Speaker 1: I legit just unzipped my skirt because it was getting
Speaker 1: more tight.
Speaker 2: One of those things and a skirt.
Speaker 1: I was like, let me try this skirt on. It
Speaker 1: said okay. But then like you go through the day
Speaker 1: and your body like expands.
Speaker 2: I feel like, anyway, maybe that's too real for our
Speaker 2: audience to hear about.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's go.
Speaker 3: Hey, hey, hey, and we're back Episode fourteen of Brown Ambition.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, everybody.
Speaker 4: Yes, we're back, back back with a heart attack.
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving week. I know, what are you doing?
Speaker 4: I have mixed emotions. Well, I'm gonna my sister.
Speaker 3: She just had a baby, so she's having it Thanksgiving
Speaker 3: at her house for the first time, so excited about
Speaker 3: that Superman will be coming.
Speaker 2: And because she has nothing else to do besides like nothing,
Speaker 2: she has so much free time to like be able
Speaker 2: to you know, serve Thanksgiving dinner, plus a newborn, she.
Speaker 3: Thinks she's just like, I'm not trying to take the
Speaker 3: baby out the house. Come to the house.
Speaker 1: Oh that's that's true.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm excited about that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean I always been with like my immediate family,
Speaker 3: like my parents and my sisters. So that's Thanksgiving usually
Speaker 3: and it's always really nice and then I'll like friend
Speaker 3: hop later.
Speaker 2: Do you guys do like a traditional Thanksgiving dinner? Do
Speaker 2: you have Nigerian food? How does that work?
Speaker 4: A mix?
Speaker 3: You know, it's all crazy because being a Nigerian is
Speaker 3: so a part of me that I'm like, I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: it's tonly traditional. Then I'm like, do you even know
Speaker 3: what traditional loans about? So I'm like, y'all don't eat
Speaker 3: a goosey soup. I'm like, well, I'm pretty sure to
Speaker 3: make something like we have a turkey, and of course
Speaker 3: we have we have African food and traditional American food
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: That sounds good.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: I love African food, not that it's all the same,
Speaker 2: but what I've had I've enjoyed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're doing.
Speaker 2: I decided to host like a friends giving because this
Speaker 2: is well I have. I've been a home for Thanksgiving
Speaker 2: in like six years, I realized, And lately we've been
Speaker 2: going to my Booze family's house, but they don't eat
Speaker 2: till super late. They're Dominican. I guess that's like a thing.
Speaker 2: It's like comme at seven, we'll eat at eleven kind
Speaker 2: of thing. And I'm just really used to my mom's
Speaker 2: family's Thanksgiving and comm at two and you eat for
Speaker 2: the next like seven hours, and you like sit and
Speaker 2: watch TV. So this year I was like, let me
Speaker 2: just do a real Thanksgiving. And today I decided I'm
Speaker 2: going to do a turkey. And then I started making
Speaker 2: a shopping list and then I added all the sides,
Speaker 2: and then I was like, I'm gonna be broke. And
Speaker 2: then I was like, why am I doing this? And
Speaker 2: I thought about canceling, and then I had like a
Speaker 2: mini heart attack. But I'm working on stress. So I'm
Speaker 2: taking some deep breaths and I'm just gonna do whatever
Speaker 2: I can. I'm going to do the best I can.
Speaker 2: You know, I gotta work, So I'm going to try
Speaker 2: and I'll try and do a turkey some sides. I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna go crazy, and hopefully it'll be fun. Importantly,
Speaker 2: I got all the champagne and the booze, so step
Speaker 2: one is complete.
Speaker 1: And that's what If it all.
Speaker 2: Goes to hell, we will just be consuming cocktails Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: And so let's jump into buzzworthy. Okay, there's some fun
Speaker 1: stuff this week.
Speaker 2: Did you see the new So everyone went crazy with
Speaker 2: the new Apple commercial with Taraji, Carrie and Mary J.
Speaker 1: Blige. But did you see the new one?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Did you hear that Oprah was supposed to be a
Speaker 3: part of the commercial last minute? She was like, actually, no,
Speaker 3: that's what I read. I mean, who knows if it's true,
Speaker 3: but that was the word on the street. I just
Speaker 3: it seems weird.
Speaker 4: I'm like, I can't see Oprah hanging out with that.
Speaker 1: That's what I was just about to say.
Speaker 2: Like, whenever Oprah tries to pretend like she's like tequila,
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: Buy it, Like dah, you know, you having like a
Speaker 1: chai tea. You're not sitting bacula, you.
Speaker 4: Know, picking on Unicorn's tears.
Speaker 1: I feel like she's too grown.
Speaker 2: Like not that they're not grown either, but like I
Speaker 2: don't buy the girlfriend vibe from Oprah.
Speaker 4: You know, no, I do, but just not with them.
Speaker 1: Maybe not.
Speaker 4: I barely buy the girlfriend vibe with them.
Speaker 3: With Carrie Washington, I'm like, I don't know Carrie Gina
Speaker 3: when she was well, you know what when she said
Speaker 3: that because in the video they're listening to like salsa
Speaker 3: music or she turns it on because she's like, who
Speaker 3: asked her?
Speaker 2: What makes you feel sexy? Which by the way, I've
Speaker 2: never asked my girlfriend that ever. It's on a natural
Speaker 2: question and she's like, m you.
Speaker 1: Know when you in the Bronx.
Speaker 2: Iber turned on the Mark Anthony and so I was like,
Speaker 2: she from the I knew she went to like a
Speaker 2: prep school. So I googled her real quick and she
Speaker 2: actually did grow up in the Bronx, So she has that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because even the way, I was like, I'm not
Speaker 3: I'm not believing it, but okay, like Mary at Taraji,
Speaker 3: clearly they read realistic homegirl, Hey, what's up? You know,
Speaker 3: but Carrie, And not to say she's not she doesn't
Speaker 3: seem like a nice woman, but I felt like it
Speaker 3: was slightly the homegirl vibe was slightly forced.
Speaker 4: I did read somewhere that the.
Speaker 3: I don't know CEO CFO whomever said that you know,
Speaker 3: girls are not girls are better at picking out guys.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you're thinking about Johnny Ivine or whatever earth
Speaker 2: He owns Apple Music. He's like a famous producer, and
Speaker 2: he said that the quote was something like women don't
Speaker 2: know how to find music.
Speaker 3: Exactly, and I was like, oh, okay, so before this
Speaker 3: whole Apple whatever thing you're pushing, I guess women just
Speaker 3: listen to dead air sank when it.
Speaker 2: Went like, oh my god, like, where is the music?
Speaker 2: I just can't find that. The radio is so hard.
Speaker 2: I think he just put his foot in his mouth.
Speaker 2: You know, he probably came out and apologize even since then, but.
Speaker 4: I just thought that was funny.
Speaker 3: I was just like, well, people say stuff like that
Speaker 3: and they're not whatever it is talking about. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: because in your expert, non woman opinion.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I went to this this past week. It was Women
Speaker 2: Entrepreneurship Day, and I had the opportunity to go to
Speaker 2: the United Nations and sit in for the whole day
Speaker 2: long event at different panels, and all these amazing women
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs got up and gave speeches and stuff. And I
Speaker 2: met a guy there who was from this huge investment firm, Massive,
Speaker 2: and we were talking about, you know, introducing ourselves, talking
Speaker 2: about investing. I was like, well, so what brings you here,
Speaker 2: like the one dude in the entire audience, and he's like,
Speaker 2: you know, my firm is really trying to figure out
Speaker 2: how to attract more women, you know, because women are
Speaker 2: so they you know, don't like investing and they're so
Speaker 2: afraid to kind of like put their money in the market.
Speaker 2: And right then I was like, like, I really hate
Speaker 2: that that whole notion of like, oh, women aren't investing
Speaker 2: because they're afraid, or they don't know how to, or
Speaker 2: they're not confident. I feel like that may be true
Speaker 2: in some aspects, but when you keep on, like when
Speaker 2: you keep proliferating that stereotype or putting that out there,
Speaker 2: it just, yeah, it just everyone starts believing it, and
Speaker 2: then soon enough it becomes like, oh, yeah, women just
Speaker 2: are bad with money.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the truth of the matter is, I mean, honestly,
Speaker 3: with what I do with the budgetista, women asking or
Speaker 3: wanting to invest is the number one request outside of
Speaker 3: like savings and like a little bit of credit stuff.
Speaker 3: But almost every woman it's like, so I really want
Speaker 3: to invest. It's not even a matter of like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm afraid.
Speaker 4: Of the market.
Speaker 3: It's just you know, like you said, there's this lack
Speaker 3: of to mere a lack of knowledge. It's because there's
Speaker 3: a lack of pointed education in this direction, and.
Speaker 2: Women are quicker to women are quicker to admit that
Speaker 2: they have a lack of knowledge yep, and to ask
Speaker 2: those questions. And also I was telling him, I was like,
Speaker 2: why focus why put on the focus on finding women
Speaker 2: and trying to figure out how to teach your mostly
Speaker 2: male advisors, because let's not get it twisted, like financial
Speaker 2: advisors as an industry. Financial advisory firms as an industry
Speaker 2: are crazy, crazily skewed toward men as advisors and like
Speaker 2: hardly any women at all. And I said, if you want, like,
Speaker 2: stop trying to teach your male advisors how to speak
Speaker 2: to women and just focus on recruiting more women.
Speaker 4: Yep, it's like.
Speaker 3: Advisors, like you ever see those commercials and it's so
Speaker 3: clear that there was not a brown face around the table,
Speaker 3: and they're like, the commercial will open up with Jamal
Speaker 3: and he's.
Speaker 1: Like yo, yo, yo, what up? Yo?
Speaker 4: Have a cod man? And you're like, who in the world.
Speaker 3: You're like, clearly there was no Jamal present at the
Speaker 3: table when you guys were deciding about this commercial, like
Speaker 3: the song that they chosen, it's so clear that you're like, what,
Speaker 3: nobody even listens to music like that anymore? Just like
Speaker 3: when you said Carrie was like what makes you feel sexy?
Speaker 3: Like women don't talk like that? Was there no woman
Speaker 3: writer available to help you with that line.
Speaker 2: Well, Apa di Verne supposedly directed, and I love her,
Speaker 2: but that was an awkward little line.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I know.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I just think to myself that, like, you're right,
Speaker 3: instead of trying to get people to figure out, well,
Speaker 3: how do we reach that audience, why don't you find
Speaker 3: that audience to reach that audience?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's where we are. Don't expect us
Speaker 2: to come to your level or wherever you want.
Speaker 4: Us to be.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of Carrie, and I'm going to segue into
Speaker 2: like the shondaland Shonda rhymes. First of all, Shanna Rhymes.
Speaker 2: His new book is out Year of Yes, and I
Speaker 2: have it. I can't wait to read it. But I
Speaker 2: wanted to talk about Carrie Washington and scandalous past week.
Speaker 1: Do you watch Scandal?
Speaker 4: Yeah? On occasion, so I don't want to.
Speaker 1: This is a This is a huge spoiler.
Speaker 2: So if you are listening and you haven't watched this
Speaker 2: latest episode of Scandal, please fast forward on the podcast
Speaker 2: a couple of minutes because I have to talk about
Speaker 2: this scene in the latest episode.
Speaker 1: Do you mind, Tiffany if I spoil it for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: No, that's fine, And I don't watch it like that.
Speaker 1: So I stopped watching.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I haven't watched the past five episodes because I'm
Speaker 2: so sick of the whole like love triangle, in the
Speaker 2: back and forth. I get exhausted by it between her
Speaker 2: and the president fits. But I saw a couple of
Speaker 2: headlines that got me to catch up and watch the
Speaker 2: latest episode, which involved from what I read, I knew
Speaker 2: it was gonna involve an abortion scene. I saw a scandal,
Speaker 2: you know, dramatic abortion scene, must watch or whatever. I
Speaker 2: didn't realize how they were going to do it, and
Speaker 2: the way that they did it is so Carrie Washington.
Speaker 2: Her character Olivia Pope has an abortion at the but
Speaker 2: the way they did it was so unique. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you've ever watched any of Shanda's other shows,
Speaker 2: like Grey's Anatomy, she handled abortion. In an early season
Speaker 2: of Grey's Anatomy, one of her characters, Christina Yang, decides
Speaker 2: to have an abortion, and it was like a huge,
Speaker 2: like arc storyline. You know, she's an established doctor, very wealthy. Obviously,
Speaker 2: she's almost engaged practically to another head of surgery man
Speaker 2: and he wants to have kids so badly and it's
Speaker 2: like a back and forth because she does not want
Speaker 2: to have kids, and they follow it for a few
Speaker 2: episodes and it says huge, drawn out thing, and finally
Speaker 2: she decides, I'm going to.
Speaker 1: Have the abortion. I thought it was really powerful. She
Speaker 1: did the exact opposite.
Speaker 2: This time with Scandal, So Carrie, like, the entire episode
Speaker 2: goes by and nothing's happening. I'm like, where's the abortion
Speaker 2: at She's not even pregnant. No one even knows she's pregnant, Like,
Speaker 2: when's it gonna happen. Well, it turns out like three
Speaker 2: quarters of the way through, all you see is Olivia
Speaker 2: just in a doctor's office and the doctor's like, you
Speaker 2: can come back now. And as the song Silent Night
Speaker 2: and Ave Maria is playing, you see her going through
Speaker 2: the procedure and there's no conversation. She's not talking to
Speaker 2: you know, her lover fits about it. And it was
Speaker 2: just no matter what your beliefs about abortion art, it
Speaker 2: was just a really striking and like surprisingly like realistic
Speaker 2: image of what it is for a woman to go
Speaker 2: through that decision. And I just thought it was And
Speaker 2: especially since Olivia represents to so many women like a
Speaker 2: powerful woman like owns her own business.
Speaker 1: It's like very powerful in her career. I thought it was.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a really interesting way of approaching
Speaker 2: the subject and being true to the character of who
Speaker 2: she is.
Speaker 4: Is she did she tell Fits that she was pregnant.
Speaker 1: No, it happens. I'm not even kidding.
Speaker 2: Like the whole episode, it kind of foreshadows it because
Speaker 2: in the beginning, one of the senators is filibustering, where
Speaker 2: you stand up there for six you know, stand up
Speaker 2: there for hours, and you talk until the clock runs
Speaker 2: out on the voting for a bill to get the
Speaker 2: bill from being passed. And this particular bill was going
Speaker 2: to defund planned parented, which is very like of today's
Speaker 2: you know this almost happened or this you know almost
Speaker 2: happened a month ago. And as so you're hearing this senator,
Speaker 2: you know, protesting this bill about defunding planned parenthood and
Speaker 2: like women's rights to you know, proper health care.
Speaker 1: And then three quarters the.
Speaker 2: Way through, like it just flips to Olivia going to
Speaker 2: the doctor. I mean, it's not playing parenthood and getting
Speaker 2: the abortion, and she doesn't tell Fits, and there's I mean,
Speaker 2: who knows what's going to happen next?
Speaker 1: Episode, and that was the only like.
Speaker 2: I am, I'm clearly pro choice. I know women who've
Speaker 2: had abortions, and I know women who have I think
Speaker 2: it's important to show an abortion story that's not just
Speaker 2: someone who's been raped or someone who's poor, or someone's
Speaker 2: who's like thirteen years old, and like, you show a
Speaker 2: real woman who's like established, has a career on paper,
Speaker 2: has every reason to like be able to bring a
Speaker 2: child into the world, and yet makes the decision not to.
Speaker 2: And I think that that is it's really important to
Speaker 2: show that because those women do exist, and so often
Speaker 2: abortion is like talked about along the lines of like, oh, it's.
Speaker 1: Okay if you follow, if you take these boxes.
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, I said, you mean, so I really.
Speaker 2: Appreciate Shanda for doing that, and I mean, it'll be
Speaker 2: all kinds of crazy controversy about it, but and you know,
Speaker 2: I think my only you.
Speaker 1: Know, I'm not even gonna judge. You know, I have
Speaker 1: my own thoughts about it.
Speaker 2: But honestly, if you've never been in that position before
Speaker 2: where you're you know, you're just deciding to have an abortion,
Speaker 2: you can't I can't even judge.
Speaker 1: She's a fake character.
Speaker 2: She's not real, but I can't judge Olivia for the
Speaker 2: way she did it because it is like her choice.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I feel what you're saying about, like
Speaker 3: the way certain things are portrayed, like, oh, this is
Speaker 3: the only way that you can make that choice. And
Speaker 3: I haven't been placed in that choice. I mean I've
Speaker 3: known friends who have been and you know, and I'm trying.
Speaker 4: To think of that. I know, any friend that kind
Speaker 4: of just chose, oh, I don't really want to have kids.
Speaker 3: Maybe so, but they probably haven't told because you're right,
Speaker 3: that's considered like why would you make that choice.
Speaker 4: You're supposed to only make it under duress, basically, you.
Speaker 1: Know, so hard for people to understand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And you know, there's studies that show that
Speaker 2: most women who have not most, but like a good
Speaker 2: proportion of women who have abortions have already had kids
Speaker 2: and they're older and they're like, I just don't want it anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, what's wrong with that? So I just
Speaker 2: love I just feel like like Grey's Anatomy is still
Speaker 2: so relevant. I know it's been around for one hundred
Speaker 2: million years, but Shanna Rhimes is still working it. That
Speaker 2: show is so relevant. I feel like Scandal to me
Speaker 2: has gotten me back interested all of a sudden, because like,
Speaker 2: I was so sick of the Love Triangle.
Speaker 3: Now I am kind of sick of that. You know,
Speaker 3: it's very novel TV novella. You're like, all right, it's
Speaker 3: a little bit wild. I used to Actually what I
Speaker 3: liked about Scandal, like, of course, you know, we all
Speaker 3: kind of like the love Triangle at first, But what
Speaker 3: I liked was like, you know, the individual cases, like ooh,
Speaker 3: how she gonna solve this one?
Speaker 4: I enjoyed those.
Speaker 1: They finally get back to that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm like, please bring that back, you know.
Speaker 3: To me, the love Triangle is supposed to be like
Speaker 3: a background to the actual like almost like what is it?
Speaker 5: Like? Uh?
Speaker 4: Those like cop shows that every.
Speaker 3: Like there's literally like a thousand spin offs of this
Speaker 3: one cop show, the New York New York Undercover.
Speaker 4: What did they say? No, not Law and Order?
Speaker 3: You know, like how the reason one of the reasons
Speaker 3: why it's so successful.
Speaker 4: Is that each show it's like a brand new breadth
Speaker 4: of air.
Speaker 3: You know, right, And so like I'm kind of I
Speaker 3: kind of like that about Shonda's show that it was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: it's a brand new show. Yes, there's some remnants of
Speaker 3: the old show with his love triangle, but basically we're
Speaker 3: solving this issue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you can skip the last four episodes,
Speaker 2: just watch this latest one and then start again, because oh,
Speaker 2: I was like, come on, I just see fits in
Speaker 2: his little whip whip quivering and like him just crying
Speaker 2: about his lady's trip. Like can you imagine Obama sitting
Speaker 2: around and like calling his girlfriend like he doesn't have
Speaker 2: time or that. I just cannot imagine Obama with time
Speaker 2: for like this crazy love triangle.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly, it's just crazy.
Speaker 2: Well thanks, Shonda, You're the best. You're the best, You
Speaker 2: the best girl.
Speaker 5: You got it.
Speaker 3: So brown break, Brown break, Brown break.
Speaker 4: What you're gonna do, what you're gonna do when we
Speaker 4: break for you? So first I gotta find it.
Speaker 3: So I have this Facebook group online called like Dreamcatchers.
Speaker 3: It's just basically like all my my whole tribe basically
Speaker 3: for the budgetizza, like people who are like wanting to
Speaker 3: get on financial tracks, mostly women, mostly Brown girls, and
Speaker 3: it's pretty dope it excepts so they have been like
Speaker 3: addicted to this thing called the money mantra.
Speaker 4: Have you heard of the money money mantra Mandy.
Speaker 3: No, oh, that was like an that was like a
Speaker 3: tongue twister money mantra Mandy. So anyway, the money mantra,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna try to find it. And it's so funny
Speaker 3: because I always forget, like how I want money Mandy
Speaker 3: in my computer. It's funny because I forget sometimes that
Speaker 3: my world's combined. And so someone in the group, because
Speaker 3: I had talked about the money mantra, how I'm kind
Speaker 3: of sick of it, and someone in the group was like, uh,
Speaker 3: you should totally make the money matcha your brown break.
Speaker 1: I was like, what you know about the brom But like,
Speaker 1: what is it though?
Speaker 3: So it's this mantra that you Basically it says I,
Speaker 3: I'm a money magnet. I attract money and money attracts me.
Speaker 3: So it's just basically like, you know, a positive affirmation.
Speaker 1: It's a secret.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, which there's nothing wrong with that except the women.
Speaker 3: At first, I call them the dream catchers. At first,
Speaker 3: the dreamcatchers in the group would use it and say, oh,
Speaker 3: I said the money mantra today just to get myself
Speaker 3: going and pumped up great. And then it became like
Speaker 3: the secret witch spell. It was like people would say,
Speaker 3: I said the money mantra and a check came in
Speaker 3: the mail, and then that's really what they would say,
Speaker 3: that's it. Or I said the money mantra and I
Speaker 3: found it out on the ground, or I said the
Speaker 3: money mantra and it stopped being like, oh, people stopped
Speaker 3: showing them the action they took besides seeing the money
Speaker 3: mynt work. Yeah, And so it got me worried because
Speaker 3: somebody hit me behind the scenes, one of the dreamcatchers,
Speaker 3: and she said, you know, Tiffany, I'm worried about the
Speaker 3: direction of the group.
Speaker 4: I get it. The money mantra is just one of
Speaker 4: the tools you can use to kind of get yourself
Speaker 4: pumped up. But if I was.
Speaker 3: Brand new and had never done any other financial work,
Speaker 3: I might come to the group and think, oh, the
Speaker 3: only way or want, like the main way to change
Speaker 3: my financial you know, future, is just to make this
Speaker 3: chance and say this chance and then it'll magically happen.
Speaker 4: And so that's my brown break. I'm breaking from that
Speaker 4: Daga money mantra. That's gonna use it.
Speaker 1: It's like showing the mass, you.
Speaker 3: Know exactly, and there's nothing wrong with mantras, and I
Speaker 3: was telling the women that, I said, you know, I
Speaker 3: love a good mantra. You know, sometimes the mantras just quick,
Speaker 3: like you could do it, you could do what you
Speaker 3: got it. Or sometimes it's more. I used to do
Speaker 3: this mantra in the mirror. I used to do mirror work.
Speaker 3: So I would leave the house and I would tell
Speaker 3: myself because like in high school, I was severely like
Speaker 3: self conscious about my looks, about my dark skin, about
Speaker 3: my little nose, everything, And so I would tell myself
Speaker 3: in the mirror every morning when I left the house,
Speaker 3: you are beautiful, you are worthy. So you know, there's
Speaker 3: nothing wrong with a good mantra, but you have to
Speaker 3: do something beyond that, and you know it would I
Speaker 3: don't like for people to think that all they.
Speaker 4: Have to do is this one basically easy thing.
Speaker 3: And then your life will be changed, especially like if
Speaker 3: you got to check in the mail, admit that you
Speaker 3: went to this website, because there's this website where you
Speaker 3: can go do that that if you have lost or
Speaker 3: lost money, I forget the website name, Like you might
Speaker 3: have had a bank account ten years ago. You forgot
Speaker 3: and you have money there. Or there's a check waiting
Speaker 3: for you someplace, and so you can put your name in.
Speaker 3: So a lot of them women were putting your name
Speaker 3: in and finding money. That was the work, not necessarily
Speaker 3: the mantra. You put your name in, you went to
Speaker 3: the website, you did some work. So I just want
Speaker 3: to take a break from that, just because I'm just like, ugh, there.
Speaker 4: Is no easy. It wasn't.
Speaker 3: It took you years to get into financial trouble. It's
Speaker 3: going to take you some time to get out of it.
Speaker 3: And a mantra is one of the tools that you're
Speaker 3: disposable disposal, but certainly not the only tool for the
Speaker 3: dreamcatchers listening. I'm talking to you because I love it.
Speaker 3: It sparked like a nice little debate, and I don't
Speaker 3: mind a lot of it. I don't mind the debate as long.
Speaker 4: As people are respectful.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Don't see one more inspirational quote my Instagram feed.
Speaker 2: I now like another one, Jesus that just show me
Speaker 2: what you have for dinner or come on.
Speaker 3: Instagram preacher like you know what, the sky open and
Speaker 3: floods came, and that means you're blessing his coup And
Speaker 3: you're like, all right, girl, but you know, you got
Speaker 3: to read a book every once in a while.
Speaker 2: Too, And it's funny, like I was really into the
Speaker 2: Secret when I was in college. I remember watching I'll
Speaker 2: never forget watching that episode of Oprah, and I don't
Speaker 2: even know if I can't. I will never be as
Speaker 2: innocent and impressionable as I was during the height of
Speaker 2: the Oprah craze, because everything she did, I would do everything.
Speaker 2: I ate the yogurt, she ate, read the books she read.
Speaker 2: I was just like, Oprah is God, and God is Oprah.
Speaker 2: So when she had the Secret author on, I got
Speaker 2: the book and all of it. It did make my
Speaker 2: life better. But you know now that I thought about
Speaker 2: it later. You know, one day I was passing by
Speaker 2: a bush of flowers, like a really pretty thing of flowers,
Speaker 2: and I was like, man, I would love to get
Speaker 2: some flowers. The next day, I got a bouquet of flowers,
Speaker 2: like out of the blue, my mom sent them to me.
Speaker 2: But now I'm thinking, like, in order to get those flowers,
Speaker 2: I had I did something for her. I was really
Speaker 2: nice about something, or I did I said something really nice,
Speaker 2: or anyway, she was like rewarding me for something I
Speaker 2: had done to earn.
Speaker 1: The flowers it was, And I mean I get that.
Speaker 2: I think what the secret kind of teaches you is
Speaker 2: you have to put something out and then you will receive.
Speaker 1: But people forget that first step.
Speaker 3: Because I believe in karmic energy. I believe that you
Speaker 3: can draw things to you, but I don't I don't
Speaker 3: believe that only karmic energy is the only way, meaning
Speaker 3: that like you know, I like, for example, I remember
Speaker 3: I put it. I have a vision board. You know,
Speaker 3: that's that's karmic energy. You put it out there.
Speaker 4: That's the secret as well. You put it, you.
Speaker 3: Know, you put your vision or the things that you
Speaker 3: want on your vision board. And I remember when I
Speaker 3: was twenty six, I had said I want to go
Speaker 3: to Greece. So I put it on my vision board,
Speaker 3: and then every year it didn't happen, and I would
Speaker 3: take down the picture and put it on the next
Speaker 3: year's vision board every year until about three years ago.
Speaker 3: So basically for like seven years I was saying I
Speaker 3: want to go to Greece.
Speaker 4: I want to go to Greece.
Speaker 3: And then about three years ago I finally was like
Speaker 3: maybe it was even last year. I was like, so tivity,
Speaker 3: if you want to go to Greece, you might want
Speaker 3: a book a flight, And then I did, and then
Speaker 3: I ended up going to Greece and Turkey for my
Speaker 3: birthday that year. What happened, I know, And I was
Speaker 3: just like, cause I you' like, what are you waiting for?
Speaker 3: You waiting for Greece to like come to your doorstep
Speaker 3: and say, hey girl, let's go like book a flight.
Speaker 1: The universe does not take any major credit.
Speaker 3: Cards exactly, so like a mix of those things. It's like,
Speaker 3: there's definitely been things that have happened in my life
Speaker 3: that I'm like, wow, where did that come from? But
Speaker 3: the vast majority I had.
Speaker 4: To put some work for it.
Speaker 2: And if you're listening now and you miss last week's episode,
Speaker 2: we had on Patrise Williams see Williams and that's her
Speaker 2: last name, right, Washington. Oh my god, I like that
Speaker 2: doesn't sound right in my head. Patrese Washington, love you, Patrees.
Speaker 2: And we talked about something similar yeah with her, and
Speaker 2: she had a really she had some really good thoughts
Speaker 2: on that. So definitely go download episode thirteen if you
Speaker 2: haven't yet with for our amazing interview with Patrese.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she's dope.
Speaker 2: My brown break I have to take things a little
Speaker 2: bit serious, because it's just like it's one of those times,
Speaker 2: just like you like, a little tiny bit of things
Speaker 2: just keep adding up. And we all know that there
Speaker 2: is a refugee crisis happening, especially in Syria right now.
Speaker 2: Syrians are fleeing a civil war where chemical acid warfare
Speaker 2: has been used on them. Children have been dying, people
Speaker 2: have been displaced. It's all at war. We're there, so
Speaker 2: obviously they want to flee, and they're fleeing to Europe.
Speaker 2: And in the wake of what happened in Paris, although
Speaker 2: I don't believe any Syrians were involved that I've heard
Speaker 2: of so far, I believe the mastermind was from Belgium.
Speaker 2: But it's funny how facts just, you know, slip through
Speaker 2: the cracks when people are blinded by their own fear.
Speaker 1: In the wake of what.
Speaker 2: Happened in Paris, people have been using that as a
Speaker 2: peg to try and legislators have been trying to get
Speaker 2: this a bill passed that would make it exponentially harder
Speaker 2: for Syrian refugees to get into the United States at
Speaker 2: this time. President Obama has promised to admit ten thousand
Speaker 2: refugees to the US next year.
Speaker 1: And so there's this.
Speaker 2: Bill out in Congress I think in the House right now,
Speaker 2: and they're ready to they're setting to vote on it,
Speaker 2: I think either this week or next week, and it
Speaker 2: would make it would make all sorts of checks and balances,
Speaker 2: and it's completely unnecessary.
Speaker 1: It already takes.
Speaker 2: Two years, two years for Syrians or any refugees, I think,
Speaker 2: especially from Syria to get approved to come to United States.
Speaker 2: Like there already are stringent regulations and checks and balances
Speaker 2: in place. And the fact that people are just sort
Speaker 2: of like tapping into this fear that people have in
Speaker 2: light of the Paris to get people to like enact
Speaker 2: this legislation that would deny, you know, refugees the right
Speaker 2: to seek refuge in America. It just gets under my skin.
Speaker 2: And you got Ben Carson, did you hear? Ben Carson
Speaker 2: was like giving a speech and he's like, well, if
Speaker 2: you had a rabbit dog in your backyard, wouldn't you
Speaker 2: want to get you know, keep the rabbit dog out
Speaker 2: of your backyard?
Speaker 4: And I'm like, what is he even?
Speaker 3: Honestly, Ben Carson, honestly, he's like my greatest disappointment because
Speaker 3: I'm like, man gifted hands, could you shut the help
Speaker 3: for real?
Speaker 1: Gift in hand? Foolish mind?
Speaker 3: Your right exactly put your hands over your mouth, show
Speaker 3: me that gift, because I'm just like so disappointed at
Speaker 3: this man who just raised himself from like like you know,
Speaker 3: poverty and impossible dreams to become this like brilliant surgeon.
Speaker 3: And this is what this is your legacy that you're leaving.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm just like, Wow, you just decided, you
Speaker 3: know what everybody.
Speaker 4: Thinks, I'm amazing. Let me just go ahead and mess
Speaker 4: that up.
Speaker 1: He's done.
Speaker 2: He's I mean, like I wanted to, you know, I
Speaker 2: was trying to explain to my dad this week and
Speaker 2: my dad and I, so I went to Atlanta to
Speaker 2: visit my dad before the Thanksgiving holiday, and he and
Speaker 2: I like to go for walks together, and we started
Speaker 2: talking about the refugee crisis. And my dad pays attention
Speaker 2: to the news. I mean, he wasn't he's not college educated,
Speaker 2: but he pays attention to the news and he's smart.
Speaker 2: And even he was like, but they can get in
Speaker 2: so easily, you know, they can just come across and
Speaker 2: just come to America. It's super easy. And I was like,
Speaker 2: I tried to tell him, no, it takes two years.
Speaker 2: But that information isn't easy to find. But I was
Speaker 2: really really happy because today on the front page of
Speaker 2: the New York Times, I think it's still there, there
Speaker 2: was a great article and it's titled why it takes
Speaker 2: two years for Syrian refugees to enter the US, And
Speaker 2: I was like, facts, thank you Jesus. Facts, And literally
Speaker 2: there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine ten,
Speaker 2: twenty facts. I mean twenty steps it takes to VERUS
Speaker 2: Syrian refugee to get to United States. Fingerprint screening, multiple
Speaker 2: background checks, you have to get a referral to get registered,
Speaker 2: to become a to get you know, because a refugee
Speaker 2: here you need you have to be interviewed by immigration headquarters.
Speaker 2: You have to have an in person injury with a
Speaker 2: Homeland Security officer, Like there's a cultural orientation class, there's
Speaker 2: a screening for contagious diseases, multi agency security check, you
Speaker 2: have to be matched with an American resettlement agency. I'm like,
Speaker 2: is this not enough? Like, look how many hoops they
Speaker 2: have to jump through. This legislation is just a fear tactic.
Speaker 2: It's just Republicans. I'm sorry, conservatives trying to take advantage
Speaker 2: of people's fear, and this sort of fear mongering does
Speaker 2: nothing but deny people who are literally seeking refuge from
Speaker 2: war access to the same kind of peace and freedom
Speaker 2: that we enjoy every day.
Speaker 1: And I just think that's that's terrible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, some do you just look at this world and
Speaker 3: you're like, ah.
Speaker 2: But you know, when I was in Georgia, and I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna lie, Georgia is not the most I mean,
Speaker 2: Georgia has some closed minded people. Now Atlanta is a
Speaker 2: different story because it's a big city. But I was
Speaker 2: riding through the city with my whoa with my dad
Speaker 2: and I passed by this church and the sign North
Speaker 2: Decatur United Methodist Church anybody from Decata. Hey, the sign
Speaker 2: of the church says refugees are welcome here worship Sundays
Speaker 2: at eleven am. And I took a little picture and
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, Georgia, like, you're not all bad.
Speaker 4: I'll post it in our Facebook group and our Facebook page.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 2: I put it on Instagram. I'm gonna put it up there.
Speaker 2: I thought that was really nice. It kind of wore
Speaker 2: my little heart. So as long as there's some people
Speaker 2: out there who aren't disclosed minded, I think will be okay,
Speaker 2: but I'm taking it. I guess my official Brown break
Speaker 2: is on the lie surrounding what it.
Speaker 1: Takes for Snarian refugees to get into the United States.
Speaker 2: Well, for our tips today, I wanted to We got
Speaker 2: a couple of really good read your emails, so we're
Speaker 2: gonna try and answer one per episode. And if you
Speaker 2: want to send us a question about anything, your finances,
Speaker 2: your career, your leve la, we'll try and answer it
Speaker 2: on the air. You can email us at Brown Ambition
Speaker 2: Podcast at gmail dot dot com.
Speaker 4: I got the last part.
Speaker 2: Good yeah, Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. Send
Speaker 2: us your question. You can be anonymous, but most people
Speaker 2: have been giving us their first name, which has been nice.
Speaker 1: Helps us.
Speaker 2: You know, I feel like we're talking to a real person.
Speaker 2: So today's question, I'll read it real quick. It comes
Speaker 2: from Taran. Thanks miss Arran for listening. She says, I
Speaker 2: am thirty six, I'm single, and I have no children.
Speaker 2: And Taren has a question about her four oh one
Speaker 2: k situation. She says, I'm currently working full time in
Speaker 2: the nonprofit world, but she has dreams of becoming a
Speaker 2: non traditional non to five career woman. She changes jobs
Speaker 2: every one and a half years, and she says, I
Speaker 2: usually contribute to the four oh one K, which means
Speaker 2: she has a few four to one K accounts that
Speaker 2: range from like nine hundred to twenty one hundred dollars
Speaker 2: floating out there in the world. She says, I recently
Speaker 2: started a new job, and it's time to sign up
Speaker 2: for four oh one K. So Tarin has a few
Speaker 2: different questions here. I'm going to start with the very
Speaker 2: first one, which is essentially, I have these four toh
Speaker 2: one K accounts floating out there with a couple hundred
Speaker 2: bucks in them?
Speaker 1: What should I do?
Speaker 3: I say that she it's it's never wise to have
Speaker 3: too many of these, like retirement accounts with the actual
Speaker 3: company that you used to be before, because it's easy
Speaker 3: to lose track, and so it's best to do what's
Speaker 3: called a rollover. Not you don't you go and take
Speaker 3: the money out, because you're going to be hit with
Speaker 3: all kinds of fees and taxes and stuff and you'll
Speaker 3: lose some money.
Speaker 4: But to go to whatever bank that you use, or
Speaker 4: if you.
Speaker 3: Have some sort of outside ira or roth ira at
Speaker 3: a bank, ask them to roll it over for you,
Speaker 3: so that way you can have all of those accounts
Speaker 3: at one place, and then you could still have your
Speaker 3: current retirement account at your current company.
Speaker 1: So doing yeah, that'stuff.
Speaker 2: The first part you got to do is go find
Speaker 2: those old accounts because even if you go through so
Speaker 2: you're about to start a new job, even if you've
Speaker 2: set up a four to one K through your new job,
Speaker 2: they won't be able to tell you where your old
Speaker 2: accounts are. So you have to go down the list
Speaker 2: of your employers, try and go on LinkedIn if it's
Speaker 2: that many, and try and make.
Speaker 1: A little list.
Speaker 2: Go to all your old employers, ask them to tell
Speaker 2: you where your account's being held, go through the steps
Speaker 2: trying to figure out where it is, and then you
Speaker 2: go through that account holder and set up a it's
Speaker 2: called a plan to plan rollover basically, so you'll ask
Speaker 2: them to just transfer the cash in your in that
Speaker 2: four to one K account to your new one. Her
Speaker 2: other question, though, is since I switch jobs every one
Speaker 2: and a half years or so, does it make any
Speaker 2: sense to open up a new four to one K
Speaker 2: at my new job?
Speaker 1: Which is a really good question. It is I feel
Speaker 1: like if if your new.
Speaker 4: Job opers match.
Speaker 2: Ye, yes, absolutely, do not turn down that free money.
Speaker 2: If they don't match, you might just want to open
Speaker 2: up your own individual retirement account and IRA. You can
Speaker 2: do that through Vanguard Fidelity. Charles schwas for a low cost.
Speaker 2: You know, you might need like five hundred two one
Speaker 2: thousand dollars to open up one initially, and then you'll
Speaker 2: have your own little pot of money and you can
Speaker 2: still get all your old four oh one ks rolled
Speaker 2: over into that new IRA.
Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed that, like, yeah, if they're not matching and
Speaker 3: you're feeling like you're going to jump around again, then yeah,
Speaker 3: then do that.
Speaker 4: But if like, let's just say they a lot of companies.
Speaker 3: Will match after like six months, so you definitely want
Speaker 3: to get that money.
Speaker 4: It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3: So for those of you who are like what's matching,
Speaker 3: because when I was like twenty something, I would have
Speaker 3: totally been like, what's that mean?
Speaker 4: And that just means that when you're with a company.
Speaker 3: So when I used to work for a nonprofit, they
Speaker 3: had a four to oh three B which is basically
Speaker 3: like a four to one pai K for nonprofits, and
Speaker 3: that was my retirement account. And then after like six months,
Speaker 3: I was like vested, which just basically means they were like, okay,
Speaker 3: you're here, so the money.
Speaker 4: You put in, we will match up to six percent.
Speaker 3: That meant, if I put one percent of my income
Speaker 3: into my retirement account, they put one percent. If I
Speaker 3: put three, they put three. If I put six, they
Speaker 3: put six. If I put seven, they still put six
Speaker 3: because that was their max.
Speaker 4: So if your company.
Speaker 3: Is going to put a percentage in, then at the
Speaker 3: very least put up to what they're gonna put in.
Speaker 3: So six plus six equals twelve percent of your income
Speaker 3: going into your retirement account.
Speaker 4: That's what we mean by matching.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: My very first big girl job in New York that
Speaker 2: I did not realize until I was almost leaving.
Speaker 1: I was there for two years. They matched one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: No, baby Jesus, it was so hard, but you know,
Speaker 2: and it wasn't until I got this job being a
Speaker 2: personal finance reporter where I finally learned all that, and
Speaker 2: I was like, damn it, but I was so I mean, honestly,
Speaker 2: I was making such little money I probably wouldn't even
Speaker 2: I barely was making rent, so I don't know if
Speaker 2: I would have contributed that much, but it was a
Speaker 2: lesson learned. Yeah, so definitely think about opening your own IRA,
Speaker 2: because that way you won't have always little accounts floating
Speaker 2: out that you'll just have it all in one place.
Speaker 2: And you should definitely set up automatic withdrawals.
Speaker 1: Automatic is the best.
Speaker 2: It is, Like, let me tell you so I automatic.
Speaker 2: Let me back up a little bit. So I've been
Speaker 2: writing personal finance for like almost five years now. Every
Speaker 2: time I see a headline that's like the seven pieces
Speaker 2: of advice millionaires always give, like the seven things millionaires
Speaker 2: do to earn their money, or the one piece of
Speaker 2: advice Warren Buffett has, Like every single time I know
Speaker 2: exactly what I'm going to see, it's going to say
Speaker 2: save and automate it.
Speaker 1: Yes, because it works. Okay, because it works.
Speaker 2: So definitely you want to, Yeah, think about opening your
Speaker 2: own IRA. Tarn And then her last question, well, she
Speaker 2: has a couple more. She has a lot of questions
Speaker 2: packed into one. She wants to know how much should
Speaker 2: I be contributing? So when you're automating your savings, I
Speaker 2: mean the general rule of thumb is ten percent. Okay,
Speaker 2: if your employer is going to match five percent, then
Speaker 2: you only have to put in five percent. It'd be
Speaker 2: great if you can put in ten, but again, you
Speaker 2: just want to capture that match. I personally contribute twelve percent,
Speaker 2: and that is because I spent, like I said, two
Speaker 2: years of my life wasting, not spending or not saving
Speaker 2: for retirement. So I'm playing a little bit of catch up,
Speaker 2: so I saved twelve I've heard between ten and fifteen percent.
Speaker 3: I would say that ten well, and you know why too,
Speaker 3: especially for women, ten percent.
Speaker 4: Is really like the rule of thumb.
Speaker 3: I feel like for men, but we live longer, So
Speaker 3: I would say for women, like I think twelve where
Speaker 3: you're doing now is great. That twelve percent is, I mean,
Speaker 3: because why not have more.
Speaker 4: For your older self, you know?
Speaker 3: You know. So I actually set aside twenty percent because
Speaker 3: I'm self employed, so I don't have the benefit of like,
Speaker 3: you know, having you know, a four to one k
Speaker 3: anymore or four or three b And so I set
Speaker 3: aside a larger percentage because I don't know, I'm just like,
Speaker 3: I'm self employed, so I want to make sure that
Speaker 3: I'm super covered, you know, because I'm not. I'm not
Speaker 3: contributing to my social security like like I was before
Speaker 3: I'm like, am I contributing to my Social Security?
Speaker 4: I don't know, that's a question for my account.
Speaker 1: But do you have it? So you have an IRA setup?
Speaker 4: I do I have?
Speaker 3: So the thing is I do twenty percent, but I
Speaker 3: do ten percent of it is strictly retirement and ten
Speaker 3: percent of it is investing for wealth.
Speaker 4: So that's how Yeah, So that's how I split mind that.
Speaker 3: It's like, oh, okay, so James, who's my who's my
Speaker 3: financial advisor? We're actually going to sit down and talk
Speaker 3: in a few weeks because I'm like, James, I'm coming
Speaker 3: into some money the budget he says.
Speaker 4: Kicking button, taking names.
Speaker 3: So I just love James because I could talk to
Speaker 3: him like that, and I was like, so what should
Speaker 3: I do? He's like, come see me so we can
Speaker 3: like re you know, reorganize, like where your money is going.
Speaker 2: So and it's hard to answer that question for a
Speaker 2: person we don't know either. I don't know your entire
Speaker 2: financial history. So I would say, you know, if you
Speaker 2: feel like ten percent is too much, what you can
Speaker 2: do is just start with like start with six Let's
Speaker 2: say start with five six percent that's a little bit
Speaker 2: of money, and then some four wing k plans and
Speaker 2: even iras out there will do a thing where every
Speaker 2: year it not just ratches it up by one percentage point.
Speaker 2: So next year I'll go to seven. The year iflet
Speaker 2: I'll go up to eight. And if you do that,
Speaker 2: then you'll be saving a little bit more automatically. Again,
Speaker 2: you probably won't even feel it, because one percent feels
Speaker 2: a lot less painful than me exactly going from six
Speaker 2: to ten and you know, one minute. So that's one
Speaker 2: idea if your plan offers, I'm doing that. Actually, So
Speaker 2: I think this year, so I started out eleven percent
Speaker 2: and now I'm at twelve, and I think next Ye'll
Speaker 2: be thirteen.
Speaker 1: Working my way up.
Speaker 4: That's how I did too.
Speaker 3: I think I started off at like five percent. It's
Speaker 3: like every year I would bump and bump, and now
Speaker 3: I'm at twenty and I think that I'll probably cap myself.
Speaker 4: At twenty or I might not. I might do.
Speaker 3: I feel like if you if I'm making way more,
Speaker 3: because I'm pretty simply. If I all of a sudden
Speaker 3: make a million dollars next year, hand to God, praise him.
Speaker 4: No, if I'm making it.
Speaker 3: If I make a million dollars next year, then I
Speaker 3: likely do even more because I won't be needing a
Speaker 3: million to live off of. And no, I don't give
Speaker 3: out loans, so don't even try a bah so, folks,
Speaker 3: because some of y'all hit me behind the scenes.
Speaker 4: Now I'm just joking any other girl, No, I'm just joking.
Speaker 1: Thank God.
Speaker 4: I'm like no, because honestly, the answer is no.
Speaker 2: And automating automative is just think of it as. You know,
Speaker 2: my little brother I just talked to him about saving.
Speaker 2: He just started his first job. He's making really good
Speaker 2: money and he's feeling kind of in some way about
Speaker 2: himself and he's like, oh, you know, I don't really
Speaker 2: want to save. I want to enjoy my money. And
Speaker 2: when he said that, I was like, but saving is
Speaker 2: not taking. You're not giving your money to someone else.
Speaker 2: You're literally paying yourself. Like that's what you should think
Speaker 2: of saving as And he's like, paying myself. Yeah, you're right,
Speaker 2: it's not disappearing. I'm still got it. I'm like, yes,
Speaker 2: people really have this like mental block when they think
Speaker 2: that they're saving, but it's not their money anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, it is exactly. It's actually still there.
Speaker 3: Because people too when it comes to retirement. It's because
Speaker 3: they cannot connect with their older self.
Speaker 4: So that's why I named my older self.
Speaker 3: I named her Wanda, and I encourage you to name
Speaker 3: your older self tern you know, maybe her name is Teresa.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but I always think to myself like, Ooh,
Speaker 3: do I really want Wanda eating cat food? Or do
Speaker 3: I really want Wanda like, you know, struggling because you
Speaker 3: have to think about it. Imagine if you live with
Speaker 3: your grandma and it's between you and grandma has to
Speaker 3: go to work to like pay these bills.
Speaker 4: You would never say you're well, you.
Speaker 3: Never know, but most people who would never send their
Speaker 3: grandma out like grandma, you better go to work, girl.
Speaker 3: These bills are not gonna pay themselves. You would not
Speaker 3: do that, But we do that with our older selves.
Speaker 3: We do less now, and then what do you think's
Speaker 3: gonna happen when we get to be older.
Speaker 4: We're gonna have to put in work because of.
Speaker 3: The flacking we kind of did when we were younger. Really,
Speaker 3: it's your younger self's job to take care of your
Speaker 3: older self. So try to think of your older self
Speaker 3: like your own grandma, and you know, treat her kindly,
Speaker 3: don't make her work instead.
Speaker 4: You work now because you're younger.
Speaker 2: And Tara in your thirty six, you have another fifty
Speaker 2: years probably mm hmm, you know, if you're to live
Speaker 2: to the average age for women, which is like I think, what.
Speaker 1: Eighty six, something like that, eighty five.
Speaker 2: Anyway, it's a couple of years older than then a
Speaker 2: few years actually, so we have, like Tiffany said, you
Speaker 2: have much longer to be saving four And don't think
Speaker 2: that you're ever too young to start saving, you know,
Speaker 2: And don't think that I'll all just start saving next
Speaker 2: year when I'm rich.
Speaker 1: Now, exactly the saving is what.
Speaker 4: Gets you rich, you know, exactly, save now.
Speaker 2: So if she had a quick technical question, which was
Speaker 2: roth four one k or traditional four to one K,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to get too much into the
Speaker 2: weeds about this, but it and you can do all,
Speaker 2: she says herself. I've done the googles, and I feel
Speaker 2: like I have a pretty good idea about the difference.
Speaker 2: So you can easily google this. I've written a ton
Speaker 2: of stuff. Just google Mandy Wood driff Roth four one K.
Speaker 2: You'll probably find an article on it. So the main
Speaker 2: difference between a wroth and a traditional is when you
Speaker 2: pay taxes on it. So with a ROTH, you are
Speaker 2: putting money in and you're paying taxes immediately. This is
Speaker 2: cool because when you retire you take the money out,
Speaker 2: you don't pay any taxes. Well, traditional you're deferring that
Speaker 2: tax benefit. So you're putting the money in and when
Speaker 2: you take it out later, you're going to pay taxes
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: So's it.
Speaker 2: Why would you sign up for a ROTH versus traditional?
Speaker 2: So if you were younger, and you think you're probably
Speaker 2: if you're younger now, you know you're probably early in
Speaker 2: your career, you're probably going to be earning less.
Speaker 1: Now than you will later exactly.
Speaker 2: So if you put money in a ROTH, you'll pay
Speaker 2: a lower tax bracket today than you would if you
Speaker 2: paid taxes later, when you retire, you'll probably be earning more.
Speaker 2: So for that reason, it pretty much makes sense to
Speaker 2: go with the ROTH.
Speaker 1: But again, it's really hard to give detailed personal advice.
Speaker 2: No, we don't know, so, like Tiffany has James, I
Speaker 2: have used a financial planner before. Through a service called
Speaker 2: learn invest, you can go out there and find like
Speaker 2: find someone a financial planner to sit down with you,
Speaker 2: like one on one if you want to like a
Speaker 2: fee only planner, and they'll just charge you for like
Speaker 2: the hour, or just charge you for the plan. And
Speaker 2: they're not going to like attach their salary to whatever
Speaker 2: gains you make on your accounts. They're not going to
Speaker 2: try and sell you any products. You really want to
Speaker 2: look for a fee only planner. There's a website I
Speaker 2: point people to called NAPFA and a p AS and
Speaker 2: Paul f AS and frank a dot org National Association
Speaker 2: of Personal Financial Advisors I forget.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have NAPPA.
Speaker 2: They have a whole database of people who are fee
Speaker 2: only planners and you can put in your zip code
Speaker 2: and then you go and find them in your area.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's kind of like trying to find a
Speaker 2: good guy. Now. Yeah, all you gotta like interview them,
Speaker 2: and you do feel comfortable.
Speaker 3: You want to make sure that these people are looking
Speaker 3: after you. And it's not just like I chose James
Speaker 3: because I had been looking for two years and I
Speaker 3: was looking for someone who was passionate about investing the
Speaker 3: way I was about budgeting and saving stuff like that,
Speaker 3: you know. And what I loved about James is that
Speaker 3: he was like he he could talk about investing all
Speaker 3: day it's the point where I was like, James, I
Speaker 3: gotta go home. And I love that because I was
Speaker 3: like wow, because what that signified to me was that
Speaker 3: James was going to do a good job because of James,
Speaker 3: not because of anything else.
Speaker 4: Because he loved it. You could tell that he loved it.
Speaker 3: And it took me a long time to find someone
Speaker 3: who was loving it like that, because you know, I
Speaker 3: just wanted to make sure someone was going to do
Speaker 3: right by me because it was just in them to
Speaker 3: do that way.
Speaker 4: So even like all of.
Speaker 3: My financial like I have a money team, my accountain, Carlos,
Speaker 3: same way, Carlos is like he loves some taxes. I'm like, Carlos,
Speaker 3: nobody cares, but Carlos is like and then and so
Speaker 3: my bookkeeper same way. She's awesome. She's like, Timmy, you're
Speaker 3: spending this and you're doing that, and here's the trends.
Speaker 3: And so if you're looking to build your money team,
Speaker 3: your your financial advisor, your accountant, your bookkeeper, all of
Speaker 3: these people, you want to make sure that they they
Speaker 3: bring to the table what you're looking for. Like I said,
Speaker 3: for me, I was looking for passionate about their specific
Speaker 3: subject area.
Speaker 4: And you know, but that might not be.
Speaker 3: Something for you that's important. You might be looking for
Speaker 3: something else. But build a money team and start early.
Speaker 1: M it's like the new squad squad. Make this your
Speaker 1: squad goals. Yeah, pretty models are cool, but they are
Speaker 1: not going to do your taxes.
Speaker 2: For you exactly or help you figure out how to
Speaker 2: buy a house. So, Terran, I hope that helped answer
Speaker 2: your bazillion questions. You're sneaky, like six quotions in this one,
Speaker 2: and you ba.
Speaker 3: Folks, don't try to be like Tarran, like I'm a
Speaker 3: sneaking now. First question, So we let Terrence skate with
Speaker 3: that one.
Speaker 1: She had an extra one. I totally forgot. It's so many.
Speaker 2: She said she's trying to buy a home and trying
Speaker 2: to go back to school, and I don't know if
Speaker 2: I can really afford to reduce my income. Well not
Speaker 2: if you're planning on buying a home or going back
Speaker 2: to school.
Speaker 3: Actually, I have this, said you get a chance, Terrent.
Speaker 3: I have this checklist. So I bought a home when
Speaker 3: I was twenty five, and it was a big mistake.
Speaker 3: You ever see pretty women, huge mistake, and there was
Speaker 3: a there. I created a checklist if I wish what
Speaker 3: people would have told me. So if you go to
Speaker 3: the Budget East the blog and just type in home,
Speaker 3: so there's like seven things like, Oh, I wish somebody
Speaker 3: would told me that I should have made my mortgage
Speaker 3: what I call rentable, for example, meaning that like if
Speaker 3: I have to move out, then will will I be
Speaker 3: able to rent this house out and cover my costs?
Speaker 3: I didn't know that I was not able to.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm going to put that in the on the
Speaker 2: blog post on this so you're listening now. This is
Speaker 2: We'll put the link to Tiffany's blog post on mortgage
Speaker 2: mistakes or buying a house mistakes. Yeah, so you can
Speaker 2: click there. All I do was when when no matter
Speaker 2: what we know, me on my mind and I really,
Speaker 2: what has it going?
Speaker 4: I'm like, you know what, it's terrible because I'm just
Speaker 4: like wait and.
Speaker 1: Letting him go up right, I said, really, older, right now?
Speaker 1: What are you here listening to?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: So my win from the week. It's a blash from
Speaker 4: the past.
Speaker 3: We all get hit up every once in a while,
Speaker 3: but by somebody we used to date before, and it's not.
Speaker 4: Always pleasant, but mine actually was.
Speaker 3: So my ex boyfriend hit me up just on Facebook
Speaker 3: to say, Hey, Tiffany, you know I heard your podcast.
Speaker 4: I'm so proud of you. I'm sure you heard this before.
Speaker 4: And it's just so crazy because one of the reasons
Speaker 4: why we broke up is because.
Speaker 3: He wanted a more traditional type of girl, like I
Speaker 3: broke up with him, but he wanted a more traditional
Speaker 3: like at the time, I was a preschool teacher, and
Speaker 3: it was very comfortable to have a preschool teacher girlfriend
Speaker 3: slash you know, potential wife.
Speaker 4: Like you go to work in the morning, you're done.
Speaker 3: By three, you cook, you clean. I did all that
Speaker 3: kind of stuff, but something in me wanted to do more.
Speaker 3: And I didn't know what more was, but I knew
Speaker 3: I wanted to do it. So I was trying out
Speaker 3: all these different things, Like I would come home and cook,
Speaker 3: but instead of hanging out and like watching TV with.
Speaker 4: Him like I normally would, I would, you know, be on.
Speaker 3: The computer or taking a class or trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what this feeling was inside of me of the
Speaker 3: more that I wanted to go after, and he came
Speaker 3: to kind of resent it. He would never say, don't
Speaker 3: do it, but it was like, you know, when you're
Speaker 3: with someone for a long time, we were together for
Speaker 3: like five or six years. You could feel it when
Speaker 3: they're like, oh, here she goes again, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: And so after a while, I was just like, I
Speaker 3: felt like I was holding myself back so he could
Speaker 3: be okay.
Speaker 4: And I was twenty six at the time, and I
Speaker 4: was just like, yeah, I don't want to live like this.
Speaker 3: Like because I thought to myself at twenty six, Tippany,
Speaker 3: if your life is going to be like this at
Speaker 3: thirty six, will you be happy?
Speaker 4: And I said no.
Speaker 3: Even though he was sweet, he was kind, he was loyal,
Speaker 3: he was faithful, all of these great things. But I
Speaker 3: knew that I would not be happy holding myself back
Speaker 3: for the rest of my life.
Speaker 4: And so we broke up. It was not an easy breakup.
Speaker 4: He didn't take it that well.
Speaker 3: And at one point I was really struggling, really struggling
Speaker 3: after we broke up, like financially and every way. I
Speaker 3: lost my job, I'd lost everything, and I remember, I
Speaker 3: guess in a fit of anger, he like hit me
Speaker 3: up one day and was like, oh, so you left
Speaker 3: me because you thought you were going to have a
Speaker 3: better life, but basically look at you now.
Speaker 2: Oh, I breakup so ugly I know he brings out
Speaker 2: the nesty and everybody.
Speaker 4: I s, I clutched my pearls. I said, okay, thanks.
Speaker 3: You know, I was already feeling low, but thank you
Speaker 3: for pushing my face into the dirt. And you know,
Speaker 3: since then, he's apologized for that. And then he said, today,
Speaker 3: because I posted something on Facebook about being on tour
Speaker 3: with like Brookshield and like and Martha Stewart, I did
Speaker 3: just know your Value tour with MSNBC and Prudential and
Speaker 3: like they were all speaking at the same tour, and
Speaker 3: he said today, you know, it's so funny that, you know,
Speaker 3: to watch you and watch you grow and see where
Speaker 3: you are now.
Speaker 4: He said, I guess you showed me. Huh. And I
Speaker 4: was like, I guess I did. And it just felt
Speaker 4: really good. And I was just thinking to myself, you
Speaker 4: know what, this is what. I didn't know what the
Speaker 4: more was, but this is it.
Speaker 3: I could not articulate it when I was twenty six,
Speaker 3: But now at thirty six, I'm living the life that
Speaker 3: I wanted to live that I knew I could not
Speaker 3: live with him, and not even in a you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not bashing him anywhere.
Speaker 4: He's a great guy.
Speaker 3: You know, but we weren't a match. And now I'm
Speaker 3: so glad he gets to honestly.
Speaker 4: See that, like this is what Tiffany was talking about,
Speaker 4: because I don't honestly, I'm sure.
Speaker 3: He's looking at my life now and saying, yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't want that in a wife.
Speaker 1: He's quite grateful. That's great that he was big enough
Speaker 1: to say that to you. That's a good win. I'm
Speaker 1: making that one of your wins tonight.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, no, that could definitely be my win. Yes,
Speaker 4: oh yeah.
Speaker 3: It just felt good to be like yes, because I
Speaker 3: didn't want him to think that I just left, like
Speaker 3: for no reason, because we.
Speaker 4: Had such a great relationship, but it was just like.
Speaker 1: Oh, I want more.
Speaker 4: I don't know where more is. So he's like, so
Speaker 4: you're leaving me for a vague feeling, and I'm like yeah, basically,
Speaker 4: so yeah.
Speaker 1: Gut feeling. Yeah it felt a little vague.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, that's definitely my win. Like, oh, so
Speaker 3: I guess she showed me. And I was like, you
Speaker 3: know what, I guess I did.
Speaker 1: Good for you, thanks, and good for him.
Speaker 4: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not gonna say his name obviously, because
Speaker 3: who knows his wife might listen. But it's not even
Speaker 3: like that. Wife, if you're listening, we don't want each other.
Speaker 3: I am so good with Superman. He sounded really well.
Speaker 3: I don't speak to him, but it was just a
Speaker 3: Facebook quick message. He sounded really happy with you. So congratulations,
Speaker 3: everybody's happy. Everybody's winning.
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, oh my win.
Speaker 4: I got it.
Speaker 1: I got it. I remember now.
Speaker 2: So Tanahase Coates, who is the macarthurs genius. He's won
Speaker 2: so much a praise for his book Between the World
Speaker 2: and Me, which came out earlier this year. He's a
Speaker 2: brilliant writer. He's a I think he's a national correspondent
Speaker 2: for The Atlantic, and he was recently awarded the National
Speaker 2: Book Award, which is like kind of close.
Speaker 1: To a Pulitzer.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's a big deal, and you want it for
Speaker 2: the book Between the World and Me. And if you're
Speaker 2: not familiar with Tanahase, first of all, get familiar. You
Speaker 2: must go read everything he's written. He's becoming he's like
Speaker 2: one of the foremost writers on race in America today
Speaker 2: and his book is written. It's influenced by James Baldwin,
Speaker 2: who is an author you should also read. But he
Speaker 2: basically writes a story as if he's talking to his
Speaker 2: teenage son, which he has a teenage son, and basically
Speaker 2: telling him what it's like to be a black man
Speaker 2: in America today. And the book was inspirired by his
Speaker 2: friend who he met when he was at Howard University,
Speaker 2: I think in the early two thousands. His friend one
Speaker 2: day was mistaken for a criminal, a plane clothes cop
Speaker 2: I believe officer followed him home and just proceeded to
Speaker 2: shoot him dead in the street without a warrant, without
Speaker 2: any probable cause. This guy was mistaken for a criminal.
Speaker 2: His name is Prince Jones. And when Tanahase Codes got
Speaker 2: up to give his acceptance a acceptance speech of the
Speaker 2: National Book Awards, he gave really the amazing speech. It's
Speaker 2: only five minutes long. You should go watch it. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna put a link again on the blog post on
Speaker 2: Brown Ambition podcast dot Com to the post. But I
Speaker 2: wanted to read a quick quote. Actually I might just
Speaker 2: play it. Let me see if I can play it.
Speaker 2: But basically he says, I've waited fifteen years for this
Speaker 2: moment because when Prince Jones died, there were no cameras.
Speaker 2: Nobody else was looking and Tanahasei says, I can't secure
Speaker 2: the safety of my son, but what I do have
Speaker 2: the power to do is say, you won't enroll me
Speaker 2: in this lie. You won't make me part of it.
Speaker 2: And the lie he's referring to, which he mentions earlier
Speaker 2: in your speech, is just the idea that because you're
Speaker 2: black and you live in America, that you are predisposed
Speaker 2: to crime and that you deserve to be treated to
Speaker 2: be brutalized. And he sort of like did a quick
Speaker 2: run through of all the you know, the young girl
Speaker 2: who was flipped through her desk chair in that classroom,
Speaker 2: to mere Rice, Michael Brown, all these Freddie Freddie Gray,
Speaker 2: and he's I feel like it was really like a
Speaker 2: moment of vindication for him because his friend got no justice.
Speaker 2: There were no cameras, Like he said. He says that
Speaker 2: the cop, and he writes about in the book, the
Speaker 2: whole story, it's harrowing. He talks to Prince's mother, but
Speaker 2: the cop who killed him, there was no trial. He
Speaker 2: wasn't convicted of anything. In fact, he went back on
Speaker 2: the streets to become a cop, and he had all
Speaker 2: these prior complaints against him. So I'm just excited that
Speaker 2: Tanahasi is getting his due yes for being brilliant. And
Speaker 2: if you haven't read his book, go ahead, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's kind of heavy, but I think it's worth reading.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: We're usually supposed to end on a win that we're like, ah,
Speaker 3: we're ending on a lot.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Well, Kana Assie, he's such a you know, he's sort
Speaker 2: of an anti hero in the literary world, in the
Speaker 2: in the whole Black America, the whole you know, black
Speaker 2: Lives Matter movement.
Speaker 1: He is sort of an anti hero and that he.
Speaker 2: Refuses to say it's all going to be okay, And
Speaker 2: so I think that's a win in and of itself,
Speaker 2: you know, And I'm glad he's getting the props because
Speaker 2: he has, you know, he tries to deny that he's
Speaker 2: like this public intellectual figure, you know, but he honestly
Speaker 2: has brought so much, so much of a spotlight to
Speaker 2: issues that maybe wouldn't have been addressed otherwise, and such
Speaker 2: a really intelligent voice. So I'm grateful to him, and
Speaker 2: I think that is a win.
Speaker 1: So thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 4: Guys.
Speaker 2: If you want to get in touch with us, you
Speaker 2: can email us at Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: You can go to Facebook and find us at the
Speaker 3: Brown Ambition and Brown Ambition not the Just.
Speaker 4: Brown Ambition Again b A podcast on.
Speaker 2: Twitter the b A podcast. Yes, that's when we get
Speaker 2: tripped up because the's a V in the Twitter name.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, I guess so. But people haven't tweeting.
Speaker 1: Us like I love it.
Speaker 2: I'm like dads and emailing. The questions have been streaming in.
Speaker 2: We love the questions. We have a couple lined up
Speaker 2: for next week. So definitely email us your questions. You
Speaker 2: can tweet us your questions, tweet us your brown breaks,
Speaker 2: your wins, whatever you want. And definitely join the group
Speaker 2: on Facebook because it is over five hundred people right
Speaker 2: now and it's just so much fun. We share all
Speaker 2: all our favorite links there and it just brings some
Speaker 2: like extra extra goodness when you're when you're missing your
Speaker 2: Brown Ambition fix exactly.
Speaker 4: You know you love us, You know you us, I
Speaker 4: love you too. All right, Well, enjoy your Turkey day,
Speaker 4: Joy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Me, Happy Thanksgiving, you too, have fun eating.
Speaker 4: Pray for me you too.
Speaker 2: Okay, bye bye bye bye