Name
Jameel Webb-Davis
Profession/Job Title
Budget Counselor – but my business cards say ‘Financial Organizer’
Length of time in your profession
Since June of 2006.
Can you explain what you do for a living? (Be specific!)
I help people get their finances organized. Sometimes that involves actual bookkeeping work – going into people’s offices, balancing their checkbook, organizing their mail, entering stuff into a computer, generating checks for them to sign, and then making little spreadsheets for them to look at telling them when they’re going to run out of money. This brings a bit of money which provides time for me to be a budget counselor.
The Budget Counseling is much more fun. That’s where I sit with people one-on-one, have them tell me how often they get paid, how much they make, and what their bills are, amount due and due dates. I plug everything into a spreadsheet (it takes about 30 minutes) and then I counsel them around whatever money issues they may have. Some people are struggling and don’t know how to pay their bills, but most are making good money and don’t understand why it disappears on them. Most sessions turn into therapy sessions rather than a discussion about making or saving money.
When do you use basic math in your job? (And what kind of math is it?) If you can offer a very specific situation when math is important, that would be great.
I use it every day. Addition and subtraction. Easy stuff, but people run from it screaming. The spreadsheet I designed looks basically like a checkbook register (see below). I use it for my own personal finances. I plug in how much money a person has today. Then I list all the times the person will have to spend money in the future (date, reason, amount). Then I list all the times the person is expecting money in the future (date and amount). Then I sort the list by date. I’ve basically created a checkbook balance for the future. This way they can know exactly how much extra money they have or when they’re going to run out of money.
Date | Bill | Bills | Deposits | Balance | |
March 01, 2011 | Current money | 250.00 | 250.00 | < even though they have $250 now… | |
March 02, 2011 | Paycheck | 800.00 | 1,050.00 | ||
March 03, 2011 | food | -75.00 | 975.00 | ||
March 05, 2011 | Sallie Mae | -50.00 | 925.00 | ||
March 10, 2011 | food | -75.00 | 850.00 | ||
March 15, 2011 | rent | -800.00 | 50.00 | < they’ll be down to $50 | |
March 16, 2011 | Paycheck | 800.00 | 850.00 | ||
March 17, 2011 | food | -75.00 | 775.00 | ||
March 20, 2011 | Visa bill | -100.00 | 675.00 | ||
March 22, 2011 | phone bill | -150.00 | 525.00 | ||
March 24, 2011 | food | -75.00 | 450.00 | ||
March 28, 2011 | subway pass | -60.00 | 390.00 | ||
March 30, 2011 | Paycheck | 800.00 | 1,190.00 | ||
March 31, 2011 | food | -75.00 | 1,115.00 |
Do you use any technology (like calculators or computers) to help with this math? Why or why not?
I use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. It does addition and subtraction fast and sorts quickly.
How do you think math helps you do your job better?
I meet so many people that are constantly trying to figure out how much money they’ll have, if they can save more money, how much more money they need to make to make ends meet. Or money is tight for them and they’re trying to figure out what to do about it – what bills can be paid, what bills can wait, how much they can spend on take out, or a birthday party, etc. A spreadsheet like this tells me exactly how to handle all these situations.
When people come to me and ask me how to handle whatever problem they think they have with money, the first thing I do is create this spreadsheet with them, because then I can see a more accurate picture of really what’s going on with their day-to-day money. Most people have a completely skewed idea about what’s going on with their money. They base their day-to-day money decisions on feelings, superficial beliefs, and disorganization. I hear people say crazy stuff like “My husband’s a doctor. I should be able to afford a cleaning lady,” or “I’m a single mother, I can’t afford to save money,” or my favorite, “The pile of bills on my desk is so big. I’m sure I don’t have the money to pay any of them.” None of these statements are based on anything related to math. So I force people to give me the numbers, I do the math and then tell them what their money life is really like. And it’s usually completely different than what they think.
How comfortable with math do you feel? Does this math feel different to you? (In other words, is it easier to do this math at work or do you feel relatively comfortable with math all the time?)
I’m very comfortable with math. I was an actuarial consultant before I did this (I gathered data for actuaries), however, I wouldn’t relate my comfort with math to what I do. My ability to counsel, organize chaos and take the emotion out of bills, debt, and money is what’s needed to do what I do. Math just helps me get a quick snapshot of a person’s financial life. Without that, you can’t start a counseling session.
What kind of math did you take in high school? Did you like it/feel like you were good at it?
I was a numbers girl. Hated reading. Especially loved geometry and trigonometry. I didn’t understand calculus at all. Didn’t have the confidence to study math in college though, but ended up working with actuaries, just like my mom said I would!
Did you have to learn new skills in order to do the math you use in your job? Or was it something that you could pick up using the skills you learned in school?
I taught myself how to do all this stuff. I just used my personal experience and applied it to this mission. When I quit my corporate job, it was to do something that would really help people, and I recognize now this was it. Unfortunately the counseling doesn’t pay that well. I’m still trying to work that out.
Anything else you want to mention?
People with a lot of money are just as bad, if not worse, at managing their money as people with a little money. In fact the amount of money and education you have has nothing to do with how well you manage your day-to-day money life. It just takes arithmetic and subtraction, but many people find this hard to believe.
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