Speaker 1: It's time for the big a q a a to
Speaker 1: be a cute A would just say the big a
Speaker 1: qute a man dead, be a cute dad to be
Speaker 1: a cute a Aanda.
Speaker 2: Hi, gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Your curls aren't popping, but this hair is everything.
Speaker 2: The curls are laid. Yes.
Speaker 1: First of all, Mandy has think of Rudy Huxtable and
Speaker 1: then multiple that time is four, all right, that usually
Speaker 1: my goal as a little girl. I'm like, if I
Speaker 1: could just get Rudy Huxtable.
Speaker 2: Hair, the hair, right, not the looks, No, I.
Speaker 1: Think, what's Reudy hostile? It is beautiful?
Speaker 2: Key to Napoleon, no, I know, but like do I
Speaker 2: look like Homie? No?
Speaker 1: No, No, I'm talking about the hair, because you know,
Speaker 1: you have this big, beautiful hair, and she always has.
Speaker 1: A little girl had like this beautiful head of natural hair,
Speaker 1: and that was like jelly of all that beautiful hair.
Speaker 1: And so you're given as I was, but Keysa Napoleum
Speaker 1: is dropped dead girl. She was a cute. Rudy was
Speaker 1: the cutest and then she's a beautiful woman. Think you
Speaker 1: you know, but yes, her her hair was always like
Speaker 1: goals for me because you know, they always tell the
Speaker 1: little black girls that, like, your hair can't grow long,
Speaker 1: and meanwhile, here was Rudy with her natural head of
Speaker 1: super long, beautiful, like textured hair, which I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: not true because Rudy's hair is to the middle of
Speaker 1: her back and she's a black girl, and.
Speaker 2: So the middle of the back was the ultimate flex girl.
Speaker 2: My hair to the middle of my back. I don't,
Speaker 2: I can't, I never. I'm not that. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: I'm not that yeah yeah, yeah, but think you no.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it just looks really cute because you don't
Speaker 1: really straighten it off.
Speaker 2: And I was like, look, it's February, so you will
Speaker 2: see the blowouts more often because this is the one
Speaker 2: month a year when the de point is low enough
Speaker 2: for me to mess with it because it takes so
Speaker 2: much time, like energy to protect it from humidity. But
Speaker 2: I mean to say, who.
Speaker 1: But one of my sisters has like a beautiful wig
Speaker 1: that that's the texture. And I was like, yes, lay,
Speaker 1: I'm like I.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't get a wig honestly, girl, No, no, But they
Speaker 2: were so much when you just don't feel like it's
Speaker 2: like putting on a hat with hair on it, like
Speaker 2: come on. Now you feel.
Speaker 1: Like your hair is going to be like, don't get
Speaker 1: this thing off me, Mayna, you have too much here.
Speaker 1: It's gonna get helmet.
Speaker 2: Like you're hearing like micro corn corn rows to get
Speaker 2: that done.
Speaker 1: Give it them straight backs.
Speaker 2: All right, the grass is always green. I'll take it.
Speaker 2: So we're recording a podcast, hi anyway?
Speaker 1: Anyway, right, So, so you know every Friday we do
Speaker 1: Brown Ambition question answers. If you have questions, we have
Speaker 1: some answers. Here's the think caveats of the caveats. We're
Speaker 1: not your financial advisor, your financial planner. We're not your
Speaker 1: your attorney, your doctor. We're just two really smart, super
Speaker 1: cute brown girls on the interwebs who know a thing
Speaker 1: that you about career, business, and money, honey. And so
Speaker 1: we can give some advice with the smallest of the
Speaker 1: smallest grains of salt. But you're going to lean into
Speaker 1: the people that you pay to get, like, you know,
Speaker 1: to stretch that grain of salt and to make it
Speaker 1: work for you. Okay, deal z'all. So we usually do
Speaker 1: two questions, and so I think we should do a
Speaker 1: quick one first. It's a Monday week.
Speaker 2: I'm excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you want me to read Monica's question off.
Speaker 2: Ig yes, because I can't find it well.
Speaker 1: Also to the best place to ask questions is to
Speaker 1: slide into our dms on ig oh, which is brown,
Speaker 1: Ambish and podcast. So Momo aka Monica says, it's borrowing
Speaker 1: money from your four one k a smart move to
Speaker 1: pay off the dance.
Speaker 2: Oh well, when you've read this question to me? Actually,
Speaker 2: I said, my response was like I would have a
Speaker 2: very different answer to this like five ten years ago,
Speaker 2: when everything was so black and white financially, and I
Speaker 2: don't know if my response probably like five ten years
Speaker 2: ago had been like, oh no, that's silly. You're robbing
Speaker 2: Peter to pay Paul and Paul is you in the future? Wait, no,
Speaker 2: Peter is you're the one getting robbed? Okay, Bible, it's great,
Speaker 2: you in the future is who you're screwing over. But
Speaker 2: you know, like my feeling now is, yeah, if it
Speaker 2: makes sense, like if it's a four one k loan
Speaker 2: that is, you know, zero interest and you pay yourself
Speaker 2: back to your paycheck, that can be an option. I
Speaker 2: feel like it's better than a you know better than
Speaker 2: you know what other option would there be to paydown
Speaker 2: debt if not forcing more money.
Speaker 1: Right balance stress for cards, potentially.
Speaker 2: More credit debt if you have issues with that, I'm
Speaker 2: not Yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Guess to your point, man, like what kind of debt
Speaker 1: are we talking about? Like an installment loan, talking about
Speaker 1: credit card debt, but if you talk about credit card debt,
Speaker 1: there are balanced trendsfer cards. I mean, but that really
Speaker 1: only works if your credit score is decent.
Speaker 2: And then you still got to pay it down. You
Speaker 2: still have the debt. It's just that now hopefully you
Speaker 2: have a zero percent intro APR for ten, twelve months
Speaker 2: or whatever, yes, to pay it down.
Speaker 1: There's also like a you know, loan from a financial institution,
Speaker 1: ideally like a credit union, where the interest rate is
Speaker 1: not as high as like a loan from like a
Speaker 1: Big Bangs. So that's an option. But to your point
Speaker 1: that it's still borrowing money, it's basically about where you're
Speaker 1: going to borrow from. Now Here is the kafiat the
Speaker 1: thing before the thing for the thing that any of
Speaker 1: these options, whether it's borrowing money from credit union, borrowing
Speaker 1: money from your four one K, like doing a home
Speaker 1: mecher you line of credit out of your home if
Speaker 1: you own a home that these institutions pay people that
Speaker 1: are really smart with math, called actuaries and actuaries their
Speaker 1: job is to do math on math, on math on
Speaker 1: math to see how much money that they're likely to
Speaker 1: get from you if you make certain choices right. So
Speaker 1: actuaries this is how they get like if you can
Speaker 1: get life insurance or like now you eighty child, you're
Speaker 1: not likely to be here long life insurance policy deny
Speaker 1: because we're not going to get our money back from you.
Speaker 1: But an actuary is going to look at, you know,
Speaker 1: the likelihood of the bank making more money than not
Speaker 1: when it comes to helping you with your debt. So no,
Speaker 1: that basically they're betting against you. You know, like when
Speaker 1: people are like, oh, I'm going to get a balanced
Speaker 1: transfer card, I'm like that other card. You don't want
Speaker 1: to have transferred all your money to this card, and
Speaker 1: now you have two cards and you run up the
Speaker 1: old car that you've paid off in the balance transfer,
Speaker 1: and now you owe two people and so but that's
Speaker 1: honestly what financial institutions are betting on that you. It's
Speaker 1: still going to be same old you navigating your finances
Speaker 1: in that way. And so to Mandy's point that like,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily a terrible idea to borrow from your
Speaker 1: forward k.
Speaker 2: We real quick, because I don't have the question in
Speaker 2: front of me. I can't find it. But is it
Speaker 2: is he asking to just take money out? Because there's
Speaker 2: a big difference we should talk about between you.
Speaker 1: Okay, So it says borrow money from your fell one.
Speaker 2: K okay, because taking a chunk out we don't like
Speaker 2: that now with no intended putting it back in. Plus
Speaker 2: there's taxes, early penalty withdrawals, you know, but if.
Speaker 1: You don't pay it back, this is what I'm meaning,
Speaker 1: is that, like there is the potential for not paying
Speaker 1: it back, and then that's when you follow your that's
Speaker 1: when you fall into trouble. I used to see all
Speaker 1: the time when I worked as a preschool teacher. I
Speaker 1: would say that we didn't go by that a teacher
Speaker 1: was not telling me she was borrowing money from her
Speaker 1: four one K, And I remember my dad would be like,
Speaker 1: don't forget you have until basically at the end of
Speaker 1: the year you have to pay it back. But they
Speaker 1: would be borring and borrowing and borring, and then it
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, is not a borrow, it's a withdrawal,
Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden you pay taxes and
Speaker 1: penalties on that. And so I just say all that
Speaker 1: to say that like that is the aim because they
Speaker 1: make money off the penalties. And so just be mindful that, like,
Speaker 1: if you're going to borrow, are you someone who has
Speaker 1: the means and the discipline to actually pay it back?
Speaker 1: If not, there might be a better way to navigate
Speaker 1: versus taking from your four one K.
Speaker 2: And I'll add to that just quickly. When you take
Speaker 2: a loan from your four one K and it's with
Speaker 2: through your employers for a one K and you're actively employed,
Speaker 2: you can take a loan out and just you'll pay
Speaker 2: it back on your paycheck each month and it all
Speaker 2: happens automatically and you pay yourself. Even with my husband,
Speaker 2: we took a loanout from his government version of a
Speaker 2: four one K, which is a TSP when we were
Speaker 2: doing the home right now and I think we needed
Speaker 2: something more and we just ran out of cash, so
Speaker 2: he did a loan. It was maybe like ten K,
Speaker 2: and you actually pay interest back to yourself too, So
Speaker 2: it worked out in that sense. But the caveat there
Speaker 2: is that if you lose your job, if you're fired
Speaker 2: or you walk away, then that loan can become due
Speaker 2: very quickly and you may not have the cash to
Speaker 2: pay it back. So yeah, there's pros and cons to everything,
Speaker 2: but I'm yeah, I think that's for.
Speaker 1: A compounding interest, you know, like you know that ten thousand,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean you guys put into the house,
Speaker 1: so you know there's this return there. But if you're
Speaker 1: using it to pay down debt, potentially it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: that that ten thousand, what could it have grown to
Speaker 1: if it had been left there? But these are the
Speaker 1: things you have to weigh because if you owe, if
Speaker 1: the day you owe has thirty percent, like thirty percent
Speaker 1: interest rate chat, you're not making ad in the market,
Speaker 1: not likely, So it might make more sense to be like,
Speaker 1: it's better. The best I can give myself is, you know,
Speaker 1: getting rid of this debt that's costing me so much money.
Speaker 2: And to our were We had a guest this week
Speaker 2: called Vivian too, your rich bff, and what she said
Speaker 2: about you know how you can only save what you
Speaker 2: can save, but you can always earn more money, and
Speaker 2: I think your ability to earn more money has should
Speaker 2: factor into that too. Are you someone who has more
Speaker 2: working years, are you, you know, coming up on promotions
Speaker 2: like really achieving more and looking for more in the future.
Speaker 2: And in that case, maybe it's something that you'll you'll
Speaker 2: make up for in the future. But only you can
Speaker 2: know that. You sit with yourself, but you know it.
Speaker 2: Do it smart? Do it smart? Yes, and don't come
Speaker 2: to us crying if it doesn't work out, because where
Speaker 2: we just say whatever we want.
Speaker 1: You want to take a break, Mandy and come on back?
Speaker 2: I do Oh? Should I took us? Yes, let's take
Speaker 2: a quick break. I take a slip of my smoothie.
Speaker 2: Now I have like blueberry kale teeth that's special for
Speaker 2: watching on YouTube. What a treat.
Speaker 1: And weird back and black and brother than ever. All right,
Speaker 1: it's our second question of the week. Man, you got
Speaker 1: it or you want me to do it?
Speaker 2: Oh? I would love to wait? Right? I think it's
Speaker 2: bright flaming green. Here we go. All right, hey, ladies
Speaker 2: from Erica on IG I have received an inheritance of
Speaker 2: over two hundred thousand dollars and I can't decide. I
Speaker 2: know this is super Girl in the future, like just
Speaker 2: getting a windfall. I have received an inheritance of over
Speaker 2: two hundred K and can't decide what to do with
Speaker 2: the money. I have been debating on paying my home
Speaker 2: off I owe one hundred and fifty four thousand dollars
Speaker 2: or purchasing an investment property. Please help, I just don't
Speaker 2: want to make the wrong choice. I feel like this
Speaker 2: is my only opportunity to build and generate wealth for
Speaker 2: my family. Thanks in advance, OW very sorry for your loss.
Speaker 1: However, it is okay coin some one y'all know. I
Speaker 1: bought my condo cash, which was not the smartest financial choice,
Speaker 1: but it was the smartest tiffany choice because of where
Speaker 1: I was and whatever. So but to me, the smarter
Speaker 1: financial choice unless your interest rate on your home is astronomical,
Speaker 1: which you know, the likelihood is. I'm assuming you bought
Speaker 1: your home if you owe one to fifty four, because
Speaker 1: homes are so expensive now, you probably bought it, you know,
Speaker 1: with seven interest yeah, or maybe before interest rates hit
Speaker 1: like seventy seven percent. I don't know where they are now,
Speaker 1: but maybe you got it when they were when it
Speaker 1: was two percent, three percent, even five percent. That being said,
Speaker 1: paying off your home, that's great, but that money's literally
Speaker 1: just sitting there. It's almost like paying off your home
Speaker 1: is like the equivalent of like having your money in
Speaker 1: the savings account with like you know, a low interest
Speaker 1: bearing savings account, which okay, with.
Speaker 2: No insurance back. Ye, maybe you have home insurance, I guess, but.
Speaker 1: Yes, you know, but like actually putting your money to work.
Speaker 1: And so I'm saying, is that someone who didn't do that.
Speaker 1: I'm not mad about myself not doing it because I
Speaker 1: did it consciously for other reasons. Emotionally, I need to
Speaker 1: be in a place where I didn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about a mortgage. But later I am likely to pull
Speaker 1: money out and then put it to work. But at
Speaker 1: least for now, you know, like for the smarter financial choice,
Speaker 1: which is what you're asking about, like actually investing your money.
Speaker 1: And if the second choice is to purchase an investment property,
Speaker 1: that is you're going to make more money. You're more
Speaker 1: likely to make more money with that choice, you know,
Speaker 1: looking for an investment property, multi family house, you know,
Speaker 1: even like commercial property, something that's going to generate some
Speaker 1: income for you. I don't know where you live, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that is going to be the more income, the more
Speaker 1: likely option for generating like income, and wealth for yourself
Speaker 1: because then there's a cycle.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, so you purchased this next property, it's a three
Speaker 1: family house. I'm just making it up. You put down,
Speaker 1: you know whatever, the two hundred thousand or one fifty
Speaker 1: or whatever, depending where you purchased the property. You know,
Speaker 1: you're starting to pay that on a mortgage with the
Speaker 1: rent that you're getting, and then the property potentially appreciates.
Speaker 1: It doesn't happen everywhere, but say you live in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: We've been appreciating over and over and over. That property
Speaker 1: is now worth more. Now you've had four hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars inside that home that you can now pull out
Speaker 1: some of it to purchase the next property, and so
Speaker 1: like that is one of the ways that people start
Speaker 1: to grow a real estate portfolio by like leveraging the
Speaker 1: equity in one home, pulling it out and then purchasing
Speaker 1: the next piece of property. That was the plan for Drelling,
Speaker 1: Like before he passed away. We've gotten the house from
Speaker 1: the City of Newark, paid ten thousand dollars for it,
Speaker 1: renovated it for about one hundred and thirty thousand. The
Speaker 1: house is then worth almost three hundred thousand. We were
Speaker 1: going to pull money out of that house, rent out
Speaker 1: that house, pull money out, and then buy the next
Speaker 1: property and do it again and again until you know,
Speaker 1: until it was time for him to retire, and hopefully
Speaker 1: would have had maybe four or five homes by then
Speaker 1: that he could then manage and that would be his
Speaker 1: income in retirement. And so, you know, I think it's
Speaker 1: a great idea, but you know, just be mindful, like
Speaker 1: you know you want to be a landlord, because that
Speaker 1: ain't easy, you know, although there are companies that can
Speaker 1: help you manage. So I would do all my research
Speaker 1: before jumping out the window about what it looks like
Speaker 1: to manage a property and like what those costs look like.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, put it to work, just in an
Speaker 2: investment account. I mean, I know that there's you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not a financial I'm not your financial planner, but
Speaker 2: I think first piece of advice we forgot just get
Speaker 2: a financial like an investment advisor. I think if you
Speaker 2: plan on like investing the money or putting it into
Speaker 2: a you know, an index fund or whatever way, so
Speaker 2: that it can at least be cooking and you know,
Speaker 2: creating returns for you, I mean dividends talked about that.
Speaker 2: If we talk about like an investment property, you can
Speaker 2: like physically think of a tenant giving you a check
Speaker 2: with money each month. But stocks can do that too
Speaker 2: if you invest into dividend stocks, and then dividends are
Speaker 2: literally just money that the companies pay you for investing
Speaker 2: in their stock, like a thanks for sticking with us
Speaker 2: type thing. And I love to look at my dividends
Speaker 2: that I've earned and be like, oh, hey, we made
Speaker 2: extra money, money that I didn't even put in, almost
Speaker 2: like an employer match, but they're not matching, but they're
Speaker 2: giving you a little something something. Anyway, I think investment
Speaker 2: property or paying off your house are two big options,
Speaker 2: but they're not the only one. So there's nothing wrong
Speaker 2: with like tifle. If you decide like you're not ready
Speaker 2: to be a landlord, doesn't fit your lifestyle right now,
Speaker 2: just put that money to work and you can invest
Speaker 2: it and then invest it wisely. That's why I'm saying
Speaker 2: get an advisor because they can help you make sure
Speaker 2: that you're not too risky with it if you plan
Speaker 2: on using it, or they may say, hey, if you're
Speaker 2: going to use it on an investment property, let's put
Speaker 2: into a high yield savings account that you can easily
Speaker 2: get to and put the other half in the market,
Speaker 2: et cetera. But two hundred case sounds like so much money,
Speaker 2: but it could like if you really wanted to last,
Speaker 2: like you know, provide for your family, it's going to
Speaker 2: have to be invested in some way, form or fashion.
Speaker 2: So congratulations. With great money comes great responsibility.
Speaker 1: So I'm so glad you're thinking about it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like like would have blown through it.
Speaker 1: You know, this would have been like girl, you know,
Speaker 1: buy a car and a you know, a little wardrobe
Speaker 1: before you know it, You're like, damn back where I
Speaker 1: was before, you know. So you know, one of the
Speaker 1: things they tell you when you when you win the
Speaker 1: lottery is don't do anything with the money for the
Speaker 1: first six months. Do what Mandy said, right, you know,
Speaker 1: put it somewhere, you know, because it's under two fifty,
Speaker 1: it's protected in a savings account, high yield. Sit with
Speaker 1: a financial advisor, create the plan, and then be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: now I feel fairly confident that I can move forward.
Speaker 1: You know that I'm not just jumping out the window.
Speaker 1: So congratulations twice for Erica for getting that inheritance, but
Speaker 1: then also really being strategic about how you want to
Speaker 1: spend it.
Speaker 2: So thank you being fan for your questions. Hit us up.
Speaker 2: We're at Brown Ambition Podcast on Instagram. Send us all
Speaker 2: your questions and we hope to see y'all next week
Speaker 2: for another episode of Brown Ambition Q and a yeah,
Speaker 2: and for.
Speaker 1: This episode and the one before and then one before
Speaker 1: and then onmberfore. Okay, stop trying to keep it to.
Speaker 2: Yourself, so forwarded okay for yeah yeah, send it to
Speaker 2: a friend, Send it to a friend, to a friend
Speaker 2: to a friend. Bye,