“Could I have afforded it? Absolutely. Have I bought it? No,” Smith told Emma Grede on her podcast ‘Aspire’

NEED TO KNOW

• Nara Smith has always wanted a Birkin — but she refuses to let herself buy one just yet
• Smith said she would rather put the money toward her children’s college funds, stocks or other investments
• The influencer credits her frugal father with teaching her to save money and live below her means

Nara Smith knows she can afford a Birkin — but she won’t be buying one anytime soon.

The influencer with over 17 million followers is best known for her viral videos recreating well-loved foods from scratch for her four kids, whom she shares with her husband, Lucky Blue Smith. Though her online presence has given her the platform to launch multiple streams of income — including her upcoming cookbook, Homemade — she’s still incredibly intentional with how she spends her earnings.

Speaking on the Oct. 8 episode of Emma Grede’s podcast Aspire, Smith, 25, admitted she’s “wanted a Birkin bag for so long.”

“Could I have afforded it? Absolutely. Have I bought it? No,” she said. “It feels like not the best use of money. I’m like, could I invest that money into my kids’ college funds or investing it in something or buying stock or whatever? Yes. So, let me do that. The Birkin will come at some point.”

Smith started modeling at 14 and recounted getting her first paycheck for a runway show. Though it was only €300, or roughly $337, she said, “I couldn’t believe it. It was fantastic.”

“And I remember feeling over the moon and being so happy that I could go out and buy myself a Starbucks for like €6, which was so much money for a drink, but it felt like a reward. It was crazy,” she recalled. “It was the best experience ever.”

Though she’s modeled for more than a decade at this point, not all her jobs over the years have been glamorous. She told Grede that she worked part-time at a smoothie shop while still in school.

“I had to save that [money] to pay for my driver’s license. I hated it,” she said. “Like it was just not what I wanted to do. But it taught me a lot about showing up, being there, doing your job, and working hard for your money and being smart when you do have it and spending it right.”

A lot of her lessons about money, she said, came from her “frugal” father. When she was young, he outlined how she should be spending her earnings, giving her a “pie chart” detailing what percentage she should save and what she could spend.

“It was never, ‘Oh, you’re getting a paycheck, go ham and do whatever.’ He’s very frugal about it,” Smith recounted. “He always said invest your money, save your money, live below your means. So that’s kind of the mentality I took on, and that got instilled in me.”

Even now, with four kids and multiple income streams, Smith said she still finds herself turning down certain luxuries, like food delivery, to save the extra cash.

“I’m like, we can’t Postmates that. It’s going to be $20 in delivery fees. I’m just going to run to the store really quick. So it really is like a balance of things,” she admitted. “But then I do enjoy buying good quality ingredients. So it really is this like thing I’m navigating that’s really fun, but also a lot of responsibility, because I want to set my family up in the best way.”

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