What’s Going On In Gvegas?

A pictorial look at what is happening

in the Greenville, NC area!

Relaxing in Raleigh

A pictorial look at the Natural Hair

Expo that took place in the

Raleigh, NC area!

Book Of The Month

“The Millionaire Next Door”

Dr. Thomas Stanley

Dr. William Danko

Be Inspired

NC SistaGirls

RaSheeda Waddell,

Interest: Your Biggest Expense

What are you relying on for your

future retirement plans?

N’Jeri Putting It Down

N’Jeri putting iit down in rehearsal at

the Masquerade Release Celebration

for IMPACT Magazine!

While watching the movie “Blood Dia-

mond” the other night…it came to me…

I am truly grateful for my journey.

There are so many people in this world

whose plight is so much deeper and greater than mine, but I am truly thankful for my

journey. My journey consists of trials, tribulations, joys, love and so much more.

When we are going through our journey, we look at our present situation and if it is

not up to where we desire for it to be, we look to move on…but we have to enjoy the

present moment of where we are. There are life lessons in those moments of the

present that we are supposed to learn or we will continue to see those lessons in our

next destination.

Psalms 37:23 states, “The steps of a good man are established by the LORD, and he

delights in his way!” No matter the situation or circumstance, if we believe wholly in

what the Scriptures say, we are to know that our journey is established by GOD and

we are to be thankful in every way that we go. But are we truly thankful for where we

are right at this instant? No recession or lack of this or that should get us to the point

that we are not thankful while we are on our journey.

In this issue of IMPACT Magazine, we highlight what is going on in Gvegas! We go on

a pictorial journey of the first Natural Hair Expo that took place in Raleigh, NC. Our

Book of the Month is “The Millionaire Next Door”. In our Be Inspired section we

discuss the NCSistaGirls and Miss Black North Carolina, Rasheeda Waddell.

Our journey is simply that..our journey…we have been ordained before the world

began to walk out this expedition. Are we going to look at what we don’t have or who

we are not with and not be grateful that we are living in a wonderful world full of

possibilities! I’m not going to harp on anything…I am living my

life because it is Golden! Loving all of the possibilities while I am

walking through life..living in the moment of my journey! Be a

blessing to someone today and remember to always walk in peace!

Tunisha C. Brown Editor-In-Chief

NCSistaGirls was created 5

(five) years ago by Founder Moni Brodie and Co-Founder Mia Burwell with a goal of providing a social outlet for positive women of color.

The purpose of NCSistaGirls is

to promote unity, diversity and community service by regularly socializing together, via both internet and more traditional mediums, and enjoying a wide variety of social interactions,

by embracing women of color from all ages, professions, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds.

NCSistaGirls also aim to be a positive

force in their communities by reaching out to the many segments of our commu-

nities that need support. NCSistaGirls

is committed to work for a variety of causes while providing a social and phil-anthropic outlet for professional women of color.

RaSheeda A. Waddell holds the Master of Music in

Voice Performance degree from East Carolina

University in Greenville, NC and the Bachelor of

Arts in Music (Summa cum laude) degree from

Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. She is

the 2010 Miss Black North Carolina, 2007 Winner of

the Piedmont Triad Vocal Arts Competition

(formerly Leontyne Price Vocal Arts Competition)

and placed 3rd at the Regional level. In addition to

her music career, RaSheeda’s scholarly pursuits are

also emerging and receiving acclaim. Her areas of

research include the characterization of women in

opera, feminism in the African Diaspora, and body

image in popular culture.

Dr. Richard McCoy

Approximately three-quarters of U.S. pension funds do not have

enough money invested to pay out expected pension benefits. Most

of these companies are betting on a stock market upswing to build

up their investments. If it doesn't happen, they'll have to cut into

their profits or cut back on future benefits. What are you relying on

for your retirement? Social Security? Your pension plan? Your

investments?

The best way to ensure your financial future is to pay down debt

and build a diversified base of investments for the future.

Most of us can't rely on Social Security, company pensions or in-

heritances to help us through retirement. We need to wake up and

take control of planning for our own future by saving money on in-

terest through smarter borrowing and by paying off debt faster.

Interest is the greatest expense we will pay. We must learn to ne-

gotiate interest we earn as well as interest we pay on the debt we

use. For example, the chart below shows us how interest affects the

debt we pay and the number of years it will take us to pay it off.

This example is based on a principal balance of $3,000 with a mini-

mum payment of $60 per month.

Amount of Loan

Monthly Pay-ment

Interest Rate

No. of Years Total Inter-

est Paid

$3,000 $60 19.8% 32 Years, 5 months

$9,483

$3,000 $60 16.8% 21 Years $5,055

As you can see we must begin to take a closer look at our debts and

begin to reduce the interest we pay on them. The chart above shows a

difference of over $4,000 dollars over the life of the loan just by paying

3% more in interest. Our lifestyles are impacted greatly due to the

overwhelming interest we pay on our debts. We reduce our spending

power, we reduce our earning power, and we blindly go on month after

month paying the minimum payments on our credit cards, mortgages

and other revolving debt—ultimately missing the opportunities to es-

tablish wealth long-term.

Why is it important to negotiate your interest on both your debts and

your investments?

By negotiating your interest rate with your creditors you reduce the

amount of money you pay to use their money. When you use your

credit card you are really taking a loan from the credit card company

that extended you the credit. In essence what you have done is you

have taken care of the loan paperwork in advance and in exchange the

company has provided you with a card to make the purchase for any

item you may desire without having to do the paperwork every time.

Think about this—if you had to fill out loan papers every time you

charged something at Target, wouldn't you give more thought to your

purchase, especially if the product you are buying does not outlast your

billing cycle (which is usually 28-30 days)?

Also of great importance is negotiating your interest on your invest-

ments. The more money you can

make on your money is more bene-

ficial to your long-term financial

plan. Wouldn't you consider chang-

ing your local bank if you could get

1% higher interest on your money

market or CD? The days of loyalty

to a particular company are past.

We are more savvy investors, more

educated and have a tremendous

amount of information and

resources at our disposal.

Pay attention to INTEREST in every

situation. Don't fall for the common

mistakes of introductory offers and no

pay—no interest plans that backfire

when you can't meet your minimum

payments. Protect your future;

increase your quality of life by paying

attention to your financial agreements.

Sit down and write a list of your creditors and list the interest you

owe each of them. Make a list of your investments and the interest

you are earning so that you will be more informed about your

financial matters. Pay off the highest interest rates first and then add

those payments to the bill with the next highest interest you will pay

off your debt much sooner than you expected.