Some Black Frugal Nostalgia

 Hello My Peoples,

Some nostalgia, I posted the blog below years ago when I first started. My girls are both in college, Ivy League and post graduate work abroad. My wife and I are still together. I left the South for New England and I just had my $15 Cole Hann shoes repaired for guess what? $15. I still have that 2006 Volvo XC 70 I bought for 10 grand. It has 300,000 miles, looks good, but my wife thinks we should bail on it. The yearly repairs still don’t match a new car payment. I now own 2 homes, live comfortably under the radar, own a Costco and BJ’s membership and a membership in a food cooperative where the food is fresh and healthy.

Hello,

I am a frugal black man that lives life to the fullest. I am a strong brother with a lovely wife and two beautiful kids. My goal here is to create a movement of black people, who like being at the opposite end of the bling bling society. This group will get thrills from not purchasing a new Coach bag at retail with their Platinum card, but from getting a gently used pair of Cole Hanns for $15.00 at a consignment store and by having people guess how you are living. You will take the journey with me as I help raise a 3 year old and 8 year old (girls) responsibly and frugally. They already know the code words for Goodwill and how to say "My grandmother bought this in a specialty shop in Atlanta."

Now, don't get me wrong. My wife and I have masters degrees from prestigious private universities and live in a golf club community, but I can squeeze water from a rock.

I never buy cars that cost more than $10,000 and they have to have at least 100,000 miles on them.
I will share my thought process on this later along with my mother's old wisdom sayings like,
"It's not how much you make, It's what you do with what you make."

Sorry but I have to get some shut eye.

Frugal Frank from the Blackside

Black Christmas 2022

 Hello My Peoples, 

You know I just can’t seem to blog as much lately, but the holiday season always bring me back here. We have lost so many greats this year, Irene Cara, Bernard Shaw, Ramsey Lewis, Bill Russell, LeonTalley, Lani Guinier, Sidney Poitier. Hats off to these greats. I have been blessed with my family and friends through this COVID pandemic and yes, I still wear my mask. 

As most of you already know, now is not a good time to retire. Unless you hate your job, what’s the hurry? You probably have at least 4 weeks of vacation, a paid off home and possibly older kids. Right now you should be thinking of what comes next on your last day and taking it easy is not an answer. Hell, you can “quiet quit” on your current job. Oh, for you old asses who don’t stay current, “quiet quitting” is when you cut back your activities on your current job. You start using those sick days, stop working overtime and weekends, and stop stressing about the little shit. 

Did you know that many black people go downhill with health after retirement? Because work was the only activity we did, we become inactive, gain weight and start having health problems. We retire because people tell us that’s what you should do at a certain age or we listen to some dumbass financial advisor using a generic algorithm that tells us we are good. Here is the thing, I don’t want to volunteer at church every day or hang out at the senior center with those old ass white people or keep bad ass grandkids. So, Frugal Frank what shall we do you ask? Follow along then:

Step 1: Get your ass in shape, stop going home and taking a nap after work. Exercise or join a Pickleball group. Use your employee discount for health club membership. Buy a Fitbit and make sure you walk 10000 steps a day, with at least 500 moderate jogging.(get that heart pumping)

Step 2: Stop eating fast food, anything high in sodium, no sodas and reduce carbs.

Step 3: Stop waiting for retirement to go places on the weekends and I don’t mean shopping. Go to museums, parks, performances. A one night weekend driveable trip can do wonders.

Step 4: Do your “quiet quit” at work, if you are still down South, those people are probably working you too damn hard anyway. My trick is, you only have to stay 5 more minutes than your boss. They neither know or care if you worked 5 minutes or 5 hours, because their asses are hanging out at the Country Club.

Step 5. Survey your neighborhood. I don’t care how long you have lived there, if Pokie is selling weed next door and gunshots happen as often as the mail, you need to plan on moving after retirement. Find a nice safe area with walking and bike trails.

Step 6. Before leaving your job, try living on 1/3 of your salary for a year or two, because that’s retirement. If you can’t do it with a job, then you better put on that Walmart greeter vest.

So, this is your starter list. 

Also stay invested. I have been through three downturns. We probably have another year or two to go, but it will rally back.

For Christmas, don’t buy too much unnecessary stuff. For ideas check out my previous Christmas blogs.

Peace out and stay frugal,

Frugal Frank from the Blackside

Happy 2022 in The Black

 Hello my Peoples,

I hope everyone is staying COVID free to start the New Year. I am worried because I am seeing too many black folks walking around with no masks and listening to too much conspiracy bull crap on the internet. I know that the Black Frugal group is following the science and staying safe and healthy. I cooked a healthy batch of Collards this Christmas( no ham hock), well, after I burnt the first batch. Take a note from me when cooking Collards, never take a nap during cooking without a timer. Ha ha. From my wife, you need white wine, cayenne pepper, a little sugar and a pinch of salt. I also watched King Richard and Harlem.

During 2020-2021, I have done the following:

- created a workout area in my basement for under $300

- increased my wealth

- paid off all vehicles 

- sent two kids to Europe for a week

- improved my golf and tennis game

- renovated a kitchen on the cheap

- built a Little Free Library 

- also, update on my Hisense Flatscreen, it lasted 8 years, not bad for $300 50 inch, but the speakers are terrible. The good deals now are the Samsungs.

So, for the Black Frugal group, I hope you have stayed invested in the stock market. With all the gas increases, viruses and mutations, the Dow has gone from 28000 in 2020 to 36000 at the end of 2021. You should still keep most of your money in mutual funds and stay away from anyone trying to sell you annuities and crypto for now. Hey, you can spend a few hundred on Dogecoin or Shiba and see what happens, but it is too volatile to anything except dabble. The only good things coming from this pandemic is that we have learned that we were wasting too much money on materialistic items, eating unhealthy and paying preachers too much damn money. The online sermons really separated out the theologians from the prosperity preachers. 

This is still a good time to buy a home and for my black peoples we need to upgrade to neighborhood where our property can appreciate like the whites. I know we love our black hoods but until real estate companies and cities stop marginalizing our communities our wealth in assets will never build like them. Remember never buy the most expensive house in you neighborhood, if you do you are already at the top price point and your house will never appreciate in value at a profitable rate. I believe interest rates are going to rise over the next year. We are no longer in our grandparents generation where you bought a house in a black neighborhood and never moved. Our black neighborhoods now are degrading at a much faster rate and we have not learned the keys to gentrification of our neighborhoods like the whites have. You just can’t run the drug gangs or predators out, you have to price them out and put city power on the slum lords. Now, many of you may disagree but again that’s my two cents and like my mom used to say opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.

Peace out for now,

Frugal Frank OTBS