We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eduek Brooks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Eduek, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
In October 2018, I found myself in a difficult financial situation. I had been laid off from my job and was already $47,000 in debt. To make matters worse, I had no emergency savings and no one to turn to for help. I knew that I had to take control of my finances and never put myself in that position again.
I made a plan to pay off my debt. I stopped using my credit cards, cut back on my spending, and worked extra hours to increase my income. I also sent extra payments towards my debt. It took me 20 months, but I was able to pay off all of my debt and even build up a six-month emergency fund.
Since I moved to Canada over a decade ago, I have faced many challenges, including homelessness, layoffs, and debt. Despite all of these difficulties, I have managed to navigate through them by relying on my faith and my ability to find solutions for whatever predicament I am in.
I am resilient because I know that I can succeed in anything as long as I set my mind to it. I am resourceful and a quick learner, and I believe that everything can be figured out.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a Financial Educator/Coach and Speaker. I am the founder of Two Sides of a Dime, a financial literacy platform dedicated to empowering women with the tools to take control of their finances and build long-lasting wealth.
As an immigrant, I found it difficult to find financial resources that were relatable to my lived experiences, so I created Two Sides of Dime to share financial resources that are easy to understand and seamless to implement. The tools I provide focus on helping you find a balance between spending on things you enjoy and securing your financial future. I help you understand your relationship with money, manage your day-to-day spending, pay off debt and invest for your early retirement. I provide private coaching, corporate workshops and courses.
My mission is to help 100,000 women invest $100,000 each. To bring us one step closer to achieving this mission, I created an investing challenge. By the end of 2024, our goal is to collectively invest $10,000,000.When you join the investing challenge, you will receive resources to help you get started on your investing journey, the motivation and accountability to stay committed to your investing goals. Join the community of women who are on their way to building their $100,000 investing portfolio.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, the three things that helped me pay off $47,000 of debt in 20 months are:
1. I had a strong WHY – I wanted to experience financial freedom and independence. My goal was to retire my parents and myself. This was my motivation for becoming debt-free. Since paying off my debt, I have achieved financial freedom and was also able to retire my parents in Canada. I am now on track to retire in my 40s.
2. Self-discipline – I exercised self-discipline by prioritizing my debt payments. To achieve this, I created a weekly budget that allowed me to make extra payments towards my debt and ensured that I stayed within budget every week. My strong sense of purpose (WHY) fueled this self-discipline. Whenever I was tempted to book a trip or indulge in something that would put me in debt again, I remembered how much more enjoyable my experiences would be if I stayed debt-free.
3. Being Intentional – I made sure to be intentional with my goals. I wrote down all the potential obstacles that could prevent me from achieving my goal and created an action plan to overcome each obstacle. For instance, one of my main obstacles was my income. I devised a plan to work extra hours and also drove for Uber on the side to earn more money.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am interested in collaborating with organizational leaders and key decision-makers in corporate to set up financial literacy workshops for their teams. These workshops are aimed at helping employees take control of their finances and plan for their retirement.
To arrange a workshop in your organization, please feel free to send an email to [email protected].
Alternatively, you can visit my website https://www.twosidesofadime.com/speaking to learn more about the workshops.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.twosidesofadime.com/work-with-me
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twosidesofadime/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduekbrooks/
Image Credits
The Resolution Unsplash
