on how and at what age you're retiring, like if I was, was to decide to if I was to decide to retire with a million dollars right now. I would think by the time like, I'm old, that imma still be looking around like what's next? What's more, like what comes after this? So when I say hoarding wealth, a million dollars is not what I mean, in from the conversations that I see people have on Twitter, you know, the amount, like what they consider to be rich or what they consider to be wealthy is still a lot lower than that. Right. So I think that we all just have like, a very skewed vision of what rich is, of what wealth is. And I mean, just like the whole colorism concept, not the color the concept but like what's considered light skin what's considered brown skin or whatever, because, okay, you see, people say a lot of times that lighstkinkeisha isn't light skin. And I'm one of the few people who think she is lightskinned. If you don't know what I'm talking about right now, whatever like this, this scenario is not for you. But like, it's like, it's the same with that, like the goalpost is different depending on who you ask, right? So when it comes to like, what's considered to be rich what's considered to be wealthy it's going to be different depending on who you ask. This is really just, you know, what they see as wealth. I think somebody called 300k rich because to them 300k annually is what they would need to have not worry about, you know, the price of things. So okay, well, you know, because that 300k i feel like I'll be comfortable to me, that's rich, right? And I remember somebody else that responded and told him that 300k won't shit. And then they took that as them saying, like 300K isn't a lot of money. We're not saying that 300k isn't a lot of money, but it's not enough money to be considered wealthy it's not enough money to be considered rich it's enough money to be considered like living well. Yeah, you living well you living good, you'd be able to pay for schools and cars and whatever but like, you're not hoarding wealth at 300K, okay. So like I said, obviously, everyone's gonna have a different goalpost for what's consideration rich and what's considered wealthy, but to me personally, when I think rich, I'm thinking of a couple million dollars like $10 million in my eyes, you're rich, that is like a level of wealth to me, like you're starting to like, you know, accumulate wealth. It might not be super wealthy, but like $10 million. All right now like you, you have a little more than you need, I mean, a lot more than what you need. So I think there's like,
Miesha Williams 10:13
I don't know, to think that there's someone out there with $500 million. Like, that's to me, that's wilding like, what do you need $500 million for then to have people out there with like $260 billion. And people just talk about it like it's okay. Do y'all realize how much money $260 billion is like 1000 million dollars makes up a billion dollars, just one for $1 billion dollars, like, okay, $1 billion $1 billion, you literally have 1000 million dollars, like, that's a lot of fucking money and so to think of somebody had that 260 times over. If you take apart $260 billion, you have 260,000 million dollars, that's a lot of fucking words like in it. Like, we shouldn't even shorten it. And just say billions, we should just like, represent it by how many millions that take like, there shouldn't be a billions there shouldn't be a trillion, you should have to say the whole thing out every time. You should have to say 260,000 million dollars every time you say, just for people to really get into their heads how much money that is. Because I think that like people either don't know, or they truly forget, because people just let 260 billion roll out off their tongue and is no baby. This is too much, just too much. Okay. And so where was I going with this? But like, you have people like Jay Z and Diddy who hit a billion and then preach to you about how you could get to that level if you stop being lazy, right? So like, the idea is that, you know, if you you we got the same 24 hours in a day, right, I got a billion you can get $1,000,000,00 too. But they're like, they're not even considering how many people they had to say fuck you to in order to get to that point. They could legit take 10 million and put it straight into the hands of black business owners, they could take 10 million and put it right into the hands of the people living in the communities that they grew up in. And I'm not talking about sponsorships or brand deals because a lot of time you'll see celebrities hook up with like a foundation or a company, you know, a larger company to give a little bit of money away. Everybody caught clapping about it. No, I'm talking about straight out of their pocket straight out of their accounts straight out of their hands. They could literally take $10 million out of their own accounts, and not even be hurt by losing it, they would not lose sleep over it. And they know that money can be better served in the community, but they won't do it because they know that their focus isn't helping y'all escape poverty, because if you escape poverty, who else would they sell dreams to? Right? So think about it if one of them went to the community that they grew up in and they like just handed everybody enough money to get out of debt. How am I gonna sell you a dream of getting where I'm at? If you got money if you're not in debt if you're not struggling, if you're not in poverty because you know let's talk about it them little struggle lyrics hit hard when you're broke them little struggle lyrics hit hard when your account is overdrafted, you be dreams and nightmare'ing it up when you've really got dreams and nightmares. If you got money in there who like how does it really hit? Does it really not? Now you need a little adversity same reason why when they do the draft they want to tell you about all the bad things that the players have went through because you look at that and you'd like oh he went through all that and he made it I can make it you're selling, you're literally selling a struggle story. America loves a struggle story. We want to hear this you know, whatever. So you got all these people who now have money who came from nothing. And they were really like capitalize off the fact that they came from nothing because like that's the shit you niggas gonna by, all right, but Jay-Z literally says like niggas rather work okay, he says in the song so shut up. I'm not rapping but whatever he says. niggas rather work for the man than to work with me just so they could pretend they on my level that shit irking to me right he said that in the song boss which I'm not gonna lie it was my shit when it first came out and I went back and listen to it a couple of days ago and I cringe so bad when I heard it no shade to Beyonce, As y'all know I have not said Beyonce name any time during this so beyhive do not not come for me I'm not talking about Beyonce I'm talking about her husband who not really her husband we just talking about Jay-Z right now do not come for me just just just Jay Z okay I don't want no Beyonce a Beyhive smoke I'm just talking about Jay-Z right now. But like my nigga What? Like how many black staff work at Tidal right how many Black staff does title have. You talking bout niggas would rather work for the man than to work for you, just so they can pretend they on your level right so like they don't want to work for you because they want to act like they you know competing with you they want to act like they a boss like you a boss. But how many Black staff work at tidal? Because for years people have been criticizing Tidal staff for being predominantly white. Well Jay tells us that we should be streaming it because it's black owned right. So niggas will shame you for not having a Tidal subscription because Tidal black owned. Oh, so you should be supporting Tidal just off the strength that it's like Black owned, but who does the benefit? does it benefit him or does it benefit us? When you can even hire black staff. Right? Because let's not forget it's not that people are just making this up. They posted the picture with Tidal staff and it was predominantly white. Right? At that point, I think back in 2015 Tidal was 100%. White.
Miesha Williams 15:07
And I'm not going to talk about it today because in 2020, I don't know. But like back, back five years ago, they was 100%. White, and I know for a fact that Tidal is still predominantly white. But we're moving on anyway. Right? you're feeding people an image of black empowerment, because you're never hungry for it. But that's where it begins. And that's where it ends. And I'm gonna tread lightly, because like I said, I want I don't want no beyhive smoke. Jay-Z is worth a billion dollars, supposedly, That man, the man donated a million dollars to COVID relief, you have $1 billion. And you say I can only spare $1 million for COVID relief. And people will applaud you and say, Well, he doesn't have to do it. So if you're on fire, and I have a water hose, but I choose to spit on you isntead applaud me, right? If you are on fire, and I have a water hose, and I spit on you instead, I want you to applaud me like you niggas applauded Jay-z, because I didn't have to do that much. Just like he didn't have to donate a million dollars. And I don't want to hear about No, no. Oh, most of it's in the market and it's not liquid. Fuck him and the market when his watch alone is worth $2.2 million. And yes, I looked it up because I don't say shit without looking it up first. That man wears a $2.2 million watch and donated a million dollars to COVID relief, okay. And after this I don't want people sending me no links, or nothing about all the other stuff that he's donated to. This isn't smoke for Jay-z specifically, I like his music sometimes. I'm just saying, if your watch is $2 million, you should be giving a little bit more than 2 million away is what I'm saying what you're saying is, life is worth less than your watch. At that point. It's disrespectful to me, for you to say that life is worth less than your watch. That's not godly. Okay. So, back to me, though, because we're not gonna get wrapped up with Jay Z for too long. My wish for my children is to be able to pay for their college education, if that's the route that they choose to go, I want to be able to pay for their first car, I want to leave them properties, I want to leave them businesses, I want to build something for them, you know, like, I want to leave them stock. And I'm sure I'll be leaning into capitalism a lot when I have kids, like I truly plan to spoil the fuck outta my kids. Like, I plan to do everything for them that they want. And I mean, I already like what my neice I already spoiled the hell out of her. So I can't walk into the store with her without spending a lot of money. So like, I'm not just gonna sit here like, act like I'm like holier than thou and or that I'm like, this is great, awesome person. No, I definitely still lean into capitalism. I will definitely be spoiling my kids, if I have the ability for my kids to have trust funds, they will have trust funds. The decisions I'm making now is so that they will be able to live a comfortable life, right? So just like you all, I have a dream of leaving something for my children. So I don't want you to think that I'm just like, you know, no, I want I want to leave something for my kids just like you want to leave something for your kids. But do you know how many people you have to say fuck you, to, in order to reach a level of wealth. That is not the legacy that I want to leave. I don't want my kids to watch me buy a $2 million watch. While, there's 1000s of people in my city facing homelessness, and I don't want them to watch me value material things over human lives. So like if I have a chance to donate a million dollars, you know, and if I have a chance to donate a million dollars or buy a $2 million, watch then why can't I just donate $3 million. Right? That's that's how I feel about it. Like if you have that much money, and you're buying all this, all these cars and watches and jewelry and whatever and also I'm here for the flex, I am here for the flex if you want to buy jewelry by jewelry, if you want to buy chain buy chain. If you want you to do nigga shit then do nigga shit, all I'm saying is if you're gonna do all that flexing all that stunting, then maybe the way you give should match the way you flex that's all I'm saying. And I hear people say a lot that you know, you have to say no, you can't do for people in order to build yourself up to a point where able to give like no other. You know, like the thought of this is that, while I'm building up my bank account, I can't help people around me. But one day I will have enough money where I'll be able to, you know, do so. So the people around me who need help should just be patient until I get to that point.
Miesha Williams 19:09
The problem with this is like yeah, that's a good way of thinking. That's a good way of thinking because I understand that like you can't give everything at some point, you have to do something for yourself. At some point, you have to build something for yourself before you're able to help the people around you. Because if you're draining yourself, how are you helping anyone, you're not helping anyone if you can't build yourself, but during this journey, people realize that the less they give away, the more they keep in their pockets, the faster their pockets multiply. Then it's like okay, I now have enough money where I could give so much away and still keep up with my lifestyle. But I'd rather not do that because I have now become obsessed with having this much. I have now become obsessed with getting to that next level and having more. So like at some point it's not even about the next generation. You're not leaving generational wealth. You're literally just hoarding money because the more money you have, the more power you feel like you have the more important you feel. You know and the more important people treat you because because we live in a capitalist society. So you continue lying to yourself saying you want to reach that level, so you have something to leave for generations to come. But it's really not about generations. It's not about generational wealth is literally just about hoarding money so that you can hoard power. But again, because y'all just think that I just be on here tripping, let me put this into perspective for you. If you and one descendent per generation and save $100 a day, so you you're grandchild, your great grandchild, whatever, you and one descendant per generation and save $100 every day, and each of you lived for 90 years, it would take you and 304 generations of your descendants to save up $1 billion. So if you're saving $100 a year, it will take 304 generations to save up to $1 billion. Right? 3-4? So that's why it blows me when y'all say well, they work for it because they literally didn't. The first couple mil might have been hard work. But once you get past it is all exploitation 304 generations that makes fucking sense to y'all, 304 generations saving $100 a day. Whatever you work hard as hell every day, like I literally watch y'all work hard as hell every day and y'all gotta stop away from defending this type of shit. Like y'all gotta step away from defending this type of thinking. Like y'all will say, people like Bezos, or billionaires or whoever, they work so hard. What are they doing? Can you tell me what their hard work is? No, they like invested in something it popped off, it did well, and then after that, they were able to sit back, relax and exploit people for the rest of their money. Right. So I'm not trying to diminish the fact that they built something great. Yeah, you built something great. But you should be able to build something great and live off of that without exploiting the poor that's all I'm saying. So when I first discuss the idea of this episode, cuz you know, I will give me a nice little glass of Moscato, and I'll start rambling to whoever will listen. So when I first broke down the idea of this episode, I wanted to direct it to the owner of the Baltimore Ravens, because I am from Baltimore. So Hi, Steve. steve bisciotti, he is from Baltimore. And Steve is worth $4.6 billion. So he doesn't have Bezos money. You know, according to Bezos, Steve, you a broke boy, I say he said it. So not just money. But remember 100,000 million makes up 1 billion. So 4.6 billion is nothing to sneeze at us. He's still rich. Bezoes may think you broke, Steve, but I don't think you broke. I was told that Steve is a good billionaire. That's what I was told. First of all, there's no such thing as a good billionaire. Like, hold on, hold on, hold on. Wait. Wasn't Jesus poor? Oh, hold on. I'm not. What was Jesus net worth? Give me 5 seconds so I can Google this real quick? All right. According to Google, I'm not the first person to have this thought. But people are doing a lot of arguing. So I don't have an answer for y'all. Nobody could give me an answer. So we'll come back to that. Somebody wants to DM me their thought we can come back to it. But so as far as I'm concerned, Jesus was poor. So if you want to tell me he wasn't poor, that's fine. But as far as I'm concerned, he would not be happy with he wouldn't be happy with people who are in wealth like this, and not helping the masses. So even if you want to tell me that he was rich, because he was he was rich, beyond worldly means. Would he be happy with the fact that somebody has $4.6 billion, or somebody has $260 billion, while there's people dying of hunger? Ask yourself. But back to Steve, though, and I'm sorry, Steve, I did not mean to bring Jesus up on you.
Miesha Williams 23:33
Like I said, I was so the Steve is a good billionaire, because he donates a lot of money. So this year, he donated $1 million to the Maryland Food Bank $1 million to social justice 200K to Baltimore schools. I'm not gonna go through this. There's like a whole list of this. And there's like 12 places that he donated to you. I'll say the smallest amount being 100,000. And the largest amount being a million dollars. And just from this, the total comes out to right under $5 million, and I rounded up a good chunk of that was actually 4.6 million, but we gonna round up when you Steve. So remember, he has $4.6 billion, whether it's liquid or not, because y'all love y'all love to say that it's tied up in the market and they can't sell their stocks and the world would end if they sold their stocks, whatever. 100,000 million makes up 1 billion. He has that four times over. You're telling me that he can only spare $5 million. And the Baltimore Sun did an article on him which legit describes his home as plantation style. They said this man was smoking a cigar in a plantation style mansion. They also attribute his wealth to him not going to the beach during the summer. So like really, whatever. So he didn't go to the beach in the summer he decided to work instead. And he became rich and I'm so sorry. Um, no, I don't mean to diminish the actual work that he did to get to where he was at because he does really have like one of those American good boy stories you know of him pulling himself up from his bootstraps and him watching this family struggle and he just decided to you know, get to work. So I'm not saying that his work means nothing, it definitely means something. But remember kids, if you don't swim during the summer, you won't be poor is Stevie, if you're listening, if you ever come across this doing your Googles.. First of all, that means some SEO is fire. If you ever come across doing your Google's, I'm sure you're a nice guy. Like I say, You are an American capitalist dream story, Stevie, you should pulled yourself up with your bootstraps, and you got to it. But you are worth a billion dollars. So it is free smoke for you still. Like how do you sleep? Well at night in your plantation style mansion, when there's like a homeless population of 3k in your city? How do you sleep well at night, knowing you could sell a few stock, not notice the money is gone. And that same money could change the lives of so many people and do you like to cigar before or after you laugh about the fact that a $5 million donation was all it took for people to forget about the fact that you're hoarding hoarding an unnecessary amount of wealth, right? Like I tried to do the math. Of what that percentage even breaks down to. And my calculator doesn't even go that high. I can't even add enough zeros to get to 4.6 billion, let alone 260 billion, which y'all keep telling me how there's good billionaires. And I know after this episode people will be sending me hella articles and links showcasing bisciotti giving change and telling me how good of a person he is not taking into consideration the amount that he gave is equivalent to me making a $50 donation on GoFundMe. And when we could like that's just like when we compare his net worth, come on miss me with it. I feel like all these capitalist capitalism anti wealth episodes are going to be one of those things that come back and haunt me later down the road. So I want to remind y'all that I'm still human, I still shop where humans shop I eat where humans eat, like I said last time, like I said last time in the last episode, I even still have hella capitalist views when it comes to things. So when y'all pull these cards on these things. That's just how I look at it. Plus, Joe Budden said he jacked his dog off and that nigga still has a platform he sexually assaulted his dog allegedly on top of being abusive allegedly. So if y'all let him get any of that off, y'all can let me to get this off. That's all I'm saying.
