Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Hey, we're back where black book book bread
Speaker 1: and ambition, ambition, ambition. Hey, Andrea, how you a little girl?
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to put like a little
Speaker 2: Elvis flavor on it by coming Vegas like my little transition. Yes,
Speaker 2: I do. What even are you there for?
Speaker 1: So if I haven't budget means to the Vegas I
Speaker 1: you know, I know right, I'm in Vegas for my
Speaker 1: besties fiftieth birthday. Happy birthday to you, Cabrown. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know it's brother doesn't get fifty, but I mean, we're here.
Speaker 1: I always heard that black one crack unless you do it,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't. So he looks great. Good for him,
Speaker 1: and so you know, like some people, this is not me,
Speaker 1: but some people are really good like friend people. I'm
Speaker 1: not like a bad friend, but literally, he has like
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty people here who flew from all around the
Speaker 1: country to come to Vegas for him for like four days.
Speaker 1: And there are people here, Oh, this is my friend
Speaker 1: group from high school. I'm like, I don't I think
Speaker 1: I know two people from high school for all walks
Speaker 1: of life. Cabrel is somebody who I don't even know
Speaker 1: how he keeps up with people. He's such a good
Speaker 1: friend that we all just dropped our busy lives and
Speaker 1: came to Vegas to get down.
Speaker 2: Well, he's probably done that for y'all, right, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: I mean I remember remember we went to go see Usher.
Speaker 2: I remember that time my sisters and I went to
Speaker 2: Vegas to go see Usher. Cabral was like, oh, because
Speaker 2: his grandmother lives here at the time, and he goes
Speaker 2: he likes a little gamble gamble that he had some
Speaker 2: cops rooms and so he's like, oh, you don't have
Speaker 2: to pay for a hotel, my comp rooms.
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, So I'm thinking, like, you know,
Speaker 1: we'll just go and say hey, Cabrel, but no, he
Speaker 1: had to come and check us in. And I remember
Speaker 1: he came and I was like, oh, do you want
Speaker 1: to come to the concert with us? Where you're gonna
Speaker 1: you know how long gonn be Here're gonna visit your grandmother.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, no, I'm just going home. I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't understand. You flew from Jersey to Vegas to
Speaker 1: check us in to go home. That's Cabra.
Speaker 2: When he says he's one of those points people in
Speaker 2: he I mean, but.
Speaker 1: What he says, I'm having a birthday party. You show
Speaker 1: up and so it's been great. You went to the sphere.
Speaker 1: Have you heard of the spear Like it's like this
Speaker 1: global Yeah it wasn't.
Speaker 2: Yes, I have like YouTube performed there. Yes, sometime in
Speaker 2: was it New Year's Eve or the Grammys or somethings,
Speaker 2: But what is it?
Speaker 1: So it's like, I guess it's like you could say
Speaker 1: it's a stadium if you will, but it's literally the
Speaker 1: shape of a spear circle and you're in it. And
Speaker 1: so the the it's a multi media experience. The chair moves,
Speaker 1: there's there's scent, there's wind, there is all around you.
Speaker 1: So it's not just visually in front of you the ceiling.
Speaker 1: Besides everything, you are immersed in the experience. And so
Speaker 1: I'm not a big Youtwo fan. I mean I think
Speaker 1: they're great or whatever, but maybe I can know one
Speaker 1: song I don't know. So instead we did something called
Speaker 1: Postcard from Earth, which is kind of like it's like
Speaker 1: this love letter to Earth. So you go through the
Speaker 1: African savannah like this, like I remember, like an elephant
Speaker 1: walked over us and you could feel the ground moving
Speaker 1: as the elephant approached you, and you see its lego
Speaker 1: over your head and you're like, oh my.
Speaker 2: God, it's like a four D or like five experience.
Speaker 1: So they like took us into a church and I
Speaker 1: was like, bro, did you get sick? Did you feel
Speaker 1: like carsick? Some people said it, but I took a
Speaker 1: drama beforeand because I don't play with my most sickness,
Speaker 1: and I said, Nami, So I took a drama in
Speaker 1: and I was like weird, Like they took us into
Speaker 1: a church and you're like you feel like you're in it.
Speaker 1: And I smelled incense and I was like, in my
Speaker 1: bugget or do I smell incense? Like it'sid I do?
Speaker 1: And so it was just like it was really amazing.
Speaker 1: And so I mean the tickets are not to I
Speaker 1: think they started like, you know, ninety nine dollars and
Speaker 1: go up to like I don't even know. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: but it was, you know, to me, it's a thing
Speaker 1: to see. And so yeah, I mean, I'm glad to
Speaker 1: be here. My sister Tracy's here with me, and you know,
Speaker 1: I come back before our big lab.
Speaker 2: Speaking of like show Girls Live, should we prepare a
Speaker 2: little like should we do like a little choreo, like
Speaker 2: a little.
Speaker 1: We should we already do what be doing a snake?
Speaker 2: Should I bring my like that belly dancing skirt that
Speaker 2: I bought in Turkey eleven years ago and I still
Speaker 2: haven't worn, but I carry it from house to house
Speaker 2: town one year.
Speaker 1: I don't really have good rhythm. I feel like you
Speaker 1: have better for me. I'd be like, oh lord, it's fine.
Speaker 2: We would choreo to your It would be like when
Speaker 2: I choreographed when we had our wedding dance done for
Speaker 2: me and Enrique. It was choreographed at his skill level,
Speaker 2: not to his skill got rid of me, you know,
Speaker 2: when he was okay, we were all okay, Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: really excited. It's sold out, we got the wait list
Speaker 2: is also packed for the so I'm excited. We need
Speaker 2: to squeeze. I might try to trick you into doing
Speaker 2: one bow gain one more live event before.
Speaker 1: It's so fun.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just like people are coming. No, I'm very,
Speaker 2: very excited for our live show. You guys will be
Speaker 2: able to You'll be able to tune in even if
Speaker 2: you can't make the show live. We will be posting
Speaker 2: it as an episode at some point in the near future.
Speaker 2: But first we have to get through it, I'm nervous
Speaker 2: and speaking of friends who are traveling cross country for you,
Speaker 2: my friend Chris from Popcorn Finance, he is literally coming
Speaker 2: from California to New York because he is such a
Speaker 2: tech nerd, and I took advantage of his like obsession
Speaker 2: and I was like, wouldn't it be fun if you
Speaker 2: figured out how to help us record a live episode?
Speaker 2: And of course you know these techie guys like my
Speaker 2: husband and him, I just knew. I was like, before
Speaker 2: this is all done, he's going to upgrade his entire kit.
Speaker 2: He's going to get like a new lens all and
Speaker 2: yes he has, but Chris is, yes, so generous to
Speaker 2: be doing that for us, And I'm just I'm so
Speaker 2: excited to get to Squeeze and ba fam in person
Speaker 2: and they can give me their hugs, you know, for you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: take pictures, Come get these cool stickers that I ordered
Speaker 2: I saw. Yes, No, It's going to be a great time.
Speaker 2: And I think it's very apt that you're in Vegas
Speaker 2: right now because I feel like our conversation, especially from
Speaker 2: last week's show, the response to last week's show, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I feel a little bit of a vulnerability hangover or
Speaker 2: I'll talk about we viral, But if y'all have been
Speaker 2: listening to the show, I haven't not said that it's
Speaker 2: been a difficult time. I've been saying it without saying it.
Speaker 2: But last week, just for some reason, I was like,
Speaker 2: I think this is going to strike a chord. So
Speaker 2: I I shared that clip of me talking about my
Speaker 2: property taxes and whoa, whoa whoa on TikTok and ig,
Speaker 2: and I don't know, I guess it's you know, it's
Speaker 2: one of those times where you when you're vulnerable, you
Speaker 2: talk about your finances, but you're not necessarily someone who
Speaker 2: fits the description of someone who's you know, like I'm
Speaker 2: never going to qualify for any sort of income assistance
Speaker 2: or housing, you know, all that kind of thing, and
Speaker 2: I have beautiful children in a home, and like, I'm
Speaker 2: so privileged in many ways. Sometimes people don't give you
Speaker 2: any kind of grace to struggle, and so I was
Speaker 2: really like, yeah, I was really warmly surprised by the
Speaker 2: response and also sadly just also terrified by the response,
Speaker 2: because it is it is rampant, like the number of
Speaker 2: homeowners especially and people who are earning two income households
Speaker 2: who are just struggling to make and can you.
Speaker 1: Can you recap for people who are like, what's you
Speaker 1: talking about?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So last week on the show, we how do
Speaker 2: we even get off on that? So we were talking
Speaker 2: about credit card debt? Right, there was like some kind
Speaker 2: of statistic that came out talking about how American homeowners
Speaker 2: are on the edge and you can tell because they're
Speaker 2: putting groceries and other household essentials on credit cards. And
Speaker 2: I was like, people, I'm people, I'm me.
Speaker 1: And not.
Speaker 2: And one of the biggest drivers of that is that
Speaker 2: our the cost of housing even for us as you
Speaker 2: think as a homeowner, you purchase a house and you
Speaker 2: get it within your budget, right, you get approved for
Speaker 2: the mortgage and all of that, but you don't think about, Okay,
Speaker 2: what happens when the property assessment, like the value of
Speaker 2: your home goes up in your town's eyes or whatever,
Speaker 2: like whoever's in charge of determining your property value. And
Speaker 2: that is directly tied to taxes and homeowners insurance, and
Speaker 2: it has dramatically increased our cost of housing, especially in
Speaker 2: the last couple of years. So I posted that clip
Speaker 2: on social and there's a lot of people out there
Speaker 2: doing like struggling in the exact same way as an accent.
Speaker 1: And people were shocked. So one of the things that
Speaker 1: shocked me because I'm so used to living in the
Speaker 1: expensive behind East Coast that I wasn't shocked by because
Speaker 1: my property taxes when I got my house in Yirk
Speaker 1: was seventy five thousand, and I want to say, seventy
Speaker 1: five thousand. Job I would built that.
Speaker 2: Oh no, we're Mary J.
Speaker 1: Blige, Chris, We're seventy five hundred, right, seven thousand, five
Speaker 1: hundred for the year. And now I want to say,
Speaker 1: I'm pushing eleven thousand. I bought the house five years ago.
Speaker 1: I'm pushing like eleven thousand, maybe even eleven thousand, five hundred.
Speaker 1: That's significant. So when you share that your property taxes
Speaker 1: you know were because how much were they when you
Speaker 1: first moved in? Do you remember how much it was
Speaker 1: monthly or annual?
Speaker 2: Life? You know, I was trying to find our very
Speaker 2: first mortgage statement and I forgot to finish that project.
Speaker 2: But I know our mortgage was twenty five. It was
Speaker 2: twenty five. I have one hundred. I feel like total,
Speaker 2: not the mortgage, but like the total house payment, which
Speaker 2: included property taxes. So I remember the time, I think
Speaker 2: they were around eleven or twelve thousand dollars. Now they
Speaker 2: are certainly above that now it is I haven't figured out.
Speaker 2: So a couple of questions that commenters had about my
Speaker 2: property tax stories, I said, my housing costs is right.
Speaker 2: Costs right now are up to nearly four thousand dollars
Speaker 2: from so when I met hundred a month from twenty
Speaker 2: five hundred. Yeah. So, and what I meant by that
Speaker 2: was my total housing my total mortgage payment, which includes
Speaker 2: my property tax. So a lot of us homeowners we
Speaker 2: do pay like like I pay a monthly property tax payment,
Speaker 2: but it goes and escrow and then my mortgage lender
Speaker 2: holds that money and then they pay the town once
Speaker 2: a year or whenever it is. So I'm always paying
Speaker 2: toward that, my husband and I so, and that also
Speaker 2: includes homeowners insurance, Okay, I know for sure, up, yes,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't include things like my elect bill and
Speaker 2: heating and all that jazz. But yeah, so that's about
Speaker 2: four thousand a month, and then of that about twenty
Speaker 2: five hundred or so is that additional cost on top
Speaker 2: of my mortgage payment. And it's just wild because I
Speaker 2: purchased a house that was well under five hundred thousand
Speaker 2: dollars at the time, and yes, we did put about
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars of work into it. But the
Speaker 2: property value has just like I said in that last week,
Speaker 2: I think it's gone up like fifty or sixty percent,
Speaker 2: and that is out of our control because the town
Speaker 2: or whoever assesses the properties is like, hmm, you know,
Speaker 2: there's such a shortage of homes right now in my area,
Speaker 2: and with the pandemic rates were really low. People were like,
Speaker 2: you know, moving out of the city, moving in up here,
Speaker 2: trying to create rental properties, like take advantage of this
Speaker 2: short housing market this week out or this really like
Speaker 2: tight housing market. And because of that, not because we've
Speaker 2: added anything to the hop was like the price of
Speaker 2: our house has just gone up. So I couldn't even
Speaker 2: afford this house now if I tried to buy it.
Speaker 2: But I'm paying taxes on it, you know, Like why
Speaker 2: am I paying taxes on a house that's seven hundred
Speaker 2: thousand when I bought it for less than five hundred,
Speaker 2: And like it's very frustrating.
Speaker 1: It's crazy because in general, like on paper, it would
Speaker 1: say Mandy it's wealthier because your house is worth more.
Speaker 1: Her asset have appreciated, which means it's kind of in value.
Speaker 1: But it's like girl Wealthi're weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and do you And to take advantage
Speaker 2: of that equity, you can take a home equity loan,
Speaker 2: like we talked about, which we might do just to
Speaker 2: like get get rid of some credit card debt.
Speaker 1: But like, yeah, that is an asset. It definitely is
Speaker 1: an asset. You know.
Speaker 2: I could end up borrowing up to like seventy percent
Speaker 2: of my equity if I wanted to, But like that's
Speaker 2: another loan. And I guess you could say you could
Speaker 2: take a home you can do a cash out REFI
Speaker 2: we or not a cash out refy. We could do
Speaker 2: a home equity loan and then use that money to
Speaker 2: for as a down payment for another house. But I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna end up in the same situation, being in
Speaker 2: more house than I can afford. You know, it's crazy to.
Speaker 1: Be richer, but broker at the same time, it's a
Speaker 1: wild and I'm talking like cash poor, you know.
Speaker 2: And I don't want people shout out to my friend Baron,
Speaker 2: who's who's living a little some something in my Venmo.
Speaker 1: I was like, Baron, if you don't start, and he
Speaker 1: did you the grandmother fold into your hand, like when
Speaker 1: you go to yourriba's house, give you a little ten.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, And I the way I kept it though,
Speaker 2: and Rikae's like, maybe give that money back, like he
Speaker 2: doesn't need it. I always joke, Baron's my cabro. He's
Speaker 2: he's like single, living his best life. He's the only
Speaker 2: he is the only community of America. Like the only
Speaker 2: people of America that are thriving right now are single,
Speaker 2: uh single, like higher hours right now, childless. He is
Speaker 2: living the dream, you know. And he's gay, so like
Speaker 2: you know, they just like then, I don't know, just
Speaker 2: like they split everything. Even when he goes on, you know,
Speaker 2: it's just better. It's just better if only I could
Speaker 2: have been.
Speaker 1: But you know, this was life as a gay black man.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. It's like a couple of house
Speaker 1: friends are fabby, let's get bro open my I mean,
Speaker 1: oh you also see what I mean, doctor lawyer. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: I said, is it a prerequisite? All y'all gotta be
Speaker 1: fine and successful and money go in the gym? I
Speaker 1: mean the way I was like, I don't even drink.
Speaker 1: But if I did, girl wouldn't have to touch a bill.
Speaker 2: Yes, so yeah, I'm keeping your money apparently should I'll
Speaker 2: use it on your birthday dinner and then I still.
Speaker 3: State firm agents are small business owners too, so they
Speaker 3: know how to help you choose personalized policies that fit
Speaker 3: your needs, like a good neighbor. State farm is there?
Speaker 3: Talk to your local agent today.
Speaker 2: I'm curious, what are your property taxes are in Middle America?
Speaker 1: In Missouri. I was shocked at how many people were
Speaker 1: so shocked by how much your you know, taxes cost
Speaker 1: you monthly because I didn't. I remember distinctly because I'm nosy.
Speaker 1: One of my friends, Rachel, Hey, Rachel, Rachel Wages. She
Speaker 1: purchased like it was like all over black enterprise and
Speaker 1: essence whatever. She had purchased its beautiful ranch and it
Speaker 1: was one of the Carolinas.
Speaker 2: Right North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so she purchased its beautiful ranch. And I remember
Speaker 1: it was multiple, multiple acres. It wasn't like two or
Speaker 1: three from what I remember, it was at least ten,
Speaker 1: maybe twenty, I don't even know, but it was it
Speaker 1: was land, I mean money. It was her forty acres
Speaker 1: and a mule okay, and so I just remember because
Speaker 1: I was nosy, I want to learn more about the property.
Speaker 1: It looked so beautiful. And I remember vaguely like I
Speaker 1: can't remember how the property cost, maybe in the realm
Speaker 1: of like two million dollars something like that. And I
Speaker 1: remember looking at the property taxes Mandy and being like, no,
Speaker 1: month at the way they were it was well unt
Speaker 1: to ten thousand. I remember, I was like, it was
Speaker 1: wait a minute, under ten thousand. Yes, I couldn't. I said,
Speaker 1: this can't be this can't be true. How does this
Speaker 1: stuff get figured out? I don't know.
Speaker 2: You know someone who's I need The person who commented
Speaker 2: and said I work for a property assessment office somewhere.
Speaker 2: I was like, I need to understand the mess, yes,
Speaker 2: and to see some people. They asked me like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: that question I got. Or the advice is you should
Speaker 2: appeal it. Well. On the show, I have talked about
Speaker 2: how we have appealed it and been denied twice. Yes,
Speaker 2: And I'm I would love like if y'all could explain
Speaker 2: how the math works it is left up and also
Speaker 2: where's it going? Because my roads have potholes all over
Speaker 2: the place, and you know, we I'm sure it goes
Speaker 2: into all kinds of services and all of that, but
Speaker 2: it's really tough out here. And to the point back
Speaker 2: to how I originally segued into this, you're in Vegas.
Speaker 2: I thought that was very apt given the whole like
Speaker 2: Roaring twenties element at all, because you should this report
Speaker 2: that's come out, right, so talk about talk about that
Speaker 2: a little bit, so and get my flopper heels ready.
Speaker 1: So first of all, I don't I'm not really familiar
Speaker 1: with UBS. What is UBS Camford?
Speaker 2: So it's a huge investment bank, Okay, And these investment
Speaker 2: banks put out you know, they put out reports sometimes monthly, quarterly, annually,
Speaker 2: but Wall Street watches them. So they have economists who
Speaker 2: are like trying to predict the future all the time. Yes,
Speaker 2: sometimes these reports make headlines like this one has.
Speaker 1: So it basically says that they believe that the US
Speaker 1: economy is heading into what's called the Roaring twenties. So
Speaker 1: the Roaring twenties were like this booming economic time in
Speaker 1: the United States, and they were swiftly and quickly followed
Speaker 1: by the Great Depression. So I don't know, they try
Speaker 1: to say we up and we down, but basically that
Speaker 1: it looks like we're entering into this booming economic time.
Speaker 1: And what I told Mandy was like, I hear you,
Speaker 1: and I've been hearing about the economy is doing so great,
Speaker 1: but everyday people I've never had my inbox more full
Speaker 1: with people who are literally like the first opening line,
Speaker 1: I'm desperate, Hi, Tiffany, I'm desperate. I'm so scared and afraid.
Speaker 1: I'm a nurse, my husband's mechanic. I'm working, but I
Speaker 1: am not making ends meet. I think we're going to
Speaker 1: lose our house. I don't know where we're going to stay.
Speaker 1: And it's so I mean, I've never seen it like
Speaker 1: this before, this, even during the pandemic, this visceral kind
Speaker 1: of reaction. And I was like on YouTube the other
Speaker 1: day and I was flooded with all these like a collection.
Speaker 1: Apparently there's like loud majority of TikTokers who are making
Speaker 1: they're calling it broken tire, this trend where they are
Speaker 1: talking about how they are working, they're not buying excessive things,
Speaker 1: and they are broke and they are tired, and they
Speaker 1: are working two and three and four jobs and still
Speaker 1: can't make ends meet. So I'm like, what, Remember we
Speaker 1: talked about this months and months ago. Remember I was like, Mandy,
Speaker 1: isn't me or doesn't seem to be like a disconnect
Speaker 1: between the economy saying it's so strong and the market
Speaker 1: is up and yet every day people never sounded broken.
Speaker 2: Do you know why the economy is up and up
Speaker 2: and all that kind of shit? It's because corporations are
Speaker 2: doing great because for whatever reason you can blame. I've
Speaker 2: read things. I think that it's easy for us to
Speaker 2: say that companies are being greedy and raising prices because
Speaker 2: they can all of that that was somewhat going on,
Speaker 2: But it's actually just like a bunch of different factors.
Speaker 2: Everything is more expensive and there are there is a
Speaker 2: lot of money to be made off the back of
Speaker 2: consumers right now. But these reports often don't consider the
Speaker 2: like the average consumer. I think they only consider they
Speaker 2: only care about what happens to American dollars in terms
Speaker 2: of like are we going to be spending and where
Speaker 2: are we going to be spending? And if we're not spending,
Speaker 2: like they love that we're relying on credit cards because
Speaker 2: we're still spending. You know, let's not think about the
Speaker 2: thirty percent interest rate that we're paying on that credit
Speaker 2: card debt, or the fact that you know it's going
Speaker 2: to take us years, if not never, going to be
Speaker 2: able to pay that debt down because we'll have to
Speaker 2: go file bankruptcy and.
Speaker 1: All of that.
Speaker 2: Like the point is that Americans are still feeling what
Speaker 2: like confident enough that we'll be able to pay off
Speaker 2: our debt that we're using credit cards. And that's where
Speaker 2: I start to get kind of pissed off because one
Speaker 2: of the things I shared last week was that my
Speaker 2: own family has benefited off the backs of this housing
Speaker 2: shortage and they have gotten into this very lucrative business
Speaker 2: as property managers and just like had this huge tail
Speaker 2: for the last decade and are like wealthier than they've
Speaker 2: ever been. And these companies that have bought up these
Speaker 2: homes and are flipping them and renting them to people
Speaker 2: and raising the rent like there's a lot of money
Speaker 2: to be made, but like it's it's only gonna I
Speaker 2: feel like the bows will break when the American consumer
Speaker 2: finally stops, like we have to say no more. And
Speaker 2: I'm worried about that because I'm also like I went
Speaker 2: to the grocery store twice this week, each time, it
Speaker 2: was three hundred dollars one trip to Trader Joe's. I
Speaker 2: didn't even know you could spend three hundred dollars in
Speaker 2: Trader Joe's. Oh my god. And then I went to
Speaker 2: BJ's because there's some stuff you can't get. Another three
Speaker 2: hundred dollars. Okay, fine. One of those was a fifty
Speaker 2: dollars spider that I had to have for my front yard.
Speaker 2: But the point is, like, this credit card spending is
Speaker 2: still happening, and I wonder almost like are we are
Speaker 2: we just just is this Roaring twenties thing?
Speaker 1: Is it willful?
Speaker 2: Is it like optimism? But is it like delusional optimism?
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I feel the least optimistic because I'm looking like, for example,
Speaker 1: so the Roaring twenties is I'm on Britannica. Remember the
Speaker 1: Encyclopedias you might be to you, yeah, oh yeah, this
Speaker 1: girl we had the book Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia used to come
Speaker 1: to the house and you would literally they would tell
Speaker 1: you a set child. That's what forty five looked like.
Speaker 1: But we we based mind, We had compidence, and Britannica
Speaker 1: was like if you was gotten a little bit of money,
Speaker 1: with a little fancy then we had to go or something.
Speaker 1: So apparently they're online now because don't nobody buy books.
Speaker 1: So the Roaring twenties is a term for the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: especially within the United States and other Western countries, where
Speaker 1: the deck that was characterized by economic prosperity, rapid social
Speaker 1: and cultural change, and the mood of exuberant optimism. The
Speaker 1: thing is, maybe there's economic prosperity to your point, not
Speaker 1: for the average person but for the for these corporations,
Speaker 1: but there is not a mood of exuberant optimism. That
Speaker 1: part is largely gone. And it's like so the question
Speaker 1: I also asked this like this is also from Britannical, like, so,
Speaker 1: how did the Roaring twenties kind of like lead to
Speaker 1: the Great Depression? And so one of the things is
Speaker 1: that there was the stock market crash, of that huge
Speaker 1: stock market crash where you hear about people jumping from
Speaker 1: the windows killing themselves in nineteen twenty nine. So that
Speaker 1: was like literally the Roaring twenties was one decade and
Speaker 1: that I guess what worries me is that were one where.
Speaker 3: The triggered that crash?
Speaker 2: Was it the fact that American consumers couldn't afford anything anymore.
Speaker 1: Let me see it said. Uh So, from nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: nine to nineteen thirty nine, the United States experienced one
Speaker 1: of the harshest economic downturns in the history of the country,
Speaker 1: initiated by the stock market craft, a decade that was
Speaker 1: marked by high unemployment rates, bank failures. Workers lost jobs
Speaker 1: along with their homes and possessions. It was honestly, the
Speaker 1: value of currency declined, the agricultural market declined. I don't
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure. And I remember so this is
Speaker 1: when Franklin the down Nor Roosevelt was president, and if
Speaker 1: you ever ever heard of the New Deal, it was
Speaker 1: this legislation, this large use piece of legislation that he
Speaker 1: passed to promote recovery and relief. So I'm like, what
Speaker 1: was the stock market that.
Speaker 2: Was the beginning of like social security and welfare?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So there was also like this stock market, like
Speaker 2: a lot of people doing like risky stock trades, okay,
Speaker 2: buying stocks on margin, not being able to afford it,
Speaker 2: not being able to afford but they had purchased and
Speaker 2: having so much debt.
Speaker 1: I'm interested, I was spending a lot. It looks like
Speaker 1: consumer spending in the twenties had reached an all time
Speaker 1: high in the United States. American companies were mass producing
Speaker 1: goods and consumers were buying technology. Like so it was
Speaker 1: like this and we've seen this, like I think the pandemic.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody had all this money because we were
Speaker 1: flushed with money people like literally the government gave us money.
Speaker 1: And then we didn't have to spend as much because
Speaker 1: we're not driving, you not have to get your hair done.
Speaker 1: And so people were and I don't know if you saw,
Speaker 1: there was this big, huge time of like everybody was
Speaker 1: doing these halls, like you know, all the influencer Like
Speaker 1: I don't see it merely as much like look at
Speaker 1: all the stuff I've bought. Honestly, the luxury markets skyrocketed.
Speaker 1: You know. I'm like obsessed with watching like people buy
Speaker 1: or mis bag for like thirty thousand dollars and be
Speaker 1: like I did not know that. Yeah, I had this
Speaker 1: weird obsession on YouTube. My sister's like why, I like,
Speaker 1: you can watch them buy them? No, No, I like
Speaker 1: to watch I guess, like these many documentaries on luxury.
Speaker 1: So because I'm trying to wrap my mind around what
Speaker 1: gets someone to buy a bag for ten twenty thirty
Speaker 1: forty one hundred thousand dollars, and there was this huge
Speaker 1: uptick of regular average people. I'm talking about nurses, not
Speaker 1: the woman who's making a million dollars a year, you know,
Speaker 1: buying her mess bag, but like a nurse, a teacher
Speaker 1: with a ten twenty thirty thousand dollars bag. And so
Speaker 1: I just like to watch these many documentaries. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what was that mental shift? And people were flushed with
Speaker 1: money during the pandemic, they had the excess, and then
Speaker 1: we're online and then you're seeing all the influence showing
Speaker 1: off their luxury goods, and even the luxury market is
Speaker 1: is really in a steep decline because people don't have it.
Speaker 1: So there was this over consumption post pandemic that we're
Speaker 1: seeing a steep decline. Remember the girls were quitting and
Speaker 1: they could we couldn't figure out where they were working.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It was like, remember there was like that quid economy
Speaker 1: at one point wherever we were sitting there, Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it was like, but where are they're going to work?
Speaker 1: Because don't they have to work? And now everyone's kind
Speaker 1: of back like.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, well you had the stimulus truck. You had,
Speaker 2: the stimulus trucks, you had, you there was just there
Speaker 2: was this. I think, well, yeah, for sure, I'm sure
Speaker 2: that the data will show that like the little cash reserves,
Speaker 2: the cash reserves we were able to build up during
Speaker 2: the pandemic years have dwindled and gone. And I'm at
Speaker 2: the point where I'm like, Okay, I don't want to
Speaker 2: be tamped into my investments. Cash money is what we need, honey.
Speaker 2: But this whole Roaring twenties, I just find it very
Speaker 2: chilling because I mean, from what I'm reading, like deflation
Speaker 2: was another cause of that, which is when prices go down,
Speaker 2: which is like, aren't we trying to actively create deflation
Speaker 2: right now by the Fed lowering rates? I saw, you
Speaker 2: know one thing that we need to talk about really quick,
Speaker 2: which is my biggest pet peeve. In addition to property
Speaker 2: tax inflation, shrink flation. I know we've talked about it
Speaker 2: before because when I two, you or shrink flanc stion.
Speaker 2: So shrink flation is I literally a trader Joe's Remember
Speaker 2: I told you about my three hundred dollars bill. I
Speaker 2: was just gobsmacked. I bought these like little apple sauce
Speaker 2: pouches for the and there used to be I swear
Speaker 2: to god, they were five in a box before for
Speaker 2: like three bucks. Now there's four, and I'm like, this
Speaker 2: is way more expense. I mean that makes a big difference. Yes, Actually,
Speaker 2: at the rate these kids are eating apple sauce, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I need to fucking plant an apple tree. And like
Speaker 2: certain matching this up myself. But like the you know,
Speaker 2: everything is smaller and smaller packaging, but the price is
Speaker 2: gone up. And this is not a new phenomenon. But
Speaker 2: something that I saw is that Senator A Lizzie Warren,
Speaker 2: who we love, the godmother of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Speaker 2: I would say conservatives like biggest enemy, maybe after AOC
Speaker 2: and the other queens, but Elizabeth Warren, uh, she is
Speaker 2: right now creating legislation that is gonna hopefully stop the
Speaker 2: biggest food and beverage companies from engaging in shrink flation.
Speaker 2: So they have accused General Mills, Coca Cola, Pepsi Coo
Speaker 2: of profiteering through shrinkflation and by dodging taxes. So General
Speaker 2: Mills and didn't get their ship because they were reducing
Speaker 2: the size of cereal boxes, you know, but still charging
Speaker 2: the same price, and co has do on the same thing,
Speaker 2: all of them.
Speaker 1: You opened up a bag of chips. I remember when
Speaker 1: I did the when I went to the State of
Speaker 1: the Union. That was something that the President Biden mentioned
Speaker 1: about strengthfulation. Because you opened up a bag of chips,
Speaker 1: you're like, I don't remember being I remember being ten chips.
Speaker 1: Now it's five. But also a lot of these corporations
Speaker 1: there's a level of corporate greed that is unimaginable. So
Speaker 1: I just saw, uh, there was a financial infos for that.
Speaker 1: I really like. I forget her name, but she shared
Speaker 1: how there's now a class action suit that you can
Speaker 1: like apply to get money for if in the last
Speaker 1: seventeen years you have been charged atm fees by like
Speaker 1: let's just say, you know, you banked with I don't
Speaker 1: know Wells Fargo and you went to Bank of America
Speaker 1: or whatever because there was not one nearby, and you
Speaker 1: got you know, you got charged the fees, but you
Speaker 1: know you get double feed. Basically America says, we don't
Speaker 1: know your girl, here's your three dollar fee, and then
Speaker 1: Wells Fargo said, you went to somebody else, here's your
Speaker 1: other fee. And basically they they found that banks were
Speaker 1: colluding to keep those fees high, which is it breaks
Speaker 1: those antitrust laws that you're not allowed to do that.
Speaker 1: And so as a result, you know, they basically saying
Speaker 1: they owe you these fees back and you can, you know,
Speaker 1: join this class action to do your googles to find
Speaker 1: out like where to apply. But I thought the level
Speaker 1: of corporate greed it's just unmatched. And what's happening, which
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm guessing, I wonder, is the collapse of civilization?
Speaker 2: Is that your aim?
Speaker 1: Because so what happened, I don't think.
Speaker 2: That far ahead to quarter? That's that's what they care about,
Speaker 2: from what can we do to maximize profits in this
Speaker 2: quarter so that Wall Street will still love us, our
Speaker 2: stock price will stay high, and our CEOs can get
Speaker 2: multimillion dollar windfalls.
Speaker 1: And then some people are literally out on the street
Speaker 1: like that is that we have seen civilizations collapse again
Speaker 1: and again and again, because it's like you don't, I mean,
Speaker 1: I understand the making of money, but unfettered greed is
Speaker 1: pushing everyday people to the very edge and there would
Speaker 1: be nobody left to buy your bullshit? Then what then?
Speaker 1: What it's just really it's a scary time that we're
Speaker 1: living in. Because I am hearing the chorus in a
Speaker 1: way that I've not heard before. I was just like,
Speaker 1: it started with my friends, you know, just regular every
Speaker 1: day friends who have good jobs, like just saying things
Speaker 1: like oh girl, that's a little tough, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: she never said that before. Then a friend who never
Speaker 1: asked me to borrow money and I've known since middle
Speaker 1: school not a quarter at lunchtime asked for like rent money,
Speaker 1: and I was like, that's odd. She doesn't like you know.
Speaker 1: Of course I gave it to her because this is
Speaker 1: not someone She's not financially responsible, and I thought, huh,
Speaker 1: that's odd. And then you share and I'm like, hm, hm,
Speaker 1: that's odd. And then all of a sudden, my inbox
Speaker 1: every day, I'm like, there's there is mark my words.
Speaker 1: We are and less and I mean they're not gonna
Speaker 1: shift it, but we are reading toward a very dangerous
Speaker 1: path of yes, that there is more money now than ever.
Speaker 1: And on paper, it might look like you have more
Speaker 1: money because maybe the things you own are worth more,
Speaker 1: but they're all still costing you more.
Speaker 2: We're going to do a brand ambition survey forget the
Speaker 2: investment banks. I want to know what BA fam is
Speaker 2: going through and the comments on IG I just it
Speaker 2: just won't do. So when this episode airs, there's going
Speaker 2: to be a survey up at Brandambisson podcast dot com.
Speaker 2: It'll be like three to five questions, and we want
Speaker 2: to know what's happening because I don't think that I
Speaker 2: don't think for a second that Wall Street really cares
Speaker 2: what's happening for people of color in general, even though
Speaker 2: we make such a huge component of the you know,
Speaker 2: of the economy, and we contribute so much spending to
Speaker 2: all these different industries. But like, I want to know
Speaker 2: what BA fam is going through and what you guys want.
Speaker 2: I'm really excited to have later this month, we're going
Speaker 2: to have on two incredible guests. So one of them
Speaker 2: is Dasha Broke, Black Girl, Dasha Kennedy, and she's working
Speaker 2: with what is a Debt dot org on exactly this issue.
Speaker 1: So I feel like I.
Speaker 2: Can't wait to ask. I'm like, what advice do y'all have?
Speaker 2: Like what instead of like, I think the best things
Speaker 2: that we need right now are just like, how can
Speaker 2: we help people, you know, like get through their debt sooner?
Speaker 2: Rather than later, and like tackle it. I'm not just
Speaker 2: I'm not saying I want to be y'all's guinea pig
Speaker 2: quite yet. I don't know about all of that, but
Speaker 2: I do feel like some more transparency, Like let's start
Speaker 2: saying it out loud, Like we are in a lot
Speaker 2: of debt. It is very stressful. We are also, you know,
Speaker 2: trying to create families, businesses, have a you know, still
Speaker 2: be good citizens and like vote and be good daughters
Speaker 2: and husbands and wives and sisters and friends and neighbors.
Speaker 2: And it's like, oh my god, tell me why I
Speaker 2: became the class parent of my son's class.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking so much. I just sound like, is this
Speaker 1: the struggle? I don't even have like these all five babies? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just got one one grown baby.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm checking now. So we have we have
Speaker 2: Dasha's schedule to come on on November fourth, which is
Speaker 2: election week. Okay, so election week, come to the podcast
Speaker 2: that Wednesday. We're gonna air that episode with Dasha on
Speaker 2: like what is happening in the United States of debt
Speaker 2: and how we can start getting out of it before
Speaker 2: before like the ship hits a fan like you said,
Speaker 2: kareening toward whatever great expression you use. That was very colorful.
Speaker 2: We're kreening somewhere. Kareening is never good. I've never heard
Speaker 2: the word kreening used in a positive light.
Speaker 1: No, we're not. I can feel there's an underswell of
Speaker 1: we are not. The number one thing that I saw,
Speaker 1: like under the you know, our viral post of Mandy's
Speaker 1: being so vulnerable, is that people were saying, we are
Speaker 1: not okay, and maybe that's the name of the podcast.
Speaker 1: We are not okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and let's stop pretending like we are, because pretending
Speaker 2: like I mean, it's just a classic thing. If we
Speaker 2: put our head in the sand and we ignore what's
Speaker 2: happening to get by, like in a way, we're just
Speaker 2: burying ourselves even deeper. And there's no way we're going
Speaker 2: to get out of this pickle unless we start talking
Speaker 2: about it. So stay tuned. I might be sharing my
Speaker 2: home equity loan line of credit journey because I think
Speaker 2: we've reached that point. I think we're pretty okay with
Speaker 2: this home equity lineup credit. I'm nervous about it, but
Speaker 2: also I'm happy to have the option and I will
Speaker 2: be Yeah, we'll see, I'll see if husband's down for me.
Speaker 1: Just listen. If you wanted to stop me, maybe he.
Speaker 2: Should listen to the Shaws. But well he'd just if
Speaker 2: y'all don't tell him what I'm talking about, maybe he
Speaker 2: won't and it'll be fine, and I'll share my cash
Speaker 2: app just in case.
Speaker 3: You guys.
Speaker 1: You know, I never will do that. I will never
Speaker 1: do that. Okay, should we take a break, Yes, we
Speaker 1: should take a break. I pay some damn bill suit
Speaker 1: a minute, and now it's time to boost and break
Speaker 1: and boost up and break, boost up? Break? Is you
Speaker 1: go on?
Speaker 2: Boost?
Speaker 1: Is you going break? What you're gonna do, what you're
Speaker 1: gonna say? La, I'm gonna actually break. So I don't
Speaker 1: know if you have something cute, So if you want
Speaker 1: to get last, you're gonna boost, so maybe you should
Speaker 1: go last. Like sometimes I don't like to end on
Speaker 1: a break because I'm like, look, sorry saying you out
Speaker 1: into the world with darkness by so whatever, I'm going
Speaker 1: to the slots. BI, No, I don't even place.
Speaker 2: You know me?
Speaker 1: If anybody knows me, you know, I'm not giving not
Speaker 1: one red set to these people downstairs. So I am
Speaker 1: going to do a brown break, which I haven't done
Speaker 1: in a while. So yesterday I told myself, you know whatself,
Speaker 1: you haven't taken like a deep walk in a while,
Speaker 1: go ahead and take a walk. And so we're right
Speaker 1: on the strip. I'm staying at I'll be gone by
Speaker 1: the time. You know, guys, I'm saying, like La Fountain Blue,
Speaker 1: it's a new it's only one year old hotel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I don't know, I've.
Speaker 2: Heard Yeah, maybe that location is new.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel like it's in Miami too. I feel
Speaker 1: like I've heard about it on my knee. And so
Speaker 1: I said, I'm gonna take a walk on the Strip
Speaker 1: and I turned right instead of left. Left is like
Speaker 1: the you know, like the part of the strip that
Speaker 1: I guess you would know and like Las Vegas is
Speaker 1: known for its homeless and unhoused population. And it took
Speaker 1: me a minute for my new works Bidy sentence to
Speaker 1: pick up. I was like, Molly, you and danger girl.
Speaker 1: So I'm walking with my headphones and then I had
Speaker 1: to tack down the headphone and then I you know,
Speaker 1: so before I left the house, I'm pretty I would
Speaker 1: have to say I have pretty strong intuition. Before I
Speaker 1: left the the the hotel, some things said bring cash
Speaker 1: with you. And I was like why, and it was like,
Speaker 1: just bring cash, and I said okay. So I brought
Speaker 1: my room key, I put cash in one pocket, zipped
Speaker 1: it up because I have like these sorts of haad
Speaker 1: zips on them are zippers. And so I went for
Speaker 1: a walk and I started walking, walk and walking, and
Speaker 1: then like my spoty sensus, you know, be like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, half a mile a mile in I was like,
Speaker 1: I feel like you should turn back. And I knew
Speaker 1: I should because there was a black woman rumen behind me,
Speaker 1: but I didn't hear her. And when she got close,
Speaker 1: I jumped and she's a girl. It's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: You might want to spin it around. And I was
Speaker 1: like thanks this and so I okay, yes, And I
Speaker 1: saw a number of you know, unhoused folks that also
Speaker 1: didn't look well. They looked like mentally unwell as well.
Speaker 1: Oh she was telling you like, this is not where
Speaker 1: you want to be going back it up and so
Speaker 1: I just said okay, and I just you know, like,
Speaker 1: so I took my headphones off altogether. Not I mean not.
Speaker 1: I live in New York, so unhoused people it's not
Speaker 1: new but I don't know. For some reason, it just
Speaker 1: really struck me. There was an older woman in particular,
Speaker 1: she looked maybe sixties, early seventies, and she was tacking
Speaker 1: through the trash in a way that broke my heart
Speaker 1: because she was taking like leftover drinks and making a
Speaker 1: combined drink. And I just thought to myself, what it seem?
Speaker 1: So literally I brought tears to my eyes because I thought,
Speaker 1: this woman is drinking god knows what, you know, like
Speaker 1: and she was digging through the trees, and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to like scare her, so I just, you know,
Speaker 1: I walked up to her gingerly, and I realized why
Speaker 1: the intuition said bring money, and I said excuse me,
Speaker 1: and she kind of jumped and I said, I'm so sorry,
Speaker 1: but can I give you something? And she said sure.
Speaker 1: And so it was like, I have a fifty dollar
Speaker 1: bill with me and I gave a tour. She didn't
Speaker 1: really look at it at first, and she just said
Speaker 1: thank you, kind of not looking at me in the eye.
Speaker 1: And I think as I started to walk away, I
Speaker 1: think I guess she looked down and she said, oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, and she kind of came up to me
Speaker 1: and said thank you so much, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: And I said, no problem, girl, because everyone knows I'm
Speaker 1: a baby. It was a five steps in and I'm
Speaker 1: burst into tears because I felt so and I literally so,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like whatever higher power y'all believe in,
Speaker 1: but formally I call it God. Informally I call it love. Right.
Speaker 1: That's why if I think of like what higher power
Speaker 1: means to me, it's just this feeling of love. Right.
Speaker 1: And so I was like talking to the internal external
Speaker 1: higher power, was like, literally, I said, why would you
Speaker 1: allow her to have so little when someone like me
Speaker 1: has so much? This is what I asked of the
Speaker 1: higher power. And you know what the higher power said
Speaker 1: back to me, because God be talking back to me.
Speaker 1: It said, why would you? And I said, oh, not
Speaker 1: reading me for filth, because the sense was, girl, I
Speaker 1: have given enough, y'all hoarding it, because why does that
Speaker 1: lady not have enough? You know? And I thought it's true,
Speaker 1: like I certainly like I'm you know, I would call
Speaker 1: myself a generous person, I guess. But I thought there's
Speaker 1: more that I could do because how many unhoused people
Speaker 1: live right in Newark where I live? And am I
Speaker 1: doing anything like systematically to help. You know, there are
Speaker 1: other organizations I give to and I don'nate here and
Speaker 1: did like you know, I'm always clearing like teachers be
Speaker 1: hitting me in my inbox. They have their Amazon lists
Speaker 1: for the classroom or I'm the queen the clearing all
Speaker 1: account so that I'm not new to the you know,
Speaker 1: I like, but I was just like Tiffany, what would
Speaker 1: a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars do a month in
Speaker 1: your city? If you I mean, I know three restaurant
Speaker 1: tours personally that I can say, hey, girl, if I
Speaker 1: gave you fifteen hundred dollars once a month, how many
Speaker 1: people could you feed? You know, when you're closed, you know,
Speaker 1: like how much food could I buy at cost? And
Speaker 1: you you know, we it's like, oh, every first Tuesday,
Speaker 1: people know they can come here, like I know one
Speaker 1: restaurant tour in particular. Her name is Adena. She is
Speaker 1: a child of like War. She came to the United States.
Speaker 1: She owns the ie Hop, which is I think it's
Speaker 1: like the number one most successful I hop in the
Speaker 1: Eastern Seaboard. She also owns this place called like Beijon
Speaker 1: or Vegan Newark or whatever. She owns like that. I
Speaker 1: think two ie hops anyway, very successful young and I
Speaker 1: know for a fact that Adida does like free food
Speaker 1: for kids. I know that she has like times where
Speaker 1: she feeds on house. What would it take if I said, girl,
Speaker 1: here's an extra fifteen hundred two thousand dollars from me
Speaker 1: to like how many additional people? And what if I
Speaker 1: went through? So I just started thinking about it. What
Speaker 1: if I went through the United Way and said if
Speaker 1: I gave it through you and then allow you know,
Speaker 1: and asking that My only ask is that at least
Speaker 1: ninety percent of it went directly to the restaurant to
Speaker 1: do the good work, because then it will allow maybe
Speaker 1: corporate entities because credentials in Newark, Panasonic is in Newark,
Speaker 1: to then also give in a way that like you
Speaker 1: know that they're gonna want to give, which is through
Speaker 1: like a nonprofit entity but like you know, and making
Speaker 1: it a thing. And I call my friend Denise, and
Speaker 1: Denise's like, oh, if it's if it's like you know,
Speaker 1: every first Sunday, I can bring clothes that day. And
Speaker 1: you know, women in shelters often don't have sanitary for
Speaker 1: their mental cycles. Like so even if you don't have
Speaker 1: money to give, You're like I can drop off pads,
Speaker 1: I can drop off socks, I can things that people
Speaker 1: don't normally have access to. And so I just thought,
Speaker 1: because if I'm being honest, the place where I am
Speaker 1: now fifteen hundred dollars a month, would it's not going
Speaker 1: to break anything that's happening here, you know. And so
Speaker 1: it's like instead of saying like why would you allow
Speaker 1: this thing to happen, it's like tivity, why would you?
Speaker 1: And so I just committed to that that, Like I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm going to start off at like fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month, and I'm just simple and soon
Speaker 1: I'm trying not to overthink it. You know, certainly get great.
Speaker 2: The food bank, the there's like food banks are great
Speaker 2: because I think there's also been a rise in people
Speaker 2: just going to food banks, and there's a there's We
Speaker 2: have an organization is called Feeding Westchester that I do
Speaker 2: my monthly tithe contribution to. Okay, and you'll see them
Speaker 2: set up and the lines are always wrapped around the block. Okay.
Speaker 2: So that's yeah, I think that's wonderful and I think
Speaker 2: that's all we really that's one of the things that
Speaker 2: you can do. I think that there's there's so many
Speaker 2: different levels of attack when it comes to these like
Speaker 2: systemic chronic issues, yeah, poverty, hunger, you know, you could
Speaker 2: also tie in the opioid crisis with that to the
Speaker 2: rising cost of housing. It's like all of these issues
Speaker 2: are interconnected and they require such a multi pronged approach
Speaker 2: to and it's like taking off the pressure from yourself
Speaker 2: to be the one to fix it and just standing yeah,
Speaker 2: just understanding that we all have a role to play,
Speaker 2: voting like the officials legislations saying, you know.
Speaker 1: Just be like, you know what, I'm going to carry
Speaker 1: pats with me. And then because sometimes you know, you
Speaker 1: feel so overwhelmedcause you're like what about and then and
Speaker 1: then it's like, okay, okay, I cannot fix all the
Speaker 1: world's ills, but I could, to your point, I could
Speaker 1: donate fifteen hundred dollars to the food bank, you know,
Speaker 1: and then I could make it something where I'm just like,
Speaker 1: cause one of the things I used to do stuff
Speaker 1: like this all the time that I would like, you know,
Speaker 1: if somebody needed help or if there was an organization forgiving,
Speaker 1: I would post about it regularly. Because what I found
Speaker 1: is that people actually want to do good works. They
Speaker 1: just don't want to do the work to find the
Speaker 1: good works because they're like, I don't have time to
Speaker 1: figure out what's legitimate. And so if there's good works
Speaker 1: that I know where it actually helps people, I can say, hey,
Speaker 1: so you know, I'm doing my monthly donation, and I
Speaker 1: see for myself because I go there physically that this
Speaker 1: is the benefit of that. If you're looking for a place,
Speaker 1: here's a legitimate one. Sometimes just even sharing that. So
Speaker 1: I just because when I tell you it took everything,
Speaker 1: I was like, timany, why are you crying? You had
Speaker 1: to get do the grass. I'm just but I was
Speaker 1: just like I had to really like get yourself together
Speaker 1: because it just felt sough. It just nobody should live
Speaker 1: like that. You know, we're not animals. I mean we are,
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean, like you know that,
Speaker 1: like this is someone's daughter at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: You know, she might even be somebody's mother, she might
Speaker 1: be somebody's aunt. I think about it. I used to
Speaker 1: think about it all the time when I used to
Speaker 1: walk my babies when I taught preschool, because they lived
Speaker 1: in a neighborhood where that was quite common to see afflicted,
Speaker 1: drug addicted unhoused. And I used to think to myself
Speaker 1: as I was walking my babies, like I pray this,
Speaker 1: this is never going to be their future because at
Speaker 1: some point they were somebody's babies, you know, they were
Speaker 1: somebody's three year old, maybe in preschool. How does it
Speaker 1: turn into this? I don't know, As I used to
Speaker 1: just it just may used to make me want to
Speaker 1: love them, on them as much as possible, to hopefully
Speaker 1: see them through, you know, like whatever life might bring.
Speaker 1: And so I just said, Okay, you can't fix everything,
Speaker 1: but this is what you can do, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to get analysis paralysis and so yeah, but
Speaker 1: if you are listening to this and you're like, oh, actually, Tiffany,
Speaker 1: you know, here's a you know, maybe here's someone who
Speaker 1: works for food bank or somebody who I just want
Speaker 1: to make sure that at least ninety percent of like
Speaker 1: what I give goes directly to be of service. So
Speaker 1: I've just wanted to make sure. And to me, the
Speaker 1: thing that's pushing me is like helping people have access
Speaker 1: to food. So I don't know, so if there's like
Speaker 1: an even better way. I'm open to it, So I
Speaker 1: don't you know, I'm not stuck in one particular way.
Speaker 1: This is just what came to mind. But you know,
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure that I don't want
Speaker 1: to give fifteen hundred and five hundred goals. It's like no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I want to give fifteen hundred. I get sometimes there's
Speaker 1: an administrative things or maybe you have to buy containers
Speaker 1: or play to nat in on them.
Speaker 2: I like that in that website Charity Navigator, because it'll
Speaker 2: it crades charities based on how much overhead, like how
Speaker 2: much money contributions go toward, yeah, the cause and how
Speaker 2: much towards overhead costs and stuff. But okay, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean I guess it's my break, but just for
Speaker 2: the sadness of it all. But also sometimes I guess
Speaker 2: we need to be shaken up and shaken out of
Speaker 2: our comfort zone.
Speaker 1: We need to look.
Speaker 2: We have to be confronted sometimes. Yeah, and it's it
Speaker 2: could be really easy for you to go left instead
Speaker 2: of right, you know what I mean? Yeah, I know, so.
Speaker 1: This is abody want to end on this. I was like,
Speaker 1: left that and not the break. Let's something a.
Speaker 2: Little more let me just haul this eighteen wheeler of sadness.
Speaker 1: The other.
Speaker 2: We're creating.
Speaker 1: Not as having matching hairstyles today.
Speaker 2: All the pineapple. Yeah it looks so rangedy.
Speaker 1: But always poping.
Speaker 2: Okay, YM's like, I'm not really popping today. I'm just
Speaker 2: so tired of the age we have to see ourselves
Speaker 2: all the time and room we had our and there
Speaker 2: was no video.
Speaker 1: Girl, I be on here looking you want to use
Speaker 1: to do video? And I was like, but Mandy, was
Speaker 1: that my idea? Yeah? I was so like, but do
Speaker 1: you understand how I show up, girl, I'd be having
Speaker 1: one sock one I'll be having like no, just but no,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm over here now, and then added it.
Speaker 1: But at the time, I was like, this is my
Speaker 1: place to look crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no longer that it's okay. Anyway, I want to
Speaker 2: do a shout out to the New York Liberty because
Speaker 2: they're going to the playoffs. And I know that because
Speaker 2: my friend texts me and she's a very good sports fan,
Speaker 2: and I am not a very good sports fan because
Speaker 2: I already use a lot of my executive I don't
Speaker 2: know how this woman has time to like pay attention
Speaker 2: to game times and buy tickets in advance. I really
Speaker 2: do want to be a sports fan. I want to
Speaker 2: be a fan of the New York Liberty. I want
Speaker 2: to go to games and stuff like that. I told
Speaker 2: her next year's going to be the year, even though
Speaker 2: last year I said I was really going to devote
Speaker 2: myself to the Georgia Bulldogs and SEC and I just
Speaker 2: like lost, I lost track. But shout out to them,
Speaker 2: because it's all it's a woman, it's a w n
Speaker 2: B A and they are killing it.
Speaker 1: And is that Ellie?
Speaker 2: Is that that they have that elephant? Nice? And I
Speaker 2: know I was looking at ticket prices. I just can't
Speaker 2: do it. But yeah, I can't do it this year.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to make better decisions on the money, as
Speaker 2: I have stated previously. Not y'all see, everyone's gonna be
Speaker 2: judging me now, didn't you say? I was thinking that,
Speaker 2: like not, Yeah, it's accountability. It's accountability. You're right. I
Speaker 2: don't need to be spending money. We got food, we
Speaker 2: have sports out sports home. But yeah, shout out to
Speaker 2: them and to w NBA fans, and I just love
Speaker 2: how exciting this is. And I can't wait to make
Speaker 2: my boys w NBA fans and all of that. And
Speaker 2: I don't think Caitlin Clark is on that team, but
Speaker 2: like shout out to her. And I almost said, Shakari Richardson,
Speaker 2: that is not a folk about. Let me stop all
Speaker 2: in my head.
Speaker 1: Just like sports sports and sports sports, all the sport girlies.
Speaker 1: I'm like sports. I want to be I want to know.
Speaker 2: But like the thing is, I'm either like one hundred
Speaker 2: percent in or I'm like not even like when I
Speaker 2: get invested, I will know I want to be invested,
Speaker 2: you know, but we'll see next year. There's always next year.
Speaker 2: But good lick, good luck in the playoffs. I hope
Speaker 2: we win. And Ellie the Elephant, I'll be looking at
Speaker 2: your clips online because you are that girl whoever's inside.
Speaker 1: And that's all.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the show.
Speaker 1: Wait, do real quick, do you have any new you know?
Speaker 1: It's always nice to you.
Speaker 2: Do you have any new new reviews? You know?
Speaker 1: While man is looking. You know, we love a review,
Speaker 1: especially on the Apple, because it allows people to find
Speaker 1: us to Yes, it amplifies our voices even further, especially
Speaker 1: if they're fivet.
Speaker 4: I no pressure, A little bit of pressure is fine.
Speaker 4: So and we might weave review on the show, So
Speaker 4: do it all right?
Speaker 2: Listener Moi Ray says, I literally just shared your show
Speaker 2: with my friend. I'm a first time listener and I
Speaker 2: just love your energy. You're so fun to listen to.
Speaker 2: Looking forward to many more listens, Yes, Moi, or maybe
Speaker 2: it's Moi Ray, I don't know. Are you ongoing? Moy
Speaker 2: You can gets very wrong. Think you will be a
Speaker 2: fam alright, stay tuned because we're gonna come to you
Speaker 2: Friday with the b A q u A and don't
Speaker 2: miss a how holaback episodes which air on Monday, where
Speaker 2: we dive into our archives and dig up an oldie
Speaker 2: but a goodie, especially for the new listeners who haven't
Speaker 2: had time to listen to I don't know, six hundred
Speaker 2: episodes over nine years, how dare you? But we're going
Speaker 2: to find the best of the best and bring them
Speaker 2: to you Monday. So until then, ya, bye bye bye