Speaker 1: Hey, hey, ba fam, It's Mandy here with another episode
Speaker 1: of b a QA, our show where we take you
Speaker 1: your questions and give you answers. Now, this is answers
Speaker 1: with a lowercase A. I am not your financial advisor.
Speaker 1: I am not your investment advisor. I'm not your career
Speaker 1: advisor unless you work with me through my Mandy Money
Speaker 1: Coaching service. But I am here to just give you
Speaker 1: my ideas. Now. With that said, as we always say
Speaker 1: in the show, as Tiffany would say if she were here,
Speaker 1: see your grandmama, not us. I actually don't know why
Speaker 1: she encourages anyone to sue their grandma, but you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go with it and love and big
Speaker 1: virtual hugs to Tiffany. As always, let's get into today's show.
Speaker 1: You know what, We're doing a lot of personal finance
Speaker 1: questions today. It's been a minute. I feel like I
Speaker 1: get so many career questions now, But let's get back
Speaker 1: to business when it comes to money. Okay, y'all, Remember
Speaker 1: you can send us your questions at Ambition Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com or hit us up on Instagram and
Speaker 1: we are on Instagram at brand Ambition Podcast. You can
Speaker 1: also ping me directly. I'm at Mandy money on IG
Speaker 1: love getting your questions. Remember you can be anonymous, Okay,
Speaker 1: we don't have to put your entire business out there.
Speaker 1: You're already being so generous to ask your question publicly
Speaker 1: or semi publicly with the show. So just let us
Speaker 1: know if you want us to change your name or
Speaker 1: you know, let you remain anonymous. I get it. Money
Speaker 1: is awkward, money is private. We're here for you. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's dive into these money questions for today. Our first
Speaker 1: question comes from IG from listener Elsa. Elsa says, which
Speaker 1: should be a priority when you have a limited focus?
Speaker 1: Should you focus on your emergency fund or investing in
Speaker 1: a four to oh one k oh, Elsa, This is
Speaker 1: a great question, and I think this is so I mean,
Speaker 1: it's everything that it's something that so many workers go
Speaker 1: through when you feel like it's so important to invest, right,
Speaker 1: But isn't it also important to have cash savings on
Speaker 1: the side. I don't think it's an either or situation.
Speaker 1: I think it's a both. And so what I would
Speaker 1: do is this gets down to the basics, right, So
Speaker 1: sit down and come up with how much money do
Speaker 1: you have leftover? After you pay all of your non
Speaker 1: negotiable expenses, your mortgage or your rent, your car payment,
Speaker 1: your daycare, whatever you need, food for the table, your
Speaker 1: your must have expenses, and then what money do you
Speaker 1: have leftover? Now, this is where you kind of want
Speaker 1: to divide and conquer. Hopefully you've got a little bit
Speaker 1: leftover of your budget. If you don't, then that's a
Speaker 1: bigger issue. But let's assume that you've got money left over.
Speaker 1: I would say take about I don't know, whatever percentage
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable with. You can take fifty to fifty,
Speaker 1: So take fifty percent of whatever you have left over.
Speaker 1: You can put fifty percent of that money into your
Speaker 1: savings account and then invest the rest. But don't forget
Speaker 1: when it comes to your four to one K. If
Speaker 1: you take advantage of the traditional four one K, which
Speaker 1: is when you're actually putting money in pre tax, it
Speaker 1: actually allows you to use money that otherwise would have
Speaker 1: been paid to Uncle Sam out of your paycheck and
Speaker 1: put that money directly into your retirement funds. And so
Speaker 1: why I'm pointing that out is that, like let's say
Speaker 1: your tax rate is twenty five percent, if you were to,
Speaker 1: you know, take your paycheck and then put one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars into your retirement account. If you went ahead, that's
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars after tax, right, But if you hadn't
Speaker 1: taken advantage of that pre tax four one K, that
Speaker 1: could be one hundred and twenty five dollars because you're
Speaker 1: doing that money, getting that money before Uncle Sam takes
Speaker 1: his little cut. Okay, now he's going to get his
Speaker 1: cut down the line when you start withdrawing those funds
Speaker 1: in retirement. But that is one of the benefits of
Speaker 1: a traditional four to one K that you get to
Speaker 1: use money before those taxes are taken out, and then
Speaker 1: it can grow and yay, be happy, and compounding interest
Speaker 1: and all that magic will happen until you retire, and
Speaker 1: then you can plan your sort of tax saving strategy
Speaker 1: with a financial advisor down the line. But going back
Speaker 1: to the central question, you know, is it an either
Speaker 1: or should I just be saving money in my savings
Speaker 1: or investing in a four to one K. I'm a
Speaker 1: fan of doing both, and I wouldn't overthink necessarily, like
Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't feel like a lot. Let's say you
Speaker 1: only have one hundred dollars or a couple hundred dollars
Speaker 1: that you're able to part with each month, and you
Speaker 1: split that in half and it's fifty towards your savings
Speaker 1: and fifty towards your four to one K. It's still something,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, something is better
Speaker 1: than nothing. When I was starting out, automation was such
Speaker 1: a huge, huge component, and I can look back at
Speaker 1: it now, you know, ten eleven, twelve years since I
Speaker 1: started to invest and really credit not how much I
Speaker 1: was investing, but how I was investing. With my success,
Speaker 1: it was the fact that I was investing automatically that
Speaker 1: helped me grow my net worth and ten x my
Speaker 1: net worth in just these past five years, from seventy
Speaker 1: K to seven hundred K, as I've talked about. So
Speaker 1: when I go back to that automation, and what I
Speaker 1: mean by that is you go to your employer or
Speaker 1: your payroll, whatever it is. You can probably do it
Speaker 1: yourself or get in touch with someone from benefits and
Speaker 1: ask them how can I automatically contribute to my four
Speaker 1: to one K where I don't have to go in
Speaker 1: and manually do it each month. So what I would
Speaker 1: do is I go into my paycheck online platform and
Speaker 1: I would say you know, after everything is taken out,
Speaker 1: I want this much in my four to one k
Speaker 1: automatically deducted, and then I would actually also automatically transfer
Speaker 1: money to my savings account. So you can tell your
Speaker 1: payroll department, here's my savings account routing number, here's where
Speaker 1: you can find it. Please make sure that fifty dollars
Speaker 1: or one hundred dollars or whatever it is, goes into
Speaker 1: the savings account every paycheck. And what was so magical
Speaker 1: about this, the fact that I had my investing and
Speaker 1: my savings fund automatically deducted from my paycheck, is that
Speaker 1: when that paycheck actually hit my checking account, I knew
Speaker 1: it was money that I could spend, and I knew
Speaker 1: it was money that I didn't have. I didn't have
Speaker 1: to feel guilty about spending it on, you know, whatever
Speaker 1: I want to to do, go to a show, buy
Speaker 1: myself a new outfit, get fancy coffee in the morning, like,
Speaker 1: do whatever I needed to do, because that was the
Speaker 1: money I had to play with. Of course, after my
Speaker 1: rent and all that other stuff was paid for. So automation, automation, automation.
Speaker 1: And believe me, if you just start with a little
Speaker 1: bit and you automate it and you are consistent, you
Speaker 1: will see that investment grow over time, and also you'll
Speaker 1: have your emergency fund continually being reinforced with those additional funds.
Speaker 1: So I hope that was helpful. Please don't stop yourself
Speaker 1: thinking that you have to come up with the perfect
Speaker 1: recipe between savings or investing. Tweak it as you go.
Speaker 1: Something may come up and you may say, oh, I
Speaker 1: actually had a car repair, or I was out of
Speaker 1: work for a couple months, and my emergency fund is
Speaker 1: completely depleted, so let me ratchet it up and shift
Speaker 1: the balance more towards saving cash versus my four to
Speaker 1: one K for a while. It's okay. It's a living,
Speaker 1: breathing plan and you've got a bake and that flexibility
Speaker 1: so your financial plan or strategy like doesn't become something
Speaker 1: so rigid that it stops you from actually making progress. Okay,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your question, Elsa. Let's get
Speaker 1: back to the mail bag and see what we got here.
Speaker 1: Ooh I, okay, this one hits a little you know what,
Speaker 1: This question I bet will hit close to home for
Speaker 1: a lot of our listeners, because especially our listeners who
Speaker 1: are in relationships, because as you know, when you become
Speaker 1: partners with someone life partners. Now, I don't care if
Speaker 1: you're married or not married, but if you're a life
Speaker 1: partner with someone you're committed to each other. It's not
Speaker 1: just the partner often who you're committing yourselves to, it's
Speaker 1: also their family. So that brings me to my second
Speaker 1: questions a day from a listener who would like to
Speaker 1: remain anonymous, and this listener asks, Nandy, do you believe
Speaker 1: that someone's son should constantly give his mother large amounts
Speaker 1: of money because he thinks that she doesn't make enough Anonymous.
Speaker 1: Very short question, but so loaded and so complex. I'm
Speaker 1: going to make some assumptions here because we don't have
Speaker 1: a ton of information, but I'm going to assume that
Speaker 1: you are in a life partnership with this particular son
Speaker 1: in question, and that he has been giving his mother money,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to assume that maybe you would like
Speaker 1: this to stop now. Listen, I have been in this
Speaker 1: situation myself, not where I have a spouse or partner
Speaker 1: consistently giving money to his parents, but certainly there have
Speaker 1: been times. I mean, my husband and I have been
Speaker 1: together for a decade now where once in a while,
Speaker 1: a family member may need help, and maybe it's someone
Speaker 1: who's asking for help from him or from me, But
Speaker 1: first and foremost, we always kind of tackle that question
Speaker 1: together as a unit. And that took me probably until
Speaker 1: I was had a ring on the finger and was married,
Speaker 1: married capital and married for me to actually bring him
Speaker 1: into every financial decision I made. It was a little
Speaker 1: bit more difficult for me because you know, I'm an
Speaker 1: independent woman like so many of us are, and I
Speaker 1: have my own money, So do I need someone's permission? No,
Speaker 1: But when I had to recognize, or at least for
Speaker 1: our relationship, it worked better for me to recognize, like,
Speaker 1: we are a unit. Even though this money technically came
Speaker 1: into my account, we are a team now and our
Speaker 1: goals we should all be on the same page about
Speaker 1: what we're doing with our money and how it's impacting
Speaker 1: our goals for example. So yeah, we tackle those decisions together.
Speaker 1: And there have been times where one of us hasn't
Speaker 1: felt comfortable with giving a certain amount of money to
Speaker 1: a family member. And I'm not going to name names here,
Speaker 1: that's not what this is about. But the central issue was, like, oh,
Speaker 1: someone asked one of us for money, who we cared
Speaker 1: about and we would have liked to have been able
Speaker 1: to help them, but as a unit, we weren't on
Speaker 1: the same page. And there has been times on both
Speaker 1: sides where we had to accept that okay, well, and
Speaker 1: then we would kind of compromise. Okay, if it's not
Speaker 1: this amount of money, what do we as a unit
Speaker 1: feel comfortable with? And there are those family members y'all
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. They are the ones who
Speaker 1: you know, it's a little bit then, and then it's
Speaker 1: a little bit more later, and then it becomes like
Speaker 1: it doesn't start, you know, as a situation where you
Speaker 1: know you're getting a question or request regularly, but it
Speaker 1: becomes more regular, and then there's a trend, and then
Speaker 1: there's a theme, and then it becomes an issue and
Speaker 1: then you have to kind of really revisit it as
Speaker 1: a partnership and ask yourselves like, are we what are
Speaker 1: we signing up here for? And let's get real, these
Speaker 1: requests are going to keep coming, so what is our
Speaker 1: what's our decision here? Are we going to keep saying yes?
Speaker 1: And if it's having an impact on your ability to
Speaker 1: reach your financial goals as a unit as a family,
Speaker 1: then one thousand percent that that warrants a conversation. So
Speaker 1: I get it. I get what you're saying, anonymous. So
Speaker 1: it sounds like you're frustrated because your partner has been
Speaker 1: giving his mother money, you say, large amounts of money
Speaker 1: because she doesn't make enough. This is a situation where
Speaker 1: you should talk to him, like sit down and say
Speaker 1: how much and how long are we comfortable continuing to
Speaker 1: financially support your mother? And if the answer is this
Speaker 1: is my which is very well, maybe this is my mom.
Speaker 1: I can't let my mom go hungry, et cetera. Like
Speaker 1: what's your response going to be and are you going
Speaker 1: to be able to make peace with that? It's really
Speaker 1: hard to tell someone that this family member, especially when
Speaker 1: it's a parent. It's not always a parent. It's a
Speaker 1: lot easier to say no if it's like their second
Speaker 1: third cousin, right, But when it's a mom, his answer
Speaker 1: may be listen, this is really this is my mother.
Speaker 1: This is very important to me. I'm making I'm doing well,
Speaker 1: so I feel responsible for assisting her. And it may
Speaker 1: take you some time to at least to broach this
Speaker 1: conversation and not have it ultimately, like not have it
Speaker 1: immediately go to that place of you're telling me I
Speaker 1: shouldn't give money to my own mother, like I can
Speaker 1: already hear the argument right, kind of got to explain
Speaker 1: to this person and what may work is reminding him
Speaker 1: of how his decision and how this money that he
Speaker 1: is giving to his mother is impacting you, guys and
Speaker 1: your family your goals. You know, what are you unable
Speaker 1: to accomplish with the amount of money that he's been
Speaker 1: giving to his mother. You want to always bring it
Speaker 1: back to yourselves as a team. We are a team.
Speaker 1: Here's how this amount of money is impacting our capability
Speaker 1: as a family to reach these goals that I thought
Speaker 1: we were on the same page about. And it may
Speaker 1: not be an all or nothing situation. It may not
Speaker 1: be where you know, he has to stop giving everything
Speaker 1: right away. You may just be asking for can we
Speaker 1: scale it back a little bit? Or you know, this
Speaker 1: is something that I've had to get better at, especially
Speaker 1: when it comes to family who's asking for money and
Speaker 1: it starts out as one time, but then it's a
Speaker 1: few times, and then it's a couple of times a year.
Speaker 1: It's like, what's the core issue here? How can I
Speaker 1: actually be helpful besides just giving money. Is there a
Speaker 1: cash flow problem, has their rent gone up, has something
Speaker 1: else in their life, has something else in their personal
Speaker 1: finance has kind of fallen created an issue where they're
Speaker 1: not able to cover their expenses anymore, And how can
Speaker 1: we help solve that core issue? Maybe they could use
Speaker 1: some help around consolidating debt or looking for alternative ways
Speaker 1: to pay things, or decreasing their expenses in some way.
Speaker 1: So I think that that's the next level of help
Speaker 1: that family can also use besides just kind of blindly
Speaker 1: writing checks, which can start to feel like to your
Speaker 1: point and probably what you're feeling right now, which is
Speaker 1: when is this ever going to stop? Is it ever
Speaker 1: going to stop? And those are super valid questions to have,
Speaker 1: and you need to ask those questions, and you need
Speaker 1: to get on the same page about the answers sooner
Speaker 1: rather than later, because otherwise it's going to be festering.
Speaker 1: You're going to start to feel resentment. Those Thanksgiving dinners
Speaker 1: are going to get a lot more awkward. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: going to get awkward around her birthday or Mother's Day
Speaker 1: when you're like, and now I got to buy her
Speaker 1: some flowers, like and a gift, like it's just better
Speaker 1: to have those conversations upfront with your partner, as awkward
Speaker 1: and painful as they may be, and just sort of say,
Speaker 1: I'm fine supporting family, but let's go on the same
Speaker 1: page about how much, how often, and what other resources
Speaker 1: can we provide them with to help solve the deeper
Speaker 1: foundational issues that are here. And you know what, it
Speaker 1: may also be asking for support from other family members
Speaker 1: who may also have something to contribute here. Right. I've
Speaker 1: talked to folks, especially when you have people who are
Speaker 1: the first generation, you know, first generation wealth owners or
Speaker 1: just owning, you know, having resources, having funds to give
Speaker 1: and for the first time, and there's there's a deep
Speaker 1: responsibility and a sense of debt that you feel like
Speaker 1: you owe to your family to help them, right, But
Speaker 1: you're not always the only one who can shoulder that burden.
Speaker 1: And sometimes people put that burden on their own shoulders
Speaker 1: and tell themselves a story about how, oh, if it's
Speaker 1: not me, it's no one and they rely on me.
Speaker 1: But there may be other people who can support as well.
Speaker 1: And if you share that burden, it may it may
Speaker 1: make the load a lot easier to carry. I just
Speaker 1: know that it's an awkward, uncomfortable conversation, but it's one
Speaker 1: that is so so important to go ahead and have
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later. You don't want this to fester
Speaker 1: and to cause cracks in the relationship because ultimately, you
Speaker 1: too are a unit. Right, I'm assuming that you're in
Speaker 1: a lifetime committed partnership. You two are in a unit together,
Speaker 1: So that's what you at its core. At its core,
Speaker 1: that's what you have to protect is your relationship as
Speaker 1: a couple, and transparency, honesty and hopefully being open with
Speaker 1: one another will help. All right, let me take a
Speaker 1: quick break. I will be right back with our third
Speaker 1: and final question. All right, be a fam I am
Speaker 1: back with our third and final question. This one comes
Speaker 1: from Adrian. Adrian, who is a member of Tiffity's Dreamcatchers group,
Speaker 1: says Mandy, I'm hoping you can help me. I've searched
Speaker 1: the Dreamcatchers group and I can't see to find an
Speaker 1: answer to the best form of payment you should use
Speaker 1: when paying a settlement for a judgment. I appreciate any
Speaker 1: help you can provide. All right, Adrian, I think this
Speaker 1: is a pretty simple question. So it sounds like there's
Speaker 1: been a judgment. So when she's talking about judgment, so basically,
Speaker 1: when you have let's say you have a debt that
Speaker 1: has been passed due and it's gone past collections and
Speaker 1: the creditor lender has actually sued in order to recoup
Speaker 1: its debt, then it can go to a judge and
Speaker 1: the judge will issue a ruling. And for a lot
Speaker 1: of people, they may never even know that there's a
Speaker 1: lawsuit against them and may just kind of become another
Speaker 1: piece of mail that's in the pile that but anyway,
Speaker 1: it can happen, so a judge may ultimately issue a
Speaker 1: ruling and say, okay, yes you do owe this creditor
Speaker 1: this amount of money, and then it comes time to
Speaker 1: pay the piper, right. So from there, what you can
Speaker 1: do is you can try to settle for less. So
Speaker 1: you could, you know, get your judgment of what you
Speaker 1: owe and then go to the creditor and say you know,
Speaker 1: or to the to the judge and say you know,
Speaker 1: I actually only have this amount of money. Is this okay?
Speaker 1: And then try to settle it for less, try to
Speaker 1: work out a payment plan. Unfortunately, what could happen is
Speaker 1: that your wages are actually garnished as part of a settlement,
Speaker 1: part of a judgment settlement. Now that there's some exceptions,
Speaker 1: you know, for people who aren't a fixed income, so
Speaker 1: that's not a blanket statement by any means. But it
Speaker 1: can be possible that your wages can just be automatically garnished.
Speaker 1: That's one way of paying it back, which is not
Speaker 1: even in your control. But we'll add that to the
Speaker 1: list of possibilities. One is that your wages could be garnished.
Speaker 1: I think it's up to fifteen percent, but don't quote
Speaker 1: me on that. It really will depend also on the states,
Speaker 1: the laws in your state, So your wages could be garnished.
Speaker 1: You could just make one lump sum payment, which can
Speaker 1: probably be done by check. I doubt it by cash,
Speaker 1: because who even uses cash anymore. Finding the contact for
Speaker 1: the lender and getting on the phone with them, with
Speaker 1: their debt collector's office or whatever who handles that kind
Speaker 1: of thing and making a payment over the phone can
Speaker 1: be another way to make that payment. You've probably got
Speaker 1: a couple of options, but I think the best person
Speaker 1: to ask is going to be the whoever issued you
Speaker 1: the judgment, or the lender who has been awarded a
Speaker 1: judgment against you to find out what your next steps
Speaker 1: are at this point, though, you definitely don't want to
Speaker 1: let it go too long before making those payments because
Speaker 1: I think that's what actually triggers them to garnish your
Speaker 1: wages and that sucks. Okay, so you don't want to
Speaker 1: get that bad all right, Thank you very much. Adrian
Speaker 1: also shout out to Dreamcatchers. If you're in Tiffany's Dreamcatchers
Speaker 1: Facebook group, it's an amazing resource. I know their dream
Speaker 1: Catchers are on there all the time, supporting one another
Speaker 1: and sharing their personal finance wins and challenges and questions.
Speaker 1: So if you're not a member, go check them out.
Speaker 1: All right. That is our BAQ and A for this week, y'all.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your questions. Again. Hit us
Speaker 1: up at brandabissionpodcast dot com, or you can submit a
Speaker 1: question or go to ig we are at brand Ambition Podcast.
Speaker 1: You can also reach us by email Brand Ambition Podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com