Abundance is your birthright. It is this mantra that drives financial expert, author and motivational speaker, Ash “Cash” Exantus.
The MindRight Money Management CEO has an entrepreneur’s spirit; in fact the ‘streets’ gave Exantus his nickname decades ago.
“I used to pack [grocery] bags at eight-years-old, I used to sell mixtapes and t-shirts on 125th Street. And so I’ve always had money. I’ve always been the negotiator.” Exantus told ESSENCE. The motivational speaker continued, sharing the origin of his moniker. “When Cash Money [Records] came out, they used to call me ‘Ash Cash Money’ and I stuck with it.”
And for the Harlem, NY-native, “Ash Cash” is more than a nickname, rather it is a way of life.
Despite working odd jobs as a youngster, the financial advisor got his first, formal, position at 17-years-old. Exantus worked at Blockbuster Videos, where he was later promoted to assistant manager. A colleague later recommended the teen for a job as a teller at Chase Bank—the rest is history. “I got in [banking] at 19-years-old and I did everything from teller to a personal banker to private banker, to branch manager.” By 31-years-old he became the CEO of a federal credit union.
Today Ash Exantus is 43-years old, and lives with a mindset of abundance. He shares his insights vis-a-vis numerous books, talks, and social media presence, among other means. The founder chats with ESSENCE to share his insights on creating money, wealth and abundance for Millennials and Gen Z.
Interview edited for clarity and brevity.
You preach this mindset of abundance—what, exactly, is that?
I’ve made a lot of money. I’ve lost a lot of money, and every time I’ve enjoyed money is because of a mindset. It’s not really about what I’m doing, it’s what I’m being. So I know a lot of people who say, “Be, do, have,” and a lot of times we’re missing the “Be” part. The truth of the matter is that if you “Do” without “Being,” then you’re not going to really be able to enjoy your money. What I realized is that abundance, money—all of it is a mindset.
If you want to be an entrepreneur and you want to have a successful business, you don’t just wake up and have a successful business. You become “successful” first, meaning you do what successful people do. That’s how you have a successful business. And people get that mixed up. And so anything that you desire, you have to become that thing first and foremost.
Same thing with monetary abundance—God, the Universe doesn’t give you what you want, it gives you what you are. And so if you want to become a multimillionaire and you start to walk, talk and create the habits of being a multimillionaire, what happens next is now the physical aspect of the money starts to be attracted to you.
You have to think first. You put it in your mind, and “As a man, thinketh so shall he or she be.”
How would you suggest first that Millennials and Gen Z overcome money blocks?
The next generation needs to understand that they’re living in the best time in history. There’s never been a better time to live than today. Why do I say that? The barriers to entry on all levels have been lowered. You have direct access to all of your consumers. You have direct access to everything that you need: information, business.
I came up in a space where we had to rely on checkbooks and our brain to balance our money. Now you have apps, where you literally don’t even have to manage your money. You could literally create some systems where you could automate your finances.
Even from a making money perspective, technology has made it so easy. And so take advantage of the technologies, don’t look at the news, that AI is dangerous and it’s going to take over the world and all that stuff. Yes, there are some dangers. But in the same breath, those dangers could also be a benefit. And so it’s just like a tool. It’s like a hammer, right? A hammer could break windows or it could build a house. And so it’s how do you use the tool that really matters? The younger you are, the more earning potential that you have.
Do you have any very baseline suggestions for investments for Gen Z?
Look at the history of the stock market. The stock market has never permanently stayed low.
And so I would suggest that anybody who’s Gen Z and the younger generation who’s looking to start saving, the first thing to do is just get an index fund, invest in the S&P 500, invest in the Dow Jones, get you an ETF (which is an electronic trading fund) that has performed well in the past because the past is somewhat able to dictate what the future’s going to look like.
The other thing is that a lot of people wait. They say, you know what? I’m not going to invest right now. I’m going to wait till I get my money. Instead of just waiting, find an amount of money that you’re comfortable with and you say, “You know what? I’m going to invest $20 a week or $20 a month,” whatever that amount is, just keep investing on a periodic basis. And then you do what’s called dollar cost averaging. So that way, no matter what the stock market is doing, good or bad, you’re still in the game.
If you want to start buying individual stocks, pay attention to what’s popular. And so right now, I’m on an Apple phone, I’ve got a MacBook—I’ve got all these things that are Apple. I better be investing in Apple. I use Amazon for everything. I better have some Amazon stock. And so I would say look at where you spend your money. Where do your friends spend their money? How strong is that company? And then you can also invest in those companies as well.
You often talk about “Making money work for you”—what does this mean?
Instead of working hard for money, you need money to work hard for you. And so as you’re earning money, take that money you earn and buy an income producing asset. And so I love to use the example of real estate.
Let’s just say I’m just starting out. I make $30,000 a year. Instead of being in a rush to move out, I’m going to stay at my parents’ house. I’ll spend $10,000 on my cell phone, going out, and having fun, but I’m going to save $20,000—that’s enough money for me to go and put a down payment on an income producing property. I’m able to buy a property—I’m grossing about $1,500 a month in rental income.
So at the end of the year, if you want to spend $10,000 on Beyonce tickets, you can use the money that’s coming to you residually. And so that’s what I mean by switching their relationship with money, not working hard for it, but letting the money work for you.
Any final insights for Gen Z who are trying to build wealth?
When you’re young, a lot of times we look at money as the only value and we discount the experience that we’re getting. I would just caution young people from not taking advantage of experiences because there’s no money attached to it. There’s mentorships, there’s internships—there’s things that you can actually do that don’t give you money. But, those internships can give you access to high-level people who can help you to become the person that can now generate millions of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.