Diggin' in the Crates: A Tribe Called Quest

ATCQ Album Cover

It's seemed like only yesterday that I heard Bonita Applebum playing on the radio through the hallways of my high school. But it wasn't just yesterday. All this week, A Tribe Called Quest has been popping up all over the airwaves and nightly talk shows to celebrate its 25th anniversary of their debut album People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

Out of all the members of the group Q-Tip was my personal favorite. (My sincere apologies Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White.) 

The one in the middle is Q-Tip

I personally never owned the album but now is good time to add People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm to my music collection. And I've got to get Pharell William's rendition of Bonita Applebum.

So far the best interview I heard about the 25th anniversary aired on NPR's All Things Considered. I learned that the album made some feel like it was "an iconoclast's mission statement" from the hip-hop era of the early 1990s. The group, which started out during their teenage years, are all grownup and appears to be ready to bring hip-hop back to life. Well, at least this is what I hope.

Take a listen.

The Media is Not Trying to Distract You

Guest Post: by Felicia Speakes

So, there’s been a lot going on in the media lately. Just about every week, a Black person becomes a victim of a crime. Either nine Black people are shot at church by a racist, or a cop kills a Black person during a “routine” traffic stop. With the onslaught of social media, we’re consuming these stories like food at a buffet line. All it takes is one photo or one headline and BOOM! … a story and the fallacies and opinions that come along with have traveled across the country and half way around the world.

Money Method: Financial Habits

(Dr. Dan Geller)

Guest Post: Dr. Dan Geller the Behavioral Finance Scientist

People will repeat the same six financial habits each time the economy goes through a cycle.

A breakthrough study in financial behavior, or Behavioralogy, shows that people repeat their financial behavior in a highly predictable manner based on the state of the economy. The study, conducted by Dr. Dan Geller - a behavioral finance scientist and the author of Money Anxiety, found that people repeated their financial behavior in each of the economic cycles during the last 50 years.

The study found that people "orient" themselves to the state of the economy by repeating six financial-behavior patterns - three related to their spending and three related to their savings. Each financial behavior pattern corresponds to the stage in the economic cycle, i.e. recession, recovery , expansion and decline. Here are the six financial habits:

Fashion Friday: Vintage Purse Sighting

(Kim's Vintage Purse)

You see this leather hobo purse on this woman’s shoulder? Well, I fell in love with it. Unfortunately, it’s not available in stores anymore. Turns out, Kim bought it at an estate sale for $5 somewhere in Florida.

I’ve never gone to an estate sale because I always thought the items were going to be priced way out of my range. Garage/yard sales are more my thing. I try to get up early on a Saturday morning and stroll until I saw the signs. "Yard Sale: At 123 Elm Street." I would also hit the thrift stores and vintage shops. However, I never came across any purse that I fell in love with like the one Kim now carries.

Empty-Nest Chronicles: Financial Literacy 101

A Money Method & Empty-Nest Chronicles Special

(Photo Credit: TC's Views)

My son has officially graduated from high school and is on his way to college in August. But before I send him off to soar around the adult world I took him to our local bank to open a checking and savings account in his name.

We got a financial literacy lesson about credit scores, identity protection and Regulation D - a federal regulation that limits the number and type of withdrawals from savings, or Money Market Accounts to six per month for each account.

Credit Score Discussion

My son had many questions about credit scores for our banker.