Mane Up Memphis Podcast
Mane Up Memphis Podcast serves up practical therapy insights, financial-empowerment tips, and inspiring Memphis stories—straight from the nonprofit that says “wrap-around support or bust.” Hosted by LMSW & CFSW Joey Laswell. New episodes every Tuesday.
Mane Up Memphis Podcast
Episode 7: Your Money Story Doesn't Have to Be Your Money Future
Send us a message at info@maneupmemphis.org
Warren Albright's financial journey began with a piece of wisdom from his father that changed everything: "Stop buying vehicles and buy something that's going to make you money." Taking this advice to heart, Warren purchased his first rental property at just 18 years old—setting in motion a lifelong commitment to financial literacy and wealth building.
During our conversation, Warren shares how his unique background—military service that taught him discipline, 17 years as an educator, and formal education in accounting and business—shaped his approach to finances. Now as a financial professional with New York Life, he combines all these experiences to teach others about building sustainable wealth.
The heart of Warren's message centers on a deceptively simple principle: live below your means. "If you're making $5,000 a month, you can't spend $6,000," he explains, highlighting how even high-income earners often find themselves one paycheck away from financial disaster. Warren emphasizes looking beyond immediate gratification, cautioning against the common trap of increasing expenses whenever income rises.
Warren delivers particular wisdom for young people, explaining why permanent life insurance policies can function as "savings accounts on steroids" when started early, and why establishing multiple income streams provides crucial financial security. He outlines his concept of the "financial house"—with protection as the foundation, accumulation as the structure, and preservation as the roof—offering a comprehensive framework for long-term financial health.
Most powerfully, Warren connects financial literacy to broader community transformation. "I believe some of the crime we see in this world is due to lack of finances," he observes, suggesting that education about wealth-building could break generational cycles of poverty. His parting message resonates with hope: "Just because mama and daddy didn't do this... that don't mean you do the same thing. Let's change the trajectory."
Ready to transform your relationship with money? Connect with Warren directly at walbright1@ft.newyorklife.com or 414-573-2449 for personalized financial guidance with no obligation.
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Welcome to the Made Up Memphis podcast, where we celebrate the grit, heart and hope that make the 901 shine. Each week, we sit down with changemakers, youth and families to talk real mental health wins, money moves and life skills breakthroughs All the tools we use at Made Up Memphis to uplift, equip and empower people to build stronger, more resilient lives. Whether you're 14 or 40, a parent, mentor or ally, this is your spot for stories that heal and strategies that work. So grab a sweet tea, get comfy and let's step into growth together, because here at MainUp Memphis, you leave the baggage keep the change. And let's step into growth together, because here at MainUp Memphis, you leave the baggage keep the change.
Speaker 2:All right, hey everybody, my name is Joey Laswell. This is the MainUp Memphis podcast. Glad to have you here and we are excited to introduce a financial professional that we have with us, mr Warren Albright. Hello, hello. Everyone Say hello to Mr Albright.
Speaker 2:So he is a financial professional with New York Life, correct, yes, and we just wanted to have him on the show, kind of pick his brain about the financial world and maybe some things that we can glean some nuggets of information and just kind of get to know him a little bit better and talk about. You know his journey to the financial world and you know what he's doing now and then maybe some things that we can talk about in the future for his vision for the future. So, warren, thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it. Um, and you know I I've done some research on you. You've got a really great background, a really great um, just living resume, and I just want to dig into it a little bit and and tell people some of your story and how you got to the financial world. Um, uh, it seems like it was a very interesting journey.
Speaker 3:So tell us a little bit about your journey to the financial world. Tell us a little bit about yourself and some of your background. Father investing in real estate and stuff like that so that kind of interested me. And then I started working. I was in the service army and I started buying vehicles and my father said, oh, that ain't going to make you no money. You need to stop buying all these vehicles. You need to buy some rental property to make you some money, something that's going to make you some money, something that's going to make you some money instead of some depreciating asset which is a vehicle. So I ended up doing that. I stopped buying vehicles. Then I started looking into real estate. I bought my first real estate rental property at the age of 18 years old. At that time age of 18 years old At that time I think a lot of the folks that's around my age it was a song got called I Don't Want no Squirrels by TLC and they were talking about folks that was living in their mama house and daddy house and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:But at that time I started buying rental property at 18 years old and I was sitting in my parents' basement and I had about three or four different rental properties and I was collecting money. Now, this was in early 90s, so that's what got me kind of with financial literacy my father telling me, stop buying all the cars and buy something that's going to make you some money. And he was doing the same thing, so it's something that I saw. So I had a few rental properties. Then I decided, at the age of 22 years old, I decided to go to college for accounting because I was always good with numbers. The military helped me out with that. So, uh, I was getting a check every month, two checks from the military, um, while I was staying in college. Well, while I was in college, and then also I was working while I was in college. So I had some checks coming in and, not to mention, I had rental property that I had checks coming in so nice.
Speaker 3:I was in college, undergrad, doing um, majoring in accounting Um. At that time also I was introduced to stocks. So for for you to be an accountant major, you're going to have some classes dealing with the stock market. So I started dealing with the stock market. So I started hmm, that's another way of making money. So after college, after the undergrad, I went back and I was running a business.
Speaker 3:After that county I was running a business and I started investing in the stock market at a young age. I guess I was about 26 years old after I finished undergrad, because I was a little late boomer Because, remember, I was in the military. So, 26 years old, finishing undergrad, I started investing in stocks and then I decided I said I want to help the community out. So I went into teaching. And anybody noticed that anybody going into teaching is not because of the money, it's not because of the money. So I went into teaching to try to help others out, because I was looking at individuals that look like me. The only role models they had, only male role models they had, were rappers, basketball players, that kind of stuff. And I know most individuals could not become a rapper, most individuals could not become basketball players.
Speaker 3:So, I was trying to be a role model. I did that for 17 years, taught for 17 years. I was still invested in the stock market, I was still invested in real estate and stuff like that. Then I decided I didn't want to. It was, in other words, you know, when your time have ran out, and I did education for 17 years. There was enough of that at that time and I was thinking about another career where I can and I missed, uh, talking about at that time also, I was.
Speaker 3:I went back to get my um, mba and also my master's of art in teaching. So I was always getting knowledge at the time also while I was working. So I decided, after the 17 years of teaching, I decided that, hmm, I want to find something where I can incorporate my business background, because I had a business background as far as running a business. I had an accounting degree, I had an MBA. Now I had this teaching degree also. So now I said, okay, let me figure out something where I can incorporate all of that. So now what I'm doing now is teaching about finance or finances and I'm trying to educate about finances. So instead of me teaching kids fifth grade, sixth grade about math, now I'm teaching about finances, so in all different ages, whether it's young or older, teaching all different ages about finances.
Speaker 2:Wow, now that's a full circle story. Right there you went, you know you started learning about financial literacy, you're on your own journey and then now you're you're giving back to the next generation and I just love that, that arc, I love that story. I love how you've basically incorporated bits of everything that you've learned and all your different roles into this new direction and I just really love that. And I guess, man, I have many questions about your past. So, when it comes to your military service, was there any good financial lessons that you learned or anything that you gleaned from your time in the service?
Speaker 3:I guess when I started looking at finances and military, one thing I learned is when I was in school, if I went to drill on the weekend I got paid. So that was one thing. Hey, I need to get on up and do my one weekend out of the month to get paid. So that helped me out a lot when I was in undergrad because I wasn't trying to get a job because I was in school, and that's one thing I like. I want to concentrate on school and I couldn't concentrate on school and a job at the time. That's just me. Some individuals can.
Speaker 3:But my decisions prior to undergrad allowed me where I didn't have to go and work, I didn't have to work. I was on a work study in undergrad and I would go into work when I wanted to. So I just do hours when I wanted to, just to have some extra pocket money. But the military really certain things that the military taught me is, as far as being punctual, taught me a lot of discipline. So some of that stuff, even when I'm dealing with customers right now, I got a lot of discipline. I got some that might be fussing and I don't go back and start fussing back at them because the military taught us that, hey, they're going to fuss at you, but you couldn't say anything back. So, uh, and then I got a lot of patience and the military taught me a lot of the patience you know, the dealing with and it sounds like uh
Speaker 2:right, right, well, you also. It sounds like you turn that energy into uh, into being a teacher, like you use that patience in the classroom. Well, you also. It sounds like you turned that energy into being a teacher. You use that patience in the classroom, I'm sure. So I just love that progression. You're using each job.
Speaker 2:What does it take to get into the finance world? And it seems, like everyone that I've talked to, it's usually a very indirect path to the financial world for a lot of people, but that also shows that life experience, lived experience, it shows that you're a real human being, that you're not just a number cruncher. You have lived experience and all this really great breadth of experience. Number cruncher, you have lived experience and all this really great breadth of experience. So, teaching for 17 years, man, I mean, I actually did apply for Teach for America this past year. This cycle ended up going in a different direction. But, yeah, I'm very passionate about teaching, or teaching what I know, and giving back and teaching financial literacy myself. But so, yeah, with man Up Memphis.
Speaker 2:For those that don't know, what does this have to do with Made Up Memphis? Well, we do have a financial literacy course. It's a 12-week program and it's essentially you know, it's geared towards the 11 to 25-year-old age range, so that we're looking at the future of America in know of America in a sense, or maybe the globe, if you want to call it, you know. So yeah, we're trying to build a good, solid foundation for people's finances at a younger age. So with that in mind, you know, if you're speaking to somebody who's 18 years old, like you were, you had some good modeling and now you're trying to be a good model of what to do. So you know, like, let's just say, you just met an 18 year old in the street and he was like what do I do? You know how? Where do I get started with managing my finance as well? What would you, what would you kind of give advice to him for?
Speaker 3:And I will say uh, main thing is living below your means. In other words, whatever you're making a month, you can't be spending net a month or more. So a lot of times we let's say, for instance, I'm going to throw out some numbers you make $5,000 a month. Now that might be unrealistic for 18 year old. But let's say we just going to throw the numbers out $5,000 a month.
Speaker 3:And if you make it $5,000 a month, you can't go out and spend $6,000 a month. In other words, you're going to be in a hole every month. You're getting yourself in a hole $1,000 every month. In that example. What you need to be doing is trying to live below your means and not buy all this. I started off because I had jobs and I was in the service. I was getting checks, I was staying at my parents' house for free, I didn't have any bills and I started on the wrong path before my father, real quick, said hey, you need to stop this. You need to change the direction that you're going because you're spending too much money on these vehicles. And that's what I was doing, and I see a lot of times in the community that man of Memphis is targeting. We have a lot of individuals that if you're making money, you're going to spend it on clothes, you're going to spend it on cars, you're going to spend it on jewelry, you're going to spend it on cologne expensive cologne, you're going to spend it on purses, and all that stuff are depreciating assets. Really, I don't even call it an asset, I call it a liability, right, because those things go down in value. So you need to start figuring out hey, how can I first of all increase my income and decrease my expenses? So, in other words, as a young person, you want to keep trying to increase your income. In other words, as a young person, you want to keep trying to increase your income. In other words, getting jobs is better If you find a job paying $20 an hour and then next thing you know, all of a sudden Bucky's coming here and they're paying $25, $30 an hour. You get that job. That don't mean you just because your income has increased. That don't mean that your expenses got to increase. So sometimes we can live, we have a comfortable life, but then all of a sudden we make a little bit more money and we think we need to spend more money because we'd have made a little bit more money. And that's not the case. That's not how you get rich, that's not how you become a millionaire, that's not how you save. And I give another good example. It was a bunch of government workers and I know this because I deal with a lot of government workers. It was a lot of government workers that were making over $100,000 a year. Doge started cutting and this is something recent Doge started cutting, they lose their job. They're one or two months away from not having any money to pay their bills. Yeah, in other words, you're living, you make over a hundred grand a year and you're spending every bit of money that you take in, and this is not the way to go. This is not how you're going to make a lot of money. I mean what really is not the way to go? You need at least three to six months of emergency funds, and certain individuals say up to nine months. In other words, if you lose your job, you don't have nothing to worry about. You got a little cushion sitting up here where you can get access, or liquid assets that you can get assets access to to cover your bills In the meantime while you find another job.
Speaker 3:So my advice to young folks is try to find ways. Whether it's going to school Sometimes school, college, is not the answer for everybody. I'm going to say this College is not the answer for everybody, but one thing you can't take away from individuals is education. So that means that you need to figure out something that you like doing, whether it is um, a trade, taking up a trade. You can make good money on so many trades electrician and plumbers and all the other stuff. Take up a trade. Find something that you like doing. Hey, bucky's is gonna come, paying good money. No, no jobs. They're gonna come to memphis, um musk, this old plant that he built and I don't know, it's probably going to be a good paying job. Um, you got ford coming with this battery. Um, building the battery for the electric vehicles good paying. So find something that you like doing that's going to pay you well.
Speaker 3:And whatever you're making, do not spend it all. That's the key. Do not spend it all. Try to find ways of increasing your income but not increasing your expenses. So just because I give you another good example, another thing too there are going to be some individuals where you don't go to and you might start.
Speaker 3:Real estate is a good way of building wealth, but you go to the bank and they look at your finances. Sometimes the bank say, hey, you can afford a million dollar home. That do not mean go out and find you a million-dollar home, right, right, you know you haven't been living in no million-dollar home before. You know you can live in probably a $300,000 or $400,000 home be above what you've been living in. So do that Get you a $300,000 or $400,000 home, which is going to be a nice home. But just because the bank said you can afford a million dollars, you go out there and get a million dollar home and as soon as you leave that job, or as soon as the job go out of business, or whatever the case may be, did you lose your home, right?
Speaker 2:so or your car, and you know like they do the same thing with the car dealerships. They're like oh, how much much can you afford? And even though you wanted to spend $300, you technically can afford $500, so why not get the $500 loan? Sadly, some of these companies they're taking advantage of people's just lack of knowledge about how these things work and the behavioral side.
Speaker 3:Yep. And another thing too if you look at the interest rates on some of those car loans, you don't want to be paying 20 percent, 15, 20 percent on a car loan for eight years. If you got to finance the car for eight years, you probably cannot afford it, yeah. You probably need to be three to five years at tops. But if you got to finance a car for eight years a depreciating asset by the time you pay for that car, you got that $25,000 car. You're going to pay 50 grand on it.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:By the time it's all said and done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most people don't keep their cars for what? An average of three to five years, if that nowadays. So, yeah, it's definitely, and then they just roll over the liability into the next car sometimes. So they're upside down and yeah, so it's really dangerous because, like you said, all you have to do is lose your job or or layoffs happen and then now you're going to lose your car and then potentially your house. So, some great, great advice there. And going back to what you were talking about at 18, I'm really curious now about how did you manage to buy your first rental property at 18 years old, at 18 years old, and this is something I don't recommend.
Speaker 3:But I had income. I haven't had credit built up. At that time my parents co-signed for me. They trusted in me and believed in me. You can't co-sign for everybody. They trusted in me and believed in me. You can't co-sign for everybody. That's all I'm going to say. A lot of folks will tell you not to co-sign. My parents trusted in me that, hey, he was going to be able to pay that note every month.
Speaker 3:So remember it was a duplex up in Milwaukee, wisconsin, where I was getting income from two units. The note at that time we're talking about early 90s was $300 a month. That was taxes insurance principal. I was getting about $900 a month from that house. So that's how I got started and I would take the $900, and I didn't really need the $900 at that house. That's how I got started. I would take the $900 and I didn't really need the $900 at that time. I would take the $900 and put it back into the house. I would pay in the note a $900 note, but it was really $300 a month.
Speaker 3:I got that house paid off in two, three years because I was paying the $900 on it every month, so that that was one of the properties that helped me when I went to school. I was getting the $900 all to myself. Now, yes, I still had to pay insurance. Yes, I still had to pay taxes, but that was a lot less than the bulk of it was principal. So that's how I got started in the real estate, kind of doing that with the real estate. Then, like I said, with the young folks, I wanted to kind of touch base and I don't want to get ahead of myself as far as with New York Life and you want me to kind of go there now. Yeah, let's go for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's go for it.
Speaker 3:So now with New York Life, one thing we do is sell life insurance and I'm going to just stick to life insurance. Right, I'm going to just stick to life insurance right now. And when I was younger I used to invest in life insurance is investing, investing life insurance, but what I used to do was I was getting um a policy and it was a time policy. Now I don't have anything against any policies, but it was a term policy. I wish I would know what I know now, because it probably would have been a whole life policy, something that um accumulate cash value and the death benefit go up, something that I can borrow against and and tax free, no taxes on it. I probably would invest in like a permanent policy, like a whole life or IUL, something like that right now.
Speaker 3:But let me say this here for young folks that we are targeting for man up Memphis there are some things that the insurance company is looking for when we are trying to insure individuals, and let me tell you what they are Motor vehicle record, alcohol and drug use or history, medical records, prescription, medication, blood pressure, body mass index. So the body, physical body, cholesterol, family history, nicotine, smoking, drugs, that kind of stuff, all that stuff that I just said. Who are the individuals that do not have? All those typically is young folks. It's easier to get a insurance policy where it's going to go up in value, where you can borrow against later on when you're young, because it's easier to get approved when you get over 18 years old. We are looking for medical records. We're pulling medical records Under 18, juveniles. We are not pulling any medical records, I can tell you that right now we are not pulling any medical records.
Speaker 3:The older you get, you're going to eventually run into some health issues. You stick around and I'll give you a quick story. My son, 23 years old, healthy, no issues at all. I got policies on him. He got 23 years old All of a sudden he went to the doctor's side was hurt. He ended up suffering from leukemia. If he wouldn't have went to that doctor, if he would have waited two or three more days, he would probably not been here. I say that to say I got insurance on him when he was healthy. He had enough insurance when he was young. He's still young and still ran into some health issues.
Speaker 3:You just never know when you're going to run into some health issues. This is the reason why you get the insurance as early as possible. And remember I said the insurance is a asset, it's an appreciating asset for young individuals. And no policies you can borrow against tax free. Um, and those policies, um they they got an acronym called slurp supplemental life insurance retirement plan. You can set it up as a retirement plan where when you get 65 years old you get a policy right now, when you get 65 years old, you can borrow from that policy tax-free, pay off your house, retire. That's a part of your retirement. It's not tied to the market or anything like that and it's guaranteed to appreciate, backed by a company that's been in business for over 180 years, where they pay dividends and stuff like that, and they are the only insurance company that's in the top 100 of the 400 list. So I got a lot of things that's bagged me up. I'm very educated concerning this stuff and I'm also bagged up by a company that's been in business for 180 years.
Speaker 2:Yes, and financially sound.
Speaker 2:Yes, the translation is you know what you're talking about and you got the letters behind you and the institutions behind you. So I really I do appreciate you know, you taking the time and kind of dropping some of these nuggets because you know, once again, like part of what we want to do here at Made at Memphis, we're trying to destigmatize finances. Personal finance seems like it's a really stressful topic for just about everyone to talk about. So we wanted to have these kinds of conversations about money because for some people they're hearing this for the very first time. You know, um, and, and whether you're, uh, 18 or you know 45, like there's still something that you could learn about personal finances.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, and I'm just kind of a nerd about finances and personal finance stuff, but I also have learned, you know, when my time in the service was, even military members who have guaranteed paychecks and healthcare are not doing good with their money sometimes. So there's clearly something systemic that's going on. And most people that I talk to they're like well, no one ever told me how to manage my money or you know, I just kind of learned by doing, either by family or friends influence or, especially nowadays you have social media influencers who are controlling how people are spending their money.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you say that, Joey, because some of the individuals that I see that cannot deal with money or cannot handle money are doctors, Individuals that make a lot of money but as far as got their finances in order yeah, well, then you get into like the lifestyle creep and then, um, he didn't, he didn't.
Speaker 2:Hedonistic adaptation where you know, like you, you get these higher incomes and then you naturally for most people you start to spend in accordance with what money you have coming in and it just becomes natural and second nature. And then you don't realize, like you're saying, somebody who could be making six figures can be spending six figures even though they make like a higher income. They're actually broke, you know, or if something would happen, they're actually broke.
Speaker 3:Let me give you a scenario to sign in that, joey, you can have one individual that make $50,000 but spend $35,000 and they have $15,000 left over every year. That to one is making 150 and spending 150. The one is making 50 000 and spending only 35 is really doing a lot better than the one that's making 150 and spending 150, because every year you are just breaking even. You are, you don't have any money in savings or anything like that, and you can be one paycheck away from losing everything.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. That's a great cautionary tale. Like you said in the beginning, living below your means, I mean we should start with living within your means for some people, because they're not exactly doing that. Like you said, some people are spending $6,000 and they only make $5,000. So where does that money come in from? Usually credit cards, you know so, and then the credit cards. We can go all day on that, but everyone knows that credit cards are um a slippery slope. If, if not like a cautionary tale of what you know, it's not your money, it's. It's the bank's money, it's the credit card company's money, and they will gladly lend it to you, knowing that they're going to make money off of you doing this.
Speaker 3:I get another Everything that I said so far. Joey, you notice that I always have multiple streams of income.
Speaker 3:And that's another thing that don't depend on one source of income, have multiple streams of income so you can have the folks that we deal with. They might say, hey, side hustle, find your side hustle. What is? What is your side hustle? Where you go, where you can make some money, whether it is.
Speaker 3:You notice that I said I was in real estate. All I had to do was the house was in good shape, go pick up rent money every month. That was one of my side hustles. I had money in the stock market. I had money in the stock market. That was a side hustle. I can sell a stock anytime I want it. If I needed the money, I can sell a stock and get the money.
Speaker 3:But I know that in an average 10 year period the stock market is going to be up probably eight out of those 10 years. If you have two bad years in a 10 year period Two bad years out of 10, that's pretty good, but the chances are you might have one bad year out of the 10-year. Really, just think about what happened this year when the stock market was down 20%. Everybody I had individuals reaching out to me talking about I'm going to sell my portfolio, look bad, and you know it's down 20%, I said leave it alone, just let it stay Right now. Two months later they done, lost 20%, probably done, gained about 25%, 30% right now from the low. So this is the reason why you stick in.
Speaker 3:And this goes back to something else that I'm going to say for the young folks Think long-term and not short-term. So a lot of the young folks, we are in a community now where we always think about how can I get something fast? Mm-hmm, yeah, we get on the internet, we want something, just like that. When you start dealing with finances, think long-term and not short-term. It's not going to be instant gratification. You invest in the stock market. You're not going to make a bunch of money right off the bat. You might invest and you might invest it in the next month. You might lose five or 10%, which is fine, but just invest for the long term. If you keep it in there for the long term, it's definitely going to go up.
Speaker 3:Real estate is another good example of. I'll give you a good example. I moved down here, say. This is another good example of. I give you a good example. I moved down here five years ago. In this area five years ago, my house has appreciated probably about four hundred thousand dollars since I've been here in five years. Wow, that's something that I haven't. I didn't think but live, I got to live. I need a roof over my head. So if I'm going to live, why not pay my own mortgage where I know I see an end where it's going to eventually be no mortgage and I and, before I retired, the house be paid off? But this asset is appreciating in value. I just told you it appreciated $400,000 in five years. Just think about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so any real estate investors come look at Memphis, and well, you're inennessee in that area, nice yeah so there's a lot of growth happening um, so yeah, just a little pitch for for the city of memphis.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of cool things happening, um, but yeah, those are all great, great pieces of of knowledge and wisdom. Um, and you know, really just part of the, the kind of. I think people think of money as a binary conversation. Sometimes they're like you have to save aggressively and don't spend anything. So people say, oh, you have to be super frugal. But I think there's always a balance somewhere in there, and that's usually moderation is where people struggle with. Just like they might eat too many, too many calories in, not enough calories out. You know, it's the same thing with spending. So like, if you, you know some people spend a little bit too much and it it over overrides how much they're bringing in. Yep, so it's really just the math problem, but the behavioral stuff is really what gets most people. That's the tricky part.
Speaker 3:Another thing that I do, joey, is I'm going to say this and not a lot of the community that man Up Memphis is dealing with they don't know anything about this but one of the cheapest ways of becoming a millionaire is investing in life insurance policy. There are certain things that we know. We know we're living, but one thing we do know we are going to die. Yes, so when it happened, we don't know when it's going to happen. It's all right to have a policy out on your parents where you can pay off all their debt. You can pay off all their bills when they pass away. It's all right. Your parents will love that. This is, this is where we get into generational wealth and stuff like that folks leaving stuff behind. Where you're not leaving debt behind, where, when folks pass away, you don't have to do a GoFundMe and fish dinners and chicken dinners and all this other stuff.
Speaker 3:Insurance is one of the cheapest ways of passing down generational wealth, but we just need to be educated on the insurances that we are selling. Now I'm going to say this here the best insurance policy is the one that's enforced when you pass away. So I'm not going to say one is better than another, but I will give you the facts on all of them and let the client choose what's best for them. But as far as somebody young, like an IUL or a whole life policy is pretty much like a savings account on steroids. That's what I would recommend for somebody young, older individuals it's a little bit different, you know, because due to age and health and stuff like that, we got to start looking at other options. But younger folks save his account on steroids. That's all I got to say that you can borrow against and it's also going to provide a death benefit. Look up I don't have to tell you this. Look up Rockefeller's, how the Rockefeller's passed down generational wealth. Look up that Passed down generational for generations, generations and generations. It's still doing it.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and I mean, what's happening now, I feel like more so often, is that people are passing down generational debt and generational bad financial decisions, and that's something that in the financial social work world we talk about a lot. Is that generational financial trauma and you're really diving into that, and that's something that we can basically preventatively, proactively take care of? Versus, my first job out of grad school was at an emergency room, a social worker position, and unfortunately I saw a lot of families who were just devastated by a sudden death or even a sudden disability, and now they're having to deal with the financial implications of a breadwinner who can't work.
Speaker 3:So all these things that you've been saying are just little light bulbs of like yeah, that's exactly right. Those are the things that people need to be thinking about it. This house is the basement and it's protection first. So protection is protect me from if I'm on a disc, if I have a disability and I'm not able to work. What do I need? Disability insurance? That's what I said.
Speaker 3:Alright, if I, if you protect your first long time care, you gotta go into a long time care facility. And now my watch talking, siri talking. I ain't talking to you, siri. Long time care facility, no facilities, $8,000, $9,000, $10,000 a month. What do you need to protect your assets, your wealth? Long-term care insurance.
Speaker 3:Individuals lose their job. This is something that I hear a lot about. Individuals say, well, I got this, I got that on the job. I say, oh, okay, but it's not transferable and that's what they don't know that you can't take it with you so you can have the disability insurance, long-term care insurance, all this other stuff, life insurance. And this is protection first, because what you're doing is trying to protect your income, ability to earn income. That's what you're trying to do protect at the basement, or the basement of your financial house, but a lot of this stuff is not transferable, so you need something on the side besides what you have at your job. So that's the first part of the house. That's the basis. The next part is the accumulation phase, and the accumulation phase is you working and making a bunch of money At that phase. This is where you start investing in the stock market and all this other stuff, because you're making money. You're 25 years old, 30 years old, you're making money. You are trying to accumulate assets, accumulate money.
Speaker 3:Now the last step and we're gonna say this is the roof of the house is the preservation state, meaning that what you done got. You're trying to keep. Yeah, you're not trying to lose any of that. So, yeah, that is for individuals that might be a little bit older, the perseverance stage. But that is for, let's say, going into a long-term care facility. You need long-term care insurance.
Speaker 3:How are you going to protect your assets? Are you going to put in a trust or a will? Now, this is talking to the older folks. You got to put your stuff in a trust. Sometimes we think the will and that's all we knew about was the will. But the will it does not prevent stuff from going into probate. It was still going to probate, you still had to pay attorney fees and all this other stuff. So you try to protect what you have on in a preservation stage which is the roof of the house. So you need to be putting your stuff in a trust, that kind of stuff and and sometimes getting stuff out of your name, putting it in the kid's name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So these are the things I mean. I'm learning stuff too every time when I talk to financial professionals. Everyone has blind spots, financial blind spots. Everyone has like blind spots. You know financial blind spots, and you know some people are chugging along and they're doing good, but then they, you know they're like oh well, yeah, I don't have a good enough life insurance policy. You know I'll deal with that later and usually you know you could. But then, like you were saying earlier, the younger you are, the better it is. To get that insurance policy when you're younger, is to get that insurance policy when you're younger, and then you know you can grow with it and it'll, it'll, uh, you know, gain gain um gain uh worth.
Speaker 3:Uh worth value and stuff so yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 2:So what? So what's a good age or the best age that you can say as a young professional? Obviously you want to start when you're 18 but like, let's say, you know some people who are, um, you know, getting out of college 22, 23, 24, um, is that a good time to really start this stuff or, um, you know when, when would you recommend people?
Speaker 3:the sooner the better, because, um you, you heard a compound interest. That's exactly what these are doing. So the sooner the better. So if we are investing in the stock market, if we are investing in a life insurance policy, anything like that, even investing in the house, and we start talking about multiple streams of income and I can just give you some ideas of multiple streams of income, the best time is as young as you can or as soon as you can, because one thing there are certain things that prices of the houses are not going down, they're going up. So get it as soon as you can, get what you want as soon as you can. Life insurance is not going to go down, it's going to go up because you are not getting any younger and the chances are that health sometimes, as we get older, what happens when we get older? We kind of start to spread, we start getting unhealthy, we get older, the price of this stuff goes up.
Speaker 3:So the best time is to get it as soon as possible, whenever you're able to get it. And let me say something Another thing you said, joey, is we might not have enough insurance. And I want to give the listeners something to think about. Let's say, joey, you and your wife, your wife make $100,000 a year. She got a $100,000 policy. If she passed tomorrow, her income has been replaced. For how many years, joey? One year, one year If that, if that. And then the thing is, y'all got three kids.
Speaker 1:I'm just throwing it out Y'all got three kids.
Speaker 3:I'm just throwing it out. Y'all got three kids to raise and your kids are seven, eight and 12. One year $100,000 policy is not going to take care of those kids. So now Joey is in a worse predicament now because this wiped them past way. I'm just using this scenario. We're going to pray against everything I'm saying. But we're just using this scenario, but I'm just giving you an idea of.
Speaker 3:sometimes individuals will say oh, I just want a hundred thousand dollar policy. How you come up with that number? Ok, let's look at some things what's your income, how many kids you have, how long you got to take care of those kids and nobody should be saying 18 years old, because we know the kids are in your pocket way past 18 years old.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, so now your income has to be replaced for those many years, all the way up to them finishing maybe, undergrad, 24 years old, 22 years old, wherever the case may be. So this is another thing too. Remember, you still got bills, joey. You still got a house note. You still got a house note. You still got a car note. Your income your wife passed away the $100,000 that she was making. You don't get that $100,000 no more, because she's not here to generate that $100,000 income.
Speaker 3:So a lot of individuals are well underinsured, undersured, underinsured, well underinsured. So what I try to do is educate. Like I said, I have taught fifth and sixth graders so I can break stuff down. Hey, you want to understand? I talked to a guy last week. He said you know, warren, I have talked to five other agents and none of them took the time out to explain to me everything that you explained. They just sell, sell, sell.
Speaker 3:And if you're looking at a company, if you go with an insurance company that only has one product, you need to be looking at another insurance company If the only thing they have is one product and that one product is the best thing going. It's not a one size fit all matter. It's not a one-size-fits-all matter. If you notice what I said, I said for the younger folks I would go with an indexed universal life policy or a whole life policy for younger individuals. I did not say the same thing for older individuals. I said they have a little bit more different options due to health and all this other stuff and the premiums and stuff like that. But I know younger individuals, the premiums are going to be low. So if you are looking at a company that they only have one product and their one product is the best thing gone and they don't have any other solutions for you, you need to be looking into another company.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's great, Great advice. And I think a lot of people are also intimidated by the insurance world and, you know, advisor world, or they think, oh well, I'm not rich enough to do that kind of stuff. But, like, as we've talked about, this is, this is the kind of stuff that everyone needs to be thinking about at some point in their financial life, life cycle. And and also, you know, because you don't know what the future holds. So you know you could be, you know healthy and and like, and something could happen, and all you needed was that policy in place and instead you didn't, and then, as I I've seen in the hospital world, that has devastating impacts.
Speaker 3:In other words, health issues can go down south. And now you are uninsurable. Yes, anytime somebody depends on you financially, you definitely need a policy on you financially. You definitely need a policy If you, if somebody depends on you financially, whether it's wife, kids, you need a policy. And then the thing is if, even if somebody don't depend on you financially, get a policy and set up a generation, your nephew, niece or whatever the case may be, because one thing we do know you are going to die, you are going to leave here. Why not set somebody else up, a family member?
Speaker 3:And I believe and I'm going to say this here, joey, I believe some of the crime and all this other stuff that we have seen in this world, a lot of it is due to lack of finances. If you had money, you would not be running around here knocking folks upside the head for their cars and breaking into liquor stores and breaking in stores and smashing grab and all this other stuff, why You'd be at home trying to get you some sleep to go to the job the next day. Yes, when you have financial issues, it brings about other issues. Now you're trying to take what you don't have.
Speaker 2:And that's a great point. That actually kind of ties into something that I was looking at. I was thinking about it from a more bigger lens picture, like a 1,000-foot view or 10,000-foot view. We've talked about some kind of micro things that we could do, micro things that we could do, but are there any things at the community level or beyond that we could start, you know, working on these financial problems? Because I mean, like you said, there's some systemic things that are going on, there's generational traumas, but is there anything at the local level that we can do to kind of change the narrative and really break the cycle?
Speaker 3:I think so and really break the cycle? I think so, and one thing we got to do when we're dealing with communities is building trust, making sure that they trust you. So they got to know you and trust you, and then we can start trying to educate. If we're educating them, because that's what we need we need education for I mean financial education. This is something that's not taught in schools. I remember, even when I was in school, we had at least a home ec class. Finances should be taught in school.
Speaker 3:This is something that should be taught in school. So I'm just looking for opportunities where I can build trust within a community and educate them. I'm not worried about whether they buy anything from me. If I'm educating them, I know eventually they will decide that, hey, I need to do some of the things that he is doing.
Speaker 2:Because you're living proof too, like you've walked the walk, you talk the talk, but you've done all these steps and now you are at a really good place financially. So that's a good example to live financially.
Speaker 3:So that's yeah, that's a good, that's a good example to live. It's been times where and I'm in a I'm in a career where it's commission based, so there are months where you can make 20, 30, $40,000 and their next month you can make zero dollars. You have to know how to budget your money. Just because you make 20 grand or 30 grand last month, that don't mean you go spend the 30 grand that you made last month, because the following month it could be zero. So this is something where you got to. As a financial professional also, I got to budget myself and make sure that I have everything I'm telling you emergency funds sitting on the sideline, different sources of income coming in. This is something very important.
Speaker 3:Don't just depend on one thing, and I think a lot of you've heard don't put all your eggs in one basket diversification. This is diversification. When you got rental property, that money come in every month. They stand in your house. They got to pay you. When you had a stock market, that money going up Last two years, that money going up um last two years, the market been up 20 some percent both years. So just think in two years 2023 and 2024 you had 20 some percent gains in two years. If you had your money in there, you would have had about a 45% gain. And then this year is up also, even after we had a 20% decline a couple of months.
Speaker 2:Right man. So yeah, so that's basically, you know, some great context to you know, I think a lot of people get really emotional about their investments, which is understandable. That is a human behavioral thing. That we see our money going down and it's like we panic because we're like, oh my gosh, it's going to be the Great Depression, so we better jump ship now. And so there's that fight or flight response that I think a lot of people you know they're choosing the flight, you know they want to jump ship, but, as you said before, most people that jump ship if they had literally just stayed the course. Because I know I've seen it where, in the moment, you see the decline and you just react on emotion and impulse. So it's tricky. It's tricky though.
Speaker 3:They got to say it and say scared money don't make money. Can't be scared to make money. Right, Remember what I said earlier you got to think long-term versus short-term.
Speaker 3:So if you think it's short-term and you took your money out of the market a couple of months ago because it was going down and you lost so much money. It's not a realistic loss until you start taking your money out. That's when it's a real loss. It's a loss on paper until you take your money out. So paper you can look, or on a computer you can look at the computer all you want and say, ooh, the market down 15%. But it's not a realistic loss until you start taking the money out and that's when you actually got the loss. So if you would have just left it alone, that money would have been back up and you would have been up in the positive versus selling it at a negative.
Speaker 2:Right? Well then you also got the concept of people who are the panic sellers. You've got the smarter people who are buying when people are panicking, uh, and so they're the ones that are actually the ones making making the biggest impacts, but you know when that takes, so that takes you. In order to be in that position, you have to have confidence that you, you know, you have your cushion, you have all your money, all your ducks in a row, so you don't just YOLO $10,000 off of money that you've borrowed or something like that. You have to have a good financial foundation to make those smart decisions.
Speaker 3:I got to say, joey, that if you do everything that everybody else is doing, you're going to end up broke, because most of us are broke. You can't do what everybody else is doing. So, when it comes down to, if everybody else is selling in the market, you're going to end up broke. You end up taking a loss, you end up taking an L, you can't do what everybody else is doing, or else you end up broke because most individuals are broke. So now you need to figure out a way of getting out of this cycle. You need to figure out a way of getting out of that generational curse. And there are a lot of sources I'm available to try to help individuals get out of that. Where, looking at finances I'm not trying to rush anybody in stuff like that, I'm trying to break it down where you can say a lot of folks will say, oh, I can't afford that insurance policy, it's $100 a month I can look at your finances and I guarantee you I can find some ways of saving, where that money can be redirected to an insurance policy. Because if you look at it everybody finances you can find something where, oh, you eating out four times a week, you buying $20 for a burger and fries and a drink. I'm going to give you a good example Me and my family, when we go out to eat, the drinks are sometimes $4 and $5 each.
Speaker 3:The drinks are sometimes four or five dollars each and the more family members you have. Just think about that. Multiply that four by the number of family members and figure out how much money you spend on drinks alone. You'd be sitting there saying I could have went to sam's or costco and got a whole case of these sodas for that kind of money. You can save money just by saying, hey, drink water. Water is good for us. We got it. We supposed to be drinking a lot of water anyway for health reasons. It's a lot of benefits to water. Drink water when you go out. Watch how you save on that restaurant bill. Little stuff like that can save you money. Or going to the restaurant four times a week oh, let's cut that back from four to two. I guarantee you I can find ways that you can save money and get something that's going to be an asset versus just spending money on blowing money on that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you're saving on your waistline too, yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's be real.
Speaker 3:It'll help out also when you try to get that insurance policy. There you go, because now we are looking at health and now you are a little bit healthier. You are healthier meaning that you're going to get a better premium because you get a better health rating. You can't go in there and all you eat is fried food and you're 50 pounds overweight and you think you're going to get the best health rating possible. It's not going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So it's all part, it's all part of the all part of the bigger picture here that you know, like everything, everything adds up. You know whether it's on your waistline which, which, which adds to your life insurance rates. So yeah, I mean, man, it's a lot of great. Go on for another hour, um, but um, we're approaching. Well, we just hit an hour. So a lot of great stuff. We'll probably we're gonna have to have you on for another another session.
Speaker 3:It seems like because welcome um is there a?
Speaker 2:way joey that um individuals can um get in contact with me or if they want to talk, yeah, yeah, yeah sure, sure, yeah, well, I'll put your um, your information in the show notes, but if you want to go ahead and just say like, like, how can people reach out to you phone number? Email-g-h-t 1L at F-TNewYorkLifecom.
Speaker 3:Or cell phone. I answer my cell phone all the time, or you can send me a message text message me on my cell phone. I answer my cell phone all the time, or you can send me a message text message me on my cell phone. The phone number is area code 414-573-2449. That's area code 414-573-2449. And when you reach out to me any way I have any way I can help you. It does not have to be leading to you purchasing anything. Any way I can help you. I would love to sit down and talk to you and figure out ways that I can help you and your family financially, because we need this financial literacy and whether it's kids or parents or whatever, we need it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, with your working with Made Up Memphis, you know what are some of the things that you maybe have on the horizon or have done in the past and maybe some things that we could work together maybe and try to coordinate a community event and just teach kids about financial literacy maybe yes, yes, and I know, man of memphis, they do have, uh like seminars and stuff like this.
Speaker 3:So there are things that's available and I believe it's coming up. I don't want to rachel, I believe we'll throw that out, but, um, there are a lot of stuff that's coming up and I would just say stay tuned and there are certain things. I got an email today and, if you are in this area, I got an email today about other. Let me quickly look at this email real quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because I not not to mention New York life. We have a lot of stuff that we try to educate um individuals with seminars and stuff like that, but there is something going on in the Memphis area. The black oh black Chamber of Memphis is a 2025 Building Wealth in Our Community Symposium, talking about finances. So there are things that's available and it's coming up at the end of this month, july 31st, through the 1st of August.
Speaker 1:So it is another thing so individuals that are listening.
Speaker 3:You got my contact information, the phone number, email. You can let me know. Hey, I would like to know upcoming seminars, or or can I? You want me to talk to you one on one? One thing I'm not going to do is rush you off, so I'm going to listen to, because this is how you make sound decisions, not somebody. I'm going to give you a good example.
Speaker 3:You got a doctor. When you go see the doctor, the doctor don't just come in a room and say, oh, you sneezing. Don't just come in the room and say, oh, you sneezing, okay, well, we got some for that. You got some, clare, then bye. You know they don't just do that. They ask you questions and as a financial professional, I got to ask you questions to get deep into your finances to make the best decision for you. So anytime you got a doctor and they just say, hey, oh, what's wrong with you? You sneezing? Oh, ok, well, I got some for it. And they don't check anything else you might need to be going to see another doctor. It's the same thing with a financial checkup. If somebody say, oh, you're looking for insurance. Oh, I can get you $250,000 insurance and we're going to do a term policy and that's all we got to sell. You is a term policy. You need to go see somebody else, it's not a one-size-fits-all.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and actually that goes back to when it comes to advocating for yourself with your health. You want to be smart about know your body, know what's going in, know what's where. They just have like this numbers running in their head and it's like not concrete. Maybe they've never written it down on paper. So that's one of the biggest things that I tell people is to just create some mindfulness around your money, because most people don't even just do that do that.
Speaker 3:I give you another good example, Joey, that when we start talking about education, I run into a lot of individuals where they have a policy where it's getting expired. They're 70-something years old now. It's going to be hard for them to get insurance now because of health and age and the price of insurance because of them being older. They tell me all the time I didn't know, I had that kind of policy. In other words, the agent sold them something just to be selling them something, to make a commission but, it wasn't in best interest of that client.
Speaker 3:Because now the client's saying, oh, I wish I still had insurance, but I can't get insurance now because of my health, because of my age. I thought I had this, but no, that's not actually what you have. So I will go over individuals whether it so they know exactly what they have, because a lot of individuals don't know what kind of policy policies they have. Because it's one policy I'm going to say it's one policy that only pay out 2% of the time. I want individuals to know that this policy got a 2% chance of paying out or you might outlive that policy. You're probably going to outlive this policy that pays out 2% of the time. I want to let you know that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now it's a purpose for that policy. If you're getting it for mortgage protection, you're saying, hey, I got 30 years to pay off my mortgage. I want to get a 30 year. This policy to pay off my mortgage is good for that. It's a purpose for all of the policy, but I want you to know exactly what you have. Chances of a 25 year old getting a 30 year term and they living past 55 is probably high 30-year term, and they're living past 55 is probably high.
Speaker 2:Well, warren man, this has been great, but I do want to give if there's anything. We already mentioned what you got on the horizon or some events that are going on. But yeah, stay tuned, we're going to have you on again.
Speaker 3:And probably, I mean, this could be a running series too. You know we, we, you know we're, we're a big on on financial literacy and you're, you're an expert in the field. Um, so, uh, you know I'm, I'm learning something just by talking to you. So I'm, I'm, I'm hoping that the audience somebody is going to be. You know, some light bulbs are popping off right now. Hey, Joey, remember I was in education and I know this for a fact when you teaching, you got to say the same thing seven times before getting your head.
Speaker 3:So I can come back on and say the same thing and sometimes it got to be said numerous times, before individuals get it, one time they might have got some things, but some of the stuff just went right over their head. If I got to keep saying the same thing over and over again anything to make the community better as far as financial, as far as ways of finance financial, yeah, as far as building ways of building financial wealth and passing on generational wealth yes, and you're doing your part by by spreading the, the wealth of knowledge that you have, which with.
Speaker 2:if people take it, take your advice to heart, then it will turn into real dollars and real wealth down the road. So I see that I appreciate you doing that and taking the time out of your schedule to talk to us and our audience. We're going to definitely do this again. But, yeah, we've got your contact information. I'll put it in the show notes and any last parting, words of wisdom or nuggets you want to drop.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say just this. I'm going to be done Joey, thanks for having me man Up, memphis thanks for having me, the audience thanks for listening and let's put some of this stuff into action. As far as let's change the trajectory of our community. As far as financial, we can make the change. Um, just because mama and daddy didn't do this, and mama, mama passed and she didn't leave me nothing, that don't mean you do the same thing. Let's change the trajectory of what we see going on and I guarantee you, if we had finances, we won't see a lot of this crime going on. It will stop. Now we know there are other things going on, but this is one of the big problems in the community right now. So let's make a change.
Speaker 2:I love it. Let's make a change. Well, that's actually. It ties into one of our slogans, where we're trying to kind of have a slogan for Made Up Memphis, but it's leave the baggage, keep the change. So that's kind of what our mission here is at Main Up Memphis. Warren, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. This has been amazing. I've learned a lot. I hope that the audience learns so much and hopefully there's some questions. So I'm hoping to to you know, get field some questions and maybe the next time we have you on you can have some follow-up questions.
Speaker 3:That'd be good. That's one thing I know with educating. Sometimes you just can't talk to individuals, and that's a form of communication. Sometimes you need them to be responding back. So I would love to take questions next time and just answer questions. And the thing is I don't know everything, and that's one thing about me, but I know how to get the answers.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:You don't have to know everything, but I know how to get the answers. I know a lot of stuff, but if I don't know the answers, I know where to get the answers to the questions.
Speaker 2:There you go. Well, that's half the battle, right nowadays is getting the right information to the right people. So, uh, so, thank you again. Uh, warren Albright, just a great person to talk to. Uh, I can pick his brain and I probably will continue to pick his brain, but everyone is going to get benefit from this. So, uh, if you like this, uh, this episode, you know, give us some, some feedback, some love in the comment sections. Uh, give us your questions and then we'll have love in the comment sections. Give us your questions and then we'll have Warren on the show again. He'll answer your questions and we'll have another great discussion about personal finance. Thanks, joey, all right, all right, thanks, warren.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the MainUp Memphis podcast. Remember, real change starts when you show up, break cycles and walk into something greater. If you felt inspired, do me three quick favors Subscribe and leave a note or a five-star review so that more people can find us. Share this episode with someone who might need a lift and get involved Volunteer, refer a youth or donate at madeupmemphisorg. Follow us on our socials at Made Up Memphis for behind-the-scenes goodness and send your questions or success stories to us and they might make it on air. Until next time here at Made Up Memphis, leave the baggage, keep the change.