Is $$$ Tha Thang??

Jigga and J. Dupri taught us "Money Ain't A Thang!"  Oh boy!

(The following are gonna be views expressed by Austino Galaxia himself...they are our views, from our personal experiences.  You've been forewarned.)

"You can live like a king for a year...or you can live like a prince forever."

Money.  Money.  Money.

How that classic song from the O'Jays rings so true even on today.  Just got done watching a very, very good ESPN 30 for 30 special on money and athletes and how it can do more harm than good, if you don't use it right.  I already know we're gonna say some personal but real stuff today, so if u don't wanna read this, so be it.  But I have to tell it like it is.  Whew!  Now that that's out of the way, let's see where this is all gonna lead to...

I look at my life and where we are at right now.  There is barely a day that goes by where I'm not thinking about money, or in subtle ways taking a 2 minute peek at our bank account.  Don't know why we are like that...I guess it comes from us being a kid.  My Pops used to have this old school Popeye the sailor man type of bottle.  Think about it as a huge E & J Brandy bottle except it was green, with the Omega Psi Phi fraternity emblem on it, and inside wasn't no alcohol, but it was used as a coin holder.  Man, that bad boy used to get filled up to the tank.  I recall many a Sunday nights at 508 Spring Street, just laying on carpet floor and pouring out the coins as if it were some kind of secret river of life.  Just all the pennies, and nickels and dimes spread out.  And we would just separate them in stacks of tens, and count and count...I guess that's why observing our dineros came from.  It was, I don't know kind of instilled in our system.  Kind of weird.

Money itself isn't dangerous, but it's the love of money that can be so dangerous.  We look around and just the apprearence of money brings so much.  U don't think the Yanks benching A-Rod (As he comes to the plate here in Game 2 of the ALCS...C'mon Alex, get u one, just to shut people up.)...but u don't think money had anything to do with the benching of A-Rod.  With money comes expectations.  You aren't allowed to have bad days, or go through a slump even though others are going through similar situations or are even doing worse.  But when u make the most money, a whole 'nother leve...let me rephrase, when u are supposedly 'have' the most money, certain pressures can be brought upon you.  Externally or even internally, and you begin to feel like you have to perform at a certain level cuz ur bank account says u should.  Just gonna let loose on this issue, cuz we know how it feels in some respects...

Throughout this diary, we talk about us being a recovering shopaholic.  We say this stuff, not because it will make a great TV show, but because it's true!  Not gonna get into the gist of it, u just have to go back 2 some of our old entries, but even on today...God had to reel us in.  I want to spend on some things, but are being led to...wait.  And let me tell you, that's the worse word that can be spoken to somebody who has the means to work some magic on the cash registers.  Who wants to wait, when it's no guarantee that those J's will be in your size on next week?  Or when that sale has a special one day extra discount from 20% off to 21% off?  I love to enjoy life and live it up, but as of late we've been doing some hard thinking about what do we really need, and what can wait and basically how to spend this muhlah.

Throughout this ESPN documentery titled, "Broke", so many issues were discussed from the attraction of being with somebody who's rich, from wild spending, from the pressure of having money, to divorce and child support and to how women react to guys who have tha loot.  Let's talk about wild spending first....

I asked somebody the other day what their dream car is.  I think about that myself, even though in many ways I'm already driving it, but if I could just spend without a cause, what would I buy?  I, myself, as well as the other cool folks who read this, more or likely grew up in the MTV Cribs era.  Didn't it like get you how many of the celebrities just had like 7 or 8 cars?  Besides empty fridges and how hip-hop artists could live in homes that look like a King Arthur get up (Nobody loves cosmo colors like grey, teal or white?  Why brown...ehhh!), that was so surprising.  We've always thought that whenever we get our money right, we're just gonna get ONE sexy ride, and just get a new one every year or just enjoy it.  Who says I can't put miles on a Ferrari or Aston?  It's so easy to spend so outlandishly when u have it.  I cringe sometimes when I think about how much I pay for a lunch, when I could just go to the store and have 3 lunches for the price of just one.  I've bought a lot of things that make me just go, "Why the heck did I spend on that junk?"  Got clothes inside our closet that we still haven't worn or shoes that we've rocked on like 2 times, just because...I ask girls all the time, if u spending $300 or $321 with tax on some heels, u tell me u only gonna wear them once??  But who am I to talk like that when I do the same.  And I think that's the thing, as we look at celebrities, and wonder, "How are they going bankrupt when they got $10 million last year?"  But somebody could be asking us, "How are u asking your folks for some money, when u just got a $70 bonus check in the mail?"  It's the same principles just different scales involved.

Now I'm gonna talk from our heart, if we haven't already.  Gonna get controversial, but...(Two hands making a 'W' sign!)

Divorce.  We are a kid, who I still don't know why, but still believes in true love.  Seen it.  Seen unique couples.  Witnessed outward showings of love and affection.  Dreamed about it.  Yada, yada, yada...one thing that we've always thought about is, if or when we are to get married, would we have a prenuptial agreement in place.  Huh.  Great emotional question...Right when u bring up those two words of Pre-Nup, immediately a few issues spur out of your relationship's harvest.  "Oh, you don't love me?"  "You expect our marriage to fail?"  That's what goes into the conversation.  I was a FIRM believer that no matter what, I wouldn't have one.  Our thinking was, that having a Pre-Nup was placing a sense of negativity around our nuptials.  Just me presenting one to my mate, or having one presented to me (Wouldn't that be nice...) would be insulting or even outraged.  Nowadays, how can we put it...I may be wrong, but in some relationships have been turned into a straight up business arrangement.  What ever happened to the emotion of love?  Here's some money to do your hair...You want a Tiffany jewel, here's a blank check....sometimes the thrill of it isn't just giving somebody money, but it's the actual trip to the store and all planning behind it.  That's what true love does.  That's probably why The Great Matchmaker in the Sky has allowed us to experience all that we have.  Cuz He knows, and now I know, it's gonna take a very, very, very special girl 2 be down with not only us, but also with our lifestyle.  People sometimes change when they "inherit" money or a certain level of fame, and I must have someone who's consistently striving, and to put simple somebody who makes love to my mind, body and soul.  And I'll expect her to want tha same...

They claim nowadays that one person's debt becomes your debt once u get the ball and chain.  That could be from bad investments or that ever present prostitute named Sallie Mae, but once married you have realize that your financial situation, hopefully, becomes one now.  So in saying all that, when we are making the millions of dollars that we will be, I do feel like it may be worth doing some contractual drawings of the protecting of assets.  Divorce laws are different for each state, but for somebody just to wake up and leave cuz a free Chippendale show last night got her hot under the collar...naw says tha kid.  And in some ways, I think that if u present that to ur mate, and he/she has no problem with it, that might just indicate true love cuz they are in it for you, and realize that no matter what there won't be any parasitism involved.  I think this belief has changed just because of our experiences with girls...And speaking of which, we might as well get it out the way now....the next topic that was discussed that I know A LOT about...

Today's gonna be long, just letting u know, but we feel a need to get some of this out, perhaps to help somebody out....

Money and the attraction of the female gender.  What is it with that?  I recall many folks talking about being broker than a two-dollar...and the minute they got paid, all of a sudden all these magicians became attracted to these guys.  Living down here in Miami has taught us so much...Miami is all about the glamour.  Sometimes I really feel like I'm too low key about our physicality or financial state of mind.  Flossing has made everybody a psuedo-dentist down here.  There was a time where, somehow, someway I was digging...sorry, I love TLC so I gotta play this cut, again!...Now we can really write!  There was a time where I was digging a girl or two, and they were mad cute at tha time.  One, I really, really felt like she was the sexiest girl with the entire package we've come across at tha time of publication.  But both of them had quote unquote...quote unquote...quote unquote...boyfriends at the time.  And rumor had it that the guys they were with were in the drug game.  Someone just straight up told me that one of the gals couldn't give up the 'perks' of the lifestyle, even though he was treating her like crap.  How can u not call or check in with a beauty for a whole weekend?  I mean...Toni Braxton help me with this....So here I am thinking these girls like us, and we like them, but it's the lifestyle that keeps them coming like a Dick Wolf drama.  I have that lifestyle myself, but aren't so flamboyant about it.  We can spend too...So I began to think, seriously, do all the hot girls in Miami like these "ballers" or those who appear to be ballin' whether or not they actually are or not.

This is when it gets so wild from the guy perspective, and the flim hit on it.  A lot of what guys do, from what they drive, what they wear, what cologne they buy, what words they say, is all to attract girls and to get them in a sack like Lawrence Taylor!  I say that cuz I've been there and done that...and depending if I'm at a party thrown by Barcardi Rum, still may act like a freakin' poser, just so I can place two fingers in a rosebush.  Now...I gotta talk wild and be real cuz this is serious.  Sometimes us guys figure the only way, and have been taught that the only way to really get a fine girl to give us two seconds or one minute...is to show them that we have a way of taking care of them.  Some girls are attracted to that lifestyle, and 'Yes' you should date up in some ways, just don't base is solely on finances.  What is weird though is how so many girls don't really care about the finances of a guy, at least if he's trying to better himself.  Folks would be surprised...I used to think, man if I didn't do this or have that, she wouldn't even notice me.  Down here in South Beach, with all the glitz and glamour and with which spa ur gonna to next week, being the main topics of discussion instead of world hunger, u can be dooped into that kind of thinking.  "Man, it's like everybody has Benz or a BMW..."   U wonder how somebody can literally eat out EVERY SINGLE NIGHT down here in the beach...but u have to realize that money can't buy u love.  I'm not looking to rent, I rarely try on clothes, so that means that I buy on sight, and also means I'm particular about what I bag and take home with me.  Now if that sentence alone doesn't give me the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Literature, then the whole council is a sham!!

To make it simple.  Us guys have to be aware of certain temptations that are looking at us, yes...Us....as a target.  Do things for yourself, and not just to impress a gal, or win a silly competition with ur boys on who has the most banging system, and expensive gators...For the girls, don't be attracted to the 'image' but actually get to know tha guy.  Sometimes a guy who looks rich doesn't have or will treat u worth a dime.  And sometimes a straggly guy, is the guy who has the dineros.  As my Grandpa used to say...

"Doctors wear jeans too."

Hold up, I gotta put some food on the stove...

Cooking two meals tonight, so...alright I'm back.

Entourages.  The allure of money can bring out some strange things in people.  We write in this diary about the wild experiences of people approaching us for this or that.  Without conscious...The craziest time was when I was at the drive-thru at Wendy's, sitting on our Vespa scooter, about to get my 3 chili's, with two bake potatoes on, when this guy was asking me for money, like right next to the speaker, dude.  We sense that it's all been a preparation for something.  People ask, but we get asked a lot, and perhaps that's a blessing cuz that shows that we look like we can "help" them.. but when u have a look or when people know how much money u make, things change.  I don't like even talking about specific details about our salary's or how much we pay in rent cuz once u know it's like...different.  "How can he afford that?"  Or "You make such and such, so u can't tell me u don't have it?"  It's like telling everybody in the world that I work for the Miami Heat, which we don't tell to everybody, and them asking for a ticket and we say that game is sold out and they be like, "U work for them, and u can't get a ticket?"  I know other people have expectations put on them cuz of the money they make or the money people think they make.  Getting back to it though...

U have to watch ur inner circle no matter what, and even more when u got chalupas.  I'm used to having people around me, and what I'm getting used to...RIGHT NOW...is some of my guys doing their thing, and adjusting to meeting new people and going places...Malcolm Bonet style...By myself. (That's an inside joke.) When u're used to having people around u, and ur hanging hitting tha town with ur guys and girls, and then u realize they hit it not as frequently as if they were single...Huh, that's a cute sentence as well....it makes u really think about who to trust & invite into ur Last Supper circle...We live in a take and take kind of world.  It's difficult to find someone who will be just because, and not because they are looking for something in return. It's rare matter of fact.  Now it's like if u do this then u owe me this...I joke around about this, but it's for real.  What about liking to be around somebody even if they don't work as a model, or don't drive a 2k ride or not just because they can let u in at a club or throw bomb parties on Ocean Drive.  I just like u cuz...ur you.

We could go on, but we'll stop right here.  How u look upon money will determine how u live ur life.  Period.  Is it the all that be all?  I still look at it as a piece of paper.  Yes, ur life does change once u get a little more that the "need" and things become a affluent want.  But if u don't want to be broke, u better save and invest smartly.  Life is short so u have to enjoy it, but realize that there may come a day when u...I'm debating right now if I should get the League Pass for the NBA.  I could spend....have the money.  But with us living in the Miami Heat market and going to the games...and with them showing plenty of Lakers games on TV, perhaps I should use that otherwise.  And save up more important stuff....

Like that omni-talked about Gucci backpack!

Austino G.