Happy end of February, financial enthusiasts. If you are new here, welcome! At Finances with Carolina we focus on achieving realistic personal finance goals through graduate school and beyond. If you are a stan, thank you for being part of this community. 🙂

Finances love me🌹, finances love me not🥀

Ready to know my hot take of the month? 🔥 If you take anything from this newsletter, please let it be the following: I understand that the current political climate is shit. However, in a world where there are so many systems that are in place to keep us ‘bad’ at money, financial literacy is a form of political resistance.

Plain and simple, money gives you options. Individuals having options opens the door to create generational wealth. Having access to generational wealth will unlock life’s easy mode: not living paycheck to paycheck. Having room in your budget means you can use your discretionary income to support causes you care about💖. So, I am asking you to work on your personal finances, not just for yourself, but for your younger siblings, your cousins, your friends, your friends’ kids. Do it to uplift our communities and the causes we all care to advance with dollars.

Things you can do today ✅

1. Open a High Yield Savings Account (HYSA) to hold your emergency fund. If you have one, revise and consider adding another month

With all these layoffs, pauses in promotions, and lack of raises in paychecks, I have not stopped thinking about my own emergency fund. My household’s first priority when I started working in industry was to build a robust 6 month emergency fund. That account, although with varied balances, has lived comfortably in Ally since 2019.  If you are interested in opening an e-fund with them, consider using my referral code, which gives you (and me) $100 after setting a monthly automatic transfer. If you need to do more research on online only banks here is a nerd wallet article📚

I know I sound like a broken record, but if you do not have one please get it. I urgently encourage you from afar to open one today. I have my emergency fund. If you have an e-fund, revise if the current amount feels right with your current employment, season of life, and upcoming plans. Lastly, convince someone in your life to do the same. Some people in our community might not have had the access to generational knowledge that these accounts exist.💡

2. Bring personal finance to your life and community

Consuming financial content that matches any of our identities makes us more likely to keep engaged in the conversation.  If you can consume educational financial content, amplify the voices of those communities that are important to you, and inform the public by sharing with your peers, you are achieving 3 goals at once. Slay💅. My favorite recommendations are listed on my free resources page.

3. Register to vote, canvas, and volunteer within your community

You guys are all over the country, please get involved with your local elections and communities. It has made me feel better, it might do the same for you.❤️‍🔥

Spring🌷and Summer🌞 Openings

If D-E-I is not D-E-A-D within your institution, hire me!. My work can also often be billed within professional development and/or wellness seminars as well. Shoutout to Dr. Gourley who paid a seminar for the Neuroscience🧠 PhD program at Emory.