Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, we're back. We're black, we're.
Speaker 2: Brown, we harmonize.
Speaker 1: Oh a little earlier today, Mandy, how you feel about it?
Speaker 2: I mean, these midday recording sessions are a bit challenging,
Speaker 2: I have to say, but I'm working with it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for accommodating me.
Speaker 3: Uh So, Unfortunately, you were talking a little earlier and
Speaker 3: you were saying that we're still in this still in
Speaker 3: the government shutdown, which I'm like, yikes, is there any
Speaker 3: word on the street of there being, like, you know,
Speaker 3: a slowdown to this.
Speaker 2: We're officially in our what is it the fourth week? Now,
Speaker 2: it's a record, a record long government shutdown. My husband,
Speaker 2: I was talking to him. We've been through since I've
Speaker 2: been with him for seven years. I think there's been
Speaker 2: maybe two shutdowns that he's had to go through, but
Speaker 2: none has lasted as long as this one. I mean
Speaker 2: this past weekend he did not get paid at all.
Speaker 2: I can safely say he has not been working over
Speaker 2: time or trying to stay later than he absolutely needs to.
Speaker 2: Because what's really sucky is like if you're deemed essential,
Speaker 2: which means you still have to go into work, and
Speaker 2: you're still not getting paid. Some people are furloughed, which
Speaker 2: means you just don't have to go to work and
Speaker 2: you're not getting paid. But hopefully what they'll do is
Speaker 2: they'll repay, they'll like back pay people when the shutdown's
Speaker 2: finally over. But it sucks because some people are I mean, yes,
Speaker 2: no one's getting paid, and that's really really challenging for
Speaker 2: some families who are living, you know, paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2: But at least if you're not getting paid, don't have
Speaker 2: to go to work. You know, he still has to
Speaker 2: go to work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's still to the expense of going to work,
Speaker 3: whether it's the train or toll or gas or whatever.
Speaker 2: Yep, it's like insult to injury. So I don't know
Speaker 2: what the hell's happening. In Congress. You know, we had
Speaker 2: some Republican representative whatever his name is, make a comment
Speaker 2: about how he's not sure why white supremacy was ever
Speaker 2: seemed like such a negative.
Speaker 1: I saw that. Okay, Republican racism is so bad. It's bad.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Someone was like man, but wasn't it good to see
Speaker 2: the Republicans, you know, immediately denounce him and try and
Speaker 2: get him off these committees and ousd him and stuff
Speaker 2: and I'm like cool, So they did the bare minimum.
Speaker 2: You know, they had one good instinct, which is like, yes,
Speaker 2: racism is bad. Pat on the back for that one.
Speaker 2: You know realization. The bar is very low.
Speaker 1: The bar is low.
Speaker 3: Even like like I, you know, I thought the government
Speaker 3: shutdown was not directly directly affecting me until I got
Speaker 3: some letter for two of my businesses about filing a
Speaker 3: specific type of like form. But we had already taken
Speaker 3: care of it digitally, so we tried to call just
Speaker 3: to be like, oh, just the FYI, this is done,
Speaker 3: and it was like, oh wait, no one's there, Like
Speaker 3: we could not get through.
Speaker 1: There was no one to pick up.
Speaker 3: So it was like wow, So if you have an IRS
Speaker 3: question or you know, whatever it is for your business
Speaker 3: or for yourself personally, you know there you might not
Speaker 3: be able to you know, you might.
Speaker 1: Have to just basically wait.
Speaker 3: So we're just kind of waiting and it's just a
Speaker 3: little questrating because you know, there's a fee attached if
Speaker 3: you don't act within a timely manner according to the letter.
Speaker 3: So it just makes me like a little worried, like
Speaker 3: wait a minute, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one thing I'll say is we got some We
Speaker 2: got some emails from the banks that we bank with,
Speaker 2: and a lot of banks are being cool about, you know,
Speaker 2: with the shutdown and saying like, if you're afraid you're
Speaker 2: going to be laid on a payment, to call your bank.
Speaker 2: And if you're having trouble making ends meet, credit unions,
Speaker 2: a lot of financial institutions will issue or offer loans
Speaker 2: potentially to people impacted by the furlough if you you know,
Speaker 2: at a at a low rate, so it's it's one
Speaker 2: possibility if you guys are struggling to make ends meet.
Speaker 2: I'm thankful that we have our emergency fund, so we're
Speaker 2: not you know, and we have a dual income household,
Speaker 2: so we're not as stressed as some family. Is that
Speaker 2: I feel really blessed to be in that position, But there.
Speaker 3: Are people who are like I can't imagine being like
Speaker 3: a single mom or single dad and being like, but
Speaker 3: how am I going to buy things? You know, like
Speaker 3: this is four weeks is that's two paychecks, and you
Speaker 3: know most people don't couldn't miss one, let alone two.
Speaker 3: So it's just very Yeah, I just I wonder what
Speaker 3: the longest shutdown has ever been just in history.
Speaker 1: Periods you know this.
Speaker 2: No really, yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure this is a
Speaker 2: record government shutdown and it's not Government shutdowns aren't even
Speaker 2: that common of a thing. I mean, they have been
Speaker 2: in me being the last I don't know, Obama had
Speaker 2: a couple, but before that, there hadn't really been any
Speaker 2: since the seventies. I was looking at a list of
Speaker 2: you know, historical government shutdowns, and no, it's not something
Speaker 2: that happens all the time, and certainly not for this
Speaker 2: long period of time, a full months. That's not common.
Speaker 2: And meanwhile, we're playing a game of economic chicken over
Speaker 2: a wall, which I have to say. I did listen
Speaker 2: to a couple of podcasts where they interviewed law enforcement
Speaker 2: from the border, and it was interesting to hear their perspective.
Speaker 2: And it's really sad to me because there is so
Speaker 2: much there is, like a valid concern over border security
Speaker 2: and the humanitarian crisis at the border and families you know,
Speaker 2: risking their lives to cross and being you know, doing
Speaker 2: it really unsafely. There is so much that needs to
Speaker 2: be done, and yet we're just kind of getting stuck
Speaker 2: on this one conversation over a wall, and there's so
Speaker 2: much more nuance to it than just that, and it's
Speaker 2: just like, you know, it's not even about Trump anymore.
Speaker 2: It's as much about Trump as I think, as it
Speaker 2: is with just Congress people in general not being able
Speaker 2: to you know, amend their differences and create some kind
Speaker 2: of actual reform that will help people versus, you know,
Speaker 2: getting stuck on this whole the wall symbol of the wall.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like twenty nineteen is already starting like this
Speaker 3: because one, I don't know if ever, I was reading
Speaker 3: some article I forget what newspaper's saying that they feel
Speaker 3: like Europe is already in a recession. Really oh yeah,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh my gosh, out nineteen, can I
Speaker 3: get my friends the door before you slam it?
Speaker 2: I mean, there's still there's still good to be had.
Speaker 2: I think that is, you know, hopefully a lot of
Speaker 2: our listeners, if you work, you know, your typical nine
Speaker 2: to five. This is performance review season. So this is
Speaker 2: the time. I always say, don't wait till the performance
Speaker 2: review to ask for that promotion or that raise. But
Speaker 2: I'm curious to hear how people's performance reviews have been
Speaker 2: and if they feel like they're beneficial. I'm about to
Speaker 2: do my whole round of them next week, and I
Speaker 2: always and if especially if you're like on the other side,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you do performance reviews with the
Speaker 2: budget needs to crew, But for me, we do weekly
Speaker 2: check ins and I try to make sure that nothing
Speaker 2: I say in that annual review is a surprise, and
Speaker 2: as a manager, I would like the same in return,
Speaker 2: Like you know, as long as we're being open and
Speaker 2: candid during like the weekly one on ones, then the
Speaker 2: performance review really shouldn't be a surprise or a shock
Speaker 2: to anybody. So if I've been like meeting with you
Speaker 2: once a week and then you wait until like the
Speaker 2: day of the review to be like, oh yeah, I'd
Speaker 2: love a promotion or I really have ambitions to do this,
Speaker 2: or that, there's nothing wrong with it, but it's it's
Speaker 2: not as guaranteed to like actually like you know happen
Speaker 2: in some cases sometimes those things take You need some
Speaker 2: more of an opportunity to plan or put the pieces
Speaker 2: in place to get things going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it is.
Speaker 3: It's I mean I'm kind of thinking we don't we
Speaker 3: do I guess some performance reviews, but not like in
Speaker 3: a we still don't have like a like a super system.
Speaker 3: That's something that we were working on at the end
Speaker 3: of last year, like a place where things can be
Speaker 3: held and like a specific maybe like performance review tool.
Speaker 3: So we're still kind of flying by the seat of
Speaker 3: our pants pants when it comes to that, like seems
Speaker 3: like you're doing a good job.
Speaker 1: Keep it up.
Speaker 3: No, but we're getting there sometimes you don't, you know,
Speaker 3: as we start to It's crazy when you like with
Speaker 3: the business, as we get like bigger, we definitely move,
Speaker 3: we make bigger moves, but it takes a little longer,
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, because there's just people to consider.
Speaker 1: So before it was literally like what do.
Speaker 3: You think, Tiffany, Sure, Tiffany, okay, you know, and you pivot.
Speaker 3: And then now it's like, okay, well if we make
Speaker 3: that decision, what does that mean for the finance team
Speaker 3: and what about the marketing team and will they have
Speaker 3: the fun you know, so I can see how like
Speaker 3: I can't even imagine like a huge corporation like a
Speaker 3: Coca Cola or something, or like a Ford, you know,
Speaker 3: like what it takes to turn that vehicle around, you.
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2: Let's do on the house front.
Speaker 3: Well, you know what I did find a really good
Speaker 3: cabinet person. So I was just looking for different like
Speaker 3: cabinet people. And you know, the thing about cabinets is
Speaker 3: is once people make a design for you, they don't
Speaker 3: necessarily like to give it to you because they don't
Speaker 3: want you to shop it around, you know really, So yeah,
Speaker 3: well sometimes I mean like because if they give you
Speaker 3: all the specs or whatever, you can literally take it
Speaker 3: from person. I mean that that takes you know, maybe
Speaker 3: like an hour or maybe not even maybe half an
Speaker 3: hour to hour orn hour if not more for someone
Speaker 3: to create and then you shop it around and then
Speaker 3: someone else might end up getting the you know, getting
Speaker 3: the payment for the work that.
Speaker 1: That person has done.
Speaker 3: So there was a little shopping around can be a
Speaker 3: little bit difficult because you're wanting to remember the pair
Speaker 3: compare apples to apples, but you know, the only way
Speaker 3: to do that to be like, these are the same
Speaker 3: specs over and over. But I found a good cabinet
Speaker 3: person M and D. I think cabinets are something in
Speaker 3: like Belleville Bloomfield. I really like him, Lou he was Yeah,
Speaker 3: he was great, honestly he he What I liked about
Speaker 3: him is you can sell so it's a family owned
Speaker 3: business with which I liked. But what I liked is
Speaker 3: that you can tell that he's been doing this like
Speaker 3: thirty forty years, because like when I showed him the
Speaker 3: drawings from other places that I had gone, he was
Speaker 3: really like, oh, you know, they put this too close
Speaker 3: to the wall. You don't realize it, but when you
Speaker 3: open his door, it's going to hit this, you know. Oh,
Speaker 3: you know, like just little nuances that people missed out on.
Speaker 3: And so I got to see the rendering today and
Speaker 3: it looked awesome. It looks honestly really because he also
Speaker 3: came with his own kind of like design sensibility, So
Speaker 3: I'm excited.
Speaker 1: The tile for the.
Speaker 3: Kitchen is picked out, the bathroom, all the bathrooms kind
Speaker 3: of like tile and backsplash, all that stuff I picked out.
Speaker 3: So now the only thing is is like ordering. The
Speaker 3: hard part is with the cabinets is that they come
Speaker 3: in fairly quickly, within like two weeks, but we're still
Speaker 3: not ready. We're stay still haven't closed up the walls yet,
Speaker 3: so it's like you can't where you put them, you know.
Speaker 3: And apparently there's a there's a pending tariff coming that
Speaker 3: I guess the President has threatened. So that way it flows,
Speaker 3: that slows down how much foreign goods that we purchased,
Speaker 3: and so that I have to be mindful because.
Speaker 2: Where the cabinets come from.
Speaker 3: Most cabinets come from China, they tell you. Even the
Speaker 3: American ones they tell you usually they're put together in America,
Speaker 3: but the components typically come from China. Interest yeah, and
Speaker 3: so there are a few that are made in America,
Speaker 3: but very few. Like like I said that, we saw
Speaker 3: some hapbins that they posture as American cabinets, but really
Speaker 3: they're like, girl, these they put them together here. So
Speaker 3: potentially the TARFF could be as high as twenty percent,
Speaker 3: and sou you know, Lou was like, just be my
Speaker 3: I know. So you know, let's just say your cabinets
Speaker 3: are going to be you know, ten thousand dollars. That's
Speaker 3: another two thousand dollars on top of that. So he
Speaker 3: was like, typically they get a heads up about a
Speaker 3: week in advance, but he's been getting letters like faxes
Speaker 3: every day saying like, you know, potential tariff is coming.
Speaker 3: So he's like, I'll let you know and then I'll
Speaker 3: just have to order them and put him in like
Speaker 3: storage or something, because I don't want to spen an
Speaker 3: extra two thousand dollars you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, nope, buano. Or if someone I was sharing
Speaker 2: my Instagram, my Instagram story, I was sharing like pictures
Speaker 2: of the reno and like what the before and the
Speaker 2: after my kitchen and everything like that, and one of
Speaker 2: the I think when of our listeners asked, you know,
Speaker 2: how much of the kitchen actually costs, it's kind of
Speaker 2: hard for me to like say how much the kitchen
Speaker 2: costs because so much of it was it's all wrapped
Speaker 2: up into the total rhino cost because we did the
Speaker 2: whole ground floor, but my countertops alone were countertops and
Speaker 2: cabinets alone. Do the math real quick for nine at
Speaker 2: least like eleven to twelve thousand dollars just for that
Speaker 2: by itself. So that gives you a sense if you're
Speaker 2: listening of the cost. And that's just new cabinetry. I
Speaker 2: think the hardware for the cabinets, which we got from
Speaker 2: build dot com, that was like another five hundred bucks.
Speaker 2: And then the appliance is if you have to get
Speaker 2: all new appliances, that adds to it as well. But
Speaker 2: let me tell you, my husband just got back to
Speaker 2: me with an update. I've given a boost to the
Speaker 2: City Price Rewind program before. And he just was g
Speaker 2: chatting me earlier letting me know that the fridge that
Speaker 2: we bought went down in price by two hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty eight dollars and they just sent him the refund.
Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, So what tell me about
Speaker 1: the thing again? I've told you, I know, but you
Speaker 1: know I've got the memory of for eighty year old.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have the first time. See, you got to
Speaker 1: take notes.
Speaker 2: It's called the City. So if you get a City
Speaker 2: I had the City Double Cash Card and it comes
Speaker 2: with access to the City Price Rewind program. And I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's the only card, the only city
Speaker 2: card that offers it, but it certainly does. And what
Speaker 2: happens if you make the purchase with your City card,
Speaker 2: which offers you one percent cash back on the purchase
Speaker 2: and then one percent cash back when you pay off
Speaker 2: the card. On top of that, if the price of
Speaker 2: that item that you purchase with the card goes down.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the I forget what the timeframe is.
Speaker 2: Then if you tell them or they may find it themselves. Actually,
Speaker 2: like sometimes we'll get an email just saying, hey, the
Speaker 2: price dropped on this, We're going to give you a refund.
Speaker 2: But if you see that a price drops and you
Speaker 2: alert them, then they will refund you as long as
Speaker 2: it's within the terms and conditions of And I'm telling
Speaker 2: you we've saved hundreds of dollars, like no joke purchasing
Speaker 2: our appliances on.
Speaker 1: I do remember now now that my flash back. I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you said that like three times. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Man, it's legit, especially if you're buying like appliances this January. Now,
Speaker 2: we purchase our appliances like in November, December and the
Speaker 2: end of the years when they start discounting last year's
Speaker 2: models and rolling out the new stuff. So I think
Speaker 2: that's why we're seeing the stuff that we purchase drop
Speaker 2: in price now. So there's no such thing as boy
Speaker 2: is remorse as far as the appliances thing.
Speaker 3: No, when you went with the Pliente, did you guys
Speaker 3: get the clients is from the same like manufacturer, like
Speaker 3: all LG or whatever.
Speaker 2: Lord. Yeah, my husband was like became really obsessed. I'm like, listen,
Speaker 2: our entire like the entire house sings now, the dishwasher sings,
Speaker 2: the oven freaking sings, the microwave sings, the laundry machine sings.
Speaker 2: We it's all just like do do doo doo doo
Speaker 2: doo doo whenever, everything when it's preheated, when the cycle's over.
Speaker 2: And not only that, but he's got it set up
Speaker 2: to text him because everything's wi fi ing. Don't ask
Speaker 2: me why so what I let me tell you. I
Speaker 2: was like cooking dinner, doing laundry, and I don't know,
Speaker 2: I used the microwave, the dishwasher or something, and at
Speaker 2: one moment, like everything was beeping and d and jingling,
Speaker 2: and his phone was going off, and I was like,
Speaker 2: this is freaking insane. Our place is not this big.
Speaker 2: We're never not gonna hear when some things is done.
Speaker 2: And he's like, it's fun. It's he just loves his gadgets.
Speaker 1: But you know, no, that's awesome though.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna I just can't wait to get you know,
Speaker 3: when you get over the when you start closing up walls,
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, I just can't wait till we
Speaker 3: get over the hump.
Speaker 2: You'll be there soon, You'll be there soon.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think I'll get another week or two because
Speaker 3: all the electricals done except for the HVAC and.
Speaker 1: Then all the plumbing is done.
Speaker 3: So I really I feel like we have another week
Speaker 3: at the most of like of the HVAC and then
Speaker 3: we start closing up walls and that's when you start
Speaker 3: really rocking and rollway. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Man, it's exciting.
Speaker 3: Yes, So are you good with your buzz anything else
Speaker 3: you're buzzing about? I'm all buzzed out, all right, So
Speaker 3: let's go for couestionon. We're gonna do something special today.
Speaker 3: I'm excited and we haven't done this before. But if
Speaker 3: you are Agurine Catcher, you know that I have a
Speaker 3: DreamCatcher Facebook group. It's about three hundred and fifty or
Speaker 3: sixty thousand women. We're actually to pull some questions from
Speaker 3: the DreamCatcher group. I will keep your name anonymous since
Speaker 3: you didn't consent publicly. So first question come to well,
Speaker 3: I'll just use a fake name. Comes from Maria. Maria says,
Speaker 3: my husband and I are thinking about consolidating our debt.
Speaker 3: It's about seven thousand hours and this would include all
Speaker 3: of our debts, loans, credit cards, all that.
Speaker 1: Kind of stuff. Do you think that's a good idea
Speaker 1: to consolidate our debt?
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, I think consolidating debt, especially if you
Speaker 2: can save money on interest, is an amazing idea, and
Speaker 2: I don't think people do it often enough. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: love the idea of debt consolidation. It's also a way
Speaker 2: to like if you, for example, you're struggling to afford
Speaker 2: your monthly payments on a loan or something like that,
Speaker 2: if you take out a new loan and use that
Speaker 2: loan to pay off your existing loan, the new loan
Speaker 2: may have terms that are better suited to your needs,
Speaker 2: like they may have lower payment which you can achieve
Speaker 2: by maybe get a longer term loan. That's one reason
Speaker 2: people consolidate their debt. Just understand that when you extend
Speaker 2: the time the term of the loan, which means you
Speaker 2: pay it off for longer, even if you're saving money,
Speaker 2: it feels like monthly because your payments are lower, you
Speaker 2: are adding to your interest costs, right because you're you know,
Speaker 2: dragging on the debt for longer. So if you do that,
Speaker 2: just keep that in mind, and you know, once things,
Speaker 2: hopefully the financial picture gets a little bit better and
Speaker 2: you can start making bigger payments than the minimum and
Speaker 2: you know, not end up paying way more down the line.
Speaker 1: I'm also I know, go ahead.
Speaker 2: I was also going to shout out to balance get
Speaker 2: so excited about balance transfers.
Speaker 1: Tip no, gokay, go ahead for that.
Speaker 2: Balance transferred out. So credit card consolidation balance transfer offers
Speaker 2: are really awesome, especially if you have good credit. You
Speaker 2: tend to need to have you know, high six hundreds,
Speaker 2: low seven hundreds minimum to get approved for good zero
Speaker 2: percent interest intro offer on a balance transfer card. But
Speaker 2: let's say you know, you spend money on one car
Speaker 2: credit card and you know you're struggling to make the
Speaker 2: payments on time, but you know you can do it
Speaker 2: in a few months, or you know, maybe it'll take
Speaker 2: you even longer than that. A balance transfer, if you
Speaker 2: get approved, you can transfer money to a new card
Speaker 2: and then enjoy a zero percent interest rate for however
Speaker 2: long the term says. And then let's say you get
Speaker 2: to the end of that term and you still have
Speaker 2: some leftover, if your credit is still good, then you
Speaker 2: kind of apply for another balance transfer and you know,
Speaker 2: keep it moving. That's just one way to get around
Speaker 2: interest fees.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember I did that when I That was
Speaker 3: one thing like when I was going through like my
Speaker 3: financial struggle before I knew this is like I knew
Speaker 3: I was going to miss my mortgage payment, and this
Speaker 3: is like post recession or during the recession and before
Speaker 3: that hit and drag my score down. Is that a
Speaker 3: really great score. I went ahead and opened up you
Speaker 3: know about I think one, maybe even two balance transfer
Speaker 3: cards because I had some high, high credit card balances,
Speaker 3: and that saved me because I think one of my
Speaker 3: credit card balances was maybe it was a combined of
Speaker 3: like thirty thousand dollars and that like the interest what
Speaker 3: I would have paid on that thirty thousand dollars would
Speaker 3: have been, I don't know that I could have paid
Speaker 3: it off, but it gave me because my balance was
Speaker 3: my credit was so good at the time because I
Speaker 3: had not this my mortgage payment yet I think it
Speaker 3: gave me like a year and some change for a
Speaker 3: zero percent interest, so I was able to actually just
Speaker 3: pay on the thirty like as well as it was,
Speaker 3: and so that that, you know, it gave me a
Speaker 3: significant like running head start.
Speaker 1: So that's always a good idea.
Speaker 3: It's crazycause I know, you know, you hear like the
Speaker 3: Dave Ramsey's of the world that tell you like, so
Speaker 3: you're going to get into more debt to get rid
Speaker 3: of your debt, like and they tell you, don't.
Speaker 1: Do it, don't do it.
Speaker 3: And I can understand in idealistic theory, like you know,
Speaker 3: like you know, taking on debt to get out of debt.
Speaker 1: But sometimes you you know, it's like you have to
Speaker 1: do what you have to do.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, I understand, because what happens is sometimes
Speaker 2: you'll pay off. So let's say you take out a
Speaker 2: loan and you pay off like three credit cards on
Speaker 2: your auto loan or whatever, and then you have three
Speaker 2: you have those four payments which are no longer stressed
Speaker 2: you out, and you have one payment now, and you
Speaker 2: may feel like, oh, you know, I'm debt free now,
Speaker 2: I'm more relaxed. I can go to the mall, or
Speaker 2: I could spend money on lunch today or whatever. But
Speaker 2: you're really not debt free. You have to, like mentally
Speaker 2: remind yourself the debt has not gone anywhere.
Speaker 1: It still exists.
Speaker 2: It's just more simple for you to manage. So mentally
Speaker 2: you have to just shift that mindset so that you're
Speaker 2: not feeling like you're debt free, because you definitely aren't.
Speaker 3: Yes, and you don't want to all of a sudden
Speaker 3: have one card you paid off and another card you
Speaker 3: transferred it to, and then start using that card.
Speaker 1: Now you have two cards with high balances.
Speaker 3: So you know, yeah, Okay, next up, we've got let's
Speaker 3: call her Cynthia. So Cynthia says, I am looking to
Speaker 3: sell my home. Has anyone negotiated commission fees for the
Speaker 3: listing with them? I guess, with the listing agent? And
Speaker 3: if so, how much did you save?
Speaker 1: Oh? I read this wrong.
Speaker 3: So I was telling you earlier, Mandy that I have
Speaker 3: negotiated commission fees. But honestly, I negotiated commission fees with
Speaker 3: the I was. I was a buyer with the buying agent.
Speaker 3: I didn't realize I didn't see the listening. But I've
Speaker 3: definitely heard because a couple of my friends are realtors.
Speaker 3: So you can always negotiate, I mean, you can always ask.
Speaker 3: It depends on what kind of market it is, you know,
Speaker 3: if if there's not a lot of buyers and not
Speaker 3: a lot of sellers, and people are kind of like, look,
Speaker 3: I you know, I you know, if someone has like,
Speaker 3: you know, a hundred different homes, they might be like, no,
Speaker 3: I really don't have to.
Speaker 1: It really depends on the market that you're in. And
Speaker 1: honestly too, like how well you know the agent.
Speaker 3: Oftentimes agents that you know that you're cool with, Like
Speaker 3: my my seller's agent, she knew me and knew what
Speaker 3: I did, and she cut her commission down in exchange
Speaker 3: for one on one budgeting session, you know.
Speaker 2: And so in my experience, like my real so example,
Speaker 2: the agent that we used when we bought our house,
Speaker 2: the seller paid his commission, not us. So typically, like
Speaker 2: if you're the seller, you have to pay your own
Speaker 2: agent's fees plus the buyer's agent's fees. And in that
Speaker 2: case sometimes you can negotiate with either your agent or
Speaker 2: maybe the seller's agent to try and decrease the cost.
Speaker 1: Of those fees.
Speaker 3: So yes, So for me, because I bought my house
Speaker 3: the through or foreclosure, there was no the she was
Speaker 3: getting her feed directly for me.
Speaker 1: So it was a unique situation, gotcha, you know.
Speaker 3: So her name is Amena, and so it was like
Speaker 3: I was gonna have to pay her the three percent,
Speaker 3: you know, just out of pocket basically because the site
Speaker 3: that we use real Ty bids, it was just the
Speaker 3: bidding site, so they're not gonna pay her anything. So
Speaker 3: but in exchange, like I said, matter of fact, I mean,
Speaker 3: I owe you your own session. But that was what
Speaker 3: we that was what we negotiated, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: that's fine. And so you know, I say, it's some money,
Speaker 3: and and then you know, I get to do a session,
Speaker 3: which I like doing anyway. But to me, you know,
Speaker 3: it's not even just about bartering some that's just about asking.
Speaker 3: And if it's the right environment for that kind of negotiation,
Speaker 3: then it doesn't hurt.
Speaker 2: To ask, you know, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: You want to take one more?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: This one is from Tanetta. I'm the worst of covering
Speaker 3: gods name. Hey, that's what Taneda said. So I got
Speaker 3: my first credit card from Navy Federal. The limit is
Speaker 3: two hundred dollars because it's a secured card. I use
Speaker 3: twenty dollars of it. But am I supposed to pay
Speaker 3: it back when I get the bill? Or can I
Speaker 3: pay it now? I'm trying to rebuild my credit so tonight,
Speaker 3: and first of all, congratulations, because that's good that you
Speaker 3: know you're clearly trying to raise your credit score and
Speaker 3: a secured card, do you want to maybe explain what
Speaker 3: a secured card is, just in case folks are new.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm then listen to the show. Apparently, secured
Speaker 2: cards are different than an unsecured credit cards. When unsecured
Speaker 2: credit card is when you apply for a credit card online,
Speaker 2: you give the lender nothing in return except for your
Speaker 2: good credit score, and you get approved and they issue
Speaker 2: a line of credit. Secured card works the opposite way.
Speaker 2: You actually give the bank money to hold and typically
Speaker 2: a CD account, and now that they've got your money
Speaker 2: held up, they will issue you a line of credit
Speaker 2: for around the same amount, maybe a little bit more.
Speaker 2: And what you'll do is you'll pay a monthly payment
Speaker 2: against that account for twelve months or however long it is.
Speaker 2: And after that time, as long as you've made on
Speaker 2: time payments and everything, they'll return your deposit to you.
Speaker 2: And you may wonder, why the hell am I giving
Speaker 2: people money just to borrow money from them? It makes
Speaker 2: no sense. Typically, secured cards are used when you're trying
Speaker 2: to build credit. So if you're someone who's recently moved
Speaker 2: to the United States and you don't have a credit
Speaker 2: history here, or you're someone who has poor credit, you
Speaker 2: can't get approved for a traditional credit card and you
Speaker 2: want to rebuild your credit, It's one way to build
Speaker 2: your credit back up. Or if you're someone who's young
Speaker 2: and has no credit history, you may not get approved
Speaker 2: for the card that you want, so you want to
Speaker 2: open up a secured card account to start building credit.
Speaker 1: I like to say the secured card is like a
Speaker 1: credit card with training mails.
Speaker 3: And because Saneta, you got it from Navy Federal, which
Speaker 3: is good, they likely have a unsecured card which has
Speaker 3: just been basically like a regular credit card where when
Speaker 3: you swipe your basically taking out a temporary loan. That
Speaker 3: what will happen is it's easier to make the transition
Speaker 3: from a secured card to an unsecured card because it's
Speaker 3: already with the bank versus like a secured card that's
Speaker 3: not with the bank, which those are fine, but depends
Speaker 3: on what your end goal is. So Tanta, to answer
Speaker 3: your question, it's best if you wait till you get
Speaker 3: your bill, or at the very least ask your your
Speaker 3: credit card companies, ask Navy Federal what it's my statement date?
Speaker 1: Because if you're trying to raise your credit score.
Speaker 3: I'm assuming you're wanting the credit bureaus to get the
Speaker 3: report from Navy federals saying, hey, Tanetta used her card
Speaker 3: and if you paid off too soon, by the time
Speaker 3: they report, the card is at zero and so there's
Speaker 3: nothing to report. So you're wanting the statement date. It's
Speaker 3: just the date that they release the statement. And that's
Speaker 3: why it's fine for you to just wait till you
Speaker 3: actually get your statement and paid off. Then that way
Speaker 3: you know they've reported to that used it and then
Speaker 3: they're going to report today that paid it off.
Speaker 1: So that's what you're wanting.
Speaker 3: This consistent she used it, she paid it off, and
Speaker 3: congratulations on being smart and really keeping your your balance low.
Speaker 3: You really want to be low and under thirty percent
Speaker 3: really should be the maximum that you should be charging
Speaker 3: on that card. Ideally lower than that. And and honestly too,
Speaker 3: I didn't know if it like two hundred dollars. That's
Speaker 3: a good rate, right, Mandy, Like that's a good down
Speaker 3: payment for a secured card, because sometimes they could be
Speaker 3: like six hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, that's not bad. I can I can share
Speaker 2: a list on the podcast notes of we have a
Speaker 2: good roundup on Magnifying Money of the best secured cards,
Speaker 2: you should look at the deposit amount. Also, some of
Speaker 2: them carry interest rates that are pretty high, so you
Speaker 2: want to get ones that have a lower interest rate,
Speaker 2: few fees, if not no fees at all. And yeah,
Speaker 2: the lower the deposit amount the better because it's hard
Speaker 2: to come up with like a few hundred bucks on
Speaker 2: the fly for some people.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so this is that was actually a pretty
Speaker 1: good one.
Speaker 2: So that's not so.
Speaker 3: If you guys have questions, you can certainly hit us up.
Speaker 3: If you go to Brown Ambition podcast dot com, there's
Speaker 3: an ask us anything button you can ask there. You
Speaker 3: can email us at the BA podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Did I get that right?
Speaker 2: From Brown Ambition Podcasts at gmail dot com?
Speaker 1: Done it?
Speaker 2: Twitter handles you?
Speaker 1: So I was like, remember someone wrote there like it's hilarious.
Speaker 1: Activity still goes to know the handle.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, whatever, girl, funny business funny. I was
Speaker 2: just thinking, how funny.
Speaker 1: I'm like, my business girl. Everybody does have the shop.
Speaker 1: It's memory, your memory shaving.
Speaker 2: We love you just the way you are.
Speaker 3: No, we love your questions honestly, career questions, business questions,
Speaker 3: finance questions, personal questions.
Speaker 1: Send them on over all right, So we always like
Speaker 1: to end with.
Speaker 3: A brown break or a brown boost, booster a break
Speaker 3: or a booster a break.
Speaker 1: Are you gonna boost? Are you gonna break? Man? Draft?
Speaker 2: Oh, let me just count my boost as a city
Speaker 2: price rewind for today because my brain is shot.
Speaker 1: Well I am going to break, so you know how well?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think Mandy, typically you cut it out that almost
Speaker 3: every time we tape, somehow Superman like opens the door
Speaker 3: like no other time, Like I could take a three
Speaker 3: hour nap, no door opening. But he's, like I said, no,
Speaker 3: tificanally tape it her podcast.
Speaker 1: So not only so thank got I have my phone
Speaker 1: on quiet, and I told him.
Speaker 3: I was like, hey, babe, your lunch because where we
Speaker 3: live is where he works. Your lunch is on the
Speaker 3: it's on the it's on the snow. Here's what like,
Speaker 3: everything is here. And then I called to the town
Speaker 3: and I text him, I'm taping my podcast, you know,
Speaker 3: so just you know, do what you need to do.
Speaker 3: So I heard him coming a little bit, I heard
Speaker 3: him eat lunch. Then I see my phone ring because
Speaker 3: why not? And then he just text me, I locked
Speaker 3: my keys in the house. Text me when you're donb
Speaker 3: taping and leave the door unlocked.
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yo, oh god, wait so if they locked
Speaker 2: out right now, yes, let that man into the house.
Speaker 2: It's cold out there.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 3: But it's just hilarics because like yo, Superman, like any
Speaker 3: other time, you are a fully functioning human being, except
Speaker 3: when I take me when we're taping at a different time.
Speaker 1: I swear he's doing this some purpose.
Speaker 3: So that is my brown break break from man Sinan again. No,
Speaker 3: I love him, but it was just like really funny
Speaker 3: because I'm like, wow, really every time you just can't
Speaker 3: help yourself.
Speaker 2: Work from home struggles.
Speaker 1: All right, it's been real, Mandra.
Speaker 2: Please let him into the house. It's really cold outside.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go downstairs break now.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, all right, rest here weed.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for listening.