My Big Mama is my No. 1 financial role model. Much of my advice stems from what she taught me. She never made more than $13,000 a year, yet she paid off her home before she retired. She saved money from every paycheck. She taught me to be skeptical. It makes me cry to think that I'm a nationally syndicated personal finance columnist for one of the world's best newspapers and my core advice comes from my black grandmother who was a nurse's aide with just a high school education.

If you'll have enough saved and nobody has to take on debt and you want to retire, shoot go for it.

I understand and respect people who say they want to boycott the Trump brand. I also respect your right to buy his products. But what you miss is that no one in public office, Hilary or Trump should use that platform to profit themselves. In Trump's case there are serious concerns about the conflict of interest in his brand and business ownership. Do we really want a president who had products he can push while working for the American people?

We all only have a certain amount of money and that means yes, we have to make choices and sometimes those choices mean we don't get what we want.

Save what you can toward the emergency and life happens fund. But don't worry yourself sick at the slow growth. The point is it's growing even it's just one dollar at at time.

You don't need to waste money on a fancy program or app to do a basic budget. I've been using a simple Excel spreadsheet since 2005 to track my monthly budget.

I will just say, no matter where you buy the car, do your homework. When I purchase a car I come in with a folder an inch thick. In fact, one time the auto sales person asked if he could copy my research!