In this issue: I became a meme reference because I am a child. The sun came out and I remembered what physical work does for my brain. 80,000 people saw a post I wrote and it told me everything about what people actually need from financial advice. Oh and gas is $4.27 a gallon, correction I just filled up premium over $5! Let's get into it.

It's gonna be MAY!

I had to. I am 100% a child and I have zero regrets about that.

Happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone celebrating today... and honestly even if you're not celebrating, the weather is breaking and that alone is worth acknowledging. Spring is finally here and I don't think we fully appreciate what that does to us mentally until we're back outside actually doing things.

I spent part of last weekend doing yardwork. Mowing, trimming, edging, blowing... the whole thing. And I forgot how much that process wipes you out physically. Like actually wipes you out. But here's the thing I also forgot... I forgot how much it resets me mentally.

There is something about putting headphones in, turning on a podcast or some music, and just doing physical labor for two hours that quiets everything down. No phone. No emails. No client questions. No news alerts. Just you and the work and your own thoughts rattling around with nowhere to go but through you.

That's peace for me. Might not be for everyone but it is absolutely for me.

My body was built for chaos and grit. I played football and I genuinely miss the physicality of it... the grind, the contact, the physical demand of competing. I don't get that in regular life anymore. So mowing and wrestling with the boys is what I've got and I am not taking either of those things lightly. That physical grounding does something for me that nothing else quite replicates.

Get outside this week. Do something with your body. I promise your brain will thank you.

Soccer updates are coming... we have a tournament and Mother's Day this weekend so I'll have a full report next week. Stay tuned.

Something happened this week that I want to talk about because I think it matters.

I posted something on Threads yesterday. Nothing fancy. No production. Just a thought I had about financial advice and who it actually serves. That post hit 80,000 views, 4,500 likes, and 366 shares overnight.

Here's the post if you missed it.

You know what that told me? People are starving for financial transparency. Starving for someone who explains money in plain language without an agenda. Sick and tired of being talked at by an industry that dresses up complexity to justify fees. Sick of advice that sounds good in a boardroom but has absolutely nothing to do with their actual life.

Here's what I believe about financial advice and I need you to hear this clearly...

Most financial concepts should be free. I give them away freely. Always have. Not because I don't value my expertise but because knowledge belongs to everyone and the hoarding of financial information has historically been a tool used to keep certain communities dependent on advisors who don't have their best interests at heart.

What you cannot get for free is personalized application. Because good financial advice is not advice at all until someone actually knows your situation... your income, your debt, your family, your goals, your fears, your history with money. Until that context exists... what you're getting is general concepts. Useful. Worth learning from. But not a plan.

So here's my ask for every minority business owner, woman, LGBTQ entrepreneur, or first-generation wealth builder reading this...

Absorb everything you can. Learn constantly. Apply what actually fits your situation. And when you hit the part where general concepts stop being enough... when you need someone to help you take what you've learned and build something real with it... find someone you actually trust. Someone who sees your whole picture. Someone who is not just trying to sell you a product.

That relationship exists. Don't settle for less than it.

Let me just give you the numbers because the numbers are what they are.

US average gasoline prices hit a four-year high of $4.30 per gallon this week according to AAA. That's not a typo. Gasoline surged 21.2% in March alone... the largest monthly increase in the gasoline price series since it was first published in 1967. A record. An actual record. Azat TVAzat TV

Consumers should prepare for high gas prices to extend through the summer months, if not into the fall, depending on the length of the conflict in Iran. Azat TV

On top of that... more than half of Americans say everyday life has become less affordable over the past year. 76% point to rising grocery prices as a leading cause... more so than gasoline, healthcare, or housing. And historically gas prices during summer months are typically 6.3% higher than pre-summer months. NOBS WealthBuzzsprout

So... gas is already at a record high and it goes up more in summer. Groceries are squeezing people harder than gas. Travel costs are climbing. And you're about to have kids home from school which means more of everything.

This is not meant to stress you out. This is meant to get you ahead of it before it lands on you sideways in June and you wonder what the hell happened.

Now is the time to adjust. Not then.

📌 Receipts:

No new NoBS Wealth or LGR episodes this week. We are gathering content from across the collective and getting a strong run of episodes ready for the May launch. Worth the wait... I promise.

LGR is coming. I know I've been saying that. The two-parter I've been working on needed more time to get right and I wasn't going to put something out that wasn't ready just to hit a cadence. Real content over rushed content. Always.

In the meantime...

New videos dropping every week over at Lincoln and Croix's channel. These two are building something genuinely fun over there entirely on their own. Filmed it. Edited it. Put it out into the world. I help where they ask me to and stay out of the way otherwise.

Go watch. Go subscribe. Leave them a comment. If you have kids... show them what two boys decided to build because they felt like it.

📺 Check out the latest: @TheBigBoys1324 📺 Subscribe to the channel

These two are the same thing this week. Because the mindset IS the move.

Reset. Right now. Before summer hits you in the face.

Here's what I mean by that practically.

Gas is at $4.30+ a gallon and going higher. Groceries are up. Summer travel costs more. Your kids are about to be home burning through snacks, activities, and your sanity simultaneously. None of that is changing. So the question is not whether summer is going to be expensive. It is. The question is whether you see it coming or whether it blindsides you.

Take 30 minutes this week. That is all I am asking.

Look at what has been happening in your budget since January. Find the category that has been quietly bleeding money... because there is one. There is always one. Adjust it before the summer spending starts stacking on top of it.

Build a summer line item. Actual number. Actual plan for what it covers. Gas, travel, food, activities, whatever your summer looks like. Know the number before you start spending it.

And breathe. Seriously. Take a real breath before you do any of this because making financial decisions from a stressed and reactive place is how you make bad ones. The chaos is real. The costs are real. But panicking about it produces exactly nothing useful.

The people who navigate expensive seasons well are not the ones who had more money. They are the ones who saw it coming and made a plan before they needed one.

Reset. Adjust. Move forward.

That's the whole move.

If you want someone to actually look at your full financial picture with you before summer hits... that's what the Power Hour is for. blackmammoth.com/powerhour 60-minute 1:1 session. Your questions answered. Walk away with a plan.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Money — Black-led. Built to Stay In the Black.

Not financial advice. Do your own research. Talk to a professional.

Remember when the news was about what happened, not how to feel about it? 1440's Daily Digest is bringing that back. Every morning, they sift through 100+ sources to deliver a concise, unbiased briefing — no pundits, no paywalls, no politics. Just the facts, all in five minutes. For free.

Read the newsletter trusted by 4.5 million fact-seekers.