Speaker 1: All right, hey, hey, hey, we're back.
Speaker 2: We're black, We're brown.
Speaker 1: I'm Tiffany, I'm Mady and this is Brown Ambition.
Speaker 3: Nailed it. Happy Brown Ambition Wednesday, guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Happy bron Ambition Wednesday.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the elephant in the room, or
Speaker 1: shall we say the two step in the room.
Speaker 3: Are you talking about This Is America?
Speaker 2: Yes, only Donald we acknowledge is Glover.
Speaker 3: First of all, Donald Glover. I don't know if anyone
Speaker 3: listening has ever watched the show Community, Like I never
Speaker 3: really had watched it. My husband liked it. But if
Speaker 3: you look at Donald Glover, his character on Community, it's
Speaker 3: like he put that character in a trash can and
Speaker 3: burned it, like blew it up, and he's like, I'm
Speaker 3: never going to be this person again. I am doing
Speaker 3: things my way. And then he came out with like
Speaker 3: Atlanta and now all this music, and basically he's owning
Speaker 3: the internet right now because his video for This Is
Speaker 3: America just dropped like the same weekend that he hosted
Speaker 3: SNL and what might have been one of the blackest
Speaker 3: episodes of SNL in a long time.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen that, but I've seen the video and
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. At first, I saw the Instagram
Speaker 1: clips of it, which if that's all you've seen, you
Speaker 1: have not seen it, and I was like, what's going on?
Speaker 1: Because I'm like, why is he dancing so weird? Like
Speaker 1: I didn't get it, you know, I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's dancing. And then when I saw the whole video,
Speaker 1: I said, Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. And
Speaker 1: then I started reading you know articles love he has
Speaker 1: a great one, Okay Africa and okay player, I think,
Speaker 1: or okay Africa has.
Speaker 2: A great one.
Speaker 3: Everyone's got a thought piece.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it's like but what I liked about it
Speaker 1: is that there are components that I missed, Like is
Speaker 1: that Trayvon Martin's father that was shot in the beginning,
Speaker 1: like the chaos going on in the background.
Speaker 2: Wait was it.
Speaker 1: There's mixed opinions about whether it was, but like, for example,
Speaker 1: how they handled the guns versus how they handle the
Speaker 1: bodies that passed away. They handled the guns so carefully, yes,
Speaker 1: and the people that were killed were just kind of
Speaker 1: like looked over or dragged away.
Speaker 2: So there's just a lot to unpack.
Speaker 3: I wanted to take a minute and read some of
Speaker 3: the comments we got on Instagram because I asked our
Speaker 3: followers if they wanted if they had any thoughts to
Speaker 3: share on the video. We got some really good, thoughtful comments.
Speaker 3: Let me read this one. This one's from Instagram user
Speaker 3: deb Hack nineteen ninety one. She says, I think childish
Speaker 3: Gambino is a representation of America and all of the
Speaker 3: things of distraction from what's going on behind him. Instagram
Speaker 3: user man versus Cash says deb Hack nineteen ninety one
Speaker 3: has it pretty right. As long as we keep focusing
Speaker 3: on the shucking and driving that occurred throughout the entire video,
Speaker 3: so we won't see what has been happening for the
Speaker 3: last thirty plus years. All the slave references, references to
Speaker 3: Michael Jackson eighties nineties cars to Rodney King. Also the
Speaker 3: fact that both guns were wrapped in a red veil
Speaker 3: and protected while the victims were unceremoniously dragged off. It
Speaker 3: got me.
Speaker 2: Wow, Yes, those are I mean, those are great. I
Speaker 2: mean I'm looking at them now.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I love when you guys kind of let your
Speaker 1: thoughts be known via social So if you didn't know,
Speaker 1: we have an Instagram page, it is Brown Ambition podcast,
Speaker 1: and if you ever want to leave any commentary, either
Speaker 1: on our Instagram page or just in general, use the
Speaker 1: hashtag brown ambition so we can find you and we'll
Speaker 1: read them in the beginning of the show.
Speaker 3: Every week'll be looking. Don't make a fool of yourself.
Speaker 3: Don't use the hashtag brown ambition in vain.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So on Twitter and Instagram, those are two mains
Speaker 1: right now. So Instagram you can comment under one of
Speaker 1: our posts, and on Twitter, definitely tag us and use
Speaker 1: the hashtag brown ambition so we can find you.
Speaker 3: Some people send us news stories that they think would
Speaker 3: be good for a bron booster or brown break. I
Speaker 3: love it you can. Yeah, so if you use the
Speaker 3: hashtag brown ambition every week, I'll be looking for that
Speaker 3: on Twitter and on Instagram. So if you want to
Speaker 3: share a story, or if you want to say, hey,
Speaker 3: I was really brown ambition this week because I got
Speaker 3: a's on my exams, or I just got you know,
Speaker 3: a huge scholarship to go to college, or I just
Speaker 3: paid off a credit card, like those are the stories
Speaker 3: that we love. Please please please share, and of course
Speaker 3: comment and and just communicate because this feels like I mean,
Speaker 3: I can't tell you how many emails we get from
Speaker 3: people who were like, I feel like I have a friend.
Speaker 3: I feel like I have sisters Mandy and Tiffany, but
Speaker 3: we want to hear from you.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's it's meant to be a conversation that includes you, guys,
Speaker 3: So definitely look out for your comments on social.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: Just don't snapchat me because I don't do that anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody doesn't, no, you know.
Speaker 1: Addly enough, like Snapchat is still like the number two
Speaker 1: most popular downloaded app on Apple, so I mean someone's
Speaker 1: downloading these five year olds. So I was gonna, babe
Speaker 1: say this from Brown Booster break, but I think I'll
Speaker 1: just share. I got somebody fired, and I feel mixed,
Speaker 1: mostly happy but sad because you never want anyone to.
Speaker 2: Be fired, but ye and I never.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, well here's the once I tell you,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be like, oh, she needs to go. I
Speaker 1: was talking to my CFO on Mondays. We have our
Speaker 1: team meetings and my sister's kids there three and one,
Speaker 1: and you can watch them at daycare at this website
Speaker 1: called watch Me Grow. So it's just basically cameras in
Speaker 1: every room. And so I was watching and it was
Speaker 1: naptime and I'm watching in my nephew's room.
Speaker 2: He's asleep.
Speaker 1: But there's like a young teacher I want to say,
Speaker 1: she's in her twenties and the kids like I remember
Speaker 1: these days because I used to be that teacher in
Speaker 1: the classroom, like cleaning up while the kids are on
Speaker 1: their cot, supposed to be sleeping.
Speaker 2: But they're not. So the kids are a little restless.
Speaker 1: Some of them are like taking off their shoes, and
Speaker 1: this one is sitting up and this one's moving around.
Speaker 2: So she's a little rough with them. I noticed.
Speaker 1: I'm like, ugh, so I'm talking about see a phone.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hold on, girl, something's happening in the classroom.
Speaker 1: She grabs one kid and kind of like like you know,
Speaker 1: like roughly puts him back on the cot, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that seems a little excessive, and does it to another.
Speaker 1: And it was clear that she was kind of like
Speaker 1: whisper yelling at them, you know how you could see
Speaker 1: people's mannerisms. And he threw this took this blake off
Speaker 1: this little girl, pulled it roughly because she wasn't laying down,
Speaker 1: threw it on top of her and gave her a
Speaker 1: little pop on the behind, and.
Speaker 2: I said, oh my goodness, did she just hit this
Speaker 2: little girl?
Speaker 1: It wasn't hard, but still I was like, uh, and
Speaker 1: what took The cake boy was like not laying down,
Speaker 1: and she kind of pushed his head down and then
Speaker 1: pulled his.
Speaker 2: Ear, you know how like you seem like the old little.
Speaker 1: Italian lady, like pulling your ear back and forth, like
Speaker 1: what are you doing? But I'm like, this is not
Speaker 1: your child, and he's too and you're pulling his ear.
Speaker 1: I was like I I quickly got off the phone.
Speaker 1: I called my sister and I told her and she
Speaker 1: was like what And she said, you know, she's a
Speaker 1: little aggressive with the kids. And I told them, and
Speaker 1: they make nothing but excuses for her. But I've never
Speaker 1: seen her like do anything. It's always been just like, huh,
Speaker 1: you know, you pulled them a little too quickly, or
Speaker 1: just you know, like she's never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 1: So I called the center myself, so as I'm on
Speaker 1: the phone with her, we both watched and she did
Speaker 1: something that was slightly in appropriate. And then she rewinds
Speaker 1: the tape as I'm on the phone with her and
Speaker 1: she's watching, like, oh my good.
Speaker 2: She's like, I'm gonna call you right back. So I
Speaker 2: guess she must have jumped off the.
Speaker 1: Phone because then went over there because they're only down
Speaker 1: the street from each other. The two centers went down there,
Speaker 1: and I guess they pulled her to the side and
Speaker 1: let her go. So, you know, you never want to
Speaker 1: get anybody fired, but you can't beat on people's kids.
Speaker 3: You know, they knew she knew she was on camera, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't even know what she was thinking.
Speaker 3: Wow, that no one's probably watching.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think truth of the matter is because
Speaker 1: I told my sister when she went to go pick
Speaker 1: up the kids what happened. She's like, they just did
Speaker 1: like a general announcement like such a such, just not
Speaker 1: with this anymore. Her way of doing things were not
Speaker 1: aligned with the center. So I don't think. I don't honestly,
Speaker 1: I really think the majority of parents were not are
Speaker 1: just they just don't watch. But I watch, you know,
Speaker 1: like as I'm kind of chilling by the computer, if
Speaker 1: I'm like doing work, I'll just peek in because honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm not watching to peek in on the teachers. Quite honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't get to see my niece and my nephew
Speaker 1: as much as that possible.
Speaker 2: So I just watched for stalkers reasons like oh.
Speaker 1: Just to kind of see my niece and my nephews
Speaker 1: and say I don't see them as often. But I
Speaker 1: was horrified, Like I said, she didn't, she didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: do anything to him. But I thought to myself, you know,
Speaker 1: if you'll do this to one kid, you'll do it
Speaker 1: to another, you know.
Speaker 3: M And with as much as childcare costs, like as
Speaker 3: much as like daycare costs, I would be watching and
Speaker 3: expect like, you're not going to hit my kid when
Speaker 3: I'm picking like thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1: Yes, when I tell you, like at one point, her
Speaker 1: daycare bill was like something like twenty one hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a months.
Speaker 2: For both of them. Can you want to see one?
Speaker 1: I was just like, uh, and you're gonna be inappropriate
Speaker 1: with my kid, I don't think.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 3: Let us boost and break. Yes, if you don't mind,
Speaker 3: I have a boost this week. Okay did you say
Speaker 3: you do mind?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: No, I don't mind, okay, because I wasn't gonna care
Speaker 3: if you mind it. So I got a boost real quick.
Speaker 3: I am just I know I am late to the party.
Speaker 3: This is some granola crunchy stuff. But you're vegans that
Speaker 3: you can't talk. So I am late to the compost party.
Speaker 3: But I love. I freaking love composting, like when you yes,
Speaker 3: I am like a convert. I've been wanting to. I
Speaker 3: know in New York City they had they were starting
Speaker 3: to do like some composting programs. I think in Brooklyn,
Speaker 3: of course, but I never made my way to like
Speaker 3: all the composting programs. You're where I lived in Queens
Speaker 3: or then in Jersey where I was last year. You
Speaker 3: had to like collect your stuff and then bring it
Speaker 3: to the food market, which was you know you had
Speaker 3: if you did. We didn't have a car, so we
Speaker 3: had to like carry a bag of food trash basically,
Speaker 3: you know, several blocks if not take a subway to
Speaker 3: drop our food off. It was never convenient. But now
Speaker 3: that we moved to the Burbs, so my town just
Speaker 3: this past winter launched their food compost program and for
Speaker 3: twenty dollars. You go to the town, and I think
Speaker 3: a lot of towns do this now. You go to
Speaker 3: the town the nature center or whatever, and they give
Speaker 3: you a little food pail that you put on your countertop,
Speaker 3: and you collect your food scraps during the week. And
Speaker 3: then I'm listening to myself saying, I know I sound
Speaker 3: so crunchy, but I don't care.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, and then you collect your food scraps.
Speaker 3: So you put your food scraps in the little food
Speaker 3: pail on your countertop, but don't worry about it's smelling.
Speaker 3: In fact, the reason I love it so much is
Speaker 3: because we used to always have a smelly trash can.
Speaker 3: No matter what you did, you put it under the sink,
Speaker 3: you put a lid on it, whatever if you like.
Speaker 3: It would take us a while to fill the trash can,
Speaker 3: and you put you make a salad, you put your
Speaker 3: scrap in there, and then two days later your house
Speaker 3: is funky. So this way the food pail, it seals.
Speaker 3: It's like air tight, so the fumes stay in the
Speaker 3: pail as long as it's closed. So you just put
Speaker 3: your scraps in there during the week, and then slowly
Speaker 3: you fill up one little pail and then you close
Speaker 3: the bag and you put it into a slightly larger
Speaker 3: pail that they also give you for that twenty dollars.
Speaker 3: And then when you're done, you just drop it off
Speaker 3: at the compost facility like whenever. I don't know, we
Speaker 3: did it like once a week and the the like
Speaker 3: I we create such little trash. Now it's amazing. Our
Speaker 3: recycling bin is packed, the compost bin is full. But
Speaker 3: the actual we have one sad little trash bag in
Speaker 3: our trash can this week. And I just felt really
Speaker 3: good about myself.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: Look at you lowering your carbon finger No, what is
Speaker 1: it carbon footprint?
Speaker 3: Fingerprint?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was trying to be up on the hip
Speaker 1: food the hip like lingo of like you know, of
Speaker 1: the vegan. So when we were kids, we used to
Speaker 1: compost the little because my dad always kept the garden.
Speaker 1: So we would save our vegetable and fruit scraps and
Speaker 1: like throw it in this like pile in the backyard
Speaker 1: and he would use it to like you know, fertilize
Speaker 1: the fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 3: Oh I can't do that, man. I saw a possum
Speaker 3: troll in the streets last week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, Now you have to.
Speaker 3: Keep that food pill in the house. Listen. I found
Speaker 3: a bunny rabbit in my thought. I saw a beaver
Speaker 3: last week. The amount of wildlife is a little overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Beaver, a bundy, a baby beaver, a deer, then you
Speaker 1: just get deer in fox too.
Speaker 3: Who I could use a fox. There's also coyotes roaming
Speaker 3: my county. Now. One coyote attacked a little girl had
Speaker 3: a playground. Y'all think I have never been more afraid
Speaker 3: than I am as a homeowner. Can never I never
Speaker 3: really feared anything living in an apartment in New York City,
Speaker 3: Jersey Queens wherever. My parents were always worried about. You,
Speaker 3: Like this is I feel safe all the time. I
Speaker 3: could be out late, take the subway home. There's still
Speaker 3: be people out and about. It is creepy. As a
Speaker 3: mother in the suburbs, it is quiet, everyone is inside. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you feel like no one could hear you scream. And
Speaker 3: if someone if, like a coyote attacked me, what am
Speaker 3: I going to do about it? Like there's no it's
Speaker 3: so scary, Like I'm turning into a big baby. This
Speaker 3: brown boost, this brown boos is turning into a break
Speaker 3: for being alone in a house by yourself, which I,
Speaker 3: an adult woman in her thirties, just can't do.
Speaker 1: Apparently, Oh yeah, I see, I've done both. I've lived
Speaker 1: in the city, well not super city like you. I
Speaker 1: feel like Newark is not it's city, but it's not
Speaker 1: like super city. And then but I've mostly lived in
Speaker 1: the suburbs as a kid, so like I'm used to
Speaker 1: all the like, oh, look there's a deer and there's
Speaker 1: a you know, I don't know, beaver and whatever, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what it is.
Speaker 1: My dad is traditional African man, so he's like, go
Speaker 1: get go, get my pitchfork.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what I can remember.
Speaker 1: I don't know what kind of animal it was, but
Speaker 1: it was like in our garage, like making thrashing about,
Speaker 1: and my dad was like, can my pitchpork?
Speaker 2: I don't know what happened. I was like, Daddy, let's
Speaker 2: just call it animal control.
Speaker 4: You are not, like, are you crazy? You're gonna battle
Speaker 4: of that one with whatever this thing is.
Speaker 2: Now. He came back, breathing heavy. I said, what happened?
Speaker 1: He was like, I got it into the corner and
Speaker 1: I had my pitchfork raise and then I looked at
Speaker 1: its beautiful brown eyes and it looked so sad and scared.
Speaker 2: So I opened the garage door and let it go.
Speaker 2: It was like daddy transition.
Speaker 3: It was too fast for me, and.
Speaker 2: That's the man's planning for Oh that is hilarious.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm gonna yeah, Okay, So I'm gonna brown
Speaker 1: break and just a quick brown break because I posted
Speaker 1: this on my ig stories.
Speaker 2: I'm brown breaking from.
Speaker 1: My mentee reached out to me because she had spent
Speaker 1: like a lot of money to learn how to grow
Speaker 1: a business from, like, you know, everybody now is like
Speaker 1: a business culture consultant, and a lot of these are millennial,
Speaker 1: you know, there's most of them are like millennial ass
Speaker 1: which is no shame shade to millennials, but like just
Speaker 1: young people, you know.
Speaker 2: And so she was attracted to this because she was like.
Speaker 1: Oh, they're young, I'm young. They're going to teach me
Speaker 1: how to grow business. She spent a couple thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and she walked away feeling like I didn't really learn anything,
Speaker 1: and so I'm gonna kind of brown break from. I
Speaker 1: gave her some tips next time about investing in herself
Speaker 1: that she should. There's nothing wrong with investing in yourself.
Speaker 1: You obviously should. And so she never thought about it,
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, did this person ever grow business
Speaker 1: outside of like them selling me this business class, and
Speaker 1: they if you really kind of looked into this person's
Speaker 1: social media whatever, that you don't see anything else other
Speaker 1: than my business is to tell you how to have
Speaker 1: a business.
Speaker 2: And so I was like, that's a red flag.
Speaker 1: And so I'm kind of brown breaking from that business model,
Speaker 1: which is the business of teaching you how to have
Speaker 1: a business, but not.
Speaker 2: Having a business, not having a business myself.
Speaker 1: And I felt bad because I could tell she was like,
Speaker 1: cause she doesn't have a whole bunch of money, so
Speaker 1: to spend two thousand dollars and it.
Speaker 3: Was two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: The gall the unmitigating golfing, the actual f you know.
Speaker 1: But I told her, you we all learned these lessons,
Speaker 1: my mentee, we all learn these lessons. And it's a
Speaker 1: hard lesson to learn. But knowing that when you're choosing
Speaker 1: experts to listen to, to make sure that they've actually done
Speaker 1: the thing that they're teaching you, not just teaching you
Speaker 1: how to do the thing. I mean, I'm not trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, stop anybody's hustle, but you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just honestly, it's it's not very fair and it's
Speaker 1: not right. Someone' was like well, what about you. You
Speaker 1: taught about money before you have money. I'm like, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: When I was broke, all I taught was how to
Speaker 1: budget because I was the best broke budget and that's
Speaker 1: literally what I taught. And then when I fixed my credit,
Speaker 1: I taught how did I fix my credit? And then
Speaker 1: when I got out of debt, I taught how did
Speaker 1: I get out of debt. I always talk from a
Speaker 1: place of I did this thing, It actually works, And let.
Speaker 2: Me show you how if you.
Speaker 1: You know, are looking for business advice, especially if you're
Speaker 1: going to pay for it, to really you know, to
Speaker 1: vet the person that you're paying to make sure that
Speaker 1: they they really have an expertise in that topic, that
Speaker 1: they have a business outside of teaching you how.
Speaker 2: To have a business.
Speaker 3: Can I add one thing because we got an email
Speaker 3: from a listener named Carly. It's not a question, but
Speaker 3: she just wanted to let us know about some scam. Essentially,
Speaker 3: she you know these like group trips online, like retreats
Speaker 3: or girl tribes. You know these these group travel trips.
Speaker 3: We've talked about some of them before. Just to make
Speaker 3: sure you vet those two because she got scammed out
Speaker 3: of money. She basically paid for a costa Rica retreat
Speaker 3: that she paid for in full before departure, and then
Speaker 3: two days before they were supposed to leave, they canceled
Speaker 3: the trip and the person who was running the trip
Speaker 3: said that she was scammed and all this messiness happened
Speaker 3: and they never received a refund. So just another example
Speaker 3: that makes me so mad.
Speaker 1: Yes, so I would say with those type of things,
Speaker 1: if you could pay via PayPal, because PayPal typically sides
Speaker 1: with the with the buyer.
Speaker 3: Ah, that's that's true, and you're like your credit card. Yeah,
Speaker 3: some credit cards have good liability, like if you have
Speaker 3: a if you have a record to the transaction and
Speaker 3: you tell your credit card company that you didn't get
Speaker 3: what you were supposed to receive, you can file a
Speaker 3: fraud alert and they will investigate and maybe refund you
Speaker 3: the money.
Speaker 1: If whenever I'm buying anything online, I really try to
Speaker 1: use my credit card, or if I'm purchasing something, I
Speaker 1: use PayPal. Even if they're like, oh, could you pay
Speaker 1: this way, I'm like, can I do PayPal that way?
Speaker 1: If I don't get it, I can say, hey, PayPal
Speaker 1: didn't get it, because PayPal will while they're weight they'll
Speaker 1: freeze so that person will not be able to pull
Speaker 1: that and draw that money. They'll freeze it and they'll
Speaker 1: pull it right back.
Speaker 3: PayPal is one of the only like P two P
Speaker 3: like payment services that actually cover covers you for that
Speaker 3: kind of stuff, which everyone's finding out now. If you
Speaker 3: use like zell or Venmo and you try and pay
Speaker 3: for a service or like a product from someone else
Speaker 3: and they try out to be a scammer, you're not covered.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Definitely make sure. That's a good tip. So credit cards
Speaker 3: are use PayPal.
Speaker 2: At a venimum exactly. Question time, Brian, do we get
Speaker 2: any questions? Because I know last and we were a
Speaker 2: little light.
Speaker 3: Did we ever? We got some good We got a
Speaker 3: good couple of good questions this week. Am I save
Speaker 3: a couple for next week? Again? If you guys have questions,
Speaker 3: hit us up at Brand Ambition Podcasts at gmail dot
Speaker 3: com that I'll send us an email directly, or you
Speaker 3: can go to our website. Yes, we have one Brand
Speaker 3: Ambition podcast dot com and hit ask us anything. First
Speaker 3: questions from listener Neka says, I love the podcast. I've
Speaker 3: been following Tiffany the Budgetista for over a year and
Speaker 3: then I saw a video a while back where she
Speaker 3: said she has a podcast and now I love Mandy. Oh,
Speaker 3: thank you girl. Her question is Necka's question is I
Speaker 3: have credit card debt of twenty thousand dollars and student
Speaker 3: loan debt of over two hundred thousand dollars. Which is
Speaker 3: going I'm going to start the snowball method by paying
Speaker 3: off the lowest balance on my credit card first. But
Speaker 3: I'm wondering should I withdraw some money from my retirement
Speaker 3: fund for my old job to help pay down the
Speaker 3: debt or is that an I don't know touching retirement money.
Speaker 3: I have six figure income as a health professional, but
Speaker 3: with four young children and being the sole breadwinner, I
Speaker 3: am really feeling like I'm affluent poor trying to get
Speaker 3: out of an overwhelming situation and take some actionable steps.
Speaker 3: Please help affluent poor. It's crazy when you can be
Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, if you want to find
Speaker 3: out how you can be six figures, earn six figures
Speaker 3: and still feel broke have four kids, Okay, yes we
Speaker 3: feel I mean, I don't feel you. I was one
Speaker 3: of four children, so I was part of the problem.
Speaker 3: But plus, if you need to do everything right, she's
Speaker 3: a doctor, she's a healthcare professional. But when it got
Speaker 3: a medical degree, that's easily a few hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 3: in debt. So this is not an outrageous amount of
Speaker 3: debt to have, but dipping into a retirement fund, Tiffany,
Speaker 3: what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1: So my knee jerk reaction is almost always don't do
Speaker 1: it because one day your old lady self will need it.
Speaker 1: But there are some instances where it's like if you're
Speaker 1: really drowning, drowning and there's like no way out, sometimes
Speaker 1: that's a way out.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Have you looked into the forgiveness program before they totally
Speaker 1: take it away. I don't know where you work, but oftentimes,
Speaker 1: you know, doctors, if you work at a specific type
Speaker 1: of hospital that you might you might qualify for the
Speaker 1: student loan forgiveness program, which would help tremendously, you know,
Speaker 1: or you might be someone where it makes sense to say, well,
Speaker 1: is there something I can do to qualify for the
Speaker 1: forgiveness program? Is there a job that I can get
Speaker 1: that would still pay me this basically the same amount
Speaker 1: of money?
Speaker 2: But because this is this hospital is a.
Speaker 1: Nonprofit hospital or run by a nonprofit, then I can
Speaker 1: I can qualify and get this loan forgiven, because that's
Speaker 1: a lot of money. And to me, it would be
Speaker 1: worth it to switch a job to qualify for the
Speaker 1: forgiveness program if I was gonna make the same amount
Speaker 1: of money to get two hundred thousand forgiven.
Speaker 2: So consider that.
Speaker 1: But what I don't want you to do is like
Speaker 1: knee jerk reactions, say well, let me take this money
Speaker 1: from this four to one k, because what if to yes,
Speaker 1: now you are really in dire streets and then you
Speaker 1: don't have that access. Start the snowball method, automate it
Speaker 1: and truck along. And you know, I'm assuming you're going
Speaker 1: to get raises, you know, typically at you know, at
Speaker 1: least the rate of inflation every year, and you can
Speaker 1: put those raises towards your debt and slowly but surely
Speaker 1: work toward it without pulling from retirement.
Speaker 3: I think she's right to focus on the credit card
Speaker 3: debt first. She has about twenty thousand dollars in credit
Speaker 3: card debt. I mean, if we're assuming it's about the
Speaker 3: typical average APR that's you know, fifteen, maybe sixteen percent
Speaker 3: or higher that that credit card debt's accruing at and
Speaker 3: twenty thousand dollars can quickly become even more like every month,
Speaker 3: you're just taking a percentage of that debt and adding
Speaker 3: it to your debt balance. So focusing on that is
Speaker 3: good first. What I would say, so, let's say, worst
Speaker 3: case scenario, she can't qualify for any loan forgiveness programs.
Speaker 3: You know, even if she did, it's not like a
Speaker 3: quick fix. Have you looked into refinancing. I'm assuming if
Speaker 3: you go to medical school, you probably have some private
Speaker 3: loan debt and some federal student loan debt. Consider refinancing
Speaker 3: your debt with a lender. There's multiple private lenders out
Speaker 3: there that will refinance your debt. You can. I'll put
Speaker 3: a list. I'll send you a list at Magnifying Money.
Speaker 3: We've done a roundup. I don't want to refer you
Speaker 3: to any one particular lender because they all offer different
Speaker 3: rates and terms. It's really about choosing the lender that
Speaker 3: gives you the best rate, gives you the best terms
Speaker 3: for a student loan refinance. But if you were to refinance,
Speaker 3: they would basically pay off your existing loans and then
Speaker 3: you would have one loan payment with them and you
Speaker 3: would have one new hopefully lower interest rate, which can
Speaker 3: potentially give you more time to pay off your loan.
Speaker 3: It can make the payments more manageable so that you
Speaker 3: can throw as much as you can toward your credit
Speaker 3: card debt and get that paid off first.
Speaker 1: The good thing is, you know you make good money.
Speaker 1: But also the good thing is you have for beautiful children.
Speaker 1: But the bad thing is your for beautiful children are expensive.
Speaker 1: So but you won't always have this debt, and so
Speaker 1: you'll be able to feel the affluent part and not
Speaker 1: so much the four poor part as you continue to
Speaker 1: pay off the debt.
Speaker 3: I hope your kids are really really rich one day. Yes,
Speaker 3: but that's not a good investment plan. Don't do that.
Speaker 3: It's okay. Let's take one more quick question from listener Antonia.
Speaker 3: And Tonia has a quick question. She wants to know
Speaker 3: what's the difference between opening an IRA through your bank
Speaker 3: versus going with a robo investment company like Betterment thanks
Speaker 3: above the show.
Speaker 1: Yes, well it's I've never opened a Betterment, but I'm
Speaker 1: assuming those were investing companies. Don't you kind of fill
Speaker 1: out a profile and they pick for you exactly.
Speaker 3: Actually, this is a good question for me because Antonia
Speaker 3: I had had the exact same question. I'm trying to
Speaker 3: start an investment account. I've I've been saying I'm going
Speaker 3: to do it for a while, just outside of my
Speaker 3: four to one K, so I can start investing for
Speaker 3: wealth on the side. And I'm wondering should I go
Speaker 3: with Betterment or these other robo advisors like Acorns or
Speaker 3: wealth Front. And basically what they do is you fill
Speaker 3: out a profile. They kind of determine what your risk,
Speaker 3: what your risk tolerance is, and how aggressive you want
Speaker 3: to be as an investor, and then they kind of
Speaker 3: put you into different mutual funds and it's it's a
Speaker 3: smart way to invest because they're kind of taking the
Speaker 3: human error out of the equation. And if you're do
Speaker 3: it investing, it can be really good because you don't
Speaker 3: want to spend a lot of time picking and choosing investments.
Speaker 3: The important thing is you just want to start investing,
Speaker 3: and they kind of just put you into some low
Speaker 3: cost mutual funds right away and then do the work
Speaker 3: for you. But because they're doing it via these algorithms,
Speaker 3: they charge a lot lower fees than you would get
Speaker 3: if you went to like a traditional bank invest or,
Speaker 3: a traditional investment firm, and got you know, a human
Speaker 3: investment manager to manage your stuff for you. So thus
Speaker 3: the prose of betterment. If you're someone who wants to
Speaker 3: if you really want to learn more about investments and
Speaker 3: you want to you want to actually pick and choose
Speaker 3: your individual mutual funds and have more of an active
Speaker 3: approach to that than opening up an IRA through your
Speaker 3: bank may work for you only if you know you're
Speaker 3: willing to do that extra bit of work.
Speaker 1: So I'll say that what I do like about, like
Speaker 1: you said, the betterment, it's that that automation.
Speaker 2: Piece, and you just have to be mindful of fees.
Speaker 1: So the rule right is if you have like an
Speaker 1: in person, real person that's managing you, really should not
Speaker 1: pay more than one percent on the value of your
Speaker 1: Like you have to ask, like, how are fees paid,
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, we charge one point five percent
Speaker 1: too high. No more than one percent for a real person,
Speaker 1: and no more than half a percent for a like
Speaker 1: robo advisor.
Speaker 2: These are people that you're not going to meet. This
Speaker 2: is just like an algorithm.
Speaker 1: So just keep that in mind as you know that
Speaker 1: half a percent is significant. You know when it comes
Speaker 1: down to how much money you'll have in the end.
Speaker 1: So that's why a lot of people, especially millennials, are
Speaker 1: really leading towards the robo advising because it's it's set
Speaker 1: it and forget it, and it's much cheaper.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the fees are better, man, They're like
Speaker 3: less than half a percentage point, which is good, which
Speaker 3: is good. You can get lower fees than that if
Speaker 3: you put your own, if you go to Vanguard and
Speaker 3: you put together like your little mutual funds, because most
Speaker 3: mutual most mutual funds like a I'm invested. For example,
Speaker 3: I kind of put together my own retirement, my four
Speaker 3: to one K. What I did is I went to
Speaker 3: my old four to one K target date fund that
Speaker 3: I had through Vanguard. Target date fund is basically it's
Speaker 3: put together based on your age and it automatically adjusts
Speaker 3: your investments as you get older. And I've had I've
Speaker 3: liked my target date fund, but my new company that
Speaker 3: I recently joined doesn't offer the same target date fund,
Speaker 3: so I kind of had to put together the exact
Speaker 3: They did offer the pieces that I had in my
Speaker 3: target date fund though, so I kind of put together
Speaker 3: the same fund with my new employer, and I think
Speaker 3: the total expense ratio, which is the annual cost of
Speaker 3: managing that fund, is something like zero point one point
Speaker 3: seven percent, which is great, which is amazing, you know,
Speaker 3: and you can say that's less than half what Betterment's charging.
Speaker 3: But I had to go in there, and I had
Speaker 3: to know a little bit to be able to do that.
Speaker 3: And I think if you're a beginning investor, I would.
Speaker 3: I think that there's a lot to be said for
Speaker 3: these rogo advisors because they kind of it's for me.
Speaker 3: I'm all about, like, Okay, it's good to compare your options,
Speaker 3: you know, compare the robot to the I ray and
Speaker 3: the traditional and all that kind of stuff. But just
Speaker 3: start investing. Yeh, don't get too caught up in it.
Speaker 3: I mean you can't. I mean, I don't want to
Speaker 3: say you can't go wrong. But with a betterment, with
Speaker 3: you know, opening up a target date fund at a
Speaker 3: regular investment firm, I mean, you're getting in there, you're
Speaker 3: not paying a lot of fees. You know that upfront
Speaker 3: they're investing you in some really diverse portfolios, so you're
Speaker 3: already ahead of the game in a way. It's better
Speaker 3: than sitting there and twiddling your thumbs and like anguishing over.
Speaker 3: I don't understand every little bit of this yet. Just
Speaker 3: get started, that's what's important.
Speaker 1: Wind this week, my wind is super easy. My Superman
Speaker 1: is signed up for a lead removal class. We could
Speaker 1: finally make some movement on the house. We got the
Speaker 1: water turned on after they told us they couldn't find
Speaker 1: the spicket. And yeah, finally some movement on the house.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking for a contractor. I put like a
Speaker 1: call out so in the next before the end of
Speaker 1: this month, work will have begun on the house.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited.
Speaker 3: Okay, it's all happening.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's not.
Speaker 3: She oh, I wish I had a funhouse update.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't have a fun house update. I actually listened
Speaker 3: to Tiffany's interview on the friend Zone, and I think Tiffany,
Speaker 3: am I have saved me from making well I don't
Speaker 3: know yet. You know where we want to do this
Speaker 3: big renovation, and I've kind of had it in my
Speaker 3: mind we're going to do everything right away, and it's
Speaker 3: looking increasingly like we will not be able to pay
Speaker 3: for cash. Basically, I held aside cash to put toward
Speaker 3: the renovation, and it may not be enough because we
Speaker 3: have to do all this HVAC stuff and what about
Speaker 3: like blah blah blah and all the you know, we're
Speaker 3: talking to vendors and they have like financing plans and
Speaker 3: we can take out a home improvement loan and all
Speaker 3: these things are these options are sort of throwing it's
Speaker 3: sort of been you know, thrown at me. And now
Speaker 3: I'm that I had to like stop myself listening to
Speaker 3: your podcast, listening to that episode you did on the
Speaker 3: friend Zone where you were talking about here's here's Shelley,
Speaker 3: who you know, gets a new house and then finance
Speaker 3: all her furniture. And then here's like Mandy who waits
Speaker 3: a year, saves up, moves in with his sister, like
Speaker 3: saves up by some Craigslist furniture in the meantime, and
Speaker 3: then saves up to buy her furniture cash. And here's
Speaker 3: what their financial picture looks like. And I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't want to be Shelley. Yeah, but it's interesting.
Speaker 1: It is the financial life away for the things that
Speaker 1: you want. Why like even us, of course we want
Speaker 1: to do every little thing, but we're taking our time
Speaker 1: because we're like Okay, we could spend.
Speaker 2: Eight thousand dollars on lead removal, or Superman can.
Speaker 1: Take a three hundred dollars class and him and his
Speaker 1: cousins can take a week to do the led removal themselves.
Speaker 1: Since for the city of city where we work, of Newark,
Speaker 1: you know, he does like maintenance and super stuff.
Speaker 2: I don't know, like fixy stuff, you know.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, well, this is just an extension, like
Speaker 1: almost like you now, he's certified to do leed removal,
Speaker 1: which is something that you know, we can actually right
Speaker 1: off for his job. So taking your time and you know,
Speaker 1: not kind of over financing yourself. In the end you
Speaker 1: get the house and the income and the money. So yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody goes crazy when it comes to renovations. I mean
Speaker 1: you watch HGTV. Everybody goes over them.
Speaker 3: And it makes you feel like you need to have
Speaker 3: everything done right away and it's nice right Like I'm
Speaker 3: just like, God, I wish we had just been on
Speaker 3: an episode of Property Brothers. I could have had this
Speaker 3: done a six to eight weeks. The Jonathan never the
Speaker 3: Twins never fail. Unfortunately they're not filming in my county's
Speaker 3: my state right now, So I couldn't do that, so
Speaker 3: we're doing it all, you know, the old fashioned way.
Speaker 3: And these vendors, though, they make you feel like he
Speaker 3: got to make decisions now. They're like, oh, it's the
Speaker 3: summertime and you know all these other people are lining up,
Speaker 3: so you need And I just feel like, Okay, I'm
Speaker 3: feeling uncomfortable. I feel like I'm being pressured and my
Speaker 3: spidy sense is going up and all this has been happening.
Speaker 3: And then I heard you on the podcast and I'm like,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm going to have to press pause
Speaker 3: a little bit and just take a step back, and
Speaker 3: I'm not to talk to my husband and just say
Speaker 3: I don't think we want to put ourselves in this situation,
Speaker 3: at least not right now. And stop believing that there
Speaker 3: are these like artificial timelines and artificial deadlines, because there's not.
Speaker 3: Like we are not we're not real estate investors. We're
Speaker 3: not flipping this house in a year. We're going to
Speaker 3: live here for a decade or more. So we can
Speaker 3: we should take our time. And I made a plan.
Speaker 3: I made a meeting with our financial planner on Friday,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to get her advice and opinions on
Speaker 3: what we could potentially afford, like what we could afford
Speaker 3: to do now that would leave us comfortable where we
Speaker 3: want to be, feeling like we're too over leveraged and
Speaker 3: over financed because I am not like we're just like
Speaker 3: we're doing too well to struggle. I don't want to
Speaker 3: be like I don't want to be house poor. So quickly,
Speaker 3: that's my that's what That's the last thing I want.
Speaker 2: Okay, same, Look, that's good.
Speaker 3: Thanks Tiffany, You're welcome.
Speaker 1: And I spoke to it, like randomly, not that necessarily
Speaker 1: believe in psychics, but this like psychic lady reached out
Speaker 1: to me asking me for some financial advice.
Speaker 2: Was like, huh, I feel a baby presence near you.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'll take it.
Speaker 4: I know, I said, you know what, I don't know
Speaker 4: that I believe it all that, but I'll take it.
Speaker 3: So were you watching that live feed of your nephews
Speaker 3: daycare at the same time?
Speaker 2: I know, I know. She was like, huh it's a girl.
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, girl, I know.
Speaker 1: So no, I mean, well I don't I mean no,
Speaker 1: I mean because they say women say that they're not pregnant.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: That, but you know, but they just say you should
Speaker 1: never deny it. So I'm just like, for those women
Speaker 1: who want to get pregnant, I don't if it's just
Speaker 1: the old wives.
Speaker 3: Tale positive thinking.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly so.
Speaker 1: But when she said it, I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna add all the baby vibes and and dust and.
Speaker 2: Juju or whatever you guys have said it to me,
Speaker 2: continue to say that.
Speaker 1: I will take every I'll take the Jewish vibe, I'll
Speaker 1: take Christian vibe, I'll take Muslim vibes. Whatever you I'm
Speaker 1: not bicky. I'll take the ball. So when she said it,
Speaker 1: I said, okay, girl, I'll take it. And this is
Speaker 1: how you fix your credit. So yeah, so hopefully good
Speaker 1: news soon
Speaker 3: Okay, Fingers crossed,