Declaration of Financial Empowerment

From this day forward, I declare my vigilant and lifelong commitment to financial empowerment and hereby pledge the following:

1 I will use homeownership as a foundation for building wealth.

2 I will be proactive in managing my budget, credit, debt, and tax obligations.

3 I will maximize my earnings potential, live within my means, and commit to saving and investing at least 10% of my income.

4 I will ensure that my investments are properly diversified and correspond to my current financial goals.

5 I will immediately commit to a program of retirement planning and investing.

6 will preserve and protect my assets through proper financial and insurance planning.

7 I will ensure that my children receive a thorough education on financial and business matters.

8 I will ensure that my wealth is passed on to future generations through proper estate planning.

9 I will actively support the creation and growth of viable, competitive black-owned enterprises.

10 I will use a portion of my wealth to strengthen my community.

THE COMPETITION WAS TOUGH. LAST year, Lauren “Daisy” Lewellyn beat out thousands of applicants to win a slot on The Learning Channel’s reality show Dinner Takes All. The show’s premise was simple: Throw a dinner party for four stragers in your home and the host who throws the best soiree pockets $1,000. Contestants were awarded points based on food, presentation, and entertainment. Though Lewellyn came in second, the contest changed her life and enabled her to nearly double her income in less than a year.

When guests arrived at Lewellyn’s three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, they found a “Summer in the City” complete with a lemonade stand, a candy bar, and a dessert bar with several choices. “Instead of one appetizer, I had six,” says the 27-year-old Howard University graduate, whose favorite was the grass popper bites (battered chicken on a wooden bamboo skewer on wheat grass).

“The dinner party was perfect because it combined everything I love,” says Lewellyn. During production she says the producer and director would pull her off to the side to give her compliments. “The camera crew said my personality was made for television, but I was just being myself.” The experience opened her eyes.

She says she took time off from work as an accessories editor at Essence, where she was clocking 12-hour days, and, after a vacation, came back with a plan. “I decided I was too stressed working that hard to build someone else’s name,” says Lewellyn. Her experience on the TV show made her embrace her love for event planning and television. After praying on the matter, she quit her job in September and began a freelance career as an event planner and a fashion, beauty, and lifestyle expert At the time, she was earning $56,000. But to help matters, she had a low credit card balance and about $9,000 in her portfolio.

To make the transition, Lewellyn notified her professional contacts about her job change. The week after she left her job she was offered several gigs: among them, one as a TV commentator for a fashion segment, one for event planning, two for public relations, one as a fashion consultant, and one as a stylist. She accepted what her demanding schedule would allow, invoicing $5,000 in six days.

But not every week was so lucrative. One week she received a check for $310 for a day’s work and that was it. Other weeks she made nothing, but took every opportunity to expand her business, whether or not she was paid. That’s a lesson she learned early in her career, when she met Preston Bailey, the famed go-to party planner for Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. After a brief chat, she volunteered to work as an apprentice at one of his million-dollar weddings at the Waldorf-Astoria. “I did grunt work, but I did it with a smile on my face and because of that, even today, Preston is an awesome reference.”

Prior to her career change, Lewellyn had $750 in savings, which is nothing compared to her investments, to which at one time she committed nearly half of her paycheck. She routinely had a portion of her check go straight to her financial adviser. She contributed $200 every two weeks to a Roth IRA, which now totals $5,000. And her stake in the Davis NY Venture Growth Fund (NYVTX) now stands at $9,000 after a steady $300 contribution in the same two-year time frame.

Without a steady paycheck every week, Lewellyn initially found it difficult to budget. And there was always a question of when her client’s checks would arrive. Because her bills were due throughout the month, she arranged to have as many of her bills as possible due on the first or 15th. She had enough money coming in to meet her fixed expenses of $2,700, and whenever she was able, Lewellyn paid bills, such as her health insurance, in advance in anticipation of possible dips in her income.

For the first few months Lewellyn chose financing an emergency fund over her existing investment plan. After Lewellyn mastered the ebb and flow of her new career and established a two- to three-month cushion, she returned to her investing life. She now has $3,430 parked in a money market account and is also starting a new retirement savings account designed for the self-employed: either a Keogh plan or SEP IRA.