Meet The Cashlennials Investment Club

Today we’d like to introduce you to Armand Rivers. He and the partners of the Cashlennials Investment Club shared their story with us below. They are college friends who all share a passion for investing in the stock market and practicing group economics:

After graduating from Baldwin Wallace University with degrees in accounting and public relations and working in our professional careers, we stayed in touch, and three of the partners (Alfred, Armand, and Rodney) formed our club in September 2018. Jackie joined the club in November 2018, and Promis recently joined in May 2023.

Over the past five years, we’ve built a five-figure investment portfolio with the goals of creating generational wealth and increasing our knowledge about investing and personal finance. We want to be a resource for Black Millennials seeking financial freedom by using cash responsibly to purchase assets and decrease liabilities, which will result in a positive net worth.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There have been a LOT of challenges on our journey. First, our initial investment platform, Voleo, went out of business during the pandemic. We had to sell all of our stocks -some of which were increasing in value at the time – and transfer our funds to the TD Ameritrade platform. Second, we’ve experienced some major losses in our portfolio by buying stocks that we believed would perform well long-term (Peloton, PayPal, Cedar Fair) but they ultimately lost value for a variety of reasons. We’ve missed some great investment opportunities as well. For example, we did not know how much technology would play an important role in people’s lives during the pandemic, so when stocks such as Zoom shot up in value, we had not bought any shares so we couldn’t take advantage of the increase. Third, as a club we have tried to generate money in other ways by creating eBooks and t-shirts, but we haven’t marketed them as well as we could have to see a lot of gains from those items. We’re planning to focus on and improve our marketing strategy to get our products out to everyone soon!

As you know, we’re big fans of The Cashlennials Investment Club. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?As partners in The Cashlennials Investment Club we practice group economics by pooling money together to invest in the stock market. We have monthly meetings during which we review our portfolio and make decisions about whether to buy stocks of current companies we hold or add new companies. Our research includes evaluating companies’ financial statements, listening to quarterly earnings calls, and reading press releases.

Further, our club is compromised of five Black partners. There are very few investment clubs that have Black partners or members. We hope that through our example, we can encourage people to invest their money for the long-term and help break the stigma that exists within the Black community that we should not trust other people with our money.

We are proud of our brand. One way we’ve been able to reach others in the community has been through events that we call “cash mobs”. We hold cash mobs in the cities that each of our partners live in (throughout Ohio and North Carolina), and they involve us and our social media followers patronizing small Black-owned businesses to help increase this revenue and promote the name and products or services that the businesses offer. We post information about our cash mobs on our social media pages and our website before and after the events.

Lastly, we’d like readers to know that The Cashlennials Investment Club was started by a group of friends and that you can also start an investment club yourself with your family or friends and practice group economics!

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I’d say look for people in your community who are doing the work that you’re interested in. As Black professionals, it can be challenging to find a mentor or sponsor who can provide the right guidance and speak on your behalf when you’re not present.

What has worked well for our club has been connecting with the community. By establishing relationships with Black business leaders, our brand has grown in different cities and has enabled us to learn more about investing and personal finance in the process. Our advice to everyone is to continue to network and have a willingness to learn as much as possible!

Contact Info:

• Website: thecashlennials.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecashlennials/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecashlennials/

Image Credits
The Cashlennials