Speaker 1: It's time for the b a q a to b
Speaker 1: a q a, the b q a man da, the
Speaker 1: b a q a tiffan a, the b a q
Speaker 1: pay a. Okay, it's brandna bitching question answers. You have questions,
Speaker 1: We have some answers. Although we are not your doctor,
Speaker 1: you're not your attorney, your financial advisor. Basically, you don't
Speaker 1: pay us to answer questions, so that means that this
Speaker 1: is not professional question answers were entertainment, although we are
Speaker 1: too smart and brilliant beautiful brown girls. But you're gonna
Speaker 1: use the smallest grain of salt and then you're gonna
Speaker 1: lean into people that you do pay for the rest
Speaker 1: of the information you need. Okay, aka sue your grandmother,
Speaker 1: not us. All right.
Speaker 2: Our first question comes from a listener. Sounds spicy kyenne cayenne.
Speaker 2: All right, She says, Hey, Mandy and Tiffany, I've been
Speaker 2: listening to you both for about two years now, and
Speaker 2: I absolutely love the show. You're both so funny, and
Speaker 2: even when it doesn't relate to me at all, I
Speaker 2: just feel so much better after listening.
Speaker 1: To my two besties.
Speaker 2: It I don't who don't know why I exist? Yes,
Speaker 2: we do.
Speaker 1: Cayenne.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's so sweet, all right, she says. I am
Speaker 2: an immigrant from Jamaica and we came here after losing
Speaker 2: our business to COVID. We basically lost everything. While we
Speaker 2: still have our house, but we also have a lot
Speaker 2: of debt and no savings and no retirement. I've been
Speaker 2: burying my head in the sand for far too long.
Speaker 2: I'm forty six, my husband's forty eight. He's working full
Speaker 2: time again but only making about sixty five K. I
Speaker 2: work from home and make about thirty K. We have
Speaker 2: two kids, one in private school on a scholarship, okay,
Speaker 2: and part of the reason that we moved here, but
Speaker 2: it's still expensive. Basically, I'm feeling overwhelmed all the time,
Speaker 2: and I don't know where to start to get out
Speaker 2: of debt, to save, to get financially independent, and to
Speaker 2: plan for retirement, which isn't far away. Seriously, what should
Speaker 2: I do? Woof ben for a couple of years. That's
Speaker 2: your business to COVID.
Speaker 1: So sorry to hear that, Yeah, go for it, but
Speaker 1: they still have your house, which is awesome. So first,
Speaker 1: we're going to be grateful for the things we do have,
Speaker 1: but it also acknowledged the things that we don't right,
Speaker 1: and so hmm, okay, well working from home, just looking.
Speaker 2: No place like America to make you feel.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, what I would say is that there's
Speaker 1: only one or two ways to have more money, right.
Speaker 1: You either have to spend less or you have to
Speaker 1: make more. That's just that's just it. There's no other
Speaker 1: magical way. And you know, although I'm the budget neist
Speaker 1: to certainly I'm I don't know your personal finances, so
Speaker 1: I like to kind of typically start just to do
Speaker 1: a scan of like is there any place where I
Speaker 1: might be overspending that I'm like not really acknowledging like
Speaker 1: that I'm overspending. So maybe sit down with your partner
Speaker 1: and just take a look like do we really need this?
Speaker 1: Can we you know, can we trade in the car
Speaker 1: for something with a smaller you know, can we refinance?
Speaker 1: You know? Well, I don't know about these days, because
Speaker 1: you know, the interest rates are crazy, but I would
Speaker 1: just start there, is that, like, let me look at
Speaker 1: what my life's costing me and is there any place where,
Speaker 1: especially the obvious places, where I can make financial adjustment?
Speaker 1: So that's one, and then and probably most importantly, asking yourself,
Speaker 1: is there are there ways to make additional income or
Speaker 1: increase the income where you're currently making, And so Mandy
Speaker 1: will tell you, like, you know, one of the best
Speaker 1: places to make more money is that your job. I'm
Speaker 1: sure Manday's got to go over hopefully some negotiating tactics
Speaker 1: for asking for more money. Do you have like a
Speaker 1: brag book or go meet file that kind of illustrate
Speaker 1: your open the value, the overwhelming value that you bring
Speaker 1: to the table, so you can go in asking for
Speaker 1: more money? Is your LinkedIn updated in a way that
Speaker 1: you know, you can apply for another job that maybe
Speaker 1: similar skill set, but you can make more money. And
Speaker 1: so those are the places that I would start. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't you know, if you are already feeling tight, like
Speaker 1: we really don't spend and don't spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time on cutting back, if you really feel confident you're
Speaker 1: not hugely overspending, but everyone is spending a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, like more than what's necessary, and that's okay.
Speaker 1: But I would lean a lot of my time and
Speaker 1: energy into like learning and figuring out how we can
Speaker 1: make additional income so you can create that space. And
Speaker 1: in the beginning it's really just I mean I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're making enough to cover your basic bills.
Speaker 1: It sounds like if you're leaning on debt a lot.
Speaker 1: That's not necessarily the case. So first order of business
Speaker 1: getting clear about how much money you need to make
Speaker 1: to cover your basic bills. Once you get that income
Speaker 1: coming in, you can start to put your debt on
Speaker 1: kind of like an automated system for yourself. Look into
Speaker 1: the snowball method and the avalanche method at paying down debt,
Speaker 1: and once you get pretty secure on that, then you
Speaker 1: can start to look into setting aside money for savings
Speaker 1: and retirement, especially the retirement component, because you are you're
Speaker 1: not quite over fifty yet, but once you get over fifty,
Speaker 1: it's only four forty six. For some time, I saw
Speaker 1: forty eight. Okay, her husband's forty eight. That's her hobby,
Speaker 1: you know, So you can start to think about in
Speaker 1: two years he will be able to do something called
Speaker 1: catch up contributions, which means not only can you contribute
Speaker 1: you know, your regular retirement maximount, but then you can
Speaker 1: also contribute above and beyond that, you know. So that
Speaker 1: would be my aim is to make more money, cut back,
Speaker 1: you know, by looking at what I'm currently spending make
Speaker 1: more money by either looking for another job, asking for
Speaker 1: a raise. I'm doing. You know, you don't always necessarily
Speaker 1: have to have a side hustle, because I know I
Speaker 1: could be really stressful, especially if you're overwhelmed. You know,
Speaker 1: once you get to a safer space, starting to save
Speaker 1: and set aside for you know, for retirement. I know
Speaker 1: this is hard because sometimes these days you just be
Speaker 1: like it'll never get better. And I just hope you
Speaker 1: give yourself a little grace in space and make sure
Speaker 1: you don't do this alone and if you just need
Speaker 1: some like support support. I have this free group called
Speaker 1: the Dream Catchers with an s group. It's just other
Speaker 1: mostly women, but we have some guys in there who
Speaker 1: are navigating similar circumstances. Because the answer these days to
Speaker 1: personal finances that you can't do it alone. You know,
Speaker 1: you you.
Speaker 2: Need there's no shortcuts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you need community, and so.
Speaker 2: I think the internet will have you out here thinking
Speaker 2: there's shortcuts. Yeah, like I have to do this really quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it takes you a long, Like you built a business.
Speaker 2: I wonder if there are American citizens too, and if
Speaker 2: that changes any of the rules around investing. I mean
Speaker 2: they're here, so I'm guessing, she said, I I don't
Speaker 2: know how that works.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: But my first thing is you're making thirty k working
Speaker 2: from home and you started that up. You've only been
Speaker 2: here a couple of years. I'm just like, you're you're
Speaker 2: starting from scratch in a lot of ways. My question
Speaker 2: around the debt, Tiffany, is at what point, when you're
Speaker 2: starting over you've lost a business. I'm like, why can't
Speaker 2: you file bankruptcy, restructure some of that debt, you know,
Speaker 2: get some of the debts off your you know, off
Speaker 2: your books. Yes, it will tank your credit and there's
Speaker 2: all these downsides, of course, but.
Speaker 1: It used to be bankruptcy will wipe you clean, you know. So,
Speaker 1: but these days sometimes they want you to be damned
Speaker 1: near broke, like they're like, get rid of everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well some like you know, it's sometimes it's like you
Speaker 1: they're only let you have a certain amount of money
Speaker 1: left over because they're like, you're not gonna fole for
Speaker 1: banruptcy and have all this money, you know, which you
Speaker 1: might not. So that's something certainly like if the debt
Speaker 1: is as that's the results of the business, maybe the
Speaker 1: business files for bankruptcy. I don't know what type of
Speaker 1: business entity that you that you have, but that is
Speaker 1: a potential. I don't know what so much debt is.
Speaker 1: Is it thirty thousand, is it three hundred thousand? Is
Speaker 1: it student loan debt? You know, federal student loan debt
Speaker 1: that doesn't qualify for bankruptcy dismissal. So looking at that
Speaker 1: debt and really getting an understanding about like who, like
Speaker 1: who do you owe and can you call and negotiate
Speaker 1: maybe like a pause and payment. It's really going to
Speaker 1: be step by step to all.
Speaker 2: The COVID relief programs. Yes, yeah, the COVID relief programs
Speaker 2: are kind of done. And since you're an immigrant, I
Speaker 2: just don't know what the eligibility requirements are in all
Speaker 2: of that. But you have the house in Jamaica. I
Speaker 2: feel like a lot you know, people who live in Jamaica.
Speaker 2: It's not all like a luxury condo on the beach.
Speaker 2: But could you rent to get some income even if
Speaker 2: you know, just rent it out potentially to drum up
Speaker 2: some income and it Yeah, I wouldn't say sell because
Speaker 2: I imagine it must be really hard to sell your home.
Speaker 2: It's the last time you have left right. But my
Speaker 2: as far as like negotiating for more, you're only making
Speaker 2: thirty K. I mean, I hate to say only we're
Speaker 2: working from home. I wish we had more details. But
Speaker 2: what are you doing and how can you ramp it up?
Speaker 2: And I think you'll be able to think more clearly
Speaker 2: if you just like take a breath and give yourself
Speaker 2: permission for this to take a little bit of time.
Speaker 2: You haven't said that you guys aren't able to like
Speaker 2: pay your rent or whatever. It is like you're able
Speaker 2: to keep it sounds like you're just like you're making
Speaker 2: ends meet, but it's you have this like this cloud
Speaker 2: hanging over you, which is like retirement saving debt. If
Speaker 2: you're making ends meet, just like that's okay. The the
Speaker 2: most important thing is for you to have savings set
Speaker 2: aside so that you guys can cover your own you know.
Speaker 2: And then I would say, look at what types of
Speaker 2: debt you have, Maybe get in touch with a credit
Speaker 2: counseling organization like the NFCC National or NFCC or whatever.
Speaker 2: Does she say where she lives in the US, because
Speaker 2: there may be some state programs, community programs. Don't be
Speaker 2: afraid to reach out a hand and ask for help
Speaker 2: and look for resources. And yeah, you're in a place
Speaker 2: now where you're going to need to open up ask
Speaker 2: for help. You're feeling overwhelmed because I think you are
Speaker 2: and maybe doing it alone? You know, does your husband?
Speaker 1: Do you? Guys?
Speaker 2: Are you open with each other about how you're feeling?
Speaker 2: Can you find like you know, do you have family
Speaker 2: here who can you lean into in your community so
Speaker 2: that you're not doing it alone? And I love tip
Speaker 2: your tip about joining the dream Catchers because this is
Speaker 2: not going to be an easy road out. The only
Speaker 2: way is through. I just don't want you to start
Speaker 2: beating yourself up with the idea that it has to
Speaker 2: all be happening right now, because the reality is that
Speaker 2: it probably can't. You are going to have to make
Speaker 2: more money from your business or find other sources of income.
Speaker 2: Your husband maybe he will after he gets you know,
Speaker 2: this this work experience. He can find another job and
Speaker 2: negotiate for more and increase his income that way. But
Speaker 2: it's not something you can snap your fingers and do immediately,
Speaker 2: which may be frustrating, but we keep it one hundred.
Speaker 2: You just have to make a plan, ye execute that plan.
Speaker 2: Whatever the plan is make a plan. A credit counselor
Speaker 2: can help you make that plan and.
Speaker 1: Also made whole. I'm going to plug the new book
Speaker 1: help you with a step by step plan. So what
Speaker 1: I call financial hollness mad whole workbook dot com. If
Speaker 1: you will please well hopefully this was yeah, read text book.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break. Yes, I will be
Speaker 1: back and black it a never all right, buye, I
Speaker 1: mean not by see you in a minute, and we're
Speaker 1: blacking back. So this is funny because this question from
Speaker 1: oldiesh and unsure. I love this because, first of all, oldest,
Speaker 1: you ain't oldest, only thirty nine years overall, don't make
Speaker 1: me feel old. I have a question my job, not career.
Speaker 1: She specified right, office of four one K, but no
Speaker 1: employer match. Were just looking about this and I have
Speaker 1: almost been there one year and was automatically set up
Speaker 1: to deduct three percent for my paycheck to go to
Speaker 1: the four one K. Okay. In my latest statement, glad
Speaker 1: you're looking at it, I noticed each quarter I'm being
Speaker 1: charged administrative fees. How many of y'all didn't realize that
Speaker 1: you get admin fees on your former k? Really, any
Speaker 1: retirement investment account is typically going to have some sort
Speaker 1: of fees yep h which total twenty five dollars to
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars a year. I'm thirty nine and have
Speaker 1: a wroth IRA and several mutual funds established for my retirement.
Speaker 1: Should I continue to invest the eighty three dollars per
Speaker 1: paycheck in my four one K or should I automate
Speaker 1: that amount and then some to a pre existing WROTH
Speaker 1: or mutual fund. Now, like I said prior, oldiest, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure we're not gonna call you older, We're gonna
Speaker 1: call you fabulous. But unsure because you're thirty nine, says
Speaker 1: forty two, don't do this, sus don't do this, So unsure.
Speaker 1: I al really like employ man. I don't really like
Speaker 1: four one k's or making four one k's a priority
Speaker 1: if there's no match. So to answer your question, I honestly,
Speaker 1: especially now that these you know, you have these admin fees,
Speaker 1: which is not gonna offset anything. So you know you're
Speaker 1: if you're putting in let's just say eighty three you
Speaker 1: know what is that times Let's do the math we're
Speaker 1: mathing today. Eighty three pre times twelve is nine hundred
Speaker 1: ninety six. So Basically, one thousand dollars a year's what
Speaker 1: you're putting in, and of the thousand, they're taking ten
Speaker 1: percent in fees. So in order for you to come up,
Speaker 1: you would you would have to make more than ten
Speaker 1: percent on your investments. Right, because you're putting in a thousand,
Speaker 1: you're losing one hundred. One hundred is ten percent of
Speaker 1: one thousand. That means your money would have to grow
Speaker 1: beyond that loss in administration fees, which the average the
Speaker 1: market has been averaging for the last hundred years eight
Speaker 1: to ten percent. So you're gonna end up like net even, right, So,
Speaker 1: like the money you put in is literally the money
Speaker 1: you'll get out. It's looking like instead of a four
Speaker 1: one K plan, you looking like you put money to
Speaker 1: save this gown, not even because Savis accounts these days
Speaker 1: are at least giving you one percent. Sis says, says,
Speaker 1: So I would if it's eighty three dollars.
Speaker 2: You've actually read her fine print.
Speaker 1: A girl, I'm so, I'm proud of you. Honestly, I'm
Speaker 1: unsure ish we gonna call you smart, smart, but unsure
Speaker 1: that yes, I would redirect that eighty three someplace elves
Speaker 1: and I would not consider that four one k again,
Speaker 1: unless I had enough to offset the administrative fees. So
Speaker 1: if I was putting in safe, you were putting in
Speaker 1: four hundred bucks a month, you know, then the administrative
Speaker 1: fees would be a smaller percentage of what you put in,
Speaker 1: and it might make sense.
Speaker 2: So yeah, this is exactly why I don't even love
Speaker 2: like some investing apps because they have like a dollar
Speaker 2: amount fee that they charge, which if you're like, if
Speaker 2: you're investing your pocket change, that's a that's a big
Speaker 2: like Tiffany said, when you break it down by the
Speaker 2: fee divided by what you're actually investing, like, it's a
Speaker 2: big it's a big amount of fees. So I can't
Speaker 2: even think. But I would say, just like Tiffany said
Speaker 2: earlier to our previous almost said caller to our previous listener,
Speaker 2: about going to like Magnify Money, but going and doing
Speaker 2: your googles and research to find a brokerage account and
Speaker 2: being realistic about how much you can contribute and then
Speaker 2: see what kind of fees they have, because the fee
Speaker 2: may be different depending on like how much you're going
Speaker 2: to contribute a month. Each month, it might be a
Speaker 2: little bit more if you're contributing less and then less
Speaker 2: if you're contributing more. It's twisted and rude of them
Speaker 2: to do it that way, but that's how a lot
Speaker 2: of them. It's how a bees. Sometimes. That's a really
Speaker 2: good question. Thank you. What are we calling her smart
Speaker 2: but unsure? Yes, smart but unsure, savvy and unsure?
Speaker 1: That really really really quick question.
Speaker 2: Yes, what do that one me on the same page? Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's get yesen Yeah, I love this name from ig
Speaker 2: Yesenya says, should I max out my wroth ira before
Speaker 2: investing in a brokerage account? I'm not sure that I
Speaker 2: can do both right now, it's.
Speaker 1: About time hit him.
Speaker 2: The state amaz that was here with this. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think that that's a good idea. I mean with there's
Speaker 2: some benefits to a roth ira that you're not going
Speaker 2: to get from traditional brokerage account. The main one is,
Speaker 2: so when you're contributing to a wroth you're using dot
Speaker 2: you're using money that you've already paid taxes on and
Speaker 2: you're putting it into a wrath The limit is like
Speaker 2: sixty five hundreds, depends on your age, it can be
Speaker 2: a little bit more, but with a roth iray it's
Speaker 2: a little bit it's a lot more flexible than a
Speaker 2: brokerage account, so the money that you put in because
Speaker 2: you've already paid taxes on it. One of the big
Speaker 2: benefits is that if and I'm not saying you should,
Speaker 2: but if you need to dip into your wrath IRA
Speaker 2: in the future, you'd be able to take out your
Speaker 2: contribution without getting hit with like tax penalties and fees.
Speaker 2: So that's one benefit that it has over a brokerage account.
Speaker 2: And you know, the cap on a wroth IRA being
Speaker 2: like what it is now, sixty five hundred to seven thousand,
Speaker 2: you know, obviously not knowing how much you have to
Speaker 2: put aside, but if you're able to, yeah, hit that cap,
Speaker 2: and then you can at least feel good like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I've ticked this box and you can take your whatever
Speaker 2: proceeds you have left over and shift that into a
Speaker 2: brokerage account. At that point, I think, like many other
Speaker 2: benefits I've.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, here's the thing I always say, like to me,
Speaker 1: there's two there's two purposes of investing, investing for retirement
Speaker 1: and investing for wealth. And I think that you should
Speaker 1: prioritize always investing for retirement first because one day your
Speaker 1: eighty yearr sself is gonna be like, oh wow, So
Speaker 1: because of you, I'm eating you know, I'm finding these
Speaker 1: these these birds at the park for these for these breadcrumbs,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, we don't want to
Speaker 1: put our older self in a position to have to
Speaker 1: work so hard because our younger self was like, oh yikes,
Speaker 1: my bad. So because it's your younger self's job to
Speaker 1: look after your older self. So you know, I want
Speaker 1: you to prioritize investing for retirement first. Typically when people
Speaker 1: put money in a brokerage account, they're investing for wealth,
Speaker 1: which is what we want you to get to. But
Speaker 1: that's after you've done the foundational work of investing for retirement.
Speaker 1: And a roth iray is retirement investing. That's the purpose
Speaker 1: of it. And to Mandy's point, you put money in
Speaker 1: after tax and you get to withdraw it later, you know,
Speaker 1: tax free, because one you've gotten taxed on what you
Speaker 1: contribute already, but also the growth you get to pull
Speaker 1: out tax free as well. So there's a huge benefit
Speaker 1: to a wroth And there's an income max. So I
Speaker 1: think last time I check it was like one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five thousand dollars a year if you make
Speaker 1: more than that, although there's some ways around it with
Speaker 1: like a backdoor wroth and YadA, YadA YadA, you would
Speaker 1: sit down with your financial advisor for that. But on
Speaker 1: the surface, there's an income max of I think it's
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five thousand at least that's what
Speaker 1: it was like last year or the year before. So
Speaker 1: you know you might over time start making more than that,
Speaker 1: so you want to take advantage of that. Why you can,
Speaker 1: So just in general for everyone, take care of your
Speaker 1: retirement first. After you've taken care of that, then start
Speaker 1: looking to invest for wealth. Retirement means you get to
Speaker 1: take care of your older self. Investing for wealth means
Speaker 1: you get you get to leave a legacy and then
Speaker 1: increase your lifestyle. Now, but you, as a younger person,
Speaker 1: younger than your older self, can wait on the luxurious life,
Speaker 1: whereas your older self cannot wait on basic accommodations and living.
Speaker 1: So take care of that old self.
Speaker 2: Okay, dang, but I want nice things now.
Speaker 1: I know you can have nice things, but you got
Speaker 1: to make sure that. Like because I call my older
Speaker 1: self Wanda, and I'm like, you gotta make sure Wanda
Speaker 1: is good because Wanda is like, I know deare gone?
Speaker 1: Well she not, I have sushi again? So she eats
Speaker 1: sushi and I eat baloney. Got it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna think about myself fighting for breadcrumbs from the
Speaker 2: pigeons the next time. Rio's like, I want that new tuck,
Speaker 2: new tuck?
Speaker 1: Do you want to pray for break crumbs at the park?
Speaker 2: They be like, what give me the truck? Lady here?
Speaker 2: Make you look bad mom from everybody? Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: So we hope you enjoyed the b A q A.
Speaker 1: If you have questions, we certainly will try our best
Speaker 1: to answer something. You can hit us up on Insta,
Speaker 1: in the d MS, or even just in the comments
Speaker 1: at we are Brandabish and pod is it part of
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Speaker 1: A the BA podcast on Twitter and we are Brandabision
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Speaker 1: to ask us anything button and we'll try our best
Speaker 1: to get to your questions. If you want to be
Speaker 1: remain remain anonymous, we we will allow it, but we
Speaker 1: prefer you give us a fun name to call you sparkling.
Speaker 1: Do you zad exactly, because if you don't give us
Speaker 1: a name, I'm gonna give you a name.
Speaker 2: It ain't gonna be cute either.
Speaker 1: Oh well, hopefully the baby will give you some peace.
Speaker 1: He's like, I don't want peace, I want problems.
Speaker 2: I really didn't know if I was going to get
Speaker 2: through today's show. So thank you Tiffany and everyone else
Speaker 2: for being very patient. And yeah, my nerves are shot,
Speaker 2: and it's all right. How many more hours still? Bedtime seven?
Speaker 2: We'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 1: Bye bye, bye