It’s Legacy Business with Emanuel Jones II of Jones & Co Wealth Strategies
Emanuel Jones II , MBA
Jones and Co Wealth Strategies
Meet Emanuel Jones II, the visionary leader of Jones and Co Wealth Strategies. In this eye-opening interview, Emanuel shares how witnessing his father's legacy-building efforts ignited his own passion for empowering African American communities in the realm of wealth creation and preservation. Through Jones and Co Wealth Strategies, he is reshaping the financial landscape by providing tailored solutions and educational resources. We’re excited to have the opportunity to dive into Legacy Business with Emanuel and how his unique perspective, honed by his family's entrepreneurial endeavors, is making a lasting impact on the path to generational wealth!
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: Hello, Luxe Insiders. I'm your host, Nyah Chapman of The Luxe List Atlanta podcast. Today, we're diving into some Legacy Business with Emanuel Jones II. Emanuel Jones is a wealth strategist, financial advisor, and the CEO of Jones and Co Wealth Strategies, based in Atlanta.
How are you doing?
Emanuel Jones: Well, I'm doing well. How are you?!
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: I'm good, super caffeinated, and excited to have you here to discuss your journey, who you are, and your expertise. So, please provide our audience with a quick overview of yourself.
Emanuel Jones: I am Emanuel Jones, the President and Principal Financial Advisor of Jones and Co Wealth Strategies. Founded during the height of the pandemic, we are a boutique financial advisory firm with a primary focus on serving the African-American community. We specialize in educating our clients about the importance of generational wealth and providing strategies for both growing and investing their assets as they accumulate.
In today's day and age, it is evident that many African Americans are achieving unprecedented levels of financial success, surpassing even the expectations of previous generations, including our parents and grandparents. We find ourselves in a new era of wealth creation and accumulation.
Our mission now is to determine the most effective methods to ensure that this wealth endures and benefits future generations.
Even though we are located in Atlanta, our firm is proud to be licensed to operate in approximately 20 states, with ongoing expansion efforts. This positions us as a national presence, and we are committed to making a positive impact on the financial well-being of our clients.
It has been a rewarding journey thus far!
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: I absolutely appreciate that perspective. It's truly remarkable to consider the pandemic as a blessing for many individuals. It provided them with the opportunity to pause, reflect on their finances, acquire new skills, and delve into investing, particularly in stocks and real estate. Now, let's backtrack a bit. Could you share some insights into your early upbringing and how those experiences shaped your money-related perspectives during that time?
Emanuel Jones: Absolutely. So, my family has a family business, let's put it like that. We are in commercial real estate and in the automotive industry, owning franchise dealerships such as Ford, Hyundai, Chevrolet Cadillac, and a few other ancillary businesses as well.
So, I grew up watching entrepreneurship at a high level.
The first thing you have to believe is that it's actually possible for you to achieve wealth.
We had other friends of the family that I would see making money AND losing money.
A lot of people, (no pun intended) are trying to keep up with the Joneses. They don’t really understand what real wealth looks like and how to embed in the hard work that goes behind it. So, I guess that foundation led to my passion for starting Jones and Co. Wealth Strategies, at the beginning of the pandemic which is when I left the family business where I worked for the last 7 years.
With that first-hand experience, I was able to understand the ins and outs of business and how my father was able to accumulate assets. Then, I wanted to accumulate my own assets.
You know what they say, your boss will never pay you enough to be his neighbor, and that still applies even when the boss is your father.
After I stepped away from the family business, I sat down for three or four months to readjust. If anybody has ever worked in the car business, you know that it is a 16-hour-a-day career. I was going hard for seven years. I was also taking in the heaviness of what was going on with George Floyd and focusing on using my gifts and my talents in a more beneficial way.
Prior to that, I started a real estate investment firm. I was making money but it felt selfish. I was like, okay, I'm just doing something for myself. I'm making money, you know, but that's not my passion, that's not what I wake up and get excited about.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: And what other businesses have you dabbled in? I know you mentioned a few offline.
Emanuel Jones: I started two Allstate agencies and sold those in 2018. We were one of the fastest-growing in the nation for a good two years. So I have experience in insurance.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: Then?
Emanuel Jones: Then I thought, I like finances. I have an MBA. I've been in finance throughout the automotive industry and I have this insurance experience. What can I build that can touch people without the churn and burn of opening up another like Allstate or State Farm agency?
So that's when I leaned into being approached by a couple of different firms such as New York Life, Mass Mutual, and Northwestern Mutual. As companies started reaching out, they would say, 'You do understand that life insurance companies are the backbone of the financial industry?'
All too often life insurance companies have bailed out the United States. They loan money to the feds, that loan money to the banks.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: What a gem. That is something that I didn't know. So how does that connect? Break it down.
Emanuel Jones: Life Insurance Mutual companies have to hold a lot of money in cash and can only invest that cash in very, very safe options as they have to be able to pay out the death benefits and death claims. So because they have so much cash sitting there, the lowest risk that they can bet into are treasury stocks or treasury notes. So…….. they are a big investor in municipalities in the United States because of how much cash they have.
That said, I went into partnership with New York Life. I worked for them for about a year and a half before they allowed me to partner and start my own firm where I could be my own brand but still have efficient resources.
I must mention that there are not enough of us who actually know what they're doing. I mean, you have so many people who became financial gurus over the last pandemic, but they're not licensed to talk about anything.
It's like getting advice from a lawyer who's not a lawyer.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: It’s great that you brought that up because there's a lot of noise out there, especially in the finance, stock market, marketing, and real estate space. Everybody's a marketing guru right now.
So who's your ideal client? I know you mentioned a focus on the African-American community. But, who is your ideal client? and what are your processes when you're analyzing their portfolio? Or maybe they don’t have a portfolio yet.
Emanuel Jones: I get clients on both ends. My ideal client is more about mindset. Someone who has mastered or is mastering their career, whatever they're doing. You know, if you're doing it well, you're doing it at a high level.
That can be somebody who already has a portfolio. They could be working for a tech company and have a few $100,000 sitting there waiting for the right strategy to diversify their assets.
Then there are people who never even thought about investing. This could be a professional or an entrepreneur. Working with entrepreneur clients is one of my niches.
In addition, we do a gap analysis first. Anytime I have a client that is in that position, we start with foundational pieces, meaning if you're an entrepreneur, make sure you have your insurance, retirement accounts, etc.
If you're working for a corporation making $200,000 a year, more than likely, your 401(k) is being matched at 6%. Entrepreneurs have to have that same mentality. If you're an entrepreneur and you made $300,000 this year, you need to be putting away 6 to 10% of that for your long-term growth.
It's about diversifying your total portfolio.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: Diversifying is one of the main strategies I use when servicing my real estate clients. I educate my clients on the different types of real estate properties that they can invest in. Since we are on the topic, I want to talk about real estate.
Everyone was buying fixing flips and now it seems like you can't buy properties as cheap as you could two years ago or even one year ago. If someone wants to jump into real estate investing. What would you say a good direction would be for a beginner with a healthy portfolio?
Emanuel Jones: Partner with somebody that's doing it. Put your money together, analyze a deal, start a deal, and if you're using your own money, you're in a better position where you don't have to look for super big margins.
Start simple.
I acquired a little condo in Alpharetta built in 1990. It was due for all the updates but because of its age, there were updated properties that were good comp.
The owner also kept it very clean.
So we bought the property, put about $25,000 into it, and made around $60,000 on this deal. But that was also in 2020. So just stick with it. Stick with professionals. Talk to professionals. Get nice warm recommendations from people whom you can work with, save up your capital, and do your deal.
But it's a job.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: Exactly. Money, finances, all of that stuff is, it just circulates and you have to make sure that your financial heartbeat is alive and well. You have to make sure that everything is working, the blood is pumping, that could be stocks, that could be whatever it is.
Speaking of stocks, do you dabble into day trading or stock market investing? What's your thought on that, and what are your processes there?
Emanuel Jones: The stock market is very important, and everybody should be in it. You don't need to dabble. You can actually go to professional money managers. Day trading has a lot of upside, but it's very risky, and you have to dedicate time to it. It's definitely a unique skill and a lot of my day trader clients suffered some losses as they were trying to learn it.
So, if you have that risk tolerance, sure. But if you don't have that risk tolerance, stay away from it. It's not quick money, it's not fast money.
I mean, you might get lucky on a lucky streak, but it's going to give you too much confidence, and then you're going to blow up. It happens all the time. It's just how human nature is set up.
Have discipline and processes.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: You are preaching to the choir saying no is good, and having discipline is the key to success, right? What are some of your tips?
I'll use myself as an example. Someone like me who just hit six figures within the past 2 years may have a little bit of capital, but money is scary. It really does scare me to talk about it and be open. And a lot of people like me are like that. So what are some tips that you can give me to be more disciplined in my finances?
Emanuel Jones: Okay, so this was a segue to get some financial advice for yourself. LOL, you're smart, you're smart. I got you.
So using you as an example. I'm assuming you're making your money through entrepreneurial endeavors. So the biggest thing is, making sure you have your foundational things taken care of.
After that's covered there are a couple of different investment options that you could do.
An IRA gives you some tax benefits.
You could do a solo 401(k), where you're just a solo person putting it into that 401(k).
You can do certain types of investment accounts that are managed by your money manager who might work for Fidelity or Blackrock, but they would trade and deal with your money on your behalf.
I think the biggest thing is, when you're making money, allocate a small portion of it to your investments; short-term investments, medium-term investments, and your long-term investments.
Long-term investments would be retirement accounts.
IRA 401(k) medium-term investments could be cash values of life insurance policies, whether it's a whole life insurance policy, a variable Universal Life policy, or index universal life policy. Those things build a cash value.
Your short-term investments are going to be your managed portfolios, brokerage accounts, stocks, bonds, etc,
So after it's kind of all set and done, it doesn't have to be a scary thing anymore.
You can still have your fun, you can still go out, you can still buy your stuff but you're going to know a portion of your money is going to accumulate and grow.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: So I could still pop a bottle on a yacht? HAHA
Emanuel Jones: Go have some fun. Like I tell my clients, this is going to be your play money. You'll find that people feel a lot better doing nice things for themselves when they know that they took care of their responsibilities. Happiness is key. Add a little bit of structure, a little bit of discipline on top of it, and you're good!
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: Time is flying, and I know we are getting ready to wrap it up pretty soon. I would love for you to answer one last question, what is the best financial decision that you've made?
Emanuel Jones: I bought my first property at 23, and it was a run-down house in Ellenwood that my dad and I fixed up, sold, and made pretty decent money on it. That was my first significant real estate investment. After that, I took some of the profit and invested in a real estate investment firm because I wanted to learn more about real estate at that time.
Nyah from Luxe List Atlanta: Emanuel Thank you for spending a little time with me this morning! Until next time!
Emanuel Jones: This was great!
