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

I am an Advocate for Public Education Part 2

 So here we are again my peoples. I have been away for far too long and I apologize for abandoning you during this ongoing Pandemic, but self and family care took priority. 

I am revisiting an earlier Blog several years ago where I discussed public education vs private education. I did take a little heat for saying that you could send your kid to a public school and rather than pay the high private school tuition, use less money and supplement your child’s education with additional resources and opportunities, and by doing so could get your child in the same elite colleges as the private schools.

Well, today, I can let you know that I was right. I have one daughter who went to one of the top women’s colleges in the country and another who is going to an Ivy League college. These schools with their billion dollar endowments are unmatched for the resources and opportunities they can provide to your student. They both attended public schools and trust me they got no pass or benefit for the color of their skin. As most of you know now, middle class black kids get no breaks unless you are first generation. I did put them in sports like golf, tennis, swimming. They excelled in all three and learned discipline and resilience. What I found out along the way is that even after the William Sisters and the Woods, this sports are still 99% white. The movie “King Richard” does not over exaggerate the obstacles or the elitism in these sports. Everyone is nice until your kids start beating theirs. It is mainly about access and changing our mindsets from the traditional avenues to forging new ground. As I always say during this time, the best gift a black parent can give their kid is a golf membership and some lessons. It will change their whole perspective. Trust me. You can blog back at me and I can guide you through the process of all three sports because no one will help you, except maybe a few Asian parents. Now, I am not stereotyping just speaking from experience. 

I have to put up some Christmas lights and the Little Free Library that I built( I am becoming a true New England Granola eating Liberal). I will blog more later. I have many topics about the economy and money to catch up on so get ready 2022.

Frugal Frank from the Blackside

Being Black in the time of Trump

Hello my peoples,

I don’t know about you, but I miss President Obama. During these times, we need to remember that we are still living in Obama’s economy.
The jobs growth- Obama
Healthcare- Obama
Stock Market- Obama
Minimum wage increases- Obama
Green economy- Obama

We need to also remember that we will feel the full effect of Trump’s policies in the next 4 years going forward. Just think of the Bush years. Clinton left a booming surplus economy and it only took Bush 4 years to destroy it. Remember, that’s why we got Obama., a republican President drove the economy into the ditch. The sad thing is, he was smarter than the present dude.
I am not here to bash President Trump, because it just waste energy and history will always uncover the truth.

I have been slow reading the new Frederick Douglass biography by David Blight and it helps me appreciate and understand the times we are in now. Just think about it, Fred saw all the progress made during abolition and reconstruction only to see so much ground lost during the beginnings of Jim Crow. In reading the book, I saw that white supremacy takes no vacations and will try and rewrite history because most of the populists takes the path of least resistance. Fred never stop living as a man and continued to speak truth to power. I don’t want to give a summary of the book, so I suggest that you make this your holiday read and come back and discuss it with me.

So, with the holidays amongst us, what should we discuss? Beyoncé, Jay-Z or Kanye? As Whitney Houston once said, “Hell to the no!” We see a lot of this mindless material on television. I think it should be finances. Why? Because money issues shorten our life span, leads to divorce, unhappy retirements and unhappy relationships. As a black man living in New England, I have learned that weekends are great for biking, tennis, golf, and farm to table eating. Weekends are not meant for Mall retail shopping, fast food eating, and any sedentary activity possible. I also love the Lord, but have found many ways and places to worship not always in the traditional church structure. I sometimes attend church with my white brethren when I want a short service with the word, but I also go to the black church for spiritual renewal. There is just something about a white choir singing Negro spirituals that is just not right. So, I will be attending my black church during the holidays with my people. You know, “Silent Night” with the Motown twist can’t be beat at Christmas.

So back to finances, as I read Frederick Douglass, one of my takeaways is that blacks after Reconstruction were involved in educating their children and were trying to make impacts on society. As, I look at  the Jay-Z’s, Will Smiths, Kanye’s and multiple wealthy celebrities, I wonder if they are producing future doctors, scientists, and lawyers or future consumers of mindless materialism? Is it the ultimate goal to be on E!News every night? Is that what our people fought and died for? You know the ironic thing about this whole college admissions scam involving celebrities? There were no black celebrity parents. They will buy kids $200,000 cars and throw the biggest birthday bashes but are not trying to get their kids into elite colleges, even illegally. I will give George Foreman some serious credit, none of his kids are boxers; but they are lawyers, doctors and dentists even though their father is worth $300 million and they could live off his wealth.
Let’s keep our eyes on the prize. During this holiday season, don’t overspend. Your kids should still love you if they don’t get the latest new toy and if they have issues check your parenting skills. Trust me I am raising two strong sisters who are woke and self conscious. Maybe it’s the parenting or because they have a frugal dad, but this year they want gifts after Christmas when stores give the greatest markdowns. They are giving me my greatest Christmas gift, Frugal Kids on the black side.

So, during this period of holiday joy and political turmoil, get your finances in order so that you can bear the economic down turn coming, and believe me, it is coming. We may have one or two years of breathing room. So do these during the holidays:

1. Pay off as much debt as possible
2. Build reserve funds
3. Build retirement
4. Educate your kids, if A’s are not coming home, some serious shit needs to get restricted.
5. Join Planet Fitness instead of buying a Peloton
6. Upgrade to a used car instead of a new car
7. Stop drinking all soft drinks and switch to Perrier
    This and reduced bread intake will improve health and weight loss
8. Buy a subscription to Consumer Reports
9. Subscribe to SiriusXM for Urban Talk-get woke
10. You still need to get your kid a junior golf membership to a nice golf course plus lessons
11. For the  HolidayFive Black Movies to Watch this Holiday

Peace out for now,
Frugal Frank on the Blackside

New Year’s Resolution in the Black

Hello my Peoples,

Welcome back in 2019. I hope you had a good holiday and had lots of love and cheer. We vacationed over the holidays at a lovely resort in Vermont. I wanted to enter the axe throwing competition but on the morning of it the temperature was zero. So, I, instead stayed in and enjoyed the beautifully fallen snow and finished reading the biography of Alain Locke. I would highly recommend this weighty reading. I don’t know if you have tried Groupon for vacation deals but I would highly recommend it. Now, Let’s get started fresh off the bat with some great resolutions.

Number 1:
Identify and eliminate destructive values from your life.
Although most values are positive, we all have those which are not good for us.
Like:
1. The desire for something for nothing. Symptoms can be playing the lottery, gambling or cheating.
2. The desire to gossip. It allows us to feel better or superior to talk about other people’s problems and while avoiding our issues.
3. The desire for instant gratification. After all some of us are a part of the “me generation”
   
Remember that identifying leads to correction. As Patti LaBelle says, “Don’t block the blessings.”

Number 2:
Create your dream list for the year.Write down things you would like to do in 2019.
1. Where would you like to travel.
2. How much money would you like to save.
3. What debt will you pay off.

4. Do you need to start a new relationship?
5. What new look would you like.
Remember, start small, baby steps can be achieved easier.

Number 3:
Create a list of your values, then make sure your actions align to your values.
If you say that you value frugal living but hit the mall every weekend, then your actions don’t match your values. Your values list  should also include no monetary values like healthy living, family, security, peace of mind, happiness, spiritual healing, and don’t forget a healthy sex life.

Well, this should be enough to get you started for the New Year. I have already started working out at the gym a little. Remember, baby steps. I want to loose just 10lbs.

Again Happy New Year,
Frugal Frank OTBS

Don't Be Punked or Bambozzled

Hello My Peoples,

I know it has been a while, but I am a hard working brother and have to make that money. Now that being said, I make my money from other things than financial advice. This separates me from the other cats on the internet blog sites. I am not trying to make money off of you, just spreading good frugal advice and love for my people. As my mother used to say, "People who love you will tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear." SO AGAIN as I yell at you. Beware of people trying to make money off of you. Now don't get me wrong, you should protect your family with insurance and you should invest for your future, but you can research and do this for yourself without paying hefty fees. You can check this blog, ask questions, and seek out your library for some good books. Yes, as frugal fans you are going to have to read for yourselves. I am not your quick answer guy but we can have a healthy discussion once you educate yourself a little.  I need you to join the ranks of the Frugal Franks On the Black Side, which means I am probably going to rename this site because I believe in the empowerment of black women and we need strong sisters and brothers. Now, just because I love my people don't mean I am against others. I love the human race, but my people sometimes get neglected. So, as I write this blog on Mother's Day, I have to give much love to my deceased mother who was a symbol of strength in flesh. She could pinch pennies like nobody's business and still do better than neighbors making twice as much as she.

So here is a list of the attributes of Frugal Frank OTBS fans:

1. They drive used Volvos, Honda Vans or Subarus
2. They take mini-vacation weekends using sites like Groupon instead of exotic ones
3. They invest in their children's education instead of clothes
4. Men wear Keenes, Clarks and Rockports
5. Women wear Keenes, Birkenstocks, and Danskos
6. Have 15 year home mortgages
7. Have assets of $1 million and are maxed out on 401K's and 403B's
8. Shop at Lands Ends, LL Bean, Thrift Shops and hit Tag Sales on weekends
9. Should be invested in some Berkshire Hathaway
10. Do not have Bitcoin (because we don't understand it yet, although Ripple is interesting)
11. Don't plan to retire-we will talk about this in the next blog
12. Send their kids to public school if they can
13. Don't Tithe but support the church not because of guilt but through love
14. Have switch to Apple Computers, software and tech is just better

Well, time to go. After All it is Mother's Day and Tiger Woods and Harold Varner III are making history making as the only two blacks on the LeaderBoard at the Players Golf Tournament.

Peace Out,
Frugal Frank OTBS