Speaker 1: And we're back forth the b a q a q A,
Speaker 1: the b a q q the b q A. I
Speaker 1: wish you guys could see it's me and Mandy like
Speaker 1: we're like bopping heads.
Speaker 2: The b a q A. All right.
Speaker 1: We called the b a q A because it's Brown
Speaker 1: Ambition Question and Answer.
Speaker 2: We do it every Friday for y'all.
Speaker 1: You guys have amazing question owned so much so we
Speaker 1: had that to do a whole nother show for it.
Speaker 1: So if you have questions before we start, make sure
Speaker 1: you send them to us at brand Ambision Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: Right, is that a question? Yes? Correct? Correct?
Speaker 1: I got it? Ding ding ding, all right, And you
Speaker 1: could also tweet us at Brown Ambish and Podcasts right
Speaker 1: on instag that's ad tweet us a install. You can
Speaker 1: send us to Instagram DM. We're Brand Ambition Podcasts and
Speaker 1: we're the BA podcast on Twitter.
Speaker 3: Correct, yes, ma'am. And or if you just want to
Speaker 3: make it simple, just go to brandambisionpodcast dot com our
Speaker 3: new beautiful redone jujup glossy, gorgeous website and you can
Speaker 3: ask us anything there. Yeah, all right, let's get on
Speaker 3: into it. I'm gonna take the first question. All right,
Speaker 3: So this listener wants to be anonymous. She says, thank
Speaker 3: you for all you do. I've been listening for years.
Speaker 3: I love how you break down the answers to questions
Speaker 3: on your show. Thank you. Alrighty, So here's her question.
Speaker 3: She wants to know when does it make sense to
Speaker 3: use credit unions. I recently combined finances with my spouse,
Speaker 3: and I'm more bothered when it comes to debt. I'm
Speaker 3: only comfortable carrying student loan debt, which I have about
Speaker 3: sixteen thousand dollars of. My partner is also trying to
Speaker 3: pay off about nine thousand dollars of personal consumer debt
Speaker 3: that has skyrocketed due to unemployment with the pandemic. And
Speaker 3: this year we've managed to also rack up close to
Speaker 3: an additional four thousand dollars of consumer debt. This is
Speaker 3: low interest, this is low interest to no interesting twelve oh.
Speaker 3: We've also managed to rack up close to four thousand
Speaker 3: dollars of credit card debt on a zero percent financing
Speaker 3: credit card for twelve months. That means that after twelve months,
Speaker 3: it's going to be it's going to be a lot
Speaker 3: more than zero percent, she says, I'm thinking it'll make
Speaker 3: sense to try to get a ten thousand dollars credit
Speaker 3: union loan to at least clear the high interest personal
Speaker 3: consumer debt that accumulated before our marriage. For additional context,
Speaker 3: pre tax, this year we've made about eighty five thousand
Speaker 3: dollars and my credit score is seven twenty. Thanks for
Speaker 3: your help. Okay, what a time to get married and
Speaker 3: I've been dealing with debt together. Ye yes, I mean,
Speaker 3: I definitely think that the rationale of her tackling the
Speaker 3: high interest consumer debt. They do have this twelve months
Speaker 3: where the four thousand dollars is not accruing interest, you know,
Speaker 3: at zero percent intro financing, So I got I get that.
Speaker 3: The bigger concern is that nine thousand dollars of debt
Speaker 3: that her husband has that is, like she said, been
Speaker 3: skyrocketing things to interest because it sounds like he was
Speaker 3: unemployed for a while. But the core question, when does
Speaker 3: it make sense to use credit unions like right now?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Honestly, here's it's a good time.
Speaker 2: I like three.
Speaker 1: I like to have like three financial like partners. If
Speaker 1: you will, one your brick and mortar bank. You know,
Speaker 1: they're my least favor because you know, they don't give
Speaker 1: you nothing, but they are convenient. When I say brick
Speaker 1: and mortar bank, you know, the big old banks on
Speaker 1: the corner. We don't say their names over here, but
Speaker 1: you know, like for the convenience of it all, this
Speaker 1: is where literally I just do my checking, like swipe
Speaker 1: my debit card, pay my bills, and leave me allowances.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Second partner, I like to have as an online only
Speaker 1: bank for savings because if I'm going to say, like
Speaker 1: Mandy talked about, like in our prior Brando Bisson episode,
Speaker 1: the one before this, go listen if you haven't, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's good. So she talked about that she and husband
Speaker 1: saved like a year's worth of savings, so they wanted
Speaker 1: to have it liquid before she kind of made the
Speaker 1: leap into what she's doing now. So if you are
Speaker 1: going to save, I'm not talking about investing, but if
Speaker 1: you're going to save, it's better to save in an
Speaker 1: online only bank that's going to issue you a higher
Speaker 1: interest rate then that brick and mortar bank on the
Speaker 1: corner that's going to give you a piece of a
Speaker 1: piece of a piece of a piece of a piece
Speaker 1: of a penny. Okay, And then the third is credit unions.
Speaker 1: To me, I like a credit union specifically for their
Speaker 1: interest rate if you need to borrow money. That is
Speaker 1: why I think everyone should have a credit union connect
Speaker 1: because with credit unions, you know, like if I was
Speaker 1: going to purchase a car and i'd had and I
Speaker 1: had payments, I would get my get my financing through
Speaker 1: a credit union. You know, purchase a house, I would
Speaker 1: try to get my financing through a credit union because
Speaker 1: credit unions are many credit unions are nonprofit based, and
Speaker 1: they are typically like kind of like co owned by
Speaker 1: the members inside their credit union, which means that the
Speaker 1: rates that they issue are enough to keep the doors
Speaker 1: open and the lights on, but they're not as aggressive
Speaker 1: with trying to make money because that is not the
Speaker 1: purpose of a credit union. The credit union is a
Speaker 1: community financial resource. And so yes, everyone listening, you know
Speaker 1: you should at least have a relationship with a credit union.
Speaker 2: But did she say her name?
Speaker 3: No, she wants to be anonymous.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll just.
Speaker 1: Call you Debbie, so debs because you know you have debt. Debbie,
Speaker 1: get debt Debbie. Okay, anyway, don't worry, Debbie. I'm not
Speaker 1: judging you because Shad Lloyd's knows I have I had
Speaker 1: a ton of debt, but you got a great credit score.
Speaker 1: You know, remember the beginning of perfect credit is a
Speaker 1: is a seven forty, but seven twenty is nothing to
Speaker 1: sneeze that. So I don't think you're not going to
Speaker 1: get turned by down by a credit union. To our money,
Speaker 1: I can't tell you like the amount, but it's very
Speaker 1: likely that you'll get you know something. And I if
Speaker 1: it was me, I would remember, me and Mandy are
Speaker 1: not giving you personal advice, but we could just give
Speaker 1: our opinion like how we would do it. But if
Speaker 1: it was me, I would I would get a loan
Speaker 1: from my credit union, pay off that high interest rate debt,
Speaker 1: you know, really trying to negotiate down the lowest interest
Speaker 1: that I can get that the debt that I have
Speaker 1: the zero interest on. I would be very aggressive in
Speaker 1: paying that off. Make sure that you know, find out
Speaker 1: at that the end of the payoff, if you have
Speaker 1: like two dollars left over that they're not going to
Speaker 1: then flood you with the full interest that you did
Speaker 1: not have to pay, Like figure out basically what are
Speaker 1: the terms of that loan? And yeah, and make your
Speaker 1: credit union your friend like, do most of your lending
Speaker 1: through them. That's what I would do if it was Moah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The only thing I would add is credit unions like
Speaker 3: Tiffany's that are great. They even have a max interest
Speaker 3: rate they can charge you. It's eighteen percent, so you're
Speaker 3: never going which sounds like high. But when you think
Speaker 3: about some there are online lenders out there that are
Speaker 3: no better than payday lenders Yep, you know storefronts, and
Speaker 3: they charge like triple digit interest rates. I mean, so
Speaker 3: eighteen percent is their max on personal loans and things
Speaker 3: like that. But even though, so, if you were considering
Speaker 3: your credit union, what I would say is your credit
Speaker 3: score is really good. See what interest rate they offer
Speaker 3: you and how much they offer you, and just get
Speaker 3: a couple other quotes, even from some online lenders. You
Speaker 3: do have good credit. I think it might be You'll
Speaker 3: have to decide, though, I'm wondering. She gives her credit
Speaker 3: score but not her husband's and it's his debt, So
Speaker 3: it's that kind of sticky, icky thing of am I
Speaker 3: putting my.
Speaker 2: Credit on the line for your debt?
Speaker 3: What's his credit score? That's what I'm curious about, And
Speaker 3: it is he taking out the loan cause and I'm
Speaker 3: gonna be for real, I've dot just because you know,
Speaker 3: I've talked to at least three different women recently through
Speaker 3: my career coaching who have been in really nasty breakups
Speaker 3: and they have been left on the hook for debt
Speaker 3: that their partner that they took on, you know, as
Speaker 3: a couple, but really it was you know, is it
Speaker 3: in a couple in in you know, in your feelings
Speaker 3: or is it a couple on paper? Because what's often
Speaker 3: happening is you have one person taking on the debt.
Speaker 3: So I would definitely think carefully before you put your
Speaker 3: finances on the line to consolidate his debt. But let's
Speaker 3: say you know he's got solid credit, I would say
Speaker 3: one hundred percent he should be consolidating his debt. Start
Speaker 3: with a credit union, and then see if some online
Speaker 3: lenders you can get some quotes from as well, and
Speaker 3: ultimately go with the lowest rate possible on a fixed
Speaker 3: personal on a fixed rate personal loan. That is just
Speaker 3: an idea. Like Tiffany said, we are not your financial advisor.
Speaker 3: We don't know everything about your financial picture. There's so
Speaker 3: many questions here, but that's just our thoughts for now
Speaker 3: yay marriage, but yours is mine?
Speaker 2: Met all right?
Speaker 3: What's our next question? Tif?
Speaker 2: Okay? Is okay? Hi?
Speaker 1: My sister turned me onto your podcast and it's been
Speaker 1: so helpful to continue our healthy relationship with money and
Speaker 1: talking about it with each other. Hey, sister, you're a
Speaker 1: great sister.
Speaker 2: Thank you you.
Speaker 1: I have a question for you. I have a job
Speaker 1: with a pension peer in Colorado. I can buy up
Speaker 1: to ten years of service time and accelerate my retirement
Speaker 1: by either ten years or work on my job until
Speaker 1: normal retirement age, but get nearly one hundred percent of
Speaker 1: my highest income for the life after I retire, for
Speaker 1: life after I retire. Problem is the cost of buying
Speaker 1: years accelerates quickly as I get older. Does it make
Speaker 1: sense to use a loan like a a heelock for
Speaker 1: yours who don't know? It's a oh my god, I'm
Speaker 1: just joined a blank home equity loan. Yes, thank you,
Speaker 1: O child home equity loan A home equity line of
Speaker 1: credit to buy years of service. PARA will or PRA
Speaker 1: I don't know. PARA will loan me the money at
Speaker 1: seven percent, but I could get a heelock for less
Speaker 1: than five percent. Probably closer than three percent. Right now,
Speaker 1: I can see myself working there for the next twenty years.
Speaker 1: But I also would get the option to take a
Speaker 1: lump sum out if I move on before retirement. This
Speaker 1: feels like a good idea, but it also sounds like cheating.
Speaker 1: Cheating any advice. Thank you so much, even if you
Speaker 1: don't answer this. I love what you're doing a public servant.
Speaker 1: Oh hey, ps public servant. So just to get yes ahead,
Speaker 1: I had.
Speaker 3: No idea that you could do this. I didn't know
Speaker 3: that you could buy years of service. This is fascinating
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 1: You should ask husband because he's a public servant as well, right,
Speaker 1: and I know my husband, Superman is a public servant.
Speaker 1: So we actually did this, although we didn't have all
Speaker 1: of the nuances that you have public service, meaning that
Speaker 1: it didn't like he could have done it at any time. Basically,
Speaker 1: it didn't actually cost more the longer that he waited,
Speaker 1: so I was like, oh, you know, that was something new,
Speaker 1: so we you know, we it took us a few
Speaker 1: years to make the decision of whether it made sense,
Speaker 1: but we weren't in a rush, thankfully, because he didn't
Speaker 1: have to do that. And then also too it was.
Speaker 1: I think his max was like five years that he
Speaker 1: could buy back. So eventually, after sitting with our financial
Speaker 1: planner on Jillie, hey girl, we decided it made sense
Speaker 1: now to your point, because he's going to technically quote
Speaker 1: unquote retire early. If if that's what he so decides,
Speaker 1: he's not going to get the hundred percent of the
Speaker 1: money he would have gotten. I think let's just pretend like,
Speaker 1: uh that you get sixty percent of your paycheck and
Speaker 1: your in your in your pension because my husband has
Speaker 1: a pension as well, right, so he's not going to
Speaker 1: get that. It will be less. But he and you know,
Speaker 1: we did the math and we were like, okay, one,
Speaker 1: by the time my husband retires, we will have we
Speaker 1: already have one property that's basically done. We'll be able
Speaker 1: to rent it out for about twenty two hundred bucks
Speaker 1: a month. Now the property is paid off and renovated,
Speaker 1: so there's no mortgage. So if he saves half event
Speaker 1: and then the other half basically is what I told him, Now,
Speaker 1: you're starting to replace your income. So I told him
Speaker 1: you have five years you know to you know, use
Speaker 1: real estate to replace your income. So him not getting
Speaker 1: the full pension is not as important as what was
Speaker 1: important to me was because he could technically like quit now, really,
Speaker 1: I guess, well that's not true because he doesn't have
Speaker 1: the full money from the homes yet. But let's just
Speaker 1: say that we get an apartment complex this year and
Speaker 1: it's like, well, now he's making ten thousand dollars a month,
Speaker 1: he could quit.
Speaker 2: No, I want that insurance.
Speaker 1: Like for us, that's what made that's why we're like, no,
Speaker 1: I want him to finish out, because his insurance is
Speaker 1: a plus plus as it is for many public service
Speaker 1: like y'all know, for those of you who are ogis,
Speaker 1: you know, I did IVF for like three years, and
Speaker 1: it was probably would have cost us well, definitely into
Speaker 1: the six figures, if not multiple six figures because we
Speaker 1: did it for so long. But I paid ten dollars
Speaker 1: out of pocket when I went to see the doctor.
Speaker 1: I paid nothing for all of the surgeries. It was,
Speaker 1: you know, it was I probably paid out of pocket
Speaker 1: less than three thousand dollars for the three years. And
Speaker 1: that's because I had to. You know, when you I
Speaker 1: froze some of the eggs and that's something that they
Speaker 1: did not cover. So I just say all that to say,
Speaker 1: his insurance is so great, I want to take it
Speaker 1: with us, And so you know, I'm just I don't
Speaker 1: know the right choice for you, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: give you like a path of our thinking, like how
Speaker 1: important is it for you to have the full amount
Speaker 1: of money at the end? Do you get to take
Speaker 1: your insurance with you? I don't know that there's a
Speaker 1: right or wrong. Ten years is a lot of time.
Speaker 1: And does she say how close how she is?
Speaker 3: No, she says she can see herself working there for
Speaker 3: twenty years.
Speaker 1: But she doesn't know twenty years, but we don't know
Speaker 1: when her like, so meaning like if Superman works for
Speaker 1: the next ten years, he'll be able to retire, but
Speaker 1: we can shorten it in half. We don't know how
Speaker 1: far or close he is she is to like, whatever
Speaker 1: the full amount of years are, I guess we can
Speaker 1: assume it's twenty years.
Speaker 3: She said that she's going to accelerate it, that she's
Speaker 3: thinking of buying up to ten years of service to
Speaker 3: accelerate her retirement by ten years. So it looks like
Speaker 3: she's looking to cut twenty into ten. Yeah, that's thirty
Speaker 3: down to twenty.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm wondering at Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2: Know what do you think maydie?
Speaker 1: What would you do?
Speaker 2: Because I don't think there's a right or wrong here.
Speaker 1: Girl.
Speaker 3: The only thing I could think when you were telling
Speaker 3: your story is if you're listening to anything public servant,
Speaker 3: it's the fact that Tiffany, huh and Superman I keep
Speaker 3: calling him Husby. I'm sorry, he's Superman. I have husby anyway,
Speaker 3: that you guys went to Angelie your financial planner first,
Speaker 3: this is a prime example of a complicated math problem
Speaker 3: that you want to see seven different scenarios lined up,
Speaker 3: and that is something that I know my financial planner,
Speaker 3: Helen would extraordinary force. So I'm saying this is a
Speaker 3: good it's such a big decision too. You're talking about
Speaker 3: also a helock. How does Superman pay for his year?
Speaker 1: We saved it. We saved it, and you saved it.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if we would to pay cash. Yes,
Speaker 1: we pay cash because yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because a helock is a whole other element to this.
Speaker 3: That you got your house on the line, you know,
Speaker 3: that's your collateral. That's why you get a lower interest rate.
Speaker 3: So it's a very complex question, and I think that
Speaker 3: it's a perfect time. This is a big enough situation
Speaker 3: where finding a fee based or fee only financial planner
Speaker 3: who can help you with this particular situation. They'll they'll
Speaker 3: get all your personal information down, your family, all that
Speaker 3: and their household expenses and debts, and help you walk
Speaker 3: through all of your options. Because to me, it's such
Speaker 3: a big decision that I would feel a lot better
Speaker 3: if you had. Personally, I would feel a lot better.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't make this kind of decision without talking to
Speaker 3: my financial planner, and I don't think necessarily you probably
Speaker 3: you could make that decision, but if you're doubting it,
Speaker 3: I would say, definitely lean on a personal financial advisor,
Speaker 3: which of course Tiffany and I can't do because we
Speaker 3: don't know that much. We only have, you know, a
Speaker 3: little email from you. I'm not trying to get out
Speaker 3: of saying an answer, but genuinely, I ain't got one.
Speaker 1: I just say, yeah, it's a lot too. There's so
Speaker 1: many nuances, and you're right that. I think the biggest
Speaker 1: thing to take away is the fact that, like I did,
Speaker 1: we did not make this decision by ourselves.
Speaker 2: You know, we asked, we were like, so.
Speaker 1: What do you think and she was just like, well,
Speaker 1: she looked at how much savings we had. She actually asked, like,
Speaker 1: we had to go I had never seen his pension
Speaker 1: paperwork or whatever. We had to go download it get
Speaker 1: it for her so she could actually look through the
Speaker 1: pension paperwork to see, you know what, you know, do
Speaker 1: you get to take because I was like, do you
Speaker 1: get to take your retirement your your life it's not
Speaker 1: life insurance, your health insurance with you fully, like what
Speaker 1: does that look like?
Speaker 2: So these were things, you know.
Speaker 1: It's all so she weaves through all those things and
Speaker 1: was like, so here's what's on the table. Yes, you
Speaker 1: get to take it with you, Superman. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: make the full amount because you're gonna leave early.
Speaker 2: This is what this is.
Speaker 1: She even gave us an amount the differential between if
Speaker 1: you stay to the end to what you're making now,
Speaker 1: you know, so we can make that decision. And so
Speaker 1: and here's the thing. What's so great is that he
Speaker 1: could still stay if he wanted to, Like it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean I mean people work past quote unquote retirement age.
Speaker 1: So it's not like if he's like, you know what,
Speaker 1: actually I don't mind it, I'll stay an extra five
Speaker 1: years or whatever. He can still do that.
Speaker 2: I just wanted for him.
Speaker 1: He just wanted the option of being able to say,
Speaker 1: you know what, if I do want to leave early
Speaker 1: and I do have you know this other source of
Speaker 1: income coming in that I want to focus on, I
Speaker 1: have the option to do so. But yeah, Manny's right,
Speaker 1: this is a big, big, big decision, very complicated, and
Speaker 1: but honestly, you're in an awesome place to even be
Speaker 1: able to make this decision. Like who can say that
Speaker 1: I can buy ten years off my time?
Speaker 3: That's awesome, I mean, hell's yeah. All right, Well, let
Speaker 3: us I feel like this this warrants a follow up email.
Speaker 3: Let us know if you find a financial planner if you're.
Speaker 2: In Colorado, A good a good place to start for.
Speaker 3: Finding a feed planner is National Association of Certified Financial
Speaker 3: Planners Napfah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll put a link, Yes.
Speaker 3: We'll put a link in the in the show notes.
Speaker 3: But you can ask for referrals find someone in your
Speaker 3: state because they're actually probably going to have experience working
Speaker 3: with people who work with the pension system there. So
Speaker 3: you know, big decisions, grown up, grown up things, good
Speaker 3: grown up teams, Good luck, grown up things. All right,
Speaker 3: I think that's it for the ba QA this week.
Speaker 3: Thanks y'all for listening.
Speaker 1: Yes, but you have questions, don't forget Send us your questions.
Speaker 1: We love you can send us your personal financial questions,
Speaker 1: but also too, you know, Mandy is quite the career
Speaker 1: educator these days. Send us your career questions and you
Speaker 1: know them all about that business, So send us your
Speaker 1: business questions as well. Like we love business, career and
Speaker 1: personal finance questions because we are here to provide, you know,
Speaker 1: our thoughts on Obviously, we're not here to advise you specifically,
Speaker 1: but to provide our thoughts on it, and we love
Speaker 1: a wide range of questions, so you know, send them
Speaker 1: on over to brannabich and podcast dot com.
Speaker 2: Click is it still called ask us anything?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: What does it say on you know what?
Speaker 3: As I was saying it earlier, I'm like, I don't
Speaker 3: even know what it says anymore. Our brand new website
Speaker 3: there is I think you just scroll down, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll,
Speaker 3: and there should be a form there.
Speaker 1: If not, you know, there's a contact least I say
Speaker 1: at work contact. There you go, there's literally a contact yep.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I know, we really trained ourselves over six
Speaker 3: years to say that exact expression, and now it's different.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah no, and now as I'm here, now it
Speaker 1: looks great if you click a contacts First of all,
Speaker 1: this picture is super cute of me and Mandy. If
Speaker 1: you click the contact us page like box, it actually
Speaker 1: has like ba qas right there, like you can see it.
Speaker 2: So that's right.
Speaker 3: I remember deciding that. Okay, did I tell you my
Speaker 3: mom loves our podcast? She was like, she wrote me
Speaker 3: the most thoughtful review. You know how sometimes you're just like,
Speaker 3: I can't believe you took the time, mom, but thank you,
Speaker 3: she said. You know, there are some websites I just
Speaker 3: do not keep scroll if it's too hard to navigate.
Speaker 3: I'm doing it in her Midwestern Minnesota Minneesoula.
Speaker 2: I love that navigate.
Speaker 3: She will be so annoyed because honestly, there's more Georgia
Speaker 3: in her than she likes to admit. But anyway, she's like,
Speaker 3: it's just so beautiful and easy to navigate and so intuitive.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm excited it's go. It just makes me happy.
Speaker 3: I think it just really reflects our spirit much better.
Speaker 3: But you know, shouts out to our original og Brown
Speaker 3: Ambition podcast dot com. It served us well, but we
Speaker 3: growed we growed up now and I am Radio nominated,
Speaker 3: so yeah, we needed to level up.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll growed up. I love that all right?
Speaker 3: Until next week by my