Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, we're back. We're black, We're brown. Hey,
Speaker 1: mandra Hey.
Speaker 2: You don't sound very ambition.
Speaker 3: Oh sorry, yeah, it's been a long year, I know.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, Yes, yes, I just I mean, I
Speaker 3: feel like we're all it's hard. Maybe I'll just give
Speaker 3: myself a break and just can I just complain for
Speaker 3: a second. And I also want to give everyone else
Speaker 3: permission to complain, because what I find myself doing is
Speaker 3: not is being like, well, you know, we're all this,
Speaker 3: Like I'm not the only one. Everyone's gotten kids, some
Speaker 3: people have this going on. At least I'm not sick. Okay,
Speaker 3: all of that is true. But I think we're at
Speaker 3: the point now where we know this is going to
Speaker 3: be life as we know it for at least the
Speaker 3: next month and probably longer if we are realistic. And
Speaker 3: I think it's time for us to stop practicing like
Speaker 3: in naive optimism or like radical optimism to the point
Speaker 3: where I think it can almost be hurtful to people,
Speaker 3: you know, like we're not going to pray our way
Speaker 3: out of this, and there's not a ton of silver linings.
Speaker 3: I mean, there are definitely positive outcomes to this whole
Speaker 3: error that we're in right now. You know, you're forcing
Speaker 3: us to be closer to your family. You're forcing people
Speaker 3: to rely on one another and help each other.
Speaker 2: And that's all.
Speaker 3: Beautiful, but it's really for people who have whether you
Speaker 3: have kids or not, but especially those who have kids.
Speaker 3: Like the monumental shift that you have to make mentally
Speaker 3: about your work when everything everything is happening in a bubble,
Speaker 3: like everything is happening in these four walls that you
Speaker 3: live in. You know, bless people who live in tiny apartments.
Speaker 3: But even if you have a house, like your spouse,
Speaker 3: your child or children, your work, it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: if it weren't already clear, it's just it's throwing everything,
Speaker 3: all of the different dynamics of work, life balance, inequality
Speaker 3: for men and women. It's throwing all that into the mix.
Speaker 3: It's throwing who holds the bulk of childcare and the relationship,
Speaker 3: is throwing that in the mix. And it's also like
Speaker 3: you're working with people who are also dealing with the
Speaker 3: same crap that you're dealing with if they have kids
Speaker 3: at home or you know, their worlds are upended, and
Speaker 3: it's just such a bizarre time to it's almost like
Speaker 3: the people want I think we're at the point now
Speaker 3: where people's expectations that we can just pretend like this
Speaker 3: business as usual that is doing more harm to those
Speaker 3: of us whose work and home are so intertwined. Now,
Speaker 3: Like we need to acknowledge this is crazy, this is
Speaker 3: not normal.
Speaker 2: Because what do you do if you have a little
Speaker 2: like your four month old does not care that it's
Speaker 2: a conference car right now.
Speaker 3: Oh you and he's been on many he's been on.
Speaker 2: Because it's like what do you you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: it'd be one thing if let's just say, you know,
Speaker 2: you've been working from home all this time, and it
Speaker 2: was like, you know, it's been two years of you're
Speaker 2: working from home, so you know, you create a schedule.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe you have a nanny that comes. No, no,
Speaker 2: this is like oh yeah as of tomorrow, you in
Speaker 2: the four month old or like you and your two
Speaker 2: year old, Like it's so cute because like people on
Speaker 2: our team have little ones and they join they're like, hey,
Speaker 2: so we don't mind. But that doesn't work for everyone's job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean, fortunately I can work from home.
Speaker 3: And for those who are working out there, you know,
Speaker 3: you work at grocery stores, you're on their front lines
Speaker 3: in healthcare. Just God, bless you, and thank you so
Speaker 3: much for putting your lives at risk for the rest
Speaker 3: of us. I am really grateful, first and foremost that
Speaker 3: I have a job still, because they're projecting something like
Speaker 3: twenty to thirty percent unemployment, which is just.
Speaker 2: I can't my brain around it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, but but even people who had plans
Speaker 3: for childcare, you know, we had a nanny all set
Speaker 3: up to start, and I ended up talking to my
Speaker 3: pediatrician and because whether you know this nanny in particular,
Speaker 3: she worked part time encountering patients at a physical therapy center,
Speaker 3: not necessarily people who were sick, but who were but anyway,
Speaker 3: she was around people in a healthcare environment. So we
Speaker 3: decided that was too risky. But even if she hadn't,
Speaker 3: you know, worked in the arena of healthcare a little bit,
Speaker 3: like even people who had nanny's who even would agree
Speaker 3: to social distance, you still can't trust that people aren't
Speaker 3: encountering other people who could have the virus. So a
Speaker 3: lot of people just got rid of their childcare plans.
Speaker 3: So so, yeah, the baby is here, and it's.
Speaker 2: Been really freaking hard.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie I've been working at home since
Speaker 3: March ninth, so it's like my fourth week. For a
Speaker 3: lot of people, it's their third week working remote. My husband,
Speaker 3: I think, has had the hardest time with the because
Speaker 3: I had maternity leave, Like, oh, you mean I can't
Speaker 3: go anywhere do anything I want to do, and I'm
Speaker 3: just chained to this house forever. Okay, cool, that's maternity leave.
Speaker 3: So I was prepared a little bit for this new normal.
Speaker 3: But the biggest challenge for us, and I think a
Speaker 3: lot of couples has been Okay, whose job. It's like
Speaker 3: that it's the first week. Really last week when we
Speaker 3: were spending you know, both of us expected to work
Speaker 3: all day, you know, with with our respective jobs. For
Speaker 3: the first time, we really had like a power struggle
Speaker 3: of whose meetings were more important, who was better at
Speaker 3: doing X, Y Z with the baby, and you know,
Speaker 3: we it was just a hot damn mess. That's all
Speaker 3: I'm going to say. And I don't know if you
Speaker 3: and Superman, Well, Superman, he's still going out to his job, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, bless him for being out there, but that
Speaker 3: is that makes things a little bit easier.
Speaker 2: I feel like, yeah, yeah, no, it does. And then
Speaker 2: but I also I am always scared. Like this morning, you know,
Speaker 2: he woke up and he was coughing. We both kind
Speaker 2: of looked at each other, like so because you know,
Speaker 2: he has to interact with people. He's considered an essential
Speaker 2: worker because he manages three hundred units for Newark Housing Authorities.
Speaker 2: So it's like they can't not have people there to
Speaker 2: manage the units. If something breaks, someone has to organize
Speaker 2: that getting fixed. If folks have to have you know,
Speaker 2: people there to help run these you know, these apartments.
Speaker 2: But I'm always worried. I mean, they one thing they
Speaker 2: have done at his job is that they give them
Speaker 2: three days on two days off now, so he only
Speaker 2: works Monday, either Monday Tuesday Wednesday or Monday Thursday Friday
Speaker 2: to kind of limit his exposure. And they only you know,
Speaker 2: if they're going into apartments now to do anything. They
Speaker 2: only can go in if it's an emergency. So it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, not like if something light is wrong, you
Speaker 2: know that has to wait. But still it's frightening because
Speaker 2: I three hundred units, times how many people per apartment
Speaker 2: or per townhouse. I mean someone he's running to has corona,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Oh, like, and so it's
Speaker 2: just just no way that they don't. And especially in
Speaker 2: New Jersey and Essex County has the highest cases. So
Speaker 2: I always think of that, like, I don't know, it's
Speaker 2: just it's a lot, it's a lot. And yeah, I
Speaker 2: love He has this great article on her her blog
Speaker 2: and it's called I think she called a toxic positivity,
Speaker 2: Yes where you know she was like, look here, Auntie, right,
Speaker 2: we don't need you to like you know, like the
Speaker 2: we can plead the blood of Jesus. And I'm not
Speaker 2: saying obviously, I mean I believe in God, you know,
Speaker 2: or higher source. And but that's not that's not how
Speaker 2: that ever works. You know, if that ever worked, then
Speaker 2: no one would ever die. Yeah, you know, babies wouldn't
Speaker 2: get sick, your grandma wouldn't pass. That's just not how
Speaker 2: that works. And pretending that well, if you would just pray,
Speaker 2: this would go away, it's actually more harm than good
Speaker 2: and so.
Speaker 3: And it's yeah, it's and you know, relationships are in jeopardy.
Speaker 3: I feel like, I mean, like I said, it was
Speaker 3: a really and I'm not even going to sugarcoat it.
Speaker 3: We had some huge, huge arguments last week and what's
Speaker 3: really saved us one. I have a therapist so I
Speaker 3: can talk to about these, which is super helpful. And
Speaker 3: for those of you who you know, mental health is
Speaker 3: a real anxiety for everybody right now. It just it's
Speaker 3: completely understandable if everyone's feeling it, and I really encourage
Speaker 3: you guys to look into getting help. A lot of
Speaker 3: therapists it's sort of forced them to adopt virtual therapy solutions,
Speaker 3: which I think is great because I feel like half
Speaker 3: the battle is just finding the time in your schedule
Speaker 3: to go to a therapist, and I think it's easier
Speaker 3: than ever now and mine has been doing virtual sessions anyway,
Speaker 3: So talking to someone has definitely helped. But for those
Speaker 3: who are struggling with a spouse and that tug of
Speaker 3: war over childcare and working the what's really helped me
Speaker 3: is to one give myself and give him a break.
Speaker 3: I was really expecting complete and total cooperation with whatever
Speaker 3: my you know, schedule was, and I was expecting for
Speaker 3: him to just know exactly sort of what was needed
Speaker 3: with the baby when he hasn't really been required to
Speaker 3: be home alone with the baby and alone time, and
Speaker 3: I was being really hard on him and really hard
Speaker 3: on myself and what I've tried to do and what
Speaker 3: I've talked to him about is like we were both
Speaker 3: just judging the other person, and like we were really
Speaker 3: like judging how we did the baby stuff and how
Speaker 3: we did the work stuff, and why do you have
Speaker 3: so many meetings? And doesn't your you know, and at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, this is not normal, Like
Speaker 3: nobody knows how to do this right, and the fact
Speaker 3: that we were criticizing the way each of us was
Speaker 3: doing it, I was like, no one knows how to
Speaker 3: do this. This has never been done. So we just
Speaker 3: need to give each other a break. The laundry is
Speaker 3: not going to get done all the time, the dishes
Speaker 3: are going to be dirty, the you know, our jobs
Speaker 3: are not going to be one hundred percent. They're not
Speaker 3: going to get one hundred percent of us like they
Speaker 3: usually do. We need to like get our teams, our
Speaker 3: respective managers, talk to them and let them know what
Speaker 3: they can expect from us, and then just be a
Speaker 3: lot easier on one another. And so far the last
Speaker 3: couple of days of last week and then today, it's
Speaker 3: been so much better. But it was fucking it's so hard.
Speaker 3: And yeah, homeboy, I have to tell you this funny
Speaker 3: story really quick. Just I was on a conference call
Speaker 3: last week and I had to hold the baby for
Speaker 3: whatever reason. Uh, he was being fussy and husband dropped
Speaker 3: him off of my lap and I was muted and
Speaker 3: everything was going great. Baby was just chilling. As soon
Speaker 3: as I unmuted my button, he took the largest, loudest dump,
Speaker 3: the biggest poop in my lap and it was so loud.
Speaker 2: It was so loud.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank god, it was hilarious. It was really hilarious.
Speaker 3: And I was like thanks baby, I mean honestly, and
Speaker 3: I've welcomed like, bring your kid, bring your pet, because
Speaker 3: it's just such a weird time, and you know, maybe
Speaker 3: people people have so far enjoyed having like a little
Speaker 3: comic relief from the baby popping in. But anyway, all
Speaker 3: that being said, if you're out there struggling with children
Speaker 3: at home, you're trying to homeschool, or you're you know,
Speaker 3: struggling with your spouse or your partner over who takes
Speaker 3: care of the kid. Now while you have a meeting,
Speaker 3: like there's no right way to do it, and the
Speaker 3: sooner you give yourself a break, the more happy you'll be.
Speaker 3: Just we all just need to give each other a break.
Speaker 2: I think yeah, like I said, I yeah, I honestly
Speaker 2: am trying not to anticipate anything because I just how
Speaker 2: you can do is put one foot in front of
Speaker 2: the other. And I know I have it way easier
Speaker 2: than most because Supergirl is She's thirteen, so honestly she
Speaker 2: doesn't need anything as far as like you know, like
Speaker 2: did you eat breakfast? I don't even have to make it.
Speaker 2: I just have to ask the question did you eat lunch?
Speaker 2: Like I make dinner, but breakfast and lunch is on
Speaker 2: her because we have all the fixing, so she can
Speaker 2: make herself cereal. She can make herself a sandwich. So
Speaker 2: the only thing it has been hard has been like
Speaker 2: with IVF, I'm like ah, and I still haven't like
Speaker 2: a manday and I talked about it offline. I still
Speaker 2: have not called. I don't know why. Sometimes I get
Speaker 2: whenever I get overwhelmed or afraid, I freeze, like I'm
Speaker 2: like I could be the super gold Gator or I
Speaker 2: can be the like endless procrastinator. I'm like nowhere in between.
Speaker 2: So when I get I noticed that about myself that
Speaker 2: when I get when I'm afraid of something, or you know,
Speaker 2: or I become really overwhelmed. I revert back to the
Speaker 2: like super procrastinated, where I'm like, I'm not doing anything
Speaker 2: and for some reason, I don't know, I'm afraid of
Speaker 2: what the IVF the answer is going to be, so
Speaker 2: I haven't called, even though I'm like I should call,
Speaker 2: and I'm like tiviny neagivew I'm actually I'm gonna make
Speaker 2: it tomorrow. I'm going to promise myself when to because
Speaker 2: they're closed now.
Speaker 3: But yeah, well that's give yourself a break for not calling. Yeah,
Speaker 3: for a first and foremost, it's crazy times right now.
Speaker 2: It is because I don't know, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what if the answer is not what I
Speaker 2: want to hear? As long as I don't call, I don't.
Speaker 2: It's like I don't have to. I can delay hearing
Speaker 2: the answer. It's just yeah, I don't know, like it's
Speaker 2: And then on top of that, which I guess is
Speaker 2: not a bad thing, it's been really busy as far
Speaker 2: as business is concerned, which has been honestly kind of
Speaker 2: also like a relief because it gives me space to
Speaker 2: not have to think so much and worry so much.
Speaker 2: So I can kind of like you know, like work.
Speaker 2: So that's actually been like put a blessing but also
Speaker 2: a little bit exhausting some days. But because you know,
Speaker 2: like all the press and the media and everybody wants
Speaker 2: to talk about the stimulus or the crash or the
Speaker 2: this or people you know online or like hey Tiffany,
Speaker 2: you know, should I save my money? Should I budget now?
Speaker 2: And so it's giving me like a nice little reprieve
Speaker 2: from like thinking about my own self and helping other
Speaker 2: people always helps me to kind of like forget, at
Speaker 2: least for a little while, any kind of stress I
Speaker 2: might be experiencing. So, like I said, that's been both
Speaker 2: helpful but then also sometimes overwhelmed me because some of
Speaker 2: the questions people ask, I'm like, wait what, you know, like,
Speaker 2: I'm not equipped to solve your life in.
Speaker 3: Huge, huge questions, and the uncertainty is real and there's
Speaker 3: no quick SoundBite for a lot of these questions that
Speaker 3: people have. You know, I'm grateful for the podcast. It
Speaker 3: gives us a platform to reach people, and you guys
Speaker 3: have been thunding in your questions. I hope you go
Speaker 3: back and listen to last week's show with Sharon Epperson
Speaker 3: CNBC when we spoke about some of the most common
Speaker 3: money questions we've been getting from you guys on today's show,
Speaker 3: we are definitely we're going to unpack that giant piece
Speaker 3: of legislation that passed last week in Congress and two
Speaker 3: trillion dollars, which is such a big I don't even
Speaker 3: know how I can't wrap my mind around that number.
Speaker 3: Two trillion dollars worth of emergency relief that Congress has passed,
Speaker 3: and we're going to unpack what that means for you,
Speaker 3: how much money you can expect to be getting from
Speaker 3: the government, if at all, and a couple other updates,
Speaker 3: whether you're a small business owner, you're someone who has
Speaker 3: a mortgage payment, or you're someone with student loan debt,
Speaker 3: and we can talk about maybe some assistance programs or
Speaker 3: some steps that you can take toward finding relief. So
Speaker 3: we take a quick break right now and we'll come
Speaker 3: back and talk about all of that good stuff. Okay,
Speaker 3: we're back, So Tiffany, let's unpack what our government has
Speaker 3: done for us, because we give them a lot of crap.
Speaker 3: But Capitol Hill, you know, Congress really came together last
Speaker 3: week and finally passed the third of three different bills.
Speaker 3: This one is really meaningful for people because this includes
Speaker 3: the check cash money, the stimulus check that many many
Speaker 3: Americans will be receiving, but not everyone. So let me
Speaker 3: just run down really quick how much you can expect
Speaker 3: and who's actually getting what. So, if you earn less
Speaker 3: than seventy five thousand dollars as an individual, you can
Speaker 3: qualify for h check of twelve hundred dollars. That amount
Speaker 3: decreases a little bit all the way up to ninety
Speaker 3: nine thousand dollars worth of income for an individual.
Speaker 2: So if you.
Speaker 3: Earn over ninety nine thousand dollars a year yet nothing,
Speaker 3: very likely you're not going to get anything.
Speaker 2: If you have children, well, let's be clear where they
Speaker 2: can find that, right, because I know people have been
Speaker 2: asking me, well, how do I know what I made?
Speaker 2: Because they're looking at your gross adjusted income, and it's
Speaker 2: really if you look at your ten forty tax like
Speaker 2: return book papers right, look at line eight B, that's
Speaker 2: where you're going to find it. Because I don't want
Speaker 2: people to be like, well I made this much like
Speaker 2: it's going to say there. I want you to just
Speaker 2: be clear where you're going to find that number. So
Speaker 2: eight B on your on your tax for your ten
Speaker 2: forty tax forms.
Speaker 3: Yes, so if you filed, and they're going to be
Speaker 3: looking at because this is going to be going through
Speaker 3: the irs. People want to know, how do I get
Speaker 3: the money? Most of you, if you've filed your taxes
Speaker 3: for twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen, they will base it
Speaker 3: off your income from either twenty nineteen. If you didn't file,
Speaker 3: then it'll be twenty eighteen. And then if if you
Speaker 3: got your federal tax refund through direct deposit, you should
Speaker 3: have no problem because that's the same way you'll be
Speaker 3: getting your stimulus funds. And yes, like Tiffany said, it
Speaker 3: is based on your adjusted gross income. So if you
Speaker 3: really want to know if you qualify, you can go
Speaker 3: to your last year's tax return or call up your
Speaker 3: accountant and just double check. For couples, So going back
Speaker 3: to how much of a check you'll get, so that
Speaker 3: was all for individuals. For couples, basically double that. So
Speaker 3: if you're a couple earning one hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 3: dollars jointly, then you can qualify for twenty four hundred
Speaker 3: dollars and that's gonna max out at one hundred and
Speaker 3: ninety eight thousand dollars of joint income, so and again
Speaker 3: twelve hundred dollars is the max, and then it'll it'll
Speaker 3: decrease a little bit all the way up to that
Speaker 3: those thresholds ninety nine thousand dollars for individuals or one
Speaker 3: hundred and ninety eight thousand dollars for couples. When are
Speaker 3: they going to get those checks, Tiffany, They.
Speaker 2: Will be getting their checks. When it came out Treasury
Speaker 2: Secretary Steve Muntion, I was think his name is Finnie anyway,
Speaker 2: he said three weeks, which basically lands around like April seventeen.
Speaker 2: That's what chery so basically almost like what our traditional
Speaker 2: taxes are do is is what they're you know, we
Speaker 2: know we've been they've been pushed back, but around that time,
Speaker 2: so about April seventeen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they said a few weeks. I mean, but that's
Speaker 3: I've only seen like about a few weeks as an estimate,
Speaker 3: and I still feel like it's TBD. It's such as
Speaker 3: it's the first time they've ever done this, and it's
Speaker 3: such a massive program. So I would say, you know,
Speaker 3: what's today's when's this show? Going to be airing April first.
Speaker 3: Keep checking news reports for an update on that. But
Speaker 3: right now, yeah, a few weeks are checks tax they're
Speaker 3: not taxed, Nope, which is the good news. So I
Speaker 3: mean hopefully for a lot of people. I mean it's
Speaker 3: obviously twelve hundred dollars is for a lot of people
Speaker 3: a meaningful amount of money. We got a question on
Speaker 3: the Gram from a listener who wanted to remain anonymous, asking,
Speaker 3: you know, if we get a stimulus check, what should
Speaker 3: that money go towards. Should we be using it for
Speaker 3: our next house payment, or should we be putting it
Speaker 3: toward debt? Should we be stashing it away for savings?
Speaker 3: Do you want to take that tonique?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so honestly, So here's kind of like in order
Speaker 2: that I think anyway that one take care of your
Speaker 2: current bills. So if you have something that's like behind,
Speaker 2: then you know, I would use the money to get current.
Speaker 2: That's like really what it's kind of for, because we're
Speaker 2: assuming that you were either laid off or maybe your
Speaker 2: income has been temporarily paused, So get current on your bills.
Speaker 2: So that's one. Next, I would use that money in
Speaker 2: one or two ways. So I would say, I believe
Speaker 2: it was last week or the week before where I
Speaker 2: said that I wouldn't be aggressive in debt pay down
Speaker 2: right now because it's much more important that you have
Speaker 2: some emergency savings saved. But the caveat is I would
Speaker 2: for student loan because right now, if you have federal
Speaker 2: student loans, you're your interest rate. The interest component of
Speaker 2: your federal student loans has been paused until September, which
Speaker 2: means every single dollar you pay to your student loans
Speaker 2: is going to go to your principle. So that's huge.
Speaker 2: So I would consider if your whole and you're not
Speaker 2: laid on any payments and you don't need money for that,
Speaker 2: I would consider if I had federal student loans, putting
Speaker 2: some money toward them because and being a little bit
Speaker 2: more aggressive only because all of your money is going
Speaker 2: to go toward what you owe, so that's huge. And second,
Speaker 2: I would use some of that money. If I don't
Speaker 2: have three to six months ideally six months worth of
Speaker 2: emergency savings, I certainly would be putting the money toward
Speaker 2: my emergency savings because we still don't know what's going
Speaker 2: to happen. I know we have the stimulus, the purpose
Speaker 2: of the stimulus is to stimulate the economy. And what
Speaker 2: you did to think of, like I was sharing with
Speaker 2: some dreamcatchers, that the money is like literally blood flowing
Speaker 2: through the economy, which is a boy. So when the
Speaker 2: money stops flowing, then the body. Parts of the body
Speaker 2: start to die and then eventually it just all dies.
Speaker 2: And so that's why the federal government is giving us
Speaker 2: money because we are low on blood. And if something
Speaker 2: doesn't pump blood through this economic body, we're susceptible to
Speaker 2: an economic collapse, which is a recession and at worse,
Speaker 2: a depression, which we don't want. And the depression is
Speaker 2: a series of recessions. And when our economy drops by
Speaker 2: I think it's like ten percent or more consistently for
Speaker 2: two years or more. So we don't want that. So
Speaker 2: as a result, yeah, we're getting that money to kind
Speaker 2: of flow through the market, to throw through the economy.
Speaker 2: So I would save it, I would pay my bills
Speaker 2: if I needed to. Then I would save or and
Speaker 2: or aggressively pay down student loan debt if I had
Speaker 2: federal student loan debt. And if you don't have any
Speaker 2: of those things then and you're told you have six
Speaker 2: months worth of savings. Then I would also look into
Speaker 2: am I in short enough, I'm not going to. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's a little scary, are we. They don't know for
Speaker 2: sure what percentage what the death rate is quite yet
Speaker 2: of COVID nineteen, it's looking around three or four percent,
Speaker 2: but without accurate testing, they don't know for sure. But
Speaker 2: that's significant because the flu is er point zero one percent.
Speaker 2: So do you have adequate life insurance? I might put
Speaker 2: some toward that if I had those other things covered.
Speaker 2: And if you do, then quite honestly, I would look
Speaker 2: to use this excess money for investing. So if I
Speaker 2: checked off all those other boxes, then I might set
Speaker 2: aside that money and say, huh, you know, have I
Speaker 2: maxed out on my on my retirement account? And if
Speaker 2: I have, you know, maybe I can open up an
Speaker 2: investment account that's outside of retirement. So those are kind
Speaker 2: of like the order that I would go in with
Speaker 2: with my money if I was getting the twelve hundred
Speaker 2: or twenty four hundred dollars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I wonder if they're going to have
Speaker 3: to cut additional checks because you know, twelve hundred. Now,
Speaker 3: I honestly feel like people are so unsure about where
Speaker 3: the economy is going, because we're all unsure about it.
Speaker 3: You know, their hope that got Remant's hope is that,
Speaker 3: you know, people will take the money and then it'll
Speaker 3: flow through the economy because people will spend it at
Speaker 3: businesses and things like that. But I worry that people
Speaker 3: are or I wonder if people are just going to
Speaker 3: be so afraid that they're just going to hang on
Speaker 3: to it, which I completely understand, and like Tiffany said,
Speaker 3: in some cases it probably makes more sense to do that,
Speaker 3: but time will tell. I did want to clarify, so
Speaker 3: on the student loan interest waiver, that's just for federal
Speaker 3: student loan debt, like Tiffany said, and it's being waved
Speaker 3: through September thirtieth. Okay, just FYI for those of you
Speaker 3: who have student loan debt, So if you were considering
Speaker 3: refinancing your federal student loans right now, it really doesn't
Speaker 3: make sense. Right now, you're getting zero interests in your
Speaker 3: federal student loan debt, so I would leave them right
Speaker 3: where they are. And like Tiffany said, that just means
Speaker 3: that whatever you pay on them is going towards your principle,
Speaker 3: which you know, short of debt forgiveness, it's not a
Speaker 3: bad plan b so at least it's something a couple
Speaker 3: other things. So if you are a lot of this
Speaker 3: is being done at this style. But there may be
Speaker 3: ordinances from state governments preventing landlords from evicting people for
Speaker 3: a certain period of time. So some states have a
Speaker 3: complete ban on evictions through May or longer. Just in
Speaker 3: light of the fact that a lot of people, whether
Speaker 3: they lost their job or their income or whatnot, lots
Speaker 3: of people will be struggling to make payments on rent
Speaker 3: as a result of this economic shutdown. So check with
Speaker 3: your state and see what sort of relief programs they
Speaker 3: may have. And I just also want to say, whether
Speaker 3: it's your mortgage, or your credit card bill, or any
Speaker 3: sort of loan, call your servicer and just ask them
Speaker 3: if there's some sort of forbearance or some sort of
Speaker 3: relief program they have in place in light of what's
Speaker 3: happening with the COVID nineteen crisis. I know, in our
Speaker 3: research at lending Tree, we've found a lot of different
Speaker 3: banks already have pages dedicated to what kind of assistance
Speaker 3: they can offer borrowers in light of this outbreak so,
Speaker 3: but at the same time, they're not calling you up.
Speaker 3: They're not going to be like, oh, hey, you know, Tiffany,
Speaker 3: we know you have you know this auto loan, or
Speaker 3: this this credit card bill, We're going to take care
Speaker 3: of that, don't worry about that, or hey, we won't
Speaker 3: charge you interest. They're not going to come out and
Speaker 3: tell you that you have to be proactive pick up
Speaker 3: the phone and call them. I think one of the
Speaker 3: worst things you can do is just hope that things
Speaker 3: will figure themselves out. I really encourage you guys to
Speaker 3: pick up and call people, even.
Speaker 2: If you have a business. I write like, right now,
Speaker 2: you know they're giving those business loans slash grants, and
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. I was on the phone waiting
Speaker 2: for like an hour for Wells Fargo today and nobody
Speaker 2: picked up. I called my banker, apparently he no longer
Speaker 2: works at Wells Fargo. I was like, oh, this is great.
Speaker 2: So this I'm telling you, there's so much it's just crazy,
Speaker 2: because I mean, the good thing is is there is
Speaker 2: money available, but there's so little information as far as
Speaker 2: the banks are concerned because they're learning too. So I
Speaker 2: had to give them a little bit of grace because
Speaker 2: I was like, so what does it look like? How
Speaker 2: do I apply? I will say I did find the
Speaker 2: application online.
Speaker 3: So what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: Oh? So, so if you are a small business, not
Speaker 2: just a small business, if you're a small business, if
Speaker 2: you're a sole proprietor, if you are a contract worker,
Speaker 2: a gig worker. So you got a ten ninety nine,
Speaker 2: so you don't you know, so any like any almost
Speaker 2: anything except for working for a like having an employer.
Speaker 2: There is money set aside in this stimulus package for you,
Speaker 2: and I believe it's up to ten million dollars. So
Speaker 2: what it looks like is they are going to look
Speaker 2: at last year's operating expenses, so that means how much
Speaker 2: did it cost to run your business every month? And
Speaker 2: they're going to multiply that by two and a half time.
Speaker 2: So let's just say, for the sake of ease, that
Speaker 2: it costs you ten thousand dollars to run your business
Speaker 2: a month. So that's twenty five thousand dollars you are
Speaker 2: potentially eligible for to receive an assistance. The key is
Speaker 2: they're wanting you to use that money to maintain your staff.
Speaker 2: They do not want people to be let go and
Speaker 2: so the way it works is that it's a loan
Speaker 2: that twenty five hundred dollars with just that fictional twenty
Speaker 2: five hundred dollars. It's a loan as long as you
Speaker 2: maintain your staff and I believe it for eight weeks.
Speaker 2: And so if you do that, then that loan becomes
Speaker 2: a grant. And if you don't do that, and let's
Speaker 2: just say you have to let go fifty percent of
Speaker 2: your staff after taking this money, then you will owe
Speaker 2: back fifty percent of that money given to you, and
Speaker 2: they're going to give you ten years to pay it back.
Speaker 2: And I believe the interest rate honors anywhere from two
Speaker 2: to four percent, so still really really low, you know,
Speaker 2: really low interest on paying that back. The purpose of
Speaker 2: that part of the stimulus package is to keep small
Speaker 2: businesses open. And because small businesses account for about half
Speaker 2: it's not more than half of all employed people. So
Speaker 2: they're wanting small businesses that they open, and they want
Speaker 2: small businesses to contain and you to employ their people
Speaker 2: even if their people are home. And so they I mean,
Speaker 2: I googled it to find like the application. It was
Speaker 2: not easy. I'm like, sheesh, it's just woop child out here,
Speaker 2: and so I googled it and so literally it's at
Speaker 2: on the SBA Small Business Association Association dot gov website.
Speaker 2: So I'm sure if you go to SBA dot gov
Speaker 2: you should be able to find all these applications that
Speaker 2: you're looking for. So, like I said, you could be
Speaker 2: ten ninety nine, that means you're a contract worker, you
Speaker 2: could be a sole proprietor you can be you know,
Speaker 2: as long as your business is under five hundred employees,
Speaker 2: you can even be a nonprofit. So yeah, there, And
Speaker 2: what I love too is the paperwork is really light,
Speaker 2: so they're not doing you know, normally when you're trying
Speaker 2: to get a business loan, you have to give your
Speaker 2: firstborn and blood and none of that. They're being really light.
Speaker 2: They're like, you know, did you fire taxes. Let's take
Speaker 2: a look, and what it'll look like is that you
Speaker 2: file this application online. So my friend actually did this.
Speaker 2: You file the application online. Then she went into her bank,
Speaker 2: the bank that she uses for her business. I called
Speaker 2: my bank and they were like, no, girl, But she
Speaker 2: went into her bank and they let her do kind
Speaker 2: of like a pre application. So some banks are already
Speaker 2: kind of like up and running and geared for it.
Speaker 2: I don't know why Wells Fargo is not. So she
Speaker 2: already had kind of like her her meeting with her banker,
Speaker 2: and she's pre approved. She just has to wait for
Speaker 2: the funds and a couple of weeks when the funds
Speaker 2: are released by the federal government. I don't know what
Speaker 2: it's looking like for some of these bigger banks, but
Speaker 2: there are banks that are pre approved to disseminate these funds,
Speaker 2: and so we're honestly, I'm just waiting. I was on
Speaker 2: the phone waiting for Wells Fargo for like an hour
Speaker 2: today and it was like, we don't have the funds yet,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, how come her little bank in
Speaker 2: Florida is already ready up. I guess, you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: when a ship is so big, it's hard for them
Speaker 2: to turn it. And her bank in Florida is like
Speaker 2: a small, kind of like one off bank, so I
Speaker 2: guess you know, they were more prepared. But there's a
Speaker 2: lot of money coming to us. But the only thing
Speaker 2: I worry about. I don't know if you worry about this, Mandy,
Speaker 2: but I do as a finance geek, is uh, what
Speaker 2: about inflation? They're printing a lot of money a girl. Well,
Speaker 2: that's just tomorrow's problem. I saw, I saw, meaning that
Speaker 2: it's like, who's going to pay for this? Oh, Tomorrow's children.
Speaker 2: You ask Rio about it when he's when he's voting.
Speaker 2: But I did want to just clarify, so just to recap,
Speaker 2: and I will put as many resources as I can
Speaker 2: get my hands on for you guys. If you check
Speaker 2: the show notes, whether you're a small business owner, you
Speaker 2: have student loans, or you're just wondering how much of
Speaker 2: a stimulus check you get, check the show notes.
Speaker 3: For some links that you can use. But as far
Speaker 3: as small business relief, there's grants and there's loans, and
Speaker 3: I just wanted to just quickly recap just so it's
Speaker 3: clear to folks. So emergency grants, that's up to ten
Speaker 3: thousand dollars for emergency funds for small business who are
Speaker 3: struggling to cover, you know, just the cost of keeping
Speaker 3: the lights on right now. Then there's the loans, which
Speaker 3: Tiffany mentioned can be up to ten million dollars per
Speaker 3: business and could be potentially forgivable depending on some eligibility requirements.
Speaker 3: And like tiff said, you have to keep workers employed
Speaker 3: et cetera. And then lastly, there may be some relief
Speaker 3: if you already have a small businesslan There's also a
Speaker 3: chunk of cash in that bill that would cover up
Speaker 3: to six months of payments on for small businesses that
Speaker 3: are using SBA loans already. And again, be proactive. Like
Speaker 3: Tiffany said, I'm going to put the link to that
Speaker 3: SBA resource in the show notes. You guys can start
Speaker 3: that paperwork, and I just my heart goes out to
Speaker 3: all the small business owners out there, just like people
Speaker 3: that I'm desperate to give money to, like my hair
Speaker 3: dresser and the really nice lady who is doing my
Speaker 3: post natal massages that I miss so much. But for
Speaker 3: you know, it's not safe to work with people that closely.
Speaker 3: So these people out there whose businesses relies on contact
Speaker 3: with other humans, you know, they're really really struggling. So hopefully,
Speaker 3: hopefully this can provide some much needed relief for them.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, it's just Yeah, it's a live and
Speaker 2: that's as we learn more, we will share more.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, and you guys keep sending in your questions.
Speaker 3: Hit us up at Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: You can also send me a question via Instagram if
Speaker 3: you'd like to, or brond Ambision Podcast on the Gram
Speaker 3: or go to our website Brandnambission podcast dot.
Speaker 2: Com dot com.
Speaker 3: All right, boost and break?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, boost and break? Who child? Go ahead? Oh no,
Speaker 2: what I do have a boost? I want to boost?
Speaker 2: So I don't know if I said this the other day.
Speaker 2: Did I tell you that the books came in the mail,
Speaker 2: my Molly Moore books.
Speaker 3: You didn't tell me, but I you know, I follow
Speaker 3: you on the Gram, so I.
Speaker 2: Saw yes because I was trying to find like some
Speaker 2: silver line, but I didn't we have enough breaks right now,
Speaker 2: so trying to find some silver lining. And the Mollymore
Speaker 2: books came in the mail, and I have to say, honestly,
Speaker 2: they're beautiful. I was like, oh my gosh, it's like
Speaker 2: a real book, you know how Like it's like your
Speaker 2: friend that says they can sing and you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: she ay, but she can't really sing. No, these books
Speaker 2: can sing, you know, Like it looks like a real book,
Speaker 2: like the book that you would get at like Barnes
Speaker 2: and Nobles or Target. I can't wait to send them out.
Speaker 2: And I just got it word from the distributor because
Speaker 2: I know people have been hitting me up because they
Speaker 2: don't really fully understand how kickstarter works, which I get
Speaker 2: it because I wouldn't know unless I was using Kickstarter,
Speaker 2: you know, when I kickstarted the book. So the way
Speaker 2: kickstarter works is that you do your Kickstarter. I think
Speaker 2: the kickstarter ended, I want to say the beginning of March,
Speaker 2: and then they make you wait three weeks for your
Speaker 2: funds because for two weeks they try to make they
Speaker 2: try to charge people's cards that are on Kickstarter. They
Speaker 2: don't charge you right away. They only charge people's cards
Speaker 2: if the kickstarter is fully funded, and then they charge
Speaker 2: your card, and so for two weeks they charge your card,
Speaker 2: and so not everyone's card got charged. I think about
Speaker 2: forty people, you know, I guess they're just the funds.
Speaker 2: Weren't there no judgment, judgment, no, but so it wasn't
Speaker 2: a significant amount, which was good. And then they take
Speaker 2: their Kickstarter feed and they take their credit card feed,
Speaker 2: and then you wait another week and literally the money
Speaker 2: from like a month ago was just deposited into my account,
Speaker 2: which is like yay. And then on top of them,
Speaker 2: I had ordered books months ago because I knew I
Speaker 2: didn't want you guys, to wait, and books take about
Speaker 2: two or three months to print, so I ordered books
Speaker 2: like three months ago, and then this kind of I
Speaker 2: guess memorandum went down where it's like right now we
Speaker 2: are not shipping non essential items, and so it was
Speaker 2: touch and go, and I was just like, am I
Speaker 2: going to get these books? Like, what's happening? I know
Speaker 2: people are waiting. So finally they came in a couple
Speaker 2: of days ago and I was just hitting the distributor.
Speaker 2: So I ordered about three hundred from my house. Because
Speaker 2: some of the books some people ordered like a or
Speaker 2: chose a reward tier with their books. They wanted their
Speaker 2: books signed, and so I want to, you know, I
Speaker 2: wanted to. I have to ship them out myself. But
Speaker 2: the vast majority of the books, well over fifteen hundred
Speaker 2: of them, are going to be shipped directly from the distributor.
Speaker 2: But they didn't even have them yet. But I know
Speaker 2: people are a little bit frustrated, but I'm like, I
Speaker 2: can't say what's not here, So I've been trying to
Speaker 2: keep open lines of communication. So they literally just emailed
Speaker 2: me probably like an hour ago saying, hey, we finally
Speaker 2: have them here, and I'm like, finally, so I say
Speaker 2: all that to say that hopefully within a week, we're
Speaker 2: gonna start shipping out your books. We're just waiting for
Speaker 2: your bookmark. So that's another week. But if you if
Speaker 2: you ordered through Happy Birthday or if you order through
Speaker 2: the Kickstarter, please make sure you go back into Kickstarter
Speaker 2: and fill out the backer survey because that's how I
Speaker 2: get your address. So if you have not given me
Speaker 2: your address, I don't have a place to send the books.
Speaker 2: I sent out a message, but I know how it is.
Speaker 2: You know, it might have gone to spam or whatever.
Speaker 2: I send out a message through Kickstarter asking for your
Speaker 2: mailing address. So if you're hearing me and you're like,
Speaker 2: I never gave my mailing address, go back into Kickstarter.
Speaker 2: There should be there. There'll be like it'll it'll pop
Speaker 2: up and just give me your mailing address and all
Speaker 2: the information I'm asking for because within a week, you know,
Speaker 2: hopefully we'll have some good news in your hands. So
Speaker 2: that's my I know, that's my brown boos. Honestly, Mandy,
Speaker 2: it's so beautiful. I can't wait for you to see it.
Speaker 2: It's just like I just I can't believe it's real.
Speaker 2: It's like a real book. It doesn't look like one
Speaker 2: of those Oh you're self published, that's so cute. Now
Speaker 2: it's like a real book.
Speaker 3: I mean, I hope it is.
Speaker 2: I paid thirty books for work now, so I'm just excited.
Speaker 2: Because I also got the soft cover books. That's why
Speaker 2: people are like, haw, come the book was so expensive.
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, you weren't just paying for your book,
Speaker 2: you were paying for a book for another little baby.
Speaker 2: So the softcover books were also really like just they
Speaker 2: just look really well done. And I'm so pleased with
Speaker 2: the printer. The whole process has been like a lot
Speaker 2: of work, but like joyful work, you know. So it's
Speaker 2: a little bit of a little ray of sunshine in
Speaker 2: these dark, boding times.
Speaker 3: Congrats. I know this has been a labor of love
Speaker 3: for so long, so I can't wait to meet her
Speaker 3: in person. Molly Moore. Cool. So my break, I mean, sorry,
Speaker 3: my boost. I'm going to do a boost real quick,
Speaker 3: because you know, I know you guys don't need another
Speaker 3: way to communicate with people. We have Snapchat on Instagram
Speaker 3: and of course text messages. But I really like this
Speaker 3: app called Marco Polo, which is not necessarily a new app,
Speaker 3: but it is really really easy if you're trying to
Speaker 3: find a quick way to like send a video message
Speaker 3: to family and friends, and you can create groups and
Speaker 3: it's sort of like that annoying group chat that you're
Speaker 3: in on your on your text messages, which I love
Speaker 3: my little my family several family and several friend group chats,
Speaker 3: but they can be a little much and I like
Speaker 3: having a separate app to put them on. So if
Speaker 3: you're looking for a way to connect with family and friends,
Speaker 3: I really recommend Marco Polo. And just this week I've
Speaker 3: noticed like everybody and their brother has been signing up
Speaker 3: for it, and I think it's just everyone's flocking to
Speaker 3: find like a really good way to communicate with their
Speaker 3: loved ones really quick messages. And then you don't, you know,
Speaker 3: need to have need to go digging through your text
Speaker 3: to like find that message or getting a million message
Speaker 3: alerts from your text, you know, from your group threads.
Speaker 3: So highly highly recommend it. And if you don't want
Speaker 3: to download another app, I I'll do a brown Brown
Speaker 3: boost for just calling people. Don't bother leaving a voicemail though,
Speaker 3: like I did for Tiffany because she won't listen to it.
Speaker 2: A lot of people won't listen to that. Like in
Speaker 2: the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty, if.
Speaker 3: Someone leaves me a voicemail, I would think it was
Speaker 3: an emergency.
Speaker 2: No, I'm like, we had literally nobody listens to voicemail.
Speaker 3: Wine a time, right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, well you text me you were like, I left
Speaker 2: your voicemail? Like is she she said this? How how
Speaker 2: could you leave a voicemail and yet at the same
Speaker 2: time not have watched Golden Girls. You can't be the
Speaker 2: same person. It's either all or nothing.
Speaker 3: My window for watching anything that I haven't watched. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm my my information will only be thirty two and
Speaker 3: a half years old, like this is it. I can't
Speaker 3: absorb anything new. I haven't watched Tiger King. I don't
Speaker 3: know anything about that show. It's done. It's a rap.
Speaker 3: It took me five days to watch a movie last
Speaker 3: week because of the baby. So we'll see.
Speaker 2: Okay. The young kids would say, you're washed. That's what
Speaker 2: they'll be. Young kids would say, oh, like, oh, you're washed,
Speaker 2: and I'm like whatever, I'll be washed washed.
Speaker 3: Okay, sure, I'm super washed, super super washed.
Speaker 2: Basically, if I guess it's like Slanger like washed up,
Speaker 2: like it's you're old now, and I'm like, okay, I'll
Speaker 2: be washed. You're like, yeah, I'm washed. I'm like okay,
Speaker 2: so yeah, I learned that from Supergirl.
Speaker 3: Oh let me do a quick One of my couple
Speaker 3: of my friends were just we were talking about mental
Speaker 3: health earlier, and I know people listening just saying the
Speaker 3: word find a therapist is It's really good advice. I
Speaker 3: highly encourage it, but it takes it can take time
Speaker 3: and effort to find a therapist, and it took me
Speaker 3: a long time to find one myself that I liked.
Speaker 3: But I have been using and a lot of my
Speaker 3: friends have been loving this app called Calm Clm Calm app,
Speaker 3: which has meditations and like even if you have trouble sleeping,
Speaker 3: because the anxiety and troubles kind of float into your
Speaker 3: brain right when you're trying to go to sleep. At
Speaker 3: least that's my problem. They have like little stories you
Speaker 3: can listen to that help you drift off to sleep.
Speaker 3: I think they have. It does cost I forget how
Speaker 3: much it costs, but I think it's worth it, especially
Speaker 3: if you are looking for something just to help you
Speaker 3: relax and take away some of the stress. That's going
Speaker 3: on in this world today. I highly recommend the call app.
Speaker 2: Oh. I like their calm okay, call.
Speaker 3: Yes Zen, Yeah, just hang in there, man. I mean,
Speaker 3: I do feel like the silver lining for me is
Speaker 3: that my honestly, we get to spend a lot more
Speaker 3: time with the baby than we would have if we
Speaker 3: had been commuting every day. And I do see the
Speaker 3: value in that, and I feel like it's gonna make
Speaker 3: my marriage stronger, because if we can survive this, we
Speaker 3: can literally survive anything. That's how I feel. It is
Speaker 3: so hard, but well we're already doing better. We're already
Speaker 3: communicating better, we're helping each other more. And just give
Speaker 3: yourself grace out there, like I've been watching the Today
Speaker 3: Show because Hodah is just I just love me some
Speaker 3: Hoda and she's just like everyone's aunty right now, is
Speaker 3: what I feel like. And just be nice to people,
Speaker 3: and I don't know, go for a walk, I mean,
Speaker 3: do whatever you can to take care of yourself, because
Speaker 3: it's not something that's going to be over tomorrow. We
Speaker 3: need to start learning how to cope with this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, yeah, the new normal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, hug a nurse, hug a doctor. If you know
Speaker 3: anyone out there working and healthcare just I mean, those
Speaker 3: are the real heroes. I can't say that enough. So
Speaker 3: to all of you guys working, if you're out there,
Speaker 3: thank you, thank you, thank you. And we're all in
Speaker 3: this together, so let us know if you guys have
Speaker 3: any questions, continue coming to the show. Thank you for
Speaker 3: still listening to us with everything that's going on, and
Speaker 3: be well. Wash your hands, yes.
Speaker 2: Wash your hands and leave your fore k alone.
Speaker 3: What don't touch your hands or you're four one guy?
Speaker 2: You go touch your face your
Speaker 3: Hand, Yeah, don't touch I'm tired, all right, Bye until
Speaker 3: next week.