Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, I'm back. Sorry guys, last week I
Speaker 1: got my days confused.
Speaker 2: Thanks for I was trying to like play it off
Speaker 2: for you, like, oh, she's just you know, being fabulous
Speaker 2: and taping. I wasn't gonna tell them that you forgot
Speaker 2: about me.
Speaker 1: No, I honestly I was. It was I was in
Speaker 1: LA and I honestly was like, oh, it's Monday, yes,
Speaker 1: And then you texted me like hey girl. Later today,
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's just Tuesday. Oh my god. And I'm
Speaker 1: so glad that you text me, because honestly, I was
Speaker 1: about to get on a plane and you would have
Speaker 1: been like where in the world of siphany because I
Speaker 1: didn't get off until like ten, So I'd been like.
Speaker 2: Maybe I forgive you. I forgive you.
Speaker 1: Everyone say, Mama, I can tell I'm gonna forget my
Speaker 1: kid at school.
Speaker 2: Listen. I forgot which way to like leave out of
Speaker 2: my own driveway today because I have a driveway now
Speaker 2: that's like a thing that you park a car on.
Speaker 2: I didn't anticipate so moving into this house this past week,
Speaker 2: and I didn't anticipate like just how disoriented I would be.
Speaker 2: The first day here, people were knocking on our door
Speaker 2: packages being delivered, so much human interaction, which is weird
Speaker 2: because you think we're so far from humans, being kind
Speaker 2: of in the suburbs. But I have had more face
Speaker 2: to face conversations with people than I ever had in
Speaker 2: my apartment in Jersey, which is just a I don't know,
Speaker 2: but that mixed with like the new commute, I'm just
Speaker 2: like I'm adjusting. I'm in that adjusting face. You guys
Speaker 2: haven't moved in yet, have you.
Speaker 1: No, No, we're gonna. We've been like finding somebody to
Speaker 1: abate the lead, and the asbestis has been a pain
Speaker 1: in the butt because I don't know contractor sometimes they
Speaker 1: just don't show up. You're like, Okay, yes, you're gonna
Speaker 1: come on Monday, do a walk through and give us
Speaker 1: a price. Monday comes, Tuesday comes, Whenesday come. Tech text
Speaker 1: called calm nothing. So we've only had one guy walk
Speaker 1: through and I don't know if what he's charging is
Speaker 1: a lot or little. And so you know, our project
Speaker 1: managers like, you need at least one other person to
Speaker 1: give you, you know, a price range. And some people
Speaker 1: were like, oh, we'll just email your price, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: but you haven't even seen one person emailed us, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's looking around thirty thousand. I'm like, are you meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the guy that walked through told is twenty five hundred?
Speaker 1: What are you doing based upon what it sounds like?
Speaker 1: I'm like, sir, can you come to that house?
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you twenty five hundred is reasonable
Speaker 2: because we got an estimate for that much this weekend.
Speaker 1: But it all depends like so, but are you guys
Speaker 1: that's just for the asbestos right.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, just for asbestos, not for lead paint. But
Speaker 2: I just real quick, I was gonna do my break
Speaker 2: about this. But I think the whole advice around getting
Speaker 2: quotes like so for I've been writing about personal finance
Speaker 2: and we all been talking about get quotes. See many
Speaker 2: experts compare, compare, compare that shit is hard to do
Speaker 2: in real life. It is hard. Like it's your time,
Speaker 2: it's your energy. So I feel you one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: I am like, we are trying to get three quotes
Speaker 2: per project and it is such a pain.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie now that you just said. I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's quote enough for me. I'm about to tell Superman like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, so I think because because that's that's literally,
Speaker 1: what's courts for the asbestos? He said twenty five hundred.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, that sounds good, but I don't
Speaker 1: I didn't. I don't have a point of reference. So
Speaker 1: you know, that's why it was concerning. And so our
Speaker 1: project manager was like, you know, he was like, you know,
Speaker 1: every project is different because some people have a big
Speaker 1: asbestis like you know issue, some people have a little.
Speaker 1: So he's like, I can't tell you because you I
Speaker 1: don't abate asbestos, so I don't want you to get
Speaker 1: in the habit of just taking someone and then finding
Speaker 1: out that it was really a five hundred dollars job.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, this is true. Huh. So it's just
Speaker 1: annoying because you know, that part is just hard. But
Speaker 1: you know, we're because I feel like once the asbestos
Speaker 1: and the lead is done, we will be able to
Speaker 1: to then we have to now find a contractor, which
Speaker 1: I'm not nervous about it, but I'm like, oh god,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a task and the stuff. But at
Speaker 1: least we're not alone.
Speaker 3: Hello, I'm here.
Speaker 2: I had to mute it for two seconds because some
Speaker 2: of car alarm went off. Oh god, why is it
Speaker 2: louder in the burbs than in the city. It's like
Speaker 2: in my closet right now. Yeah, anyway, what's happening outside
Speaker 2: of like home ownership?
Speaker 1: So I am not gonna lie. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: because I wasn't watching it live. I mean I watched
Speaker 1: a lot of it, and I definitely was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this woman is amazing. I mean she just is, you know,
Speaker 1: just the attention to detail. And I saw this posts
Speaker 1: and tell me what you think about it. Someone was like,
Speaker 1: I'm so sick of tired. I'm in this entrepreneur group
Speaker 1: on Facebook and somebody wrote, you know, you've ever seen
Speaker 1: those memes? You have the same twenty four hours that
Speaker 1: Beyonce has.
Speaker 2: No, have you.
Speaker 1: Ever seen that meme?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Basically it's like get your life together. So it's just
Speaker 1: a funny meme that people post. And so an entrepreneur
Speaker 1: posted you, I'm so sick of those you have the
Speaker 1: same twenty four hours as Beyonce has. She posted a
Speaker 1: picture of Beyonce sitting like I guess and like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, like a session where like all of these
Speaker 1: people are like She's like, I guess, I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is, but you could tell it's a planning session.
Speaker 1: It's maybe like four or five people around her. And
Speaker 1: she was like, you know, as an entrepreneur, I don't
Speaker 1: have a team like Beyonce. I don't have the same
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. That's not fair to say that, Like
Speaker 1: I could be getting as much done as she is, right,
Speaker 1: And I was like, I mean, my first, like, you know,
Speaker 1: at first, I mean, I understand what she was saying,
Speaker 1: but I'm also like crimea River. It wasn't like Beyonce
Speaker 1: was born with a team, Like I think, I guess
Speaker 1: that you have the same amount of hours as Beyonce has.
Speaker 1: One it's tongue in cheek, and two I feel like
Speaker 1: you're supposed to work your way up to a team.
Speaker 1: And you know, like when I first started, it was
Speaker 1: me for the first like four years, and then I
Speaker 1: got some interns and then you know, I had like
Speaker 1: ten dollars an hour to give to some poor soul
Speaker 1: to be like my helper, and then it grew and
Speaker 1: it grew to grow. Yeah, So I just thought, like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I wonder what if somebody else would think
Speaker 1: about that that you have the same twenty four hours
Speaker 1: that Beyonce has.
Speaker 2: I think that's ridiculous. I mean, it wouldn't bother me
Speaker 2: because I'm just like, oh, Beyonce's the bar I have
Speaker 2: to meet. I'm just gonna quit life then and go
Speaker 2: live on a beach because ain't gonna happen because of
Speaker 2: biology out the gate working against me. I don't have
Speaker 2: those genes or those that talent. I think you're just
Speaker 2: I think at that point you're taking stuff a little
Speaker 2: bit too seriously. But it does speak to like social
Speaker 2: media and the pressure you feel when you see so
Speaker 2: and so doing this or having this or accomplishing X
Speaker 2: y Z, and just the pressure of all this constant,
Speaker 2: these constant visuals of our colleagues, our friends or family
Speaker 2: living their lives, you know, and highlighting the best of
Speaker 2: their lives that can make you feel inadequate that I'm
Speaker 2: all about taking a break from that. Just don't delete
Speaker 2: your Instagram account because it'll take you two months to
Speaker 2: get it back. As I learned, you want to take
Speaker 2: a break, just move the app over.
Speaker 1: I guess whenever I see your you post on Instagram,
Speaker 1: all in advantage's just happy to be back, Like, hey.
Speaker 2: Guys, you know Beyonce, Like whatever, I'm not mad. I mean,
Speaker 2: Beyonce is just like she's she's just she's like, you
Speaker 2: can't compare yourself to a superstar, you know, compare yourself
Speaker 2: if you're an accountant to the account next to you.
Speaker 2: You know, if Beyonce had a nine to five job
Speaker 2: and no nanny and like, yeah, no staff, then of
Speaker 2: course she wouldn't be accomplishing that much. But she made
Speaker 2: some decisions early in her life, from like the age
Speaker 2: of five that led her to where she is now. So,
Speaker 2: you know, five, I was playing with barbies and now
Speaker 2: I'm paying the price, and I'm okay with that exactly.
Speaker 2: This is my life I played with. I chose barbies
Speaker 2: instead of dance class and star search. So I guess
Speaker 2: that's my life now.
Speaker 1: And I don't yet and I just yeah, like you said,
Speaker 1: I think that she was taking it really seriously. I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe she just got pissed and also too that,
Speaker 1: you know, one, everyone doesn't want Beyonce's life like that,
Speaker 1: quite honestly, I don't want that like it's it's it
Speaker 1: seems like a lot of pressure and a lot more
Speaker 1: work than I'm willing to put in a lot of
Speaker 1: time away, you know, and not to say that life.
Speaker 1: You know, it's seems cool.
Speaker 3: So much pressure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want that. Like I it's enough pressure
Speaker 1: being the budgeteesa in Newark. I didn't even imagine like
Speaker 1: baby Beyonce for the world. So yeah, I'm just like.
Speaker 3: Oh, girl, let's just jump into brown breaks. Yes? Why wait?
Speaker 2: Why keep the people waiting?
Speaker 1: Yes? So let's brown break by brown break. It's going
Speaker 1: to be not Facebook groups as a whole, but Facebook
Speaker 1: groups that where members take themselves entirely too seriously. You're like, girl,
Speaker 1: like I actually left all my vegan groups. I don't
Speaker 1: know anybody any group of people that is more judgmental
Speaker 1: than a vegan I'm not mean.
Speaker 2: What either so angry?
Speaker 1: I'm like from people who don't eat me and love animals,
Speaker 1: you really hate people like I. There's literally I was
Speaker 1: following vegan accounts. You really trying to, like, you know,
Speaker 1: figure out this who vegan lifestyle and I found that,
Speaker 1: Like it'll be like somebody will something like hey, somebody
Speaker 1: today at work said, hey, I notice you don't eat
Speaker 1: me meat, and I told her to leave me the
Speaker 1: heck alone. I'm like, girl, but they'll be like, people
Speaker 1: are so concerned about my meat they need to worry about,
Speaker 1: like the poison they're putting in their bodies. There's just
Speaker 1: so much aggression, and I'm like, where is this coming
Speaker 1: from the vegetables you're eating? But yeah, I feel like,
Speaker 1: isn't hungry?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yes, honestly, yeah, I just I yes, I'm bron breaking
Speaker 1: from angry Facebook groups, especially the vegan groups. I literally
Speaker 1: left all of them because it was just too much.
Speaker 1: I'm like, girl, just don't eat to meat. I can
Speaker 1: honestly say, nobody cares. Like I have not met anyone
Speaker 1: who was like, like, my mom is so cute. I
Speaker 1: told her I was vegan and she's like, okay, so
Speaker 1: she made me like a salad with like the weirdest elements.
Speaker 1: I'm like, mommy, what is in this salad? She's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. You said you don't eat meat, so
Speaker 1: I want you to. But nobody, nobody is has come
Speaker 1: for me. No one has said what are you doing
Speaker 1: with your life? No one? So I'm like, I feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of beacons are making that up that
Speaker 1: most people don't care. And I still make food for
Speaker 1: my husband and my bonus daughter, and sometimes it's meat,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I find really great things that don't have me,
Speaker 1: and they don't mind as long as it tastes good.
Speaker 1: But yeah, definitely roundbreaking from all of that high unnecessary energy.
Speaker 1: What do you break it? What are you boosting?
Speaker 2: I was just going on a rant to Husby earlier
Speaker 2: on the way home from work about immediately the cost
Speaker 2: of home ownership, which I anticipated obviously all the repairs
Speaker 2: and stuff. But our commute, I cannot even sugarcoat it.
Speaker 2: Our commute is way more expensive than it's ever been
Speaker 2: because we now live in the suburbs of New York
Speaker 2: City and you pay for a different train line now,
Speaker 2: and my costs went from eighty nine dollars a month
Speaker 2: on Jersey Path train transit to per person two hundred
Speaker 2: and seventy dollars for a monthly train pass, which is
Speaker 2: just I mean, that's you know, one thing, and I
Speaker 2: have thankfully used up by transit benefit, which I it's
Speaker 2: a benefit you can sometimes get through work where you
Speaker 2: can put pre tax dollars aside. Okay, oh okay, which
Speaker 2: is nice. So I'm saving whatever my tax rate is
Speaker 2: like twenty something percent, who knows, there's like seventeen of
Speaker 2: them now, so you're putting in pre tax dollars and
Speaker 2: then you get a debit card and you can use
Speaker 2: that card to pay for your ticket, which which is nice.
Speaker 2: So it's not like I'm feeling the hit to my
Speaker 2: credit card or my debit account because I'm just swiping
Speaker 2: that card. It's money I've already had set aside from
Speaker 2: my paycheck, the same way you set aside money for
Speaker 2: like an FSA card flex savings account for health care needs.
Speaker 2: So but yeah, two seventy times too, that's like five
Speaker 2: hundred and I'm just.
Speaker 3: Doing the math.
Speaker 2: I'm like, damn, we don't Thank god, we don't have
Speaker 2: a car payment because our car is paid off, so
Speaker 2: it's not so that expense we have to kind of
Speaker 2: factor into our budget now. And then I can walk
Speaker 2: from the train when I get to the city, or
Speaker 2: I can take a city bike, which is the great
Speaker 2: bike share program that we have, but that's an additional
Speaker 2: like on no, twelve bucks a month, not that much more.
Speaker 2: But again, like my commute has gone from has basically tripled.
Speaker 2: But then of course my husband is like, well, we
Speaker 2: get a yard, and we get this, we get that,
Speaker 2: and meda. It's just pros and cons. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: already thinking like, damn, man, that's like tickets to a
Speaker 2: Broadway show or half a refrigerator. I don't know, everything
Speaker 2: seems like an appliance.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, don't you think it that way. I totally
Speaker 1: think my friend is like my best friend in and
Speaker 1: like a group of like other couples are all going
Speaker 1: to Cuba, and she's like, you want to go? I
Speaker 1: was like, ah man, no, I got to do the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Everything is yeah, ah man, those are counters. I wish
Speaker 1: I could go everything I think of. She's like, really,
Speaker 1: I'm like, honestly, like by the time we get the
Speaker 1: flight and they she rented like a really big house
Speaker 1: and all of that. Honestly, it's gonna be probably a
Speaker 1: few thousand dollars between the two of us. And I'm like, honestly,
Speaker 1: that's literally like the difference between the towns that I
Speaker 1: want in a towe. But you know.
Speaker 2: What I'm what I'm really, what I'm really glad about
Speaker 2: is that I pre paid for and pre planned a
Speaker 2: couple of things. Like this week, I have two Broadway
Speaker 2: shows I'm going to because I booked them and paid
Speaker 2: for them like months ago. And I have a vacation,
Speaker 2: well a three day vacation that we're taking in May
Speaker 2: for a wedding to Puntakana, Go Maria, Dominican. You get
Speaker 2: to go to dr all the time for weddings.
Speaker 3: It's great.
Speaker 2: So I have that coming up, which is nice, But
Speaker 2: other than that, I'm like, oh God, what else did
Speaker 2: I pre planned I can look forward to, because yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't. I just don't want to get to a
Speaker 2: place where the house and I don't think that we will.
Speaker 2: I think we're we're both in the same page about
Speaker 2: budgeting for that kind of thing, thank god, because neither
Speaker 2: of us wants to become, like get in a situation
Speaker 2: where we're spending way too much on you know, repairs,
Speaker 2: that our entire life is just one big, like the
Speaker 2: never ending, you know, expensive home improvement project. Like we
Speaker 2: just want to do things quickly and you know, do
Speaker 2: what we need to do to make the house what
Speaker 2: we want it and then move on with our lives,
Speaker 2: hopefully keeping aside some money for the you know, the
Speaker 2: everyday repair you know, like a little house, like a
Speaker 2: little house ready day fund, separate from our personal ready
Speaker 2: day fund, like that I want to be prepared for.
Speaker 2: But I can't live in a home improvement project for months.
Speaker 2: I can't do it. I need to live.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I never you know, I've never done a home improvement.
Speaker 1: That's why we were like, we're not moving until this
Speaker 1: place is mostly done, because I just can't even. I
Speaker 1: just you hear just too many horror stories and because
Speaker 1: we're literally doing so many things where we're not doing
Speaker 1: like major constructions just in the bathroom, but in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: but like I want to refinish the floors and repaint
Speaker 1: here and da da da da. And I was just like,
Speaker 1: I just can't imagine because I wanted be impossible. I
Speaker 1: work from home largely. That's one good thing I'm excited
Speaker 1: about is like dropping the pretense of my office that
Speaker 1: I never go to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, get rid of that that you're still paying for.
Speaker 1: I you know. So what I decided is like I'm
Speaker 1: going to offer my sweet mate, Drina, who's also my
Speaker 1: public is like fifty bucks a month so I can
Speaker 1: still get my mail there and just be like, which
Speaker 1: is basically what I do now, and just be like,
Speaker 1: because you know, I don't want like my professional mail
Speaker 1: to come to my house and people to like show
Speaker 1: up in the middle of the night. So I'm like
Speaker 1: I just want to be like, hey, here's fifty bucks.
Speaker 1: Let me just skip my mail.
Speaker 2: Or you can get a box. Yeah, I know that's
Speaker 2: about the same rate.
Speaker 1: I guess, yeah probably, But it's nice to be like, hey,
Speaker 1: I have office, I'm official. Yeah, right, exactly. Man, Well,
Speaker 1: do we have any questions?
Speaker 2: We do have some good questions. If you guys want
Speaker 2: to send us a question, hit us up at Bran
Speaker 2: and Brown Ambition Podcast. Let me do that again. If
Speaker 2: you guys have any questions, hit us up at Brown
Speaker 2: Ambition podcast dot com. Oh you did it, yeah and
Speaker 2: click ask us anything, or you can email us directly
Speaker 2: at Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. Now we
Speaker 2: have a few questions. I think we might get through these.
Speaker 2: Some of these are simple from a few listeners. And
Speaker 2: thank you guys again for all of your amazing questions
Speaker 2: and not just your questions. You guys take the time
Speaker 2: to send so many sweet notes and Instagram comments and
Speaker 2: Twitter comments and all that, so thank you for that.
Speaker 2: If you haven't yet, definitely go to iTunes and leave
Speaker 2: us a review. Let the world know what you think,
Speaker 2: because those reviews are really important in terms of how
Speaker 2: people can find our shows on iTunes and very little
Speaker 2: bit help. So thank you guys. Our first question, let's
Speaker 2: do an easy one first. This one comes from Yo
Speaker 2: Maida or it's either Yo Maria, which I love, or
Speaker 2: is Yo Madia. She says, Mandy, my husband and I
Speaker 2: need your financial planner desperately.
Speaker 1: I know Yomaida. Oh my god, you chose her. She
Speaker 1: used Omiyda sweet. That's like she's like my mentee. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Oh, maybe this is a personal email. I'm gonna read it.
Speaker 1: Girl.
Speaker 3: We outed you.
Speaker 2: Amia, So it is Eomida? Yes, okay. We view money
Speaker 2: goals two different ways. And he is tripping, so before
Speaker 2: I strangle him, help, before I strangle him help. We
Speaker 2: have home renovations and a European trip coming up, and
Speaker 2: he is on my last nerve. And that's where the
Speaker 2: email ends. I can feel the desperation, so I don't wanna.
Speaker 2: I don't I would say here. So what I'll say
Speaker 2: is I found my financial planner through x Y Planning Network,
Speaker 2: which is a network of fee only financial planners who
Speaker 2: typically work with Generation X Generation Y individuals and couples.
Speaker 2: A lot of them specialize in couples and relationships. So
Speaker 2: I highly recommend going through that. And what I did
Speaker 2: from there is I found three or four different financial
Speaker 2: planners and I interviewed them so I had, like a
Speaker 2: many of them do like a free consultation and you
Speaker 2: and it's all about learning about their fees and all
Speaker 2: so getting a sense of whether you like them or not.
Speaker 2: And that's how we chose the planner we went with.
Speaker 2: And I actually work with a planner. We don't use her.
Speaker 2: We don't use this planner. We were using her every month,
Speaker 2: like monthly, for a year. And that was the year
Speaker 2: when we were playing the wedding and we were IVI
Speaker 2: was swooping jobs and figuring out what to do with
Speaker 2: equity and all this kind of stuff. So it was
Speaker 2: really important to have her for that year. And then
Speaker 2: we slowed down now to just once every six months.
Speaker 2: And she works for like we work with her remotely.
Speaker 2: She's based in Atlanta, and I haven't had any issues
Speaker 2: with it being you know, from a different state. And
Speaker 2: I think you might even find more affordable rates if
Speaker 2: you live in a high cost state like New York City.
Speaker 2: I found that her rates were a lot more reasonable
Speaker 2: for the same amount of work. So x Y planning,
Speaker 2: and there's another. I think that's the main one I
Speaker 2: think of when I when I refer people to fee
Speaker 2: only financial planner networks. And then you have like the
Speaker 2: mother of all places to go to, which is the
Speaker 2: National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. All right, So hopefully
Speaker 2: that was helpful to you. And yeah, and I'll ask
Speaker 2: my financial planner if she's if she doesn't mind, I'm
Speaker 2: sure she won't mind. But there's so many great ones
Speaker 2: on xby planning and everyone's different, so I don't want
Speaker 2: anyone email me be like, hey, girl, you said that
Speaker 2: she may you know, I feel you get your own, Okay.
Speaker 2: And this one's from Anonymous, So uh, this is an
Speaker 2: interesting question. This is about debt consolidation. I like this
Speaker 2: question a lot. Anonymous says, first of all, I love
Speaker 2: the podcast, Thank you very much. I have a loan
Speaker 2: that I refinanced recently. Initially it was a car loan,
Speaker 2: So once I refinanced it, I added my credit card
Speaker 2: debt to it as well. So she's taken her auto
Speaker 2: debt and credit card debt and consolidated it into one
Speaker 2: loan with a new interest rate of four point seventy
Speaker 2: four percent. Right now, the loan balance is at ten dollars.
Speaker 2: In addition to that loan balance, she has also said
Speaker 2: that she's managed to rack up about two thousand dollars
Speaker 2: on oither on other active credit cards. Currently, she says,
Speaker 2: I have a health credit card a little under five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars that will start charging me interest this coming November.
Speaker 2: Should I add this health credit card balance to my
Speaker 2: current consolidated loan or take the money to pay off
Speaker 2: this credit card out of my retirement account? Please help?
Speaker 2: So lots of stuff happening here.
Speaker 1: Does the health credit card that she give the interest
Speaker 1: rate for the health credit.
Speaker 2: Card so she's zero percent. She doesn't give what the
Speaker 2: if it's the credit card I'm thinking of, because there's
Speaker 2: the main The care Credit is one of the biggest
Speaker 2: healthcare credit cards out there, so I'll use that as
Speaker 2: an example. They often do these zero percent intro aprs
Speaker 2: for six months, twelve months, eighteen months, depending on how
Speaker 2: much you're putting on the card. The tricky thing with
Speaker 2: care Credit is that after that period ends, not only
Speaker 2: do they start charging you an interest rate, sometimes they
Speaker 2: have a deferred interest clause, means that if you don't
Speaker 2: actually pay off every penny of that debt. They're going
Speaker 2: to actually charge you for all the interests you would
Speaker 2: have owed if they had been charging interest from the beginning.
Speaker 2: So that's a nasty surprise for a lot of people
Speaker 2: who may not realize that when they see that zero
Speaker 2: percent interest. So I think it's good that you're thinking
Speaker 2: ahead because you know you have until December when that
Speaker 2: zero percent interest changes. But it made you need to
Speaker 2: read the fine print and see if there's a deferred
Speaker 2: interest clause as well, because if there is, you're not
Speaker 2: just worried about getting charged interest you're getting, you're worried
Speaker 2: about getting charged back interest for all this time. So
Speaker 2: I think it's it's smart you don't. I mean, I
Speaker 2: would say, you know, continue trying to pay it down,
Speaker 2: but look to consolidate it before you get to that
Speaker 2: November mark and figure out what's like. What's really worrying
Speaker 2: me is that she's consolidated, and this can happen with
Speaker 2: a lot of people. You consolidate your debt and then
Speaker 2: you feel comfortable like, oh, I have a new loan,
Speaker 2: it's only four percent. I'm going to go ahead and
Speaker 2: start adding, you know, racking up some debt on these
Speaker 2: other credit cards because I feel better about myself or
Speaker 2: like I feel more comfortable with my debt load, but
Speaker 2: you still have the same amount of debt. You know,
Speaker 2: maybe you bought yourself a little bit more time, and
Speaker 2: of course you're spending less on interest. But the fact
Speaker 2: that she's already put two thousand on other credit cards,
Speaker 2: she's put a close to five thousand dollars on this
Speaker 2: health credit card already, there may be just a larger
Speaker 2: issue here. Not having enough savings obviously to cover expenses
Speaker 2: you can afford, or maybe living beyond your means a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would just say, like, I mean, I'm somebody
Speaker 1: who took from my retirement account, but I honestly don't
Speaker 1: recommend it because I'm like just now starting to catch
Speaker 1: up and I was scared I wasn't going to be
Speaker 1: able to. And you don't want to put yourself in
Speaker 1: the position that, you know, when it's time to retire,
Speaker 1: you don't feel like you can stop working because you
Speaker 1: just don't have enough to support yourself. So that's a
Speaker 1: short term problem to a long term like a long
Speaker 1: term life, you know. So no, I would try to
Speaker 1: get your spending it's under control as possible. Like Mandy said,
Speaker 1: definitely pay off the the because if you have a
Speaker 1: zero percent I would not want to switch to zero
Speaker 1: to four percent until I absolutely had to exactly enough,
Speaker 1: because then you'll you're literally going to be paying extra
Speaker 1: money four percent for nothing, you know, because when you
Speaker 1: could just pay the principle directly. So yeah, I would
Speaker 1: wait and maybe like a month before. If you're not done,
Speaker 1: then roll it on over.
Speaker 2: And definitely read that fine print to see if you
Speaker 2: have that deferred interest clause. Yeah, thanks, and work to
Speaker 2: pay it off as soon as you can. Do whatever
Speaker 2: you can to not to not rack up more credit
Speaker 2: card debt, because yeah, some people will roll. And this
Speaker 2: is a good tip for people to know if you have.
Speaker 2: One of the questions I got recently, I did a
Speaker 2: we do a lecture at Brooklyn College a couple times
Speaker 2: a year. I just went down there. One of the
Speaker 2: questions I got from someone was, I did a balance
Speaker 2: transfer recently and it's coming up on the time when
Speaker 2: zero percent interest rate period ends, the promotional rate ends.
Speaker 2: What should I do because I still have money left
Speaker 2: in the card. And I said, a lot of times
Speaker 2: people will do a new balance transfer. Now you can't.
Speaker 2: You can only do that for so long because you
Speaker 2: can't transfer the same bank to the same bank, so
Speaker 2: you have to keep finding new offers, but getting ahead
Speaker 2: of it and like proactively transferring a balance to a
Speaker 2: new balance transfer offers. It's one option, but you don't
Speaker 2: want to keep chasing balance transfer offers forever. You need
Speaker 2: to eventually be aggressive about paying this debt down. Yep,
Speaker 2: and at four percent you're doing well. It's a lot
Speaker 2: better than credit cards. But take this time to really
Speaker 2: aggressively attack it. Don't like sit back and relax. Hope
Speaker 2: I'm not coming across two judge, because I know things
Speaker 2: can happen and health care costs are insane, But just
Speaker 2: keep in mind what to watch out for anyone listening
Speaker 2: when you look at those health credit cards, especially with
Speaker 2: that deferred interest clause, because it's in there a lot
Speaker 2: of times. So watch out for that.
Speaker 1: Because I definitely did that when I had I had
Speaker 1: to get dental work done, but I didn't have like
Speaker 1: really any insurance and they're like, oh, I don't worry.
Speaker 1: You didn't take that a loan it's zero percent interest
Speaker 1: for twelve months, And I was like, okay, and near
Speaker 1: the end that owed like, you know, a few hundred
Speaker 1: dollars whatever, And I don't know who told me. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's the secretary. She kind of pulled
Speaker 1: me to the side, was like, girl pays this off
Speaker 1: because if not, it all comes up. Yeah, and Ily, wait.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, John Not to bring it back to home ownership,
Speaker 2: but I've been reading, you know, I was at home
Speaker 2: Depot just reading some of the materials they had about
Speaker 2: home improvement project financing, and I believe I saw a
Speaker 2: deferred interest clause in that as well. So it's in
Speaker 2: all these terms, all these you know, nice zero percent
Speaker 2: interest promotional loans out there, just nothing. Sometimes if it's
Speaker 2: too good to be true, it really is.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for your question, Anonymous. Last question. We
Speaker 2: have time for one more question, right, all right, This
Speaker 2: comes from question This is a fun question from listener Kim. First,
Speaker 2: she has a confession to make. She says, I've been
Speaker 2: cheating on you. How dare you? With the camp with
Speaker 2: some other podcasts talking about self care and beauty routines.
Speaker 2: But she said she's come to us now because she
Speaker 2: wants to know basically we all know that self care beauty. Sorry,
Speaker 2: I just had a hiccup. Basically, we all know that
Speaker 2: self care and beauty routines are really expensive. So Kim
Speaker 2: wanted to know, Mandy and Tiffany, how much do we
Speaker 2: spend on self care and would you be willing to
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about that on your show. I'd
Speaker 2: love to hear what some of your favorite products are
Speaker 2: and how you budget those things into your life, because
Speaker 2: she knows the struggle is real and this hair is expensive.
Speaker 1: Yes, so I would have to say my vitia routine
Speaker 1: is pretty low maintenance. I don't really do much. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie so like, I don't use like expensive
Speaker 1: stuff for my hair because I found that with locks anyway,
Speaker 1: when I had a fro, I needed a lot of products.
Speaker 1: But locks actually do better with less products.
Speaker 2: You're so smart. Locks are way less maintenance.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, when I say, it's the best thing
Speaker 1: ever happens in my life. And so the thing that
Speaker 1: costs the most with my locks is that it's actually
Speaker 1: get them retightened. So that's one hundred dollars, which I do,
Speaker 1: like I would say every other month. So you know,
Speaker 1: so I'm kind of spending like six hundred bucks a
Speaker 1: year on my hair, and I mean I use like
Speaker 1: regular like Suave shampoo. It doesn't need much. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get my nails done or like
Speaker 1: my feet done unless like Superman is like, honestly.
Speaker 2: Wait you let it get to that point when the
Speaker 2: man notices, you know, because.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm such a town boy, and he's like, babe,
Speaker 1: is that the sound of your foot on the A.
Speaker 2: I'm like, uh, sounds like a dog.
Speaker 1: Like with the like the cash, You're like, wait, I
Speaker 1: can start a fire. So but I will say this
Speaker 1: about so and I don't, like I really don't wear
Speaker 1: much makeup, so like I don't. I've actually stopped wearing
Speaker 1: any makeup on my skin im unless it's for like
Speaker 1: a TV or photo shoot because I found myself breaking out.
Speaker 1: And then one day I was literally looking at Superman
Speaker 1: skin and I was like, yo, your skin is like
Speaker 1: perfect and we live in the same house. What's happened?
Speaker 1: He's like, you put all that crap on it? And
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what I do?
Speaker 2: Also, the ovaries that we have pumpy hormones, that's not
Speaker 2: something you can remove.
Speaker 1: I know, So like I stopped, and honestly, not that
Speaker 1: I ever had like terrible skin, but I found that
Speaker 1: my skin was like way better. So I do spend
Speaker 1: decent money on like like like lotion for my skin,
Speaker 1: Like I use like a special really moisturizing motion because
Speaker 1: my skin is dry. I spend like decent money on
Speaker 1: like face stuff for my skin just to keep it
Speaker 1: like healthy. But yeah, that's probably where I spend the most.
Speaker 1: About it, if I'm gonna say beauty money, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm honestly, I'm not gonna lie. I'm pretty low maintenance
Speaker 1: and unless I'm like being the budget Nissa than it's hair, nails,
Speaker 1: eyelashes and dresses and all that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 1: me as Tiffany, I'm like, I still have the same
Speaker 1: dirty pair of trucks that from three years ago that
Speaker 1: I'm sure if I turn my back he would throw away.
Speaker 2: Well, if you had to put a number on it,
Speaker 2: how much do you think you spend on like self care?
Speaker 2: And that can be anything from like beauty to work
Speaker 2: fitness to anything that you.
Speaker 1: Do a year, well I'll say this.
Speaker 2: Or a month whatever.
Speaker 1: Well, the thing is the biggest thing I do for
Speaker 1: self care, honestly is to travel because I really enjoy
Speaker 1: that when I do, you know, get like a chance
Speaker 1: so that that's not necessarily obviously cheap. I mean, I
Speaker 1: try to find a great deal, but I enjoy traveling
Speaker 1: because other than that, it's it's taking a nap, reading
Speaker 1: or traveling, and reading is pretty inexpensive. Taking a nap
Speaker 1: is free, and travel is like, if I'm going to
Speaker 1: splurge on something for myself, it's definitely travel. And I
Speaker 1: would say I probably spend two to five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year on travel. It depends because if I go
Speaker 1: on an epic trip, then it might be more, because
Speaker 1: I like up to five because you know, I'm like
Speaker 1: going to multiple countries, like I went to India one
Speaker 1: year and then Morocco and so. But yeah, so I
Speaker 1: would say probably exactly collectively two to five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year on all of my self care stuff, including
Speaker 1: the gym membership that I never use.
Speaker 2: You never use your gym membership, I was gonna see.
Speaker 2: I hate that too. So for me, I like this
Speaker 2: question because that movie Amy Schumer did and I haven't
Speaker 2: honestly seen it at all. I don't know that I
Speaker 2: intend to. But it's called I Feel Pretty and it's
Speaker 2: about a woman who thinks that she's has like low
Speaker 2: self esteem, and then she knocks her head at a
Speaker 2: soul cycle class and she wakes up feeling super confident
Speaker 2: and beautiful, and all of a sudden, she's changed her
Speaker 2: mindset and she gets the main and the job and
Speaker 2: the everything, the friends and the beauty and the money
Speaker 2: and all that stuff. And there's been all these like
Speaker 2: hatefolk think pieces written about it because beauty standards are
Speaker 2: just so insane. And I was and like it's almost
Speaker 2: like we've put the pressure on the woman. Oh, just
Speaker 2: change your mindset and you know it's all gonna work
Speaker 2: in your favor. But the way that the way the
Speaker 2: world works right now is you do feel pressure to
Speaker 2: look good, to like physically look good, and spend money
Speaker 2: on yourself and to do the hair, of the nails,
Speaker 2: the face, the fitness whatever, to look good, to beat
Speaker 2: some sort of standard.
Speaker 3: And it's expensive for me.
Speaker 2: I've always like for me, I hate in New York City.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's this way around the country,
Speaker 2: but these like these fitness classes now are so effing expensive.
Speaker 2: When I was in Jersey, I was spending I could
Speaker 2: I spent one hundred and or no, close to two
Speaker 2: hundred dollars a month just for this fitness class that
Speaker 2: I liked, and they're all doing that now. It's like
Speaker 2: two hundred dollars to go to the like the soul site.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I didn't do soul Cycle, but soul cycle a peer bar.
Speaker 2: These new trendy fitness classes are over two hundred dollars
Speaker 2: sometimes or they want to charge you annually, and for me,
Speaker 2: I just I just don't. I can't wrap my I
Speaker 2: can't stomach spending that much money on pain and suffering. So,
Speaker 2: which is what working out kind is. So one of
Speaker 2: the reasons I like where I live now is that
Speaker 2: I actually have an opportunity to be more active for free,
Speaker 2: which is what I like. So I have a ten
Speaker 2: minute walk to the train, and I have I could
Speaker 2: walk fifteen minutes to my office, or I could take
Speaker 2: a bike and bike to the office. It's like today
Speaker 2: I did eight thousand steps and didn't pay a dime.
Speaker 2: Eight thousand steps and I haven't done more than like
Speaker 2: on a good day going back and forth from home
Speaker 2: to work. Before where we used to live, I was
Speaker 2: doing like twenty five hundred steps. It was pathetic. So
Speaker 2: I would have to go to the gym to actually
Speaker 2: get some workout in. But now I feel like my
Speaker 2: life is naturally built around a little bit more activity, okay,
Speaker 2: And I think that I'm going to be watching because
Speaker 2: I have not been working out, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: see if this makes a difference, if I start seeing
Speaker 2: some results in terms of maintaining my weight, because I
Speaker 2: have put on weight the last few months that I've
Speaker 2: been focusing on work so much, which is not good.
Speaker 2: But I'm hoping that this is just like an easy
Speaker 2: freeway free ish because like I said, girl, I'm paying
Speaker 2: more for my commute but low cost way to get
Speaker 2: more fit. And I mean I'm guilty of spending probably
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars a month, well yeah, on self care
Speaker 2: and beauty and stuff only because this hair is just
Speaker 2: so freaking high maintenance. It just needs so much product.
Speaker 2: And girl, she loves loves, loves product, and she's very
Speaker 2: moody and she doesn't get any and I go through
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: Yes, when your hair's out like that, I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: like by fro, people are like, oh my god, natural
Speaker 1: hair so so much easier than when you had a
Speaker 1: perm Are you kidding me? My fro was a demanding beast.
Speaker 1: It was like, no, I blush your boring product. That's
Speaker 1: more than it was so much work. I can't even
Speaker 1: imagine with your hair out. Oh my gosh, it's like
Speaker 1: a pet.
Speaker 2: It's like having a pet. It honestly is like a
Speaker 2: freaking plant or something. It's it's a lot, but I
Speaker 2: love it. I worked hard, you know, it's it's what
Speaker 2: I'm supposed to look like. But it's just, you know,
Speaker 2: God just gave me an extra bill on the end
Speaker 2: of my you know, just gave me some extra basically,
Speaker 2: give me a hair bill of one hundred dollars a
Speaker 2: month just to keep it, maintain it.
Speaker 1: You know, how much do you think that you spend
Speaker 1: like a year or like, yeah, a year, I would
Speaker 1: say on beauty and self care.
Speaker 2: That's probably way more than anyone ever wanted to know
Speaker 2: about hair care. But I feel you because this stuff
Speaker 2: is not cheap, not cheap at all. So thanks Kim
Speaker 2: for your question that I'll love.
Speaker 1: I'll do it for so many and I do want
Speaker 1: to try something quickly. If you want a little shout
Speaker 1: out on BA you know, if you head over to
Speaker 1: Instagram and you follow us, what's our Instagram.
Speaker 2: It's uh, brown Enbition podcast, hoof almost forgotten, so difficult
Speaker 2: to remember Brown Ambition Podcast. Yes, please, I manage that account.
Speaker 2: And you guys have been so nice about responding to
Speaker 2: our posts and just you know, commenting on the shows
Speaker 2: on Instagram. So I love it. Keep doing it, follow us.
Speaker 1: And if you so, if you if you follow us
Speaker 1: and you leave a comment, you know, we'll, you know,
Speaker 1: try to do a little shout out once a week.
Speaker 1: You'd be like, ow, I see you Maria, I see
Speaker 1: you bought a house or whatever it is. Like, we'll
Speaker 1: try to do a post then and to get some
Speaker 1: feedback from you guys because we love to see you
Speaker 1: on social as well.
Speaker 2: That's how we want to end the show now. It's
Speaker 2: by calling you guys out on some reading your comments,
Speaker 2: leap reading your thoughts that we get on Instagram. So
Speaker 2: start commenting. I guess I should start posting more.
Speaker 1: Get on right, and with that, we bid you do too.
Speaker 2: I guess I'm gonna go back to my house, all
Speaker 2: these rooms.
Speaker 1: And I will go back to uh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: just taking a nap.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Somebody's gotta do it.