Speaker 1: It's times or b a q q A b a
Speaker 1: q q q A.
Speaker 2: Oh there's a spider on my stel, Like, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: look back down. I don't want to see that.
Speaker 1: The spider is just what's a little b a qa?
Speaker 1: As well? They were like brod a mission question and answer.
Speaker 2: I's gonna pretend like that didn't just say but I
Speaker 2: am working in a basement of there you go, Hey,
Speaker 2: long time, no ser.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for b a q A?
Speaker 2: I'm always ready for our new mini episode. I'm loving this.
Speaker 2: I'm loving our new changear, switching it up, keeping things fresh.
Speaker 2: BA audience.
Speaker 1: If anyone has a q A for b A, where
Speaker 1: can they send in their cu You guys.
Speaker 2: Can go to Brandnambition podcast dot com and click ask
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Speaker 2: We are at brand Ambision Podcast. Follow us while you're there.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get to ten thousand, y'all.
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Speaker 2: We're gonna hit ten thousand this week. I'm so excited.
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Speaker 1: Dot com. All right, let's get to the first question.
Speaker 2: Just keeep do it. Let me let me read this
Speaker 2: one for us.
Speaker 1: Allow me.
Speaker 2: Hi, guys, I recently found out about your podcast and
Speaker 2: I'm obsessed all caps. I have a son who is
Speaker 2: eighteen months old, and I'm trying to set him up
Speaker 2: for success. I know you guys have talked about investing
Speaker 2: for your kids, but I'm wondering what you all think
Speaker 2: about the Gerber life grow up plans. Something about it
Speaker 2: doesn't seem like the best idea, but I'm also not
Speaker 2: sure at all.
Speaker 1: Help.
Speaker 3: I just I want to just say, like, I love
Speaker 3: your intuition, your spidery chanswers, so like, hm.
Speaker 2: Baby food, food, life insurance. What's not adding up?
Speaker 1: One of these things does not be long?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I forgot about these policies and I had to
Speaker 2: do some googles after we saw this question because I'm like,
Speaker 2: what is that? But it literally is a It is
Speaker 2: a whole life insurance policy, so you can purchase it
Speaker 2: for your kids. I'm reading this from Value Penguin dot com,
Speaker 2: which is an insurance comparison website, and I know the
Speaker 2: content team there, so I trust their information. They say
Speaker 2: that with Gerber's Life's Grow Up Plan. It's a whole
Speaker 2: life insurance policy you can purchase on your kids or
Speaker 2: grandchildren between the ages of fourteen days and fourteen years old.
Speaker 2: It's a typical whole life insurance policy that has premiums
Speaker 2: and build builds cash value. But there's a few differences.
Speaker 2: Until the child turns twenty one, the person who opens
Speaker 2: the account, so the parent is the policy excuse me, owner,
Speaker 2: and you can only purchase between five thousand and fifty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars worth of insurance or the child. The benefit
Speaker 2: I think is that the policy's death benefit doubles when
Speaker 2: the child turns eighteen, So a twenty five thousand dollars
Speaker 2: policy would turn into a fifty thousand dollars policy then
Speaker 2: without any rise in premiums.
Speaker 1: Now here's the exciting stuff.
Speaker 3: I think we should all that tofay what is the
Speaker 3: purpose of life insurance? I'll tell you what the purpose
Speaker 3: of life insurance is. It is typically because you are
Speaker 3: financially responsible for other people and if something God forbid
Speaker 3: should happen to you, that they would still be able
Speaker 3: to maintain the life that you're providing for them. So
Speaker 3: you are a parent and you say, if I'm not here,
Speaker 3: you know, how will my children be able to eat,
Speaker 3: go to school, transportation all that stuff. So although I'm
Speaker 3: not physically here, the financial component that I brought to
Speaker 3: the table is still here.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: Or if you were going to leave behind a financial
Speaker 3: debt that would be inherited by your heirs, right, let's
Speaker 3: just say some student loan debt, right, so not your
Speaker 3: federal but private student loan debt. Or and if you
Speaker 3: have a mortgage or a car note or whatever that
Speaker 3: would have to be paid even if you're not here.
Speaker 3: You might get a life insurance policy. So basically the
Speaker 3: life insurance policies one to bury you, you know, like
Speaker 3: if you know if the people who would be responsible
Speaker 3: for bearing you don't have the money, and then but
Speaker 3: especially two, to take care of your financial obligations that
Speaker 3: you would leave behind. Riddle me this, mandra You've got
Speaker 3: a little baby, he's super cute. And what bills does
Speaker 3: we o pay?
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 2: As of now zero he pays zero. I'm embarrassed to
Speaker 2: say I don't charge him rents. Girl, life bill has
Speaker 2: gone up since he got his own room, and he
Speaker 2: has contributed no coins, no coins at all, I feel
Speaker 2: like the only case when you would have to get
Speaker 2: life insurance for a baby is if maybe they're like
Speaker 2: a baby's baby actor, a child actor, or a child
Speaker 2: maybe I don't know, a homegirl who won the spelling bee,
Speaker 2: who's probably got like agents flocking to her right now.
Speaker 3: Because honestly, there are some kids who do contribute to
Speaker 3: the bottom line of the family, you know. And so
Speaker 3: I mean, I have a whole thing about whole life
Speaker 3: versus term anyway, you know, whole life is. We'll talk,
Speaker 3: We'll have a whole life term conversation another day. But
Speaker 3: you know, but it doesn't really make sense for the
Speaker 3: most part to put that money toward life andsjurant. Although
Speaker 3: I'm so there's some financial advisors who are like, no,
Speaker 3: you want to know why because they get paid when
Speaker 3: you do that, right, so exactly, they get commissioned.
Speaker 1: So having life inschurane for a baby. So if if
Speaker 1: unfortunately that baby passes prematurely.
Speaker 2: I can't think of babies me. Don't make me do it.
Speaker 1: But that money is you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: what is that money for? Like you know, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean.
Speaker 3: Is that is that fifty thousand replacing income that the
Speaker 3: baby was bringing in. No, does that baby have dead No.
Speaker 3: The only time that it might might might might make sense.
Speaker 3: This is from my wealth planner and certified financial planner.
Speaker 1: She said, Let's just say that your.
Speaker 3: Child, maybe you have like a some sort of illness
Speaker 3: that runs in the family, and you're pretty sure that
Speaker 3: they're not going to qualify for life insurance later on
Speaker 3: in life because that illness comes up, you know, She said,
Speaker 3: that's as possible, like there might be something where like,
Speaker 3: you know, half of your family has gotten cancer by
Speaker 3: the time they're thirty, or or you know, I don't
Speaker 3: know something that you just are pretty concerned that they're
Speaker 3: not going to qualify. Then she said, it might make
Speaker 3: sense then to be like, you know what, let's let's
Speaker 3: get your life insurance in place now, so that way,
Speaker 3: you know, by the time you're older, at least you'll
Speaker 3: have something for your children when you if you decide
Speaker 3: to have children or whatever dependence that you might have later.
Speaker 1: So that might make sense, but all in.
Speaker 3: All, it would be better for you to use that
Speaker 3: money to save for their college fund if you think
Speaker 3: you're going to send them a college to set aside
Speaker 3: just for them, you know, like and to invest on
Speaker 3: their behalf versus giving it to especially a whole life policy.
Speaker 3: They talk about the cast benefit, but you you know,
Speaker 3: the average return on that cast benefit is two. I
Speaker 3: mean up until recently, you could get that in a
Speaker 3: savings account.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, and so maybe a bond these days. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: you don't have the flexibility as you would like if
Speaker 2: you just the spider's getting closer if you just put
Speaker 2: the money into a brokerage account for.
Speaker 1: Because just in case that's.
Speaker 2: It's not anything. I don't want to look at it anymore.
Speaker 2: Why is it always me and vermin? Remember when I
Speaker 2: had mice running around anyway, different place, not this place. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do have life insurance. I have a term policy
Speaker 2: and I got that when I had a kid because
Speaker 2: I decided that, you know, prior to that, my husband
Speaker 2: he's still able to work and you know, provide for himself,
Speaker 2: and we had plenty of savings, et cetera. But for
Speaker 2: my son, you know, God forbid anything happens to me.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to be sure he was set as well.
Speaker 2: So that was my form of protection for him. But yeah, Gerber,
Speaker 2: it's cute, like their food is cute. But maybe not
Speaker 2: their whole life insurance for the fourteen day year old.
Speaker 1: Ah, so we say pass on and over here.
Speaker 3: Next question is super easy breezy anonymous here, which is
Speaker 3: funny because this question is not really what I would
Speaker 3: think of, befo anonymous. But okay, yeah, well, asking for
Speaker 3: a credit line increase on a credit card affect my
Speaker 3: credit score?
Speaker 2: Tricky? You said it'd be easy. Tricky, tricky because people
Speaker 2: still get this messed up. So first you want to
Speaker 2: talk about what a credit line increase is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that means like, let's just say, right now,
Speaker 3: your credit like you know, like your credit card, the
Speaker 3: limit is five hundred dollars, and you're like, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm feeling, grown I'm feeling sexy. I'm feeling a
Speaker 3: thousand dollars is more appropriate to where I am right now.
Speaker 3: So you can ask your credit card company, Hey, credits worth,
Speaker 3: look at good syst stop playing me out. I would
Speaker 3: love to go from being able to potentially borrow five
Speaker 3: hundred dollars to one thousand dollars. And they ask you
Speaker 3: all these questions like how much do you make? They'll
Speaker 3: obviously look get your credit score and they'll make the assessment.
Speaker 3: Then and then they'll either say.
Speaker 1: Yay or nay.
Speaker 3: Now here's the thing. They're going to decide whatever that
Speaker 3: number is. You know, you might say I'd like to
Speaker 3: go to a thousand. They're like, girl, nobody asks you.
Speaker 1: We'll put it where we want to put it. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: which is funny. You're like, oh, oh seven fifty, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: seven fifty.
Speaker 3: So that is a credit line increase just basically your
Speaker 3: limit increases. In Europe, you have more, you have a
Speaker 3: greater availability dumb to cash and money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and when you you can actually request a credit
Speaker 2: line increase. I did this before. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you have, but I've done it for not the right
Speaker 2: reasons in the past, which is I really wanted to
Speaker 2: go to Boston for New Year's Eve for some reason
Speaker 2: in two thousand and eight, and I had like a
Speaker 2: seven hundred dollars limit on my college credit card and
Speaker 2: I was like, can I have a little bit more?
Speaker 2: And I immediately maxed it out and it took me
Speaker 2: three years to pay it back down. Don't do that,
Speaker 2: but there is you know, in that case that hurt
Speaker 2: my credit score because what I was doing is maxing
Speaker 2: out my available credit limit. Which utilization which is just
Speaker 2: a f word for how much you're using on your
Speaker 2: credit limit. It really it's like one of the sec
Speaker 2: it's the second most important factor for your credit score.
Speaker 2: So if you are maxing out your cards, no matter
Speaker 2: their limit, your score is probably going to go down. Now,
Speaker 2: there's an upside to getting a credit limit only if
Speaker 2: you just don't use it, or if you do use it,
Speaker 2: you pay it off each time your bill is due.
Speaker 2: That's the only way to be sure that you know
Speaker 2: you're going to have a continue to have a strong
Speaker 2: credit score. I know when would people?
Speaker 1: So it's off in half right, so meaning like it
Speaker 1: can actually raise your score, it can actually lower your score.
Speaker 1: So this is how it can lower your score.
Speaker 3: Like if they do the credit line like increase, which
Speaker 3: they will do from time to time, naturally that's not
Speaker 3: gonna that's a soft inquiry, meaning like a soft inquiry
Speaker 3: is when you have not given someone the express permission
Speaker 3: to look at your credit and make decisions you know,
Speaker 3: about your about whatever financial product or service they might
Speaker 3: offer you. That's soft and so it's like kind of involuntary,
Speaker 3: so they don't know it doesn't they don't give you
Speaker 3: a ding on.
Speaker 1: Your credit report as a result.
Speaker 3: So if you get a nap because and that happens,
Speaker 3: like I'm going to say once a year or whatever,
Speaker 3: you're if you're using your credit card a lot and
Speaker 3: paying it off, well they'll just do an increase, no
Speaker 3: ding to you. Now, if you ask for one, you
Speaker 3: have the potential of that being a hard inquiry, meaning
Speaker 3: that you've expressly allowed someone to look at your credit
Speaker 3: report and make a decision. And so hard increase have
Speaker 3: the can bring down your score, And so you want
Speaker 3: to be mindful. So I've raised it, and if I've asked,
Speaker 3: this is gonna be a softer heart inquiry and usually
Speaker 3: it is a herd incurey because I'm making the request.
Speaker 3: So that's how it can potentially bring down your score,
Speaker 3: but it can increase your score in this way because
Speaker 3: Mandy mentioned something called utilization. Utilization is just how much
Speaker 3: credit do you have available versus how much you're actually using.
Speaker 3: So let's just say right now you only have one card,
Speaker 3: or let's just say now you have two cards.
Speaker 1: Each of them has a one hundred dollars limit, and
Speaker 1: one card is fully.
Speaker 3: Maxed out one hundred dollars limit on both cards and
Speaker 3: one car is fully maxed out. So if one car
Speaker 3: is fully maxed out, you're utilizing on average, fifty percent
Speaker 3: of your utilization. Because one card is not used at
Speaker 3: all the other card is fully maxed out, you're using
Speaker 3: half of your credit limit between the two cards. Now,
Speaker 3: let's just say you take that one card and say
Speaker 3: I'm going to bump up my credit limit and ask
Speaker 3: and they say sure, and it goes from one hundred
Speaker 3: to two hundred. So now you're not utilizing fifty percent
Speaker 3: of your credit available, you're utilizing one third, you know,
Speaker 3: thirty three percent, which is which is really the max
Speaker 3: of where you should be. No, really, ideally no more
Speaker 3: than thirty percent of your your credit cards available to you.
Speaker 3: Do you want to be utilizing so that it can
Speaker 3: actually help to bring up your score because you lowered
Speaker 3: your utilization. They like to see you have some breathing
Speaker 3: room when it comes to dead. So can ask me
Speaker 3: for an increase bring down your score? Yes, because it
Speaker 3: might be a hard increy. Can it bring up your score?
Speaker 3: Yes if it gives you more breathing room and puts
Speaker 3: you into a safer utilization zone.
Speaker 1: So it's.
Speaker 2: I feel things crawling on me it's just all one
Speaker 2: big mind trick. I hate it, but that's the way
Speaker 2: the game is played so far. With credit cards, they
Speaker 2: just want, like the way that you get a good
Speaker 2: score is like to prove that they can put that
Speaker 2: chocolate cake in front of you and you're not going
Speaker 2: to eat it.
Speaker 1: And for some.
Speaker 2: People that is harder to do for others, and that's
Speaker 2: just how they get you. You need to prove to
Speaker 2: credit card credit reporting agencies rather the people who actually
Speaker 2: track your credit and then that goes into your credit score.
Speaker 2: You have to prove to them that you are able
Speaker 2: to resist that temptation. And it sounds unfair because it is,
Speaker 2: but that is the way it is, right now, Okay.
Speaker 1: This was this was this resist all right.
Speaker 3: We just have time for two questions today. We'll do
Speaker 3: more or less next time. But if you have questions,
Speaker 3: please follow.
Speaker 1: Us on the gram ask there, or go to Brownibishy
Speaker 1: podcast dot com and ask click to ask us anything button.
Speaker 3: We love your questions. We got a lot this week,
Speaker 3: and we love your questions. They're like, really they're becoming
Speaker 3: even more insightful than ever. Befel And as for usual,
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Speaker 1: need to listen, especially that one friend that's always asking
Speaker 1: you money questions. You want to be like sis, Just
Speaker 1: listen to Brown Ambition. The girls there have you?
Speaker 2: All right, y'all until next week. Tiffany always a pleasure, Yes.
Speaker 1: It is always a pleasure. Not with me, I mean
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: It's all pleasurable. All right, let's not go there again.
Speaker 2: That was funny, but now we're recording in the daytime.
Speaker 2: We can't be saucy. We can't be like Brown Ambition
Speaker 2: after dark. This is coffee in this cup, not about
Speaker 2: katonic unfortunately. Well, se all next week.
Speaker 1: Yes, I say, with your brand mission muck okay, represent.
Speaker 2: I'm on brand right Brandimission store dot com. Yes, you
Speaker 2: can get your very own brand and ooh, that's my lipstick.
Speaker 2: It doesn't come with the lipstick stain. You'll get a
Speaker 2: clean cup, I promise, BRANDI Mission Store dot com okay
Speaker 2: by