Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, we're back. We're back. We're back, and
Speaker 1: I'm back from vacation slash many not really honeymoon because
Speaker 1: I went on it with two couples. Have you ever
Speaker 1: been in a couples trip, manny.
Speaker 2: A couple's trip? Have I? Technically every summer we go
Speaker 2: on a camping trip with our friends and we've now
Speaker 2: become a couple's trip because everyone's booed up and married
Speaker 2: and stuff. Ok So yeah, yeah, yeah, I have. Okay,
Speaker 2: not to Jamaica though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was honestly, it was gonna be
Speaker 1: like just a girl's trip. Me and my bestie. We
Speaker 1: typically go away at least once a year with each other.
Speaker 1: And then we were like, oh, you know, we should
Speaker 1: bring the guys because we felt it was close to
Speaker 1: father well Father's Day path not too long, I guess,
Speaker 1: And I was just like okay, And then you know,
Speaker 1: I ended up randomly getting married, so I was like, well,
Speaker 1: this can be like like a test run for a honeymoon.
Speaker 1: And then another friend of mine when we've had on
Speaker 1: the show, Lovey, said oh, I'll come too, and so
Speaker 1: it just became like six of us. Honestly, it was.
Speaker 1: It was actually really good. I was nervous because I
Speaker 1: knew the girls because we all knew each other, so
Speaker 1: I knew we'd all get along. But it's like bringing
Speaker 1: your like you know, I don't I hate to call
Speaker 1: many kids, but you know, you're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: are our kids gonna play well together? And they did.
Speaker 1: One of them was like this was like they were like,
Speaker 1: this is like adult summer camp. The guys hang with
Speaker 1: the guys, the girls hang with the girls, and then
Speaker 1: we hang out together. So that happened all throughout, like
Speaker 1: you know, like, yeah, it was honestly.
Speaker 2: We had exactly how our trips end up to the
Speaker 2: girls go do their thing and the guys go find something.
Speaker 1: To break right or like in Jamaica, you know, it
Speaker 1: was a little different.
Speaker 2: It was they really don't grow up they at all.
Speaker 1: I was like wow, and it was just it was
Speaker 1: just I realized, I don't I've never seen Superman like
Speaker 1: interact with like I mean, I'm used to seeing him
Speaker 1: with like his friends, but it was interesting to see
Speaker 1: him with like kind of friends. You know, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: because with his friends, you know, he's I guess he's
Speaker 1: kind of like the quiet one. But I was like
Speaker 1: he's really like the connector. He's like pretty social because
Speaker 1: I'm really like, you know, I'm the talkative one, so
Speaker 1: typically he's like, you know, okay, Tiffany got it. And
Speaker 1: he has a twin brother who is also very like
Speaker 1: outgoing and social, so he's I see now that he's
Speaker 1: kind of like the deflector, like, so if you're social,
Speaker 1: you got it. But the other two guys that were
Speaker 1: on the trip, they weren't super talkative. So all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm like, is that him over there facility
Speaker 1: facilitating all the fun? It was so weird to like
Speaker 1: see them across the beach and he's like the animated one.
Speaker 1: I'm like, since when? So that part was really like
Speaker 1: interesting thing to see. I'm like, you're a storyteller's story,
Speaker 1: so that was actually like a lot of fun. And
Speaker 1: I don't know what they put in the Jamaican rum
Speaker 1: I don't drink, so me and the other girl love
Speaker 1: you here with that she does we don't drink so
Speaker 1: but surprisingly no one was even though you know, they
Speaker 1: were Jamaican running it up. I guess they put like
Speaker 1: next to no alcohol, but everybody was like super good.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, those all inclusive resorts. They watered that
Speaker 2: stuff down. Yeah, I was not impressed with the Dominican
Speaker 2: resort Pina Coladas.
Speaker 1: I must say, you're like another one. Actually put three
Speaker 1: in one of these.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm not trying to feel sloppy, but
Speaker 2: I want to feel a little nice on my vacation. Also,
Speaker 2: did were you guys at an all inclusive resort?
Speaker 1: For sure, girl Bob. It was like everything, and I
Speaker 1: liked it because there was like a little like beach
Speaker 1: kind of like restaurant where you can get stuff grilled
Speaker 1: and then they're also the resort itself had two like restaurants,
Speaker 1: and then of course it had like kind of like
Speaker 1: the open like buffet cafeteria type thing. So it was.
Speaker 1: It was small, which I liked. It wasn't one of
Speaker 1: these mega resorts where it's like three or four hundred units.
Speaker 1: It was only like eighty. And they were like these
Speaker 1: treetop villas, so you didn't we didn't have hotels. Everybody
Speaker 1: had their own individual like tiki like villa. It was
Speaker 1: really cute. Honestly, I liked it a lot.
Speaker 2: They're nice.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know this, but like I guess, certain
Speaker 1: islands you can like pay for vip conci your service
Speaker 1: where they'll like walk you through customs and everything. And so,
Speaker 1: I mean, I just bought my thing. It's not like
Speaker 1: we were being fancy. I got it on Expedia. It
Speaker 1: was it was a you know, a great deal and
Speaker 1: it came with it. And I was like, why, I
Speaker 1: don't think I could ever go back to a normal airport.
Speaker 1: I mean, we walked through every line and you know,
Speaker 1: customs lines are so long, especially if you're not a
Speaker 1: citizen of that country. I mean we walked to the
Speaker 1: front of every line and then we waited like in
Speaker 1: a they called it Mobei Cafe, which is cute, and
Speaker 1: so we waited for like our transportation to take us
Speaker 1: to the hotel, this cute little cafe where it's more
Speaker 1: rum punch and food and it was really really nice.
Speaker 1: And then we got upgraded to first class first row.
Speaker 1: On the way back home, I said, it can't get
Speaker 1: any better than this.
Speaker 2: Well, you know that because you've oh, go ahead.
Speaker 1: No, no, it is because well, I mean I figured
Speaker 1: it because I was like, how did we get upgraded?
Speaker 1: So I asked, and she's like, oh, you booked it.
Speaker 1: She's like, who's Tiffany because I'm a freaking flyer, and
Speaker 1: so she was like, you know, like they just happened
Speaker 1: to have the empty seats, and you know, She's like,
Speaker 1: we always looked to see obviously to like kind of
Speaker 1: reward our frequent flyers because I frequently fly with United,
Speaker 1: no judgment United tubs in Newark where I lived, and
Speaker 1: so they were like, you know, we upgraded you, and
Speaker 1: then you know, we saw you had a party with
Speaker 1: you and I was like, look it. God, so we
Speaker 1: were the first four seats in the front. Ya. You
Speaker 1: couldn't tell us nothing. I didn't even know. People got
Speaker 1: like it was only like a three hour flight. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you get a whole meal. I was like, I'll take
Speaker 1: the salmon and the chicken. You know. Superman was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, babe, like cause we had like you know,
Speaker 1: VIP service here, you know, upgrades there. He was like, Babe, honestly,
Speaker 1: your life is nothing but amazing since I married you.
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's been a.
Speaker 2: Month, but don't discourage that, don't they I.
Speaker 1: Know, right, I'll thank you. He was like, oh, this
Speaker 1: vacation was awesome. Everything was just so awesome. And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: so yeah, married life has been really good.
Speaker 2: I think I prefer I don't not prefer it's different.
Speaker 2: I love traveling with friends. I just feel like you're
Speaker 2: less likely to get bored. And I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 2: I feel like other couples can maybe relate to this,
Speaker 2: But there's this like pressure to go on trips together
Speaker 2: and like really just like have the most amazing time
Speaker 2: and to be obsessed with each other. I'd be more
Speaker 2: every moment of every day. But yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 2: like regular life, like you need breaks, yeah, and one
Speaker 2: of you wants to do one thing, the other one
Speaker 2: doesn't want to do that thing. And like when you
Speaker 2: have friends, you can just like break off into groups
Speaker 2: and then you have like your separate activities and you
Speaker 2: come back at the end of the day. I like
Speaker 2: the variety.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I honestly I did. I thought because you know,
Speaker 1: you think yourself. Oh, I mean, it's nice to be
Speaker 1: booed up, because it was you know, we had definitely
Speaker 1: we all had our boot time, but it was also
Speaker 1: like you said, switch it up, like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm hanging with the girls, and then we hang out
Speaker 1: the group and then me and Superman by ourselves.
Speaker 2: You know, like I love to go to resorts too,
Speaker 2: but my husband hates the water. He's like he and
Speaker 2: his brother are like the two Dominicans who do not
Speaker 2: like the ocean. It is the meanest trick in history. Really, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they just hate they don't like the water. And I
Speaker 2: love the water, and so does my brother in law, sister,
Speaker 2: his sister, my brother in law's girlfriend. And I'm like, great,
Speaker 2: so we can go do beach vacations. You and I'll
Speaker 2: be budied up. We can go do the water sports
Speaker 2: and excursions and they can just go do their thing
Speaker 2: and everyone's happy and there's no like arguing and like,
Speaker 2: you know, you don't want to come to the swim
Speaker 2: with the toothless sharks with me, like you know in
Speaker 2: our last vacation, which is a real fight you have
Speaker 2: when you travel.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean I was, because at first it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody was like I don't want to do
Speaker 1: any excursion. I don't want to do anything. And then
Speaker 1: after two days we were like, we should do an
Speaker 1: excursion because we're bored. So we did a fun one.
Speaker 1: It was at and then it was like some like
Speaker 1: natural springs at the end which were freezing but fun.
Speaker 1: So that was a nice little break and then it
Speaker 1: was beach again. But you know because after a while,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not like every single day go to
Speaker 1: the beach from sun up to sundown. Although I enjoyed
Speaker 1: the beach, I'm like, so is there any other activity?
Speaker 1: So your ATVing was definitely like a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I love act I'm too afraid of the sun. I
Speaker 2: get made fun of. I have an obsession with SPF.
Speaker 2: It's not because I'm worried about having darker skin. That
Speaker 2: is not kind. I just say that it is not
Speaker 2: the reason. I'm not one of those people, but I'm
Speaker 2: really worried about skin damage and I'm trying to be
Speaker 2: on my j LO game when I'm fifty. And I thought,
Speaker 2: she jala when I read this, or I can't even
Speaker 2: tell you what when I read this, but she was like,
Speaker 2: my secret is spray tanning. Not that I spray tann
Speaker 2: but spray tanning and no sun and she's super golden
Speaker 2: all the time. And I was like, I must learn
Speaker 2: her ways and I must not have terrible skin. But also, Loki,
Speaker 2: my mother has had several melanoma removed from from my body,
Speaker 2: and so be on that you know what I found out.
Speaker 2: You can purchase sunscreen with your FSA account. This is major, really, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: when I discovered that, I was like, I need a
Speaker 2: bigger bag.
Speaker 1: So tell people what's FSA?
Speaker 2: People like this is my favorite? My absolutely, I think
Speaker 2: I did a brown boost for this before, which is
Speaker 2: it's my favorite thing in the planet. If you have
Speaker 2: a healthcare plan where you can get a flex savings account. Basically,
Speaker 2: a flexible savings account is something that accompanies your health
Speaker 2: plan and you put in money that you earn before
Speaker 2: taxes are taken out into a little fund, and then
Speaker 2: they give you a debit card and you can use
Speaker 2: your FSA card anytime you pick up prescriptions, you pay
Speaker 2: for your copays, you pick up approved over the counter medicines,
Speaker 2: and even stuff like I mentioned sunscreen Contact solution is included.
Speaker 2: Your prescription glasses are included. So I always get my
Speaker 2: glasses from Warby Parker, which is which is online, right,
Speaker 2: so it's not like, uh, it's not like I go
Speaker 2: to a doctor and I can swipe my FSA card
Speaker 2: and I for some reason when I tried using my
Speaker 2: sometimes FSA cards can be annoying. They don't always work.
Speaker 2: On when you try and shop with them online, I
Speaker 2: think because what they're not really getting the right code
Speaker 2: or whatever is if they would if you were just
Speaker 2: shopping at a Dwayne Read or write Aid or something.
Speaker 2: So but it's also easy. I just keep my receipt
Speaker 2: and then I submit a claim and I always get
Speaker 2: refunded and it's no big deal. So that is, as
Speaker 2: I say, alert for the day.
Speaker 1: It smarty, hoty, that's good. I never thought about it that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I feel so special now because you know,
Speaker 1: now that I'm married, I'm like, oh, I g it
Speaker 1: is shirt. I was like, let me see. I feel
Speaker 1: all keep my insurance card. It's because it's that good
Speaker 1: insurance too. I'm like, oh I take that. Oh you
Speaker 1: can run that test. No worries here, Yeah no. But
Speaker 1: you know what I learned today, Like, well not today,
Speaker 1: but I had to go for like blood work or whatever,
Speaker 1: like before my insurance car came in and I wasn't
Speaker 1: even sure if I was fully insured yet. And the
Speaker 1: woman who was taking my blood work she was telling
Speaker 1: me because she was like, I asked her how much
Speaker 1: is the how much is the lab test? And she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. You know, they'll send you a bill.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh. She was like, why are you
Speaker 1: not insured? I was like, honestly, I don't even know
Speaker 1: just yet. You know, I applied, but you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's kicked in yet. And she was like, well,
Speaker 1: if you tell them you don't have insurance, they can
Speaker 1: lower your bill up to seventy percent. I was like,
Speaker 1: wait what so I don't know if that's like lab
Speaker 1: tests across the board, but for sure. She was just like,
Speaker 1: you know, let them know and then negotiate down seventy
Speaker 1: percent then, you know, and she's she said, they're not
Speaker 1: going to share that with you, but you can you
Speaker 1: can say that, and I was just like okay. She
Speaker 1: actually gave me a paper where I guess they you know,
Speaker 1: like they coached their clients and how to do so,
Speaker 1: and I thought, wow, this is great. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: you know, I'm pretty sure but by the time I
Speaker 1: get the bill, I'll have my insurance card, so I'll
Speaker 1: be able to, like, you know, just be like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, I do have insurance. But I just thought
Speaker 1: that was such a great tip to pass along about
Speaker 1: negotiating down because I've definitely negotiated down other hospital bills
Speaker 1: before when I really did not have insurance altogether significantly,
Speaker 1: I think over fifty percent. I owed at one point
Speaker 1: maybe had fifteen hundred dollars because I tried to die
Speaker 1: my own hair and not knowing I was allergic to
Speaker 1: a black hair dye and so my face swelled up
Speaker 1: like a balloon. And I went to the emergency room,
Speaker 1: and you know, after them giving me a bend a
Speaker 1: drill basically, and that was it, a ben a drill
Speaker 1: and sit down. It was twelve it was twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: I nearly wept, like well, she wrote me a prescription.
Speaker 1: I just knew it was like some special elixir from
Speaker 1: the gods. And when I went to the pharmacy and
Speaker 1: I was like, I have a prescription for my for
Speaker 1: my death, to my my near death experience, and she
Speaker 1: was like, oh, go to AL seven. I'm like, no, no,
Speaker 1: I have was prescription. She's like, yeah, it's ben droll,
Speaker 1: Go to All seven. I said, ben drill. Maybe I
Speaker 1: was levid. I'm like that lady could have told me.
Speaker 1: She could have just said go home against some bended
Speaker 1: dr I didn't know that's what they gave me the
Speaker 1: hospital and that's the Oh my god. And so when
Speaker 1: I got my twelve hundred dollars bill, I think I
Speaker 1: talked them down to like six or seven hundred. Yeah,
Speaker 1: around six hundred. So I was able to talk them down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even if you have insurance, Like it's what you're
Speaker 2: saying that your insurance wouldn't cover the lab test. So
Speaker 2: even though you have it and you have to pay
Speaker 2: out of pocket.
Speaker 1: Well, I have the thing is I So when we
Speaker 1: got married. As soon as we got married, he went
Speaker 1: to his HR. I was like, hey, I have a wife.
Speaker 1: I want to put her on my insurance. And so
Speaker 1: that was the twenty third of June, and so I
Speaker 1: got my insurance card in mail, but it was like
Speaker 1: I realized it was my dental insurance card. But still
Speaker 1: his insurance is altogether. So there was just a lot
Speaker 1: of confusion today when I was calling, like am I insured?
Speaker 1: I have to go to the doctor today to go
Speaker 1: you know, I have to get my lab tests. And
Speaker 1: so they were just like, h we don't see you
Speaker 1: in the system. So basically I know by the time
Speaker 1: I get because they backdated it to when you first
Speaker 1: first submitted your paperwork. So I'm pretty sure by the
Speaker 1: time I get my bill, I should be fine. But
Speaker 1: the fact that she just gave me that little tidbit
Speaker 1: of like, hey, you can talk them down seventy percent
Speaker 1: if it turns out your insurance hasn't kicked in yet.
Speaker 1: So I just I did in my back pocket of oh,
Speaker 1: something to share with the BA listeners.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think labs, like anything that's really that's like
Speaker 2: a standard thing, like a lab result, like an MRI,
Speaker 2: a PAP smear, a mammogram. They always say that X rays.
Speaker 2: Those are the kinds of procedures that you can really negotiate,
Speaker 2: not just negotiate like after it's been done, but shop around.
Speaker 2: People don't really do this, but you can shop around
Speaker 2: in your area and and call places or there's there's
Speaker 2: this one website that I met a woman named Jennifer
Speaker 2: I believe was her name, and she started a website
Speaker 2: called clearhealthcost dot com and I'm gonna make I'm gonna
Speaker 2: check out the name of that. But she actually was
Speaker 2: a she was a journalist covering healthcare, and then she
Speaker 2: did a fellowship I think that the New York Times,
Speaker 2: and part of her fellowship was creating this website because
Speaker 2: she wanted to bring more clarity for people looking to
Speaker 2: shop around for their healthcare because a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't realize that if they just go to a different
Speaker 2: zip code or just go two blocks down the road,
Speaker 2: they could save. And like the range of prices are
Speaker 2: like insane, like this place will charge you know, one
Speaker 2: hundred bucks from MRI. That place will charge two thousand
Speaker 2: dollars from MRI. It's all over the map and there's
Speaker 2: no rhyme or reason to it, Like that's what's frustrating
Speaker 2: about it. But you absolutely can and should shop around
Speaker 2: if you know you have time. Obviously, if it's non
Speaker 2: emergent and you don't have you have time to shop around,
Speaker 2: you should have that. Actually, I'm excited because my excited
Speaker 2: is like exaggerated word, but you know, I'm looking forward
Speaker 2: to trying out my new healthcare because it comes with
Speaker 2: it comes with a service called Compass. Okay, and Compass
Speaker 2: is like it's a company where whenever I need to
Speaker 2: go to the doctor, I call them and they help
Speaker 2: me find the most affordable place to go, Like they
Speaker 2: do the work for me and my My main healthcare
Speaker 2: is United Healthcare, but it's part of this new effort
Speaker 2: I think among healthcare companies to make people consumers care
Speaker 2: more about where they get their health care because I
Speaker 2: don't know about you, but for most of my life,
Speaker 2: I've had employer provided or parent parental provided health care,
Speaker 2: and all I think about is, I'm you know, it's
Speaker 2: going to be a thirty five dollars copay, that's going
Speaker 2: to be ten dollars and I don't really care. I
Speaker 2: just go wherever is open, but not really not really
Speaker 2: thinking that the actual healthcare provider is charging the insurance
Speaker 2: company a bajillion dollars for whatever I've gotten. So by
Speaker 2: encouraging people to shop around to get the most affordable care,
Speaker 2: insurance companies are saving money and we're saving money too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, insurance is like, this is so crazy. You could
Speaker 1: tell how old you are by your conversations. Now I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: excited about get insurance.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about abduct the bulls. Oh so I need
Speaker 2: to do one last health tip. Sorry, okay, because I
Speaker 2: was I was going to do this as a boost,
Speaker 2: but anyway, we're talking about it. So now someone had
Speaker 2: told me that, you know how if you go the doctor,
Speaker 2: you get like a bill in the mail. And sometimes
Speaker 2: it says this is not a bill, But then sometimes
Speaker 2: it's just a bill, and you're like, what is this?
Speaker 2: My insurance could have kicked in. I've been in that
Speaker 2: position before, where I've gone and for like a routine checkup,
Speaker 2: and I come home and I even sometimes when after
Speaker 2: I paid my copay and I'll get an additional bill
Speaker 2: and I'll just pay without thinking about it, like I'll
Speaker 2: just call them and pay it off. Someone told me
Speaker 2: that sometimes billing offices just send a bill to the
Speaker 2: patient and the insurance company and just wait to see
Speaker 2: who pays them first.
Speaker 3: Ooh.
Speaker 2: I was like, say, what is this illegal? Like what?
Speaker 2: So that just raised a little red flag in my
Speaker 2: head because I think even if those bills say, you know,
Speaker 2: this is not a bill, explanation of benefits or whatever,
Speaker 2: it still feels like a bill. And I wonder how
Speaker 2: many people are just paying it because they think they
Speaker 2: owe it.
Speaker 1: You may surprise only these places make a lot of mistakes.
Speaker 2: I don't offer social stakes.
Speaker 1: When Superman had his aneurism surgery, they send him, I
Speaker 1: want to say, like eighteen thousand dollars and he was like,
Speaker 1: why did I get an eighteen thousand dollars check, if
Speaker 1: not more than that, it was something ridiculous like and
Speaker 1: so he called the insurance company. He called the hospital
Speaker 1: and she said, oh, it's likely obviously for us, for
Speaker 1: your like, well, his total surgery was nearly one hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if that was like their last
Speaker 1: payment the insurance company, but they send it to him,
Speaker 1: and you know, and I was like, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: he was like what do I do. I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: a lot of money. Someone's gotta come for you. But
Speaker 1: it turns out and I kind of feel blad because
Speaker 1: I was like, you have to return it. That man
Speaker 1: saved your life, but it turns out the vast majority
Speaker 1: of your patients don't and they don't go after them
Speaker 1: because when he when he you know, when he uh
Speaker 1: because the check was in his name, so he had
Speaker 1: to deposit in his account and then write a check
Speaker 1: to them. And she was like wow, you know, like
Speaker 1: she was like, most people don't give us the money
Speaker 1: and that's just it's just a loss. And I was like,
Speaker 1: what why she told that earlier out of my house,
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's all good karma, but I couldn't believe,
Speaker 1: can you imagine She's liked, some people get sixty dollars
Speaker 1: fifty thousand and they just keep it and we won't
Speaker 1: even know. She's like, you just happen to call. We
Speaker 1: won't even know that insurance company send them a check.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what shenanigans can.
Speaker 2: Imagine people who can do that and live, like sleep
Speaker 2: at night. I know that's just a loud conscience.
Speaker 1: That's what I told him. I was like, honestly, like
Speaker 1: literally just meant like the It wasn't about when you're
Speaker 1: if you're annyuryism was going to burst. It was about
Speaker 1: when and within andurism, you have about a fifteen percent
Speaker 1: chance of making it, and then even after that, you
Speaker 1: have a fifteen percent chance of having no damage, no
Speaker 1: brain damage, and the fact that you are alive and kicking.
Speaker 1: And because he was so young, a doctor was like,
Speaker 1: if you were eighty, we'd leave it. But you're thirty four,
Speaker 1: it's going to burst and it's likely going to kill you.
Speaker 2: Helle, if you're eighty, it's like, whatever you lived your life,
Speaker 2: you had a shot. We're a line. When does it
Speaker 2: become your worth saving.
Speaker 1: Versus yeahn't be able to save, Like if we're going
Speaker 1: to open up your head. At eighty you were likely
Speaker 1: you're not going to be able to wake you back up.
Speaker 1: But like at thirty something, they were like, all right,
Speaker 1: so dude, we want to save you. So I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, the fact is you're living, so we're not.
Speaker 2: Broke, so you're able bodied exactly.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad he even turned the money. But still
Speaker 1: it just made me think, like, how many people got
Speaker 1: these huge checks and kept it.
Speaker 2: I lied about having only one last thing to say, though,
Speaker 2: because I meant to say this last time when you
Speaker 2: brought up healthcare and getting on Superman's health care plan.
Speaker 2: But I'm the cautionary tale because we just twiddled our
Speaker 2: little thumbs. After we got married. I was supposed to
Speaker 2: go on to his health care plan because it had
Speaker 2: better benefits than what I was getting, and we just
Speaker 2: like went on the honeymoon and came back and all
Speaker 2: this work stuff started happening, and three months later we
Speaker 2: were like, oh, yeah, let's do that. There's a thirty
Speaker 2: day period when you in which you can add your
Speaker 2: spouse to your insurance policy, and if you miss it
Speaker 2: sucks for you. Wait like forever, not forever, just until
Speaker 2: the next enrollment period. So they let you. They give
Speaker 2: you a free pass if you have like a qualifying
Speaker 2: life event like you have a kid, or you get
Speaker 2: married or whatever. But they don't. They only give you
Speaker 2: a certain window of time to actually make it happen. Okayamp,
Speaker 2: I mean luckily I was in a position where I
Speaker 2: have back up the chan. Yeah, I get my own
Speaker 2: insurance anyway, So.
Speaker 1: Girl, the next day we were like, I do Hello.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's why I was so relaxed about it, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm good, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1: Like literally, he's like, I only have the temporary license,
Speaker 1: but can I fox that over? So I'm gonna, oh,
Speaker 1: you gotta keep your last name?
Speaker 2: Oh god, did my mother send you?
Speaker 1: No, I'm just our LORI are you there? I've been
Speaker 1: really like, honestly, like, it's so weird how Superman does
Speaker 1: not care at all. I'm like, I'm still Tiffany Leech
Speaker 1: and I'm.
Speaker 2: I'm Tiffany Smith. That's weird. Yeah, a racial profile.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And honestly, I don't want to go Tiffany Smith
Speaker 1: if I might do a Lee Chase Smith. But honestly,
Speaker 1: it's so weird how laid back he is. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't you know whatever.
Speaker 2: Say doesn't really care.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm thinking of Chase Smith. I don't know.
Speaker 2: That definitely sounds good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I was saying. I kind of like
Speaker 1: because they're both kind of shortish names, and then I
Speaker 1: kind of feel like, if you have a kid, I
Speaker 1: kind of don't want to be like the only one
Speaker 1: left out, Like, oh, well, you know.
Speaker 2: Elicha Smith sounds like you're a scholar or something.
Speaker 1: Why Alie Chase Smith? So I might do that, but
Speaker 1: I don't even know what all that entails. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: what does that entail?
Speaker 2: Probably a big pain in your neck.
Speaker 1: Probably. That's one of the reasons why I've been like, e, I'll.
Speaker 2: Get to it when I get you have health insurance.
Speaker 2: You can get that checked.
Speaker 1: Out exactly like you're always making in front of my husband,
Speaker 1: because that's how he says it exactly.
Speaker 2: Oh is that who inspired that?
Speaker 1: Yes? He's very, very very Nigerian and so he says that.
Speaker 1: So sidebar, are you gonna go see girl? Have you
Speaker 1: seen you haven't seen girl? Trip?
Speaker 2: I tried the damn Jersey ins would not let me go.
Speaker 2: You know, we have this, we have a theater really
Speaker 2: close to us. But it has that reserve seating thing
Speaker 2: where you have you buy your tickets. That just means
Speaker 2: it's easier for everyone to snap up all the seats
Speaker 2: right away.
Speaker 1: And is it the eating one, like the one where
Speaker 1: you can eat there that one.
Speaker 2: No, it's not like the one where they serve you.
Speaker 2: It's just like a it is like the nice recliners though. Okay,
Speaker 2: but it's just a normal theater. But it's so annoying
Speaker 2: because it's always we have to usually wait two three
Speaker 2: weeks before a new movie comes out if it's like
Speaker 2: really popular to go see it. So it was not
Speaker 2: able to see it, but I saw it did It
Speaker 2: was a number two movie in the country. Brown Girls, Yes,
Speaker 2: and and it beat you know they had that. People
Speaker 2: were calling at the chocolate and Vanilla you know, like
Speaker 2: they there was like a Vanilla girls trip. It was
Speaker 2: with it came out a couple of weeks ago, had
Speaker 2: Scarlett Johansson and like yeah, Kate McKinnon and night, rough Night,
Speaker 2: the rough naight, Yeah, rough night, And they were saying like,
Speaker 2: and I feel like people were like waiting to see
Speaker 2: which one would do better. I'm pretty sure that one bombed.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, yeah, it did. It did not well
Speaker 1: at all. In comparison, this one has done tremendously well.
Speaker 2: As soon as I saw Queen Latifa, I was like, yep,
Speaker 2: going I do, I will see anything. Queen Latifa was
Speaker 2: in even all the barbershops, even though they were the.
Speaker 1: Kind of like a new girl in there. Her name
Speaker 1: is Tiffany hersh or Tiffany went the h But I've
Speaker 1: been like reading like interviews from her, and she did
Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel. They're They're like, she's the still one. Yes,
Speaker 1: They're like she she yes, I'm already. I'm here for
Speaker 1: her already. And because she told this really funny story
Speaker 1: about her Jada Pikett Smith and Will Smith and how
Speaker 1: they went she because I guess they were taking New
Speaker 1: Orleans obviously because they the Girl's Trip takes place at
Speaker 1: Essence Fest, and like she was saying how Jada was
Speaker 1: asking what are you doing tomorrow? She's like, Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: going on a on a swamp tour, you know, I
Speaker 1: got a group on. And Jada's like, oh, what I
Speaker 1: want to go? And she was like wait, she was
Speaker 1: still starstruck, like you want to go on a group on?
Speaker 1: Why is she said me and Will. So she said,
Speaker 1: they get there, all these people are there and they're like,
Speaker 1: what the hell is this? And she was like, well,
Speaker 1: like you know, like it's a trip. She said, why
Speaker 1: are all these people here? And she was like girls
Speaker 1: a group on?
Speaker 2: She was like, you have a group?
Speaker 1: She said, Jaya thought group. I meant that like I
Speaker 1: don't know that, like you you purchased the boat or
Speaker 1: something like that, or you read the boat for the Yo.
Speaker 1: I was wrongly. She was like, Jada and Will were.
Speaker 3: Like all these people, what the hell?
Speaker 1: And she was like, Jada, I picked you up in
Speaker 1: a twenty dollars rental car. What the hell do you
Speaker 1: think I was And she was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: the windows are not tinted. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: feel comfortable, she said, Jada, you forgot you from Baltimore.
Speaker 1: She said. But they ended up having such a good
Speaker 1: time and she said. Will was like, Yo, this was
Speaker 1: so much fun. I think I'm gonna buy one of these.
Speaker 1: And she was like, oh a boat. He said, no,
Speaker 1: a swamp.
Speaker 2: And she was like, wow, why would you even think
Speaker 2: that they knew what a group on is. I would
Speaker 2: have been like, and here's the urban Dictionary. Here's you know,
Speaker 2: Webster's definition of a group on I know, use my login.
Speaker 1: If you get a chance. Everybody should like like like
Speaker 1: you know, I guess go to YouTube and just type
Speaker 1: in like, uh, Jimmy Kimmel, Tiffany Chef Haydish. Because it's
Speaker 1: such a funny story because first of all, she starts
Speaker 1: off with the the epicenter of all things brown girl,
Speaker 1: like how you start every story? What happened was? I said, no,
Speaker 1: she did, Jimmy Kimble. She said, what happened was? And
Speaker 1: I was rolling. I said, I love you already.
Speaker 2: I love them tools in it, Jada Pink and Queen Latifa.
Speaker 1: There's a fourth a Regita kinga king.
Speaker 2: Okay, I need to see it. I have got to
Speaker 2: see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna figure out, like I'm like, do I
Speaker 1: need to see it? At ten am on a Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I'm actually going on a girls trip next weekend to Montreal.
Speaker 1: Have you been before?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: No, yes, I have been. I don't speak French, but
Speaker 2: I have been to Montreal. I went for like a
Speaker 2: I went for a weekend like five years ago for
Speaker 2: a music festival. But this is a girls trip. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of I'm not gonna lie,
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of Montreal.
Speaker 2: What what effort did Montreal do to you?
Speaker 1: I mean like it was alright, you know how you
Speaker 1: go places, you're like, you know the m e h.
Speaker 1: That's how I thought about it.
Speaker 2: I remember having a great time. I remember the weather
Speaker 2: being spectacular. I rented a bike and I biked all
Speaker 2: over that damn city. I even stole a bike because
Speaker 2: it was before City Bike came to New York City.
Speaker 2: I didn't know how it worked. And what happened was
Speaker 2: I thought that you could take it to your hotel
Speaker 2: overnight and just leave it there. I was like, surely
Speaker 2: there's not a station near me, so that dispussed. Mean
Speaker 2: that I could just park it here at my hotel.
Speaker 2: I don't know, And like five years later it sounds
Speaker 2: so stupid, but sure enough, I couldn't find a doc
Speaker 2: to leave my bike, so I just brought it to
Speaker 2: the hotel, left it over night, and return it the
Speaker 2: next day. But it had been like ten hours and
Speaker 2: I was charged at seven hundred dollars for stealing a bike.
Speaker 2: But uh, what's funny is I call I got back
Speaker 2: to New York and I called my credit card company,
Speaker 2: and at the time I still didn't know what I
Speaker 2: had done wrong, so I was so outraged. I'm like,
Speaker 2: this is thievery. They tricked me. There must have been
Speaker 2: a skimmer on the on the bike share, you know,
Speaker 2: compared the bike share thing like where you rent the bike.
Speaker 2: And I called my I think at the time it
Speaker 2: was Bank of America, and bless their hearts, they were like, oh,
Speaker 2: right away, missus must be fraudulent because no knew what
Speaker 2: a bike share was and it was also a foreign transaction,
Speaker 2: so their fraud department was just like, eh, that's gone.
Speaker 2: So technically, I like I was the fraud.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like, yas my bad.
Speaker 2: I mean I returned it. No, I had a great time.
Speaker 2: I remember the food being good. But anyway, this was
Speaker 2: it's really all for my my well, I'm trying not
Speaker 2: to tell the full there's a full story. While we're
Speaker 2: going to Montreal. It's kind of honest, it's kind of sad,
Speaker 2: but we're just turning the sad trip. We're turning the
Speaker 2: sadness into a girl's trip, so hopefully it'll be hopefully
Speaker 2: it'll be more fun than your trip was, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Just want to thank like to be a listeners just
Speaker 1: like sad Bird, Like you know, our last podcast we
Speaker 1: talked about my fibroids and like I'm just beginning the journey.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, you guys are so awesome reaching out,
Speaker 1: giving your phone numbers, naming your doctors. And I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: So honestly, I'm really like, I joined this group on
Speaker 1: Facebook called Vegan for Beginners. I know I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be one of those vegans, I promise, but I don't
Speaker 1: even know if I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna becaz is a vegan thinking about it.
Speaker 1: You know, and so I don't know that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: but I definitely have heard obviously meat has a lot
Speaker 1: of hormones, and the higher your hormones, like like fibroids,
Speaker 1: apparently you know, thrive off like higher hormone levels, and
Speaker 1: so I'm definitely just open to I've been a bit
Speaker 1: to changing my diet anyway. So I'm just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'll be like completely vegan, but
Speaker 1: I definitely want to adopt a diet that's going to
Speaker 1: you know, help with this and also stress. I heard
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, a big, like like really kind
Speaker 1: of exacerbates your your fibroid situation. Something called live cultures,
Speaker 1: which are like probiotics, which are like I'm like, really
Speaker 1: because I freaking love Greek yogurt, I love like olives
Speaker 1: all these things that they're like, oh yeah, girl, no,
Speaker 1: I'm like really wait those apparently well this is what
Speaker 1: someone wrote me. I don't know for sure, you know,
Speaker 1: you have, everyone always has something that they did share.
Speaker 2: I'm already tired, I.
Speaker 1: Know, so I just said, you know what, but I
Speaker 1: read this really great article and they basically were like, like,
Speaker 1: you know, go speak with your doctor, find a doctor,
Speaker 1: and maybe even if it's a cluster of doctors that
Speaker 1: you trust, and then work from there. But I mean,
Speaker 1: in general, it's never a bad thing to eat, right,
Speaker 1: So that's something that I want to do in general.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, I'm going to
Speaker 1: like really sit down and find some doctors that I
Speaker 1: really trust and that understand and really that their focus
Speaker 1: is this, you know, like women and their like reproductive systems,
Speaker 1: and then just really like see like what can be done.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Recap though for people who don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: The fibroid situation.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I found out like I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I should got to like you know Obgyn. I mean
Speaker 1: like I'm grown, so like I was like, never I
Speaker 1: was going to my regular doctor. But I wasn't going
Speaker 1: and I never had like any issues. It wasn't like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll always get my regular like you know,
Speaker 1: checkups like I said, but I went and I always
Speaker 1: had like this little pouch. Well not always, I would
Speaker 1: say the last maybe like five or six years, I
Speaker 1: had this little pouch on my belly and I couldn't
Speaker 1: figre y wide because I'm like, hmm, you know, like
Speaker 1: my stomach is fairly flat. And I would always complain
Speaker 1: to Superman and he'd be like, I don't see a belly.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I have one. I can't do anything about it, damnit.
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, it was a trap.
Speaker 1: Yes, And I was always wearing like if you've seen me,
Speaker 1: like typically most of my speaking outfits are pretty fitted,
Speaker 1: so you probably like tip, I never see the belly,
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh SPANX and like you know, so I
Speaker 1: always always always wore. My sisters would tease me because
Speaker 1: even when I was like like, I'm like, I would
Speaker 1: say medium size now, but even when I was small,
Speaker 1: I would still wear like some sort of control top
Speaker 1: and they're like, what the hell tip me, and you're
Speaker 1: like a size four, and I would always be like no,
Speaker 1: like you know, I just have this little belly I
Speaker 1: can't get rid of. So I guess it turns out
Speaker 1: it was fiveboids. I don't know how I never figured
Speaker 1: that out before, but apparently now. I don't know how
Speaker 1: large they were now, but they're fairly large. She never
Speaker 1: told me, like, she never gave me a comparison, like
Speaker 1: to what but three large fiveboids, and I was like, yikes,
Speaker 1: And they're so fiveboids are non cancerous tumors, and you're like,
Speaker 1: you're uterus walls, so your uterine walls, I guess stay home.
Speaker 1: And so basically they can you know, it can prevent
Speaker 1: you from having kids, or if you do get pregnant,
Speaker 1: you're you're more of risk for like miscarriages. And it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that, like lots of women have kids with
Speaker 1: five birds, but it's just you want to be mindful
Speaker 1: of these things, especially if you're wanting to have kids,
Speaker 1: and you know, so five boys, it's still a kind
Speaker 1: of a mystery as to why they grow, what makes
Speaker 1: them grow, what makes them shrink. So, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just kind of like exploring that. You know that it's
Speaker 1: It's been a part of my family history, and so
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of like figuring out, like, you know,
Speaker 1: what do what direction do I going? So the doctor, well,
Speaker 1: the second doctor I went to, it was like oh,
Speaker 1: he was a man. He was like, oh, right away,
Speaker 1: we all take care of these. We got to schedule
Speaker 1: some surgery. And I was like, oh, like that's pretty
Speaker 1: you know that's because you can you can have surgery
Speaker 1: and then end up messing up your uterus and not
Speaker 1: being able to have kids. And I'm like, uh, before
Speaker 1: we explore that option. I'm not fifty out one of
Speaker 1: those things exactly. So I'm just like, hold up, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, kidney exactly. So I'm just like, you know,
Speaker 1: so I'm really just trying to explore what are my options.
Speaker 1: You know, Like, I'm not opposed to surgery, but I
Speaker 1: don't want to put myself in a position to not
Speaker 1: at least try. I'm not gonna lie. I'm still on
Speaker 1: the fence about kids. I'm not like, yes, I have
Speaker 1: to be a mom. I'm kind of like, I want
Speaker 1: to try and if I have kids, great, But I'm
Speaker 1: not someone who's like, if I don't have kids, I'm
Speaker 1: definitely adopted because I want to be a mom no
Speaker 1: matter what. I don't feel that way. I'm just kind
Speaker 1: of like, I want to try and if I have kids, great,
Speaker 1: and if I don't, will I be disappointed? Yes, but
Speaker 1: it's not my first it's not you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like I always thought that something was gonna click in
Speaker 1: me and I'd be like, oh, I want to be
Speaker 1: a mom no matter what. And that has not clicked. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm thirty seven, so it's not like, oh, because people
Speaker 1: told me, wait till your mid thirties, it'll click. It hasn't.
Speaker 2: Really people. I'm surprised because people that are older, people
Speaker 2: I know who waited to have kids when they were older,
Speaker 2: universally have told me I wish I had done this, really,
Speaker 2: and I should actually have been taking a poll as
Speaker 2: to why they wish. I don't know if it was
Speaker 2: because their bodies or their workload or what, but that
Speaker 2: And I just saw Mandy Kaling not to Mindy Kaling's pregnant. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I read an interview she gave and She's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: so everyone told me to have a kid, just do
Speaker 2: it sooner than later, and so she just kind of
Speaker 2: just like had one. And now I'm thinking, should I
Speaker 2: just have one?
Speaker 1: Just yeah, I don't I know. Honestly, it's I'll say
Speaker 1: this like my my my best friend has a old
Speaker 1: two year old. My sister has a one and a half
Speaker 1: year old and also a four month old. It is
Speaker 1: disruptive to say that.
Speaker 2: It seems terrible. No shame to all you moms out there.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's very fulfilling, but you guys need to
Speaker 2: look awful.
Speaker 1: But I mean, honestly, like I'll say this like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, my nephew, my godson, my niece. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie when I have a bad if I'm having
Speaker 1: like like if today was like say a like super
Speaker 1: bad day, I would be like all right, after we
Speaker 1: get off the podcast, I'm actually just gonna go to
Speaker 1: my sister's house and literally just soaking the love and
Speaker 1: the pure spirits like that they are, because that's how
Speaker 1: awesome it is to be around them. And then poop time,
Speaker 1: dipe changed it, time to go to sleep. I'm mad
Speaker 1: at everybody. I won't eat so you're like, oh, aside
Speaker 1: from Auntie lovetime, there's this other part where my sister
Speaker 1: literally what I call her all I hear her say is.
Speaker 4: Roman, Roman, Roman, Roman, Roman. Don't hear your sister Roman,
Speaker 4: don't bit her toes? Roman, don't eat that. And I'm like,
Speaker 4: what's that mean? While Roman's only wanted to alf and
Speaker 4: I'm like, he's a terror. A cute terror, but a terror.
Speaker 1: It's very disruptive because I remember before telling her, like
Speaker 1: I had asked her to do me a favor and
Speaker 1: I was like, well, why did you do it? She's like,
Speaker 1: I'm on with a one year old and a four
Speaker 1: month old and I was like, it can't be that hard.
Speaker 1: And then I baby said, and I was like, please
Speaker 1: save me. I was so exhausted and I couldn't. You
Speaker 1: can't sleep, cause what are you gonna do? Sleep and
Speaker 1: let the kids be up while they destroy themselves? Like
Speaker 1: I don't even know how she does it, Like sometimes
Speaker 1: the baby she only get two nights three hours worth
Speaker 1: of sleep and now she's back at work.
Speaker 2: That's why God made them cute.
Speaker 1: Yes, I really believe that that God made kids really cute,
Speaker 1: because if not, I don't even know I people would
Speaker 1: keep them because it's a lot. So I'll say this
Speaker 1: that you know, I know people say, oh I wish
Speaker 1: I would have had them earlier or whatever. But have
Speaker 1: them when you're ready, because know that your life is
Speaker 1: not gonna be the same ever again in a good
Speaker 1: way and also in a disruptive way.
Speaker 2: Quite honestly, It's kind of like how I feel how
Speaker 2: I felt when I went hang gliding in Brazil. Stay
Speaker 2: with me on this analogy thing. It was the hardest
Speaker 2: thing I've ever done, and I've jumped out of planes
Speaker 2: and all kinds of stuff, because you literally have to
Speaker 2: work against all of your human instincts by like propelling
Speaker 2: like running, getting a running start, and then continuing to
Speaker 2: run and keep running and then jump off a cliff,
Speaker 2: and the whole time you're like, this is terrible, this
Speaker 2: is stupid. Why am I doing this? And you have
Speaker 2: to like get it. That's what I feel like having
Speaker 2: a kid is like when you have to like decide
Speaker 2: to do it. You know, it's like you're going again,
Speaker 2: So you have all these reasons why not in front
Speaker 2: of you, and you have to keep just like barreling
Speaker 2: through it and just trimp off the Cliff and then
Speaker 2: it's fun or you die.
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's both super awesome and super I
Speaker 1: think I'm going to kill myself, so I try. I
Speaker 1: try my best to like go over, like it'll be crazy.
Speaker 1: She'd be like, oh, I got I got your mail
Speaker 1: from mommy and Daddy's house. And I'm like, okay, I'll
Speaker 1: come get it without fail. I'll come get it, and
Speaker 1: I'll be giving like roaming a hug and Amelia kids,
Speaker 1: and she's either asleep or in the shower.
Speaker 2: She's like trappers.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So now I just know, like she wanted to be asked,
Speaker 1: do you have anything to do after this? No? Last
Speaker 1: time I turned around, she literally just got into her bed,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, so I guess it's just
Speaker 1: me and you kids. And so it just made me realize, like, wow,
Speaker 1: I need to come over more often just to relieve her.
Speaker 1: Even I it's just for an hour and nap. If
Speaker 1: you know new moms or even if they have two
Speaker 1: other kids and let those kids have a baby city age,
Speaker 1: go relieve them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just an hour or something. Yes, if you're good
Speaker 2: with kids. Otherwise people like me stay home.
Speaker 1: Just send money, send money or give them like your
Speaker 1: next gift, give them like the gift of a babysitter.
Speaker 2: I did. I sent my girlfriend a gift them a
Speaker 2: massage and like a gift to a hair salon, like
Speaker 2: a salon where she can get like a massage or
Speaker 2: hair for her baby shower. Gift was that petty? I
Speaker 2: was like, babies don't choose need more baby clothes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think a massage or a break. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I swear that one of the things I'm looking for
Speaker 1: is like a really good babysitter, Like so that way
Speaker 1: I can like gift my sister like in the area
Speaker 1: where we live in and just to gift her like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gifting you married for the afternoon so
Speaker 1: you can like, you know, lay down that sweet Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look. So I'm like, any abb out anybody
Speaker 1: know a good babysitter Newark? You know who's not crazy
Speaker 1: or like doesn't eat kids. Let me know that is
Speaker 1: a high bar. You don't eat kids. You're not a murderer,
Speaker 1: You're not crazy. Let me know. It's time for do
Speaker 1: we have a name to segment? What do we call this?
Speaker 2: Questions? Okay, you don't even know her email yet you
Speaker 2: can't possibly remember the segment a segment name, no way
Speaker 2: for questions.
Speaker 1: So, yes, do we have any questions? I know we do.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yes, today our question is and remember you guys,
Speaker 2: We're going to do a special student loan episode in August.
Speaker 2: So I've gotten a lot of questions from you guys
Speaker 2: on student loan debt. If you have student loan det questions,
Speaker 2: you can email us at Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com or go to Brownambition Podcast dot com and
Speaker 2: select the ask us anything tab. So the question for
Speaker 2: today's show is from listener LaToya, and my heart is
Speaker 2: like breaking for her. Here's her question, and I'm gonna
Speaker 2: have to shorten it a little bit, but I'll get
Speaker 2: the gist of it. LaToya says, I'm typing through my
Speaker 2: tears right now. I am beyond frustrated. But in the
Speaker 2: midst of gathering myself and I thought of the two
Speaker 2: of you. The most precious day of my life is
Speaker 2: haunted by bad debt. I gave birth to my daughter,
Speaker 2: Taylor in twenty fifteen. At the time, I was a
Speaker 2: single mom, and I signed up for every new parent
Speaker 2: class I could find. I'm thirty three years old and
Speaker 2: I'm fortunate enough to earn a good salary and have
Speaker 2: decent health care. But after I gave birth to my daughter,
Speaker 2: even with that healthcare, I've been hit with almost eight
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in medical bills. They don't offer any sort
Speaker 2: of centralized billing department, so I've been I've spent the
Speaker 2: last two years getting all separate bills notifications from every
Speaker 2: person in practice that played a role in my delivery.
Speaker 2: Yeah you can relate to that probably, Yeah, hospital visit
Speaker 2: and you get so many different bills. So here she
Speaker 2: is with eight thousand dollars in medical bills from all
Speaker 2: different facets of her her delivery process. So it's twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: This is a year after the birth, and I finally
Speaker 2: got a hold of someone in their billing department that
Speaker 2: outlined all the outstanding bills that she could see. From
Speaker 2: my understanding, I settled all the debt associated with my delivery.
Speaker 2: Since then. Cut to now, I've since moved to Texas
Speaker 2: and I'm in the process of building homes. But nine
Speaker 2: months into building the house, I'm a few weeks away
Speaker 2: from closing. Today, I received several alerts on my Fico account.
Speaker 2: It turns out four medical bills were reported and have
Speaker 2: dropped my score an average of fifty six points. I'm
Speaker 2: furious and I don't understand how this happened, no warning,
Speaker 2: no communication. What are my options? And here's sort of
Speaker 2: an epilogue. She says, I verified the creditor had my
Speaker 2: North Carolina address, so she's from a North Carolina originally
Speaker 2: and now she's in Texas and my old phone number.
Speaker 2: But they said it was my responsibility to update them.
Speaker 2: But how did I note? How could I have known
Speaker 2: to update them if I didn't know these bills existed?
Speaker 2: What should I do?
Speaker 1: And how old is this debt?
Speaker 2: This is only from twenty fifteen, so it's a couple.
Speaker 1: Of Oh, okay, so it's not like it's not like
Speaker 1: this debt has expired.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So she's saying that. She says that she had
Speaker 2: this eight thousand dollars debt. It was from she was
Speaker 2: getting separate bills for all these little things that added
Speaker 2: up to eight thousand dollars. And so she called the
Speaker 2: hospital building office to say, can you just tell me
Speaker 2: everything I owe and I'll go ahead and pay everything now.
Speaker 2: And she said she thought everything was settled, but apparently
Speaker 2: there were these four outstanding bills that were not settled,
Speaker 2: and that's what So basically she moved and wasn't getting
Speaker 2: her bills anymore. I don't know. Yeah, the hospital or
Speaker 2: the debt collector didn't have her new address and stuff.
Speaker 1: So honestly, only thing I would think that you can
Speaker 1: do now is to try to negotiate with the debt
Speaker 1: collectors that you owe to get them to remove these
Speaker 1: things if you pay them.
Speaker 2: I wonder if it's the hospital that's pursuing the debt
Speaker 2: or if they've already sold the debt, because it hasn't
Speaker 2: quite been I mean, this deet happened in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: but she settled it in twenty sixteen, so it may
Speaker 2: be even less than a year since since she settled
Speaker 2: those debts. So I don't know. It depends on who
Speaker 2: owns it. But maybe she could call the hospital and
Speaker 2: if it's still the hospital, then they could then she
Speaker 2: could settle and maybe get them removed from her credit report.
Speaker 2: Does that change if it was a debt collector.
Speaker 1: Well, either one like oftentimes you can negotiate for that.
Speaker 1: So sometimes I'll tell people that I'm like, okay, like
Speaker 1: you oldest debt. It especially like let's just say you
Speaker 1: owe two thousand, and if you're trying to settle for
Speaker 1: five hundred, like good luck, you might be able to
Speaker 1: settle for five hundred, but they're not going to remove it.
Speaker 1: But if you owe two thousand and you're actually going
Speaker 1: to pay two thousand or fifteen hundred or higher, then
Speaker 1: sometimes you can negotiate can this be removed because you're
Speaker 1: paying basically most of it or all of it, And
Speaker 1: so sometimes that cause ultimately debt collectors or people that
Speaker 1: you owe, they don't care about your credit report. They
Speaker 1: want their money. So if you're able to give them
Speaker 1: their money and dangle the carrot of like, hey, this
Speaker 1: is why I want to exchange, and before you pay,
Speaker 1: get that in writing that they're going to remove it,
Speaker 1: then that's what I would try to do. But just
Speaker 1: know that, you know, you have to be able to
Speaker 1: either pay most or all of that debt in order
Speaker 1: for that to to go through. You know, like because
Speaker 1: I've seen like you know, I'm like I've seen people
Speaker 1: you know, get you know stuff. It's called a good
Speaker 1: faith letter basically, get people get things removed from your
Speaker 1: from your credit report, and so you can try that,
Speaker 1: or a good will letter. It's called a good No,
Speaker 1: it's called a good will letter. So you can just
Speaker 1: google go ahead the.
Speaker 2: Good will letters. Just you send those to the credit
Speaker 2: bureaus or to your lender or the debt collector.
Speaker 1: So you would send that to the debt collector, so
Speaker 1: whoever is borrowing that you're borrowing from, because actually, like
Speaker 1: clear Point is like this, like free I remember, I
Speaker 1: think I met them at fin Con. Clear Point is
Speaker 1: like this free debt or credit counseling agency. They're nonprofit
Speaker 1: and they actually have a d YI how to write
Speaker 1: a good how to write a good will letter for
Speaker 1: credit repair, and so you know, it's it's possible. It's
Speaker 1: it's different from a dispute. Basically, you're just saying, I
Speaker 1: know this happened, and you know, and I'm not asking.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that this didn't happen. I'm just saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, can you, if I pay you or whatever,
Speaker 1: can you basically do me a solid and take this off?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Yeah. One of my questions that I that I had
Speaker 2: for LaToya, and I actually emailed her. I'll see if
Speaker 2: she responded, but I wanted to know if when she
Speaker 2: settled those debts, if she had gotten a letter from
Speaker 2: the hospital saying they had been settled and the closed.
Speaker 2: Because I've actually had to settle I was going back
Speaker 2: and forth and back and forth with someone some lab
Speaker 2: that I had gotten. I don't know some you know
Speaker 2: how you go to the doctor to get a physical,
Speaker 2: and they put the blood work, they put it, they
Speaker 2: send the blood work to like a third party lab,
Speaker 2: and I kept getting billed from them and builds from them,
Speaker 2: and I finally was like, let me just settle this
Speaker 2: and I'll pay your eighty dollars or whatever. And they
Speaker 2: even went They sent me a verification saying the account
Speaker 2: had been closed and it was paid in full, and
Speaker 2: I kept that for my records. I don't think that
Speaker 2: she had like a record of this settlement, and I
Speaker 2: would have, and I would say, if anyone's in this
Speaker 2: situation and you're you're moving forward and you're trying to
Speaker 2: settle a debt, whether it's with a hospital or your
Speaker 2: credit card or whoever, to make sure that you're getting
Speaker 2: some sort of record where you can show them. Because
Speaker 2: people make mistakes, especially we were just talking about medical
Speaker 2: billing offices make mistakes all the time, and you can
Speaker 2: you can dispute them and I mean argue against them.
Speaker 2: But if you have a paper trail, it makes your
Speaker 2: case all that stronger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like I said, try that, try that goodwill letter.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the purpose of a good will letter
Speaker 1: is to appeal to the goodwill of the person that
Speaker 1: you owe. You're not saying that you don't owe. You're
Speaker 1: acknowledging that this is a debt that's mine. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm asking that you You know that you were sending
Speaker 1: this base for my credit report, you know, and you
Speaker 1: know one of the ways you could do that. Let's
Speaker 1: just say if it's if it's one late payment that
Speaker 1: you made. You know, people send in goodwill letters or
Speaker 1: in this in this instance saying this is what happened.
Speaker 1: I thought, I did everything. What can I do to
Speaker 1: fix it? And and can you if I pay, you know,
Speaker 1: can you take this off? You'd be surprised because, like
Speaker 1: I said, ultimately, they don't care about your credit report.
Speaker 1: Credit reports are the way they try to get you
Speaker 1: to pay them. Like, well, if I punish you here,
Speaker 1: I'll get my money. Ultimately, everybody just wants their money.
Speaker 2: But what if she doesn't actually owe it, because I mean,
Speaker 2: in that case, she needs to. I don't think she
Speaker 2: shouldn't acknowledge that the debt's hers if she's not invented.
Speaker 2: So one of the things I would tell her to
Speaker 2: do or anyone is people don't you should send a
Speaker 2: debt or she should try sending a debt verification form
Speaker 2: to this is true and this is all Oh go
Speaker 2: ahead now, so I.
Speaker 1: Say, you're right, verified it, like, make sure this debt
Speaker 1: is yours.
Speaker 2: Because if you send it, when you send a debt
Speaker 2: verification letter and I'll post a link in the show notes.
Speaker 2: But this Consumer of Financial Protection Bureau has a form.
Speaker 2: It's like a sample letter. All it is is you're asking,
Speaker 2: how do you know this debt is mine? What's the amount,
Speaker 2: what are the dates? And it was dude, show me
Speaker 2: that you show me that I owe this debt, basically,
Speaker 2: and if they can't do that, then you should move
Speaker 2: forward and dispute that it's even yours in the first place.
Speaker 2: And it sounds like that she has a case. Hold
Speaker 2: on a second, Oh, this is so awesome. Wait a second,
Speaker 2: this is like a live question update LaToya. She emailed
Speaker 2: me back two hours ago.
Speaker 1: Wow, Hey, LaToya, you just knew we were gonna call LaToya.
Speaker 2: Wait and it's good news. Wait a second. Okay, so
Speaker 2: we didn't even help her. We helped hopefully someone else
Speaker 2: enjoyed our advice. No, okay, this is okay, hold on,
Speaker 2: this is breaking news. We need a breaking news away.
Speaker 2: Thank you. So here's Yah's update. She says, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for responding. I used Okay, this is so cool.
Speaker 2: I used a group legal prepaid benefit through my employer
Speaker 2: to find an attorney, so her employer had a benefit
Speaker 2: program where she could find like low cost legal aid.
Speaker 2: They fought the debt, and all three bureaus deleted those
Speaker 2: four accounts from my reports. My credit score has recouped
Speaker 2: most of the impacted points to my credit score, and
Speaker 2: I close on my home on August fourth.
Speaker 1: That's another right. We didn't think about that legal services.
Speaker 1: See LaToya, you taught be a listener something that we
Speaker 1: didn't even suggest. That's awesome. I'm glad you fought it.
Speaker 2: I didn't know. Well, she didn't say in her original
Speaker 2: question that it was like a lawsuit, you know, or
Speaker 2: she was sued or whatever. But that's definitely something that's
Speaker 2: like the next step like, once these debts have been
Speaker 2: unpaid for so long, they ding you on your credit report,
Speaker 2: and then if enough time goes by, they may even
Speaker 2: pursue a lawsuit against you in court. And that's when
Speaker 2: things get difficult. But she did exactly the right thing
Speaker 2: by trying to find low cost legal service.
Speaker 1: So huzza, yes, take them. That's to the man.
Speaker 2: Hospital, suck man. Yeah, that is the moral of this story.
Speaker 2: I should have done a Brown break for medical building offices.
Speaker 2: All the stress, you know, and she had. The thing
Speaker 2: that kills me is she had insurance and she still
Speaker 2: wind up in this situation.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 2: Even if you have insurance, you're not safe from this BS.
Speaker 2: But happy ending. That was so funny. Yeah, okay, good,
Speaker 2: I'm glad because she sounded so stressed in that email. Okay, guys,
Speaker 2: you too can have a happy ending if you if
Speaker 2: you email your questions to Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail
Speaker 2: dot com.
Speaker 3: Dot com or.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, alhead, no, no, how.
Speaker 2: About you say it? What's their website?
Speaker 1: The uh podcast dot com?
Speaker 2: You got it. We're coming up on our two year anniversary.
Speaker 1: I know what are we gonna do?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Last year we did a dinner.
Speaker 1: So start asking us, like when are we gonna have
Speaker 1: When are we gonna get pregnant? When we're gonna get married?
Speaker 1: With you and me now, because you know we were
Speaker 1: like you've been together for two years. Now, when are
Speaker 1: you a man? He gonna have a baby? Leave us alone?
Speaker 2: She's seeing other people, super boos and supergirls.
Speaker 1: I know we should do something. Maybe you guys can
Speaker 1: giveus some suggestions. Tweet us, yeah, if you have some
Speaker 1: suggestions about you know what, like what should we do
Speaker 1: to celebrate? Last year we had a dinner with some
Speaker 1: listeners which was really fun and the food was it
Speaker 1: wasn't the food was so good. So what should we
Speaker 1: do this time? We'd like to do something a little different.
Speaker 2: It's got six flags.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I hate Oh that's right.
Speaker 2: I meant to tell you Supergirl has some words to
Speaker 2: say to me at your wedding about that trip to
Speaker 2: Disney World. What is she.
Speaker 1: Yo? Supergirl? Is something it up? What does she say?
Speaker 2: Oh? Never mind, I don't want to get her in trouble.
Speaker 2: I'm not a rat.
Speaker 1: No, no, she's I because she's like, oh that's manny,
Speaker 1: I've got some things to share. Does she not have
Speaker 1: a good time.
Speaker 2: No, she had a great time. She loves you. You're
Speaker 2: the best. She said, You're so beautiful and pretty and
Speaker 2: smart and talented. It's exactly what she said.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, Supergirl's like, I'm not really feeling you right now.
Speaker 1: She calls me the daddy hogger. Oh oh, I know
Speaker 1: we vented into that stage now. I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2: Great, just wait till she's fourteen. You can have him.
Speaker 1: So are we gonna do some wins? I can have
Speaker 1: a quick win. Sure, So Tiffany, I can't say her
Speaker 1: last name hash hash hattish hattish. So apparently I just
Speaker 1: saw on essence dot com that she got a stand
Speaker 1: up a deal discount deal or deal whatever with Showtime.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: Oh to do a stand up show, Yeah, you know
Speaker 2: that's pretty big.
Speaker 1: You know all the greats have done that. So I
Speaker 1: just want to say knows to you. From one Tippany
Speaker 1: to another. What about you? Any any wins?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I'll give a win to gold Bond rapid itch relief.
Speaker 2: It is the best rapid itch relief cream on the market.
Speaker 2: Find it in your local CBS. You can buy it
Speaker 2: with your FSA card.
Speaker 1: What okay, I guess you know.
Speaker 2: For real, if you're itching from your trip, don't use
Speaker 2: that cortizone cream. Just use like gold bond or a
Speaker 2: V No. Those are my two favorite from one type
Speaker 2: oh to another? Is that what we had along? Swell,
Speaker 2: we're both typos?
Speaker 1: I know, are you? Are you the are you the
Speaker 1: donor or the givern?
Speaker 2: Wait, Tiffany, we're typos?
Speaker 1: Now that wasn't funny.
Speaker 2: I just took some penatrol.
Speaker 1: But are you the universal donor? Are you the universe
Speaker 1: of receipt?
Speaker 2: I'm positive so I think I can give, I can take,
Speaker 2: but I can't know. I'm oh positive, I forget. I
Speaker 2: think I'm the universal.
Speaker 1: Receiver receiver and I'm the universal donor, but I can't
Speaker 1: give from anybody except for O's.
Speaker 2: Okay, sucks for you.
Speaker 1: Basically, I don't know why that's so funny anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Brad a bitch, listeners again, we have hopefully transformed
Speaker 1: your life and made it better.
Speaker 2: I'm so happy for LaToya. Genuinely, that was so cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, honestly, and Latoya's got to listen to
Speaker 1: this and be like, oh my god. Hopefully.
Speaker 2: So she got her she got her legal team, she
Speaker 2: fought back she got through it. She's a single mom.
Speaker 2: Come on, people don't.
Speaker 1: Yes, people want that, they don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she won. Like if you just if you just
Speaker 2: take the time to fight back, it doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be hopeless.