Category Archives: Financial Independence

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Fresh out of college, you are excited to take up the responsibilities of adult life and gain some real-world experience. Before you know it, you are part of the rat race, pursuing a routine of trading your time for money. Your entire working life is associated with an exhausting, repetitive lifestyle that leaves almost no time for your hobbies, relaxation, or enjoyment.

I can think of two broad reasons why people work (for an employer):

Financial independence - most of us work to earn a living, pay bills, food, and entertainment, and save for retirement.

Passion - if you are actually passionate about what you do, congratulations! Less than 20% of the U.S. workforce claims to be passionate about their jobs.

Life expectancy in the U.S. is on the rise, which means your savings must last longer. But does that add more years to your work life? The Bureau of Labor Statistics says yes. The number of workers ages 75 and older is expected to increase by 96.5% over the next decade. Remember what Warren Buffett has taught us:

"If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." - Warren Buffett

91-year-old Mr. Buffett belongs to the passionate 20%, he loves his work, and we all want to learn as much as we can from him. If you belong to the 80% who only work to earn and sustain a living, why not use your savings to generate paychecks? Not only does this provide a recurring paycheck with minimal effort on your part, but it also lets you spend time with your family and pursue your hobbies.

Investing for income, a time-tested path to financial freedom is more accessible than ever today. Anyone with a brokerage account can do it, and all it takes is a diversified portfolio of over 40 dividend-yielding securities. This article discusses two picks with yields up to 7.4% to amplify your passive income. With a portfolio of such securities, you will have sufficient income never to have to work again. Without further ado, let us dive into these picks.

For over 50 years, PIMCO has helped millions of investors pursue their objectives despite shifting and unpredictable market conditions. This world-class CEF manager known for their fixed-income generation through active management is currently managing 25 CEFs globally with over $14 billion in Assets Under Management.

PIMCO Dynamic Income Opportunities Fund (NYSE:PDO) is by far the best performing CEF in PIMCO's portfolio in 2021. Per PIMCO's October report, PDO's Net Investment Income ('NII') covered its distributions (rolling three months) by an impressive ~160%, the highest among all PIMCO CEFs.

PIMCO's top 5 outperformers

PIMCO

Investors should note that PDO was born in February 2021, when quality yields were scarce, and short-term rates were near zero. As such, PIMCO was quite conservative in setting its yield during inception (7.1% @ its $20 IPO price) compared to older CEFs.

PDO's $0.1125/month calculates to a 7.4% annual yield today. The CEF earned more than its distribution through the year, and shareholders received a $0.49/share special dividend in December. Including this distribution, the net annualized yield comes to a whopping 9.8%! PIMCO has a solid track record of rewarding shareholders, and the infant PDO has proven to be no exception.

65% of PDO's debt securities will mature within five years, with almost 33% having maturity durations of less than one year. This means the fund is highly resistant to rising rates. In fact, as rates rise next year and beyond, PDO's holdings will mature and release capital for deployment into new debt securities that yield more.

PIMCO

PDO's first birthday is approaching, and you are invited to the party. The CEF is currently trading at par with its NAV - a rare opportunity for PIMCO CEFs, which typically trade at healthy premiums due to the brand value and trust that the firm carries.

Y-Charts

With higher rates on the horizon, PDO may see a minimal impact in the short term and is at an advantage in the longer term. Investors will see high NII in excess of distributions and more special dividends. PDO is priced at a bargain today, and this sale won't last.

When was the last time you saw Big Tobacco advertise in a major sporting event? McLaren's red and white Marlboro decals are all anyone could relate to until Formula One banned tobacco companies from advertising in 2006.

Fifteen years later, British American Tobacco (NYSE:BTI) (also known as BAT) is back with a bang in Formula One with its dazzling papaya orange and cobalt blue branding, promoting its Vuse vapor device.

Instagram

BTI has been aggressively rebranding its image to the younger audience, spending over 1 billion on social media influencers, pop stars, and sporting events to promote their lung-friendly e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches. The campaigns are producing results. BAT reported a 142% increase in social media followers (vs. 1H 2020), and its new category products - Vuse, Velo, Glo are massively popular among the millennial and generation Z population worldwide. The company saw an influx of 3.6 million customers in the first nine months of the year, more than 2020 as a whole, thanks to a rise in demand for its vaping, heated tobacco, and oral products. BTI's total non-combustible user base stands at 17.1 million, and the company expects this segment to contribute to the profit growth for the first time this year.

Given new category revenue was under 7% as of 1H 2021, investors may wonder how the majority of BTI's business is performing. This is where BTI shines. Due to its balanced geographic exposure to developed, emerging, and developing markets, BTI projects 5% YoY top-line growth. The company reported a growing volume of cigarette sales in Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, where a significant percentage of the adult population smokes combustible products. So a segment that is the pariah of the market, with competitors reporting declining sales, continues to be a growing cash cow for BTI.

BTI also stands ahead of the pack when looking at valuation, profitability, and the dividend. It is the cheapest, most profitable, and yields the highest. Its modest payout ratio ensures the 7.1% dividend is sustainable and can grow over time.

Data Source: Y-Charts

Please note: BAT's distribution varies due to the fluctuation in the USD-GBP currency exchange rates.

In the past 12 months, BTI earned $3.75/share, a 10.1% total return off which they distributed 7.1% to shareholders.

BTI's Vuse e-cigarette range is now a global leader in market share in the top five vaping markets in the world. The company is on track to hit its target 5 billion revenue from non-combustibles by 2025. The company is aggressively transforming its social image, and the efforts are paying off. Growing top-line influence of non-combustibles, a socially acceptable product segment will warrant an improved valuation from Sir Market. You get paid to wait for this transformation to happen, with a growing dividend stream and significant capital gains.

Getty

Life is short, and everyone desires to retire early. No one wants to spend 40 hours a week for thirty to forty years working for someone else unless they are actually working on something they are passionate about. Instead, wouldn't you spend more time with friends and family and pursue activities that give you joy. But we get it; no one wants to lose the comfort and predictability of a paycheck.

With income investing, you can have your cake AND eat it too. The strategy provides you with the comfort of sustainable and growing paychecks while giving you plenty of time to focus on your personal life.

This article discusses two picks with yields up to 7.4%. At HDO, our Income Method is built on the premise of getting your retirement under your control. We have a portfolio of over 45 high-quality income picks with strict allocation limits, targeting a yield between 9-10%. We issue timely buy/sell alerts so you can spend time on your hobbies. Diversification and allocation limits improve the sustainability of the income and reduce the shock from individual entities. High yield ensures you make enough to sustain your retirement while staying ahead of rising costs, volatile markets, and other economic conditions. We let the power of dividends help us pursue our passion and achieve new heights.

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2 Big Dividends That Work As Hard As You - Seeking Alpha

With 4.5 million employees quitting their jobs and one of the lowest job participation rates in decades, employers are struggling to fill the over 10 million open jobs reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month. Yet, two stealth developments at the Department of Labor are poised to make that struggle even worse.

First, on Jan. 4, President BidenJoe BidenCarville advises Democrats to 'quit being a whiny party' Wendy Sherman takes leading role as Biden's 'hard-nosed' Russia negotiator Sullivan: 'It's too soon to tell' if Texas synagogue hostage situation part of broader extremist threat MORE renominated David Weil to serve as administrator of the wage and hour division, the agency responsible for enforcing the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Weil previously served in this position during the Obama administration and was nominated to reprise that performance in June 2021. His nomination stalled in the Senate, having failed to be voted favorably out of committee, but its now getting a do-over, with the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee again considering Weils nomination.

Second, the Labor Department quietly posted its enforcement statistics for the first year of the Biden administration. Last year, it recovered just $234.3 million in back wages. That is a decline of $23.5 million from 2020, when many businesses and Labor Department offices were closed due to the pandemic, and a decline of $98.2 million from the Trump administrations record year in 2019. Weil fared no better during his previous tenure, as his high was $266.5 million in 2016 less than every year in the Trump administration, including the lost year of 2020.

This poor performance in Democratic administrations may seem odd. Counterintuitive, but easily explicable. Under Democrats, instead of enforcing the law as written to protect low-wage workers from clear violations, the Labor Department prefers to engage in social activism.

For example, Weil doesnt like independent contracting (IC). Contractors overwhelmingly supported the Trump administrations IC rule (withdrawn by the Biden administration), and California voters rejected a strict IC test in 2020. Contractors want the financial independence and the flexibility of choosing when, where and how they work. The independent workforce increased by 34 percent in 2021, to 51.1 million workers, with 68 percent of newcomers from Gen Z and 55 percent women, according to MBO Partners. MBO Partners also reports that 87 percent of these workers are happier working independently, 78 percent say they are healthier, and nearly 30 percent reported annual earnings of over $100,000. Yet, with Weil at the helm, the Labor Department is likely to focus enforcement on ending independent contractor relationships, returning to his 2015 guidance concluding that most workers are employees.

Weil is also wrong about franchising, which he attacked in his book, The Fissured Workplace, as being responsible (with contracting) for lower wages, lack of health benefits, and diminished opportunities for upward advancement. In fact, independent franchise owners pay higher wages, offer health insurance at higher rates, and provide greater opportunity for advancement than other small businesses and create 2.3 times as many jobs than their large corporate competitors. Weil published his book just weeks before taking over as the nations top FLSA enforcer in the Obama administration, and then spent his time at the Labor Department using the power of federal investigations attempting to prove his theories. After leaving, he furthered his academic career by claiming he saw violations caused by fissuring while at the Department of Labor. Coincidence?

Also on Weils hit list is the fossil fuel industry. This industry has among the highest percentage ofprivate sector union membership and highest wages for blue collar workers. During his previous tenure, Weil led an initiative against that industry. A December 2014 press release, for example, bragged about a multi-year initiative in the Pennsylvania and West Virginia oil and gas industry: The oil and gas industry is . . . ripe for noncompliance," Weil stated. Given his disdain for the industry, we can expect increased scrutiny if Weil is confirmed. This would do nothing to protect low-wage workers, but instead turn regulatory power against an industry that already has high union membership and high wages.

In this labor market, now is not the time and Weil is not the person to put in charge of FLSA enforcement.

Tammy McCutchen served as the administrator of the Labor Departments Wage & Hour Division during the administration of President George W. Bush.

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David Weil: Wrong man, wrong place, wrong time | TheHill - The Hill

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Editor's Note: This story originally appeared on NewRetirement.

Everyone knows that if you want to achieve something, you had better set a goal. However, very few Americans actually do or even know how to set financial goals.

According to Schwabs Modern Wealth Index, only 33% of people have some sort of written plan or goals. Whats worse? The Financial Health Network finds that only 29% of Americans are financially healthy.

It doesnt take high-level calculus to figure out that there is probably a correlation. You will do better financially if you have financial goals. Heres a look at how financial goals can help you.

Financial goals and a plan will enable you to:

Stop Worrying and Feel More Confident

The American Psychiatric Association reports that 70% of adults worry about money. Setting goals is proven to help reduce your financial stress and get you on track to the future you want.

The Schwab study found that people with a plan are at least 25% more likely to feel financially stable.

Avoid Problems and Generate Wealth

The more you can get in front of your goals, the more problems you will be able to avoid and the more wealth you can create. Setting goals and planning your finances enables you to get ahead on taxes, savings, and so much more.

And, when disaster strikes, you will better be able to weather the storm. In fact, people with an overall financial plan are 32% more likely to have an emergency fund.

People who set goals and have a written plan are:

Make Better Decisions

Every financial decision you make impacts your money today and all the way through the rest of your life. By making those decisions in the context of your short- and long-term goals, you are more likely to be successful and happy.

While any financial goal-setting is good, get even better results by setting goals in all of the following categories:

Keep reading for examples of personal financial goals in all of these categories.

Process-oriented goals are about the how to achieve something, not about what you want to achieve. A process-oriented goal is a goal you set for how you want to go about achieving your goals.

So, setting process-oriented financial goals is a way to help you ensure success. It will help you build habits for wealth and security.

You can set process-oriented goals around the who, what, when, where, and why questions:

1. What and Where: Establish Systems

What kinds of systems do you want to set up for tracking and managing your goals for savings, spending, and earning? A spreadsheet? Notebook? A planning system like the NewRetirement Planner?

2. When: Set Time Frames

How often do you want to check in on your key financial metrics? Some people reconcile their accounts daily, others monthly, some quarterly, or even bi-annually or annually.

The more often the better. Make financial planning a habit!

3. Who: Get Buy-In from Household

If you are single and without any kind of family, then your financial planning is simpler.

Everyone else, your planning needs a buy-in from everyone who is or might cost you something in the future.

Most importantly, you need to plan with your spouse. Here are eight topics to tackle if you want to survive retirement with your spouse.

Now, lets move on to short-term financial goals and work up to the long-term.

Do you know how much you need to retire? What amount of money should you have in an emergency fund? How much will it cost to send kids to college, help fund your parents long-term care needs, buy a home or second home, fund health care, or pay for the vacation you really want?

Maybe none of that applies to you. You do want something in the future though.

It is really important that you know right now how much you are going to need to live the life you want to live.

Having a hard time visualizing your future wants and needs? Here are seven ways to imagine the future you want to have.

Once you know what you want, the NewRetirement Planner can help you see the numbers you need to achieve. Find out if you are on track and get loads of ideas for how to make better decisions.

Once you have determined your short- and long-term financial needs, you may learn that you need to save more. Set up a plan to increase your savings perhaps gradually, over time.

To make the goal-setting achievable and meaningful, you will want to be specific and detailed. For example, you might say that you are going to save an additional $5 every day or try for $500 a month with 50% of that going to retirement and the balance for other savings goals.

Automate: Not sure how to save more? Automating savings is one of the best things you can do today to set you up for a better future. Automating savings (especially if you schedule increases to correspond with salary bumps) ensures that savings will happen.

Tracking how you spend your money is a critical component of financial well-being. A budget will help you:

A budget does not need to be elaborate, just write down how much you have earned, how much you have spent (and on what), and how much you have saved. Make sure your expenses (including savings) are below your income.

It is NOT enough to save money. You need to have it invested efficiently and appropriately for your personal situation age, risk profile, needs, and time frame.

An investment plan is not about actively trading stocks. An investment plan is a thoughtful document that outlines your goals for your savings, strategies for achieving those objectives, a framework for making changes to your investment plan, and options for what to do if things dont go as expected.

An investment plan is one of the best short-term financial goals you can have because it sets you up for long-term success.

Like setting a plan for saving more and investing strategically, you will also want to set goals for getting rid of debt especially high-interest credit card or student loan debt. Here is how to pay off debt: 12 ways to reduce this expense for long-term prosperity.

We also strongly recommend that you document your debts in the NewRetirement Planner and run scenarios for accelerating debt payoff. See what happens to your lifetime wealth and security. This exercise can be powerful, fun, and very motivating.

As you can see, most short-term financial goals are about planning.

You see, in life, you have a finite amount of time to create a finite amount of money. That money is used to fund your entire life. And, creating plans is the best way to make sure that you will be able to accommodate your future needs.

Creating and maintaining a detailed retirement plan is a great way to visualize and manage your total pool of resources over your entire lifetime.

Dive in! The NewRetirement Planner makes creating a long-term plan easy.

Having an emergency fund cash that is the equivalent of three months to a year of income is key to your financial well-being.

An emergency fund is critical to keep you from accumulating debt or having to make compromised decisions if things go wrong.

The credit rating agencies and other services can give you great tips for boosting your credit score. A good credit score can help you with advantageous terms on loans.

Your credit score is especially important if you will be purchasing property in the future. However, your credit score can also impact the interest you pay on credit cards and your insurance rates.

Creating a long-term tax strategy can ensure that you have a much more secure retirement, and it can help you retain much more of your hard-earned money.

The NewRetirement Planner enables you to see your potential tax burden in all future years and get ideas for minimizing this expense. It takes forethought, but strategizing Roth conversions, taxable income shifts, and more can result in significant lifetime savings.

Over your life span, you will earn a finite amount of money. Similarly, you have a finite amount of time to spend.

When thinking about financial goals, how you want to spend your time is critically important. Do you want to:

Your income, what you spend, and what you save are all related to both your financial as well as lifestyle choices.

If you set a short-term goal for creating a plan to get rid of debt, your medium-term goal is to have it gone from your life.

Debt is a huge threat to your financial well-being. Having debt for things that give you utility a mortgage or car is acceptable. However, credit card debt and other kinds of high-interest debt can be akin to setting your money on fire.

Many people enter retirement with a mortgage. Financial planners usually advise against it, but a mortgage especially at a low interest rate is tolerable.

Yep. It is entirely possible to set a plan for retiring in the medium-term no matter your age.

Retiring Young: You might want to learn about Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE). FIRE is basically about making some significant lifestyle choices immediately to try to amass a large amount of savings that will free you from having to work. Adherents of FIRE are retiring in their 20s and 30s!

Retiring from Middle Age to Before 65: About half of Americans retire early usually by 61, but many people stop working in their 50s. And, with a plan, you can achieve this goal.

You can retire when you have saved enough money and secured enough income to last for the rest of your life no matter how long that turns out to be.

However, as you transition to retirement, you will still have goals and metrics to achieve. You want to:

In addition to retirement, the other truly long-term goal that many people have is leaving something for heirs either money or, in many cases, a home.

Use the NewRetirement Planner to track and manage your short-, medium- and long-term goals, including being able to see what kind of estate you might be able to leave behind.

Disclosure: The information you read here is always objective. However, we sometimes receive compensation when you click links within our stories.

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Set Financial Goals: It's the Secret to a Prosperous and Secure Future - Money Talks News

Having a written financial plan, creating an emergency account for expenses, and putting money into TFSAs and RRSPs are some ways young adults can help secure their financial future.freemixer/iStock

Finding a route to financial independence is difficult at the best of times, but the COVID-19 pandemic tore up the map for the youngest adults.

A recent Canadian Bankers Association survey found more than half (53 per cent) of Generation Z survey participants, those aged 18-25, said COVID-19 had upended their financial security.

Yet, almost all of them (98 per cent) said theyre making plans to strengthen their financial resilience. Financial advisors and planners can help Gen Z on this journey.

A written financial plan is a good place to start, some advisors say, and they stress that clear goals and emergency funds are important for clients in the gig economy or with uncertain incomes.

Determining what all the necessary expenses are including rent, internet, cellphone, gas and groceries is the first step, says Steve Bridge, certified financial planner and money coach at advice-only firm Money Coaches Canada Inc. in North Vancouver, B.C.

Being able to set aside two or three months worth [of funds for those expenses] is huge because it relieves a lot of the stress of, I dont have work this month, Mr. Bridge says.

He says he advises young clients to set up a savings account labelled holding account, which is to be used only for holding money for slower months.

Asif Khan, wealth advisor and financial planner at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. in Mississauga, says Gen Z clients should also start building investment buckets for a down payment on a house and for retirement.

Putting money into a tax-free savings account (TFSA) and registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) at this young age will be explosive for them in retirement, he says.

The TSFA and RRSP, for the long term for Gen Z, should be 100 per cent [in] equity compounding dividend-paying investments, Mr. Khan says.

Brian Cabral, director, wealth planning group, at CIBC Private Wealth Management in Toronto, says the decision on whether to use a strategy based on a TSFA or an RRSP depends on a clients tax bracket.

Although it makes sense to allow contribution room to grow in an RRSP until its needed in high-income years for tax savings, clients cant go wrong making contributions to either plan, he says.

Furthermore, there are government programs such as the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive and Lifelong Learning Plan that allow young clients to tap into their RRSP savings to buy a first home or go back to school for more education, Mr. Cabral says.

While home ownership seems a long way off for members of this generation, having it as a goal can still be realistic even in the current inflated market.

Mr. Khan says although homes are priced higher, younger clients are experiencing much lower interest rates than their parents and grandparents generations.

Yet, Mr. Bridge says that the basics need to be in place first.

If owning a home is a really strong goal and the numbers can work, yes absolutely, save up for a home, he says. But, adding that to everything else that is going on at that age finding a job, getting a regular income, potentially paying back student loans, maybe buying a car saving for a home on top of that is a big ask.

A particular stressor for Gen Z clients can be debt, particularly student loans. Mr. Bridge says advisors should help young clients pay down those loans sustainably.

This comes down to cash flow how much can a young person put toward [paying off these loans] every month and still meet their other goals?

Paying down a student loan too quickly can result in building a higher interest debt if something like a car repair comes up, Mr. Bridge says.

Gen Z clients being comfortable operating digitally also extends to their attitude to investments.

Were finding a lot of younger folks have decided to go with the do-it-yourself investment strategy, says Shawn Khimji, vice-president, wealth management, at Alterna Savings and Credit Union Ltd. in Toronto.

That can be challenging. . If youre not careful in your approach, especially in a market thats changing or on the cusp of changing with high inflation or interest rates, your asset allocation may not be appropriate for the future state of the economy.

There are web forums that recommend investments based on an ideology, Mr. Khimji says, adding that he tells clients to really know what theyre investing in.

The rise of bitcoin BTX21 and other cryptocurrencies also can capture Gen Zs imagination. A do-it-yourself investor might believe thats a path to easy money, Mr. Khimji says.

While he says he doesnt have a problem with young clients putting some risk capital in cryptocurrencies, they shouldnt put all their eggs in one basket.

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How advisors can help Gen Z plan for a financial future upended by the pandemic - The Globe and Mail

After a whirlwind romance, Sangeeta Das decided to finally settle down with the love of her life at the age of 35. Married life was bliss. In some ways, nothing had changed. Her husband, a biker, would take her on long adventurous rides. They would explore new places and experiences together. In fact, their honeymoon was a bike ride from Delhi to Goa. Married life, in many ways, was just an extension of a blissful romance. Until it wasnt. The early sign of its approaching end manifested in bickering and disagreements. The final nail in the coffin of their relationship was their disagreement over whether they wanted to have children. Sangeeta did. Her husband didnt. So, a decade and a half later, the couple decided to call it quits and separated. While their divorce was in the process, her husband fell ill, and eventually passed away.

At almost 50, Sangeeta was single. While the circumstances that led to this were unfortunate, what came after was a sense of relief, freedom, and a refined idea of love.Our love wasnt a love which did not have trouble or a love that was unconditional. The fact that our marriage came to an end or that we decided to part ways was because there were situations where we couldnt live under the same roof. We did love each other as human beings, but despite the love,we realised that our paths were different, our dreams and goals were different our levels of understanding values, morals, principles were different. Our ideas of family and personal space were different. So, I had to decide whether I wanted to live with him and hate him, or live away from him and continue to love him. We decided to take a break, but we never expected that the break would start feeling so easy for us. We started enjoying that break too much, and we did not want to get back together anymore. That is when I realised that it was not sinful or shameful to admit that ones love can die, she says.

For years, women have been made to believe that the road to finding true happiness is that of love, a road which would be full of compromises and sacrifices of ones identity and dreams. That is the price that women have had to pay for love, and how. Women have given up on their careers, and redirected the focus of their lives towards running their households and rearing children, all in the name of love. But, the times are a changin and so is womens idea of love. As more women are finding social and financial independence, their criteria for the ideal partner to love is narrowing down. More women are now becoming increasingly aware of what and who they want. They are reevaluating the requisites to fall and be in love. When looking for love, they are not just seeking a partner who is financially stable, or who can take care of them, but also someone who treats them as an equal and offers emotional and intellectual compatibility.

In Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennett declares she would not marry for money alone; her partner must have qualities like kindness, mutual respect, and intelligence. It is an anomaly in a plot where marriage is driven primarily by financial prospects. It appears as if that anomaly is finally becoming a norm now. As a result, the pool of suitable matches in a society that is heavily driven by patriarchal norms is shrinking a direct outcome of this is an expanding population of single women. According to the Census 2011, the number of single women in the country increased from 51.2 million in 2001 to 71.4 million in 2011, indicating that women are discovering their own agency over their lives; they are refusing to settle for someone just because that is how it has been for centuries.

Mona Dutta is one of them. A year away from turning 50, she is a successful corporate consultant, with a penchant for travel and photography. She never married.Of course, she never set out with a goal of hating love. In fact, she fell in love several times, quite passionately, only to find herself cheated, and heartbroken. Her responsibilities on the home front didnt make being part of a romantic relationship any easier. Alone for several years, she has been taking care of her parents and several of her childless aunts and uncles.

Through her twenties and early thirties, Monahad invested emotionally in a few relationships, none of which, to her disappointment, lasted. In fact, one of her relationships that continued for nearly five years left her feeling lost and disoriented when it ended. It was this heartbreak that changed the course of her life: it led her to a path of spiritual awakening and enabled her to discover the joys of self-love. There was a time in my late thirties when I was deeply in love with a man and when that didnt work out, I went through a lot of grief it affected my health. I was vice-president in my company at the time, but I had to leave it all because I fell ill and also because it was just too much to process. That is when I began my spiritual journey through a community called Joyous Women. This path is of the divine feminine. One of the things that we did there was that we got married to ourselves in a beautiful self-marriage ceremony. And its been very, very fulfilling. I couldnt compare it to conventional marriage which is more of a commercial thing that we do to show others. It is based on the concept of Ardhanarishvara; it is not about the gender, but the feminine and masculine elements within us, and when those are in balance, we are a complete and whole person. The self-marriage was about the feminine in me marrying the masculine in me,she explains. Mona feels complete. Though she is still looking for love, it is not because she needs someone to complete her. Instead, she is looking for someone to share the journey of her life with.

For single women, life is no longer a puzzle with missing pieces. It is an independent journey, and the person they love needs to have a journey that runs parallel to theirs. However, it is not that women no longer desire the comfort of companionship. What they are doing more is contemplating whether it is worthgiving up on freedom and independence by compromising ones own individuality. You miss having somebody at home who waits for you to come back each night. Its terrible to wake up in the morning and to drink coffee alone. You miss the human company. Sometimes, you miss the silence you can share with someone the comfortable silence while being in the same house, but in a different room. But you also get used to it, says Noor Enayat, a queer woman living in Delhi. Would somebody want to be in a relationship just because he or she misses these things? Noor says it has to do with ones priority. Its important to understand that if youre missing a person or the idea of a person, these things can technically be fulfilled by anybody, she says. Noor became single three years back after her last relationship did not work out due to a disconnect over what the two partners wanted. I think two people have to be in the same place mentally. One is not looking anymore at something wherein you move in during the first few months of seeing each other, and then you get married. Thats not how it works, especially in queer relationships, she says. Elaborating on her idea of love and companionship, she says that her ideal partner would be someone with whom she can share her every day and not just have a serious, long-drawn intellectual or romantic conversation.

Having discovered the joys of being self-reliant, many of these women, across age groups, have become set in their ways. They want to make their bed in a certain way, they follow a rule in their kitchen, they have their own timings through the day, and altering all of this for a person who may or may not be forever is something that is no longer up for discussion.It is a risk they do not want to take. Though Sangeeta remembers her love story with her former husband quite fondly, she says the whole idea of everlasting love is a sham that we feed ourselves and then we keep bending rules to include that person in our life or to include ourselves into their lives, ultimately only to get at each others throats. This is because we have never been told that love also comes with an expiry date. There might be nostalgia for the good times spent together, but love wears off, she says.

For some, theend of romance does not necessarily mean the end of a relationship. Noor shares how she continues to be friends with a former partner even though the relationship ended several years ago. We lived together for four years. And we continue to be good friends. Because that was a relationship that was very equal. I think that becomes very important. For me, a relationship is a 50-50 divide. If I take four steps you take four steps. That has always been very essential to the idea of a relationship. That has been the defining factor for me, she says.

Even for younger women like Tanyaa Raturi, the idea of love has changed dramatically since the first time she fell in love at the age of 17. Your idea of love corresponds to the life experiences you have had. At 20, I had lived most of my life in a small town. The idea of a partner came from watching certain types of movies. It was a very heteronormative patriarchal idea: My boyfriend and I would go to malls together and would celebrate Valentines Day. As I grew older, it changed, says Tanyaa, 25. A reflective person, she believes that a certain level of self-reflection is required. Today, what she looks for in a partner has also changed because she looked back at why the relationships she had been in didnt work. Now, I feel that a lot of things that I needed from a partner, I can acquire myself, like intellectual stimulation, which is very important for me. I figured I was enough for this, she says. Tanyaa no longer seekslove from a romantic partner alone. She also seeks it in a set of steady friends people who have been there for her through thick and thin even as romantic partners have come and gone. Love, to her, now means stability.

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This story is part of CNBC Make It'sMillennial Moneyseries, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

At the end of 2020, Aaron Brock left his home and family in New Jersey and moved to Oklahoma.

Brock and a friend had both applied to the Tulsa Remote program, which pays participants to move to Tulsa, on a whim. When they were both accepted, they knew they wanted to do it. "We were like, 'Man, this is an opportunity we can't turn down,'" Brock, 22, tells CNBC Make It.

Since he works remotely as a technical presales engineer, earning $200,000 per year, Brock was able to qualify for the program and make the move without worrying about cost.

Tulsa Remote is a recruitment initiative that aims to attract remote workers to the city. Its primary perk is a $10,000 grant, which is distributed over the course of one year,during which participants are obligated to live and work within Tulsa's city limits.

The program focuses on community building and aims to help participants "integrate into the local fabric, creating strong interpersonal affinities and nurturing relationships," a program representative tells CNBC Make It.

Aaron Brock and a friend both applied to the Tulsa Remote program, which pays participants to move to Tulsa, on a whim.

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In addition to the money and lower cost of living, the community aspect was a major draw for Brock, who was eager to get involved. "[The program develops] a community and they do a really good job of, 'Hey, I can just jump into a social group,'" he says. "I don't need to move to a new city, be the only person there and have to build it all up from scratch."

Before the move, Brock had mostly lived with or nearby his parents. It was difficult for him to leave them, but "there's a time when it's like, 'Hey, I've got to go try by myself, be a proper real adult,'" he says.

The youngest of four siblings, Brock was homeschooled growing up and spent a significant amount of time with his parents, who allowed him to freely explore his interests and find his passion. He started learning to program when he was about 6, and was immediately hooked.

By 14, Brock was getting paid to work on Minecraft when friends offered him gigs, and at 16, he says he got a longer-term job with a single server earning $1,500 per month for about eight months. "It paid for my first two cars."

Aaron Brock earns $200,000 per year as a technical presales engineer.

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When Brock was 18, a mentor he met at a robotics club when he was a kid offered him a job as a DevOps engineer. He decided to accept it instead of going to college. "It just didn't make financial sense to take four years and however much it would have cost to go to college instead," he says.

Though he enjoyed the work, Brock learned some tough lessons early on. For one, he was unknowingly underpaid in his first job as an engineer, he says. "I got paid $15 an hour. I missed out on a large amount of money by not negotiating that salary or having any idea of what the salary was supposed to be." The average base salary for a DevOps engineer was $97,098 per year as of 2021, according to Payscale.

Now four years into his career, Brock earns about $200,000 annually as a technical presales engineer. That includes his base salary of $170,000 and a 20% bonus based on commissions. While his current company offered him $150,000 initially, Brock negotiated up to the amount he earns now.

Brock feels very comfortable living in Oklahoma on this salary, even without the Tulsa Remote program's grant. So much so that he's able to save the majority of what he earns.

Here are Brock's monthly expenses for December 2021.

From November 2020 to November 2021, most of Brock's expenses, including rent, utilities and groceries, were covered by the Tulsa Remote program and its grant. To Brock, it was an opportunity to save, especially with his high salary.

"I'm young, I make a lot of money, and I recognize that the money that I make now is more valuable than the money I make later," Brock says. "If I can live very minimally at the moment and save that money, it'll be accruing interest, whereas if I live lavishly now and then live modestly in the future, I won't have that added interest."

To accomplish that, Brock tries to max out all of his retirement vehicles. In December, he allocated $2,649 to his 401(k), bringing his contributions to the maximum $19,500 allowed for the year. Previously, he maxed out his Roth IRA during the years his salary was within the permitted range.

I'm young, I make a lot of money, and I recognize that the money that I make now is more valuable than the money I make later.

In addition to this 401(k), Brock saved about $9,047, bringing his total savings to around $11,697 in December. He typically saves more and separately invests an additional amount, but in December spent $25,000 to buy a van to travel throughout 2022.

"I have a FIRE mentality," Brock says, referring to the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement. He intends to retire early and plans to have enough saved to do so in his 30s.

Brock also doesn't have any debt. He treats his credit cards like debit cards, paying off the entire balance each month.

Outside of savings and investments, Brock aims to spend just $1,000 to $1,500 on expenses each month. He does have help from his parents, who pay for his phone bill, health insurance, Netflix subscription and Costco membership. Brock has been included on their family plans since before he moved and hasn't branched off yet.

In addition to eating the same meals over and over, Brock chooses to only wear purple. It helps him avoid decision fatigue and limit the number of clothes he owns.

"I really dislike having stuff, just in general. If you own something, you have to take care of it and it owns you," he says. "Also, I like to not have to make decisions each day and always wear the same thing, like Steve Jobs."

Brock plans to leave Tulsa this year, and start traveling across the country even though it will cost more than his life in Oklahoma.

"When I looked into getting a van, I determined that this is actually not the best financial decision," he says. "A lot of cost goes into a van, be it insurance, maintenance and all of the fun, weird stops that you have to make along the way."

His budget for the year is $14,000, Brock says, which includes insurance and maintenance for the van; sales tax from buying the van; the added costs of living in it, like potentially having to dine out more; and the depreciation of the van over time. Since he works remotely, Brock will easily be able to keep his current job while traveling.

"Down the line, Tulsa is fantastic," Aaron Brock says. "I would not be against moving back once I decide to cease the nomadic lifestyle."

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Brock loves living in Tulsa, and even though he hasn't planned past his adventure for 2022, he says he would be happy to return to the city once he's done traveling. "Down the line, Tulsa is fantastic," he says. "I would not be against moving back once I decide to cease the nomadic lifestyle."

As for leaving the program after a little more than a year, "They have a goal of making me stay there longer, but the agreement is to try it out for a year. I held up that side of the agreementand I tried it out for a year and I thought it was great," Brock says.

But, ultimately, he says he's not ready to settle down anywhere just yet. "I'm gonna be living a very different lifestyle for a bit."

Brock plans to continue saving as well. His goal is to save at least $2 million, so he can retire in his early 30s if he wants to. If he continues to save and invest as much as he does now, Brock is on track to achieve that goal.

"If you follow the 4% rule, that puts me at about $80,000 a year without touching the principal. While $80,000 is a lot less than I make currently, it's a lot more than I spend currently," Brock says. However, he'd ideally prefer to be able to live a bit more "lavish" lifestyle and ultimately have $3 million or $4 million for retirement.

Right now, though, "I'm focused on life experience," he says. "I would like to see the world and experience things that I haven't done before. I'm in a comfortable place to do that."

What's your budget breakdown?Share your story with usfor a chance to be featured in a future installment.

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This 22-year-old earns $200,000 per year in Tulsa, Oklahomaand saves around $11,000 a month. Now hes on track to retire in his 30s - CNBC

"We are seeing a migration of talent from traditional finance to decentralized finance and crypto companies."

"We are seeing a migration of talent from traditional finance to decentralized finance and crypto companies," said Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius. "As we prepare for the next chapter of our growth, I am excited to see this top tier talent join our team with the exemplary leadership and wealth of experience that Denizkurdu and van Etten bring from Citigroup and UBS, respectively."

"I am honored to be joining Celsius, a pioneer of innovation, as the financial services industry gets rapidly redefined" said Denizkurdu regarding her new role. "My goal is to position Celsius as an industry leader in decentralized finance with a best-in-class, scalable infrastructure that will also meet regulatory expectations globally as they are established. Bringing in practices from traditional finance and applying them with the innovative mindset and approaches of fintech will be a part of this journey."

Denizkurdu joins Celsius from Citigroup, where she was the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Governance for Risk Management, reporting to the Chief Risk Officer and serving as a long-standing member of the Global Risk Management Executive Council. In this role, Denizkurdu focused on implementation of firm-wide frameworks and processes that enabled effective identification and management of risks while making the company a better and more competitive firm for its clients. She also held roles in Corporate Strategy and Country Risk groups. Prior to Citi, Denizkurdu was a Senior Buy-Side Research Analyst at AllianceBernstein where she invested in Financial Institutions. In this role, she also advised the U.S. Treasury Department on the management of the ~$430bn TARP program.

Denizkurdu graduated Magna Cum Laude from NYU's Leonard N. Stern School of Business with a B.S. in Finance and International Business. In 2020, she was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and has been a fellow in Aspen Institute's First Movers Fellowship program since 2012.

"It's a privilege to be part of the Celsius journey and to be in a position to drive future success", said van Etten after his first few months in his role. "The crypto-markets are providing great investment opportunities where I can leverage my experience of innovation paired with disciplined execution to create value for our customers, business partners and company. We are combining deep crypto expertise with seasoned leadership from traditional markets with the goal to redefine the financial services landscape permanently and for the better."

Before joining Celsius, van Etten was in asset management for two decades in global leadership roles at ING, Voya, UBS and Nuveen. He has broad investment experience and was responsible for over $200 billion in client assets in previous CIO roles. Furthermore, van Etten has an operations background and worked in various advisory roles, focusing on efficiency programs at large global financial institutions. Van Etten operated at the most senior leadership levels, with rich experience in developing growth strategies and designing the operations to support the growth. He led the execution of various large scale strategic projects that helped positioning businesses for future success. He is a recognized expert in investments innovation, business restructuring and realizing sustainable business growth in various client channels.

van Etten was born in Italy, raised in the Netherlands and holds a Master's Degree in Econometrics and Operations Research from Tilburg University.

About CelsiusCelsius helps over a million customers worldwide to find the path towards financial independence through a compounding yield service and instant low-cost loans accessible via a web and mobile app. Built on the belief that financial services should only do what is in the best interest of the customers and community, Celsius is a blockchain-based fee-free platform where membership provides access to curated financial services that are not available through traditional financial institutions. For additional information please visitwww.celsius.network.

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Celsius Announces the Appointment of Traditional Finance Executives Aslihan Denizkurdu & Frank van Etten - PRNewswire

When she was a professional tennis player in her teens and early 20s, Sunitha Rao 14 often encountered people in the sport who did not have her best interest at heart.

Coming up as a female athleteit is a brutal place. There were many adults taking advantage of young women in every way possible, Rao says. I was told again and again by men that I would never be anything without them and never be anything outside of the sport. That was the narrative that was shoved down my throat.

At the age of 23, worn out and nearly broke, Rao walked away from tennis, a sport that had defined her and once took her to the Olympic Games. She now needed to find a new purpose for her life, and in the process, push back against all the manipulative people she had met and all their negative predictions for her. I wasnt going to accept that, she says. I have always been a rebel.

In this two-part series, we look at the life and career of Sunitha Rao, who was pushed into tennis at a young age and then found herself having to start over in her early 20s, a daunting prospect given that she had dropped out of school after the sixth grade and was unsure of what direction her life should take.

Despite all the uncertainty, though, she did know one thing for sure: She wanted a life that offered her independence and empowerment. In this second and final installment of the series, we look at how she achieved just that.

After leaving behind her tennis career, Rao came to live in Florida, where she pieced together a new life. In the mornings, she taught tennis at a resort, and, at nights, she worked as a bartender. She also was attending community college, though she was hoping to transfer to another school.

One night at the bar, a group came in, and Rao got to talking to them. One man was a graduate of Babson College, a school that Rao happened to be researching and considering, and he offered to connect her with the Colleges dean of undergraduate admissions.

Just like that, a chance meeting in a bar changed the direction of Raos life. Soon, she was meeting with that Babson dean and being accepted for admittance. Most crucially, she received a financial aid package that covered her full tuition, a turn of events that left her stunned. I called a best friend bawling my eyes out, Rao says. He couldnt understand a word I said and thought I had gotten into a car accident.

Coming to Babson as an undergraduate was an adjustment for Rao. At 25, she was older than her classmates, but they still seemed so much more well-informed and sure of their place in the world. I was trying not to flunk out, she says. This was my chance for redemption. I had to work really hard to level the playing field because of what I missed. She credits her professors for their help, in particular Marjorie Feld, a professor of history. She became my aunt, Rao says.

At Babson, Rao learned to carry herself with confidence, even if she didnt feel that way. In order to be successful, you have to act successful, she says. I didnt see myself as a success. Ultimately, though, she thrived at Babson. I am so grateful for it, she says. I learned so much from that time. A lot of what I learned set me up for life.

After graduating, Rao landed a job at a defense contractor, a stable income that she was happy to have, at least at first.

At the defense contractor, Rao participated in a development program that involved leadership training and rotations through various financial positions. In the early going, she found the work rewarding. She won awards, she was training people in higher positions than her, and she was making an impact.

But the shine of the new job wore off. Rao learned that she was the lowest paid in her cohort, and she realized that her hard work wasnt being appreciated. The company didnt seem to notice her accomplishments or even her skills. We know you are good at things, one manager told her, but we dont know what they are.

It doesnt matter what business you start. Believing in the process is hard. You are betting on yourself again and again. That can be hard day in and day out. It is a series of obstacles. You have to figure it out as you go along.

Sunitha Rao 14

At that point, she began to think back on her time in tennis, how she was always struggling to get by, and about her mother being trapped in an abusive relationship because she didnt have the financial means to leave. Not that her current situation was as dire as the one her mother was once in, but Rao recognized all too well, by being stuck in a job that didnt appreciate her, that the control of her future path now felt out of her hands. I was trapped in a place where my options were limited, she says. That was the moment where I thought, something needs to change.

Rao left the defense contractor, and other jobs have followed, in biopharma and in the mortgage and lending industry. Today, she is a project manager at Afford Anything, a finance and investing platform. She also went on to earn her MBA at Villanova University.

To make sure she is never too dependent on one income source, however, Rao also has taken a leap into a new field: real estate investing.

Intrigued by the scalability of real estate investing and how each property one considers buying has its own history, Rao began purchasing homes. She owns six in all. Typically, she buys distressed homes and fixes them up, and then rents them out on a short- and long-term basis.

While Rao started buying properties when she was living in the Boston area, she actually didnt invest in that market. It was too expensive, especially for a novice investor, so she considered what other regions might be best for investing based on a variety of economic factors. She eventually settled on Indianapolis and has since moved to the city. I could build a business from a distance, she says, but I want boots on the ground.

Becoming an investor required a lot of research and education. It also required having faith that she could pull it off. It doesnt matter what business you start. Believing in the process is hard, she says. You are betting on yourself again and again. That can be hard day in and day out. It is a series of obstacles. You have to figure it out as you go along.

The effort is worth it. Rao is now living life on her terms. She has the fiscal independence she has long sought. Unlike when she was growing up, or playing on the tennis court, or entering her first job in corporate America, she now controls her financial destiny. It took me a long time to learn what I know, she says. If you dont have the ability to manage your money, life can get difficult real fast.

Rao calls her investment firm the Griffix Property Group. At the top of its home page is written, Financial freedom is freedom.

Part 1: Why Sunitha Rao 14 walked away from her pro tennis career.

Posted in Entrepreneurship of All Kinds

Tagged Alumni, Career, Women-Led Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurs of All Kinds

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Net Gain: From Babson to Financial Freedom Babson Thought & Action - Babson Thought & Action

Cryptocurrencies have appeared in the main headlines more than once during the past few years. There was both positive and negative news related to crypto, but they mainly had to do with regulations and with significant drops in value. The public is still divided on this topic, and while some claim it can be a great solution for financial independence and stability, others regard it as a gamble.

In truth, we do have professional gamblers, who are making a lot of money by playing casino games, and there are suggestions on how to use casinos in a way that can be beneficial. However, at the core, there is no 100% certainty with both casinos and cryptocurrencies. The difference is that cryptocurrencies do use promising technology that can be used in different ways. Here we will discuss what the future holds for blockchain NFTs and for digital currencies. This new tech is really closely related to gaming, so video games are also going to be explored throughout this topic.

NFTs or non-fungible tokens are digital assets that can be generated and sold to anyone who wishes to own them. Thanks to blockchain and smart contracts it is possible to determine who owns the rights to a particular digital asset, and it can be determined if someone without any rights to use them is using those same assets. In other words, it can be viewed like digital arts. Meaning artists can tokenize their art and add a certificate to it, which prevents others from accurately copying or duplicating his or her work.

The reason why NFTs are ideal features for games is that video games have a lot of collectibles and cosmetic items that players trade with one another. This can be used to make the experience more unique, and to make in-game goods more valuable.

Source: Unsplash

Today we have multiple NFT casinos and games that are in development. Its hard to say which ones will be successful, but there are several projects where people are genuinely interested in creating something unique. However, much like with anything there are a lot of those who simply wish to capitalize on the hype.

The gaming and casino industry can improve the player experience by relying on the blockchain. Moreover, some of the best casino apps and safe online casinos are those that allow for crypto transfers. In fact, some of the best no wagering casino sites that offer free spins and other bonuses are already expanding on the crypto market, but they still do not offer games that have to do with NFTs. However, we did have something similar in the past when people were gambling using CS: GO skins and thats something that is really close to how NFTs would function. This also shows the main allure behind such gambling games, because if you win something that is currently not valuable that same skin or item can increase in value over time.

The real selling point behind the NFTs in games is more uniqueness and customization options. Players love the ability to project their creativity into the games they play, and this desire to be unique can be fully realized by leveraging blockchain.

We are seeing more and more famous companies like Tesla entering the crypto market. This can be both good and bad. The utility of the currency increases, but it also affects its volatility which is not something you would want. The increase and drops in value are constant, but they shouldnt be too drastic.

Moreover, as more people enter into the crypto community, the whole network will require more energy, and it is already consuming a lot. Because of the green agendas that are dominating in mainstream media, blockchain is under a lot of heat. So, its possible that tech alternatives will be developed in order to sustain the network in a more eco-friendly fashion.

Right now there are both positive and negative things attached to digital currencies. Many criminals use this technology to commit cyber claims and implement ransomware, and there is definitely going to be more of that. Also, we will see more new coins or currencies, since new users want to start with a cheap product and get a significant increase in their investment regardless of the tech behind it. After all, both Dogecoin and Shiba proved this. However, it seems that the tech is here to stay, and it does have a lot of potential to aid our development.

Looking to advertise?We will gladly help spread the word about your project, company, or service.CryptoMode produces high quality content for cryptocurrency companies. We have provided brand exposure for dozens of companies to date, and you can be one of them. All of our clients appreciate our value/pricing ratio.Contact us if you have any questions: [emailprotected]

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Like many entrepreneurs before her, Wilglory Tanjong started making her bags for fun and soon, the venture turned into a six-figure business. She started Anima Iris, her luxury handbag company, as a side hustle while pursuing an MBA.

Today, her bags can be found online with big retailers like Nordstrom and Revolve, and on TV in HBOs Insecure. Her brand is also Beyonce-approved, she said.

The success of Tanjongs bag business is no fluke and can be attributed to her entrepreneurial background which helped her minimize mistakes at the early stages. She grew up watching her parents hustle. And when she was two years old, she and her family moved from Cameroon to Maryland.

Tanjong and her sisters assisted their father in his business, including helping him flip houses in the summer. The family also owned a laundromat. Tanjongs mother, on the other hand, was a nurse who also managed a cosmetology studio out of the back of their home.

What pushed Tanjong into financial independence at an early age was when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was eight. And also, when she was 14, her parents divorced. She watched as her family struggled financially. Ill never forget the day when my mom told us that we were finally approved for food stamps, Tanjong told CNBC Make It. Having those kinds of experiences really pushed me to be financially independent as quickly as I could be.

Despite the challenges, the Cameroonian native soldiered on and got admitted to Princeton University. In her senior year at Princeton, she lost her mother but that did not deter her from becoming a first-generation college graduate.

After her graduation in 2018, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia to start a career as an operational manager at a manufacturing and supply company. Her job came with a decent salary. However, she took a leave of absence after a year in the professional world.

She used her time to travel to Africa, starting from Ghana where she met young entrepreneurs and documented their experiences. She subsequently traveled to Senegal where she met artisans who made shoes and bags, and that was where she got the inspiration to start Anima Iris, her luxury handbag company.

I realized that there was a significant gap in the market, Tanjong said. Women of color, and specifically Black women, have always been excluded from the luxury narrative. Building a brand that centers these women while also bringing forth African culture into the global landscape was like a bingo moment for me.

She started Anima Iris in 2020 and formally quit her full-time job and moved to Philadelphia a month later. She first went viral after being featured in a Vogue article promoting Black-owned beauty and fashion brands.

And her brands greatest success came when it became Beyonc-approved in August 2021.

ANIMA IRIS IS OFFICIALLY @beyonce APPROVED!!!!!!! WOWWWWWWW THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED US. WE TAKING AFRICA TO THE WORLD. Promise , Anima Iris shared on Instagram. The endorsement saw Tanjong record over $23,000 worth of luxury handbags and also became verified on Instagram.

Since launching in February 2020, Anima Iris has made over $700,000 in sales and has recently been making $100,000 in revenue per month. The 25-year-old designs the bags but is hand-stitched in Dakar, Senegal. Tanjong said she pays her Senegalese artisans twice more than the average artisan earns in Dakar.

For so long, Black people have really defined the culture in America, but Ive never actually gotten to reap the benefits of it, Tanjong said. Its so wonderful to see so many Black creators finally being able to actually build their businesses, grow their businesses and for people to have other options outside of the options weve typically had that actually have excluded us.

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Officially Beyonce-approved, says Cameroonian whose brand is making waves in the luxury world - Face2Face Africa