This Nurse is Dismantling Negative Money Perceptions - Ep. 77
Kenishia Mais is a Personal Financial Strategist, Founder of ThrivingDollars, and an internationally certified Financial Education Instructor with over 7 years' experience helping young professionals transform their financial lives. She currently offers personal financial education and management training across various institutions and organizations within Jamaica and the wider region and offers practical and applicable financial coaching to young professionals who need help navigating their financial journeys.
Please join me here, and follow me on social media, Instagram and Facebook.
Join the Nurses on Fire Community and get access to resources to guide you on the path to Financial Freedom.
Oh and please subscribe and leave a review on whatever app you're using to stream this podcast.
Get results by taking action:
Check out the Thriving Dollar Website, Facebook and Instagram pages
Work with our financial partners….
Get the student loan plan that could have saved me $80k
Figure out if your retirement plan is optimized for you.
Stay connected:
To read the full show notes, visit https://www.financiallyintentional.com/podcast
Please share this podcast with friends, family and colleagues
Subscribe & Review
Love this episode? Please subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.
TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:00] All right Nurses on Fire. I'm super juiced to have, Kenishia Mais join as Kenishia is a good friend and the founder of thriving dollars. And I wanted to bring her on because I believe she has an amazing money story and something that I know that a lot of us can relate to. So, Hey, Kenishia.
Kenishia Mais: [00:00:20] Hey, Hey. Hey, Naseema. Thank you for having me here.
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:23] Oh, of course, of course. And so we'll just dive into your money story. I know you are a native Jamaican
Kenishia Mais: [00:00:32] 876 all day, every day. Wow.
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:39] Right. I'm a native Oaklander, but I love Jamaica.
Kenishia Mais: [00:00:44] We welcome you. Exactly.
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:47] And I really, probably selfishly wanted to just interview, cause I probably want to like exile to Jamaica.
Kenishia Mais: [00:00:57] We'll take you, we'll take you
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:59] I'll move my business there. You guys need to take in American refugees, you know, hopefully things will get better since we got a black woman, vice president, we'll see
Kenishia Mais: [00:01:11] With some Jamaican in her, Hey Kamala!
Naseema McElroy: [00:01:15] That's right. That's the right. Let's not forget that. She's the combination of us both. She's from the Bay area and she's Jamaican. So Hey,
well we believe in her.
All right. So you could give a brief introduction and we'll hop into your money story. Okay.
Kenishia Mais: [00:01:36] So my name is Kenny shammies, founder of thriving dollars. It's a digital financial literacy platform for young professionals. I started in 2015, and after going through my highs and lows with money and, you know, the things that I started to figure out I was.
Quite frankly, just annoyed at the fact that no one had taught me that before in my life. And I had to go through so much to learn the little that I did learn at the time. And I just decided that I wanted to make that information available for everyone else, because this is like, it wasn't even like high-level stuff.
Like I know no, it, that I got that time was the bare minimum. And so that's why I started Thriving Dollars. So we've been going strong for five years. And yeah, that's pretty much what I do.
Naseema McElroy: [00:02:24] I love that. So like, what you said is the basic stuff that people just don't know, people think like knowing about money is like super advanced and like all this high level, like trading and tax optimization. That's crazy. It's not about that. It's really about the small things that set that foundation. And then once you have that foundation and are able to like really stack. Then you can get into that high level stuff because money makes money. There's nothing that makes money more than money.
Kenishia Mais: [00:02:52] That's exactly what I did started at a basics and no I'm using more advanced strategies, but at the beginning it was like, y'all, couldn't teach me this in high school when y'all were trying to force my on my throat. Like you're teaching me Pythagoras. You're teaching me trigonometry. Like you teaching me all these dumb things that I don't use in my real life right now, but you don't want to tell me how to open a brokerage account, like what!
Naseema McElroy: [00:03:13] Basic. Right, right. Yeah. And I think I love what you're doing because I think that you're bridging that knowledge gap and that's so important. And there can't be enough of us in this space and we have a long way to go. So thank you for fighting that good fight.
Kenishia Mais: [00:03:30] For sure. Listen, man, I feel like I have, for the first three years I spent as running up in just brick walls because at the time where I was talking about financial literacy and Jamaica, it didn't exist to be quite honest with you.
Like you couldn't Google. Some of the things that you can Google know and get any information I learned the us stock market then apply that to the Jamaican context. That's how I learned the trade in Jamaica. Right. There was no information available locally. So even using terms, I remember hired a copywriter and she was writing some copy for the website and she was like, Oh, you got to get rid of the term financial leteracy, no one knows what that is. And to be fair to her, she was right at the time he was at a hundred percent right in Jamaica. I didn't exist, but no, it's so normal for you to be talking about these things.
Even when I created my Money Meetup event series, that was a way to get people comfortable talking about money in public. And now I'm seeing, you know, a lot of those seeds that were planted earlier on. I've seen the results of those nos. So, but for the first three years, I'm going to be honest with you it's all crickets and tumbleweed. No joke.
Naseema McElroy: [00:04:32] Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I know how that is, but you didn't just start there. I mean, I want to talk about where you started. Like, how did you even begin to want to do better with your money? What, what happened?
Kenishia Mais: [00:04:47] You know, what's so funny. I thought, I just thought you were supposed to say, because my parents had this wooden thing that it put coins in and I always saw the new in it as a child.
I just thought it was something that you were supposed to do. I did not know these two people are horrible with money. I swear to you. I had no clue like that was their only saving grace as it relates to finances. I truly didn't know. And so. I started to even learning math. Funny enough, like my mom had a friend who lived with us at a time and each day she would have me empty, empty the coins and I would call him how much was there today versus the previous day.
And that's what I was learning my additions and subtractions. Right. So I really learned math with, with money and real life, but I just kept doing the thing, you know, putting my coins away and. I did that through a primary school. What you guys call it? Elementary school. Cause we got a lunch money to contact in Jamaica.
You give the children money for the day for transportation and food. And so I was doing that throughout school and I thought, well, I'm just thought that's what you were supposed to do. And when I got to high school, I started like really just liking to have money. Cause I've only ever wanted to be two things in my life, rich and an entrepreneur like I'm inspired for nothing else.
Right. So I just started to put my money away, but then I started to get strategic with it so that I get a calendar, you know, we didn't have Google calendar at those times, so I'd get my paper calendar and I count how many weeks were in the semester. So I know how much lunch when I was going to get, I put a savings goal.
And then I'd reverse engineer based on how many weeks were in the. Semester. Cause you know, I knew I get someone to have lunch money. I want to have this summer by the end of the semester, I need to save this amount per day or per week to get here. And I started doing that. I knew it was great for me where there's also known side, which is that I started becoming responsible for my own back to school pretty early.
Like I was taking care of my Baptist wood expenses at like 13, 14, you know, because my parents were like with, if you have money. So it got to the point where they were like, Oh, we do uniform. And what was it? They didn't uniform in something else and everything was on me, like the bag, the shoe "that's on you sis."
And I, I thought it was normal at the time, to be honest with, you would know, in hindsight I'm like that was a mes, can't have no child taking care of adult expenses, you know, but at the time I didn't realize it. But I just kind of maintain that same habit throughout high school. And when I got my first job, I remember going to the bank and opening my salary account and she opened the, the lady, she opened two accounts for me, which one was that my salary would go in this one.
And then there was the next immediate Transaction that would happen into the second. I, that didn't have a debit card where it would pull a fixed amount each week and I would be just saving them money that way. Like I never saw the money, so I didn't care for it. I was actually making a lot of money too, so I didn't even really miss it or need the money.
So I continued with that, but then. My mom decided, you know, she ain't gonna live in Jamaica no more. So it was random. It was just, we had a conversation like a week and then a week later she's gone. Like I'm 19, I'm living on my own. I'm like, Oh, I swear to you. It was like, she was like, could you live on your own?
And I'm like, yeah, I'm sure I could, because you know, you're going to say yes to things like that. But then the following week, he was like, she was like, okay, well, here's the key? Cause we had a host that had a tenant, but we had a tenant had passed. So we had to close for awhile. She said, okay, well there's a key.
And then the following week she was gone and I'm like, So like, Oh, okay. I guess I'm gonna figure this out. Yeah. And so what, what, before she left though, she needed some money to make up for her ticket. So I remember I had $10,008 in the account and she needed 10,000 off those dollars. And I had to give her what took weeks to accumulate that money.
Naseema McElroy: [00:08:48] And that's 10,000 Jamaican dollars?
Kenishia Mais: [00:08:50] Jamaican dollars. But the point is I only had $8. You can't even buy a candy, a piece of candy for eight hours interview because that's not even a thing. Right. And then I remember getting to later that year getting to about 32,009 and she needed someone, she owed some more money somewhere.
I had to give them 28, those off those dollars. So I kept having to start from scratch. So my breaking point came when she came back to Jamaica for a visit. And then when she was ready to leave, she was asking me for money to make it for her ticket. I'm like, well, how you got here? If you didn't know what he was going to get yourself back to where you're coming from?
Like, what do you mean? Like, that's not a thing. So I was like, nah, like truly no, because I kept having to start over from scratch. And that was really annoying to me, you know? And so we had a massive fight. And it got worse because the following day she went to my bank and she came home. She had, cause I hadn't even left my job at the time and she didn't know, but I was fine cause I had money, but I was, I hated being there.
So she didn't know what she went to my job asking them. Cause I told her I was on a contract where, cause I know how my mom is where. I was too young, like super early twenties if, if I was even 20 or 21 at the time. But if I, if she knew that I didn't have a job, she'd her instant instincts things would kick it.
Like she needed to say it there to protect me. And I needed her God, like, so I was just like, Oh, I'm on a contract break. So she went to my job. Asking my manager. So when is she going to, like, when is she going to get off this brick? And he said, get off the brick. She left and she was mad. So then she went into the bank and she tried to figure out how to get the money that she needed for her ticket.
And the bank was like, we can give you her money. Like, this is not a joint account. So she comes home furious. I went to the bank and they told me I can't get the money. I'm like, you went to the bank. You went to the bank. So then she's saying all this stuff about my job, but I'm still glad you went to the bank.
So we had a really massive fight, just massive. And I said like, when I was at walked out, slammed the door, like you are Jamaica, Jamaica, and also you don't do that. You will die. Right. But I was like, that was, it felt disrespectful to me. So I just left, walked around the community. I was pacing, rate it for hours , just walking in a dead off, man.
I'm not even talking like nine, 10:00 PM in the dead of night. Just couldn't get the anger out. And I made a decision on that walk like, you know what, it's me having money, such a problem. They may not have money anymore. Like I can't see it in my account and tend to enjoy it there. I can spend it on myself.
So let me just blow it. Let me just be done with it once and for all. And so that's what I did. I just started money that took me years to accumulate. I was just like, I mean, like I tell you, I was spending so much and one thing you will know, and I see my, as, when you get into the cycle of spending it, doesn't.
Stop. Right. So even when the money runs put that itching is still there. So when the money, ran out I was clearly using my credit card and then I had gotten an next job by that time, but boy, I hated it, man. I hated it. So I've never really been good at that. The whole jobs thing, to be honest with you, I lasted maybe I don't think I maybe lasted four or five months to be honest, but I left.
And when I left, I, well, I was managing the credit card with, at this point. No, I need to feed myself. But I don't have the money coming in as usual where I'd use the card, then pay it back from a Saturday. No, it was just use the card. We don't know how we going to pay it back, but you use the card and I did that for a couple of months and leading into 2013, man.
I remember having a moment where I was saying, nah, this is cause coming from where I was, this was like a low, like an all time low. And I remember calling my mentor that I need you to teach me how to be rich, because I don't know we're here broken. It's not working. So I need you to tell me how to be rich.
And he came to see me the following year, a couple of days later. And he gave me this flash drive with like a million audio books. And I remember just being so annoyed cause I'm thinking step one, step two rich. This man has given me homework, homework, homework,, homework,, maybe rich.
That's what everybody thinks. Yeah. It's
research. I wanted like, sorry, you can pull up with a million dollars. I didn't have to put up with a flash drive. You know, that's, I'm thinking like, give me a million and teach me how to flip it. You going to give me homework? So I was very annoyed, no joke, but I, and I ignored it for months.
Like that's how I know it. I was like, I was, I'm not doing shit. I'm not doing this. And when I had a really low moment, I remember just beat home one Sunday. Like I was at a breaking point. Like I cannot con like I don't the fact that I'm looking under my bed for maybe food that I lost months ago. Like no, I can't live like this anymore.
And I needed something in my spirit. Like I just needed to hear someone say to me that things would get better. And so I decided to go through the audio book. And the second one I listened to was rich dad, poor dad. And when he started talking about making money work for you, I remember just being confused at what the hell does that mean?
And I called my mentor the following day, like, what does this mean? And he broke it down and I was like, I can buy stocks. And he's like, yeah, right. No, no, no, no. Like me currently presently, like not like when I. Is that you buy stocks? No, you don't buy stocks when you're rich, you buy stocks to get rich.
And I was just confused. I was like, w no one thought to tell me this before. I remember just researching. I got obsessive when I started research and I started to call everybody and I started to get all the requirements, right. And I found this one institution where they did require a million sister ID or just that, Oh, you need 10, you just need 10 grand.
I'm like, I got 10 grand somewhere. Like I'm always putting money in. Round-robin had got 10 grants somewhere. And so I scrolled and then I phone that little money and I went and opened my brokerage account. I started reading on the U S stock market to apply to the Jamaica and context.
Naseema McElroy: [00:15:08] So first of all, where did you get this mentor? Where did he come from?
Kenishia Mais: [00:15:14] Oh, my God. He was, I was working at the furniture store that I left my first job. He was a customer there and I don't even know how it happened because I was clowning him because he had this old man hat on, but he's not old.
What did the hat I'm like, where are you getting this old man hat from? So I was cloning him, but I think what happened is I'm at customer service because I always went to both NBN for every single customer. Like I would put everything under that each day for every customer. And I did something similar for him where he needed delivery at a specific time at that specific, specific date and the company wasn't organizing that I had to call the drivers like, yo, I need you to do this for me.
And I made sure he got his items. He and his wife were pleased. And I remember. I think he w he came back to the store to get a free gift. And I was having a slump with sales and he gave me again at that time audio books, resales. And so that was my first interaction with him in a personal development type of setting that was at the second time of me seeing him.
And I went through some of them and they really did help. And then we just kind of casually stayed in touch. I, you know, you call every couple of months, I, Hey, what's up. Like that was a relationship. And he would always happen to just have some. Solid business advice. So it became eventually normal for me to be like, like I was at a job, I got a promotion, but also got a job offer.
And I remember him calling me just randomly that day. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. And he talked me through it and then I'm like, okay, got it. I mean, my decision and that's how I was able to leave the poor job that I had just gotten a promotion at to take the new job, which was. Less salary, but when he explained all the mechanics that are commissioned and when you factor in everything, this one gives you better peace of mind.
This one is more beneficial in the long run, even though you make less money up front, you know? So he's always just been solid in terms of giving me, giving me those kinds of advice. And that's how I just, he does acknowledge himself as my mentor. He still doesn't claim me, but I, I would just be like, yeah, you my mentor.
So whatever.
Naseema McElroy: [00:17:12] That's funny. Okay. That's awesome. And I think everybody needs somebody like that in their lives. If not like lean on networks, like you've created, like I've created and find your people. Cause that's super important to have someone to aspire to, or someone to ask questions. I mean like, yes.
Okay. And then another thing, so, Oh, so you. Now you learn in that you can actually buy stocks and Jamaica. And you found this brokerage that'll take your $10,000. So what does 10,000 Jamaican dollars equate to in America? In us?
Kenishia Mais: [00:17:45] So at the time at the time were exchanger, it was under a hundred dollars.
So that would have maybe been like maybe $110, $120 US dollars. So we're not even talking about money, money, right? Wow. But that's,
Naseema McElroy: [00:17:59] that's phenomenal. Cause most brokerage accounts, I mean like
Kenishia Mais: [00:18:02] $500 is like the smallest
Naseema McElroy: [00:18:03] that I've seen like that, that lets you open an account.
Kenishia Mais: [00:18:07] Here the smallest above that $10,000 was about $50,000 American dollars.
I'm like. If I'm just starting. And that was the thing that annoyed me
Naseema McElroy: [00:18:16] Right! I mean now, I mean, now there's like Robin hood and things like that, where you can open
Kenishia Mais: [00:18:21] for nothing. Yeah. That's exactly it. Exactly. Because even now, one of the things thatI've been blessed to experience in these five years is how much the local landscape has changed because you had this one company.
Anywhere they want to require attend those. And, but then you had everyone else was like, Oh, you need, well, let me use your American dollars. So this company requires me to see $120, but this one is that, Oh, you need minimum 50,000. And I was like, if I'm just starting, where does 50 K gonna come from? Says like, what are we saying here?
Right. And no I'm seeing like all those companies that initially had these a hundred thousand to get started 50,000 to get started in us dollars. No, like open a brokerage account online with no money today. And I'm like, wow. Like I remember y'all right. I remember how y'all used to be, but because they're realizing that more young people are coming into this space, because that was the thing too young people weren't buying stocks then.
Stuck with a rich person's game in Jamaica at that time when I started, but no sharing information and it's not just like sole credit to me, but it's like, I can literally think of the two or three of us that have been actively doing this for three, four years that we've been doing it. And just sharing that information and getting more people engaged and involved.
No, these companies realize that, Oh no, you don't. People are coming into the game and people are not coming into the game of fifty K, a hundred K to start they're coming in, broke. Right. They're coming in. Like w the bare minimum. So how can we make that process easier for them? And in addition to that, like we used to, in order for you to each trade for you to buy and sell stocks, each trade had to have a minimum of a hundred units off stocks.
Like if you're studying minimum hundred unit Oh, like
Naseema McElroy: [00:20:07] options out here. Yeah. Yeah.
Kenishia Mais: [00:20:11] Minimum to purchase a hundred units, but no, we've gotten don'ts and that's this year 2020 this year. So, Oh, you can just buy one unit stock that I'm like, well, damn we, it took us long enough.
Naseema McElroy: [00:20:23] That's crazy.
Kenishia Mais: [00:20:25] Remember I learned the stock market through the us stock market.
So these things that were not having any Jamaica seemed abnormal to me. Like , but I guess yeah. Fractional shares.
Naseema McElroy: [00:20:37] Let's talk about how you actually learn the stock market.
Kenishia Mais: [00:20:40] So I was on the internet profusely. Like I am on, I'm a YouTube university, Google MBA. Like I am that person. Right. It's nothing that if I get obsessive enough, it's nothing that I can probably be figured out how to do open heart surgery. If I get obsessed and I spend enough time research it, no joke.
And that person so I was. When I started search and I was searching for information locally and it didn't exist. Like it was all random budgeting for Christmas and it was all like, you know, those lame types of, I'm just saying people are over this, you know? But I couldn't get any concrete or solid information.
And my thing with my mentor is I don't lean on him. Right. You'll give me information and I'll come back tenfold at own, sit at his feet and get the entire play. And I think that's why he's continuing to invest in me because he's like, I give everybody the same information. You're not special. The difference is I see what you have done with it.
And now, I give you more high level so that I don't share with other people. Or I tell you something that I think that I'd do personally, which the only two people on earth who know those things are you and my wife, right? So it's, it's the information. It was just like the bare minimum, do something with it.
And then I'll see. So I was on the internet. I was researching research and research and couldn't find information locally, but then I found Investopedia . When I opened the brokerage account like they don't teach me how to use the thing to buy and sell stocks I'm on there.
Like, okay, how does this work? And I'm seeing words that I don't understand. And so I'm just Googling on Investopedia what this means and I'm Googling. Like there was a couple of different sites that I found it was Investopedia and a few more, but I was just researching what these words meant, what these terms meant.
And I started the dot pattern to jump to the Jamaican context. And then eventually I started to read or Sunday paper. There's a financial section that gives you like a review of all the stocks. And I swear the first couple of times I read that it was all Spanish. Like I w Oh, this means nothing to me, but as I was researching, like I said, using your US sites, I was able to, Oh, what's a block trade.
Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Right. And then I'm starting to apply that information to the things that I'm seeing in the local paper. And then I'm like, okay. And I started to figure it out. And I started to buy my stocks. Lost a lot of money in the beginning because what the hell was I doing? I did not know, but it, I just took, I took it as we just.
We you're just, Oh, here just learning, you know, it was a tuition and I just kept at it, kept at it until I remember getting to a phone, a few people locally in Jamaica, who, cause I was tweeting about these things randomly. And I think I had maybe written a couple of blog posts or something. And this guy had reached out to me like, Hey, I'm going to start an investors group.
I was exactly, cause I didn't know anybody else who was doing this. I was like, put me into these, put me in the game coach. So he added me to this group and then we merged with another group with like, I want to say like eight other people. So we're active in this group. This is about 2016. So we're actively in this group sharing information and I'm like, this is beautiful.
But again, what we're sharing is not just. It's not accessible to the regular person, cause it's still not information that's available online that you can search. But I started to make a conscious effort to share that knowledge, you know, through different things, through different mediums. And that's what we were doing.
And I. Was learning from, like I said, the stock market here from cause I'm currently in Houston. So I'm here saying here as in the US. So the stock market here in the us, the applying some of that information to the papers that I was reading locally and in connecting with other people who work trading
Finally, when we met up, we had like a pool party thing. And they were like, what was your portfolio looking? And I'm like, Oh, 50% year to date, and everyone stopped and they where like. I was like, Oh, that's special because I didn't think I was doing anything. Right. But, and everybody was like, what?
I'm like, you are in this for real, for you, then that's special. Like I got something good over here, you know? So I was pretty impressed with myself cause I'm just hacking, like I had no clue what I was doing for at least three, four years in, you know, But that's, that's been the, the growth of it.
Naseema McElroy: [00:24:50] Wow. So self-trained trader I mean, not only that, but you've had to teach yourself basically in another language because our stock market is not like your stock market speaks to some of the differences between the us stock market and the Jamaican stock market.
Kenishia Mais: [00:25:09] Well well, let's speak about current differences because a lot of things have changed since I started also current differences.
You guys have apps like Robinhood and stuff. We still don't have like an app or anything that we can invest. Through. But in general though, that's not, that's not me bashing the Jamaican stock market because what it is actually is that opening financial accounts in general, in Jamaica is quite difficult.
And a lot of that has to do with US regulations and just different things, you know? So that's one of the key differences just we don't have, well,
Naseema McElroy: [00:25:42] how does the us regulate the Jaimacan stock market?
Kenishia Mais: [00:25:45] So most of, or banks locally actually. Bank with us banks. So like we give money to Jamaica and banks, but they actually bank with us banks.
And so they have to follow those types of regulations and those get passed down to the customers. And not just that, like, just your administration's like, that has been a challenge for us because even if you look at something, not, not finance, but if you look at something like marijuana, Jamaica is known for, if nothing else weed.
Music and track and field. I mean, if nothing else, those are what we're known for even more than beaches, perhaps. Both when we make steps to legalize it, your administration is like, no, no, no, no, no. Right. And we can get sanctioned for that. Well, y'all are moving full speed ahead with it, but we're not allowed to.
Right. So that's just an example of how the administration hold some of those get passed on to us locally. So it's the same in the finance we rely on the U S for support, right? Not just monetary, but also just as partners. Right. And if we try to do things differently, then we can get sanctioned as a country.
We can get sanctioned for that. So we have to pretty much be on our P's and Q's, as it relates to hope. We operate in Jamaica, especially in terms of opening financial accounts. And I actually bought every two has to do it. I think lottery scamming, even though that's pretty recent, but I started real.
That's a real thing as well, you know? So things have just gotten a lot tighter. Within the past, I'll say five, six years. And I've felt, I literally felt the difference. But when you think of it, like I am Jamaican, I live in Jamaica. If I'm here in the us, I can walk into a Bank of America. I can walk into a Wells Fargo, TD anybody.
I can give them my passport, my driver's license. And I'm always in 15 minutes with an account, with a debit card attached to it. I can't do that in Jamaica still. And I'm a Jamaican resident. I live there. Right. So that's some of the key differences, not just in terms of the stock market, but just in terms of how the financial markets operate.
And so a lot of that trend, it trickles down to the stock market where you can just readily build an app. And so like, for example, y'all have things like Mint, right? You connect all your different bank accounts. Oh, no. Where were you going to go there? I swear to you that that would be a dream.
Naseema McElroy: [00:28:07] And Mint is hella old. Mint is like an O G personal finance app too.
Kenishia Mais: [00:28:15] Yeah, exactly. But that would be a dream. That's not even like, that's not even the conversation I swear to you. It's not even on the table. Right. That's how far we are. And especially specifically as it relates to the stock market. No. Like I said, you can do things like fractional shares where getting excited now because we're putting commodities on the table, like commodities, you know, coffee, gold. I'm just saying. Like the fact that we're geeked out of all this, we got, or start up on online trading platform. I'll call 'em last year. It's called J trader where you, the Jamaica stock exchange created it, where you can log in and you can see all the orders in the, for each stock.
You can see the orders in the queue like the buy queue the, the sell queue. You can see the orders, the volume of those orders, et cetera. When that launches I was. Big. That was that. Oh my God. Finally,
Naseema McElroy: [00:29:13] when that's just like a standard part of our, it's just like, yeah, yeah.
Kenishia Mais: [00:29:19] That's exactly what I'm saying. So the fact that I've been seeing, Oh, we're catching up.
It's been frustrating as well as exciting because I learned from you guys.
Naseema McElroy: [00:29:27] It sounds like it's been happening pretty fast though
Kenishia Mais: [00:29:29] and happening because so, you know, we were the number one stock markets in the world a couple of years back to back. So we've always been in the top 10 or 12 for the new, we've been in the top 10 for the past 12 years, but we had a couple of years where we were number one in the world, like globally.
We were the number one stock exchange. And so what has happened, and I don't want to be mean saying this, but the dinosaurs have woken up. Right because the people, the young adults are on social media and we're coming at them like, hello. Hi. Cause they were sleeping for a long time. It was just casual.
Like, Oh, well, I mean, you know, rich people are fine, but now that, you know, the, they called us the articulate minority. That's what they called us. So know that the articulate minority is getting onboard. Clearly we need, we need differences that we need to, we need things. And beyond that, that's the first thing,
Naseema McElroy: [00:30:16] You need mobile apps, like stop playing!
Kenishia Mais: [00:30:20] We know that more young people are coming in coming in the door and they're getting engaged. The stock exchange they've had to wake up. Right. Abscess routine. You were doing nothing for a really long time. Like we were not the number one stock exchange in the world because of them.
You were the number one stock exchange in the world, despite that. Right. Exactly.
Naseema McElroy: [00:30:39] Wow. And so if you are the number one stock exchange in the world, despite like all the archaic practices, I mean, like, imagine where you could be. I want to talk about that. Like what made the Jamaican market, the number one stock market in the world.
Kenishia Mais: [00:30:54] One of the things that happened is that, so we have solid companies listed. It's not like, I think one of the key differences between your market and ours is that Low key, no shade, but y'all kind of just let anybody in. We don't do that. Like, we really don't do that. And also because we have a smaller market, we regulate a lot more efficiently.
You guys have so many companies that people are able to do. Things like what. What's his name, that guy who stole everyone's money life. He probably able to do those things and get away with it. Yeah, it was, I can't remember his name he used. So we don't, we can't necessarily have those because like I said, we're very heavily regulated and more, especially because more people are paying attention that we will be tweeting.
Like this company has not produced a financial report in three quarters. Hello, sack exchange. Hello. Right. Like that's the conversation. No, it things don't get swept under the rug in this specific regard, other things in Eureka or yeah, but the stock market. No. So
Naseema McElroy: [00:31:59] also because your stock market is so solid, you guys have better returns.
Kenishia Mais: [00:32:05] Exactly. And that's what I was coming to. So we, because we have these. Solid companies. And they're performing well and you get in at 17 and you're able to get in, move up to like 145 in a span of like two years, like three years. Like, that's pretty impressive too, to see, you know, so that's really been it.
Like we really have solid, solid companies and we have. Like we regulate very efficiently. Right. And I think that has accounted for a lot of the growth. In addition to the fact that, like I said, more people are coming into the market so more money's involved. And clearly one of the things that I used to.
One of the things that I used to want to see happen with what's happening right now, which is more people getting in the door so that you can compete for lack of a better word. You can compete for the stocks that you want. So instead of us just sitting there. For, let's say three years stagnant at a specific price and it's a solid company, right?
No, you have people competing to get it so that the share prices are going off. And like I said, that's been the biggest change. It's just more people coming into the door that haven't been there before, but at the table that never had a seat before, you know? So that's what that's, what's accounted for a lot of the growth that we've been having.
And just in general, I mean, the economy has been growing locally too. And that definitely contributed because when you have more money available, more people are looking. They're not, they're not like tightening up that, Oh my God. I need to re like, keep this one. No, be proud. Like, Oh, I have an extra $10,000.
What can I do with it? Right. So as the economy was growing, then the stock market was also growing.
Naseema McElroy: [00:33:47] So what do you think accounted for this push for financial literacy? Are people just waking up and like being like, yo, I can like. Like make my money make money. What do you think was the catalyst for that in Jamaica?
Kenishia Mais: [00:33:59] I think the catalyst is that people started to see me and a handful of other normal people making money from this. Right. Cause like, The first couple years was all Tom, Louie. Like no one was paying any attention until I started to post a returns. Like I did this, I have this. Right. And then people were like, Oh, can you show me how to do this?
Like, that's really where it started module. That's honestly where it started. Once I started me and a few other people started to be transparent about how much we were making the returns that we were making. Then people were more interested and the interest turned in. So for some people turn into actual like, well, let me actually figure out how to do this.
And then as like I said, the economy improves, people were like looking to really grow their money. And that, that helped too. Like, like I said, it's just normal people showing them what we have been able to do. That's what has changed everything.
Naseema McElroy: [00:34:54] Yeah. And I love it because. Like my whole message, like representation, number one really matters. Like people need to see people like them actually out here doing things like the average everyday person, just like the average everyday nurse. I feel I can be a millionaire. You just have to know the tools and it's really not that hard. It's just that it's not readily available. Right. So talk to me about your investment strategy and how that plays into like your whole platform Triving dollars platform.
Kenishia Mais: [00:35:23] Okay. So I'll talk about my overall and I talk about something that I've been doing for the past couple of years. So investment strategy, I mean, it's, it's pretty simple. If, you know, if, you know, if you understand the basics of finance, you know, spend less than you make, it's kind of like that type of thing, like.
I mean, I've been doing that. I just, money comes in and I have an allocation tax system, right. 20% goes to savings and investments. And from that 20% X will go to the stock market. Like that's pretty much what I've been doing. I know doing more proper research in terms of selecting companies. So that has tremendously and gotten in some really good IPO's that we had.
Like three back to back. Well, not back to back, but within a span of a year and a half, two years, like three or four biggest IPO's in history. And woo. Yeah. And let me tell you, I came off like no joke. I'm going to be so honest with you, like, I remember when the first one, like when it was announced, I'm like a mortgage, a home, like I'm serious.
This is, I'm doing this. This one. Yeah, mom, I would sell your kidney. I do doing this one. And I remember having my tuition and I'm like, yeah. School. No, no, no, no, no. And I took that tuition and I jumped in and it's tripled, you know, In the span of a couple of years. And it's even with the decline that we've been experiencing recently, because of COVID still like a hundred percent, you know, return positive.
And I'm not even talking about, I'm talking about actual profit, like take out all the fees and everything. Like it's at least 110% profit. So. That's been an investment strategies, just like picking solid companies. Like that's, that's my go-to like I just pick really solid companies. And currently, because we're having pretty much wholesale pricing, on like some of the best companies.
My, when I tell you I've been buying, Oh my God, like you hear me say I'm broke? No, like I'm cashed broke because I'm dumping everything into these companies. I'm like, is that NCB? Oh, is that we single, not Carib Cement. Like, I've just been like, Oh, for this. I remember I got into this company for this price three years ago and I watched that go all the way up.
And now we're back here. I couldn't get him here again because that's one of the things that I always paid attention to what I've got into certain companies at a specific price. And then I watched them skyrocket and I was always like, dang, I wish I could go back and get that present and get so more. Oh now the opportunities here.
So I have just been having I swear to you a field day, this is like March, April, just like, whoo. Just like, yeah, this is, this is literally a transfer of wealth happening that we're not realizing, you know, and I'm really excited that more people are in the game now so a lot, a lot more young people are going to capitalize than before, because it was all a rich person's game up to like, Three four, five years ago, but now the young adults are in there and now the young adults are building your portfolios and you're not touching it, you know? So I'm definitely going to see some effects of that in the next couple of years. And I'm really excited for these people. As it relates to things that I do on a lower, lower level. For children for every child in my family, I don't believe in like toys.
I got about books, but toys, that's your parents' job. I don't care about that stuff. Like I may buy you some clothes, but that's the extent of it. But for each child I opened a brokerage account for them. So it's a joint account with me and the child, like our parents' names and accountant. I don't trust.
Yeah. Like, I feel like y'all go in the accounts and I will be furious. So it's a joint account for me and the child. And for each year on their birthday, I put money into that brokerage accounts and I buy them some stocks and it sits there. The account gets transferred over to them when they're 18. So I just did my first.
Naseema McElroy: [00:39:14] It's just like a traditional custodial account
Kenishia Mais: [00:39:16] here. Yeah, you can call it that. So I just did my first, like transfer off account, you know, so she turned 18, she got her account. So I just did that. Earlier this year, that was really exciting. And in addition to transfer in her account to her I got her into our really good IPO, so she would see some returns as well from that in the next couple of years. But for the other smaller children, like I said, for their birthday, it's their age times a thousand. For their birthday. So if you're, if you're one, you get out those and daughters to $2,000, $3,000, et cetera, I do this for 18 years.
Buy you some stocks. You can at least have a down payment for a houese or capital to start a business. I don't want every, everybody. Has had to start from the beginning. And if he keeps it from the beginning, you don't feel right. And I don't want that anymore. So I'm trying to set up these children where, when, if anything should happen to me, right?
If I, if I leave this earth tomorrow, you have stocks and stocks, don't go away. Right. You get access to that account when you're 18, you will be, you will be at least somewhat selling more than I was. I was when I was 18. Like I literally got, my first job came home, told my parents and you're like, okay, so you can start paying the water bill though.
Like that was literally like, Oh congrats. So the water bill is yours. Oh, can I get paid for it? Like we know. Right. So. Just, I just don't want that to be the energy. Like, I want you to feel like you have some resources, right. And I definitely, especially one that for the young woman in my family, because I've seen my mom, my aunts, my cousins get stuck in abusive relationships because they can't afford to leave.
You know? And I want to give these young girls, the option, like if you're there, it's because you want to be there because you have to be there. Like I saw how devastating that was. I've seen my dad almost strangled my mom to death that I've seen these things, you know? And when she decided to leave him fully that he stopped taking care of me financially because he knows she could, he knew she couldn't.
Right. And I've experienced what, when she had to rely on someone else. And then I had to deal with some of the. Sexual abuse from that, like I've seen and experienced a lot of these things and I just don't want that to be the cycle. Like, I don't want this to keep having to start over. I don't want us to keep, you know, just, just being stuck.
I want us, I want you to be further at 18 than I was at at 30. No joke. I want it to be further than that will be next year at 30 that's if someone had, yeah, don't do this for me. When I was young, my life so much different, you know, I definitely want to pass on some, I want to pass on privilege. I don't want to pass the trauma.
I want to pass on a headstart. You know, those are the things that are really important to me. So that's what I do for the children and a smaller thing that I do, because I still want people to get it in their heads. That you can start with anything, right. So I ha I have a little actually following this from you guys sells on Pinterest and I saw that you have a $5 saving challenge.
So fabulous is technically like 500, maybe like $750,000. I'm not saving that every time. So no, that's not on the table. But what I decided to do was to do a 50 Jamaican dollar saving challenge. So that's a couple, that's a couple of cents for you guys. So every time I come in contact with a $50 bill, I put that money aside or any coins, like spirit change.
I put that money aside and that at least once per quarter or once per month, depending on how much it is, I go to the go to my brokerage company. I deposit that amount and that best some stocks. So I call it it's a case study that I run. It's my blue chip dollar cost averaging case study. So I just pick one stock just to one.
Solid blue chips. I don't want you to think about having to do research to find out if it's a good company. We know who Jamaica broilers is. You're going to buy chicken KFC in Jamaica is the national dish, regardless of what they tell the world, Kentucky Fried Chicken is the national dish Kentucky Fried Chicken gets chicken from Jamaican broilers, Jamaicans are gonna eat
you can talk your fried chicken every Friday and every Saturday and every Sunday, right? We're not doing any kind of research,
Naseema McElroy: [00:43:26] Who eaKentucky fried chicken when ya'all got jerk?
Kenishia Mais: [00:43:29] Oh no, no, not in Jamaica if anything jerk chicken is for the tourist, or if you can't afford a KFC, but KFC is Jamaica it's like. We have a special relationship with it, right?
Naseema McElroy: [00:43:41] Oh my God. It's so nasty.
Kenishia Mais: [00:43:44] Y'alls KFC here is nasty our KFC. Oh my God. It's going to eat no joke it's elite.
Naseema McElroy: [00:43:52] Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm going to try so KFC when I come to Jamaica next
Kenishia Mais: [00:43:58] y'all's KFC. I had that last year. I'm like,
so like, if you think of Popeye's, but like way better. That's or that's our KFC and Jamaica far better, but I can see it's yeah, it's far better. Like I keep having Popeye's here and I'm like, KFC would KFC would sweep the floor with you. Like Jamaica, KFC would just sweep the floor with Popeye's. So, so it's not.
I, I don't want people to be doing like extensive research or it gets stuck picking a company. Like we know we know who the solid companies are pick one. And when you pick one, put your spirituality, I'm not asking you to save money. I'm not asking you to set aside money for me salary. I'm saying the spiritual that you're going to be using to buy random snacks, or it's going to get lost in your coach.
Put that money into the stock, regardless of the price of the stock. Right. So if the, if you buy initially, so I'll tell you what I've been doing for Jamaica abroad is if I can actually pull it up real quick too. So when I got in earlier this year, my first purchase was at our own $42 or something. And so I was able to get how much money did that have?
Like, let me, okay, here we go. Let me just pull it up real quick. So I had 3000, sorry, $4,100. And from that, I was able to just buy a couple of shares of this stuff, but because of COVID, the price of the stock has continued to decrease. So I've been able to put, to get more shares each. Each moron versus how much I got at the very beginning.
And so that's what I want people to be. Like. I literally do this to write a report on it, to put it on the blog, because I really just want you to understand that your spare change can make you money because those far in spare change with me being in Jamaica, like, like actively spending money.
Cause I haven't been really going out and using money. So I've invested thus far, like close to $30,000. We should be, I guess we can say. Probably about 250 us dollars. Right. And that's all spiritual change and that's an investment and it sits there. Like I just do it for the year and leave it the next year.
I'm going to, so in January, I'm going to pick on X company and I'm going to repeat the process and I'm just going to keep writing about it like. What will happen if you leave this there for two or three years? Right? I did my first role and I started to be in 2017 and I, that company did really well for me, you know, so yeah.
It's just like, just, just make it, so I just want to make it up, crush it before, but I don't want you to be thinking like you have to have money put aside that I'm just asking you to save your snap money that you're going to use on some banana chips. Like just put that money into some stocks and just watch what that does, you know, and even better too.
I tell people to, to use it to not do anything productive. Like this is your stunt money. When you, when you eventually like accumulate all your returns on whatever, when you're ready to sell Booker trips sis like buy some shoes, buy a bag. Don't. Don't like think of, Oh, I need to make a deposit. No. I want you to use that money to do something fun for yourself so that you can be excited to repeat the process.
Naseema McElroy: [00:47:12] Yes. Yes. I love it. I love how you make investing or just financial literacy. Like the things that make building wealth, super approachable for everybody. And I just want to talk about like, what has. Like the knowledge that you gained over the years, like, what has that done for you financially?
Kenishia Mais: [00:47:33] Oh, my life is far different. Like it's crazy. Whenever people reach out me. No, it's always funny. It's always, it always starts with, so are you in, are you even in Jamaica, like before I even ask you anything, are you here? Because I mean, God, you know, but like that, even just having those cards, I guess hilarious. Even my whole mouth mom, she'd be like, are you.
Right. Cause I, I really just be like, eh, gun. Right? So it's definitely looked a lot different, like even just having, first of all, at peace of mind, let's take everything off of the tape and just put that there. The fact that I know confidently that I can cover whatever comes. I'll be like just the fact that I knew that it would be okay.
That matters to me a whole lot. You know, I don't think even when I was saving money, I don't know that I had that before, because I knew how to say what I wasn't investing in. So I just had whatever money I put aside when I went back through years later, like that's the money that was still going to be there, you know?
But no, like seeing the power of compound interest or when I get them dividend checks, I'm like, Oh, Like I'll check my call, not my, why does this look like I have more than, Oh, I got some free money. Okay. Right. Like even just that's exciting to me. And I'm able to reinvest that, that money, but even more so than what it has done for me personally, I'm seeing how it's impacted the people around me.
Right. Talking about my immediate family and my friends, because I preach. Right. I preach. And if I don't feel like you're hearing me, I'm going to come back and I'm going to say, I'm going to keep simplifying until you get it. Like, that's something that I make sure that I do. And just seeing my cousin, she turned 18 and I was able to transfer her a, to her and then teach her, or to buy into an IPO.
Like I know that's going to pay dividends years down the line, my older cousin. She looks to me a lot for like that advice, everything, and just like talking through things with her and showing her like, as show her match. Well, my actual call, like this is where I started. Look at this, look at this, and I show her year over year, what that looks like, and she gets excited and then.
She'll be putting away her little money and then she come to me that, okay, so I want to buy some stocks and we've talked to companies and she would pick one and just her getting into the habit because this is, this has never been done in my family before. Right. I'm literally the first and what, I'm not the only anymore, but I am the first person who've entered into this world.
And the older people still don't get it. You know, it takes awhile for them to catch up. They're not onboard because my thing has always been as a family. We need to create a company an LLC, right. And we're going to sit on a board of directors, which are us people, right? And we're all going to put money into this LLC.
And this LLC is going to buy assets and all and hold assets, but they're not ready for the conversation. So I'm just, you know, I've just been doing my own LLC, my own asset holders, but if they're ready to catch up, then, you know, I'll be happy to bring people on board or at least show them how to do it.
But just seeing how. That looks for the people that are on me. When I talk through, like, when I'd sit with her daughter and she doesn't understand anything, she's five, but I'm still talking to her about money or she would get her to letter from the bank. I'm like, okay, let's read what the people are saying.
This is, you know, like I'm showing her her statement and I'm saying, this is, this is your money. Like these little things that I'm doing with her. Like, she doesn't get it yet, but she will, you know, and I'm really excited to see what that looks at five years down the line when I'm able to have a real conversation with her when she's 10, 11, and actually sit with her and share and show her a cones.
And, you know, like just being, just being able to get, I given her that knowledge super early, you know, and just watch the trajectory of her life changed because everyone in my family. The women have always just gone to school, finished, barely finished high school. If they did, most of them didn't and got pregnant.
Like no joke. Like that's always been it. I'm almost 30 without a child. And that's, that's, I'm like a unicorn I swear to you. Like I it's, it's at a point where, you know, bye, you had a child. Yo, you were rude. Not doing that, but like just, you know, just even being able to make it this edge with older child, with investments, being able to travel freely, this I've never seen, I've never seen an example of this.
Like I'm literally creating an example from something that I've never witnessed
Naseema McElroy: [00:52:03] That is so dope and I love how you're empowering the women in your family, because that's a whole thing. Like. What people don't understand about money and wealth is that it gives you choices. And just that choice alone can prevent somebody from being in an abusive relationship.
Can have somebody leave toxic work environments. I mean, it gives you so much choice. And especially as a women, I feel like we need to. Build personal wealth so that we can run our lives, how we want to. And it just equals freedom. It's not about like, people think like real, like wealth is like millions and millions in the bank.
Real wealth is when you can do what you want to do. Because you have the financial backing to know that you'll be okay. And so I love what you're doing to the women for the women in your family in particular, but also it's not even that you're not just like giving them money and giving them these accounts.
You have a whole platform that teaches them how to use it. So you're giving them the knowledge base. So it's not like they're just getting this inheritance and that's, they're about to go out and spend it. They're also getting the knowledge behind it. And knowledge is power. Knowledge is worth so much more.
And like you said, it pays dividends, tenfold over and over and over again. And so it's something that they can pass on to the generations because you, why don't you, why don't you are open to this world. You can't unlearn it. The thing is, is that people people. Don't even know that this side of the game exists because they're in whatever cycle that they're in.
And that's why I'm really wanting to bring you on here is because you have cracked the code that so many people haven't and I mean, it doesn't take much and people just need to understand that it doesn't take much. It takes a little bit of a time investment. Like you said, you was pissed off, you got those audio books, but you spent some time you invested in the knowledge you learned another language for yourself, basically.
But that was free. That was free. And what it has returned to you, like is phenomenal. I mean, Kenesha is all over the place, you know? Yes. Yeah. She moves. She is gone, but what she has learned. She also shares with other people. And that's the bomb part about it is that you are empowering so many other people just because you were brave enough to take that step.
And you were able to teach yourself about money and how to trade and all these different kinds of things. And I hope you have an American account too since you're here.
I think that this is super duper incredible, and that's why I wanted to bring you on is because every body has the ability to build well, no matter what your background is, but especially for nurses, like we don't have an excuse. If you are a nurse in America and you're getting a salary.
You have what it takes to build wealth because it didn't, it doesn't take much, instead of thinking about buying bags or like buying these expensive shoes for your kids. That they gonna tear up next month, put that money to work for you and you won't ever regret it.
I just wanted to also know. So what, after all this stuff, has your mom started listening to you about it?
Kenishia Mais: [00:55:16] She's she's getting there. Like we've had, I keep I'm, I'm getting a lot stricter with her. Like I'm at the age where I'm periods in my periods. It's a weird dynamic shift. Like it's weird to me . Like we had a conversation. I think I was in Baltimore last year or something, or I was on the phone or like talking through some decision that she was about to make.
And I remember just having a moment in the car, like, how did you raise me? Like, who am I even alive with your decision-making skills? Like, this is this, you know what I am asking questions. And she's like, Oh, I don't know. I'm not what. You know, and I'm just like, this is weird to me. Like parenting your parents.
That's like, nothing can prepare you for that, for that part. But when I started getting into this, I remember saying to her at bare minimum, you need to open your retirement account right. You ain't got no job where you get that funded for you. Like you got to create that for yourself. And she was. I don't have the money. I don't have the money. And I remember seeing her don't want to end, this is going to solve a need, but it needed to happen. I sat her down and I saidokay, if you get on this plane and you leave Jamaica without open opening that account and would insure you so good that if anything happens to you and went to live very happily, very wealthy for a really long time, make your decision on.
And she was shocked because I'm young twenties, but understand you are playing games. Right. And so she was like, I think she was offended at first, but then I guess she thought about it. Cause then she came to me like on the morning of her flight, she's at, let's go open the account. I'm like, you have a flight in a couple of hours, she's like let's go.
So we went up there, she presented her IDs and everything to get that photocopied, she send the blank papers and I completed the process for her. Well, she knew I was serious. Like you gotta stop playing these games and she fell off for a bit, but I've been trying to get her a back leg. I at the point where I just took her account information.
So I'm like, I'm just going to log in and just be transferring money out of the account into your retirement, because you're like, I'm not going to keep doing this with you. Right. You will keep sending me random things on Amazon. I can't order this from you. I'll send you the money. Sis, I'm a need you to put some of that money for these things that you don't need into your retirement on, because guess what? That burden falls on me. I am your only child. Hello. That's my responsibility that I am trying to protect myself here. Like. Hey, listen, I'm going to be so honest. A lot of the things that I do have selfish motivations behind them, especially as it relates to like important to women in my family, because I need you to have money.
So you don't not ask me for none. Like that's, that's a real thing for me. Like, don't ask, I don't want you to ask me for any money. If you got your own, you won't, you won't ask me everything that I learned and share with all my friends. Right. This is how we're going to build. Well, like this is how we're going to get to these six figures, multiple six figure years.
I'm showing you the play because I do not want you to ask me for any money. That's a thing that I'm very strict on. Like, don't ask, please, don't ask. And if I say we're going to pull up the Bali tomorrow, I don't need you to tell me how you can't afford it because I'm a goal without you. I'm going to go with old shoes.
I need you to have your coins. So when I say let's get passport ready, you're meeting me at the airport. No bullshit. Like that's a serious thing for me, you know Covid kind of stumped on some plans that I had, but that's, that's literally the direction that I'm heading in. So mom is catching up. My dad is catching up too.
Like he is a little bit better than mom in terms of he'll send me money. So I take money from him like every month or at least once a quarter and I'm buying some stuff for him and actively investing for him. And I think he got excited because he sent me some money a couple of years ago was maybe like 40,000 Jaimacan dolllars.
So like three 50, 300 US. And I randomly sent him a screenshot last year. Like your little 40K that you sent me. It's like 120K now. Hello, sir. You want to send me some more, you know, like I'm doing triple digit returns for you over here. You're not making this anywhere else. So he's been excited to keep sending me money.
So we do that. And then when he wants to learn how the U S stock market works. So I'm gathering that information and I'm going to be passing that on to him and setting him up with someone here who can help him to get. Get that process going. So they're, they're, they're coming are wrong, but it's been slow.
Yeah. You know, old people, they take, they take a little bit longer.
Naseema McElroy: [00:59:36] It takes some time Girl. Yes yes.
Kenishia Mais: [00:59:40] Yeah. They take a lot to get there, but yeah. Working on them. Yes.
Naseema McElroy: [00:59:45] Yes. I love it. I love it. And then I wanted to know like, as far as like the Jamaican stock market, so yeah. We have some dips in March, but baby, right now the market is crazy.
Like it's all time high it's across the board. Like have you guys seen a rebound yet?
Kenishia Mais: [01:00:04] We're seeing some sort of a rebound, but not to that extent. It's going to take us a while longer to catch up then you guys are, and also I'm going to be so honest. I think a lot of the growth is junk growth.
Like it's, it's not like real actual sustain sustainable type of growth is really just like let's dump some steroids into this one stock like that. I think that's a lot of what y'all have been doing. We can't do that. So that's been helpful, but we're not seeing, we're seeing some sort of a rebound.
But we're still pretty much like we've been stable, right? Like we had a massive dip, then we got stale and we've just been steady since that we're just we're trailing. That's where we are, but I'm still done. And just put this out there, you know, if you're thinking about investing, like this is the time to start, like, listen to me.
These prices for these accompanies. They're not going to be here in the next year or two years. Right. So if you're really looking to build some wealth, like you really need to, to get an in on some of these companies, if you're a Jamaican stop playing games, right. You stop playing games that you need. So reach out to someone, get some information final who decided companies are, and we're not looking at the current stock price because people will do that.
Like, Oh, but what if it's such a good company? Why is it only trading for X ma'am? Because it's on wholesale. It's on this, it's unclear, right? You're going to buy, you're going to get in the door. Get in the door early. Like I remember this coming, there's this company NCB. My first time buying that stock when I was just learning, I got in at $17 and I didn't know what I was doing.
And I sold at like 60 and I thought I was pretty impressive. Cause that was like, that was a lot of returns. That company went all the way up to $200. And I kicked myself every day from 17. Mine was all the way up to hundred. I know they big. And you're like in the one 40 range, like just that one stock only because like I said, I didn't know what I was doing.
That was my only poor decision at the time I've gotten into other companies at like $15 and I got up like, Like they declined and I'm like, Ooh, I don't know what, something, I don't know what's happening. Or they had two bad quarters. I'm like, Ooh, no, no, no. And I jumped, Oh, but I'm not thinking about long-term like these companies over the long-term are going nowhere.
They're not leaving. Right. And I got old and I shouldn't have, and these companies went all the way to a hundred dollars and I'm like, dang man. But when you don't know, you don't know. Right. But,
Naseema McElroy: [01:02:40] but that's how you learn though. That's how you learn
Kenishia Mais: [01:02:43] exactly. Exactly so just buy solid companies and stick with them for the long haul, like for real, for real.
Naseema McElroy: [01:02:49] And that's the same thing I was telling people in March and may people were like calling me, like on the line, like, should I sell, should I sell? I said,Baybee, you got some extra money? If you have some extra money I would buy because I mean like things that were. Went down to like 20, $30 or like six, $700 now, like crazy returns that's within this year. You guys, so imagine you don't get paid like that at work. Okay. You don't pay like that anywhere else. So, I mean, I think people should really take this seriously. The way to really build wealth is through investing.
That's the only way to really build wealth. And so people really need to tap into that. Even if it's just passive investing, I teach, buy and hold investing, but just do it and don't try to run and get in and out of the market. If you're not ready for that life, like just buy and hold and you'll be way further ahead than you would be.
Just by not doing anything. So I love what you're teaching Kenishia tell the good people how they can learn more about you and your platform. Thriving Dollars.
Kenishia Mais: [01:03:58] We are everywhere on Al Gore's internet. Like we exist everywhere. But you know, let me just say this before I get into that, what you mentioned or just, no, sorry.
Both just buying just making sure to, even if you're investing passively like I said, I found my current investment strategy, my blue chip dollar cost averaging that I do. I figured that out through your $5 challenges that you have here. So even if he can do something as simple as every time you come in contact with a $5 bill, you have that as seed money to put into your brokerage account to buy a specific stock or partial share off a stock like Apple or Amazon or whatever the case is. Right. Cause I remember when Amazon was like a hundred dollars and I thought that was expensive and a woof that a hundred dollars , we see a hundred dollars Amazon stock again, like, I don't know that.
I don't think that's going to happen in this life that night. So in four. Right. But just, if you can just get like this, just make it as simple for yourself as possible. Like I'm not asking you or telling you to put money aside from your salary. If you can write, literally take spare change and make some progress with it.
Like I've gotten designer bags out of these spare change. This fair trade investment strategy, right? So just do it that way to make it simpler for yourself and make it something that you're excited to actually do. Because if I'm telling you to put money away from your salary, you're going to be like, Oh, what next thing?
And then like, you feel the dread off aid versus I have a $5 here. Let's see what I can do with this, you know, and you feel a little bit more excited when you see these little amounts starts to accumulate.
Naseema McElroy: [01:05:30] But once you start to see that, then you're going to want to make that salary work.
Kenishia Mais: [01:05:34] Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, well that's and that's the trick tool. Cause I get people in the game that way, but then they're like, this is not enough. Like I want to do it more. So it's actually, it's actually that little trick. You know, I just wanted to get you in the door and get you prime. And then once I get your prime, you're going to take off on your own or you gonna come to me?
Like I have fans come to come into me, like, yeah, nah, can we do more stuff? And I'm like, well, let's set you up. As an LLC sis, let's go. You know, like I have a young doctor I'm building, I'm having her build a company around herself so we can start writing off more for things related to her expenses. I guess it's a different level.
No, you know, so it's a different level, but once I get you in the door, cause I remember when I met her, we were starting at the basics. I exist. Didn't even have insurance. You're a doctor. Oh, you don't to use your arm. Right. And we got her insurance. That'll be got her retirement setup. We got somewhere for investments at, Oh, I know.
We're looking to move into the higher level stuff like let's talk about these taxes is like. What can we write off? Like, it's, it's a different level, but once I get you primed, you want, like I said, you won't, you won't accelerate on your own. So it's just a little trick to get people in, in the game, you know, get off the sidelines, get in the game.
Yeah. But that's, I just want to throw in that last part as for where they can find those. So it's thrivingdollars.com. Thriving dollars on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter I'm Kenny shammies everywhere as well. Kenny champagnes.com. Kenishia Mais everywhere Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Also Clubhouse is pretty new, but been popping up there.
So I have a Money Meetup Club. One club hosts were like 600 deep
Naseema McElroy: [01:07:04] Wow, go head Kenishia
Kenishia Mais: [01:07:06] I don't know. What happened? Like, I mean, I like people just I'm getting, like, I'm adding like 50 something people per a day at minimum. I'm like, I don't know what happened.
Naseema McElroy: [01:07:15] Wow girl, I gotta get my clubs started. I'm I'm playing around.
Kenishia Mais: [01:07:20] Sorry. It's been pretty impressive. So we have really dope conversations on there. So the money meetup is actually a live event series that I hosted in Jamaica and COVID she just came through when she just stomped all over it. But I recreated it online on Clubhouse, so it's curating just dope conversations.
Business and finance conversations with interesting people. So that's what I've been doing on your, so if you get on Clubhouse, just, you know, hit me up, hit me up, hit me up, get, join the money meetup club, follow me on there and join the conversation.
Naseema McElroy: [01:07:51] If you get on clubhouse. You know, you gotta, you gotta be invited. You gotta be invited. Anyway, Kenishia, is your story is amazing. I love what you're doing. I love how you're empowering your family. I love how you're creating generational wealth for your family and encouraging other people to do the same. You are a phenomenal woman and I can't wait to see your future glow up. I mean, you're not even 30 years old and you're out here doing this and so, boo, you are a true inspiration
Kenishia Mais: [01:08:23] I'm going to be the rich auntie I aspire to be, like I'm on my way
Naseema McElroy: [01:08:28] yes. Yes. Rich Aunty hashtag rich Aunty. I love it.
Hey there I’m Naseema
My dream is for everyone to know that financial independence is attainable with a little intentionality. Learn how I can help you finally break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.
Join the Facebook Community
Join the Financially Intentional community and get access to resources to guide you on the path to Financial Freedom.
Watch these Videos To Learn How to…
Keep Listening
Here are some more episodes you may enjoy…
We dive into the challenges of the traditional credit system and why financial literacy matters.