Our First Rental Property

There are 22,279,278 Landlords in the USA as of June 25, 2014, according to rentalprotectionagency.com . So in May of 2013 my father and I decided to follow one of our life long dreams and take our first step toward becoming Landlords. In preparation for such a large investment, we did lots of research prior to. We were inspired to get into real estate because it was a fairly easy market to break into, and we felt that the risk level was lower than many other investments. That May, we purchased a property in the Temple University neighborhood with intentions of renting the 4 bedroom unit to Temple students. At that point, we thought that we would be up and running by January of 2014. Already six months beyond our original goal, we are still adding the finishing touches. Obviously things did not go as smoothly as we had anticipated. No worries though, we’re getting there slowly but surely!

Plus Size It?? Yes Please!!

Favorite Piece from the Fashion Show                            
Designer: Tyrell Holmes www.dukendutchess.com           
Photo cred: Instagram @TyrellHolmes

Let's just say as soon as I walked through the doors of the finale fashion show for Full Figured Fashion Week I LIVED!!! Between door men and women dressed in suits with bow-ties, the red carpet, the lights, the beautiful displays and cameras flashing; it was surreal. And as you scanned the room you seen full-figured woman after full-figured woman dressed to the nines, hairs laid, make up beat and outfits on point!!

May I Have Some Food with My Salt: Throwing Salt in the Wound

msgfacts.com

I remember one of my first professors telling the class, “the world would be different if salt and sugar wasn’t ever discovered.” At the time, I didn’t take the statement too seriously but he was absolutely right. How would the world be? There would be less heart disease, kidney failure, diabetics, strokes (cerebral vascular accidents (CVAs)) and heart attacks (myocardial infarctions (MIs)) in our communities. On the other side, there wouldn’t be any sweet baked goods, ice cream, tasty foods, or our favorite salty treats. We always have to keep moderation in mind but our ancestors didn’t have the knowledge of the effects of what too much salt and sugar intake could do in the long run. Some families’ wounds run deep when it comes to salt and sugar. You can be the one to make a stand and be that educated source on what it could do to the body over time. I know our relatives and friends can be stubborn and set in there ways, especially some of the older ones. At least, you can offer that information and it’s up to them to make a decision to use it or not. In this article, I want to throw SALT on this generational cursed wound. Not to make the wound worst, but to do what salt medically does to a wound, heals it.

Guess Who's Back?

http://107jamz.com

Mr. Shad Moss sure isn’t Lil' Bow Wow anymore . I remember when he first came on the scene back in the year 2000 with his first single “Bounce with Me” with Xscape … back when he had his long cornrows, beads, and little voice. Since then, he has switched record labels, dropped the “Lil” from his name, starred in quite a few movies, released albums, became a father to his baby girl Shai, and became the host of BET’s 106 & Park show.

Think Like A Man Too

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When it comes to promo Kevin Hart plays no games. If you follow him on Twitter and Instagram you already know he’s everywhere promoting his new work. So it wasn't a surprise when the promotion started for Think Like A Man Too. The whole cast was on board promoting their movie and we all loved their covers on Essence magazine. Their hard work certainly paid off, according to USA Today, Think Like A Man Too took the number one spot this weekend, grossing over $30 million.

Obama Lightens the Load: Student Debt

My ears perked up the moment I heard that Obama had plans to ease the financial burden created by student loans. Earlier this month, Obama announced that the expansion of former loan affordability program, Pay As You Earn The program called for a 10% salary cap on monthly repayments, and complete balance forgiveness after 20 years.

Rock Out With Your Socks Out

wheretoget.it

This summer trend is truly all about having socks with footwear. It’s all over the fashion scene on runways and on celebrities. It's not necessarily a new trend but its definitely becoming more and more common. This year footwear is being combined with socks and sandals, which is definitely such a fashion pet peeve of mine by the way! However, that’s fashion for you.

Positive? Or Negative? Do You Know Your Status?

www.hudsonvalleycs.org-400

I wanted to revisit HIV/AIDS, an incurable sexually/blood transmitted disease, because it is a highly misunderstood disease that people do not like to talk about it. The silence makes it too easy for this disease to continue to spread throughout our communities. Ignoring it will not make it go away. HIV is very prevalent in our communities. So, just like the drugs, violence, and chronic ailments that destroy our neighborhoods, HIV is here to stay unless we become aware and more educated to make this disease a thing of the past. National HIV Testing Day is on June 27th; to see where you can get tested in your community, click here. This testing day will be a great way to get involved, educated, and aware of your status, rather it is negative or positive. According to AIDS.gov, 1 out of 6 people living with the virus do not know they are infected. This statistic really brings home how people are not getting tested and is not aware.

Rage Against The Ratchet

Hip hop and R&B music has definitely changed over the past couple of years. Today when you turn on the radio, a lot of what you hear is what we consider Ratchet music, a sub-genre of rap that is raunchy by nature and obnoxious by choice (Anthony Nathan). A lot of songs being played heavily on the radio stations lack lyrical substance and promote sex, promiscuity, drugs, and violence. Carvin Haggins, a Grammy award winning music producer and song writer, decided to address these issues by starting his Rage Against The Ratchet Movement, in efforts to take on Urban Radio by demanding an end to playing vulgar lyrics.

Lavena Johnson's Story

I recently came across a video on Facebook that was quite troubling. It was a story about Lavena Johnson, a 19 year-old Army PFC who was sexually assaulted, raped and brutally murdered. What was even more troubling is that her family was told by the military that Johnson committed suicide. “The U.S. Army ruled Lavena’s death a suicide, but an autopsy report and photographs revealed Johnson had a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, burns from a corrosive chemical on her genitals, and a gunshot wound that seemed inconsistent with suicide.” How would you feel if a family member died unexpectedly and found out later it was covered up?

Investing For The Amateur

“Spend some, save some;” no matter how nominal the amount. It’s a concept that has stuck with me throughout the years, and one that I have certainly benefited from. As helpful as it has been, I think its missing one thing. “Spend some, save some, and invest some” that sounds pretty good to me. Why not allow your money to make you money. Investing is something that I feel is not done enough, at least not among most of the people that I know. I think many people have this misconception that you need to be rich to invest. Completely NOT true. The best thing about investing is that you can tailor your portfolio based on your personal needs and risk tolerance. What is risk tolerance? Most people are familiar with the phrase “no risk, no reward”. The more you are willing to invest the higher potential for earnings. The thing about this is that we all want a grand reward but aren’t willing to invest a grand amount of money. That’s because our risk tolerance doesn’t always match our dream investment outcomes. Investopedia defines it be “the degree of variability in investment returns that an individual is willing to withstand.” I came across a quick quiz that allowed me to assess my risk tolerance. Took me literally a minute. So once you’re done, we can do a quick review of the most appropriate investment types throughout the risk tolerance spectrum.

Crop Tops are Here to Stay!!!

Crop tops first came on the scene in the 70s and then reappeared in the 90s. They were usually worn in the 90s by dancers to show off their midriff and were formally known as a cutoff top or belly shirt. Last year crop tops hit the scene full force for smaller sizes and sure enough slowly crept up towards plus sizes too of course.

"Twerkout"

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JAE will always try to provide some fun methods to stay in shape and healthy. I think it’s key to enjoy yourself while journeying through a healthy lifestyle. There is no need to be bored through this journey when it’s already difficult and different from what you are already familiar with. There are several popular themed workouts geared towards having fun and burning calories at the same time such as Hip Hop Abs and Zumba. But today’s article is about a dance that first emerged in New Orleans in 1993 which recently blew up because of videos that went viral of some high profiled celebs (Miley Cyrus and Nicki Manaj) and a team of sisters known as the Twerk Team, now everybody is doing it (VH1). Although some look at the dance as disturbing and scandalous, this booty popping and shaking dance can be a great way to burn some calories, if you are interested in it. But similar to other trends, such as pole dancing and erotic dancing, in the appropriate setting it makes for a unique, and laughter filled workout. Talk about a workout, well in this case it’s a “Twerkout”.

Legendary MC Rakim Rocks The Stage

On June 8^th, 2014, the 39^th ODUNDE Festival came to Philadelphia at 23^rd & South Streets. It featured over 100 arts and crafts vendors, great food, and my favorite part, live entertainment. I had the pleasure of being able to attend the festival with my fellow ladies of JAE Blog. This year on the main stage featured Messiah Danceworks, Noni Renee, and one of the greatest MC’s and legends of Hip Hop, Rakim. DJ Techician played some songs to warm up the crowd and my old soul started to show lol. I danced and sang along to classics by DJ Kool, Marvin Gaye, Frankie Beverly&Maze, Rob Base,  and DJ E-Z. After a few minutes of mixing, the crowd was more than ready to see Rakim rock the stage…

ODUNDE 2014

ODUNDE has been held every 2nd Sunday in June, in South Philadelphia for the past 39 years. It is one of the largest African-American street festivals in the country. Everyone looks forward to the African marketplace with vendors from all over, including Africa, the Caribbean and Brazil (odundefestival.org). I've been attending ODUNDE since I can remember. My family was born and raised in South Philly so it's sort of tradition to attend every year. When I was younger, one of my grandma's close friends lived by the ODUNDE headquarters so we had front row seats to all the action. One year my family let my cousins and I vend; we sold chips, pretzels, sodas and waters. And we all know how hot it can be at ODUNDE, so we made a killing. We were hype at the end of the day when we got our cut of the profits!

Retirement Ready: Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)

Last week we learned that anyone who plans to retire anywhere around the year of 2056 will need a whopping $2.3 million to do so comfortably according to CNN That’s equivalent to $870,655 in today’s standards. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that! We then went into the importance of starting to plan at an early age and some ways to go about it. I wanted to focus on Individual Retirement Accounts this week. These are perfect for people who are in jobs that do not offer retirement plans, self-employed individuals, and even those who are participating in employer sponsored plans but just want to get ahead of the game.

Casual Chic

Jealously Heathered Tee- click here

Tees are becoming very popular in fashion; some have graphic pictures, numbers, prints or quirky sayings. Tees are a good way to incorporate a casual chic look. Tees are so basic that you can dress them up or down; depending on the mood you're in or the look you're trying to attempt.

Tropical Smoothie Creamsicles

Here is a tasty cool snack for the summer that is healthy, fun, and easy to make for kids and adults. A lot of frozen treats are full of sugar and other ingredients that are not good for us. This simple snack can be made with a variety of fruit and natural products right from home. It's cheap, simple, and you know know exactly what's in it. This recipe can make about 20 creamsicles, if you don't need that many, drink the remainder as a smoothie. ENJOY!!!

REDEFINED: JAE's MAKE AHEAD QUICHE

A couple weeks ago, JAE posted it's own recipe for Quiche muffins... From feedback and my own personal experience, making the muffins are a tedious process which may work for some, but for people like me, I'm open to anything to make my day a little lighter. So here we go again... This time it's a panned quiche with the same ingredients as last time, cut into squares.

Remember Them?

I remember way back when I was in middle school, there were two groups from Philly whose songs use to get me hype every time I heard them on the radio.  *starts singing* “Please don’t mindddd, how I pursueee. Don’t take it personal girl, that’s how thugs do” and “If you really wanna goooo, so long, don’t stayyy. If you really wanna take your love awayyy”. These songs come from the groups Philly’s Most Wanted and No Question.

S.A.D.L.E: Sadie's Legacy of Education

At the S.A.D.L.E Banquet

On May 31^st, I attended S.A.D.L.E. banquet at the Wyndham Historic Philadelphia. The banquet was held to honor the legacy of the late Sadie D. Glover and to announce the kick-off of S.A.D.L.E. I was personally excited to see who the scholarship winners were and if I was one of them! I was recommended by a close family friend to apply to receive a S.A.D.L.E. Scholarship and I am glad I did.

Never Too Early for Retirement Planning!

I have absolutely no desire to “work” for the rest of my life. But the way my bank account is set up…. Umm yea, I’m no Drake, so my bank account is hardly looking like early retirement. More and more I’ve been thinking about the importance of planning for life after my 9 to 5. It’s never too early! In fact, even at the age of 25, I feel like I have some catching up to do. In my planning process I came across some helpful tools and tips that I really want to share.