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Unlock financial mastery and build a legacy with insights from Tearanie Parker, a seasoned financial advisor with a rich tapestry of experiences ranging from her South Florida upbringing to her distinguished service in the Navy. This episode is a treasure trove of wisdom for those yearning to navigate the complexities of personal finance with finesse. Tearanie's transformative journey into financial advising, after enhancing her education, underscores the pivotal role of financial literacy in fostering confidence and the self-assurance that comes with mastering money matters. She lays out meticulous strategies for clients, particularly entrepreneurs, to construct a robust financial foundation and amass wealth, while making the crucial distinction between saving for unexpected events and capitalizing on financial prospects.
Rounding out the episode, Felicia and Tearanie impart practical advice for the budding entrepreneurs among you, eager to leave your indelible mark on the world. They reflect on the importance of assembling a formidable team of financial professionals to sidestep the typical financial blunders, stressing the significance of trust within these partnerships. They explore the intricacies of debt management, money management, and the strategic role they play in launching a successful venture. Celebrating this collaboration with Teranie Parker and Felicia Howard, they foster a community dedicated to nurturing a financially savvy mindset.
Thank you for listening to a Lets Just Talk About It Media production.
Welcome back to let's Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and, if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life's journey. So, with that being said, I wanted to change it up a bit and share with you a podcast that let's Just Talk About it media had a chance to help create and produce, called childcare conversations with host Ms Fee, better known as Felicia Howard, where she has an amazing dialogue with financial professional Tearanie Parker about the keys to having a financial mindset. So you don't want to miss this free financial information. As a matter of fact, do me a favor go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and gather around to listen to this conversation with Felicia Howard and Tearanie Parker on Lets Just Talk About it podcast. Hey, let's jump right in.
Felicia Howard:Ms Parker, welcome, welcome. How are you feeling today?
Tearanie Parker:I am feeling great.
Felicia Howard:Good, good, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, your background, where you went to school, all that good stuff.
Tearanie Parker:Well, it's a lot to tell. My name is Tearanie Parker, and I am originally from South Florida. I grew up in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood area. I have a lot of family still there, so I go down there quite frequently. But I grew up there, went to school there, graduated and then joined the Navy. Right after high school I went into the Navy and met my wonderful husband here, actually in Norfolk. We met him here and we just stayed.
Felicia Howard:Okay, wonderful place. Norfolk is a beautiful place to live in. Yes, yes.
Tearanie Parker:He was in the Navy and so he actually retired. I got out after nine years and decided to go back to school. Okay, so I went back to school, went to Virginia Westland, I got my undergrad there and then I went on to Regent University and got my master's in education there. Okay, so yeah.
Felicia Howard:A teacher.
Tearanie Parker:Yeah, well, that's what I am.
Felicia Howard:All right.
Tearanie Parker:That's part of what I am.
Felicia Howard:Okay, and tell us about what you are and who you are now. What are you doing now?
Tearanie Parker:So now I am a financial advisor. I have been a financial advisor for the past 11 years. Love what I do. I still teach. Matter of fact, that's a big part of what I do is educating my clients on financial literacy, helping them become more aware of their financial power, how to create their own wealth, and understanding that they do not have to define themselves by what other people are doing, but they have their own definition of wealth. So that's what I do I help people understand where they are currently financially and then how they can build, how they can grow into who they wanna be in the years to come, how they can build their own empires. Okay, it's basically what I do, all right.
Felicia Howard:Now, who are some of the people you work with? Tell me about your clients. Some of your clients.
Tearanie Parker:So most of my clients the majority of them are business owners. I love business owners.
Chuck:Entrepreneurs.
Tearanie Parker:Entrepreneurs yes, indeed, so I work with business owners and career professionals, but 80% of my practice is business owners helping them not only get their personal finances in place or up to par or enhanced, but also their business, trying to help them understand that, as a business owner, you are thinking about your business, the ongoing daily operations of your business, and sometimes we let, as business owners, our personal finance not be put into place the way that it should be or not grow the way that it should. So my job is to make sure that, yes, as your mind is on your business, my mind is on how to build you personally and business wise, that you will grow in both areas so that you become the powerful person that you should be. Okay, okay.
Felicia Howard:I love it. Now, how do you build? How would you recommend or what are some tips that you would give a young entrepreneur that's starting out? How would you start to build your business? Build your business credit, build your business resources. What are some of the tips you would give a young person or just an individual that's just starting out?
Tearanie Parker:That's a really, really good question. So the first thing I would say is that when you're building wealth, you know a lot of people hear about building wealth they think, oh my gosh, where do I start? So your foundation you should have a strong financial foundation, and what that consists of is making sure that, of course, you know what's coming in and know what's going out so that dirty word, a budget, making sure that you know exactly your financial wealth. Also, you'll know how much discretionary income you have left over to build. So, having that basic foundation okay, I have this money coming in and I know what I'm paying out that is key number one. But then you should also have a saving strategy. Where that, okay, I need to save. You need to save in two places one for an emergency fund and one you're saving for financial opportunities. So two types of savings. A lot of people only think about one, that emergency fund. And yes, you need to build that first, so that should be, some people say. In our industry, the rule of thumb is three to six months worth of expenses.
Felicia Howard:Three to six months.
Tearanie Parker:Monthly expenses. Right, you should have three to six months worth of monthly expenses saved aside. Some, if you're a business owner, they will say you should actually have about a year's worth, because you don't know what's gonna happen in your business, because you're carrying two empires your personal financial empire, but then your business. So you need to have at least a year. And for some people that's quite daunting. They're like, wow, that's a lot of money, cause you know, I have all of this overhead, I have employees yes, I know, I know I have all of this stuff and I have my own personal finance. That's a lot. So if that is really daunting for you meaning that you're thinking, okay, wow, that's a lot, just start with three to six months and then continue to build. But then you also should have a separate savings. That's not for emergency but for financial opportunities. And that's where you're saving for your house. If you want a down payment for a home, you're saving for the down payment for investment properties You're saving for if you want to invest, if you want to actually start investing in the market, you have those funds set aside as well. So you have that strong foundation of a monthly budget. You have that strong foundation of a profiting law statement with your business. You have that strong foundation of an emergency fund and of a savings for financial opportunity. Now it's time to really build.
Felicia Howard:Okay.
Tearanie Parker:Now it's time to even think about investing in the market and other financial vehicles. It's time to think about life insurance. It's time to think about other things because you have that foundation in place. While you're getting that foundation in place, you also want to, like you mentioned about business credit. You want to begin doing that, and business credit is very interesting because you have to first start off with your own personal credit. People don't realize that, but some people do. They're going to actually look at your own personal credit if you're trying to build credit before you actually go segues into business credit. But one of the things that I did when I was starting building my business credit was I started doing trade lines and also started to, in my own personal name, get a credit card with my business name on it, but like for gas, you know, at gas stations something that is easy to get. You know it doesn't take a whole lot to be able to do that. But start building it with those small things first. And then you want to start getting personal loans, because once you actually get a raw street, when you actually get that number, you can utilize that number, but you can't utilize it until you actually have all your personal credit established first because, they're going to use your social security. But once you do that and you start getting things in your business name, then that number starts, that actual credit starts growing and then you can transfer over and use that.
Felicia Howard:But it takes time. Yes, yes, it does.
Tearanie Parker:Like I used to order all my supplies and stuff off with different types of companies just in my business name. You get the products and then you pay later. Okay, you know, that's what I started doing first, and then all of a sudden, I started seeing my credit and, with my business, start growing, and then, of course, of course, having a credit card with gas stations and your business name, and then I went on to getting a visa and my business name or mastercard, and then that's when things started really picking up, and then you can go from there and you can start with getting cars and vehicles in your business name, and then furniture and your business, like it, just keeps growing and growing. But you have to start off small, which you know.
Felicia Howard:Yes, yes, yes. So let's go back a little bit. We kind of jumped right in, but I would love to know what led you to finance. I know a teacher by trade, a teacher by education, but what led you into the financial realm of things?
Tearanie Parker:So I was asking the Lord about my purpose. Okay, that's where it all started. I wanted to make sure that what I was created for, that is what I was doing. So a lot of people they get into businesses or they get into careers and they feel unfulfilled.
Felicia Howard:Yes.
Tearanie Parker:They feel like is this where I'm supposed to be? What is what's going on? So when I was a teacher, I felt like there was more that I should be doing. It was a kind of gnawing in my spirit like something more. I'm supposed to be doing, something more. And even though I love teaching, I was never fulfilled by it. I just felt like there was something more I needed to do. So I started praying about, okay, my purpose. You know, where am I supposed to be? Because when you find your purpose, that's when money flows All right, easily, when you're walking in what you are supposed to be doing, everything else comes, the money comes, the resources come, the people come. And so when you have that, okay, what am I supposed to be doing? What do I like? What do I, you know, feel? Where am I most fulfilled at? And some people don't know that right off base, like I didn't. So I was praying about it and then, all of a sudden, someone came to me and see, this is why you have to be purposeful about it, you have to be intentional of trying to find that place. So someone came to me and said hey, have you considered being in finance? Never thought about being in finance ever, I didn't even think that was not even on my radar. And she said to me you're an excellent teacher. If you were in finance, you can really help people understand finance better because you have that background. It clicked. So then I started pursuing it. And when I started pursuing it, the door swung wide open and a brokerage firm actually reached out to me and because I had a background as a teacher, that's what they were looking for. They were actually looking for CPAs, teachers and attorneys to transfer into the financial field, to actually leave their profession and go into the financial field and start there. And so when I went in to talk to the individual, they were like You're perfect, we're looking for someone like you, because a lot of clients, a lot of people that come to us, don't understand finances and since you have that background in education, you can teach them to understand finance and then build. And that's exactly what happened Walking in your purpose. I started walking in my purpose. I started um, organizing seminars, workshops, and people started coming. I started talking to them on their level, because that's what a teacher does they actually break things down for you so that the people can understand exactly what they're learning and that's what I started doing, and people just started coming and my clientele started building. So see, walk in your purpose. Yes, yes.
Felicia Howard:Yes, yes. So did you come across any challenges, any struggles? And if you did, you know elaborate. Let us know how did you handle those.
Tearanie Parker:So, in walking in your purpose and knowing that this is what I'm supposed to be doing I'm an entrepreneur and this is where I flow that doesn't mean you're not going to have challenges, obstacles, hindrances you will, and so, but understanding that this is where I am called, to actually help you be able to push past the obstacles. So one of the main obstacles for me was I came into a firm where I was the only African-American woman. There was no one that looked like me. I was there in a mist of, shall I say, a lot of Caucasian men. Okay, my industry is full of Caucasian men. There are women there, but none in my particular firm that looked like me. So that was the first challenge how do I operate in this space with my personality being who I am, the strong black woman that I am, understanding that I'm just as equipped and smart as they are, but operating and who I am and not having to change who I am to fit in. That was an obstacle for me because of the fact that I didn't want to fit in. I wanted to be different, unique, so that I can draw people, people that were different and unique. You don't have to fit in, you could just have to be able to flow in, who you are and be able to know that I am just as equipped, just as smart, just as brilliant, but I don't have to fit in. So understanding that helps you to be able to gravitate through the obstacles, and I had many. There were advisors financial advisors that when they came on board, they knew people that had money, their families had money, so they were able to instantly get those people as clients. That didn't happen for me. I didn't know people that had money. I didn't have a family. You know, I have family members that have money, but my family members squander their money. So I actually had to change their mindsets before I actually had to bring them on board. Mindset, mindset, yes. So their mindsets were different than the mindsets of the people, of my peers. Some of them, you know, they understood financial literacy and concepts and so when they went and talked to you know people about becoming clients and all that they had to offer as far as building their net worth, they jumped on board when, with the people that I was encountering, I had to actually deal with mindset issues first. Like you know, why am I getting life insurance? Why? Why is that important? They didn't understand that. Why do I need to invest in the stock market? I don't even know anything about the start. What is that? You know, I've heard about stocks and bonds and mutual funds, but what I don't understand that those concepts. I don't understand how the market works. I don't understand that. So, getting past that fear of the unknown with people you know, tapping into that fear and saying you don't have to be afraid. I know it's unknown, but let me help you navigate through this, that was my challenge Changing people's mindsets and understanding that. Okay, I know that you're conservative, but let's not stay there. Yeah, let's. Okay, let's try to understand other financial vehicles that you can actually get into as well. And you know there's so much out there. Let me, let me teach you what's out there. There are annuities in there. You know other financial vehicles. Let me talk to you about all of these things that can help you build and for some of my clients that was foreign. Like what are you talking about? So, getting past those obstacles and helping them understand you don't have to be afraid. I am here. I'm going to not only help you navigate through this, I'm going to open up your mind and I'm going to introduce you to a world that you never even thought of. That is out there simply because I want you to be financially successful.
Felicia Howard:Boy, can I relate to those conversations? Yes, we've had those conversations, and I am that conservative customer.
Tearanie Parker:Yes so.
Felicia Howard:I definitely can relate and I've been there with you. I've been on the other side of that table having those difficult financial conversations and being a student of yours, so I definitely have enjoyed working with you over the last couple years. And if there's someone in a listening audience that wants to get in contact with you, how would they do that?
Tearanie Parker:Well, it's simple. You just call me, Call me. You can call me. My office number is 757-493-4348, or you can reach me on my cell at 757-816-0253. You can email me at and my name is a very interesting name, so it's tyranny Parker at Financial Guide. So it's T-E-A-R-A-N-I-E Parker, P-A-R-K-E-R. All one word at financialguidecom.
Felicia Howard:All right, ms Parker, as I call you, I let it, you know, roll right off of my tongue.
Tearanie Parker:Yeah.
Felicia Howard:Yes, it has been an amazing journey with you. You are definitely guiding me as an entrepreneur and financial planning investing, building a legacy, building wealth on. This was a great conversation, and so if you had some advice that you would give a young person you know who has the desire to start a business or has the desire to invest, what advice would you give them? What would be the very first thing that they needed to do?
Tearanie Parker:So the very first thing I think you need to do is actually understand that you can do all things. You are powerful. That fear is one of the major obstacles of young entrepreneurs, because they want to step out, but they have this fear. So once they step out, when you step out, understand that you're going to have obstacles and issues. So you need to connect with the right people. You need to have the right team around you. So find a financial advisor, find a CPA, find a banker, find those people we call them the winning team. Find that team of professionals that can help you grow. And you need to find them at your early stage so that you won't make the mistakes that a lot of entrepreneurs make, especially when it comes to taxes or when it comes to building wealth. You need to find those people and make sure that they're people that you can trust, that you feel comfortable with talking to. And if you find the one person, like some of my clients, they found me and then I introduced them to the team. She's over here shouting yes. I introduced them to financial professionals that could surround them and help them make the right decisions in areas where I'm not strong at. I know they're strong and they can help the client become everything that they're supposed to be. So, having those professionals, those key professionals around you help your financial advisor should be able to introduce you to not only those particular people, but even a realtor, loan officers, people that can help you. She's over here like raising her hand. Yes, because that is important in building wealth. You need to make sure that you're surrounded by those key people, and I mean professionals that are excellent. Yes, I'm not talking about people that have do it. Yes, you know, felicia, I do. Everybody that's connected to me, they know what they're doing. Yes, because I wanted to make sure that my clients got the best of the best in the industries that they are in. So you're connected to those people and they will actually help and guide, help, lead you and guide you. Okay, you need to do this first. Okay, you need to do this. Okay, don't do that. Don't talk to her right now. Talk to me right now that I'm going to build you to a certain point. Then go to her, then go to him. Yes, that's what what I would say or suggest them. Do Some people. They go out there, they're on their own, they're talking to just anybody, not the right people and that's what hinders them in growing the way that they should from level to level. Leveling up, that's right Leveling up. So that's what I think that an entrepreneur, a young entrepreneur, should focus on, first, and then also making sure that they're really good at money management. So you don't have to be perfect, but you have to understand that I have to be somewhat capable of managing my money and if I'm not as capable, I need to connect with a financial advisor that will help me in that, so that she will help or he will help me be able to build Cause. Money management is, like I said, the foundation, the saving strategy, the budget. That's all a part of money management. Your debt making sure that you don't have an astrical amount of debt. You cannot start in businesses and have a lot of debt. That's gonna weigh you down first and foremost. So making sure that you're eliminating debt before you even start on that path, but just starting, looking at your debt, getting on some type of debt reduction program you know I'm really big on debt reduction programs you know, making sure you're eliminating. You don't have to remove all of your debt, because I don't think every debt is bad. Debt or mortgage. It's not a bad debt, right, okay, some people can argue with me about student loans now, cause some people say they are good debts. They are bad. They just like what are we doing now? But it depends on who you are and where you are. So I would say that debt within itself is not bad. It is what you, how much you have, and where that debt is centralized. So if you're just have a lot of debt in shoes and clothes versus you're having a debt in a mortgage, that's a big different. You have a debt and an asset, not in materialistic things. That's the difference. So, understanding debt and making sure that you eliminate that as much as possible not all, but then also your saving strategy. You have that on point. You don't have all of your monies in a bank. You can't have thousands, not all of your money, no, no, you, your money has to work for you. You're not just working for your money, your money has to work for you. So you can't have all of your money sitting in a savings and a checking account. It's not working for you, felicia. See, that's that mindset, that's that comfortability. That's me pulling that out of you Like okay, yes, you're supposed to have your savings in there. Yes, you're supposed to have certain amount of monies in there that covers you that three to six months and for a business owner, up to a year, but then after that, all of that money is what we call lazy money. The banks are not going to give you a rate of return that can actually help you grow, like if you would have placed it in other interest bearing accounts and other places. That will help you build your money working for you. So that's where we have to really work on certain people and we got here with that, yeah. So because of the fact that it's just sitting there and the banks are actually using your money to actually lend out to their customers at a high rate, higher interest rates they're using your money Right. Isn't that interesting? But you're not using your money Right and a way that you should efficiently use it at.
Felicia Howard:So that's something that I get people to think about, that mindset, that mindset yeah, so we can't take our money and put it in our mattress?
Tearanie Parker:No, you can you know it's okay to have some money in your home. I'm a firm believer that I'm old school. You know my grandmother did it. You know my aunts do it. You know everybody got money in their house somewhere, but not all your money. Underneath the mattress, the purchasing power of your dollars are is being wasted. Purchasing power, purchasing power. It's like, um, your money is not being utilized or growing to the potential that it can because you're sitting it in a place where it cannot grow, so you're the purchasing power of that money is actually decreasing, declining. That's not what we want to do.
Felicia Howard:Okay, all right, I love this conversation. So if you had to go back and do something different, or if you had to go back and talk to the younger tyranny?
Tearanie Parker:what would you say? So to the younger tyranny, I would say find your purpose early, you know, don't just become comfortable with getting or doing something that you feel like you can do. Sometimes we have to stretch ourselves. So I got into an industry because I knew, oh, I could be a teacher. I can teach with my hand, you know. Tie behind my back, that's easy. But I would say to the younger tyranny stretch yourself. Don't settle Wow. Reach for the stars. Go beyond the box. You have set yourself in a box, tyranny. Tear up the box, crush it and move past that box so that you can help other people, Cause your purpose is lies in helping others fulfill their purpose. So you need to get out of this box. That's what I would have said to the younger tyranny.
Felicia Howard:Wow, what an awesome conversation. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Thank you for the open, honest, organic conversation. Thank you for the keys. You dropped some jewels today. I hope everyone had their pen and paper out and was taking good notes. Again, just to close out, if someone wanted to get in touch with you, I do not want them to miss this opportunity. Can you give us your email just one more time.
Tearanie Parker:So my email is tyrannyparker at financial guide and I'll spell that T.
Chuck:E.
Tearanie Parker:A R A N I E Parker, p A, r, k, e, r, so all one word at financial guidecom.
Felicia Howard:Thank you so much and again, thank you for being here with us. We hope to have you back again Again. I try to surround myself with good people, good, positive people, people that like to serve the community. I have enjoyed our relationship. We've worked together for the last two years. It has been awesome, and so I speak from knowledge that if you are getting ready to start a new journey, if you are in a place in your life where you want to build wealth, build legacy, definitely reach out to Ms Parker, miss Teranie Parker, another one of my friends. Thank you so much.
Tearanie Parker:Thank you for having me Thank you for being here.
Felicia Howard:Wow, what an amazing conversation.
Chuck:Shout out to Felicia Howard and Teranie Parker for those keys to having a financial mindset. And hey, if you're desiring to have your very own podcast show and you don't know where to start, you can start right here. Well, let's just talk about it. Media. I could get you set up and go in in no time. So if you're interested, you can email me at let'sjusttalkaboutit22atyahoocom. I look forward to hearing from you and, as always, don't hold it in, but let's just talk about it. Talk to yourself, talk to you soon.
