I'm 28 years old I'm a product
development manager at a cosmetics
company and I make 100 $15,000 a year
I am 23 years old I work in political
consulting and I make sixty five
thousand dollars a year we live in
Bushwick in Brooklyn in our apartments
about 1,000 square feet and we're
sisters our parents are from Senegal we
lived in Harlem before we moved to
Brooklyn about two years ago prior to
our parents really wanted us to stay at
home until we got married I think it
helped that we move in together
I pay $1,700 a month and I pay a
thousand and it's proportionate to how
much we make and in terms of utilities
we split pretty much halfway but Khan
adds about 20 bucks and National Grid is
about 20 bucks for the water and heat I
usually get home around 7 p.m. I try to
cook something easy like our traditional
dish yeah so I'll spend anywhere between
50 to 100 dollars like every other week
and then I only ask my sister for to
chip in if we're hosting together or if
I'm doing like a huge target haul and
we're like you know buying cleaning
supplies but other than that I'll pay
for dinner
I travel a lot for work so after I
returned from a trip I'll tend to come
home and have cereal or just let the
rest of my sister
I spend nothing on groceries because I
travel so much and because I'm very lazy
so I don't cook ever we're really open
about our resources so anything in the
kitchen is fair game we grew up in a
house or nothing that's al in public is
off-limits usually when I'm cooking it's
literally a vibe so I'll turn on my
projector it's kind of dim you know I
kind of cooked through that after dinner
I try to catch up on shows like my
favorite senegalese drama brought in
Mary Xu once I have food I will join my
sister with whatever show she's watching
it's a great chance to catch up if we
haven't seen each other for a while
my sister is better at managing money
than I am she tends to think about
things five times before she purchases
I'll think twice but I do think in
investing in certain pieces my sister
and other hand is more of a drifter
she's happy to go to Ikea whatever works
works there's a huge bridge is a
paradise plan in the middle of our house
and it's my sisters and I wanted nothing
to do with it New York City is so
stressful I just need pants all around
me if it were up to me this house would
be covered with plans the price tag was
pretty hefty and I couldn't swallow it
myself and then I think I asked my
sister for $100 into this day she won't
let me live it down so right after I
travel I always take whatever I had in
my suitcase and put it straight in the
laundry having it in unit washer and
dryer obviously is a game changer it's
kind of on your schedule and I just feel
clean my biggest flirt is definitely on
travel over the course of this year I
have a Kreutz 160,000 miles and they're
all from work I've used about 130,000 of
those miles to do personal travel
whenever I do travel I'd buy a shot
glass something that's very common
throughout the world and I'll be able to
purchase wherever I am I spend on
average 500 dollars a month on beauty
products luckily I'm able to expense it
because of my job I'm a product
developer and so I have to understand
new textures new formats new brand
launches to make sure that we're
competitive on the market
I have a 401k it's about $5,000 and I
have two credit cards ones mainly for
racking up points and the other one is
just to build up my credit and then I
use acorns which is an app that rounds
up all my purchases to the nearest
dollar
and then vests that and I have monthly
payments to that as well I do not have
any student loans because of federal
grants and some scholarship money
I do have credit card debt that I try to
keep it under 15% of my credit card
utilization limit so I have a 401 K I
believe last time I checked it was seven
thousand dollars I have two credit cards
both of them approved miles and then I
do have credit card debt about seven
thousand dollars but I also use my
personal credit card for my company
expenses my corporate expenses can range
from a thousand dollars all the way to
two thousand dollars per month in our
community we have something called a nut
essentially there's a group of people
that basically contribute a sum of money
per week by the end of the year you
essentially would get the money that you
put into this lump sum my sister and I
both contribute up to $400 a month this
is a great opportunity to pay off loans
especially if you have bigger loans so
it's great to have that lump sum kind of
given to you at that moment I do try set
aside 20 dollars every month as part of
a tradition to give back to one's
parents as much as I possibly can I
don't under lease it aside money per
month to give back to my parents but
when I do get a bonus from work I do set
aside some money for them I've become
better at investing in pieces before I
would just buy things that are really
really cheap clothes I still don't
I will never pay a lot for I think she
still finds her way in my closet as if
we live I don't
yes she does I've seen a lot of my
investment pieces she'll take so yeah
our relationship with money is kind of
touch-and-go I am comfortable in terms
of my spending but you just never know
what the dough hood those random
expenses that come so my financial goals
are to obviously pay off my credit card
debt then also save at least three
months worth salary my current savings
goal is just have around $3,000 for
emergency funds which I currently do not
have any and overall is to be able to
save enough to go to grad schools I plan
on doing in 2020
I've learned from my sisters in terms of
what quality means and why it's
important to invest in quality products
my relationship with money goes back to
my anxiety just making sure that
everyone's good you know that forbid
anything happens to my sister or even me
since I am the older sister here my home
in my apartment it represents me it
represents my freedom should be able to
find what that means to be responsible
through my lens versus my parents lens
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