Take a trip down memory lane and check out some of our favorite money and career moments in 2023.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hi everyone, my name is Kimberly Wilson
00:09 and I am the Senior Money and Careers Editor here at Essence.
00:14 And I am joined by my fellow money and business girl,
00:18 Jasmine Browley, contributing to this editor.
00:21 Hey Jasmine.
00:23 - Hey there.
00:24 - Okay, so now the celebrities are great,
00:26 but we know that nothing moves without the money.
00:29 So we've got the money team to give you the best of 2023
00:34 from a money and careers perspective.
00:36 And there were some power moves being made in 2023.
00:40 And if I'm being honest, all of them were not great,
00:44 but they were power moves nonetheless.
00:46 So speaking of money, let's be for real, Jas.
00:49 The rent is too high, groceries are too high,
00:53 gas is too high, and the list goes on and on,
00:55 but there is a bright side when it comes to spending money.
00:59 And I'd say that that bright side is girl math.
01:02 What do you think?
01:03 - I agree, girl math is everything.
01:06 - I know that I'm guilty of it.
01:07 So if I have cash in my wallet
01:10 or if I'm just carrying cash on me, period, it's free.
01:13 Whatever I spend money on, it's free, right?
01:16 Or a thing that I do is if I'm under budget
01:19 between each pay period, anything I spend money on
01:22 before that next pay period is extra
01:25 and that's basically free for me too.
01:27 So some people call it impulse spending,
01:30 I call it algebra, but that is girl math.
01:33 - I agree.
01:34 A couple of examples of those girl math equations
01:37 that I have lived in my own life
01:39 is if I see a really expensive coat, I buy that,
01:42 especially if it's on sale,
01:44 instead of buying four other coats, you know?
01:46 For like, balance is out.
01:48 - For those who don't know girl math,
01:49 it essentially was a trend that took over social media
01:53 with women just trading jokes
01:55 about internal calculations that they make.
01:59 Sometimes they're silly, but sometimes not so silly.
02:01 It's the way that we rationalize our spending
02:04 in this consumerism society.
02:06 So it's less math and more so feminine logic, I wanna say.
02:11 So girl math was all the thing in 2023
02:14 and that's really not the only thing
02:16 that went down this year in the money and business realm.
02:18 I'm actually gonna toss it to my girl, Jazz,
02:20 to talk more about the elephant in the room,
02:23 which is inflation.
02:24 - Oh my gosh, inflation,
02:26 AKA the rising cost of literally everything.
02:30 Feel like, you know,
02:31 you just never have enough money for everything
02:33 and everything is a little bit more expensive.
02:36 Blame inflation, it's not you.
02:37 To give context, before the pandemic in 2018,
02:40 inflation sat at about 1.81%,
02:43 but by the summer of 2022, it was at 9.1%.
02:47 That's more than triple than what it was
02:50 less than four years ago.
02:51 And it was reflected in everything
02:53 from the cost of food and gas to mortgages and rent.
02:56 Now, inflation has come down,
02:58 but we're still feeling the pain.
03:00 We actually talked about this in our story
03:02 about households having to pay about $5,000 more this year
03:05 to maintain the way of life that they had last year.
03:08 Again, if you feel like you don't have enough money
03:11 to cover things,
03:12 and if you feel like you're getting charged $100
03:14 every time you walk out the door,
03:15 you're not exaggerating.
03:17 Another topic that we wanted to talk about
03:19 that was key is Magic Johnson becoming a billionaire.
03:24 (imitates drum roll)
03:26 Yes, that is a billionaire with a B.
03:29 Everyone's favorite baller turned businessman,
03:32 Magic Johnson, finally became a billionaire this year.
03:35 And after more than 30 years of success
03:38 and everything from restaurants, real estate,
03:40 movie theaters, and even life insurance,
03:43 Magic crossed the billion dollar threshold this year,
03:46 and we could not be more proud.
03:48 Can you believe he wasn't already a billionaire
03:49 all this time, Kim?
03:50 - I can't even believe it, but shout out to Magic Johnson.
03:54 He is money goals for real.
03:57 And speaking of money goals,
03:58 shout out to Richelieu Dennis, our fearless leader.
04:02 Earlier this year, the New Voices Foundation
04:04 actually convened more than 75 black and brown founders.
04:08 So we're talking Mielle Organics,
04:11 we're talking Beatrice Dixon from Honeypot.
04:15 All of these founders convened to open the Nasdaq bell
04:19 for the first time in history.
04:20 So shout out to just Richelieu and the New Voices team
04:24 for continuing to trailblaze and make history.
04:27 For me, I know that was super exciting to see,
04:29 and it was just such a momentous occasion
04:31 that we all kind of got to witness history being made
04:35 at the forefront.
04:36 And Jazzy, I know you actually wrote that story,
04:39 so shout out to you for even amplifying
04:41 what went down at Nasdaq.
04:43 - Absolutely.
04:44 To your point, it was an incredible moment,
04:46 and congratulations to the big boss man.
04:49 Well, let's talk about the other elephant in the room, AI.
04:53 Artificial intelligence has been at the tip
04:55 of everyone's tongue for good reason.
04:57 And although the sophisticated technology
05:00 is aimed to make things smarter in our lives easier,
05:03 it may push some people out of a job.
05:05 We recently wrote a piece about a new phenomenon
05:08 affecting people in the workplace called FOBO,
05:11 or fear of becoming obsolete.
05:13 Kim, have you had any concerns about AI?
05:16 - Listen, I saw the movie "Meghan,"
05:19 and that movie, I don't know how I feel about AI.
05:23 It's a little too realistic for me.
05:25 So I think that we do have some concerns
05:28 if that is where AI will transition to in the future.
05:32 - Absolutely, I definitely agree.
05:33 I've seen some form of AI
05:36 and some artificially intelligent villain
05:40 in movies for years,
05:42 and I really feel like we've been getting
05:44 little warning signs for decades.
05:47 So I don't know, but at this point,
05:49 we don't have a choice but to embrace it 'cause it's here.
05:51 - We're getting closer and closer.
05:53 We can't end the year when we think about entrepreneurship
05:57 and business moves.
05:58 We just can't end our recap without talking about
06:01 how epic our Power 40 list was.
06:04 For our inaugural Power 40 list,
06:07 we showcased people who are moving the culture forward.
06:11 And all of them are making global, local, national impact.
06:16 So we featured LeBron James.
06:19 We featured Danita Johnson from DC United.
06:22 We had J. Cole and the team of Dreamville.
06:25 Maverick Carter from Spring Hill.
06:28 Sheila Johnson.
06:29 The list was extremely dope.
06:31 I'm so glad that "Essence" was able to kind of showcase
06:34 heavy hitters, but also people who I feel like
06:37 don't always get recognition out here.
06:39 So in a word, the list was powerful.
06:41 I know I was inspired.
06:43 They are motivating me to work harder,
06:46 but more importantly, these are the folks
06:48 who are just doing incredible work behind the scenes.
06:51 So shout out to the Power 40 list
06:53 and all of you for sharing the list
06:56 and that really just having a little bit of a viral moment
06:58 on social media.
06:59 So we were super excited about that here at "Essence."
07:02 Jazz, this has been great.
07:04 We had a year.
07:05 Money and Careers had a year.
07:06 - We definitely did.
07:07 And before we close this out,
07:09 special shout out to you for putting that list together,
07:11 for being at the helm of convening
07:12 all of these great people
07:14 and acknowledging their accomplishments.
07:16 - Thank you.
07:17 - You know, everything over here at "Essence"
07:19 is a team effort, so shout out to the team.
07:21 Well, that was fun.
07:23 And with that, we leave you with holiday wishes
07:25 from your favorite business editors here at "Essence,"
07:29 and we'll see you in the new year.
07:30 (upbeat music)
07:33 (upbeat music)