Speaker 1: Yes, we're back, We're black, We're brown.
Speaker 2: And bitch yon I did a condensed version.
Speaker 3: Hey Manja, Hey, have you survived coronavirus Gate twenty Are
Speaker 3: you out there? I'm calling you from my bunker in
Speaker 3: the suburbs.
Speaker 2: First of all, a friend off I went to Costco yesterday.
Speaker 2: She's like, you want to go? I was like sure.
Speaker 1: It was midday, midday and people were buying water as if,
Speaker 1: like you know, it was the end of the world.
Speaker 2: I'm like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: Oh, Pete, don't judge because that was me and my
Speaker 3: mother at Sam's Club Saturday morning, so we made the mistake.
Speaker 3: We talked about the coronavirus on last week's show, so
Speaker 3: let's touch on that. Last week, which seems like a
Speaker 3: long time ago in terms of coronavirus news, the market
Speaker 3: with tanking like yea, and the headline for this show
Speaker 3: is when the coronavirus comes for your four oh one
Speaker 3: K And I wasn't kidding. My four oh one K
Speaker 3: is down eight percent. Thank you very much coronavirus appreciate it.
Speaker 3: And we talked a little bit about why the coronavirus
Speaker 3: is moving the markets. Obviously, China was ground zero for
Speaker 3: this virus and the spread of it. And there's tons
Speaker 3: of US based companies and products from US based companies
Speaker 3: that are made in China, and there's concern about like
Speaker 3: even the iPhone, for example, having the parts that they
Speaker 3: need to make the iPhone that everyone buys, and so
Speaker 3: the economic impact could be really great. And then what
Speaker 3: if people what if it gets in the US, What
Speaker 3: if it's spread so much that people aren't able to
Speaker 3: go to work anymore. So there are real implications. And
Speaker 3: right now there is no cure, there's no vaccination, and
Speaker 3: the US government maybe isn't the most reliable when it
Speaker 3: comes to their response to this, or maybe investors don't
Speaker 3: feel like there's a real strategy or plan in place
Speaker 3: from the government right now at the federal level to
Speaker 3: handle this type of pandemic, So investors get spooked. There's
Speaker 3: not really a ton of confidence that will be able
Speaker 3: to contain the virus, and you see the markets move
Speaker 3: like they did last week, which, yeah, it can definitely
Speaker 3: impact your investments. I don't know if you saw anything
Speaker 3: from your portfolio or Tiffany, you were smart and didn't
Speaker 3: look at all, which is probably I did a better response.
Speaker 1: I lost like nine hundred bucks. But you know we've
Speaker 1: also rallied. I need to last.
Speaker 2: Time I checked them, only nine hundred, nine hundred bucks. Well, no,
Speaker 2: well nine hundred bucks from my Robinhood.
Speaker 3: Oh oh you kept robin Hood.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: I didn't check like my bigger accounts. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, Robinhoods were buy my individual stocks for fun.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, I lost my hundred So
Speaker 1: for context, that's about ten percent because I have about
Speaker 1: nine thousand dollars in there, so you know, not.
Speaker 2: A little bit of money. But I will say this that.
Speaker 1: My my doctor, I was asking her, you know, she says,
Speaker 1: honestly that the coronavirus is not by name, you're deadly
Speaker 1: that because what you're seeing is they're reporting every death.
Speaker 1: But if they were to report every daily death due
Speaker 1: to the flu, we'd also be equally as freaked down
Speaker 1: that SARS. Remember when SARS was a big thing. She's like,
Speaker 1: that was a deadly virus that was really dangerous, and
Speaker 1: she was like Corona. Think about Corona. She was like
Speaker 1: the way you would think about pneumonia. She said, Tiffany,
Speaker 1: you're you know, you're relatively young, you're healthy.
Speaker 2: If you were to get pneumonia.
Speaker 1: Now, will we be concerned, Yes, because ammonia is not
Speaker 1: a good thing to get. But what I think Tiffany's
Speaker 1: going to pass away, The likelihood is minimal because you're
Speaker 1: not eighty years old. She's like, now, if your dad
Speaker 1: got pneumonia, we'd be very concerned.
Speaker 2: So it's the.
Speaker 1: Very young, the very old, and those with compromised immune
Speaker 1: systems and so.
Speaker 2: But they're reporting every single death, so it just seems
Speaker 2: like another and another.
Speaker 1: And the truth is people someone died today from tripping
Speaker 1: down the stairs, but they're not reporting that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So it's like putting into context that
Speaker 1: less than two percent of people who contract the coronavirus
Speaker 1: are actually passing away. It's that's relatively low. It's just
Speaker 1: because right now that the media is fanning the flames
Speaker 1: of fear because it's you know, it's good for business,
Speaker 1: but it's not. She's like, it's not a deadly virus.
Speaker 1: I mean, not something you want to get, but there
Speaker 1: are viruses that are way more deadly, and that she's like,
Speaker 1: I would be concerned about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I've I've listened and read, listened to lots
Speaker 3: of interviews and tried to read the most what's the
Speaker 3: opposite of fanning the flames and like the opposite of alarmists,
Speaker 3: just really like matter of fact researchers, healthcare reporters, people
Speaker 3: who are genuinely not trying to cause a panic to
Speaker 3: see what they have to say. And the fact is
Speaker 3: it is deadlier than the flu in terms of like
Speaker 3: the rate of people who are dying from the coronavirus,
Speaker 3: it's something like Tiffany' said around two percent versus the flu,
Speaker 3: which is zero point one percent. But obviously the flu
Speaker 3: is a lot more widespread. People are just concerned because
Speaker 3: there's not a vaccine for it, and it's you know,
Speaker 3: people don't really show symptoms. You can be walking or
Speaker 3: may not have serious symptoms. It could be mild like
Speaker 3: you have a or you know, like a mild flu,
Speaker 3: and you may not know it's a coronavirus. And in
Speaker 3: some states there's not like enough tests right now to
Speaker 3: figure out like a diagnosis, and it's just very early stages.
Speaker 3: But largely what the experts have been saying. Obviously you're
Speaker 3: not going to get your like health care and science
Speaker 3: news from brown ambition, but I will just say, like
Speaker 3: based on what I've heard. The best thing you can
Speaker 3: do is wash your hands. It's very basic advice. Wash
Speaker 3: your hands, use your hand sanitizer. Don't touch your face,
Speaker 3: don't shake hands with people if you don't have to.
Speaker 3: You know, a good old fashioned fist bump or elbow
Speaker 3: bump or just like a nice nod and a you know,
Speaker 3: a little wink that that'll do it. Just really good hygiene.
Speaker 3: Don't go up and buy surgical masks. You probably can't
Speaker 3: even find them anyway because they're all sold out. And
Speaker 3: healthcare workers or if you're caring for someone who's sick,
Speaker 3: those are important to have masks, But for the general
Speaker 3: healthy population, it's not really gonna potentially protect you to
Speaker 3: wear those masks. And if you're like me and you
Speaker 3: have the option to work remotely, consider it, especially if
Speaker 3: you're in a like for example, in my county, there's
Speaker 3: confirmed case and I am really seriously considering not commuting
Speaker 3: because I don't necessarily have to, and is it worth
Speaker 3: the risk to commute, And it's not even about it
Speaker 3: could be the regular flu and I don't want to
Speaker 3: bring that home to my to my baby. But in
Speaker 3: terms of like the impact to your finances, I'm trying
Speaker 3: not to watch my four O one K. I'm on
Speaker 3: the younger side, so of course most of my investments
Speaker 3: are in the market because they say you have time
Speaker 3: to bounce back from any downturns, and it's true, like
Speaker 3: already the markets have recovered a little bit, and I
Speaker 3: genuinely feel like I'm just gonna you know, Grin and Barrett,
Speaker 3: I'm not making any I'm not making any changes. I
Speaker 3: fully believe that eventually there will be a vaccine and
Speaker 3: we'll get through this, just like we have swine flu
Speaker 3: and West Nile and all other stuff. Blah yeah, bola.
Speaker 3: And but for those of you who are you know,
Speaker 3: looking at your investments or your four O one k,
Speaker 3: just you know, consult your financial advisor. That's an advisor
Speaker 3: if you have one. But personally, I am trying to
Speaker 3: just consider this another blip and keep my eye on
Speaker 3: the prize, which is long term retirement growth and not
Speaker 3: short term trading. So I'm staying the course.
Speaker 1: Honestly, what historical data shows that that after some of
Speaker 1: the worst days of the stock market comes some of
Speaker 1: the best days, like about two weeks later, within the
Speaker 1: next two weeks, meaning that let's just say you have
Speaker 1: like the we had like we and we did, we
Speaker 1: had like some of the biggest drops since the recession.
Speaker 1: But if you were to pull your money out during
Speaker 1: the drop and then two weeks later, like we're rallying now,
Speaker 1: you know, like the stock market is bouncing back, now
Speaker 1: your money is now out, so you cannot You've already
Speaker 1: experienced the loss, but now you can't experience the gain.
Speaker 1: So that's why they tell you, really it's best, quite honestly,
Speaker 1: to relax. And the truth is, like my mom called me, oh,
Speaker 1: should I mean my money? I'm like, no, should I
Speaker 1: sull No? I was like, mommy, you are in retirement
Speaker 1: and your strategy should be such that you should be
Speaker 1: invested conservatively, so based upon your age. So my dad
Speaker 1: is seventy five, so he shouldn't have seventy five percent
Speaker 1: of his money in the market anyway. So if he
Speaker 1: has like the ideal, which would be about twenty five
Speaker 1: percent in the market and then seventy five percent in
Speaker 1: like bonds and more conservative investments, there's.
Speaker 2: Nothing to move. You're already balanced in your investment. So yeah.
Speaker 1: So basically, just reiterating what Mandy is saying is that
Speaker 1: the key is that you do the work beforehand for
Speaker 1: things like this, which is to have your investment balance,
Speaker 1: which the rule of thumb is that you take your
Speaker 1: age in bonds. So I am forty, I should be
Speaker 1: forty percent in bonds, sixty percent in stocks. And when
Speaker 1: I'm fifty, I should be fifty percent in bonds fifty
Speaker 1: percent in stocks. But do you see like so yeah,
Speaker 1: I say all that to say like, not you know,
Speaker 1: not jumping in and out, like unless you're trading, like
Speaker 1: like our friend Tila, she trades, so she's looking at
Speaker 1: the market differently. But for long term investing that you know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to run and jump and there's always
Speaker 1: going to be something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's why I'm still gonna be a fan
Speaker 3: of that target date fund. One think about my age.
Speaker 3: I'm just like that twenty fifty five fun will just
Speaker 3: take care of me and you know, recalibrate as I
Speaker 3: get older. But it is smart at least once a
Speaker 3: year to look at your investments if you're not in
Speaker 3: a target date fund, and you know, consulting an expert
Speaker 3: investment advisor to make sure that you're properly balanced and
Speaker 3: you're not taking on more risk. Than as appropriate for
Speaker 3: your age and your your timeline. But it's so much
Speaker 3: I mean, the you know, obviously you want you know,
Speaker 3: my thoughts are with the families and impacted by this.
Speaker 3: It's got to be really terrifying to be quarantine in
Speaker 3: your house with this weird new virus. But in terms
Speaker 3: of like the psychological impact to investors, it's always fascinating
Speaker 3: to me just the conversations people have about their finances
Speaker 3: around like the market downturns like this. I'm always just
Speaker 3: like I'm like, oh, what type of people are going
Speaker 3: to be the ones to like call up their eventual
Speaker 3: advisor freaking out? And who's going to you know, stay
Speaker 3: the course? And yes, as a great recession baby who
Speaker 3: started her four oh one k and nine, I really
Speaker 3: took I mean I was fortunate, I feel like to
Speaker 3: start investing them because it was like everything was on sale,
Speaker 3: it was all very cheap, and the market was you know,
Speaker 3: on the on the decline. And over the past ten years,
Speaker 3: I've got to experience all those gains and I try
Speaker 3: to just tell myself that story again, like there are
Speaker 3: ups and downs and just remembering that and looking at
Speaker 3: what history, you know, tells us and not trying to
Speaker 3: listen to what so and so on c NBC or
Speaker 3: whatever Bloomberg is saying for today. Yeah, agreed, wash your
Speaker 3: hands people twenty seconds seeing the ABC's while you do it.
Speaker 1: Yes, literally, It's so funny. When I taught pre school,
Speaker 1: I used to have the kids do that. That's how
Speaker 1: they would know that they washed their hands long enough.
Speaker 3: Preschoolers have a better hygiene than a lot of adults
Speaker 3: out there. I see, y'all. Yes, I am trying to.
Speaker 3: I tried and grab the bottom of My trick is
Speaker 3: to grab the bottom of every door handle because I
Speaker 3: figure more people to touch the top of them. And
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'll reach down awkwardly to the subway poll
Speaker 3: and try and grab like the oh it's part of
Speaker 3: the poll. I can without being you know, into a
Speaker 3: prentzeil just to say myself, but yeah, definitely hand sanitizer
Speaker 3: within an inch of your life. You guys, all right?
Speaker 3: What else? What else is going on? How's Molly Moore?
Speaker 3: Did you you hit your fundraising goal?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 1: There were we are in the stretch goal, so I
Speaker 1: told myself for every I did the math. So our
Speaker 1: fundraising goal was thirty five thousand dollars, and what that
Speaker 1: meant was I'd be able to give donate a thousand
Speaker 1: books to children in low income communities and to hire
Speaker 1: for financial literacy experts and educators to write some free
Speaker 1: curriculum for children. So I that way, I can put
Speaker 1: it on the Mollymore site and donate that right back
Speaker 1: to y'all. And now we're almost at forty thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: so people.
Speaker 3: Are still donating.
Speaker 1: Yes, which because you're doing something called yes stretch goals.
Speaker 1: So with the stretch goals, what that means is, Okay,
Speaker 1: for every additional five thousand that I raised, I did
Speaker 1: the math, I can donate an additional two hunch books,
Speaker 1: so instead of just a thousand books, now we're about
Speaker 1: one thy two hundred, and I can hire one additional teacher.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited about that. So if you haven't already,
Speaker 1: you can still go to mollymore dot com, even if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this five years from now, Mollymore dot com.
Speaker 2: You could just buy a book.
Speaker 1: But if the kickstarter is still live, if you go
Speaker 1: to Mollymore M A L I, M R E dot com,
Speaker 1: you can contribute and not only do you get a
Speaker 1: book for yourself, but you can also help make this
Speaker 1: world more financially literate.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited.
Speaker 3: Oh congratulations, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: It feels like on the other side, I'm like, whoof, oh, Molly,
Speaker 1: like we should do a whole Kickstarter episode about like
Speaker 1: what it takes to like, you know, do a successful
Speaker 1: Kickstarter or fund, like a crowd raising crowdfundraising. That was
Speaker 1: really like an interesting I'd never done that before, so
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things I learned that we you know,
Speaker 1: it was just a really good experience because I feel
Speaker 1: like we learned a lot.
Speaker 2: We didn't do everything right, but we did do right,
Speaker 2: you know, was enough, But I learned a lot. It
Speaker 2: was definitely a big learning lessons fa Well.
Speaker 3: If you guys have any stories of crowdfunding or questions
Speaker 3: about starting a crowdfunding campaign or things that work for y'all,
Speaker 3: feel free to send them in. You can hit us
Speaker 3: up at brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com dot com,
Speaker 3: or shoot us a note on Instagram. Brand Ambition Podcast
Speaker 3: on Instagram. Also, we have a website, Brand ambition Podcast
Speaker 3: dot com. You can ask us anything there which gets
Speaker 3: us your messages as well. And speaking of that. Let's
Speaker 3: take a quick break and we'll come back and answer
Speaker 3: some of your questions for this week. All right, guys,
Speaker 3: we are back and ready to tackle your questions again.
Speaker 3: Hit us with your questions. You can wait. Hit us
Speaker 3: with your questions. Hit us up with your questions. Brand
Speaker 3: Ambission Podcast on Instagram or sorry the Graham what do
Speaker 3: people say? Ig or email us directly Brandimission Podcast at
Speaker 3: gmail dot com. We have a really interesting question from
Speaker 3: a listener named Esther who's in the Peace Corps. First
Speaker 3: of all, thank you for your service. Yes, that's amazing,
Speaker 3: But she's about to leave the Peace Corps. So Esther says,
Speaker 3: I joined the Peace Corps in twenty eighteen after graduating
Speaker 3: college in twenty seventeen. I'm now reaching the end of
Speaker 3: my Peace Corps service in April. Since being with the
Speaker 3: Peace Corps, I was able to pay off one student loan,
Speaker 3: but I'm still faced with my Sally May and federal
Speaker 3: student loans, which total up to forty thousand dollars all together.
Speaker 3: Because of my low income. While I've been in Peace Corps,
Speaker 3: I was able to defer my federal loan, but of
Speaker 3: course interest has been accruing and my Sally May loan
Speaker 3: is a whole other monster. Now, with Peace Corp coming
Speaker 3: to an end, I will not have a study income
Speaker 3: to repay my loans, and I'll be given a small
Speaker 3: lump sum of money after leaving the Peace Corps, about
Speaker 3: seven thousand dollars. I'd like to move, but I'm planning
Speaker 3: on only getting a job for a temporary period of time,
Speaker 3: probably a low paying job, and I feel like there's
Speaker 3: no way I'm going to be able to pay back
Speaker 3: my loans. Do you guys think I'm setting myself up
Speaker 3: for failure? How can I begin tackling my student loans?
Speaker 3: Whenever I think about it, I panic? Would it be
Speaker 3: smart to set up an automatic withdrawal from my savings
Speaker 3: to my student loans? Please help me, so you do
Speaker 3: the right thing, you guys, to wait college, you want
Speaker 3: to give back, join the Peace Corps. But you're right.
Speaker 3: While you're in the Peace Corps, you're not obviously making
Speaker 3: a ton of money, if any at all. And you
Speaker 3: come back and she's going to get a small what
Speaker 3: they call a readjustment allowance seven thousand dollars that she
Speaker 3: could use for whatever. I can see her hesitation though,
Speaker 3: like taking that seven thousand dollars and chipping away at
Speaker 3: forty thousand dollars worth of debt? Is that the best
Speaker 3: use of you know, that readjustment allowance? And if she
Speaker 3: only plans, you know, if she thinks she can probably
Speaker 3: get a job, but nothing that's really high paying. When
Speaker 3: she comes back, she's feeling like, how am I going
Speaker 3: to be able to tackle this debt?
Speaker 2: Well, my question is what was her name again?
Speaker 3: Esther?
Speaker 2: Esther?
Speaker 1: So my question is is loan forgiveness available because she
Speaker 1: joined the Peace Corps? Because I know, like when I
Speaker 1: was a teacher, that student loan forgiveness was available to
Speaker 1: me because I was teaching. And if you're you work
Speaker 1: in like certain rural and urban areas, there are all
Speaker 1: of these like available, There are all these ways that
Speaker 1: you can qualify for student loan forgiveness. So I don't know, Honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't know much about the Peace Corps. So is
Speaker 1: there a way I would definitely look into that, Like
Speaker 1: with the time that you spent there can that be
Speaker 1: put towards student loan forgiveness? Because all of my loan
Speaker 1: wasn't forgiven when I did it, and I did it retroactively,
Speaker 1: so I was able to go back and say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, this is the time I spend as a teacher,
Speaker 1: and they I think, I want to say, maybe like
Speaker 1: fifteen to seventeen thousand dollars or something like that was
Speaker 1: taken off my student loan. So I'm just sharing all
Speaker 1: that to say that like looking into that as well,
Speaker 1: forgiveness because of your time served.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the thing is she doesn't mention what industry she'd
Speaker 3: be working in either, But you're right, if it's a
Speaker 3: public service industry, you know it's these federal forgiveness programs
Speaker 3: are only like they're only in effect for as long
Speaker 3: as the current administration wants them to be into it.
Speaker 3: In effect, so let's say she comes back and she
Speaker 3: joins a nonprofit or works for the government. Ostensibly she
Speaker 3: could qualify for pubs something called public service loan forgiveness.
Speaker 3: But to be honest, that program has really turned out
Speaker 3: to be kind of a dud for a lot of people,
Speaker 3: Like way too complicated. Some people are getting denied even
Speaker 3: though they did the right thing by going into the
Speaker 3: right job sector because the government kind of did a
Speaker 3: funky job of setting up the whole process. But like
Speaker 3: so it's not to say that loan forgivenes isn't a possibility,
Speaker 3: but definitely you'll need to do your research and make
Speaker 3: sure that you're following all the exact right steps so
Speaker 3: that you potentially can qualify. And since you don't tell
Speaker 3: us what industry, it's hard to know if maybe you'll
Speaker 3: qualify for some of those programs that are out there,
Speaker 3: but in general, so let's just pretend you know, you're like,
Speaker 3: you know, you just you travel, You're coming back with
Speaker 3: four thousand dollars in debt. You're at, you know, wanting
Speaker 3: to get an entry level job. You're not unlike every
Speaker 3: other college graduate out there who's sort of looking down
Speaker 3: at this, you know, big pile of student loan debt
Speaker 3: and not sure what to do. The good thing is,
Speaker 3: you know you were able to defer your loans. You
Speaker 3: weren't just like missing your loan payments this whole time
Speaker 3: and letting you know, late payment fees and all that
Speaker 3: kind of other stuff add up. So you're done the
Speaker 3: right thing with your federal loans. I say, the first
Speaker 3: thing is get on an income driven repayment plan so
Speaker 3: they'll base your payment, which could be as low as
Speaker 3: zero dollars, depending on how much income you have, on
Speaker 3: whatever your income you're earning at the job you get
Speaker 3: when you come home, and if that's no job, then
Speaker 3: they'll base it on the fact that you're not employed
Speaker 3: right now. That'd probably be the first step as far
Speaker 3: as that readjustment allowance, that lump sum that you're going
Speaker 3: to get if you don't have any savings, and it
Speaker 3: sounds like you don't because you say that you're hoping
Speaker 3: to build it up. I almost feel like taking that
Speaker 3: seven K and immediately kind of using that on your loans.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that makes the most sense. I
Speaker 3: wonder like, I feel like you kind of need you're
Speaker 3: going to need a savings cushion just to you know,
Speaker 3: inoculate yourself from you know, any other setbacks so you
Speaker 3: don't have to take on more debt to pay for
Speaker 3: something that might come up in the future. So part
Speaker 3: of me is like, definitely pad your savings a little bit,
Speaker 3: Maybe take a chunk of that seven k and make
Speaker 3: a payment on that Sally May loan if you think
Speaker 3: that'll move the needle there and keep you out of
Speaker 3: you know, out of God. I can't think of the word.
Speaker 3: What's the word when you miss a payment. Yeah, thank
Speaker 3: you like delinquency what but I don't Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: what do you think, Tiffany, I mean seven thousand dollars,
Speaker 3: it's a it's a chunk of cash. Part of me
Speaker 3: is like, she's just starting out, she needs a little
Speaker 3: bit of cushion in her savings, and that would give
Speaker 3: her a little bit of a boost when she comes back.
Speaker 1: I absolutely agree. I don't think throwing seven thousand dollars
Speaker 1: toward the student.
Speaker 2: Let's just say you owed five thousand dollars in student
Speaker 2: loan debt.
Speaker 1: I might be like slightly tempted, but the seven thousands,
Speaker 1: not to say seven thousand is not a lot of money,
Speaker 1: because it is, but throwing it toward forty when you
Speaker 1: know right now you likely don't have any cushion you're
Speaker 1: looking to move. I honestly would put that money toward
Speaker 1: toward securing a place to live in an emergency savings account,
Speaker 1: just in case whatever job that you're looking for doesn't
Speaker 1: come around quick enough, and then going back to repayment
Speaker 1: when you have a steady income coming in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and again, you're not unlike a lot of college
Speaker 3: grads and forty thousand dollars sounds like a ton of money.
Speaker 3: It's about average for what most college grad means. Sadly,
Speaker 3: it's about average what most college graduates have of coming out,
Speaker 3: and it's not. It's it sounds like the most money
Speaker 3: in the entire world, but it is so doable.
Speaker 2: All you have.
Speaker 3: The best thing that you can do is obviously not
Speaker 3: ignore those payments. Call your student loan servicer, ask about
Speaker 3: income from repayment plans, get your payments adjusted so you
Speaker 3: can afford them, and then just focus on getting that job.
Speaker 3: You know, when you get back to the States. The
Speaker 3: good news is that you have a bit of a
Speaker 3: cushion with that readjustment allowance, which some people may not have,
Speaker 3: and hopefully you don't wait too long to get a job.
Speaker 3: But you know, you're you're not ignoring your student loans.
Speaker 3: As you get your you know, your feet on the
Speaker 3: ground and start, you know, start laying the groundwork for
Speaker 3: your career. M All right, miss Esther, Well, thank you
Speaker 3: for your service and thank you for your question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I consider joining the Peace Corps like
Speaker 1: right after graduating, but then I decided, you know what
Speaker 1: that I would donate like kind of my time by
Speaker 1: teaching preschool in a low income community.
Speaker 3: So that's good. You know, it's sad because Thees for
Speaker 3: what it's worth, I mean, one of the results of
Speaker 3: their great recession was that a lot of people like
Speaker 3: entered into AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and like because they
Speaker 3: you know, there weren't jobs, so there were more people
Speaker 3: going into these service oriented programs that the that the
Speaker 3: government has. And I have a friend who works for
Speaker 3: AmeriCorps now and he had done Americrps in the years
Speaker 3: after the recession, and he's a recruiter and he's struggling,
Speaker 3: like they struggle to find people now because the economy
Speaker 3: is good and people are more likely to get jobs.
Speaker 3: So it's kind of like the benefit of a downturn
Speaker 3: is that there's a lot of young people who need
Speaker 3: work and they're more likely to take those jobs. And
Speaker 3: since you know, the economy is me to come back,
Speaker 3: there's less people for those you know, the Peace Corps
Speaker 3: and programs like that. So it's great that you know,
Speaker 3: there's still people volunteering, but not as many as before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it is already.
Speaker 3: Want me say one more question. This is this isn't easy,
Speaker 3: you know, this is an easy question, but I also
Speaker 3: think it's an interesting time to answer it because savings
Speaker 3: rates are not what they used to be just even
Speaker 3: a few months ago. So this is a question from
Speaker 3: we'll call her Lisa from Instagram, Lealie Lisa. All Right,
Speaker 3: she says, a quick question. I'm sure you've answered this before,
Speaker 3: but which savings account do you recommend to get the
Speaker 3: most interest today? Or what should I compare when looking
Speaker 3: into a high yield savings account? Thank you for continuing
Speaker 3: this great podcast. So the reason I think this is
Speaker 3: interesting obviously with savings accounts, we're you know, we've talked
Speaker 3: about the banks that were fans of because they have
Speaker 3: high rates. But I have been a longtime fan of
Speaker 3: ally and they tend to have, if not the highest,
Speaker 3: one of the highest savings rates, but like a lot
Speaker 3: of even the high yield savings rates out there right now,
Speaker 3: my rate has been on the downturn. Yeah, like every
Speaker 3: other week, it's like, sorry, we're gonna knock off a
Speaker 3: tenth of a percentage point from your rate. And the
Speaker 3: reason is that the Fed. If you have been paying
Speaker 3: attention to what the Fed has been doing, they've been
Speaker 3: cutting interest rates. And when they cut rates. Typically, to
Speaker 3: make things simple, banks lowered the rate on savings accounts
Speaker 3: and other deposit accounts like CDs, So now that rates
Speaker 3: are going down, you're seeing your savings rates going down
Speaker 3: to which is want want not so great, but still
Speaker 3: like online banks like ally tend to have the highest
Speaker 3: rates as far as I know, I can post a
Speaker 3: link again to a couple of sites where you can
Speaker 3: easily compare rates, and I definitely think that you should
Speaker 3: because there's so many banks out there that you know,
Speaker 3: even new banks that weren't run a couple of years ago,
Speaker 3: that are offering much higher rates than what you get
Speaker 3: from traditional banks these days.
Speaker 1: And just being mindful, that's why I was just I
Speaker 1: just spooke at the Jackie Robinson Foundation like this past weekend.
Speaker 3: Humble brag, but I was.
Speaker 1: I always always always point everyone to Magnify Money when
Speaker 1: looking for a bank, and I tell them this is
Speaker 1: a criteria fdic inshore because you want to be able
Speaker 1: to get at least some of your money back should
Speaker 1: that bank go under. What I like about Magnify Money
Speaker 1: is that they give you clear grades. You know an
Speaker 1: F is not good and don't nobody want no c
Speaker 1: banks so you're looking for an A, so looking for
Speaker 1: a bank with an A, looking for a bank that
Speaker 1: gives you the highest interest rate, and then you're also
Speaker 1: looking for a bank where they have a low required
Speaker 1: deposit in order to get that interest rate and to
Speaker 1: keep that account open or even to.
Speaker 2: Open that account.
Speaker 1: So if you look for those four criteria on magnified
Speaker 1: money dot com, you should find a bank that's best
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. You don't want any minimum balance requirement.
Speaker 3: You don't want to pay fees, you don't want to
Speaker 3: have to pay like the best. One of the things
Speaker 3: I love about ally is that they reimburse you for
Speaker 3: ATM fees and that's a really common way that banks
Speaker 3: can get you these days, or with those ATM fees.
Speaker 3: But there's other ones too. Capital one three sixty. My
Speaker 3: brother I think signed up for the Marcus Savings account
Speaker 3: through Goldman Sachs. There's I think Robinhood's launching its own
Speaker 3: like cash management savings account. There's all these new ones
Speaker 3: out there, So I mean, you know, I will support
Speaker 3: Tiffany's endorsement for Magnified Money, even though technically I work
Speaker 3: for them. But I'll post a link to our page
Speaker 3: where you can look at savings accounts and if this
Speaker 3: is a good opportunity, even though rates are on the downturn, like,
Speaker 3: there's still way higher rates out there, if you're still
Speaker 3: banking with that old brick and mortar bank, like, it's
Speaker 3: it's time, you guys, It's time to try and find
Speaker 3: a better rate and make more money on your savings
Speaker 3: if you can. Yeah, all right, all right, thank you
Speaker 3: guys for your questions. Again. Brandabisson podcast at gmail dot
Speaker 3: com dot com or shoot us a question like Lisa
Speaker 3: did on Instagram where Brand Ambision podcast on the Gram.
Speaker 1: And now it's time to boost a break for all
Speaker 1: our family family get it, friends and families and it
Speaker 1: got it?
Speaker 2: Will you boost? Will you breg what you gon't do?
Speaker 3: Mandy, I'm gonna do a boost for a little something
Speaker 3: that is called r SU's restricted stock units. Not to
Speaker 3: bore you guys with more acronyms, but this is something
Speaker 3: that came up, especially if you're at a publicly traded company,
Speaker 3: one of the ways they can sometimes incentive advise you.
Speaker 3: And this is stuff that I wish I knew when
Speaker 3: I first worked, when I first got my job at Yahoo,
Speaker 3: because they gave me a bunch of RSUs and I
Speaker 3: had no idea what they were. And I find myself
Speaker 3: now as a manager having to explain to people on
Speaker 3: my team, like, here's this really cool benefit that we have,
Speaker 3: and people don't know what they are how to use them. So,
Speaker 3: when you work for a publicly traded company like Apple
Speaker 3: or whatever, sometimes they will give you like a batch
Speaker 3: of restricted stock units. What this means is they're gonna,
Speaker 3: let's let's say they give you one hundred shares of
Speaker 3: the company they may have. They may say, Okay, stay
Speaker 3: with us for a year, and we're going to give
Speaker 3: you these hundred shares in a year, and you can
Speaker 3: decide what to do with them. They're going to what
Speaker 3: they call vest and vesting means they become available to
Speaker 3: you to sell or trade or do whatever. And what
Speaker 3: inevitably happens when RSUs finally vest is people are like
Speaker 3: what a why do oh man?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: And this happens to me too, Like you usually have
Speaker 3: like a window when you can trade. So if you're
Speaker 3: an employee of a company, you may have vested stock,
Speaker 3: which means you can now you know, technically sell it
Speaker 3: if you wanted to. But the company can control when
Speaker 3: you can sell it, and like inevitably it may happen
Speaker 3: that the stock goes down all of a sudden and
Speaker 3: now it's time for you to sell them. And people
Speaker 3: are often like, oh, man, I'm going to hold on
Speaker 3: to the stock because I think the company, you know,
Speaker 3: we'll be doing better next year, and I'm just going
Speaker 3: to hold on to it. And people sometimes ask me,
Speaker 3: you know, what do you do with your RSUs? And
Speaker 3: the way that I try and think about RSUs because
Speaker 3: I don't have a huge appetite for playing the market. Also,
Speaker 3: I don't want to have a ton of my investments
Speaker 3: tied up in the company where I work for. So
Speaker 3: the way that I've approached RSUs over the years is
Speaker 3: whatever the stock price is when those RSUs finally vest,
Speaker 3: which means I can finally, like I said, cash them
Speaker 3: out or trade them or whatever I get rid of them.
Speaker 3: I'll sell them and I will add them to my
Speaker 3: you know, I I'll trade them for like mutual funds
Speaker 3: or whatever else I'm invested in, because I don't want
Speaker 3: to have a big portion of my investments tied up
Speaker 3: in one single stock. And I think because people work
Speaker 3: for the company they're more like sometimes they feel like
Speaker 3: it's safer, you know, just to keep the money where
Speaker 3: it is. And but would you really have so much
Speaker 3: of your investments tied up, you know, in just one
Speaker 3: single stock otherwise, like probably not, And a lot of
Speaker 3: experts would say that's probably not the best idea. So
Speaker 3: my approach is to sell them and use them to
Speaker 3: trade for mutual funds or invest in other areas. And
Speaker 3: it's really hard because, like I said, you're watching that
Speaker 3: stock price, and if the stock goes down when you
Speaker 3: get those RSUs finally invested, you feel like, oh, I
Speaker 3: just want to hold on to them. But again I
Speaker 3: just try and think of it as like this is
Speaker 3: money I wouldn't have had otherwise. So I Am just
Speaker 3: going to sell them, get rid of it, and just
Speaker 3: make my peace with it and not try and you know,
Speaker 3: play the market with the company where I get my paycheck.
Speaker 3: And also now I have stocks. So that is your
Speaker 3: what I hope was a quick, easy explanation of RSUs.
Speaker 3: And if you have RSUs, don't ignore them. They're a
Speaker 3: really cool benefit, but you should know what to do
Speaker 3: with them and what they really mean for you.
Speaker 1: No, that was that was good I never quite honestly,
Speaker 1: because I guess I never worked for a publicly traded company,
Speaker 1: so that.
Speaker 2: Was good for me. I'm like learning new teams.
Speaker 3: That's how they trap you.
Speaker 2: I could see that.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, incentivize you. Yeah, that's the right word.
Speaker 2: No, that was good and helpful.
Speaker 1: So I am actually going to This is like a
Speaker 1: hybrid boosty Breakye have you heard of the Honeypot and
Speaker 1: the scandal that's going on right now?
Speaker 3: No, but tell me so.
Speaker 1: Honeypot is a it's a black woman owned company. And
Speaker 1: you know, Target has been going hard on the paint
Speaker 1: for us browns out here, which I love Target during
Speaker 1: Black History Month. I don't know if you've been if
Speaker 1: you've been watching TV a little bit, but the commercial
Speaker 1: they have all these really great Black history kind of
Speaker 1: commercials where they're they've been showcasing like all of these
Speaker 1: black brands. That's what was happening in February. And if
Speaker 1: you went to Target, they had like a black history section.
Speaker 1: So anything, it's just been honestly, just a black and
Speaker 1: brown love best over there at Target. So this woman,
Speaker 1: her name is Beatrice, and I met Beatrice before Beatrice Dixon.
Speaker 1: She and I sat on the panel at essence fests
Speaker 1: like two years ago.
Speaker 2: She's super nice. She started this company called Honeypot.
Speaker 1: Which creates like vegan, safe health and beauty products for
Speaker 1: your honeypot, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: The honey pot. Is that a euphemism for something.
Speaker 2: Well feminine beauty hygiene products?
Speaker 3: Is it for the vagina?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Okay, what are you saying? What's a honeypot.
Speaker 2: Vagina?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: And so she's got this really great ad that was
Speaker 1: on TV, like I mentioned, and in it she says,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just it's been so awesome to start
Speaker 1: this company, especially for young black women, like a black
Speaker 1: woman like me, to be able to do something like
Speaker 1: this girl.
Speaker 2: The racist came out.
Speaker 1: They came out and they were livid that she They
Speaker 1: were like, is this a product just for black women?
Speaker 2: She didn't.
Speaker 1: She literally said for a black woman. I'm really proud
Speaker 1: of myself as a black woman that I've been able
Speaker 1: to accomplish this. She didn't say the product was for
Speaker 1: black women. She didn't say anything else. She literally just
Speaker 1: said this is what I am, as if to say,
Speaker 1: I honestly my mind is blown. Like racist came out
Speaker 1: and droves and trust Pilot is this website where I've
Speaker 1: used trust Pilot before where you can kind of it's
Speaker 1: like yelp, but for business, well love was for businesses,
Speaker 1: like so right, So they came out and they were
Speaker 1: giving her one star reviews.
Speaker 3: And trying to say this, like where did she make
Speaker 3: that statement her?
Speaker 1: It was her ad But you can go to YouTube
Speaker 1: and type in honeypot Target the Target. So it was
Speaker 1: on TV and I know the thing is that I've
Speaker 1: been seeing the ad for why. I don't know why
Speaker 1: all of a sudden that at the Blue It just
Speaker 1: like because the AD's been running almost like I feel
Speaker 1: like all February. But then literally the last few days,
Speaker 1: I don't know if a popular racist got a hold
Speaker 1: of it and showed it and people were like, I'm
Speaker 1: never going back to Target again.
Speaker 2: But you know, they all say that.
Speaker 1: And they what was really bad is that they purposely
Speaker 1: tried to tank her business by giving her one star
Speaker 1: reviews on this well respected platform, so much so that
Speaker 1: trust Pilot had to disable your ability to leave reviews seriously,
Speaker 1: which never seen go ahead.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, what were people taking issue with just the
Speaker 3: fact that she made a product for women of color?
Speaker 1: Yes, and so she no, no, no, she didn't make
Speaker 1: she she didn't make a product for women of color.
Speaker 1: She said in the ad, basically referring to herself as
Speaker 1: a woman of color, and how this is like a
Speaker 1: big deal because you know, being a woman of color,
Speaker 1: like being having this opportunity to create a product like
Speaker 1: this is a big deal. She didn't stay it's for
Speaker 1: women of color. People are literally writing black girls are
Speaker 1: empowered using this product. I guess white girls aren't. I'll
Speaker 1: be letting Target know about this racist company. This is
Speaker 1: what people are like posting.
Speaker 3: That's what people say. Would you ever would they ever
Speaker 3: allow a show called White Ambition to show this? Yet
Speaker 3: Brown Ambition is the racist Get out of here.
Speaker 2: People are just like I just couldn't believe.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't support a company and good faith
Speaker 1: that it's openly racist about their customers.
Speaker 2: She didn't talk about the customers. She literally said what
Speaker 2: she is.
Speaker 1: I just honestly, I sometimes I just people can really
Speaker 1: be so terrible. But on the brighter note, sisters have
Speaker 1: been coming forward for her. This is why I love
Speaker 1: brown and black women. So I'm in a group called
Speaker 1: and you guys have heard me talk about building branded
Speaker 1: launched by Arsa Jones. And so that's when I first
Speaker 1: heard about the story, and BuzzFeed News actually picked it
Speaker 1: up just recently today actually, but I saw that someone
Speaker 1: was like, we need to help the sisters out. They're
Speaker 1: leaving these really negative reviews because of her ad. That's
Speaker 1: not racist at all. It's actually a powering And she
Speaker 1: doesn't say it's for black women. She says it's you know,
Speaker 1: she doesn't say anything about the product being for anybody
Speaker 1: but women.
Speaker 2: She just refers to herself as a black woman.
Speaker 1: And just even saying I am a black woman is
Speaker 1: offensive to people because how dare you name yourself? And
Speaker 1: so we all went in and started like, well, the
Speaker 1: we started to overwhelm the system with positive reviews and
Speaker 1: before you knew it, within like twenty four hours, it
Speaker 1: was less than one percent worth these negative reviews and
Speaker 1: we had turned the tide. Yes, it was like this
Speaker 1: rallying point, like all these other black women entrepreneurs are like,
Speaker 1: oh hell no. So Dixon Beatrice she launched this. It's
Speaker 1: a plant based feminine hygiene line. She launched it in
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, and as a result of all of this,
Speaker 1: like hubbub, she reported to BuzzFeed News that the company's
Speaker 1: retailers have jumped twenty to thirty percent since.
Speaker 2: The backlast oh her sales. Yes, it's not crazy pre
Speaker 2: press exactly.
Speaker 3: No press, No press is bad press.
Speaker 2: Right, But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I just don't know how you can look at this
Speaker 1: commercial and say that it's racist. She just says, this
Speaker 1: is who I am. I created this line, and that's
Speaker 1: because it's clearly to celebrate. Target is doing this like
Speaker 1: Black History celebration, and as a black woman, I'm really
Speaker 1: proud that I was able to do do a thing
Speaker 1: that was it not this product is for.
Speaker 2: Black women, not anything else.
Speaker 1: I honestly, I yeah.
Speaker 2: I just don't know what to say. I don't even know.
Speaker 3: She's just laughing all the way to the banks. But
Speaker 3: it sounds like, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, honeypots check them out, Yeah for sure, I mean yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I just don't know why why there are
Speaker 1: there's a sector of white people that if you say
Speaker 1: the word black, it's like, how dare you?
Speaker 3: How dare you even like white people? Is it like Russians?
Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like sometimes there's like bots out there,
Speaker 3: and haven't there are very bots that just willill like
Speaker 3: try and stir up not like stir up controversies on
Speaker 3: social media, like just to like pit people against each other.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's scary, but that can be true too,
Speaker 3: that it's just like these you know, just like these
Speaker 3: social media manipulators online trying to yeah, trying to like
Speaker 3: create drama or like create a problem more than maybe
Speaker 3: wouldn't otherwise be one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly, this is true. And now I'm not
Speaker 1: white people obviously in general, just there's a sector of
Speaker 1: just trolls who like I just and you're right to
Speaker 1: your point, it might be five people who have figured
Speaker 1: out how to hack the system to leave negative reviews
Speaker 1: because these five people are mad. But it's just a
Speaker 1: shame that, Like, but I've seen it. Like if I
Speaker 1: say something, I mean, I've seen it for myself. If
Speaker 1: I say something about black that it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, Jesus am I not a black woman. I'm
Speaker 1: not allowed to say as a black woman, Like well,
Speaker 1: why can't you be a woman. I'm a woman, and
Speaker 1: I'm a black woman, and I'm a tall woman, and
Speaker 1: I mean I'm a woman with natural hair. It's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's almost times sometimes it just feels
Speaker 1: like existing and admitting to your existence.
Speaker 2: It's a fenceive to some people.
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, honestly, what I love is that
Speaker 1: nobody cares like you could kick rocks, nobody's here for it.
Speaker 1: That just as visceral as your reaction is to be negative, like,
Speaker 1: it's just the same visceral reaction that those who support
Speaker 1: will come, and in fact it's not more so, So
Speaker 1: I just love the fact that despite all this, that bitch,
Speaker 1: just like I said, she's super nice. I hosted a
Speaker 1: contest of like black women entrepreneurs at for Ford for
Speaker 1: essence like two or three years ago, and she was
Speaker 1: one of the black women entrepreneurs and she had an
Speaker 1: amazing business and I just remember being like, Wow, that's awesome,
Speaker 1: super just like really kind personality and yeah, and so
Speaker 1: just to see that despite this negativity that came her way,
Speaker 1: you know that, you know, it was turned around and
Speaker 1: used for good. So and I love that the fact
Speaker 1: that Target a target spokesperson. They reached out to BuzzFeed
Speaker 1: News and said that they're aware of some negative comments,
Speaker 1: but quite honestly that most people are overwhelmingly positive about
Speaker 1: the feedback. That they've given Target and they love and
Speaker 1: they're proud to work with and then you know, they
Speaker 1: just will continue to highlight her. So I'm just glad that, like,
Speaker 1: despite that negativity. It's like, you know, it's just just
Speaker 1: disheartening and I hate that.
Speaker 3: You know, well, Target's smart to realize that they need
Speaker 3: to capitalize on black women and what huge business products.
Speaker 3: You know, and obviously any product can be for anybody,
Speaker 3: but there was such a gap in the market for
Speaker 3: products for women of color, and Target's one of those
Speaker 3: places you know you can go. I know, I can
Speaker 3: go and get like all the natural hair products I need.
Speaker 3: They just they're hosting Taraji p Henson's new hair product
Speaker 3: line they're running there. They're like exclusive for having her
Speaker 3: new product line. I love that that Target, to which
Speaker 3: I haven't tried, but you know, kudos to Target for supporting, yeah,
Speaker 3: for supporting entrepreneurs of color and to be a trice
Speaker 3: for getting a boost in sales despite all the haters.
Speaker 2: So that's lovely. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna buy some honey pot. No, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I've never used like specialized stuff.
Speaker 3: I need to know what this honeypot does. Let's see,
Speaker 3: flore knows I could use some referb down there. You
Speaker 3: know what happening a child does.
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of different products, so she's got like
Speaker 1: cleansing products, wipe and honestly, I was like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that for those interested, for sure, take a look.
Speaker 1: They actually have them at Target stores. I've seen them myself,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I just think that. I think that it's
Speaker 1: an awesome product line, and it's I'm glad that you
Speaker 1: know that it turned out for better. But yeah, this
Speaker 1: is just funny because, like you said, it's totally free
Speaker 1: advertising for her.
Speaker 2: But yeah, she says.
Speaker 1: She's not taking it personally. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: things like that hurt my feelings. So we're all human,
Speaker 1: so I just can only imagine what it must have
Speaker 1: felt like at first. So yeah, that's my brown.
Speaker 2: It's a boosty breakye where it's like a break with like.
Speaker 1: Child, the racist and the trolls, but then the boots like, yeah,
Speaker 1: she came out on top.
Speaker 3: I love it. That's a good way to end the show.
Speaker 3: I love it. All right, guys, Well, thank you for
Speaker 3: another week, and we will be back next week with
Speaker 3: a new show. H Yes, Lord alright, by God, have
Speaker 3: money more dot com and donate.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Molly would not come from me.
Speaker 3: Thank you Right, have a good rest of your week.
Speaker 2: By tes Ay Brighte