As a child who grew up in the South Bronx, I learned that money doesn’t grow on trees. Within every instance, my mom always saved up for the little things I wanted for my birthday and other household items. But my history for “collecting” money started in the 5th grade when I found a dollar on the ground by school. I kept it if I needed something and then one of my many aunts came to visit. She gave me 50 dollars, which at the time was the most I’ve ever gotten. That was when I started saving for action figures or discounted games on the Playstation Store. And then I was sneakers during high school. I thought if you had money you could have anything and do anything, but then I started learning about our political landscape and learned about things like redlining and white flight. So I began learning how to circumvent the shortcomings of money by learning what smart people do, like building credit by treating my credit card like cash, making saving accounts, and limiting what I buy. I’m not perfect by any means I still like buying things, and my sister likes to make fun of me saying that I buy too much. Nevertheless, I know I want to be in a position where I don’t have to worry about paying for a downpayment on a house and making purchases on a car, which I won’t have till I have an actual job that pays for it. As I get older, I do worry about the purchasing power of our money, as everything becomes more expensive, all we can do is find ways to make sure we’re not stuck at the bottom, which is investing in our future through education and job hopping 

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