Kids can and are a blessing. But plenty of people without kids live and die just as happy.

My grandmother's grandparents were slaves. My grandmother Big Mama would tell me about the stories she heard as a child growing up in the shadows of a North Carolina plantation. It's only been in my lifetime that blacks have had the right to vote, live in certain areas or hold certain jobs. It is with this black history that I write about the financial challenges African-Americans still have.

Sometimes your gut is right. And sometimes not.

There's nothing wrong with having a 9-to-5 job, but figure out a way to have another stream of income.

When you give people who are being financially responsible money, you are enabling them to continue a bad habit. So you are actually helping by saying, "Love you but no."

You made a decision given your life circumstances and you have to be ok with that. Regrets that can't be change is just torturing yourself.

The sad thing is many people learn how to manage money after they've made a lot of financial mistakes, some that take decades to fix.