S2E3: Generational Wealth with Jermeshia Goudeau

In this episode of the Influence Her Mindset Podcast, Miko welcomes real estate broker and OWN reality star Jermeshia Braden Gordeau to talk about Generational Wealth. Miko frames money as the leading source of conflict in relationships and ties that stress to broader affordability pressures and a widening of the wealth gap. Jermeshia explains that while mortgage rates have eased from the high 6s to the low 6s, affordability—not just the rate—is the real constraint, and she considers 5% a healthy target historically. She shares her family’s path of starting with a modest primary home, living simply, and converting previous homes into rentals on the journey toward a dream home. Both emphasize that secrecy around money—especially in Black families—holds people back; the antidote is honest, recurring conversations about goals, budgets, and plans.

The discussion goes deep on financial trauma and therapy after Miko’s personal story of money-related violence and dependency. Jermeshia urges naming patterns (like “money hoarder” or extreme saver) and using financial therapy to heal them so strategy isn’t sabotaged. Credit is reframed as a tool: set minimum autopay to avoid late payments, keep utilization around 30% or less, and use-and-pay routines to build history. They note how a slightly worse rate can cost $100 more per month on the same house—money that could have compounded in investments. For single mothers and new investors, Jermeshia suggests starting small, partnering with trusted people, considering REITs or co-investing, and remembering you can live where you want but invest where the numbers work. She adds that, in today’s market, some buyers can secure low or no down payments with negotiated closing costs, even if the first home isn’t the dream—because compounding and equity create options later. Finally, she highlights the wealth-building power of long-term partnership in marriage, viewing spouses as legacy-building partners. The episode closes with a shared message: start now, talk openly, use credit wisely, live lean for a season if needed, collaborate with family or trusted friends, and build together to narrow the wealth gap and create lasting legacy.

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Transcript

What's up, y'all? And welcome to another episode of the Influence Her Mindset Podcast. I'm Miko, and I’m your host. So what's been going on? A lot has been happening in 2025. But can you believe it? It's almost 2026. But today we're talking about generational wealth. Yes. I'm so excited. I love this platform because although money is the number one source of conflict in relationships and marriages today, it can be led into financial harmony so I It's essential that we start to have the conversations around financial harmony and getting on the same page with our financial plan. So I have a special guest with me today. You may know her as a reality TV star on the Oprah Winfrey Network from The Family Empire Houston. But I'm in awe of the entire Braden family because they have given us a living example of what generational wealth really looks like, or it could be for all of us. Although I met your sister, Quita, a while back, she was my realtor, I have to admit, I was kind of like, ooh, I was geeked. I was kind of like at awe, like, ooh, she in front of me. I've been watching the whole TV and the whole family and stuff like that. So I was like, ooh, okay, let me just calm down. But she was really cool down to earth and just, you know, I liked her. And you guys are really a great example of what many of us wish we could replicate in our own families. We try. Well, without further ado, please welcome my special guest, Mrs. Jermeshia Braden Gordeau! Hello.

Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It's so great to be here. I'm excited about the platform. I'm excited about the topic. You know, generational wealth has a very special place in my heart. Great, great, great. So we're so excited. So we're going to get into it. So ironically, the money fight is at its highest level in the country right now. The government is shut down and that is the biggest money fight ever. Yeah. No budget. Everything is getting cut. Jobs are going to eventually be cut. Government contracts. Everybody's on furlough, but still working in the offices. Even though you're furloughed, you still got to go to work. This is true. That's a lot to deal with. Yeah, no, it's a lot. And, you know, this could be permanent for a lot of people. Like lost jobs. But you know what? The wealth gap is going to continue. Yeah, it's crazy what the wealth gap is right now.

Like 70% between black and white America. And it's widening every day. Yes. I mean, do you think because you're into real estate, you are a broker, do you think the furlough or the government shutting down is going to affect the real estate industry? I definitely see an impact in the real estate industries. I see it more so from not necessarily the interest rate. So I think interest rates... what we've seen with the changes that have happened with the feds and how the market rate has adjusted. So we're starting to see the rates kind of come down. Like, so we were earlier this year, we were in the high sixes. Okay. And so 6.7, 6 point, you know, and some... I've even seen some seven interest rates come down the pipeline. But right now we're looking at about in the low sixes. So we're looking at 6.3 in that area. I still see a little high six. You know, interest rates are relative. You know, it's all about affordability. And it's about how you can, you know, just how can you use, you know, that rate with the prices of the home. So that's where a lot of the conversation is happening is, you know, can people afford their homes versus, you know, we talk so much about interest rates.

You know, people want to talk about affordability just overall. And that's what we're talking about, that wealth gap. And we're talking about overall affordability. And how can people not be enabled just to take care of their basic needs? Yes. And shelter is, you know, is one of those needs. Exactly. Exactly. So you don't suspect it'll go down to like it did in 2008 when there was like, Let me tell you, I'm praying to God that it does not go down to two or 3%. And the reason that I say that in order for the interest rates to get that low, we were in a pandemic and I'm not praying for a pandemic to hit any of our lives because I know I can't handle another one. Okay. So in order to see that level, that means what's going on in our environment is so hectic that

that they have to manipulate the rates to that low to encourage people to get out there and start spending again. That means it's some crazy things going on to get it that low. Now, do I want to see it in the fives? Yes. I think the fives are one of the healthiest places that we can see our interest rates from a affordability standpoint, considering the pricing of homes. Because years before, rates were 10. When my parents bought their homes, their rates were in 10, 13%. So it's not necessarily about the rates. It's about just the overall affordability. Overall price. Yeah, the overall price of the home. All right. That makes sense. So this is a great time now to just start to like really think about this thing called generational wealth. Because I know we had our conversation earlier this week. You were saying how, you know, you're very grounded and, you know,

What was your first introduction to managing money and just being so grounded in your finances? Let me tell you, we probably need another podcast to talk about all that. So, you know, being grounded in your finances, really parents and family, we don't realize the role that we have in really creating that foundation for our family. We look to the schools, we look for, you know, you know, schools and teachers to be able to educate families. about finances, but you don't have to have a master's degree in finance to be able to set the foundation for learning about finances. You know, it was for me and my family, my grandmother, ever since I've been alive, she's had other jobs, but I've seen her be an entrepreneur. Oh, wow. And I've seen her work for everything that she had. And so that foundation of being an entrepreneur and working for what you have, let me know that that money didn't just appear.  Right. Okay. I didn't just show up. And then at the end of the day, somebody gave me, I had to work for everything that I had. And that's what I saw through her. And because of that foundation they laid as well, we understood the importance of just having our basic needs were always met. Okay. And we always realized that we didn't live a, we lived a very middle class, very conservative lifestyle. We didn't, you know, now everybody like want to, you know, stunt and Instagram and everybody's living for the gram. Right. But we were less like, hey, our vacations was going to San Antonio to go into the Riverwalk. Like, you know, I don't think we went to the Alamo. We were just walking up and down, you know, Riverwalk or going to Louisiana to visit family. You know, we were not taking extravagant trips. You know, it wasn't like, you know, of course we want to create these experience for our family. But we weren't talking about, oh, we're doing the French Riviera. This, you know, I want to take my kids to South Africa. We're going to do, you know, safaris. Even though I want to do all these things for my children. But it was about they really sowed the seeds for us.

delayed gratification. So we were never without. And I think that's what a big part of the lessons that I learned from my family and my mother, what she learned from her mother and her father is we can have everything we want, but we might not be able to have it right now. And that was really, that was probably one of the lessons that I've taken with me through my whole life. I guess- I guess I can understand that because at the end of the day, it's really not how much money you make. It's how much are you able to save, live off of, manage. So you can make six figures, but if your bills are worth six figures... Oh, OK. You are not even living right now. It's too hard. That financial that is the piece of the financial literacy conversation that we are all missing. Yes. Every time. I mean, you know, I'm an entrepreneur, so I'm going to business seminars, real estate seminars. I'm going to everything and everything is telling us and talking about building more, creating more money. Yes. How to make more money, how to get more leads, how to do this, how to.

How to get more money. And I think a big, large part of the conversation is like you're saying, is that financial literacy. How are we going to keep the money? So it's okay if we're making the money, because we got to make the money, right? But we got to figure out how to make sure that it's not more money going out the door. And if people of our communities could really learn that piece of the puzzle, let me tell you, I just know our communities well. would do so much better, especially as we try to decrease that wealth gap. Yeah, absolutely. It's not hard to live lean. I think all you have to do is just say, hey, we know we have this amount of income. These are our expenses. How can we cut this down and just kind of plan now to just live lean for a couple of years? And then if we want to worry about, OK, we put away a lot of money for traveling or spending or whatever it is that you

You are into. You can plan to do that. You just can't do it right now. Yeah. And then the big part, like you said, we've got to talk about it. Right. So culturally. Yeah. Our community has not talked about money. Like the money conversation was just not a conversation that we were having. Even in my family where, you know, generational wealth and entrepreneurship has been one of the foundations of how we got to where we are and building the empire. The secrecy in black communities about money is stifling. Like, it's going to stifle, you know, our communities because we don't talk about money. And I think it's if we talk about money, we know, hey, I do want to go to Disney World next year. I want to take this trip overseas. But if we talk about it now versus, you know, our friends just pop up and say, hey, next month I want to go to, you know, Disney. Now we're sitting around and, you know, making bad decisions because at that time... Because we want to keep up with the Joneses. Because we want to...

We want to travel when everybody else is traveling. We don't want nobody to know our real secrets about our money. Your money is funny, but you don't want nobody to know that. I'm going to tell you, don't miss one of them IRS payments. Okay. You don't want to do that because you're Martha's Vineyard, all right? Don't do it, okay? Make your IRS payment. You can save Martha's Vineyard for next year, okay? Let's talk about it. Real estate is one of the industries that there is no ceiling. Oh, my gosh. You can make as much money as you want to. I mean, like everybody's going to have to have shelter, food, clothing. And you pick one of the best real estate. It's always going to be here. Yeah, it's definitely one of those industries that the wealth, the amount of wealth that you could accumulate in it. And it's in infinite ways. And I think that's what a lot of people don't talk about. We talk about, you know, a lot of people talk about even my family's journey.

So one thing that I saw growing up is acquiring the primary home. And it's so important that we acquire the primary home. Like that one home first is very important. For my story and part of my journey is I live in my grandparents' home. I mean, not now, but I've lived in my grandparents' home. They bought a house in the hood. They lived in that house. They moved out. My parents moved into... my grandparents' home. They raised me and my siblings there. And then I, in return, as a young married couple, I moved into that home. It's like a family home. It's a family home. And my husband and I, we saved our money. My son remembers living in that house. And then after we saved our money, we moved to another home. And then from that other home we lived in, then we bought another home and we kept that other home as a rental property. And my son, you know,

He's seen this journey. And so he saw how we're living nice now. We're living in a nice home, beautiful home. To some people, a dream home. But it didn't happen overnight. It was part of the journey. And so many people want to skip to the dream home that they don't embrace that journey. So primary home, I think, is one way. I don't think it's the only way. But I think it's a great start and a great foundation. Yeah. So, I mean... You really have to have the conversations up front with your spouse, with your family members. You know, like everybody has to be on the same page because while you could have grown up like really grounded in your finances, you may get with somebody that for me and my story, I was married to somebody that had no money.

financial literacy in his household. And in fact, my household either, we never talked about 401k saving for the retirement, you know, nothing planning for the future. In fact, my parents were talking about how we were going to get the next scam or the next scheme or how we were going to come up. You know, I didn't realize that at the time, but I heard those conversations and I remember that, you know, it was, It was traumatizing when I finally put those together. That's a little traumatic. Yeah. Oh, my God. So when I was 16, I had just turned 16, too, and I was very popular in school. I was a cheerleader, you know, very popular in the neighborhood. And my mom was shot close range five times, four in the stomach and one in the arm. Went in, went out. Oh, my gosh. And her and my stepfather had an argument for a week.

long about money. He was going to take a trip and he didn't want to leave any money at the house. She was financially dependent upon him. She was financially dependent upon all the men she's ever been with. So, you know, every day, day in, day out, they were talking about this trip he was taking. They were talking about he didn't leave any money for the household and he was packing his clothes. And one night he just left. She followed him in her car. And, you know, it's like we get a call in the middle of the night, you know, do you know where your mom is? And I'm like, no, I thought she was down the street, you know, just with my stepfather. And they were like, no, she had to be life flighted to Herman Hospital. He shot her. And so I'm like, oh, my God. Like, what do you do with that at 16? No. Oh, wow. And that trauma on top of trauma. Yes. That traumatic event. You know, I had to do some digging and some peeling back of the onion to see, you know,

In my adult years, what did I carry on that I learned from my childhood? I learned you can be dependent upon a man for money. I was always wondering, how did she not ever work? She was a stay-at-home mom. it made me wonder how a lot of the relationships fail because I was not given a great example or a foundation, like have your own money, get a degree. I'm a first generation, you know, college degree, first generation, six figure earner, first generation, like a career person, 401k, managing my finances, but it wasn't always like that, you know? Oh my gosh. But, It took some time to turn this ship around. Let me tell you, you did a wonderful job. Despite all that trauma that you're carrying. And we just carry it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it still shows up today. No, it will. But, you know, I know a lot of people are wondering, how do you really get into getting your family on board to get to the point that we're all working together for one common goal for generational wealth?

So, and go back to what I said earlier, we got to talk about it. We have to talk about the childhood traumas that we're bringing into our relationships. And we need to have the conversation because a lot of times you don't even process what you brought and what you're carrying into your relationship. You didn't realize that the dependency that you were carrying from seeing your mom in the relationships, you might have understood what you were doing, you know, but not understanding the why until you had to sit in it for a little bit. And sometimes we need to sit in those conversations with our spouses. We need to come sit in those conversations about ourself and figure out like, hey, these are some goals that I want to pursue, but I need to understand what's your thoughts on them. And I think we need to reach out to financial therapists. I think we need to talk about, we'll talk about depression. We'll talk about these, we'll talk about that. But we need to talk about when we have therapy sessions,

We need to talk about money disorders in those because I'm a money hoarder. Really? I'm a money hoarder. I don't say it's a great thing. I don't like it because it brings me of a level of anxiety when my bank account gets to a certain amount. But that is a very difficult thing for someone who always wants to grow. You can be a money hoarder. And then you want to take risk at the same. It's like the crazy, my head just goes, it's just a crazy land. So maybe you're not a money hoarder, but you're an extreme saver. You know, but it comes from what I've seen in, you know, growing up. And, you know, my dad grew up very, you know, his situation and my mother's situation were very different. Of course. Very, very different where my mom, she, I would see her safe because my dad didn't.

He didn't like my mom always grew up. She had everything she needed. My dad didn't grow up that same way. Yeah. You know, he grew up, you know, the fact that, like you said, he's working now. He got a great job. He's able to buy whatever he want. That wasn't his truth. Yeah. It wasn't his life. So now he like I waited my whole life to get this. If I want it, I'm going to buy it. And my mom like I've not had all this stuff all my life. So I'm not in a hurry to get it. And so seeing my mom sometime overcompensate in saving. Mm hmm. To make sure that the old family, you know, even though my dad was a great provider, great provider, but she was always overly, you know, saving because of that. And I don't think they intended for me to see that. But we see we see those things. And so because of that, you know how you said your mom was dependent on a man and manipulative. Like I would never like we were kind of raised up like we would never like depend on a man for money.

I never wanted to depend on a man for money. Never. I was trying to make sure my life was the total opposite because of what I saw growing up. But I can remember when my brother was getting his first job out of high school. He worked at Popeye's. Every Friday he got paid, he had to give her his whole check. Yeah, I've seen that. I've heard about it. You know, it's really sad. When I was in college, I knew people that Before they even got their first credit card, their credit was messed up. And so it's so easy to get into credit card debt. But we had a conversation about using credit the right way. Like, how can we start to use credit to our benefit? Because that's part of getting out of debt and moving more into generational wealth. Yeah, credit responsibility is so important. I think we have to change the narrative around credit, especially in the black community.

Because credit in my community, you know, I can't speak for everybody else grew up different, you know, grew up differently. Credit was the devil. So the way, you know, and we talked about that is it was when you go to college, don't get no credit card debt. Right. If you don't have the money, if you don't have the money, you know, the way I was raised, if y'all don't have the money, you don't need to buy it. Right. If you don't have the credit, you know, even for things like, you know, I watched my grandparents purchase commercial projects with cash. Right. Like these are half, this is half million dollar projects and this was a long time ago. So now, you know, with the, you know, inflation is even with cash. Right. Like if they didn't save up for it, if they didn't save, they didn't, they didn't, they didn't buy it. Cash is king. And, you know, at the time I, you know, I thought that was amazing. I was like, that's a huge accomplishment that they bought everything that they had with cash. Right. First, one thing when I got old, I realized it was sad because probably it was because they were not, you know, had the same access to credit.

As some of our, you know, so one was access. The other part was credit education. Credit education is one of those things that if we do not as a community understand and champion and empower it, you know, we're going to keep that gap is going to keep increasing. Like, I mean, just think about our family members. You know, even if it's not our story for ourself, just we talk about homes. I'm in the real estate industry. Having a 700 plus credit score or 680 plus credit score, 800 credit score, the same house. People are not out there buying. It could be the same exact house. It could be the same floor plan, the same exact price. But because of your credit situation, you might be paying $100 more a month than the person next door for the same exact good. Over 30 years. Over 30 years. That's going to add up. That's going to add up quick. That's those are the type of things when you're trying to build wealth, instead of paying an extra $100 on a mortgage, the same mortgage that your neighbor is paying for, you could have been putting that $100 in your IRA. You could have that $100 in your life insurance policy. You could have been that $100 anywhere else where it's growing, it's accumulated, it's compounding. But instead, because of credit and because of that situation, we're not stewards of it. It's just going against us instead of working for us. And so a credit score is made up of different things. Like it's just not paying it, the minimum payment. You have to at least keep your credit down to about 30% of the balance. Yes. And if you can't pay it off every month at the end of the month, at least pay it on time. Don't accumulate all the- Set that thing up for auto pay and pay it on time.

Learning auto pay. I think a lot of us are scared of auto pay because we know we live in file. We don't want it to come out. Man, y'all put it at that $15 minimum payment balance. Right. And you never pay it off. Like put it, at least set, and I tell these people all the time, at least set the people like, I'm going to pay more than $15. Well, at least set your auto pay for the minimum. Right. If your minimum is $15 for your minimum, at least set, that way you won't have a late payment. Or at least know the dates. You pay, you pay. Go pay more on it. I'm not saying pay the minimum. I'm saying at least set your auto pay for the minimum. Yes, so you won't miss that payment. So you won't miss you. You won't have late penalties. You won't have it impact your, you know, but then, you know, like you said, the utilization. Pay, use it, using it in a positive way. Use it wisely. Pay something on credit. If it's your groceries.

You go, everybody go to HEB all the time. HEB, Kroger's, you know, I don't want to lose no sponsorship. I don't know if you got it. Whoever you use, who you going to go to and then pay that. You leave, you pay, put it on your credit card. When you get home, go to your credit app, that same hundred dollars you was going to pay in cash. Just pay it on your credit card bill. But you know, some people, they just have grown up to watch their parents do these types of things. Like a renter center, you renting a washing dryer instead of saving up to buy it, you know, or, We don't want to pay this on time because we have something else we want to use the money for. So we'll pay the back fee or the late fee. And it doesn't matter. But it really does matter over a period of time. Oh, that late fee. It does matter. And it doesn't take long for you to build your credit score back up because you can do it in less than six months if you do it correctly. Yeah. You have to understand how to utilize it. Yeah, you can. But it's easier to keep it good versus in trying to correct it.

I agree, I agree. Yeah, it can be, because one late payment, yes. Yeah, and you know what? That $15 payment that you were going to make, the late payment might be $35. So now you're paying way more than you would have had to pay if you just paid it on time. Just paid it on time. Yeah, they'll pay that $35 late fee all day. Yes. So I know your grandmother was such a great example of... the great matriarch of the family. She's such a beautiful lady. I felt like I knew her from the show. Don't tell us anything. So thinking back on what you learned as a child and from your mother, your father, your grandmother, grandparents, what will you pass down to your children to get them ready to take over the empire?

I'm so glad you asked that question. Thank you for asking that. And thank you for honoring my grandmother in the way that we've honored her. We just absolutely love her. She's, you know, I had two grandmothers. One was like the virtuous woman scripture. And Oscarene, she was virtuous, but, you know. Oh, she seems like a firecracker. Yeah, she's a firecracker. She speaks her mind, you know. You know, I learned so much, you know, from them. And one thing was marriage. Mm-hmm. in the importance of marriage. They were married. They got married. She got married at 19. They have so many, 60 plus, how many years they were married? 60 plus years. Almost 70 years of marriage. First, I realized that the importance of role that marriage has in our wealth building journey. Yes. And I don't think we talk about it as much. Yeah, relationships go bad all the time, you know. But I do think that we have to see our partners, you know, and as more so as someone that we're building legacy with. Yes. Almost like a business partner. You know, I think it's important for us to see that the legacies that's created through the family unit. And even in the scriptures, when it speaks to marriage, it speaks to it as the institution of marriage. And I think we need to utilize that institution of marriage more when it comes to wealth building. Because, you know, now we're like independent woman, independent woman. I don't want to be no independent woman. Yes. Okay. I need some help. I want some help. And so being able to see that, what they were able to achieve together. Yes. And it's just so much beauty in being able to over 60 years. And I know my grandmama, so I know they didn't get it. They didn't get along all the time. Okay. It's just not easy. It's not easy. I've only been married over 10 and I, you know, I know, so I know it was difficult and I know it was hard and, you know, people are human, but I understand that how important it was that they were able to accumulate what they did, you know, together.

Yes. So it makes me truly respect the institution of marriage, you know, even though I've seen other people in my family that makes me say, why would people get married? That's the dumbest decision in the world. But I see from a wealth building perspective that it was so important to them building wealth. What I saw for my, you know, for my children is, you know, them able to see that to value hard work. And I think that's what makes a Brayden woman, you know, I think we're telling a lot about a Brayden woman so strong is that my grandmother still to this day, she's still working because she says she stopped working, she go die. Right. So she's still working, but she's working for herself and she's working doing something she's passionate about. And she sees the value of hard work. Yes. And I think in the world of quick money and everybody's trying to make a dime so quick and, you know, I don't want to make it slow either. I want to, you know, I want to make it quick if I can. But, you know, just to see the value of hard work. Yes. She's taught that to us. But also when we talk about building wealth and what we've learned from the matriarchs and learned from our family. I've also learned what not to do. Right. I learned too that we have to communicate. Like my grandma, I always remember her saying, you know, I'm working this hard so y'all won't have to. But what happens when we have to? Right. So what happens when the job market's not hiring us? Right. Like I saw them, you know, a lot of our, if we go back to our elders and our grandparents and aunts, a lot of them were entrepreneurs, but they were entrepreneurs, you know, not because they wanted to be entrepreneurs. They were entrepreneurs out of necessity because they had to, because they needed their hustle. They needed to do these jobs and things on the side because, you know, other people not giving them jobs, they were not giving them fair wages. And so they created, you know, jobs and businesses because they had to. So I, you know, I remember my grandma saying, you know, I worked this hard so y'all don't have to. But like I stated, what if we have to? So we're not talking about, you know, how did you keep the business? I know you've had some ups and downs in your business. You know, how did you get through those hard times? How do you get through those challenges of your business? How was it when you had to pay your employee and you couldn't pay yourself? Like, those are the conversations that I wish I had with my, because now as an entrepreneur and as a business owner with employees, those days come. Right, right. And it's so much wisdom there. Your personal finances carries over into how you manage your business. And when they carry over into their marriages, you know, that can be... So, you know, I think it's important to learn from what they did, but also take those tokens of what they did not do and try to create your own path and take that wisdom as well. And that's part of the why. Part of the reason why I created this podcast because...

We did grow up with some traits that weren't so good and some that were good, but it's our time now to educate the next generation. I feel like you will do a great job educating your children on what's important about the family business, protect it, nurture it. Make sure you don't tear it down your forefathers. I'm trying. this worked very hard. So you didn't have to. Same thing with us. Like, even though I didn't come from like a family that worked together or that thought, you know, we should build a business together because there was nothing passed down to us. No land, no houses, no trust fund, no businesses, no insurance policies, nothing. You know, we're from the side that you, doing fish dinners to bury people or you just getting cremated because there's no money and nobody's willing to give to you because you didn't prepare. So it is my job on this platform to educate the next generation. Like you may have seen your parents do some things and you might have heard them always say, oh, we ain't got money for this. Don't ask me for that. You know, no, we're not going to the store. Don't touch nothing. Don't ask for nothing. And when we get in here, Hey,

I will get you in this store conversations are real but you know, I had to really do some work on myself. When I started studying financial therapy, I started having to work on myself first so that I could help others. Because I realized my children were listening. My children were watching. And they were always like, Mom, do you just get paid? How much do you get paid? You know, like. Why we can't go to Disney World? Didn't you plan for us to have a vacation? Did you save up for us to go to college? And it was sort of embarrassing. So I said, okay, I got some work to do. I got some work to do. So I started with me. Doing the work. And the only way I can change the rest of the trajectory of my family, getting them into generational wealth, is if I am the living example.

It starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with everybody is willing to just change and make it better. Yeah, absolutely does. And having those conversations. We have family meetings and we plan. We don't just go spend. Even at the grocery store, groceries are super high and you can go out that budget real quick. But if we want something in life, we got to plan for it. So now I'm a single mother. I had to start over. I didn't have anything given to me. After 20 years of marriage, I had to start over. It's been me and my kids. Wow, that's hard. As a single mother, I'm always looking for ways to add additional income to what I have. I have a great salary, but I also want to have something with my family that I can pass down. I've created this platform.

I'm studying financial therapy, trying to get my license as a financial therapist. But what advice could you give me to kind of start as a single mother? For all the single mothers out here, we want to start having some additional income on the side, maybe as an investment property, like an income-producing real estate. Where do I start? How much money do I need to have? Is it easy? So what I would recommend as a real estate professional is start. And starting sounds easy, but sometimes pretentiousness gets in the way of us starting because I want to invest in a duplex. Sometimes your credit profile might not say a duplex is for you. So instead of saying, well, I tried to invest in a duplex.

But they didn't give me, well, why didn't you invest in a single family home? Why didn't you find a partner? And I think one of my first investment products I did with my partner and my cousin, Nicole, we did a flip together. Okay. And what that does is in the beginning, you're scared. Yes. Like you're not familiar with the process. You don't know how it works. And you're like, hey, I have this much money, but I ain't got this much money to lose. Right. So what do I do? I think one of the things that I would tell you is to, if you're not certain on your first go around, find somebody that you trust and go in on a project with them. You know, real estate investment trusts are ways that we can, you know, cooperate. You know, it's in Kwanzaa for a reason, cooperative economics. I think we always try to figure out, you know, how to do it ourselves because sometimes generational wealth is not necessarily built only through families. Sometimes it's the families that we create and those entities and what they look like.

So reach out to, you know, I know you got a great girlfriend named Shannon. Reach out. Say, hey, you want to invest together? We got something coming right now. We need to, you know, let's do this together. Right. You know, and that's what we need to do. Find people that you share a value system with that understand y'all are both trying to achieve the same type of goals and say, how can we pull together our resources and invest together? Because I can't do it by myself. Right. And I think we... That's what defeats so many of us because we feel like we don't have options because we only see it through the lens of I can't, but can we? I just was so worried about how much money do I need to bring to the table? Do I have this? And is this going to really take me out after I do it? And it probably won't. I don't want to live in the property, but can I just get a property that I can start to invest? Let me tell you, one of my best clients, they live in an apartment in the city.

with the city skyline, paying some high rent, okay? They do that. But their income-producing rental properties pay for them to be able to have those views in the city. And that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. So people always want to be like, you know, the only thing that I can afford right now is in Timbuktu down and, you know, out in, you know, some, you know, now Houston is expanding so crazy, you know, some of these towns. They be like, I don't want to live there. Well, you don't have to live there, but you can invest there. I never thought about it like that. Live where you want to live. You know, have your home, you know, live, you know, sugar land, you know, where you want to be, where you want to go, you know, and then live there, rent there. And it feels okay. This is, you don't have any, you don't even have to be the landlord in that house. You could just, I mean, you don't have to be the landlord. You don't have to own it. You have to deal with those issues. You just live there.

And then have an investment, find a great deal in one of those podunk towns that's getting off the ground and invest there while the community is still being, you know, they're building up the community, developing. That's the best time to get in and then create a rental property there while you're still living the lifestyle that you want to live in. And like I said, partner with somebody if you're scared to do it yourself. That's a good idea because, you know, a lot of times we don't know where to start, but it can be done. So, hey, single mothers out there. Single mothers. Yes. You guys can do this. Don't be scared. Don't be intimidated. And, you know, talk to your spouses as well. It can be done. I think a lot of times we think, oh, we got to bring thousands and thousands of dollars. What is the minimum credit score and the minimum amount of money one person may need to go in an investment? So I think so. So I want to talk about two things. OK, so investment is one and primary investment.

So I believe, like I stated earlier, your primary home could be your first investment property. Okay. Those are the best deals. Okay. They are the best deals. Okay. There's so many great resources. It's so many great opportunities if you're going to live in a home as your primary residence. When you talk about no down payment type situation, you're like, I can get you in a home right now with No down payment. But you still got closing costs and stuff like that. No. Let me tell you, the way the market is right now, we can negotiate all your closing costs. Really? I have put people personally in deals with no down payment, with 100% financing loans, with no closing costs because we were able to negotiate those from the seller. They came to the table with their earnest money because that's a good faith deal.

you know, a deposit that they put down that goes toward the process. And they get the earnest money back at closing. Oh, wow. There are opportunities. We may need to talk after this. Right. But those are opportunities. Now, the only thing, you might have to stay in that home for a few years because since you didn't put down a down payment, it's not going to be accruing equity at the same rate if you would have put down 20% or something like that. Yes. But it allows you to start. Yes. It's government programs, especially right now, affordability is on the radar for everybody, for a lot of the counties, a lot of the cities. Yes. There are programs that are discounting new construction in Houston. Harris County has a single family program right now. I've seen homes discounted about $150,000. Oh, wow. That brings down those. We have the Harvey 2.0 in Houston that's a credit possibly up to $150,000. That's bringing down that monthly, that price of the home to over a 30-year mortgage. We had a closing disclosure that came back.

think their mortgage was going to be a thousand dollars a month on a home. You don't see those anymore so no you can you you just have to start. And you have to talk to a professional. I think people get so overwhelmed. Now, I'm gonna tell you this, and I'm gonna be real, because I'm not here to lie to you, okay? It might not be your dream home. Right. Okay? But we got to start. Start somewhere. Because if we don't start now, we will not be able to use the art of compounding. compounding interest and compounding is one of the major factors that is also in widening that wealth gap. We are waiting for our retirement. We just keep waiting and waiting. We're waiting for the best house to come onto the market. We're waiting for the best interest rates to happen. We're waiting for that good job that we've been waiting on because we know we deserve it. You can be waiting forever. You can be waiting forever, but if you don't start, you gotta get out there and do it. You gotta get out there and do it. Because the people that started five years ago

they are able to have the impact of appreciation on their side. They've been able to see, you know, in equity gains. Now they have options moving into whatever they do. And I'm an advocate for buy, sell or build a legacy. That's our tagline at Brain Real Estate Group. It's buy, sell, build a legacy. Because sometimes your legacy is not always built through, you know, just buy, buy, buy. Sometimes we have to sell in order to create opportunities for ourselves. But we have to have options. Options give us opportunities. And so starting in the home ownership purchase or investing is the only way we can create options and opportunities for ourselves. Oh, I like that. And I do believe money is spiritual. You know, money can repel or it can attract. You know, you want it to attract more. So you got to be in the right areas, talking to the right people, getting the right guidance.

So it can be done. And so I'm kind of looking forward to this now that you talked about all these programs and things like that. Maybe we could have you back one day. Just, you know, we talk about just different programs that women or, you know, minorities can get involved in to increase their wealth. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been great. Yeah, it has been absolutely a joy. And I told you people just don't talk enough about money and finances and family. So, I'm great that you've created this platform that allows us to do that. Thank you so much. And I'm so grateful that you had the time or made the time to just come and be on the show and, you know, influence more mindsets. Like, I love this. You know, it's our job to educate more people. And if we help one person, we've done a great job today. We've done enough. We've done enough.

So thank you so much. And you are always welcome on the set of the Influence Her Mindset podcast. I'll be back then if you have me. Yes. So guys, I just want to close out. I'm just so grateful. We learned so much today. And this is, you know, something that we all can do if we get together and work together with our families, our spouses, our children, you know, or our good friends. It doesn't just have to be you. I'm looking forward to it. I want to build generational wealth and I want to help others do the same. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great space. Well, thank you so much, you guys. This is our show and we will see you on the next episode. I'm Miko and this has been the Influencer Mindset Podcast. Yes. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.