We were lucky to catch up with Mia Daaja recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Well, it was less of an idea and more of a calling. I realized that it was something that I’d already been doing for many years but, had never thought of it as a business model. Growing up money management was a conversation that was in HEAVY rotation in my household. However, as an adult I’d had many conversations with different people that let me know that, that wasn’t the norm especially in Black households.

I had 2 key moments that let me know that I had to find a way to offer my knowledge of financial literacy to the masses.

The first one was in 2017 when I was a taking course to get my life insurance license. There was a girl there who’d received a lump sum of money on a policy from the death of her mother. She & her brother received somewhere around $100,000+. But, because her mother never spoke about money to them not only did they not know that the money was coming to them, they also had absolutely no idea on how to handle the money that they received. It had only been a couple of years since her receiving that money and she didnt even have a car. She was literally asking for rides to class or taking a cab. That was shocking to me, to say the least.

The other instance that let me know that my knowledge of financial literacy was necessary in my community, was in 2018. I am also a mobile home investor who at that time was marketing a home for a bank. While on a phone call with a woman who was helping her adult son shop for his first home, she asked me what would the bank be looking for in order to get him approved. My response to her very casually was “oh they’ll be looking at his income, how long he’s been on his job, his credit history and his DTI”. I heard silence, so I asked her if she needed me to clarify anything for her, her response was “what’s DTI?” Again I responded in a very casual manner “oh DTI is just his debt to income ratio”. I heard more silence, so I asked if she knew what I meant. She said “I’m sorry ma’am, I don’t know what that means”. I remember feeling my heart break in that moment and thinking that if she was supposed to be helping her adult son with his first home purchase and she didn’t know what a debt to income ratio was, there’s little to no chance that he will know either, which is also how people end up in situations that they can’t afford for the lack of knowing that this is even a factor to pay attention to. But, I answered by saying “the easiest way that I can explain debt to income ratio to you is that it’s basically how much money is he bringing in, up against how much he pays out in bills”. Using that very simple terminology helped her understand but, I know that contracts and agreements don’t simplify this type of information to that degree of understanding.

Those 2 scenarios still fuel me till this day to teach the most basic information about money that I can to as many people as I can. In this day & age people are flooded daily with information on how to get more and more money but, there is a huge disparity between how to get money and how to keep money. So, I focus on the HOW’s of everything pertaining to financial literacy and money management because what I can speak about in a very casual way, I learned that many others aren’t there yet because of when and how they learned about money whether it be positive or negative.

Mia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into money management and budget coaching just by doing what I naturally do with people, which is talk about money! Lol I offer 1:1 coaching, workshops and am an author of 3 books (Budgeting Past the Weekend, Basic Money Matters That Every Beauty Professional Should Know, Basic Money Matters That Every Family Needs to Know).
In each of my services and books, I set myself apart by just having conversations with the goal to inform people of HOW to execute managing their money to get to financial freedom. I offer actionable steps and tangible resources, leaving no room for confusion for the person who has yet to learn information that is needed to carry them through life. As a person, I am a straight shooter so my programs and books reflect that in order to reach those that often get lost in technical jargon that most of the time make them clam up and shut down before they’ve learned anything.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The first time that I had to pivot and actually put the money management skills that I’d learned from my parents to the test, I was 22 years old. I’d taken a 4 year buyout option from Ford Motor Co December, 6, 2006. Between my own savings and what was cashed out to me I had a little over $23k in my bank account. And I’ll never forget going to the ATM mid August 2007 to get money out to buy my God-daughter a birthday gift, the receipt said that I had about $1,800 left. In that moment everything had to change because I wasn’t due to receive another stipend from Ford Motor Co until my buyout anniversary in December. Yet, I had rent, a car payment, utilities etc and I hadn’t returned to working yet. But, during those prior 9 months I’d flown to Miami, New York etc and was partying EVERY weekend Downtown Detroit. The problem was that although my consistent income had changed, my spending habits definitely did not. It was time for me to make a plan.
So, by the time December rolled around I knew exactly how much I was going to receive and exactly what I was going to do with the money to make it last. As soon as the check came in the mail, the first thing I did was set aside enough money to pay all of my bills for the first quarter of the year. And next I opened 3 CD (certificate of deposit) accounts. Each one was going to mature each quarter which would give me enough money to continue paying my bills on time. And of course, I started to work again to give myself some play money because I was still young and wanted to party.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think what has helped my reputation is my authenticity and my genuine desire to help people. I have had many times of meeting people at events and they tear up because they’re like “You’re what I’ve been looking for”. People WANT the information but, I think they want to feel like people want them to win more than they want to sell them something. I know without a doubt that as long as I’m taking care of God’s people, He’s going to take care of me. So, I move through life that way.

Contact Info:

• Website: Linktr.ee/miabudgets