Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, it's not my usual vigor. It's been
Speaker 1: a long day. How you good?
Speaker 2: It's been a long day, and Skype is trying its
Speaker 2: earlier today.
Speaker 1: I know. Honestly, Skype is a hater.
Speaker 3: Skype did not want Brown Ambition to happen tonight.
Speaker 1: But Skype lost. Brown Ambition won Whoop whoop because we're
Speaker 1: back and were black and we brown.
Speaker 3: How was your birthday?
Speaker 1: Honestly, it was awesome. So Superman brought me some diamond
Speaker 1: ear rings, which he was so proud. I know. He
Speaker 1: made me open them in front of everybody and like
Speaker 1: good and passed him around because I was like, when
Speaker 1: am I getting my gift? He was like later on
Speaker 1: tonight he was like waiting for more people to come. Oh.
Speaker 1: So part of the gift was also that he invited
Speaker 1: like my family and friends to the house for my
Speaker 1: actual birthday, which was really nice, and he you know,
Speaker 1: got food. He even got like vegan food for me
Speaker 1: for my favorite vegan restaurant, and even a vegan cake.
Speaker 1: It was a chocolate moose cake that was delicious awesome.
Speaker 1: I know, I was like, look at you because once
Speaker 1: I found out at first it was going to be
Speaker 1: a little bit of a surprise, and then I think
Speaker 1: he was just kind of like, well, let me just
Speaker 1: tell her. So once I found out, you know, I
Speaker 1: try to take over and he was like, yeah, so no,
Speaker 1: I'm the project manager. You just sit back.
Speaker 2: Not a gift though, because it's so much it's so
Speaker 2: hard to sit back.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What I was like calling all my friends secretly
Speaker 1: like okay, girl, so you could do it for her, right,
Speaker 1: Like what did he say to brain? Okay, no, this
Speaker 1: is what you need to do. But it was great,
Speaker 1: and especially when we opened up. He was like open
Speaker 1: up the present and I could barely look at that
Speaker 1: before he took them, was like passing them around the table.
Speaker 1: I'm like, honestly, okay, sorry, no, yeah, but honestly, it
Speaker 1: was an awesome, awesome, awesome birthday.
Speaker 3: Oh happy birthday.
Speaker 1: Yes oooh child. So you know it's so crazy, you
Speaker 1: know how week like I talked about the and I
Speaker 1: know you got some male about that that almost rape
Speaker 1: moment that I had back when I was like in college.
Speaker 3: Oh right, last so.
Speaker 2: Last week on the show, we were talking about all
Speaker 2: the Harvey Weinstein stuff.
Speaker 3: Just in case y'all.
Speaker 2: And Tiffany, you opened up about a really strange, scary,
Speaker 2: like sexual encounter you had.
Speaker 1: Mom?
Speaker 3: Was that in college?
Speaker 1: Yeah? It was like yeah, I think I had to
Speaker 1: be maybe a freshman in college and then so I
Speaker 1: wasn't rape. For those of you are like, what, so
Speaker 1: listen to the show before, but I then then to
Speaker 1: home me too. So this was relating back to kind
Speaker 1: of like what's happening now. There's this campaign going around
Speaker 1: called me Too, where women are sharing their own sexual
Speaker 1: harassment or rape or molestation or whatever that looks like.
Speaker 1: And it's so powerful in that seeing women that I
Speaker 1: know and I'm like really seeing their stories and it's
Speaker 1: I don't know that any woman has not said basically
Speaker 1: me too. Hashtag me too. It's just been really powerful.
Speaker 1: Have you seen it?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean how could you miss it? I
Speaker 2: mean it's sadly, how could you miss it? It seems like
Speaker 2: half the women I'm on my Facebook feed, you know,
Speaker 2: are either writing it's It's nice because it's such a
Speaker 2: simple hashtag and it leaves it leaves you with the
Speaker 2: ability to not have to say too much, like you
Speaker 2: can just say me too, but not have to expand
Speaker 2: on it. But then some of my friends and colleagues
Speaker 2: and family have been like, you know, taking an opportunity
Speaker 2: to share, you know, more details and stuff.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it is so this is kind of I'm
Speaker 1: just like, did you see did you hear about the
Speaker 1: story about American Airlines? And uh, Tamika said, Tamika Maori
Speaker 1: this is her name. She is a No, it's Tamika,
Speaker 1: that's what it is. She's a black activist. So I
Speaker 1: guess I'm just thinking this is just coming out that, like,
Speaker 1: she was booted from an American Airlines plane. Now they
Speaker 1: have this big well she's starting kind of like a campaign,
Speaker 1: I guess against American Airlines. So apparently she tried to
Speaker 1: switch her seat, wasn't able to. I guess a pilot
Speaker 1: overheard her going back and forth with the gate agent,
Speaker 1: so after she would seated, so I guess at a
Speaker 1: Kiosk she switched her seat from middle to aisle but
Speaker 1: it didn't take at the gate, so she was going
Speaker 1: back and forth with the gate agent like no, no, I
Speaker 1: had an aisle seat, a middle seat or whatever. The
Speaker 1: pilot overheard and I guess when she got seated, then
Speaker 1: had her removed. This is like after they she went
Speaker 1: back and forth with the gate agent. So anyway, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of random, and I was just like, what,
Speaker 1: you would think these airlines would be more more careful
Speaker 1: these days about removing people, Like not just for me
Speaker 1: reading it now, of course I'm not hearing what American
Speaker 1: Airlines is having to say, but reading it now, it
Speaker 1: seems like so petty, but you would think that they'd
Speaker 1: be more careful with how they've been sued so many
Speaker 1: times for improper removing people, improperly removing people. One of
Speaker 1: my friends worked for an airline, so whenever something like
Speaker 1: this happens, I always ask him, like, you know, so
Speaker 1: like what you know, did they did they follow a procedure?
Speaker 1: What could what? What they what were they allowed to
Speaker 1: do or not allowed to do? And his his insights
Speaker 1: always really interesting when he's like, oh, yeah, they totally
Speaker 1: messed up or actually that's the procedure and unfortunately just
Speaker 1: went left. So yeah, that's airlines.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it's not just the airlines, it's like
Speaker 2: the people working, you know, it's like the PR, the
Speaker 2: PR person that the airline definitely would handle it differently,
Speaker 2: but like when it's down to like the individual at
Speaker 2: the gate and like and who they're hiring and like
Speaker 2: so many.
Speaker 1: People it is, especially you know, it's not easy. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that American I didn't make a mistake,
Speaker 1: but customer support and service can be because you know everyone,
Speaker 1: he's just so many personalities to deal with, and you know,
Speaker 1: just managing that, like the person before might have just
Speaker 1: yelled at you. The other person is like, I'm going
Speaker 1: to get you fired, and it's just so much. Don't
Speaker 1: even know how I mean. I guess you could say
Speaker 1: I work in customer support in some ways, and sometimes
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm all right on the other side, Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: being on the side of like service, you know, because
Speaker 1: like you'll try to serve somebody, Yo, there is no
Speaker 1: what is that saying about? Like no good deed goes unpunished.
Speaker 1: Like literally, I could give something like, hey, guys, I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you this present. It's so great here
Speaker 1: and it's totally free. It will change your life, and
Speaker 1: somebody will still be like it's not purple though, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what like it? Somebody will complain about something
Speaker 1: so random of this free gift. Oh. I remember one
Speaker 1: time a woman signed up for my Live Ritual Challenge,
Speaker 1: which is completely free and it's already years in, so
Speaker 1: you know, in the beginning, I can understand people are
Speaker 1: a little sketchy about like, oh, is this really free
Speaker 1: or is it like fake free? When they're like psyche,
Speaker 1: got you. But it's like year four now, so there's
Speaker 1: no gotcha, gotcha. And so she wanted a one on
Speaker 1: one so she emailed and me was like, hey, you
Speaker 1: know I'm doing the challenge. I have a question. Can
Speaker 1: I can I get a phone call? And I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately, because there's so many women at this time,
Speaker 1: it was a few hundred thousand, and you know that
Speaker 1: I can't do one on one phone call. But you
Speaker 1: police post in the group because there's literally hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of women and someone has the answer for you.
Speaker 1: And she wrote back, and I'll never forget this. I
Speaker 1: remember looking at the screen and blinking, Well, clearly, this
Speaker 1: is not a program for me. If you can't take
Speaker 1: the time out of your day to get on the
Speaker 1: phone to help somebody, I think I'll remove myself. I'm
Speaker 1: like from the from the free program. Like I was
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, ma'am, I'm literally this is okay. You
Speaker 1: could leave. I'd prefer if you don't. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's a free problem. Why are you mad at me
Speaker 1: because I won't take a call from all three hundred
Speaker 1: thousand women who hit me up. That's why I created
Speaker 1: the group, because I kept getting so many requests to
Speaker 1: talk that I said, there has to be a way
Speaker 1: that people still get help if I can't speak to
Speaker 1: anyone individually, everyone individually, and so it's like you still
Speaker 1: get the help for free, no matter what. And so
Speaker 1: I just remember thinking like, wow, you could do a
Speaker 1: lot of good, but there's always gonna be somebody who's
Speaker 1: going to be like, I know you gave your arm,
Speaker 1: but you didn't give you a shoulder, you know. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the service industry.
Speaker 1: Yes, that service industry, it can be well. I mean
Speaker 1: I'm great, so on truth, people are nice. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I was gonna say like, yeah, I have a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, ninety nine percent of the dream catches are honestly,
Speaker 1: it's the thing that keeps me going. But then you
Speaker 1: get that one and you're like, girl, get on my inbox.
Speaker 3: Hey did you see the Google doodle today?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Eelena, I didn't realize today what is it the anniversary
Speaker 2: of her very first album in nineteen What are the
Speaker 2: people what an icon there?
Speaker 1: I know, isn't that so crazy? There's some people who's
Speaker 1: because how old was she?
Speaker 3: She was twenty th twenty four when she died. I
Speaker 3: mean she was like a baby exactly.
Speaker 1: And I mean I wonder what it is about some
Speaker 1: people who are who leaves such a mark on the
Speaker 1: world that they literally change it and are forever remembered,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, like what is that
Speaker 1: magic sauce that some people have, because like I'm not
Speaker 1: even like into like necessarily, like I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: you would call the music, the type like her genre music.
Speaker 2: It was well, she started out doing tehano music, I think,
Speaker 2: and then she was crossing over into pop music.
Speaker 1: So I'm not like, you know, but still I knew
Speaker 1: about Selena like and her impact. So it just sometimes
Speaker 1: people just leave this mark and it's in, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just forever part of the fabric of I don't know,
Speaker 1: of our culture. And that's Selena. I'm like, oh, man, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: what a beautiful young soul. And You're right, she was
Speaker 1: a baby, and it's such a shame you could use.
Speaker 3: The Selena today. Man.
Speaker 2: I think what she represented too, the combination of culture
Speaker 2: from Mexico to America, because you know, she was grew
Speaker 2: up in Texas, but Mexican American. But that's like a
Speaker 2: different culture than straight Mexican than straight American. And I
Speaker 2: think she represented both worlds so so great, so well,
Speaker 2: and she was like both of ours, and you know,
Speaker 2: represented like a new generation of young Mexican American immigrants.
Speaker 2: And of course she died so young. It's also just
Speaker 2: like the fact of someone dying so young and being
Speaker 2: so bright, like Aliyah, think about Aliah when you think
Speaker 2: about Selena. But if you want to go feel some
Speaker 2: kills and have like a little pick me up, go
Speaker 2: check out the Google all you have until midnight.
Speaker 3: Actually it's over by now.
Speaker 2: When you're listening to this, it's like it's that it's
Speaker 2: gonna be on YouTube though no, no, it's on YouTube.
Speaker 3: If you go to them, they had the video that
Speaker 3: they have.
Speaker 1: Is on YouTube.
Speaker 3: You can just you can go to.
Speaker 2: YouTube and look up Selena Google doodle.
Speaker 3: And the middle pop up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, do you want to break or do you
Speaker 1: want to boost? Because I won't want to I don't
Speaker 1: know what do I want to do? Break or boost?
Speaker 1: What do you want to do. I want to.
Speaker 2: Break well, I always get torn. I want to do
Speaker 2: a break from more money, more problems. Okay, here's the problem.
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm at that place now where we
Speaker 2: had to have a you know, we had a financial
Speaker 2: planner and she was really useful to us, especially this
Speaker 2: last year. She was a feeling planner, and we would
Speaker 2: pay her a monthly fee for her services, and then
Speaker 2: she would she would come sometimes visit New York to
Speaker 2: meet us in person, and she would just offer a
Speaker 2: lot of advice and help us everything from comparing you know,
Speaker 2: life insurance plans to when we got married, looking at
Speaker 2: our health insurance plans and you know, recommending which one
Speaker 2: to go with, and like really helpful and and anyway,
Speaker 2: so we've had a we had a great year and
Speaker 2: it's been really helpful, you know, having this this this planner.
Speaker 2: But it's like now it's getting to a point.
Speaker 3: Where we have we have our.
Speaker 2: Goals, and we have money in the bank. But she's like,
Speaker 2: you have way too much in cash. And I feel
Speaker 2: like we're becoming that millennial prophecy or like the millennial
Speaker 2: stereotype of like we keep too much in our savings
Speaker 2: because we're afraid of investing. I'm afraid of investing, but
Speaker 2: just like we're hesitant to start investing with our with
Speaker 2: our savings, our cash money. You know a note both
Speaker 2: of us max out our four to one K is
Speaker 2: like we have no problem doing that. But other than that,
Speaker 2: it's always been we're sort of like squirling and hoarding.
Speaker 2: And I say we but really it's me. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: sort of like nurturing this little that's like, yeah.
Speaker 3: Little like.
Speaker 1: My fresh it's a white, fluffy cat.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, what do you mean there's too much?
Speaker 1: Yes, oh my god, that must be the millennial like
Speaker 1: because I'm like, I'm generation is an X, right, is
Speaker 1: that what it is? Right before millennial? Yes, But I'm
Speaker 1: like on the I'm like I said generation yes, but
Speaker 1: I'm like a super like I'm on the young side
Speaker 1: of Generation X and that so I have a lot
Speaker 1: of millennial tendencies and that is so me. I've got
Speaker 1: a little stockpile for when the wear from the one
Speaker 1: the war comes, right, I'm ready, you know, I have
Speaker 1: so much cash sitting My financial advisor just looked at
Speaker 1: me like, Tiffany, what are you doing. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't know because I am afraid to invest. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie. I do. I have my I have my
Speaker 1: you know, my my retirement fund set up, so the superman.
Speaker 1: But there there is a part of me that it's
Speaker 1: really afraid to like not see the stockpile, you know,
Speaker 1: like no, no, because when the war comes and if
Speaker 1: recession hits, I'm ready. You know, I got my gold
Speaker 1: bars underneath the bed. So no, I totally feel you.
Speaker 2: One of the things that she she gave us a plan,
Speaker 2: an action plan, because she gave us an action plan
Speaker 2: last month, and I've been really like procrastinating and actually
Speaker 2: doing it. But it's actually a plan on how much.
Speaker 2: So a lot of we've gotten this question before.
Speaker 3: You know, after your four oh one.
Speaker 2: K, what are you supposed to do with everything else
Speaker 2: that you earn over your lifetime? And you know you're
Speaker 2: blessed to earn money beyond that point, but like, what
Speaker 2: are you supposed to do with it? How is the
Speaker 2: best way to invest? And she's sort of had I mean,
Speaker 2: everyone's situation is different, but she started off by asking
Speaker 2: us our goals, which is one we want to we
Speaker 2: want to save a down payment for a house. I
Speaker 2: guess in my mind, I've just been stockpiling, stockpiling, stockpiling.
Speaker 2: I live in New York City, so I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't know how much it's going to be enough
Speaker 2: for house a million dollars. I guess I'll never stop saving.
Speaker 3: But that's not actually true. She you know, crunched the numbers.
Speaker 3: We actually, you know, for our budget.
Speaker 2: We decided how much we actually needed to save for
Speaker 2: a down payment realistically, and then how much we have
Speaker 2: left over when we're going to want to use that
Speaker 2: down payment money, how much we actually want to budget
Speaker 2: for our annual vacationing and those larger expenses that we
Speaker 2: spent throughout the year.
Speaker 3: That was pretty much our only big or two big
Speaker 3: earmarks for savings.
Speaker 2: One for the retire sorry, one for a down payment
Speaker 2: on a house, and two for annual vacations and trips
Speaker 2: because we have, you know, vacations and also like seventy
Speaker 2: five weddings to go.
Speaker 3: To a year.
Speaker 2: Now, outside of that, she's like, you really don't end
Speaker 2: your emergency fund, of course, which is you know, we
Speaker 2: have about six months of income, she suggests a six months.
Speaker 3: I like to keep twelve.
Speaker 2: But we're going back and forth on that maybe we'll
Speaker 2: settle on nine after that. So one is obviously emergency fund,
Speaker 2: two the down payment for the house, three the vacations.
Speaker 2: So once you have that set aside, she's like, now
Speaker 2: with this extra money. And in my mind, I hadn't
Speaker 2: been letting myself spee it as extra. I'd sort of been,
Speaker 2: like I said, just tricking or like telling myself that
Speaker 2: I needed to save all this money for the down
Speaker 2: payment when I don't really need to. And she's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're gonna start by create investing in some CBS, which
Speaker 2: is like a baby step above sea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what See he told me that to Frank. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm listening it. I'm like, oh, Frank said that, Okay, okay.
Speaker 3: So CDs for you guys. So CDs was a CD
Speaker 3: was the.
Speaker 2: Thing that my grandma bought me when I was born.
Speaker 2: And it's like a certificate and I literally got like
Speaker 2: this pink certificate check like thing when I turned eighteen.
Speaker 2: And I don't even know where that thing ended up,
Speaker 2: I think, But anyway, a certificate of deposit is just
Speaker 2: it's basically a savings account with some more rules and
Speaker 2: it has slightly higher rates than what you'll get on
Speaker 2: a savings account, a regular old savings account today.
Speaker 3: And the longer you keep your money.
Speaker 2: In a CD they sell three month CDs, six months CDs,
Speaker 2: nine month, twelve month, five years, on and on, and
Speaker 2: the longer you keep your money in, the higher your
Speaker 2: rate can be. The caveat is that that time limit
Speaker 2: is if you take the money out before that time
Speaker 2: limit three months, six month, twelve month, you'll pay a
Speaker 2: penalty for withdrawing the funds. So it really has to
Speaker 2: be money that you're not going to use anytime soon
Speaker 2: or anytime within that window. And of course the higher
Speaker 2: the longer you put the money away for the higher
Speaker 2: your reward. So she suggested, you know, putting a small
Speaker 2: chunk into a five year CD, putting a little bit
Speaker 2: of a larger chunk into like a I think a
Speaker 2: three year CD, and then putting an even larger chunk
Speaker 2: into a one year CD and letting the money grow there.
Speaker 2: And then from there she suggested opening up one both
Speaker 2: of us opening up an i RA outside of our
Speaker 2: four one K investments, and under I r S rules
Speaker 2: were both allowed to contribute what is it, fifty five
Speaker 2: hundred into an IRA oh really.
Speaker 1: Even after you've maxed that, Even if you've maxed that,
Speaker 1: your your four one K.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is outside of your employer contribution, your four
Speaker 2: one k. This is your personal individual retirement account.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: And and you know, I actually already have one because
Speaker 2: I had like a rollover iray from before through Vanguard.
Speaker 2: That's kind of just sitting there and I can contribute,
Speaker 2: I can can keep I can just contribute fifty five
Speaker 2: hundred dollars to that for the year. And then my
Speaker 2: husband he doesn't have one yet, so opening up him
Speaker 2: and IRA and I know the next question people are
Speaker 2: wonding is like, well, where do you open an IRA at?
Speaker 2: But you can do it at Vanguard. We can get
Speaker 2: a betterment account if we wanted to do TD and
Speaker 2: error trade. Charles Schwab. There's a bunch of discount they
Speaker 2: call them discount.
Speaker 3: Brokerages or whatever.
Speaker 2: That are out there, and they typically have like a
Speaker 2: minimum deposit, you know, requirement of like I don't know,
Speaker 2: five hundred bucks to one thousand bucks. And anyway, that
Speaker 2: was the next step is opening up those roth iras
Speaker 2: and putting money in there.
Speaker 1: So she she a financial advisor that she's advising and
Speaker 1: she's going to do this, or she's like a plane,
Speaker 1: she's not.
Speaker 2: Doing it, she's toe that's the That's why I'm from
Speaker 2: procrastinating because I have to actually do it anyway. So
Speaker 2: and I had her, you know, send the email with
Speaker 2: the whole plan. And there's other things too, like of
Speaker 2: course maxing out the four one Okay, here's here's the
Speaker 2: thing that I've learned about. So I've been you know,
Speaker 2: I've been talking about personal finance for so long. You
Speaker 2: know how you hear those like rules of thumb and
Speaker 2: you just like repeat them and then you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's always been the way it is. You know, whether
Speaker 2: it's saved six months retire or save six months emergency
Speaker 2: fund or save ten percent for retirement. I always hear
Speaker 2: this rule every year at the end of the year.
Speaker 2: There's all these articles that come out saying end of
Speaker 2: year text or end of your financial planning advice.
Speaker 3: And the first thing is.
Speaker 2: Usually max out your four one K if you have
Speaker 2: additional funds or you get a bonus or whatever. And
Speaker 2: our planner says, you know, your income has increased throughout
Speaker 2: the year, you haven't been contributing, You're not going to
Speaker 2: max out your four to one case, you've got to
Speaker 2: boost your contributions to your four to one K to
Speaker 2: make sure you max it out before the end of
Speaker 2: the year. Now it's easier said than done, is what
Speaker 2: I've realized. Like, it's not like your four to one
Speaker 2: K through your employer tells you when you've maxed out
Speaker 2: your account. You have to actually do the math and
Speaker 2: be like, I mean, some of them might do that,
Speaker 2: but mine doesn't. You have to actually say, Okay, well,
Speaker 2: i have year. What month is it October? I've got
Speaker 2: three months more in the year.
Speaker 3: I've got six pay periods, so I've got to figure.
Speaker 2: Out how much how much more I have to get
Speaker 2: to my limit, which is eighteen thy five hundred that's
Speaker 2: how much anyone who has a four to one K
Speaker 2: can contribute for the year, the tax year. How much
Speaker 2: I can contribute to hit that mark, and then divide
Speaker 2: it by the six pay periods and then go into
Speaker 2: my retirement planner, my direct deposit, you know, back end
Speaker 2: stuff on my employee website and change my contributions and
Speaker 2: then you have to really watch it because if you
Speaker 2: go over then you can get penalized work by the IRS.
Speaker 2: So it's like trickier and more complex. Then it's just
Speaker 2: one of those rules that I always hear about. And
Speaker 2: so I'm actually doing the thing that I feel like
Speaker 2: people have been asking, you know, what do you do
Speaker 2: when you've like, you got your retirement kind of covered,
Speaker 2: you played at your debt, and like, now what to
Speaker 2: do with the money. And That's That's what I'm doing.
Speaker 2: It's what I should be doing. Anyway, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it. It's done, it's done, it's done.
Speaker 2: I did do the increase your four win K and contributions.
Speaker 2: What a racket, though, I'm like, why do I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm still broke because I'm putting like half my
Speaker 2: paycheck away? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember those days where I used to be like,
Speaker 1: but then you try to tell yourself, well, you're not
Speaker 1: really broke, You're like what, I feel like I'm broke?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's fine, We're doing fine.
Speaker 2: But it does feel kind of like, well, what do
Speaker 2: you mean I have to I can't, I can't have it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we've rune max of the four one k
Speaker 3: for the year.
Speaker 2: I'm going to open the CDs. I think I've picked
Speaker 2: I think I've picked I mean, honestly, with CDs, it's
Speaker 2: really just like pick the ones that give you the
Speaker 2: highest rates. So there's a great website called the Positi
Speaker 2: Accounts dot Com. It's really nerdy, but if you're looking
Speaker 2: to just really compare CD rates to posit Accounts dot Com,
Speaker 2: you can't go wrong. They're actually our sister site under
Speaker 2: lending Tree, and they are like they have I mean,
Speaker 2: I just got briefed on like the technology that they
Speaker 2: use to scrape banks for their rates, and they will
Speaker 2: find rates everywhere. So that's where I'm like comparing rates.
Speaker 2: And ally Bank has a no penalty CD. Those do
Speaker 2: exist where okay, you put it away and you actually
Speaker 2: won't get penalized if you take it out. They have
Speaker 2: a no penalty I think eleven month CD, which isn't bad.
Speaker 2: And there's there's other ones that I'm kind of looking at.
Speaker 3: I think I might. I might.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm gonna do all my cvs
Speaker 2: in one place or not. It kind of depends on
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how how much I can tolerate managing
Speaker 2: accounts at like a bunch of different banks right now,
Speaker 2: which seems like a lot of work. But anyway, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna try, and I'm gonna I'm gonna do what she says.
Speaker 3: I'm cramp it up.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm going I'll feel better because honestly, it's right,
Speaker 2: it's logical. Like the money you have sitting in your
Speaker 2: savings account, even if it's earning the maximum right now, it's.
Speaker 1: Still losing because inflation is eating up anything that you
Speaker 1: might be earning. Yeah, so I know, and you know
Speaker 1: how you know that, I mean, I know that. And
Speaker 1: for those of you, like what's inflation, Inflation is that
Speaker 1: the cost of money lowers each years, Like so thanks
Speaker 1: for yourself. Like when you used to get a bag
Speaker 1: of chips when you were a kid, and maybe those
Speaker 1: chips cost twenty five cents, and by the time you're
Speaker 1: an adult, those same chips your money can do less.
Speaker 1: Those same chips cost fifty cents, And so inflation means
Speaker 1: over time your money can do less. Basically, so the
Speaker 1: same thing costs more and more money. And so that
Speaker 1: means if you are saving and your money is growing
Speaker 1: at one percent, but inflation, so your money is growing,
Speaker 1: but inflation is actually lowering your money's buying power by
Speaker 1: three percent, you're actually gaining one but losing three, so
Speaker 1: you're losing two. So if you do the math, so
Speaker 1: hopefully that explains it. So my brown boost break is
Speaker 1: going to be a break. I had something else, like
Speaker 1: something about the house just because I'm so over this process,
Speaker 1: but whatever, Hopefully by next time we speak, I'll be
Speaker 1: in the house. But I was just like whatever, So
Speaker 1: instead I'm gonna brown boost from because it's happened. A
Speaker 1: couple of clients have reached out to me to work
Speaker 1: with me and then totally trying to undercut and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not like what, and so it's just I just
Speaker 1: saw I just saw this like thing scroll across my timeline.
Speaker 1: I said, the hookup is a drain on black entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: Charge folks and they will respect you more. And so
Speaker 1: this is not necessarily the hookup because you know these
Speaker 1: are like bigger companies whatever. But I just don't like
Speaker 1: that because one, you know, I've worked really hard to
Speaker 1: bring like clear value to the table. I could see
Speaker 1: like when I was first starting out, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know it's a long shot. No, I want I
Speaker 1: over deliver, and I when I'm showing the numbers, I'm
Speaker 1: always conservative, and even then it always exceeds like what
Speaker 1: clients are typically looking for, and they'll admit that like
Speaker 1: ooh yes, girl, that's way more than we thought. And
Speaker 1: that's still I will still undershoot because I'd rather overdeliver.
Speaker 1: And then when you tell them a number which is
Speaker 1: more than reasonable, more like like it's the industry standard
Speaker 1: because I've you know, asked around and I know this
Speaker 1: is what colleagues are getting or whatever. So I love
Speaker 1: that we have our own like financial groups online because
Speaker 1: people will ask and I'll know and then they're like,
Speaker 1: oh no half that I'm like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: And so that's happened a couple of times. But you
Speaker 1: know what, this is what I realized that it's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I'm so glad that my business
Speaker 1: model is not I want to say my mom, maybe
Speaker 1: twenty five percent of my business model is working with clients,
Speaker 1: meaning like companies or whatever want to work for. Everything
Speaker 1: else for the most part is B two C, meaning
Speaker 1: like directly to the customer. So when that happens, like
Speaker 1: lately I've been walking away from it's not that the
Speaker 1: number that they're giving me is not a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Because it is relative to what I used to make before,
Speaker 1: but it's not fair compensation for the ask, especially me
Speaker 1: knowing what the industry number is and me even knowing
Speaker 1: sometimes what you're paying other people. So that is my
Speaker 1: roundbreak because it's honestly, it's frustrating because I'm like, really,
Speaker 1: because that's fine what you pay such as such, even
Speaker 1: though they probably not supposed to tell me, so I'm
Speaker 1: like whatever, but still I'm still like or like what
Speaker 1: you know, like I can deliver or I've delivered before,
Speaker 1: and you're still trying to tell me like this. So
Speaker 1: I've just been saying no, no, and I never said
Speaker 1: no before because I'm like, oh, Tippy, that's still good money, girl.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, you know what for twenty eighteen, one
Speaker 1: of the things I really want to focus on because
Speaker 1: I learned, like, even when before I started dating Superman,
Speaker 1: I remember calling a friend of mine who was married
Speaker 1: and she too was like an influencer and had her
Speaker 1: own business, and she was she was she had just
Speaker 1: had a baby, and I was calling her and I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm tired of being by myself and she
Speaker 1: was like, well, do you make a relationship a priority?
Speaker 1: And I was like, what do you mean. She's like, Tiffany,
Speaker 1: I know you go hard for your business, but are
Speaker 1: you going hard for your love life? And I was like, well, girl,
Speaker 1: I mean I look cute when I go out. She's like,
Speaker 1: do you go out? I'm like, I mean no, I
Speaker 1: did not go out. She's like, so unless you're dating
Speaker 1: a ups guy, which there's no harm in that, Like,
Speaker 1: where are you going to find this magic person? You
Speaker 1: have to make the thing that you want a priority,
Speaker 1: just like you make your business a priority. And so
Speaker 1: I did, and voilat Superman. We's bury Now. So all
Speaker 1: y'all know that I want a little bambino or Bambina,
Speaker 1: And so for twenty eighteen, I told myself that I'm
Speaker 1: going to make that a priority. And so as a result,
Speaker 1: I'm really learning to say no to things that are
Speaker 1: not in alignment. Well one I've said I say no
Speaker 1: to things that are not emotionally in alignment or not
Speaker 1: alignment with my values. But now I'm learning to say
Speaker 1: things like because I'm I have to make time for
Speaker 1: like taking care of myself, relaxing so I can be,
Speaker 1: you know, a vessel for a beautiful baby, a healthy
Speaker 1: vessel for a beautiful baby. So I am not settling
Speaker 1: myself short anymore because I'm like, why you know, And
Speaker 1: so it's just bothered me because it's happened a couple
Speaker 1: of times and I'm like, what the heck. So I'm
Speaker 1: just like, no, girl, kick rocks and if they come back,
Speaker 1: they do. If they don't. The good thing about like
Speaker 1: I said, the way my company is set up is
Speaker 1: most of my income comes from treating their dream catcher
Speaker 1: as well. And as long as I do that, I'll
Speaker 1: never be broke. So yeah, so it's just but it's
Speaker 1: just and.
Speaker 2: There's nothing with that either. Yeah, it's honestly the only
Speaker 2: way to do. You just can't focus on everything one
Speaker 2: hundred percent. And yeah, sometimes you gotta tip the scale
Speaker 2: in a different direction.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and so yeah, that's it. I mean, like, so
Speaker 1: it's just so good. So that's why I even like now,
Speaker 1: I always think to myself when I'm working with other vendors,
Speaker 1: like in the beginning, when I was like broke, I
Speaker 1: used to really like negotiate hard, and I really try
Speaker 1: like not to unless I really think the vendor is
Speaker 1: like bugget, I'm like, girl, that's not what it goes
Speaker 1: for because I you know, I know what it's like
Speaker 1: to be the company. You know, so that you're like
Speaker 1: wanting to pay. So either I am willing to pay
Speaker 1: the vendor or I'm not. So like, unless the vendor
Speaker 1: is literally asking for something ridiculous. You're like a flyer
Speaker 1: doesn't go for three thousand dollars girl, right, But unless
Speaker 1: it's something crazy, then either I pay the vendor. I
Speaker 1: don't because I think it's wrong to try to like
Speaker 1: undercut people. You know. That's my brown break. Now it's
Speaker 1: time for all your questions from the brown brown break,
Speaker 1: I mean brown ambition inbox. That didn't go smoothly as
Speaker 1: I was holding you know what I was, claud you
Speaker 1: had good weeks before I did. I'm like, y'all just
Speaker 1: gonna have to give you that one.
Speaker 2: You're a little stumble Honestly, I leave all the segways
Speaker 2: up to you. I really should chip in every once
Speaker 2: in a while.
Speaker 3: Bab it's like, oh, that love it, that she enjoys it?
Speaker 1: All right? What's the some question, y'all? I love our questions.
Speaker 1: We always get good ones. Oh where if you can
Speaker 1: send questions to? Where again you can send them to?
Speaker 2: You can go to Brown Ambition Podcast dot com dot
Speaker 2: com and click on ask us anything, or you can
Speaker 2: just go right to the source and send us an
Speaker 2: email at Brianambition Podcast at gmail dot com. Come all right,
Speaker 2: So we have a question from someone with an awesome name.
Speaker 2: Her name is Tyranny. It's Tiffany but without instead of
Speaker 2: FS it's ours.
Speaker 1: But no, Tyranny just found so powerful like Tyranny.
Speaker 2: So Tyranny actually has a question about investing. She say,
Speaker 2: I enjoy your podcast and I feel like I have
Speaker 2: girlfriends in my car while commuting to work and back home.
Speaker 3: Hey girl.
Speaker 2: Says, thanks for providing. Okay, I'm not going to read
Speaker 2: all the praise, but it's nice. Thank you Tyranny. Onto
Speaker 2: my question. I recently downloaded and signed up for the
Speaker 2: Acorns investment app. It's been about four months since the
Speaker 2: app has been investing my spare change. The app is
Speaker 2: taking twenty dollars a month from my account in addition
Speaker 2: to using my spare change to invest. Do you have
Speaker 2: any advice on how to grow this account faster? How
Speaker 2: do I get the greatest return on my investment?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Hello, husband calling during this show. Do you have any
Speaker 2: advice on how to grow this account faster? How do
Speaker 2: I get the greatest retch turn on my investment? And
Speaker 2: is this app really worth it?
Speaker 3: Thanks?
Speaker 1: So I actually have the Acorns app?
Speaker 2: Have you?
Speaker 1: Do you have the Acorns app?
Speaker 3: Mandy?
Speaker 2: I started an account, but then I ignored it, like
Speaker 2: I said, I have issues, But.
Speaker 3: I remember you talked about this before. You've had an
Speaker 3: account for a while.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, And let me tell you, I'm the worst
Speaker 1: because I put my money in cash and I meant
Speaker 1: to invest it, and why a year and a half later,
Speaker 1: it's Mandy, I forgot because I guess I must have
Speaker 1: transfer two hundred dollars and I said, okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: this will be play money that I will invest. And
Speaker 1: then I didn't until I don't know somebody. I guess somebody.
Speaker 1: I must have had a link somewhere someone signed up
Speaker 1: under like my link and it sent me like a
Speaker 1: little notification like hey, your friend Mandy signed up with
Speaker 1: your link, and I'm like, what is this? So I
Speaker 1: click on it and it's because right now they're giving
Speaker 1: away free stock. So if someone sends signs up under
Speaker 1: your link, they'll give you free stock, so they like
Speaker 1: pick your stock, And I was like what and it
Speaker 1: was like, I'm like, what's this two hundred dollars I
Speaker 1: never invested in? Well, it's there, so I'm not even
Speaker 1: gonna lie I have it, although I cannot tell you
Speaker 1: if I mean I have gained money only because from
Speaker 1: just basic like I guess, I don't know, like interest,
Speaker 1: but and then like that little stock is going up
Speaker 1: like two percent or something like that. But from what
Speaker 1: I think, and I told myself I was going to
Speaker 1: do this with the two hundred, I believe you can.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have to. If you have
Speaker 1: to pick your stocks. I think you can increase how
Speaker 1: much money that you put in, and I believe you can.
Speaker 1: And you can kind of like fix your investment portfolio
Speaker 1: to be more aggressive. You can try that, don't You have.
Speaker 2: To do a quiz and then it kind of gives
Speaker 2: you a portfolio according to your tolerance for risk. And
Speaker 2: if you yeah, Cross is too afraid to really take risks,
Speaker 2: and it's not going to put your money in as
Speaker 2: much in the market, it's not going to put as
Speaker 2: much in stocks, and then you may see limited returns
Speaker 2: because of that. So that could be the problem. Maybe
Speaker 2: you should maybe you should. You can readjust how you're
Speaker 2: allocating your assets. So with acorns, they don't give you
Speaker 2: as long as I as long as I understand acorns,
Speaker 2: they don't give you so much control over like like
Speaker 2: picking your your investments, which is a good part, Like
Speaker 2: you shouldn't. That's why people like it because they don't
Speaker 2: have to do so much work. But you could take
Speaker 2: the quiz again and give yourself like try and be
Speaker 2: a little brave when you make when you answer those questions,
Speaker 2: because the more you can show them that you're tolerant
Speaker 2: to taking risks and that you want big rewards, they
Speaker 2: will put your money into investments that have the potential
Speaker 2: to get higher rewards. And on the downside, you may
Speaker 2: see your money dip every once in a while because
Speaker 2: the market can be more volatile. It's a stock market,
Speaker 2: you know, one company, like someone finds a piece of
Speaker 2: glass and a Starbucks cup in the stock falls, like
Speaker 2: you know, that's just kind of how the cookie crumbles.
Speaker 1: Oh, I just and I'm in here now because I said,
Speaker 1: you know what, why is it keeping in here? Okay,
Speaker 1: So if you go to your investment profile, there's something
Speaker 1: literally that says goal and I had goal preserve my savings.
Speaker 1: So that's what they're like, well, girl, we just got
Speaker 1: to keep here in this savings account. So I just
Speaker 1: clicked on growth. It's literally just a button, and then
Speaker 1: it says timeline, and then you can say it says experience,
Speaker 1: like so I chose not much and so and then
Speaker 1: ask you stuff like what's your risk tolerance and what's
Speaker 1: your liquidity? Like how important is liquidity to you? Very important?
Speaker 1: And liquidity is basically having cash on hand. So I've
Speaker 1: now just chosen somewhat important. So now based upon that,
Speaker 1: it'll it'll start to invest my two hundred dollars, like okay,
Speaker 1: like grow some of my money, don't just keep it
Speaker 1: in savings, Like I have a like a mid range
Speaker 1: risk tolerance, and you know that my I'm like middle
Speaker 1: of the road as far as keeping things liquid, meaning
Speaker 1: like okay, I can have some cash at hand, but
Speaker 1: I want you to invest most of it. So now
Speaker 1: hopefully you know, we can check back in next week
Speaker 1: and I can tell you how my how my two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars that I've done nothing with this is now doing.
Speaker 3: That's a pretty low balance.
Speaker 2: And I also Acorns charge is one dollar a month
Speaker 2: for their accounts I'm on there. I just want to
Speaker 2: I wanted to double check because I know these companies
Speaker 2: always change your fees, but they charge one dollar a
Speaker 2: month if you have less than five thousand dollars saved up,
Speaker 2: or you have a balance of less than five thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in your account. And if she's only it's only
Speaker 2: been four months and she's been putting twenty bucks in plush,
Speaker 2: their change, she might have one hundred bucks in there
Speaker 2: and she's paid them four dollars. I mean that's a
Speaker 2: four percent investment fee. Yeah, paying which is you know,
Speaker 2: on the one hand, you don't you can open up
Speaker 2: account with a very small balance and they do a
Speaker 2: lot of the work for you, but that's going to
Speaker 2: be eating into your returns as well. To consider that,
Speaker 2: so I would say, yeah, in addition to, like like
Speaker 2: Tiffany said, changing your profile, changing your goals, trying to
Speaker 2: whatever whatever you can do to get them or to
Speaker 2: put your you know, money in a bit more risky investment,
Speaker 2: not risky, but yeah, I mean I know you aggressive aggressive, Yeah,
Speaker 2: aggressive investment.
Speaker 3: That can help. Also just contributing.
Speaker 2: More, you know, more money. Yeah, it's going to increase
Speaker 2: your odds of you know, more money makes more money,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: Ratcheting up your savings.
Speaker 2: But I also feel like if you're only putting that
Speaker 2: little in, just don't be so impatient, like just yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, hopefully hopefully you're not using this to say
Speaker 2: to like make to make you know a bunch of
Speaker 2: money so you can turn around and buy a house
Speaker 2: or something like that, because you're not going to get
Speaker 2: there realistically, you know, at twenty bucks a month. I
Speaker 2: think Acorns is good, Like Tiffany said, like with your
Speaker 2: extra money that you you know, don't want to just
Speaker 2: leave sitting in savings, but you don't really need it necessarily,
Speaker 2: and you just want to, you know, be investing in
Speaker 2: something a little bit more lucrative than a regular savings
Speaker 2: if from on the side and agree where it fits in.
Speaker 1: Okay, So yeah, I'm a check in Now I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, let's say this two hundred dollars smack.
Speaker 1: I can't believe it's literally been like a year. But
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, I've got money here.
Speaker 2: Just lose just losing track of checks. What what a
Speaker 2: wonderful life and must.
Speaker 1: Be because you know what it is, because whenever dream
Speaker 1: catchers ask me about about like, you know, like an
Speaker 1: app or whatever. Well, one, I haven't endorsed Acorns because
Speaker 1: I said, let me, let me use it, so I
Speaker 1: signed up, but then clearly I did not do my
Speaker 1: full due diligence. So I've never endorsed it because I
Speaker 1: feel like if I, if I haven't done my full
Speaker 1: due diligence, I don't feel comfortable saying hey, it's awesome
Speaker 1: because I don't know, you know, And so I signed
Speaker 1: up so that way at least I could vet it.
Speaker 1: But then clearly I forgot because I have the memory
Speaker 1: of a eighty year olds and so yeah.
Speaker 2: It's only good if you actually will use it exactly.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I can no law, I cannot. I cannot
Speaker 1: say Achorns is awesome, We're terrible. I have clearly not
Speaker 1: used it.
Speaker 2: Well enough, all right, let's take one more questions one.
Speaker 2: So first, she commented on we talked about that. I
Speaker 2: talked about that tipping video last week that was posted
Speaker 2: on Yeah, was that the fusion Fusions facebook page? I
Speaker 2: posted on ours the history of tipping. She just mentioned that, Oh,
Speaker 2: one of my favorite YouTube series, Adam's Adam Ruins Everything. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: apparently he did one of the history of tipping and
Speaker 2: the history of suburbs. So she just recommended I might
Speaker 2: post a link to that in the show notes. But
Speaker 2: here's her question. It's an interesting one. So she's married.
Speaker 2: She says, my husband and I are established in our
Speaker 2: careers and we have good jobs doing what we love.
Speaker 2: He's a physician's assistant and I'm a college professor. We
Speaker 2: earn great salaries and are able to meet our monthly expenses,
Speaker 2: save and give.
Speaker 3: Between the two of us.
Speaker 2: We have a few credit cards after getting into trouble
Speaker 2: in my twenties, I'm now forty and completing the liverat
Speaker 2: or Challenge, Live Rich, or Academy Credit Challenge. I'm really
Speaker 2: on top of the way that I use my credit card.
Speaker 2: My wonderful husband is a little more liberal in his
Speaker 2: usage with a credit card frequency and amount, and I
Speaker 2: recently learned that he added me as an authorized user
Speaker 2: on his card. While I charge small amounts and pay
Speaker 2: off my card each month, he doesn't always do the same.
Speaker 2: This means that it may take a few months to
Speaker 2: pay off the balances that he racks up. While I've
Speaker 2: heard you and Tiffany talk about the benefits of being
Speaker 2: an authorized user on an account of a person with
Speaker 2: great credit. What happens when the person's credit score isn't
Speaker 2: as high as yours? Does my credit score suffer? And
Speaker 2: beyond having a conversation with husby, what should I do?
Speaker 2: Should I remove myself from his account? And won't this
Speaker 2: also lower my credit score? Well, if you use my
Speaker 2: question on Eric like to remain anonymous, sorry, I will
Speaker 2: edit this question and you will not hear your name.
Speaker 2: You will hear this though, because that's funny.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is okay, Lily, Okay. So one, it's not
Speaker 1: supposed to if you're if you're an authorized user and
Speaker 1: you're not the one actually using the card, it's not
Speaker 1: supposed to lower your credit score. It's supposed to only
Speaker 1: you're supposed to only improve, but not lower. But you
Speaker 1: want to make sure that that's what's actually happening. So
Speaker 1: what it's, Well, this is what I mean from like
Speaker 1: my my my friends that are credit experts. I mean
Speaker 1: I find myself I dabble in credits, but I don't
Speaker 1: find myself as a credit expert. But I from what
Speaker 1: I've asked, it's that let's just say your husband is late,
Speaker 1: you're an authorized user, but not a co it's a
Speaker 1: co sign. No, what is the other word? Yes, so
Speaker 1: authorized user. It's different than a joint user. Joint like
Speaker 1: so meaning like you guys have equal responsibility. That's different.
Speaker 1: So meaning like his name, my name, Like me and
Speaker 1: Superman we have a joint bank account, so we're both
Speaker 1: equally responsible. But it's responsible yeah, well and so, but
Speaker 1: as an authorized user, they hold the primary responsibility and
Speaker 1: instead what you're supposed to do is, yes, that it's
Speaker 1: supposed to make it look good if you're connected to
Speaker 1: the account, but it's not supposed to harm you if
Speaker 1: they're not making completely wise choices. But I mean, like
Speaker 1: I said, I would look to make sure that that,
Speaker 1: like you know, like it's not showing up on my
Speaker 1: credit report, because you can get that removed if it does,
Speaker 1: because it's not supposed to. I think the bigger issue
Speaker 1: here is like husband not using his credit cards. I
Speaker 1: guess as wisely as you'd like. And so maybe Mandy,
Speaker 1: I could tell you, like, this is what me, me
Speaker 1: and Superman finally figured it out. I'm like, we figured
Speaker 1: it out, well, we figured out how we want to
Speaker 1: work our money. We've been married now since June. I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: June July, I'm the worst. Anyway. We've been married for
Speaker 1: a while, not a long while obviously, but we've been
Speaker 1: married for a few months, and we've both been back
Speaker 1: and forth with how do we want to do the money?
Speaker 1: How do we want to do the money? Because we
Speaker 1: honestly didn't have mixed money outside of we had a
Speaker 1: joint savings account that we used to travel with, and
Speaker 1: so we decided, well, I listen, he actually made the
Speaker 1: decision that he wanted me to take his check, which
Speaker 1: I'm like, I could do that, and we were going
Speaker 1: to live off his income and then with my money
Speaker 1: we save and invest, and so we're going to live
Speaker 1: off one income. And the way it's going to look
Speaker 1: is how I already don't do the bills anyway for myself,
Speaker 1: is that with his money we paid bills bills. We
Speaker 1: also we just opened up a joint checking account, and
Speaker 1: that joint checking account is for what I call joint
Speaker 1: household non bills, so meaning like basically like food shopping
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So there's a debit card at home,
Speaker 1: so when you go food shopping, I've already made the
Speaker 1: transfers and so you could take that that joint our
Speaker 1: joint debit card to go food shopping and do household
Speaker 1: expenses that are not bills, and then we have a
Speaker 1: joint bills account that we pay bills out of. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if your husband would be open to
Speaker 1: combining your resources in a way where you can be
Speaker 1: responsible for paying off or paying bills like that. So
Speaker 1: that way, since he's not paying on time, that you
Speaker 1: can make sure they're paid on time if if you're
Speaker 1: being more responsible. It's kind of something you have to
Speaker 1: talk to him about. But that's something that and I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that this is definitely gonna work because we're
Speaker 1: just needed that. We literally just open up a joint
Speaker 1: account last weekend, so we're trying to see and work
Speaker 1: out how do you and in your boo do it Mandy?
Speaker 1: As far as money, well, you know we.
Speaker 2: Have the exact same she's going through right now.
Speaker 3: Well, one just just to.
Speaker 2: Recap when you're an authorized user, their positive behavior will
Speaker 2: help your score, not all and most most of the
Speaker 2: time the credit A lot of times credit card companies
Speaker 2: don't report negative behaviors, so it won't drag down your
Speaker 2: score necessarily. That's if you're a joint account holder. That's
Speaker 2: when you're both sort of dragging each other up or down. Yes, okay, correct, Yeah,
Speaker 2: so we have the same issue where I was way better.
Speaker 2: I was just like I mean, for me, I trained
Speaker 2: myself to if I saw a balance, I just paid
Speaker 2: off whatever my statement balance was, and I knew if
Speaker 2: it was higher than what I could afford, it was
Speaker 2: bad news bears, and I was messing up somewhere. And
Speaker 2: then I you know, it took me a couple of years.
Speaker 2: It just always seemed like my husband, then boyfriend, and
Speaker 2: fiance always had credit card debt, and I was like,
Speaker 2: how are you always having the same like a.
Speaker 3: Little bit of credit card debt? It seems to never.
Speaker 2: Go away, And it always really really bothered me. And honestly,
Speaker 2: one of the one of the ways we nipped that
Speaker 2: in the bud was we got a financial planner, and
Speaker 2: that unlocked a lot of the awkwardness of having that
Speaker 2: conversation because we thought about it. You know, he didn't
Speaker 2: want to.
Speaker 3: Tell me about his debt.
Speaker 2: I wanted to know everything. I thought it was the
Speaker 2: only way for us to be successful is for me
Speaker 2: to know how much debt he had and create a
Speaker 2: plan to pay it down and whatever. He was like,
Speaker 2: I want to manage it. It's my problem, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: When we got a financial planner, we had a third
Speaker 2: party in the mix, and all of a sudden, I know,
Speaker 2: I'm sitting in the back like you know, evilly, you know,
Speaker 2: with light fingers together, like, oh, I'm going to find
Speaker 2: it all the tea, now, all the dirt. It wasn't
Speaker 2: that bad, but he became more comfortable when we had
Speaker 2: all the cards out on the table, kind of showing
Speaker 2: me exactly, you know, showing each other where our money
Speaker 2: was going and whatnot. And with her help, we decided
Speaker 2: that if he was really, if he was, he was
Speaker 2: very sure that he wanted to tackle the debt on
Speaker 2: his own. It wasn't very much. I think it was
Speaker 2: like two thousand dollars or something like that. He was
Speaker 2: going to do it the smart way, which instead of
Speaker 2: just making his little monthly payments as much as he
Speaker 2: could every month, he was going to transfer the balance
Speaker 2: to a zero a zero percent balance transfer card, and
Speaker 2: he was going to really pay it off before that
Speaker 2: balance before the promotional period ended, which was twelve months.
Speaker 2: And then that that gave me peace of mind because
Speaker 2: at least I knew then he wasn't racking up interest charges,
Speaker 2: because in my mind, I was like, well, I want
Speaker 2: this guy just let me pay off his debt for
Speaker 2: him and just be done with it, you know. But
Speaker 2: for him it was a point of pride. So the
Speaker 2: balance transfer was a really good compromise.
Speaker 3: He had zero percent.
Speaker 2: I wasn't worried about interest charges, and he could pay
Speaker 2: it off himself and you know it. And he was like,
Speaker 2: he was being true to himself and he was doing
Speaker 2: it the way he wanted. And that's how we handled that,
Speaker 2: And since then it has we've been much more transparent.
Speaker 1: We select, okay, we.
Speaker 2: Have specific cards that we use for specific purposes, and
Speaker 2: use one or Chased Reserve card for all of our
Speaker 2: restaurants and eating out purchases, joint purchases. We use one
Speaker 2: AMEX card for all of our grocery shopping, and we
Speaker 2: both know to use that. And then we both have
Speaker 2: our Chase or whatever bank account checking and we spend
Speaker 2: our checking however we want to use it, you know.
Speaker 2: And I pay the bills off mostly because it's just
Speaker 2: some of those two credit cards. I pay those bills
Speaker 2: off myself.
Speaker 1: It takes time. I mean it took a while, like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. The other day, like I've been dating
Speaker 1: Sumn for like I don't know, maybe three and a
Speaker 1: half four years now, and so it took a while.
Speaker 1: Another day he looked at me and he was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I agree. When it came to some
Speaker 1: money choice, I nearly wept. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: because I have been working on him forever, you know,
Speaker 1: and so it takes some time. And I had to
Speaker 1: learn to stop being such a bully about it. I
Speaker 1: could be a little bully myself because you know, like
Speaker 1: really trying to force his hand like no, this is
Speaker 1: the best way, because one I learned that my way
Speaker 1: wasn't always the best way, and two I had to
Speaker 1: honor that he has a he has a way too.
Speaker 1: When he came up with the let me give you
Speaker 1: my check thing, I was like, wow, this was that's
Speaker 1: actually really I had this other intricate thing in mind.
Speaker 1: And when we sit down and we did our bills together,
Speaker 1: we already live under what he brings in, and so
Speaker 1: I was like, well, this is perfect because we're already
Speaker 1: living under you know, we're already living basically within the
Speaker 1: means of being able to live off your check, why
Speaker 1: not do so officially? So that way, and when I
Speaker 1: know what he loves about that is that one, he's
Speaker 1: the head of the household, you know that he's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I paid the bills. You know. It gets him that
Speaker 1: kind of like feeling, which is nice, you know. And
Speaker 1: then two it's you know, it gives me this feeling
Speaker 1: of safety and security in that let's just say something
Speaker 1: happens with my businesses, the truth of the matter, risk
Speaker 1: we're still fine, you know. So I like that feeling
Speaker 1: because it allows me to grow without fear of can
Speaker 1: we afford our life?
Speaker 3: You know, that's so true.
Speaker 2: I think it's really smart to base your lifestyle on
Speaker 2: the lower earner. And I get really nervous. I have
Speaker 2: gotten really nervous to really try to avoid as one
Speaker 2: of us, you know, as our incomes change and go
Speaker 2: in different directions that were not upgrading the lifestyle just
Speaker 2: because one of us earns more. Because I'm paranoid, you know,
Speaker 2: I have the same sort of fear you do about
Speaker 2: what if something happens to the higher earner, and then
Speaker 2: there's you know, and then your your lifestyle is no
Speaker 2: longer you can't support it and then you just have
Speaker 2: all those issues. That's that's my nightmare.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm. And so yeah, because it is a scary
Speaker 1: thing of like cause you know, like, yeah, there's that book,
Speaker 1: was it? Do we talk about the book for Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Warren before she was a senator? I wrote a book
Speaker 1: about living off one income. I can't remember the name
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's called I remember you told me she wrote
Speaker 2: a personal finance book and I didn't believe he yes.
Speaker 1: And it was actually really good. It was about living
Speaker 1: off what it's called the lie, the income lie or
Speaker 1: something like that. But it's about living off one income.
Speaker 1: And I think if you know, it's not possible for everyone,
Speaker 1: but if you can get as close as possible to
Speaker 1: living off the lower earner's income, the better.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And sometimes it's good to feel a little broken.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Plus it's nice, you know, especially.
Speaker 3: As you know, within reason.
Speaker 2: But the reason, yes, don't send your baby to school
Speaker 2: with like holes in their.
Speaker 1: Shoes exactly because nobody has stopped for that. Anybody got
Speaker 1: top through it.
Speaker 3: Thanks for your question, Lily.
Speaker 1: Yes, we have some good questions. If you have questions,
Speaker 1: please send them to Brown Ambition Podcast dot com and
Speaker 1: click ask us anything, or you can email us at Brown.
Speaker 3: Ambition Podcast dot gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Whoa I know, look at me, because you know, I'm like,
Speaker 1: maybe likes it. She'll do it. Give it to baby,
Speaker 1: she'll do it. It's like the kick commercial. Give it to Mikey,
Speaker 1: he'll eat it.
Speaker 3: I'm glad we're getting out of our rut. Yeah you assumes, yeah, exact.
Speaker 2: Well in that case, how about some winds? Winds winds
Speaker 2: on this Wednesday?
Speaker 1: Ooh, look at you. Okay, I'm not gonna lie. I'm
Speaker 1: still thinking about my win. You go.
Speaker 2: My win is so excellent. I haven't even told you
Speaker 2: about this yet.
Speaker 3: So here's what happened.
Speaker 2: Was y'all know, I went on this great vacation last
Speaker 2: week for my art, my husband's cousin's wedding, and the
Speaker 2: Dominican Republic. It was beautiful, gorgeous, so relaxing, amazing. I
Speaker 2: come back.
Speaker 3: I'm already on Monday morning.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm going to show up to the office
Speaker 2: at eight o'clock. I am going to get my work done.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get caught up. I'm gonna do amazing things
Speaker 2: before my first meeting at nine point thirty. I show
Speaker 2: up and I'm like, where's my laptop at though? And
Speaker 2: I start thinking immediately. I'm like, okay, I've shown up
Speaker 2: to the office before without my computer like a dummy,
Speaker 2: and I have to go back home and get it
Speaker 2: and come back. But then I'm like, wait a second,
Speaker 2: I left straight from work to the airport. Did not
Speaker 2: have my laptop with me on vacation. I know it's here.
Speaker 2: And then I look around. Nobody's desks has have laptops
Speaker 2: on them. We all have our laptops at our desk
Speaker 2: at all times.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh, shiyst.
Speaker 2: And long story short, our office was robbed. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: definitely definitely robbed. They took four They took three laptops,
Speaker 2: so luckily a couple of our employees. One took hers
Speaker 2: home over the weekend, the other one was out of
Speaker 2: town and had hers, and then they just didn't happen
Speaker 2: to see my boss's laptop underneath some papers. But yeah,
Speaker 2: they walked away with three laptops, including mine and a
Speaker 2: brand new one we had just ordered for a new hire,
Speaker 2: like out of the box. Yeah, it's crazy. I've never
Speaker 2: had I mean, you always kind of like hear about
Speaker 2: you know, office break ins and you know whatever, but
Speaker 2: it's never happened to me before.
Speaker 3: And it was it was really creepy.
Speaker 1: That is creepy. How don't gotta win?
Speaker 3: No, I was. It was a win. It was a
Speaker 3: win for insurance.
Speaker 2: I think that I'm gonna I'm gonna spin this into
Speaker 2: a win for the power of insurance because well, one,
Speaker 2: you know, as a business, I think it's good to
Speaker 2: protect yourself and like ninety five money and lending Tree
Speaker 2: have lost prevention for this type of thing, but the
Speaker 2: same thing can happen so easily in your personal life,
Speaker 2: and I think it's important another reminder why it's important
Speaker 2: to have renters insurance or some form of homeowners insurance.
Speaker 2: I don't know about homeowners, but when my brother's car
Speaker 2: was broken into and he lost his laptop during college,
Speaker 2: his renter's insurance policy replaced it immediately without any even
Speaker 2: though it didn't happen is in his apartment. So the
Speaker 2: damage to us really wasn't that as bad as it
Speaker 2: would have been had we not had that protection and
Speaker 2: insurance in place. So that's my win, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to update my Renter's insurance policy now that I'm thinking
Speaker 2: about it, because I don't.
Speaker 3: Know if they know I live in as you know. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'll all have to fix that.
Speaker 2: But in a win for the finest New York City
Speaker 2: Police Department who stayed in our office inexplicably for six
Speaker 2: hours all day. Oh chilling, just chilling, and shout out
Speaker 2: to the robber who didn't.
Speaker 3: Have a bag to take the laptops away in.
Speaker 2: So they dumped out a ridiculous like you know how
Speaker 2: you go to conferences and you get goodie bags. Yes,
Speaker 2: so our co founder Nick he got this ridiculous like
Speaker 2: pink flowery vera Bradley tote bag the giant ones like
Speaker 2: they sell at TJ Max from a conference, and they
Speaker 2: dumped everything out of it and took the loot in
Speaker 2: this like pink flowery fever Bradley bag. So I'm just
Speaker 2: waiting for them to find that security footage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just that lazy, like I mean, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: robber's hopefully your time is limited. So my win actually
Speaker 1: comes directly from our Facebook page. Brad Ambission, I forgot
Speaker 1: I shared this, so President and first Lady, I mean,
Speaker 1: well whatever, yes, I'm claiming them President first Lady from
Speaker 1: Barack Obama have chosen one of my favorite artists of
Speaker 1: all time and another young woman who I'm not familiar with,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure she's dope to paint their official portraits.
Speaker 1: So you know, every president and first Lady have they
Speaker 1: have official portraits. And so what I love is he
Speaker 1: chose this African I believe it's Nigerian artist named K.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say his name wrong, and every Nigerian is
Speaker 1: gonna roll their eyes. Okay, Khindi Wiley, Khindi, Khindi, Khindi. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry that Jan Massive, I'm sorry. And Amy Ryls
Speaker 1: so Amy I believe is African American as well. And
Speaker 1: k Hindi his artwork is so beautiful. Actually posted this
Speaker 1: picture once I had gone to I think it was
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Museum, and he has this bust of a woman
Speaker 1: who her hair is braided. It's like three busts of
Speaker 1: women and their hair kind of like meets in the middle.
Speaker 1: And I swear that the woman's face because she could
Speaker 1: have been my sister. So I took a picture of
Speaker 1: myself to it, and I said, I came in search
Speaker 1: of beauty and I found myself or something to that effect.
Speaker 1: It was so beautiful. His work is so beautiful, and
Speaker 1: it really highlights all the beauty that's in the brown
Speaker 1: and black diaspora. And so I love the fact that
Speaker 1: you know that they that they chose their their portrait.
Speaker 1: I just that's huge, you know, And so yeah, I
Speaker 1: cannot wait. So and he's the one you remember for Khindi.
Speaker 1: He's the one you remember those huge oversized portraits of
Speaker 1: like you would see of black men in like tins
Speaker 1: and whatever, but they were postured like these like these
Speaker 1: old European portraits, like if you go to the Mets
Speaker 1: and like, you know, you see like these like European
Speaker 1: portraits of people like on horses or like they're all
Speaker 1: like formal or whatever. So he would paint African American
Speaker 1: men in like their regular street clothes but with this
Speaker 1: like very austere background. Like yeah, and they're huge, I
Speaker 1: mean when I say huge, Lord of Ceiling. So you
Speaker 1: have to go see I've seen it, I think, did
Speaker 1: I see that the Met or the I believe I've
Speaker 1: seen his work either at the Met or at the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Museum. But it was beautiful, and I remember just
Speaker 1: being stunned. So that's a win for you, young brother
Speaker 1: and sister. He's my Facebook friend only because you know
Speaker 1: I request. I always request random people on Facebook Friends.
Speaker 1: I'm totally a Facebook yes, like if you if you right?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, my friend Sarah is so amazing. She
Speaker 1: just got such and such from Force magazine. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you mean my friend Sarah, Hey, girl.
Speaker 3: That person.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I want to say my circle. I want
Speaker 1: to feel the vibes, and I would say I have
Speaker 1: a good forty percent rate of like acceptance. I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: me and Sara are friends now. And if I can't like,
Speaker 1: sometimes Basebook will say, Tippy, you have too many friends.
Speaker 1: I will own friend a friend that's not carrying their
Speaker 1: weight and be like, girl, you're out. Sarah's in. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, I'm the worst. Anyway, it's been awesome as usual.
Speaker 3: Did this episode feel different to you?
Speaker 1: What in a bad way and a good way?
Speaker 3: In a good way?
Speaker 2: Do you realize this is a one hundredth episode? Oh
Speaker 2: my god, I remembered, and then I forgot. Well you
Speaker 2: mentioned I meant to mention at the beginning.
Speaker 1: Of the show.
Speaker 3: We're just an old married couple.
Speaker 2: Now old married podcast couple Forgetting Our Wow one hundred
Speaker 2: half of Verse one hundred episode of Versary.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what I person met you, Maddy. Weren't
Speaker 1: you working at I don't think we just spoke on
Speaker 1: the phone. You're working at Yes, and you did an interview,
Speaker 1: and I remember I was so excited, like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm famous.
Speaker 3: Now, and then we were and everything happened for you.
Speaker 1: Right, I was not famous then I was like what okay?
Speaker 1: And then you I met you at Think and I
Speaker 1: was like, wow, I like her in real life. And
Speaker 1: we took like a long walk like it was like, yo,
Speaker 1: we really corded, we really recording. Remember, we were like,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's get the the Finn contestivities. Let's
Speaker 1: just take a long walk on the byo. And I
Speaker 1: think you were talking to me about husband at the time,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't husband and my superman at the time.
Speaker 1: If he wasn't my husband, Yo, look how far we've come.
Speaker 1: We've got married. Maddy has gone natural. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: there's somebody right. I started a new business, you started
Speaker 1: a new job. I mean, so many things have happened.
Speaker 3: I'm pregnant, just kidding.
Speaker 1: I right. Hopefully you know next podcast. But yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for listening our hundredth episode.
Speaker 2: Thank you for wanting a hundred episodes. Because I remember
Speaker 2: not even knowing if this was.
Speaker 3: A good idea. I just knew I really wanted to
Speaker 3: do it, and y'all who told me no?
Speaker 2: And I was like, I'm a dude anyway, and I
Speaker 2: was gonna help.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I was even sure what the
Speaker 1: podcast was and I was like, okay, yes, And I
Speaker 1: have to say that if you want to congratulate us
Speaker 1: on our hundredth episode, can you please leave review on iTunes? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Can you give us as a gift on our episode aversary?
Speaker 3: Please leave with the review. That'd be awesome.
Speaker 2: Even if you have already you know, sign in from
Speaker 2: your husband's account, here's your mom, she doesn't use it.
Speaker 1: Just just leave with the review saying how you know
Speaker 1: how you feel, which is awesome about us? Clear when
Speaker 1: you're listening, that's you, Jamal, Jamal, have you left a review?
Speaker 1: I know we pick on you, but you know, just
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, Jamal needs to tell a friend.
Speaker 2: Everybody tell a friend,