Tonya Rapley on Becoming The Millennial Money Expert

An in-depth interview with the nationally recognized financial advisor on key financial tips for black millennials.

If you’re looking to to create a financial lifestyle that is as fabulous as yourself, then nationally recognized financial advisor and founder of My Fab Finance Tonya Rapley is the right person to help you.

Rapley, a Charlotte, North Carolina native, founded My Fab Finance in January of 2013 to help millennials learn how to become financially free and do more of what they love.

“My Fab Finance actually started as kind of my place to explore what I was learning about personal finance,” Rapley said. “I felt like I couldn’t identify with a lot of the financial experts out there because I felt like they didn’t understand my demographic and I felt like they weren’t fabulous.”

“I wanted to create a space for the fabulous millennial who wanted to be financially savvy as well to receive actual financial education and advice,” she added.

Rapley began building My Fab Finance while working two full time jobs and attending graduate school at Brooklyn College in New York. During that time, it came to a point where My Fab Finance was generating enough revenue to allow her to resign from her nine to five job and pursue her business full time.

Rapley said she created My Fab Finance specifically with black women in mind. She wanted to offer a creative space for them to talk about money and have access to helpful resources.

“I’m a champion of black women,” Rapley said. “I’m a champion of us because I know what our experience is. I know how it feels to be overlooked and to feel like an afterthought. I know how it feels to feel invisible as a black woman and I want them to know, like, ‘No I see you and I’m doing things specifically for you, with you in mind. Like I got you girl’ and that’s really important to me because I feel like we don’t always have that.”

Like many others, Rapley learned that she needed to become more conscious about her finances when her financial decisions were holding her back from what she wanted in life. She didn’t want to rely on assistance from her parents and knew she had to get her finances in order.

“I lived in New York City and I went to apply for an apartment and I was denied because of my credit score and I needed to get a cosigner,” Rapley said. “It was just ridiculous. I think they wanted my parents to pay like $18,000 or something like that in order to sign on for a place for me. I was like, ‘No I’m an adult.’ I went to college and I felt like I did everything I was supposed to do, but yet I still can’t make adult decisions without my parents.”

Rapley says that it’s never too late for anyone to decide to get their finances together, whether you’re a millennial or nearing retirement.

“The good thing about money is that it takes on the habits of its holder,” Rapley said. “If you’re using it responsibly and making smart decisions with it then it will work in your favor. But, if you’re making bad decisions, it won’t work in your favor. I think it’s just the matter of when you decide to. Even someone in retirement can make a decision to be smarter with their money.”

Rapley’s goal is to help millennials break the habit of living paycheck to paycheck so that they can focus on doing what they love and live free. She suggests that in order to avoid this lifestyle, it’s a great idea to reduce your expenses so that your expenses don’t exceed your income. She also suggests not to do things or buy things that do not serve your best financial interest. This will help you become more aware of deciding what you’re willing to pay and spend your money on.

The biggest mistakes Rapley said she’s witnessed millennials make is living above their means and allowing social media to influence them to do that. Also, using credit cards and forms of debt to bridge the gap between their actual life and their ideal life. She sees the problem of millennials becoming detached from their money because of technology and apps as well.

“I understand a banking app might send you your account balance every morning, but there’s something to be said about going and looking at what you’ve been spending your money on,” Rapley said. “A lot of millennials are detached …

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