Nia Long says her pre-motherhood savings plan enabled her to fund her eldest son’s college education without relying on loans.
Long recently appeared at the American Black Film Festival for its 2024 edition, taking place in a fireside conversation for Ally Financial.
“You just have to trust the process.”
During the panel discussion, “Money and Mindfulness: A Conversation with Nia Long,” the Hollywood icon explained that she started saving for her children before becoming a mother.
Long was asked what she would consider some of her values to be as it relates to money. “One of the things is [that] I started saving for my children before I became a mother,” she said. “I took $3,000 and I just put in this account. I was like, I’m never touching that. And it allowed me to get my son through NYU without any student loans. And he just graduated and I’m so proud. It makes me cry, because we did it. Yes, we did it. And it was a plan. And if you put that plan into action and you just don’t waver from your ultimate goal, God will show you the way to get there. I can’t even explain it any other way. You just have to trust the process.”
“He needs a job to pay me back.”
Long gave birth to her eldest son, Massai Z. Dorsey II, her only child wih ex-fiancé Massai Z. Dorsey, in November 2000. After earning a bachelor’s degree, Dorsey plans to attend law school next.
“So in four years, anybody in here looking for a young lawyer [or] attorney, he’s going to be a good one,” she jokingly pitched.
“He needs a job to pay me back. If he’s anything like me, he has a spirit of abundance…a little bit too much, because he’s still in my pocket. I just called him on my way here. I got a bill for his electric bill. I said, Massai, really? And see, this is the thing, you can’t spoil them too much, because part of what made me do what I’ve done, is the hustle. So you’ve got to draw the line where you don’t tamper with the hustle because in that hustle is that little bit of gangster that makes us make a difference.”
Long shared her desire to instill her work ethic in Dorsey. As the child of a Hollywood actress, he has found some success thus far.
In addition to 23-year-old Dorsey II, Long has a younger son 12-year-old Kez Sunday Udoka, whom she shares with Ime Udoka.