Speaker 1: It's time for the b a q a a a
Speaker 1: q a with the b a q manday the b
Speaker 1: a q a withs today the b a q a A.
Speaker 2: Hey, Mandy, how are you doing?
Speaker 3: I always feel so much better doing the b a
Speaker 3: q a than I do during the show, because like
Speaker 3: the b a the regular show gets me all like,
Speaker 3: get all my demons out, and then I just come
Speaker 3: so much happier enjoyful to the v a q a.
Speaker 3: It's like the sprinkles on top.
Speaker 2: Sprinkle sprinkle, sprinkle sprinkle it this that lady on TikTok
Speaker 2: that sounds like sprinkle sprinkle. Let's answer some moulah baby questions.
Speaker 3: So I got some good ones today, Yeah, we do,
Speaker 3: all right, So do you want to go first? You
Speaker 3: want to go first, but you want to do a
Speaker 3: lawyer bay or we're not.
Speaker 2: The lawyer bad You can go ahead. You could do
Speaker 2: lawyer bay.
Speaker 3: Oh well, thank you? All right? Before we do, we
Speaker 3: did the usual disclaimer because it's good girl.
Speaker 2: Okay, So hey, we love your questions. If you have
Speaker 2: questions about business, personal finance, career and more even just
Speaker 2: a personal life child, you know we all here in
Speaker 2: these streets. You could ask us you can go to
Speaker 2: Brown Ambition Podcasts at gmail dot com and email us
Speaker 2: there Bronibition podcast dot com. We're Brown Ambition Podcast on
Speaker 2: ig the BA podcast on Twitter. But remember we are
Speaker 2: too smart brown girls, your faves, the cutest, the brown
Speaker 2: is the cutest. You know. We're just all the things.
Speaker 2: But what we're not is your financial advisor. We're not
Speaker 2: your doctor, we are not your attorney. We are just
Speaker 2: like just too smart brown checks. And you're going to
Speaker 2: take our advice with the smallest sprinkle of salt and
Speaker 2: then bring that salt to the person that you pay
Speaker 2: for the advanced knowledge that you're needing in that particular topic. Okay, akay,
Speaker 2: sue your mama, not us.
Speaker 3: All right, thank you for that disclaimer, Tiffany. Let's get
Speaker 3: into lawyer Bay's question. This is juicy, okay. Lawyer Bay says,
Speaker 3: I am a brown lawyer in my late twenties, making
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty five thousand US dollars a year
Speaker 3: with no debt bless. I currently contribute to the maximum.
Speaker 3: I currently contribute the maximum of my four oh one
Speaker 3: K and I'm looking for advice on what things I
Speaker 3: can do to build wealth. I have an Old Faithful
Speaker 3: car Okay, Tiffany, just like in your early days, and
Speaker 3: I'm slowly saving for a new car, but I'm not
Speaker 3: pressed about it. I'm in a long distance relationship, not married.
Speaker 3: I have ten K in my emergency fund and fifteen
Speaker 3: K save for a car in the future or if
Speaker 3: Old Faithful breaks down. My rent is seventeen fifty. I
Speaker 3: travel frequently because it's my favorite thing to do. Not
Speaker 3: interested in purchasing ta a home right now because of
Speaker 3: how often I travel, and I don't know if I'll
Speaker 3: stay in my current city. I'm grateful for I'm grateful
Speaker 3: for the position that I'm in, especially having no debt,
Speaker 3: but I feel immen's personal pressure to not squander this
Speaker 3: time where I could really be building wealth. What I'd
Speaker 3: like to know from you all is what things I
Speaker 3: can be doing right now that will set me up
Speaker 3: for wealth in the future. PS. I love y'all's disclaimers
Speaker 3: for the BAQA. My attorney brain is always like, yes,
Speaker 3: tell the folks, did you.
Speaker 2: Hear she said right here? She said, I just want
Speaker 2: to be sure I have all the I have the
Speaker 2: whole picture, so you can give me your best. In
Speaker 2: quotations non professional advice because she knows like, this is
Speaker 2: not professional advice, this is just some lawyer bay. First
Speaker 2: of all, snaps, we love a brown smart just like
Speaker 2: all around, it sounds like you are doing just about
Speaker 2: everything right, which is awesome. And so I just have
Speaker 2: a few quick, little, quick little tweaks that you can
Speaker 2: do to like enhance. So one, I'm curious to know
Speaker 2: how many months is your you know, the you have
Speaker 2: a ten thousand dollars save for emergency funds? You know
Speaker 2: how many months saved is that? Is that at least
Speaker 2: three months? And as an attorney, how long did it
Speaker 2: take you to get your job? And how quickly do
Speaker 2: you think you can replace that job? So if you're
Speaker 2: like to be on a super safe side five months,
Speaker 2: I could definitely get a new job whatever that is.
Speaker 2: I would just want you to make sure that that
Speaker 2: emergency fund is at least three months and ideally the
Speaker 2: amount of months you think it would take for you
Speaker 2: to secure another job with similar income, So that'd be one.
Speaker 2: And you might be like, we good on that, Like
Speaker 2: it's three months, and I can get a job with
Speaker 2: three months to.
Speaker 3: Be three because her rent is seventeen fifties, that's what
Speaker 3: I'm thinking almost six times her rent, and I'm assuming
Speaker 3: the rest is for like, you know, some room for
Speaker 3: her lifestyle, has a car note it sounds like.
Speaker 2: Which is great. That's why I said, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure that something you just
Speaker 2: want to tap into, just to make sure. And then
Speaker 2: I love that you're maxing out your four O one K.
Speaker 2: And so there are two types of investments you are.
Speaker 2: I hate people say safe for retirement because you're really
Speaker 2: investing for retirement. So there's investing for retirement and then
Speaker 2: there's investing for wealth. So it looks like you have
Speaker 2: the investing for retirement part down, and so you've maxed
Speaker 2: out your four one K. You might want to sit
Speaker 2: with a financial advisor to make sure that there's no
Speaker 2: other tax advantage maxing out that you can do. You
Speaker 2: might just be under the threshold where you can potentially
Speaker 2: put money into a rowth IRA. But I don't know
Speaker 2: like you would want to, you know, like look at
Speaker 2: those numbers, because I laughed when I checked. It was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it was like it was like one thirty nine as
Speaker 2: long as you made under that. But I can't remember
Speaker 2: if that was like a couple or a single person.
Speaker 2: And also too, I don't know how much money you're putting,
Speaker 2: Like what when you say you max out, I don't
Speaker 2: know how much money you are putting in your four
Speaker 2: one K because there is a max in general when
Speaker 2: you can put money into a tax advantage retirement account.
Speaker 2: So I would want you to max out across the
Speaker 2: board if you have the excess, to max out all
Speaker 2: that you can when it comes to tax advantage retirement accounts,
Speaker 2: whether it's four one K, roth ira ira whatever, that
Speaker 2: looks like, okay, so that's one, so that's two actually.
Speaker 2: And then the third thing is I would want you
Speaker 2: if you are like, no, girl, I'm retirement is max.
Speaker 2: There's nothing else I can do? Great, then I would
Speaker 2: want you to look at investing for wealth so you
Speaker 2: are in the position to do so. This means that
Speaker 2: it could be a brokerage account just like it's similar
Speaker 2: to your four one K, but you know you would
Speaker 2: be in you might be in the market via ets,
Speaker 2: mutual funds. This is something that you would want to
Speaker 2: sit with a financial advisor to kound and decide what's
Speaker 2: best for you. You are in a space where you would
Speaker 2: want to ask yourself, Hey, financial advisors. So there are
Speaker 2: there are sites like x y z x Y planning right,
Speaker 2: there's like that's where you can find financial advisors. There
Speaker 2: are sites like wealth Ramp is one of them. There
Speaker 2: are sites like I have one called my Money. No,
Speaker 2: your moneymatch dot com is one of them. I know
Speaker 2: is one way Mandy that you work with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, facet there's investor dot com. Thankfully there's becoming. But
Speaker 3: the key is like are you talking about for her?
Speaker 3: Because you're talking about like investing for wealth. Then you
Speaker 3: want to ask, so I will discustment advisor, yes.
Speaker 2: To help walk you through, like, hey, here are the
Speaker 2: places that I am and now I have some space
Speaker 2: and leeway and by the time I'm fifty, i'd like
Speaker 2: to be here. And so you want a certified financial
Speaker 2: planner that is the gold standard of financial advisors that
Speaker 2: you want them to reverse engineer. Here's what you have
Speaker 2: to do now consistently to get to where you want
Speaker 2: to be by forty five to fifty or whatever number
Speaker 2: that you kind of tell them. So that's the position
Speaker 2: that you are in now where it's like it seems
Speaker 2: like you have the foundational things down pat which is great.
Speaker 2: Now you get to kind of future plan and say
Speaker 2: by fifty, I don't want to work anymore. By fifty,
Speaker 2: I want to live in you know, BALI whatever that is.
Speaker 2: And a certified financial planner can help reverse engineer. But
Speaker 2: not only that, because that's only a small piece of
Speaker 2: what they do. I want because you are starting to
Speaker 2: grow well for yourself. A certified financial planner is going
Speaker 2: to help to holistically look at your life. They might say,
Speaker 2: are you fully insured for where you are now? You know,
Speaker 2: like do you have enough insurance? They're going to look
Speaker 2: at like, you know, depending on what other assets you have.
Speaker 2: Do you need do you have a will? I know?
Speaker 2: You know have children right now? You know, does it
Speaker 2: make sense for you to get a trust? It might
Speaker 2: not for where you are because you're still in your twenties.
Speaker 2: But a certified financial planner is going to look holistically
Speaker 2: at your life and find any holes and help you
Speaker 2: to plug them, and you can kind of it is
Speaker 2: possible literally to get to a point this is where
Speaker 2: I am in my financial journey where there's nothing quote
Speaker 2: unquote left to do other than to continue on the
Speaker 2: path that I'm on, because it's like nexting out on
Speaker 2: my retirement.
Speaker 3: Acount Angel mountaintop.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's just like now, I'm just like Angelie. My
Speaker 2: financial planner is just like, just continue. That's literally it like,
Speaker 2: if you continue like this, you're going to hit your
Speaker 2: goal by age fifty. Like you want to just continue.
Speaker 2: So that's what I would suggest for you those three things.
Speaker 2: Make sure you're retired, your emergency account is fully funded,
Speaker 2: make sure your retirement account is fully funded on both
Speaker 2: sides of the aisle, and sit with a certified financial
Speaker 2: planner to plug in any of the holes and continue
Speaker 2: to enjoy your amazing, fabulous life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and honestly, the pressure that you're feeling, release a
Speaker 3: little bit of that, I would say, And I feel
Speaker 3: like you're so young. I mean, you say late twenties,
Speaker 3: but it's very young. Yes, And if I could give
Speaker 3: any advice to my late twenties self, I would say,
Speaker 3: you do not know if you're going to want to
Speaker 3: keep doing that thing in ten more years. Ten years
Speaker 3: is a long time. Thirty nine is very different than
Speaker 3: twenty nine. I'm not even there yet. Thirty six is
Speaker 3: different than twenty nine. And I mean the way I
Speaker 3: was at twenty nine versus now is just so fundamentally different.
Speaker 3: I would say save additionally on top of your emergency
Speaker 3: fund for like the what if I want to change
Speaker 3: my mind fund? Like can we just have a change
Speaker 3: my mind fund a pivot fund and what you don't
Speaker 3: have to have a name for it or have a
Speaker 3: plan for it. But I would be like, as you're
Speaker 3: continuing to invest in build wealth, that's true, But I
Speaker 3: just feel like the financial elasticity, the financial flexibility to
Speaker 3: grab some money that you just have and then just
Speaker 3: make something new, like do something new, whether it's starting
Speaker 3: a business, buying some property, whatever. Just having a little
Speaker 3: bit of that, not a little bit, but having some
Speaker 3: of that on the side or at least acknowledging that
Speaker 3: you may want to have it on the side, is
Speaker 3: just Yeah, it's a game changer, I think for your
Speaker 3: mentality and also like get you out of that that
Speaker 3: cycle of like, oh, this is my job period. I'm
Speaker 3: going to do this job and do this job and
Speaker 3: do this job and do this job forever and ever
Speaker 3: because it might just change down the line. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I think we all have that personal pressure we should
Speaker 3: always be doing more, always be doing more, Yeah, I
Speaker 3: would say, And I think Tiff and I we talked
Speaker 3: about all the time, like there's what people are doing,
Speaker 3: and there's sort of like what helps you sleep at night? Yes,
Speaker 3: so what other people are doing maybe not is not
Speaker 3: enough for you for your level of peace that you want.
Speaker 3: So learn all the things like you've been doing and
Speaker 3: then do it your own way, you know, do it whatever,
Speaker 3: do whatever you need to feel safe and secure. And
Speaker 3: I'm super proud of you.
Speaker 2: Yeah we are, yeah, law your bag so proud.
Speaker 3: All right, well let's take a quick little break break
Speaker 3: and we'll be back with another juicy money question right
Speaker 3: here on the baqa.
Speaker 2: And we are back. Okay, we have a question. I'm
Speaker 2: not sure you want to say. Well, I'm going to
Speaker 2: call you lady die because I'm not sure like how
Speaker 2: much of your name you want to see you? So, hey, ladies,
Speaker 2: I'm a new listener. Welcome girl. My therapist recommended your
Speaker 2: podcast to me after I express the stress I have
Speaker 2: been experiencing from financial instability. For first of all, shout
Speaker 2: out to your therapist, girl. Yes, before listening.
Speaker 3: You're great to be co signed by a therapist, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Yes, Okay, before listening, I had no savings. I finally
Speaker 2: opened a savings account and have saved one thousand dollars
Speaker 2: so far. Yes, lady Die, what type of advice would
Speaker 2: you recommend this twenty six year old? Oh, it's the
Speaker 2: it's the podcast of the twenties. What type of advice
Speaker 2: would you recommend this twenty six year old when it
Speaker 2: comes to fighting the urge to not touch those savings? Awesome?
Speaker 2: How would one go about finding a financial advisor? Any
Speaker 2: and all advice will be greatly appreciated. Oh maybe, what
Speaker 2: do you say for lady Die?
Speaker 3: Oh? Goodness, well I was you. I feel like at
Speaker 3: twenty six with you know, have finally doing the right
Speaker 3: thing and then you collect a nice thing click are
Speaker 3: those dollars in your account? And then things about making
Speaker 3: your twenty is it's like there's always going to be
Speaker 3: something that to gobble that money up. Something it's a wedding,
Speaker 3: it's a baby shower, it's I just got a promotion.
Speaker 3: Let's get the next biggest apartment with like a in
Speaker 3: unit washer dryer, Like why not, it's the brunches, et cetera.
Speaker 3: So for me, what was crucial in my twenties was
Speaker 3: creating a savings fund that was hard to get to.
Speaker 3: So I mean a separate like I literally had a
Speaker 3: separate bank account and I had my I had my
Speaker 3: primary bank, which was I don't know, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: name names. It was blue. And then I had my
Speaker 3: this is my savings bank, which is purple. And I
Speaker 3: made sure that when I got paid everything was automatically
Speaker 3: like it would automatically go to my and my online
Speaker 3: savings was where I kept my emergency fund. You can
Speaker 3: get to it, but it's not as easy to get to.
Speaker 3: I didn't carry the debit card in my wallet, and
Speaker 3: you know, little things like that, so it wasn't really
Speaker 3: easy to get to. This was before you can just
Speaker 3: pay with your face and it's so freaking easy top money.
Speaker 3: Now there's nothing we can do. But yeah, keeping a
Speaker 3: little bit far away, at least mentally for me was great.
Speaker 3: So I logged into my primary bank account and I
Speaker 3: would know this is the money I can spend because
Speaker 3: all my other bills to myself have been paid. And
Speaker 3: giving a name, like, for example, at that online savings
Speaker 3: I created, you can create sub accounts of that main
Speaker 3: saving so you can have you know, a savings for
Speaker 3: my down payment, which I say, for a savings account
Speaker 3: for maybe holiday spending, student debt, payoff whatever it may be,
Speaker 3: and then having a name attached to it just reminds
Speaker 3: you of what you're saving for. That's the biggest thing.
Speaker 3: And you know, paying myself first, automating those savings and
Speaker 3: keeping it separate and apart from my main checking account
Speaker 3: was a huge reason that I was able to do
Speaker 3: things like pay for my wedding in cash and buy
Speaker 3: a home, you know, with a huge debt with a
Speaker 3: huge a twenty percent down payment too. You can pay
Speaker 3: for a car in cash, like these things that I
Speaker 3: think should be celebrated, right along with getting a big
Speaker 3: raise or getting a new job and things like that.
Speaker 2: I agree. I like to say that make your money inconvenient,
Speaker 2: because inconvenient money gets saved. So yeah, so same as
Speaker 2: Mandy having a separate online only bank, you know, just
Speaker 2: for savings. So like at your regular bank you have
Speaker 2: your checking there, and at this other bank that's online,
Speaker 2: you can't roll upon it in person. And the reason
Speaker 2: why that's so critical is that if you're going to
Speaker 2: transfer savings from this savings account at this online only
Speaker 2: bank to this checking account at this regular bank, you're
Speaker 2: looking at minimum twenty four hours, maximum seventy two hours.
Speaker 2: Depending when you do it, you're transferred, so like if
Speaker 2: it's a holiday or whatever. So that means if you
Speaker 2: are at Target, like me, oh, I just love me
Speaker 2: some Target. It was just thinking about what I want
Speaker 2: to go back. If you're at Target, Oh, it's cute.
Speaker 2: And so if you are at Target like me and
Speaker 2: Nady's baby police and your checking account says gird now
Speaker 2: you know, daggone, Well, ain't no money in here like that. Normally,
Speaker 2: if your savings was at the same bank, you would
Speaker 2: just make a quick transfer within seconds, your savings money
Speaker 2: will go to your checking account and you could swipe.
Speaker 2: But if your savings is at a separate bank, unless
Speaker 2: you're rolling out like a sleeping bag, you know, because
Speaker 2: it's gonna take twenty four hours minimum to go from
Speaker 2: your savings to your checking account at a different bank,
Speaker 2: and it's going to force you to say, isn't even
Speaker 2: that serious? Girl? Likely it isn't. So that's one that like,
Speaker 2: I agree. So and then what I will say is,
Speaker 2: oftentimes people dip into savings because they are not honest
Speaker 2: with the way they're wanting to spend. So if you
Speaker 2: set aside some spend money for yourself, it will reduce
Speaker 2: your desire to dip into savings, meaning like I give
Speaker 2: myself an allowance, you know, because if not, I used
Speaker 2: to put almost everything into saving, being super ambitious, right
Speaker 2: like you get paid and it's like I have bills
Speaker 2: in savings. That's it. Like bo wait, I want to pizzas.
Speaker 3: Kept going on a restrictive diet girl like Keto, you know,
Speaker 3: I always you get all bread. And then you were
Speaker 3: looking in for a cute little minute.
Speaker 2: I was. And then what happened was and vegan to me,
Speaker 2: I mean, no, shady all vegans. It was too restrictive
Speaker 2: for me. I had one little piece of chicken. I
Speaker 2: remember Tracy made wing flings and she said, can you
Speaker 2: taste it? See's too spicy or something she said, and
Speaker 2: I was like, no, I'm vegan. She's like girl, oh bye,
Speaker 2: just taste it. Girl. I had that piece of chicken
Speaker 2: and never went back that.
Speaker 3: She like there was a werewolf transformation and he turned
Speaker 3: back into a carnival.
Speaker 2: I was. I heard before I said I can't go
Speaker 2: back to that, even meat, and so now it was
Speaker 2: it was and so I will say, so something that's
Speaker 2: so restrictive makes it really hard to maintain and so
Speaker 2: I don't believe and manny and I don't believe in
Speaker 2: hyper restriction. So like, so let's just say, if you
Speaker 2: were normally gonna save, I don't know. I'm making up
Speaker 2: a number one hundred dollars a month, right, and that's
Speaker 2: all the money left over after bills. You might want
Speaker 2: to allocate twenty five of those dollars for yourself or
Speaker 2: thirty of those dollars, you know, so that way, when
Speaker 2: things come up, you feel good about being able to
Speaker 2: enjoy life now while also setting aside for savings. So
Speaker 2: that would just be my second piece of advice, which
Speaker 2: is set aside some spending money for yourself so you're
Speaker 2: not going to be dipping and then feeling bad every
Speaker 2: time you dip. It's like, well, I don't have to.
Speaker 2: You know when I did, we did. We did, lift
Speaker 2: your hands upon my hips when I did, we did,
Speaker 2: we did. So one said I love how your manage
Speaker 2: if you break it out into song, I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 3: It's tala, she loved it. So I will just say
Speaker 3: that specifically. This is what I was like, don't forget
Speaker 3: to say this. Your brain forgets things. Know your values,
Speaker 3: so when you spend that twenty five dollars, you're spending
Speaker 3: it on something that you like. Get clear on what
Speaker 3: brings you joy, what puts what fills your cup, you know,
Speaker 3: so that when you spend that twenty five dollars, it's
Speaker 3: on something that you can really feel good about, because
Speaker 3: you don't you're not going to have you're in your
Speaker 3: mid twenties, you may not have a lot of that
Speaker 3: spending money. So if it is just twenty five bucks,
Speaker 3: you know, let it be a delicious meal that you
Speaker 3: share with friends. Let it not be you know, a
Speaker 3: shake che shit. What can twenty five dollars by these
Speaker 3: days like half a shake shack Burger and like a
Speaker 3: couple frieses.
Speaker 2: In your hand, not even in the in the cup,
Speaker 2: Like yeah, that's if you pick it up.
Speaker 3: That's not with the tax tip and the travel feet
Speaker 3: and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, just get
Speaker 3: clear on your values. And that's something that I did
Speaker 3: early in my twenties, was like I really enjoy Broadway
Speaker 3: theater and I enjoyed travel, and I can do without
Speaker 3: you know the other stuff, the h and M wandering
Speaker 3: on your lunch break and the you know, the other
Speaker 3: ways that money disappears, so I would just add that
Speaker 3: to you. But thank you twenty some things for sending
Speaker 3: in questions. Yeah yeah, I was just saying that. But
Speaker 3: when you are like your big sisters, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, like more.
Speaker 2: Like Auntie, I'll give you big sister, but I don't
Speaker 2: mind here if a twenty year old says, hey, Auntie,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I mean, keep a cute because Amelia is
Speaker 2: six and Lily is five. So but you know, I'll
Speaker 2: somehow a lot. But if you have a three in
Speaker 2: front of your number, don't fix your lips to one Auntie. Okay,
Speaker 2: don't do that. Big cousins even better, Okay, all right,
Speaker 2: Hopefully we will see you next week. Ask your questions
Speaker 2: about credit, credit, career, business, personal finances, and in between
Speaker 2: life live right, happiness alignment.
Speaker 3: I got weird. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: We we welcome all the questions. We will do our
Speaker 2: best as your big cousins and friends and sisters to
Speaker 2: help out until next week. Y'all. Bye bye