Speaker 1: Hey, hey va fam, Hope you guys are having a
Speaker 1: wonderful holiday season. It's Mandy here again with another special
Speaker 1: look back at one of our best episodes of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. This episode features special guest co host and
Speaker 1: friend of mine, Chris Browning. He's the host of the
Speaker 1: popular business and finance podcast Popcorn Finance, and in this episode,
Speaker 1: Chris gave us a memorable lesson and how to take
Speaker 1: control of your money and build your wealth. From teaching
Speaker 1: us how to get past survival mode to learning all
Speaker 1: new financial rules, Chris can break down everything about finance
Speaker 1: in the time it takes to literally make a bag
Speaker 1: of popcorn. Y'all enjoy this episode and happy happy holiday
Speaker 1: season in a very happy New Year. From Mandy and
Speaker 1: the entire Brown Ambition team.
Speaker 2: Hey hey, hey, it is Mandra and I am joined
Speaker 2: this week very special. This is the kickoff of our
Speaker 2: summer co host series and our first subber co host
Speaker 2: is Chris Browning from Popcorn Finance.
Speaker 3: Hey, Chris, Hey, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: I'm excited to be joining me.
Speaker 2: I'm excited too. I feel like we have had these
Speaker 2: tandem podcasting journeys and it wasn't until not that long
Speaker 2: ago that we actually connected one on one to get
Speaker 2: to know each other a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the pandemic made a lot of zoom
Speaker 3: meetings possible because we're all at home. Anyways, it did.
Speaker 2: And remember how our first call, I think it was
Speaker 2: maybe three like I set up a call with you,
Speaker 2: and then it was back before I had childcare, and
Speaker 2: I think you had to endure maybe fifteen minutes of
Speaker 2: a screaming child before I finally gave up and put
Speaker 2: you out of your misery and myself, and I was like,
Speaker 2: let's do this again. And then maybe three months went
Speaker 2: by and I was like, I finally have childcare, let's talk,
Speaker 2: let's do it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, no, I understan. I was like, hey, you
Speaker 3: can put me on hold and call me back later.
Speaker 3: It's fine. I understood.
Speaker 2: Such a gentleman. Well, let's talk about Popcorn Finance for
Speaker 2: the folks who don't know Popcorn Finance, which is your podcast.
Speaker 2: It's been around for four years now, right, you also
Speaker 2: have another podcast. Note, because one is not enough, I
Speaker 2: don't know how you do two. Your other podcast is
Speaker 2: called This is Awkward. Talk to the folks and tell
Speaker 2: them why they should listen.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, well thank you for the introduction there. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So Popcorn Finance it'll be four years at the end
Speaker 3: of June, which is crazy. I never would have thought
Speaker 3: it would be going on this long. But it is
Speaker 3: a short form podcast where I talk about finance and
Speaker 3: about the time it takes make popcorns. That's where the
Speaker 3: name of the show comes from. It's like short form.
Speaker 3: I try to keep the episodes under ten minutes and
Speaker 3: just talk about all things finance, investing, saving money issues,
Speaker 3: all that stuff. It's just a place to kind of
Speaker 3: quickly get into these topics and make it less scary.
Speaker 3: And as you mentioned, because I apparently don't like the sleep,
Speaker 3: I'd started another podcast with the first to buying Alison
Speaker 3: from Inspired Budget. We have a show called This Is Awkward,
Speaker 3: and that one is a little more fun. It's a
Speaker 3: little more lighthearted. We have people call in and they
Speaker 3: share with us awkward money situations that they've dealt with,
Speaker 3: and then we kind of talked through the situation and
Speaker 3: gave our advice on how we would have dealt with
Speaker 3: that or how we've dealt with similar things in the past.
Speaker 3: So that's the other show have going on.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love that. Have you ever had I think
Speaker 2: we might have a usual friend Broke Millennial Aaron Lowry?
Speaker 2: Have you ever had that on the show?
Speaker 3: I have multiple times.
Speaker 2: She wrote a whole book on awkward money conversations. Y'all
Speaker 2: got to check out the Broke Millennial series. Just a
Speaker 2: little plug for a pal, but oh god, that, I
Speaker 2: mean you guys must have endless, endless material because everything
Speaker 2: about money is awkward.
Speaker 3: It really is. It really opened my eyes to how
Speaker 3: many of us deal with these situations. And I think
Speaker 3: sometimes we think it's like just us, like, oh, we're
Speaker 3: the only ones with weird family or friends are asking
Speaker 3: for money. But it's like, no, everybody, everybody's dealing with
Speaker 3: this stuff.
Speaker 2: I mean, damn, Like my family, I'm trying to figure
Speaker 2: out we're supposed to have a family reunion in Atlanta
Speaker 2: is coming weekend, so it's my first trip with Husbane
Speaker 2: and the baby. He's I'm like, let's at least so
Speaker 2: we're vaccinated. Now things are safer. Let's get on the plane.
Speaker 2: He only rides free for another six months, so I
Speaker 2: got to take advantage of his free He's still considered
Speaker 2: an infant, even though he's huge so he's gonna ride
Speaker 2: for free. We're gonna go to Atlanta and it's a
Speaker 2: family reunion. And that's the only details I was given.
Speaker 2: But now it's like my dad is on the outs
Speaker 2: with my aunt and no one will tell me what
Speaker 2: I'm like, what do I need to bring? I need
Speaker 2: to figure out who to give money to. I don't
Speaker 2: know how much, and it's it's already becoming a delightful
Speaker 2: dramatic situation. But whatever, I'm just there to eat.
Speaker 3: So that he had to go into the family situation,
Speaker 3: just say, hey, I'm just here for the food. Whatever
Speaker 3: the dramas going on, I'm not a part of that.
Speaker 2: Do you Is your family like into family reunions? Is
Speaker 2: that a thing? So? Browning family reunion every year somewhere.
Speaker 3: My family's from the South, so barely anybody is out
Speaker 3: here in California. So I only went to work, right right?
Speaker 3: You just how you're from? So my dad's from Arkansas,
Speaker 3: My mouns from Louisiana.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's real, real Southern. Yeah I'm from Georgia. From Atlanta.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you're from a major city. Where are my
Speaker 3: dad's from? They they got a Walmart and that's pretty much.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say that is real, real southern those two
Speaker 2: states right there. Yeah, so we're both Southern transplants on
Speaker 2: the coasts. Yeah. So this is a big deal for
Speaker 2: me to even and I'm not gonna lie. There's been
Speaker 2: family reunions that I haven't gone to just because you know,
Speaker 2: it was in Georgia and I'm here in New York
Speaker 2: and it's always an inconvenient time. But this time, after
Speaker 2: the pandemic, I think it just helped me realize, you know,
Speaker 2: how important it is. Like my uncles, God bless them,
Speaker 2: they survived this pandemic, My great uncles, they're all in
Speaker 2: their eighties and nineties, it feels like, and so it's
Speaker 2: really just like a celebration of you know, that side
Speaker 2: of the family. So I'm excited to, you know, all
Speaker 2: the drama aside, I'm excited to get us together.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, if anything, the past year, it kind
Speaker 3: of does make you appreciate family, especially your older family,
Speaker 3: because a lot of people don't have family that they
Speaker 3: had at the start of the pandemic. So it's like,
Speaker 3: all right, you know, I need to make it morever
Speaker 3: a point to you know, see my parents and be
Speaker 3: around these people who you know you're only gonna be
Speaker 3: around for so long.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Yeah, well awkward. I mean, honestly, I've been thinking
Speaker 2: a lot about awkward money conversations lately because for my
Speaker 2: husband and I, one of the ongoing arguments I don't
Speaker 2: know if i'd call it awkward as much as just
Speaker 2: just a complete difference of opinion about how to spend
Speaker 2: our money really has has always been for maybe the
Speaker 2: ninety percent of our relationship, we have spent arguing back
Speaker 2: and forth about whether or not to get a Tesla. Oh,
Speaker 2: are you familiar with Tesla's, Chris.
Speaker 3: I'm very familiar with Tesla's. I've been I've been stalking
Speaker 3: Tesla's for many years. I've not met one and brought
Speaker 3: one into my home yet, I've been watching him.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that was my husband. I mean, this was
Speaker 2: one of the first huge fights we ever had. Was
Speaker 2: when we were it was twenty sixteen or something like that.
Speaker 2: We had moved in with his parents to pay no
Speaker 2: rent so that we could save up for our wedding.
Speaker 2: And you know, and me, I'm the personal finance expert
Speaker 2: in our relationship, so I like to say, and I'm
Speaker 2: kind of uptight and maybe a tiny bit of a
Speaker 2: control freak about our whole saving and plan, you know,
Speaker 2: especially at that time when we were really working hard
Speaker 2: to set something aside and pay for the wedding in cash.
Speaker 2: And at the time, you could reserve a Tesla. I
Speaker 2: forget which model. It was like the one, two, three
Speaker 2: X y Z who knows, And I, you know, he
Speaker 2: talked about Tesla's but I just you know, it's kind
Speaker 2: of like sports. I just just in one year out
Speaker 2: the next like, yeah, he's into that thing. Shouldn't get
Speaker 2: a Like yeah, sure, that sounds like a luxury car.
Speaker 2: We could never afford, so why even you know, entertain that.
Speaker 2: But one day I got the mail and there was
Speaker 2: this letter in it and it was like gratulations, We've
Speaker 2: we've gotten your one thousand dollars commitment and you're in
Speaker 2: line to get a Tesla. And I said a lot,
Speaker 2: oh man, I was mad. I mean, looking back on
Speaker 2: it now, a thousand. I mean it was. It was
Speaker 2: a lot of money, especially when we were literally just
Speaker 2: putting ourselves so in such an uncomfortable situation, living with
Speaker 2: his parents with one bathroom in a teeny tiny apartment
Speaker 2: with like no air conditioning, in the warst summer in
Speaker 2: New York. You know, we were struggling, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: but you spent like you put down it, not even
Speaker 2: to get the car, just to get in line for
Speaker 2: the car. So that is how far back our Tesla,
Speaker 2: you know, our our Tesla debate has gone, or battle,
Speaker 2: I should say. And for how many years has it been? Chris?
Speaker 2: For five, six, seven years? I have held him. I
Speaker 2: have held it at Bay. We got the we did
Speaker 2: the wedding, we did the honeymoon, we got our house,
Speaker 2: we did the renovation, we had a baby, we had
Speaker 2: a pandemic, and finally I ran out of excuses, Christy,
Speaker 2: I ran out of reasons not to get a Tesla.
Speaker 2: That is what happened, and we took the We took
Speaker 2: our baby Tesla home today from the Tesla, the Tesla
Speaker 2: cabbage Patch factory thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, well, congratulations on the car. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's that's some patience to stick it out all of
Speaker 3: that time, through all those life events and just like
Speaker 3: hold out hope. Man, I know, I know one day
Speaker 3: that Tessa's gonna make it home.
Speaker 2: He really, I mean, he's the underdog in any like
Speaker 2: sports and sports movie except instead of sports. It's like,
Speaker 2: I just really want to get this this Tesla. And
Speaker 2: the number of people we haven't told a lot of
Speaker 2: people but friends and family who he's told, I mean,
Speaker 2: everyone knows what it means to him, because that is
Speaker 2: how obsessed this man has been with this car. But
Speaker 2: he's very consistent. I mean he literally installed are you handy?
Speaker 2: I know, do you guys a house? Are you renting?
Speaker 3: We're renting, so, I mean I can. I can only
Speaker 3: do so much, but I can. I can use a
Speaker 3: power drill. I can say I could do that much.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's pretty impressive. Well, we were renting. We rented
Speaker 2: for so long before we got the house, and he
Speaker 2: literally he went to the library took out a book
Speaker 2: on how to do his own electric and he has
Speaker 2: been doing all these little electrical projects. And he actually
Speaker 2: installed the charging station for the Tesla, like he made
Speaker 2: it himself before he even had a Tesla, Like he
Speaker 2: has been manifesting this Tesla for such a long time.
Speaker 2: And to see his face it was actually I was
Speaker 2: excited too. It's not like I don't like nice things,
Speaker 2: you know, Like I love electric vehicles. They're the way
Speaker 2: of the future. All that stuff. It was. It's a
Speaker 2: cool car, but it's just so not anything I had ever,
Speaker 2: you know, in terms of like my values, it's never
Speaker 2: I was never going to spend a lot of money
Speaker 2: on a car. It just wasn't a part of my
Speaker 2: personal I don't know idea of what my values are
Speaker 2: when it comes to money. Do you and your do
Speaker 2: you and your wife? Do y'all have those types of
Speaker 2: like stalemates where it's just about your value my value?
Speaker 2: For example, I would I would choose travel over everything,
Speaker 2: and Enrique was like, I really want this car, and
Speaker 2: that's where we kind of came to head. So do
Speaker 2: you guys have any of those big like disagreements.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we definitely have. I mean I want
Speaker 3: to say too, but that that's some dedication. He was like,
Speaker 3: it's just prepping. He was prepping. He put his own
Speaker 3: charger in there in advance. He just knew what was
Speaker 3: gonna happen. I just fan, that's I'm impressed. Uh, we've
Speaker 3: had those for sure. Like I think I'm more on
Speaker 3: your side where I'm like, Okay, I have these financial goals.
Speaker 3: I'm not doing anything else until I get to where
Speaker 3: I'm going on this and I'm also I'm not a
Speaker 3: big spender, Like I'll spend occasionally, but I don't. It
Speaker 3: doesn't bother me not to, like, you know, say all right,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to do this because it costs money,
Speaker 3: and I'll just I'll be fine. And I think that's
Speaker 3: where we butt it. It's because for my wife, she's like, look, well,
Speaker 3: look we need if we need this for the house
Speaker 3: or we need to do this, and it's important, it's
Speaker 3: worth the money. And I'm like, what, But is it though? Really,
Speaker 3: like is it really worth the money? Because I'm kind
Speaker 3: of liking seeing the savings account to actually grow. Is
Speaker 3: it really worth it? Like I can give up a
Speaker 3: lot just for the satisfaction of seeing that I have
Speaker 3: something in savings, That's what I'm saying. So we've definitely.
Speaker 2: What's the money Therefore, if not to just see it
Speaker 2: like I see it, I want to feel it, I
Speaker 2: want to like play and roll around in it digitally.
Speaker 2: Of course, it's really hard to give it up. It's
Speaker 2: really hard, it is.
Speaker 3: It almost it almost hurts a little bit. There's been
Speaker 3: times where stuff has come up and we've had to
Speaker 3: like pull a big chunk from the savings and I
Speaker 3: feel like I was physically in pain when I went
Speaker 3: and pulled the money out, like it hurt me, and
Speaker 3: I was like, maybe I shouldn't care this much, but
Speaker 3: you know, it's just one of those things where it's
Speaker 3: like this, it's like my example of my hard work.
Speaker 3: Like I seeing that balance is like, look, we did that,
Speaker 3: we made we made it. We made it to this point,
Speaker 3: and it's hard. It's hard to give it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how I felt anytime we've like we paid
Speaker 2: off the last bit of our home renovation last summer
Speaker 2: and it was like a twenty thousand dollars hit all
Speaker 2: at once because we had finance something zero percent, and
Speaker 2: which was great for the eighteen months we had at
Speaker 2: zero percent, but then you had to the way the
Speaker 2: low of course, the way the loan worked was that
Speaker 2: you were never going to pay it off if you
Speaker 2: just did the minimum payments until the end of the
Speaker 2: eighteen months. And then of course they yeah, of course,
Speaker 2: and they had the like deferred interest clause, which basically says,
Speaker 2: if you leave even one penny left on this loan
Speaker 2: after this promotional period's over, oh we're going to pretend
Speaker 2: like you always paid interest on this huge loan and
Speaker 2: we're going to attach it. We're going to add it
Speaker 2: right on top of what's left. So we you know,
Speaker 2: had that big kind of lump sum payment that went out,
Speaker 2: and yeah, it's been but that's always been my excuse.
Speaker 2: I'm always like, Okay, you know, we're going to get
Speaker 2: this house. That's a big chunk for the down payment,
Speaker 2: then the renovation. Okay, let's get that out of the way.
Speaker 2: And then I literally just ran out of things and he's, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's but I have to say, as painful as it
Speaker 2: can be, at least it has brought him joy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I think that's where I was really too stubborn a
Speaker 2: little bit, was I And I apologie. I really did
Speaker 2: apologize to him. I don't know, I just because for him,
Speaker 2: and he really sat down and he's like, look, look,
Speaker 2: it's almost as if you're saying what I value doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: You know. What I value is amazing technology, safe travel.
Speaker 2: You know, I want to be a part of you know,
Speaker 2: clean technology, like this electric vehicle. He and he's an
Speaker 2: expert in this car and the company. He's read the
Speaker 2: damn book, you know on what's his face? The CEO
Speaker 2: Elon Musk like he's read his memoir. He's he's all in.
Speaker 2: You know, we even own Tesla stock, and he had
Speaker 2: been saving this past year. He had an investment account
Speaker 2: and then he also was putting aside money to save
Speaker 2: for his Tesla. So and he's like, honestly, it's starting
Speaker 2: to really get ridiculous the fact that you're not willing
Speaker 2: to budge here. And but yeah, I was just so
Speaker 2: single minded, and it feels good to just like get
Speaker 2: over myself a little bit and have some damn fun
Speaker 2: with the money that we've you know, work so hard for.
Speaker 3: You know, it's one of those things where you kind
Speaker 3: of can get the tunnel vision almost and you just
Speaker 3: forget that there is some enjoyment that comes with and
Speaker 3: enjoying the money that you worked hard to earn. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you kind of just I don't know, and especially
Speaker 3: like I think too. For me, it was hard seeing
Speaker 3: from my wife's point of view the things that she
Speaker 3: values that sometimes you know, if it does cost money,
Speaker 3: it's it's worth it because it's meaningful, it had, it
Speaker 3: brings joy, It adds to your life, to her life,
Speaker 3: having these things, and it's not just so, you know,
Speaker 3: I just want to spend money. It's like, no, these
Speaker 3: are things I value doing, and just because I don't
Speaker 3: value them doesn't make them valuable to someone else. And
Speaker 3: that's it's hard to it's kind of hard to repre
Speaker 3: hit your head around that.
Speaker 2: I mean, what's your guilty pleasure. Don't you have like
Speaker 2: a tiny house addiction? I do kind of come home
Speaker 2: with a tiny house.
Speaker 3: One day, you know, if I could, if it wasn't
Speaker 3: so hard at California, I might have bought one. At
Speaker 3: this point, I would say, I don't. That's the thing.
Speaker 3: I don't really buy too many things. But technology is
Speaker 3: probably my weakness when it comes to like gadgets and
Speaker 3: devices and computers and tablets and microphones things like that.
Speaker 3: But I kind of can hide that behind the podcast.
Speaker 3: I think that's how I convinced myself, well, I'm not
Speaker 3: really spending Yeah, this is a business expense, right, that
Speaker 3: is for sure. My weakness is like anything that connects
Speaker 3: to the internet, I'm eyeing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I told him. I was like, I feel like a
Speaker 2: real hypocrite when I start thinking about all the money
Speaker 2: we spent on Broadway, and I mean the things that
Speaker 2: I've enjoyed doing vacations and stuff and he's like, can
Speaker 2: I have something? So we got and you know what,
Speaker 2: the Tesla purchase, I have to say, was made possible
Speaker 2: in part by this crazy, ridiculous economy that we have
Speaker 2: right now that has somehow made used cars more valuable
Speaker 2: than they were a year ago, which is insane. So
Speaker 2: we actually, yeah, we ended up selling our We had
Speaker 2: a twenty sixteen Mazda some CX five. I think we
Speaker 2: ended up listing that on Facebook marketplace to sell it,
Speaker 2: and kind of we weren't necessarily going to sell it,
Speaker 2: but when we actually looked at what we could get
Speaker 2: for it. I think Enrique, my husband, he had checked
Speaker 2: a year ago and saw that the car was valued
Speaker 2: at thirteen thousand dollars on the resale market today it's
Speaker 2: valued us It was valued at sixteen thousand dollars, or
Speaker 2: at least that's what we sold it for.
Speaker 3: That makes no sense.
Speaker 2: It's crat cray. We bought it for nineteen thousand, like
Speaker 2: five years ago. You know, that's just not a thing
Speaker 2: that cars do. I thought, so by selling it, we
Speaker 2: definitely were able to eat away some of the cost
Speaker 2: of upfront costs of the Tesla, and you know that
Speaker 2: felt good. And kind of take advantage of this topsy
Speaker 2: turvy economy right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, funny enough. I had a friend yesterday.
Speaker 3: I met it with him for the first time since
Speaker 3: the pandemic started, and we were talking about the used
Speaker 3: car market and I told him, yeah, my car. I
Speaker 3: bought a used car. It was a twenty fourteen Hondai.
Speaker 3: I bought it in twenty seventeen and I'm sorry, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: I bought it and it all. I bought it for
Speaker 3: twenty one thousand, and it's now worth nineteen thousand, five
Speaker 3: hundred and I've had this star for three years. And
Speaker 3: he's like, you just need to sell it. And I
Speaker 3: was like, but then I got to buy another car.
Speaker 2: You got to buy another car. Yep.
Speaker 3: But really he was really pushing me. He's like, well,
Speaker 3: just buy a new car. Then I was like, well, hey,
Speaker 3: it's easy for you to make decisions with my money.
Speaker 3: But I'm he's really getting into my head.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I don't know, because I mean, I'm
Speaker 3: not going to lie that I have not also been
Speaker 3: looking at Teslas.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the thing. I mean, if this is
Speaker 2: the rationale, and believe me, we were just at a
Speaker 2: friend's house yesterday, and Enrique has now become that friend
Speaker 2: at the cookout who had a really lucky set of
Speaker 2: circumstances happened, and he's like ready to tell everybody to
Speaker 2: follow in his footsteps. Listen, don't be that person at
Speaker 2: the cookout. Not everybody like can do the things that
Speaker 2: worked out specifically for you and situation. But he's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you should sell your car, you know, to our cousin.
Speaker 2: Sell your car and then you can get enough something else.
Speaker 2: But the other thing is like, do you own that
Speaker 2: car outright or do you still have a loan on it?
Speaker 3: That's the thing. It's completely paid off and it's been
Speaker 3: paid off for a year now.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well then see our car was paid off too,
Speaker 2: and that's where that's really where you can get the value.
Speaker 2: So if you have a lean on your car, so
Speaker 2: if you own or sorry, if you owe anything on
Speaker 2: a loan or you're still financing it, it's really tricky
Speaker 2: to then try and sell that car. It's especially if
Speaker 2: you do it yourself, like as a private seller. I
Speaker 2: guess you have to like pay the loan back and
Speaker 2: then get the title and then sell it to someone else.
Speaker 2: But that's a you know, may not be something that
Speaker 2: someone's willing to do. But for us, it really did
Speaker 2: make sense to just go ahead and sell it. We
Speaker 2: owned the title, owned it out right. We could have
Speaker 2: traded it in. Tesla offered us fourteen thousand, but then
Speaker 2: our financial planner was like, you know what, I really
Speaker 2: think you guys should post it. I've sold all my
Speaker 2: cars on Craigslist and I get way more. And sure
Speaker 2: we got it sold within like ten hours for sixteen thousand.
Speaker 3: That's that's amazing, And I mean it just goes to
Speaker 3: show you too. Like these dealers, I mean, obviously they're
Speaker 3: a business, so they're trying to get this car from
Speaker 3: you as cheap as possible because they know how much
Speaker 3: more it's worth.
Speaker 2: You know who bought it from us, a used car
Speaker 2: dealer really, so even he's planning to sell it for
Speaker 2: more than that. I don't like, good good good luck,
Speaker 2: my friend, good luck. But yeah, it's a it's a
Speaker 2: Craig Kray world out there. So I guess for y'all,
Speaker 2: I mean, how close are you to is your rationale? Like, Okay,
Speaker 2: you know the car is worth a lot more now,
Speaker 2: so if I do sell it I would have more
Speaker 2: money in the bank for a nicer car, maybe a
Speaker 2: new car. How you're feeling well?
Speaker 3: How I before my friend bombarded me with this his
Speaker 3: argument for why I should sell my car. My mind
Speaker 3: was like, well, look, I don't have a car payment
Speaker 3: right now, and I'm really liking this is the first
Speaker 3: time in my life I've not had a car payment.
Speaker 2: It's a good life, it is.
Speaker 3: And I was like, it's just like, man, there's just
Speaker 3: so much more money in my bank account. So I've
Speaker 3: been like a hard set on. I'm never selling this car.
Speaker 3: I'm only gonna sell it when it breaks down on
Speaker 3: the side of the road and I can't get to
Speaker 3: start it again. But he was making good arguments, So
Speaker 3: that's the hard part. When your friends make arguments that
Speaker 3: are actually legit about spending money. It kind of like
Speaker 3: it started rattling my mind a little bit. So I
Speaker 3: haven't made any decisions. I'm just trying to forget that
Speaker 3: he talked to me about this, But it's in the
Speaker 3: back of my mind. I'm thinking I may make a
Speaker 3: spreadsheet and run some numbers.
Speaker 2: Is it because rates are also really low right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's the thing he was finance it.
Speaker 3: It would be so cheap to finance a difference right now,
Speaker 3: and it wouldn't even be like I don't even feel
Speaker 3: guilty about it.
Speaker 2: But free money. Well, I mean, our rate was two
Speaker 2: point four and we have near perfect credit. I really
Speaker 2: wanted like a one point nine, but it just wasn't
Speaker 2: going to happen. I think you can get those rates
Speaker 2: as low if you look at credit unions and stuff.
Speaker 2: But anyway, didn't happen for us. But yeah, that's kind
Speaker 2: of did it for me too. I So now we
Speaker 2: have a car note for the first time in five years,
Speaker 2: and I don't love it. But but here's the thing,
Speaker 2: chris By, not fine By. We could have paid cash
Speaker 2: for the whole thing. That's the thing. My and my
Speaker 2: planner was like, Mandy, you know what the right you
Speaker 2: know what the rationale is right, you can invest that
Speaker 2: money instead, and you're gonna make more than that little
Speaker 2: two percent, most likely in an investment account. So I'm
Speaker 2: trying to level up my I'm trying to go to
Speaker 2: the next level. You know, there were certain like protective
Speaker 2: strategies and mindsets that definitely got us where we are today,
Speaker 2: but like for that next level wealth building. We gotta
Speaker 2: think a little different. We gotta like think think rich.
Speaker 2: Literally we meaning me and my husband. You know, you
Speaker 2: do your thing, but.
Speaker 3: No, you're right. You're right because it's one of those
Speaker 3: things where it's hard to let yourself like you're thinking
Speaker 3: kind of change. It feels like wrong, say look, I
Speaker 3: did this, it worked. I just keep doing this forever.
Speaker 3: But you can like this. Different stages to life is
Speaker 3: if everyone's in a different position and something that worked
Speaker 3: for you, you know, or work for me five years ago,
Speaker 3: doesn't mean something different won't work now. It's like you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's getting your mind open to changing and thinking
Speaker 3: about different ways of building wealth and not just like
Speaker 3: I don't I find myself being stuck in the oh,
Speaker 3: I'm paying off debt mindset that I was in for
Speaker 3: years and not in the Hey, now I want to
Speaker 3: build wealth and really look for the future.
Speaker 2: When you think about building wealth, what does that look
Speaker 2: like for you?
Speaker 3: You know? For me, I think the first thing that
Speaker 3: always pops into my mind is freedom and having choice
Speaker 3: and options. And I really like the idea of being
Speaker 3: at a point where it's like if I want to
Speaker 3: do something different, like career wise, because I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't necessarily want to get to a point like
Speaker 3: where I'm younger and I'm not working at all, but
Speaker 3: where I can just choose, you know what, this is
Speaker 3: meaningful for me, this project, or working with this organization,
Speaker 3: or just doing something completely different. It's okay because I'm
Speaker 3: not bound by the need to have to have a
Speaker 3: certain amount of money, because I've already accumulated enough wealth
Speaker 3: to have those that freedom. And I think that's just
Speaker 3: something really like powerful about saying, look, I have choices.
Speaker 3: I can make this decision because I want to that
Speaker 3: because I'm looking at my bank account and I got
Speaker 3: obligation sitting there for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think for me it's also I mean, it's
Speaker 2: definitely freedom. But I'm trying to be more specific now.
Speaker 2: I think I've gotten to the point now where it's okay,
Speaker 2: what's the number? You know, what is what's the new goal?
Speaker 2: I was similar to you, you know, I'm well, now are
Speaker 2: you a I consider myself now. I think we're supposed
Speaker 2: to be like called geriatric millennials now here. I know
Speaker 2: it's so terrible, but that's like the new thing older
Speaker 2: millennials who've got you know, we got a little we've
Speaker 2: paid off the student loan debt or it didn't really
Speaker 2: have that much, and now we've got like kids and
Speaker 2: a mortgage and all that kind of stuff, just old
Speaker 2: fuddy dudy millennials. And for me, it's like, Okay, the
Speaker 2: next step is, you know, maybe getting a lot more
Speaker 2: specific and like and you know, the tried and true
Speaker 2: rules of thumb that I abided by in the past,
Speaker 2: I've got to come up with new rules. I got
Speaker 2: to figure out how did the uber wealthy, how did
Speaker 2: they operate? And I need to start being on that level.
Speaker 2: And it's scary, but it's also kind of it's exciting.
Speaker 2: And for me, you know, I don't have a ton
Speaker 2: of I don't have any anyone in my family necessarily
Speaker 2: to look to for tips. I do have a financial planner,
Speaker 2: but I'm trying to find you know, maybe even like
Speaker 2: different podcasts or different books I can start reading, just
Speaker 2: to like literally think how the wealthy think. In my mind,
Speaker 2: I was like, I want to I want to invest
Speaker 2: till I have two million dollars and I want to
Speaker 2: be there and you know the next five years. And
Speaker 2: someone was like, why don't you make a million? Dollars
Speaker 2: like in a weekend. If you learn to trade stocks,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I don't, it does not compute. I
Speaker 2: don't want to. But people are doing it, so yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's exciting slash really really intimidating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is. And I think that's the hard
Speaker 3: part right now too, is there's there's so many people
Speaker 3: in the news making a bunch of money from all
Speaker 3: these different things going on right now. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 3: I don't know, it's very tempting. I'm what I'm finding
Speaker 3: more and more about myself is I'm very risk averse.
Speaker 3: I'm very like, hey, you know what, I would like
Speaker 3: to do some things, but I'm not comfortable risking what
Speaker 3: I've worked so hard to save up. And it's a
Speaker 3: hard mindset shift for me to make it be like,
Speaker 3: all right, you know what, maybe I should I have
Speaker 3: my emergency fund, I'm investing for retirement. Maybe I should
Speaker 3: look at other opportunities. But I'm always like, hey, I
Speaker 3: this took a long time. Let me let me uh,
Speaker 3: let me slow down on any of these other ideas
Speaker 3: people are thrown at me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just exactly. You're like in the protect phase, which
Speaker 2: is fine, you know, you want to protect what you've built.
Speaker 2: But we'll see. I mean, you know, not too uh
Speaker 2: not to pure preshy. But the Tesla does ride really
Speaker 2: really nice to the Starbucks. But you know what, we
Speaker 2: got caught in a huge traffic jam and I was like, well,
Speaker 2: it's still gets stuck in traffic just like another car does.
Speaker 2: So it doesn't have any magical like traffic avoiding properties
Speaker 2: that would really be valuable to me.
Speaker 3: I know. But then they can drive itself though, as
Speaker 3: your husband like trying to talk about his plans to
Speaker 3: take a nap while he's like commuting or anything like that.
Speaker 2: No, I don't think that that's a feature we're going
Speaker 2: to be turning on. I don't even know if but
Speaker 2: I forgot about that. Can it drive itself? I don't know, Chris,
Speaker 2: I just don't know. I had a hard time figuring
Speaker 2: out how to turn the air conditioning on earlier, let
Speaker 2: alone auto pilot. That's true, Baby steps, Baby steps. Well,
Speaker 2: it's really fun to have you on the show. Why
Speaker 2: don't we take a quick break and we'll be right
Speaker 2: back to answer some of y'all's questions. All right, we
Speaker 2: are back, and yes, I am joined by the one
Speaker 2: and only Chris Browning, who is filling some very big
Speaker 2: budget needs to shoes. How's it going, Chris? How are
Speaker 2: you feeling so far?
Speaker 3: I was fine, and now you made me nervous. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm just joking, joking.
Speaker 2: Okay, I should have made you do the hey hey hey,
Speaker 2: oh god. Well, we are here to answer your questions
Speaker 2: and never fear even without Tiffany. Here, we have Chris
Speaker 2: from the Popcorn Finance here to help me tackle y'all's
Speaker 2: personal finance and career questions. Okay, so we've got some
Speaker 2: excellent questions from IG. First one comes from listener Lachene
Speaker 2: Lachine says, I just found your podcast after buying Tiffany's book,
Speaker 2: and I'm obsessed in her book, which is I will
Speaker 2: add here you guys called Get Good with My which
Speaker 2: you can get I get Good with Money dot com.
Speaker 2: It's an eight week national wait, eight week New York
Speaker 2: Times bestseller. At this point, it's insane anyway, So Laschen
Speaker 2: found us through her book. She says, in the book,
Speaker 2: Tiffany talked about determining if you have a budgeting problem
Speaker 2: or an income slash earning problem, and I think I
Speaker 2: have an earning problem. When I wanted to get y'all's opinion,
Speaker 2: I make fifty thousand dollars a year. After taxes and
Speaker 2: insurance and my retirement retirement savings, I'm left with about
Speaker 2: twenty nine hundred dollars per month. I can comfortably pay
Speaker 2: my bills, save for travel, and add money to my IRA,
Speaker 2: but that's about it. I want to save more, but
Speaker 2: there's nowhere else in my budget. I feel like I
Speaker 2: can slice and dice. What do you guys think? So
Speaker 2: what's your take on like a budget versus an income problem?
Speaker 3: Chris, This is a great question here, and I think
Speaker 3: sometimes we do get trapped in they Okay, let's let's budget,
Speaker 3: let's cut and let's save where we can. Which is
Speaker 3: good to go through and evaluate your budgets where you're
Speaker 3: maybe wasting money. But the only thing is you can
Speaker 3: only cut so much. If you've already you got your
Speaker 3: stuff under control, and you're really diligent with how you spend,
Speaker 3: you're gonna get to a point where you just can't
Speaker 3: cut anything else. And if you want to increase your
Speaker 3: or increase the money available to invest and do other
Speaker 3: things with, yeah, you have to make more, which is
Speaker 3: it's much harder than cutting, but it's way more impactful
Speaker 3: in the long run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you guys need to hear it
Speaker 2: here first. Although I'm pretty sure we've said it before,
Speaker 2: you cannot budget your way to wealth building. You can't
Speaker 2: do it. You cannot become rich by budgeting. You can
Speaker 2: get part of the way there, certainly you can, and
Speaker 2: it's certainly a good starting point. And I think at
Speaker 2: most levels you should have at least an idea of
Speaker 2: what's going in and what's going out and what's left over.
Speaker 2: Budgeting is amazing, but it ain't going to get you there.
Speaker 2: And I think I think it definitely sounds like if
Speaker 2: you're to the point where you want to put more
Speaker 2: money away and you just don't have it and you can't.
Speaker 2: Literally you've looked at the budget and you're like, what
Speaker 2: am I gonna do? Like live in my car? You can't.
Speaker 2: You know, there's nothing else to slice and dice, like
Speaker 2: you say, So it is time to start looking at
Speaker 2: a couple different things. I am huge about the impact
Speaker 2: your career. I'm very passionate about the impact that your
Speaker 2: career choices can have in helping you accumulate wealth. And
Speaker 2: I'm also huge on looking for additional income streams on
Speaker 2: top of you know, outside of your nine to five
Speaker 2: job or whatever work you happen to do, so that
Speaker 2: you diversify the income streams that you have. After a
Speaker 2: year like this, it certainly feels like a lot of
Speaker 2: people were turning to side hobbies or side hustles as
Speaker 2: they say, you know, you're starting their own businesses to
Speaker 2: bring in extra money. Because it was a real kick
Speaker 2: in the ass, you know, to realize how vulnerable we
Speaker 2: all were, especially those of us who were tied to
Speaker 2: a nine to five job that either you had layoffs
Speaker 2: or cut back hours. I mean, it all felt very
Speaker 2: like scary and a good reminder about the importance of
Speaker 2: having those different income streams. So, I mean, Chris, both
Speaker 2: and I. You and I both have podcasts. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't think either of us is rolling in the
Speaker 2: dough from the podcast life, but especially not that you're
Speaker 2: getting all the upgraded equipment that it sounds like you're accumulating.
Speaker 2: But you know, talk about like the podcast and what
Speaker 2: other what do you what do you think about different
Speaker 2: income streams and how someone could you know, bring in
Speaker 2: extra wealth?
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, I mean obviously I'm I'm a fan of
Speaker 3: doing other things and building other streams of income and
Speaker 3: businesses and just things you own on your own. Because one,
Speaker 3: I just enjoy the process of making something and having
Speaker 3: it something that I've created is just it's just a
Speaker 3: cool experience. It just I don't know, it makes you
Speaker 3: feel good, like, look, I've made this thing. I've put
Speaker 3: my time and sweat into this, and it's here. So
Speaker 3: I'm definitely for finding things that you're you're passionate about,
Speaker 3: that you enjoy doing, that you see an opportunity to
Speaker 3: have a viable business doing and pursuing those because, like
Speaker 3: you said, you know, jobs are secure intil or not
Speaker 3: until something happens where they need to move on from you.
Speaker 3: You know, things could change overnight. But just like you,
Speaker 3: I'm a huge fan of growing within your career. That
Speaker 3: was one of the biggest things that helped us get
Speaker 3: out of debt when my wife and I kind of
Speaker 3: got serious about our finances. We had about twenty seven
Speaker 3: thousand dollars in credit card debt and we were taking
Speaker 3: home like forty five thousand dollars between the two of us,
Speaker 3: which was not enough money and not especially not in
Speaker 3: southern California.
Speaker 2: It is not did you do that?
Speaker 3: Wow? It was rough. We were living in a tiny house,
Speaker 3: a very small studio for several years, and really we
Speaker 3: cut our budget down to like nothing, like we were
Speaker 3: not having any fun, Like nothing was getting spent that
Speaker 3: didn't need to be spent, and it still was going
Speaker 3: so slow. It was such a long journey. And so
Speaker 3: for me, that's what I went and I left at Okay,
Speaker 3: this is how much I'm making. I think at the time,
Speaker 3: I've got how much I was making by myself, but
Speaker 3: it wasn't. I clearly wasn't a lot. What do I
Speaker 3: need to do? And so that's what I started saying,
Speaker 3: All right, what professional organizations can I joined? I started
Speaker 3: joining these different groups for bookkeepers, and I would go
Speaker 3: to conferences and I would help organize the speakers, and
Speaker 3: then I would meet other people from other places, and
Speaker 3: I would find out about new openings and build up
Speaker 3: my resumes. And when I applied for the next job,
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, you did all of this, Like, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, you can kind of pump yourself up, and
Speaker 3: so doing things like that it allowed me to increase
Speaker 3: my income so much faster than if I would have
Speaker 3: just stayed at my one job and hoped for a
Speaker 3: nice raise, which wasn't going to gum.
Speaker 2: What were you doing at the time. Your backgrounds in accounting.
Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, like accounting and bookkeeping work. So at the time,
Speaker 3: I was a payroll supervisor. I was running a perill
Speaker 3: department at a school district actually, and.
Speaker 2: You're managing paychecks and trying to get a bigger one Exactly.
Speaker 3: I would see everyone who was making more money than
Speaker 3: me and be like, all right, I need to do
Speaker 3: something about this.
Speaker 2: That's got to be really depressed.
Speaker 3: You know, when you see some of those paychecks, you're like,
Speaker 3: I don't know what these people are doing right now,
Speaker 3: but I need to make some changes and get one
Speaker 3: of these because it's way more than i'm keeping.
Speaker 2: You know, it's bad if you're like jealous of a
Speaker 2: like a I don't know what kind of school teachers
Speaker 2: these were, but I'm feeling like a middle school math
Speaker 2: teacher is making more. It's like, ooh, okay, it's time.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was like, because we're all no, teachers aren't
Speaker 3: paid that well, and I was getting paid a lot
Speaker 3: less than than the majority of teachers.
Speaker 2: That's a crime. Yeah, I've I love that. You know,
Speaker 2: I was recently celebrating with my husband because we've really
Speaker 2: been focused on increasing our net worth and we did
Speaker 2: the math with our planner and realized that we have
Speaker 2: increased our net worth by tenfold in the last five years.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And I was sitting down and we're gonna do I'm
Speaker 2: gonna do a specific show about it. But as I
Speaker 2: was sitting through and working through, you know, how did
Speaker 2: we do this? I'll tell you one thing. It wasn't
Speaker 2: by budgeting the most significant the biggest reasons. And I
Speaker 2: part of me almost feels a little are used to
Speaker 2: feel a little, not ashamed. But I think people want
Speaker 2: to hear that we just pulled ourselves up by our
Speaker 2: bootstraps and you know, we coopon clipped and we and
Speaker 2: we we were good people and we just worked real hard.
Speaker 2: They want to hear that kind of story. But the
Speaker 2: truth is was that I was super ruthless with pursuing
Speaker 2: new opportunities when two things were true. When I could
Speaker 2: earn significantly more, and when I could challenge myself professionally.
Speaker 2: So when I could when I was offered, when I
Speaker 2: was offered I was in other jobs, and when I
Speaker 2: was offered opportunities to move to a different company as
Speaker 2: long as the opportunity was professionally rich, like I could
Speaker 2: I was learning a new skill, I was getting to
Speaker 2: try a new position or something like that, and it
Speaker 2: came with additional income. I was definitely willing to take it.
Speaker 2: And I was very risky with some of my career choices,
Speaker 2: and they could have gone the other way entirely, you know,
Speaker 2: without with risk comes rewards or you know, disaster. But
Speaker 2: it was because of those choices I was able to negotiate,
Speaker 2: you know, thirty percent fifty percent raises equity in companies
Speaker 2: that I was joining, which opened me up to even
Speaker 2: additional opportunities to build wealth as long as that stock
Speaker 2: price in that company went up, which I was fortunate
Speaker 2: enough to have that happen sometimes. So like, those are
Speaker 2: the types of things that that I'm I'm ready to
Speaker 2: just be honest about it because there's no shame in it.
Speaker 2: In fact, I had to do it. I'm a black
Speaker 2: woman in America, yo, Like, we don't make that much money.
Speaker 2: We make sixty percent of what a white man earns.
Speaker 2: So for me, I just always thought about when I
Speaker 2: went into like a salary negotiation or when I was
Speaker 2: approached by a competitor or a different company to come
Speaker 2: work for them. I really looked at that as an opportunity.
Speaker 2: It's often the best opportunity you can get to negotiate
Speaker 2: a higher salary and staying at the same place for
Speaker 2: a long time. It ain't it, y'all. It is not
Speaker 2: it in terms of in terms of salary growth, especially
Speaker 2: if you came in entry level. That is not the
Speaker 2: way to increase your income unless I mean, you can
Speaker 2: stay there if you love your job, But then you
Speaker 2: got to start side hustling, you know, get a side
Speaker 2: business or take a hobby and start bringing in cash,
Speaker 2: you know, on top of your earnings. But loyalty does
Speaker 2: not pay in corporate America. It doesn't. I am proof
Speaker 2: of that. I really had to make those big, scary
Speaker 2: leaps to get to where I am today, to get
Speaker 2: those bigger paydays.
Speaker 3: No, I mean, I love that so much because I've
Speaker 3: seen it where in a situation no one I won't
Speaker 3: name a place so no one could figure out what
Speaker 3: I'm talking about, but that was a place.
Speaker 2: Well, leave Chris alone, don't get in, don't get them
Speaker 2: in trouble.
Speaker 3: Don't get me in trouble. Please don't go research this place.
Speaker 3: But I was working at this place. There's a woman there.
Speaker 3: She was amazing at her job. She was amazing, and
Speaker 3: she just wanted She didn't I didn't think she was
Speaker 3: asking for a raise. She just wanted a better title
Speaker 3: than what she had. And they're like, no, we can't
Speaker 3: do that. I'm sorry if something so easy. They were like, no,
Speaker 3: we can't do that. But but you're great. So she's like,
Speaker 3: you know what, all right, I'm out here. So she left,
Speaker 3: got a better job, got the title she wanted, and
Speaker 3: got a pay raise. The person they brought in to
Speaker 3: replace her, they gave the title that she wanted and
Speaker 3: more money, and it was like they could have done
Speaker 3: it all along, but it was just like, well, they
Speaker 3: think we have you here, you're not going to leave,
Speaker 3: so we're not going to do anything. And that's where
Speaker 3: you like, I mean, I agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: That's that's the only way you're going to make these
Speaker 3: significant leaps sometimes is to define better opportunities outside of
Speaker 3: where you are, because they have no incentive to make
Speaker 3: your pay jump significantly.
Speaker 2: And you may think that they're the nicest people. You
Speaker 2: know they've come to your housewarming parties, they gave you
Speaker 2: a nice little gift when you had a baby or
Speaker 2: you got married. It does like they're not going. It
Speaker 2: takes a lot of effort. I was that manager who
Speaker 2: really fought for raises and promotions for my people when
Speaker 2: I didn't have to, because I wanted to retain them.
Speaker 2: I and there were plenty of people who just don't
Speaker 2: do that because it takes a lot of time. It
Speaker 2: takes effort. You got to like do your research, you
Speaker 2: got a bat for people. It's just not in a
Speaker 2: lot of people's best interests to go to bed for
Speaker 2: folks that's work. So yeah, I love that example. I
Speaker 2: mean I hate it, but it's a really good example
Speaker 2: of what we're talking about here. Loyalty does not pay, y'all.
Speaker 2: But I want to talk a bit about before we
Speaker 2: get to the next question about starting a new business.
Speaker 2: Like I literally I'm at a point where I just
Speaker 2: started a new business. Hello guys, I'm I'm the CEO
Speaker 2: and founder of Mandy Money Media, which is a independent
Speaker 2: content consulting firm and editing and writing business. Yay, do
Speaker 2: I get the dant thanks? You know, do my own
Speaker 2: thing after a long well like a decade of experience,
Speaker 2: I'm striking out on my own. And what's so fun
Speaker 2: for me has been doing these things. Like I filed
Speaker 2: for an LLC. It's shockingly easy to do this, y'all.
Speaker 2: You just need a little bit of money and like Google,
Speaker 2: Like you just had a Google. If you go to
Speaker 2: your state's Department of Labor website or just google your
Speaker 2: state LLC, it'll have a very easy to fill out form,
Speaker 2: pick your name, give them your little coins. I had
Speaker 2: it within minutes. I got approved and got my my
Speaker 2: LLC established, and then it's what the I R S do?
Speaker 2: Did you do this yet? We get a taxpayer or
Speaker 2: an employee ID number through the i RS dot gov.
Speaker 3: That's such an easy process. And then you don't have
Speaker 3: to give people your Social sect number either. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean I think I might have to like get it,
Speaker 2: but yeah, it took. I was. I was shocked. It
Speaker 2: was instantly, Oh here's your e I N. Here you go.
Speaker 2: And once I had that e I N, what did
Speaker 2: I do? I went and got a business bank account,
Speaker 2: just did some Googles to find the best one. Although
Speaker 2: I will say I don't know if you have a
Speaker 2: business bank account or credit card yet, do you?
Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, I do have the credit card. I've not
Speaker 3: gone the banking route. I'm still I mean, I probably
Speaker 3: shouldn't be saying this out loud, but yeah, maybe you
Speaker 3: lesnings and personal accounts as business accounts right now.
Speaker 2: You know that's cool. It depends on how you. I
Speaker 2: did learn that, you know, when I was trying to
Speaker 2: decide whether to do an LLC or work as a
Speaker 2: sole proprietor. It's very different, like in terms of how
Speaker 2: how you can commingle your personal versus professional expenses and
Speaker 2: things like that. But definitely I got the all with
Speaker 2: my CPA and he was like, LLC is the way
Speaker 2: to go. So that's what I did. And yeah, but
Speaker 2: the E I n it took seconds and the oh,
Speaker 2: the business bank account. What I was going to say,
Speaker 2: is I because that's I wanted. I'm gonna get paid soon, hopefully,
Speaker 2: hopefully soon from clients. You know, I'm manifesting it like
Speaker 2: my husband installing his Tesla charger five months before he
Speaker 2: actually had a Tesla. I'm going to get this. I
Speaker 2: got a bank account through a online bank, and it
Speaker 2: was kind of hard to find a fee free business
Speaker 2: bank account. Seems like a lot of them charge they
Speaker 2: either have a minimum required balance, which I don't know
Speaker 2: if I'm gonna make I'm gonna make money, but like
Speaker 2: I can't, I can't commit right now that I'm going
Speaker 2: to be making a certain amount. Yeah, so it took
Speaker 2: a lot of comparing and contrasting, but I definitely I
Speaker 2: was able to get one. And you have to have
Speaker 2: your EI N in order to get one set up.
Speaker 2: And then I got approved for a personal sorry, a
Speaker 2: business credit card, which was exciting. So it's it. You
Speaker 2: can do it. And look, I'm a business who you
Speaker 2: can't tell me nothing. I'm a business owner, right, I
Speaker 2: don't need a storefront. I'm doing it.
Speaker 3: It's so different than what people thought of, like what
Speaker 3: people I think we have a much different image in
Speaker 3: our head of what it takes to be a business owner.
Speaker 3: It's it's so it's such an easy process.
Speaker 2: These days, it really is. So I hope that that
Speaker 2: motivates y'all and inspires you to to look at you know,
Speaker 2: if you if you're like me and you've been doing
Speaker 2: something for a long time, you know, and you realize
Speaker 2: you've got a certain set of skills that companies would
Speaker 2: pay to take advantage of or leverage. You know. That's
Speaker 2: a way of like, let's say I was still doing
Speaker 2: my you know, had a nine to five job, I
Speaker 2: could I could feasibly do this on the side and
Speaker 2: just bring in some extra income. And that's the beginning
Speaker 2: again to true wealth building. So I love that Tiffany
Speaker 2: covered that in her book geck It with Lenney dot Com.
Speaker 2: Y'all check out the book. I love that she covered
Speaker 2: that in the book because it really is like it's
Speaker 2: the next level from just basic budgeting, really focusing on
Speaker 2: your income.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is such a great idea. And you know,
Speaker 3: what I've started to discover too, is that the bar
Speaker 3: is actually very low for a lot of what people
Speaker 3: consider good work. I'm very shocked for whatever it's right
Speaker 3: in my mind, it's like people are like, if you're
Speaker 3: going to do something for a company, it's like it
Speaker 3: has to be the best thing that's ever been made.
Speaker 3: But I've I've I'm not gonna again, I'm not going
Speaker 3: to name any companies, but I've I've witnessed some some
Speaker 3: businesses doing work that I'm like, that's all it took
Speaker 3: for you to get paid? And well, I guess I
Speaker 3: need to step it up and do some other things.
Speaker 2: I know well in my career, I've employed people like myself,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I know exactly how much mediocrity there
Speaker 2: is out there. I'm going to go out there and
Speaker 2: be the best and it's not going to be that
Speaker 2: hard because it's a lot of mediocreup. Okay, not to
Speaker 2: shade anybody, but it's a really good point. It truly is.
Speaker 2: And I yeah, I'm excited about this new journey. And
Speaker 2: thank you Les for your question and for checking out
Speaker 2: our podcast. I love that. Well, let's take one other question.
Speaker 2: This one is a juicy one because as geriatric millennials, Chris.
Speaker 4: I'm really not as as old asked millennials, like, life
Speaker 4: insurance is like what we talk about at cookouts now right,
Speaker 4: it's what you know.
Speaker 2: Maybe at my cookouts we talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: life insurance, but I don't know about you. But that's
Speaker 2: what our next question is about. So let's get in
Speaker 2: it all right. This one's from anonymous and they say,
Speaker 2: my husband and I are getting ready to buy life insurance.
Speaker 2: We have a three year old, a house, we have
Speaker 2: good jobs, we're working on wealth and building our or
Speaker 2: getting our life secure. Do you guys recommend whole or
Speaker 2: term life insurance? Very sexy, interesting question, but an important one.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the difference between whole versus term life insurance, Chris,
Speaker 2: anything you want to jump into.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So term life is kind of like what it
Speaker 3: sounds like. It's good for us set terms, So you
Speaker 3: normally say how many years you'd like this policy to
Speaker 3: be good for, so you know, ten, twenty plus years,
Speaker 3: and you typically go with this to cover a period
Speaker 3: of time where you're like, hey, if something were to happen,
Speaker 3: we would definitely need some support for other people in
Speaker 3: the family who I'm laying behind. Whereas whole life policy,
Speaker 3: it's as long as you're still paying your premiums, it's
Speaker 3: good for your whole life.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And is that the kid where you can maybe
Speaker 2: get some annuities later on where it kind of pays
Speaker 2: you out in retirement.
Speaker 3: Well, with the whole life policies, you can build up
Speaker 3: like a cash balance almost in it as you put
Speaker 3: more and more money into these policies. So there are
Speaker 3: situations where you can pull money out of these policies
Speaker 3: or pass them on, just depending on the type of
Speaker 3: a whole life insurance you go.
Speaker 2: With, gotcha? And this is big business for a lot
Speaker 2: of financial planners out there, especially if you're working with
Speaker 2: traditional financial advisors, because a lot of them are in
Speaker 2: the business of literally selling insurance products to their customers.
Speaker 2: And that's why it's important to vet your financial advisor.
Speaker 2: I mean, no shade, I mean obviously, insurance is a
Speaker 2: very important product. You want to you want your family
Speaker 2: to be taken care of if you were to pass away.
Speaker 2: That's literally what it's for. But because they can be
Speaker 2: really lucrative, like like especially whole term whole insurance, like
Speaker 2: Chris was talking about, Like you're talking about someone paying
Speaker 2: you monthly for their entire life. So that's like a
Speaker 2: especially if you're someone who works on commission. That's a
Speaker 2: cash cow. Baby, that's a cash cow. So they, like
Speaker 2: the financial planner is getting an annuity out of you,
Speaker 2: you know, basically when you sign up for a whole insurance. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so you do have to think about that. Now,
Speaker 2: do you have life insurance? Chris? Like, have you bought
Speaker 2: a policy for you and your your wife outside of
Speaker 2: what your work might offer you?
Speaker 3: So, yeah, we have term life insurance, and I think
Speaker 3: for the reason you mentioned that like whole life, there's
Speaker 3: there's definitely circumstances where people could utilize that and it'd
Speaker 3: be useful for or what they have going on. But
Speaker 3: oftentimes those commissions are very nice for those whole whole
Speaker 3: life policy That's why they often get pushed as an
Speaker 3: alternative to you investing on your own.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and that's for me. That was the deciding factor.
Speaker 2: So I just had a baby too, So like our listener,
Speaker 2: she has a young child three years old, my son's
Speaker 2: eighteen months. When I finally had the baby, that's when
Speaker 2: I was like, oh god, my life matters now. I mean,
Speaker 2: of course it mattered before, but like my earning. You know,
Speaker 2: my husband, he's gainfully employed, he's young, but my son,
Speaker 2: you know that. Well, that was my wake up call
Speaker 2: really to get my own policy. And also a colleague
Speaker 2: of mine in the past had told me, you know,
Speaker 2: you really ought to get your own life insurance policy
Speaker 2: beyond what you're At the time, I was working for
Speaker 2: an employer, and most employers provide free life insurance or
Speaker 2: it's like a dollar or two dollars or something like that,
Speaker 2: because it's not enough coverage to really last the life
Speaker 2: of your child, and like, for example, I think in
Speaker 2: the past, I've had life insurance through work that's like
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars and maybe like some short term disability coverage.
Speaker 2: But you know, I ended up getting a policy that
Speaker 2: was valued at a million dollars and I came to
Speaker 2: that at the time. It could have been higher. There's
Speaker 2: a rule of thumb that says to ten x your
Speaker 2: salary to get your your policy. But I think I
Speaker 2: was earning like two hundred thousand at the time, so
Speaker 2: two million dollars seemed like a lot of money. So
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, let me just start with one,
Speaker 2: see how that goes. But yeah, I ended up doing
Speaker 2: a twenty I think a twenty five year term because
Speaker 2: for me, it's not just about it is about, of course,
Speaker 2: providing a financial windfall for your family so that they
Speaker 2: can move on without you and still you know, maintain
Speaker 2: the same quality of life. But it's also you know,
Speaker 2: how likely am I to make it to my I'm
Speaker 2: thirty three now, how likely am I to live till
Speaker 2: I'm sixty, you know? Or how how much how long
Speaker 2: do I I want them to be covered? Basically, and
Speaker 2: I figure by the time I'm sixty, if I'm still around,
Speaker 2: they'll the kids if I have more than one, they'll
Speaker 2: be you know, adults, and they'll be able to take
Speaker 2: care of themselves and by then I will have like
Speaker 2: saved invested for their college expenses or whatnot. So I
Speaker 2: felt very comfortable just doing the twenty five year term
Speaker 2: for my life insurance for that, and then, like you said,
Speaker 2: like you could do the whole life insurance and put
Speaker 2: a bunch of money away and then have your cash balance.
Speaker 2: But you could also just do that in a brokerage
Speaker 2: account and put money away and potentially make even more
Speaker 2: over time to create wealth for yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. I wanted to ask you too, Like, so
Speaker 3: for you and your husband, was that a difficult conversation
Speaker 3: to have because I know people who do not like
Speaker 3: talking about the possibility of dying, and so that's why
Speaker 3: they never look into life insurance.
Speaker 2: It really you really have to not think about what
Speaker 2: you're doing. It's very depressing. And yes, and especially you know,
Speaker 2: if I would do anything differently, I might have done
Speaker 2: it before I had the baby, like while I was pregnant,
Speaker 2: or even like a little bit before that, because I
Speaker 2: do think you know, if you have a kid, of course,
Speaker 2: it's very much worth it because you have the child,
Speaker 2: like I said, And if you don't have a child,
Speaker 2: then really it's about your spouse. Can they provide for
Speaker 2: themselves without you, et cetera. But it was a very
Speaker 2: emotional conversation. As soon as I had that baby and
Speaker 2: my husband saw me as a mother, he became very
Speaker 2: afraid of me dying. It was a weird and I
Speaker 2: think and me too, I became as a new mom.
Speaker 2: I was afraid of everybody dying. Like I was, like,
Speaker 2: he could die, the baby could die. I could die.
Speaker 2: And life is so fragile. Why are we doing it?
Speaker 2: Like what have we done? There's so much to lose,
Speaker 2: you know, it is really scary to think about it.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it wasn't a fun conversation, but it was
Speaker 2: a really easy process to just go compare some options.
Speaker 2: You know, A very nice doctor person came to my
Speaker 2: house because it was the pandemic at that point, did
Speaker 2: a house called, did my blood and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff, And it wasn't that if you just forget
Speaker 2: about why you're doing it and pray that you you know,
Speaker 2: just just just do it for peace of mind for
Speaker 2: your children and then pray you never really have to
Speaker 2: use it. It's like any insurance product, right, you hope
Speaker 2: you don't have to use it, but you're grateful if
Speaker 2: if becomes in handy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. It's one of those things like I think
Speaker 3: people avoid it because, like you said, you kind of
Speaker 3: go into that spiral of thinking about what happens if
Speaker 3: you or someone you care about is not here anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but it's kind of like it's like it's almost one
Speaker 3: of the nicest things you can do for the people
Speaker 3: in your life. Yes, who are part of your family.
Speaker 3: You're gonna end up who so I help support. It's like, look,
Speaker 3: I don't want them to be, you know, on the
Speaker 3: street because I'm not here anymore, and everything got too
Speaker 3: expensive and overwhelming for them. So I almost had to
Speaker 3: reframe it so that way I didn't so you don't
Speaker 3: get stressed out about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you I feel like it's always a
Speaker 2: plot point in movies, like where someone gets killed for
Speaker 2: your life insurance policy. So it's never exactly like the
Speaker 2: happy go lucky kind of topic to get brought up.
Speaker 2: But think about how once the grief, of course, everyone's
Speaker 2: going to miss you, and they'll never you know, my
Speaker 2: husband will never find anyone like me. I'll haunt him
Speaker 2: for life if he even tries. But at least he'll
Speaker 2: be able to provide, you know, a good life for
Speaker 2: our kid and my dog. And we had a guest
Speaker 2: on there's a really good episode of Brown Ambition. Maybe
Speaker 2: we can find the link to it where we had
Speaker 2: a life insurance expert on and I'm like, forgetting on
Speaker 2: her name, damn it, what's her name? Anyway, she came
Speaker 2: on and one of her points was, especially for black
Speaker 2: and brown communities, even if you don't have children, consider
Speaker 2: getting a policy because you can make a nonprofit your beneficiary.
Speaker 2: And this is another way of potentially passing down wealth
Speaker 2: in communities that don't have a lot of you know,
Speaker 2: wealthy benefactors for example. So you know, even if you're
Speaker 2: single and you don't have any children, take a life
Speaker 2: an insurance policy out term life insurance. It's really not
Speaker 2: that terribly expensive, especially if you're younger, and look at
Speaker 2: it as a way of passing on wealth, you know,
Speaker 2: to a good cause if you were to pass away.
Speaker 2: I thought that was a really interesting point that she made.
Speaker 3: That is such a great idea that never even crossed
Speaker 3: my mind either. That would be such a great way
Speaker 3: to help out a cause, like if there's no one
Speaker 3: you need to worry about supporting after you leave. I mean,
Speaker 3: that'd be a great way to help out an organization
Speaker 3: you care.
Speaker 2: About, or just like get one of those cool benches.
Speaker 2: I've always wondered, like how do people get those benches
Speaker 2: in Central Park?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm always looking like these donors are, like
Speaker 3: who are these people who are donating these money and
Speaker 3: getting their names on stuff? Like what's going on?
Speaker 4: What's this process they did?
Speaker 2: That's all you need to know. They had some money
Speaker 2: and they died. That's what happened. Chris, all right, Well
Speaker 2: that was fun. See you're doing it. You're doing it.
Speaker 2: I'm talking more to myself than to you. I'm the
Speaker 2: one who's like, Tiffany, what am I going to do
Speaker 2: without her? But so far, so good.
Speaker 3: I'm definitely not trying to Tiffany and live up to
Speaker 3: those standards because she's She's ma and I won't get
Speaker 3: into it, but she's an amazing speaker. I always love
Speaker 3: both of you. Are I love listening to both of you?
Speaker 2: Oh? Thank you? Well, it's been really wonderful having you on.
Speaker 2: But you're not off the hook yet, my friend, my
Speaker 2: new financial friend, because we have to do our favorite segment,
Speaker 2: second favorite segment after questions, brown boost and brown break.
Speaker 2: I'm not doing any of the musical things that Tiffany
Speaker 2: usually does either. I'm sorry, y'all. What does she usually
Speaker 2: do for brown boost? Brown Boost, brown break, brown boo ooh,
Speaker 2: star break? What you're gonna do? She always puts it
Speaker 2: on me. Whatever she's singing, it always has to rhyme
Speaker 2: with Mandy, so that I'm the one who has to
Speaker 2: go first, which is fair. I will go first. Do
Speaker 2: you need me to revisit the rules of brown boost
Speaker 2: or brown breaking?
Speaker 3: Chris? Uh, yeah, that'd be good.
Speaker 2: Okay, So brown boost, it's really an important choice. Okay,
Speaker 2: It's either like, do we want to leave the show
Speaker 2: in a high note or do we want to leave
Speaker 2: the show on a funny slash kind of a down note.
Speaker 2: So a brown boost we're talking about something that we're
Speaker 2: excited about that's positive in our lives or careers or
Speaker 2: finances or whatnot. And then a brown break is something
Speaker 2: that's really been getting us down financially, career wise, personally,
Speaker 2: we just want to call out because sometimes it feels
Speaker 2: good to put a name to something that's bothering you,
Speaker 2: and other people tend to relate to it. So that
Speaker 2: is the choice which one of those speaking to you
Speaker 2: at this particular time.
Speaker 3: I mean, I didn't want to put end it on
Speaker 3: a negative note. I can make it less negative, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I think I'll go with a brown break, because that's
Speaker 3: what's bothering me here at these people investment options, investment.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we're both going to do a break, y'all. Okay,
Speaker 2: so get ready. It's a double breaker. We don't often
Speaker 2: have a back to back break, so this is going
Speaker 2: to be It's gonna be fun, all right, Chris, do
Speaker 2: you want to go first?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: All right, I can hop in here. Okay. So my
Speaker 3: brown break is I've been I've been getting more messages
Speaker 3: than I care to receive from friends who are who
Speaker 3: are investing in all kinds of things in AMC, in
Speaker 3: cryptocurrencies and all this stuff, and it's just like, look
Speaker 3: at how much money I made, and you sure you
Speaker 3: don't want to get in on this, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: I don't. I really don't want to do this. I
Speaker 3: try not to be mean when I get the messages
Speaker 3: and tell them to stop sending these things to me.
Speaker 3: But I'm more so nervous for the other people in
Speaker 3: the group chats because I can be like whatever, I
Speaker 3: just ignore it and kill about my day. But I'm like,
Speaker 3: I can see how some other friends are like, well,
Speaker 3: maybe I need to go and pull some money out
Speaker 3: of my retirement account. I hop in on this this
Speaker 3: AMC thing, and I'm like, please don't.
Speaker 2: Do that, Oh God, out of your fourm okay, no.
Speaker 3: Like, please don't do that. And I'm like, that's the
Speaker 3: thing that people get caught up in the hype of
Speaker 3: all of this, and it can lead to some people
Speaker 3: making really quick bad decisions. And so that's why, that's
Speaker 3: why that's what I'm choosing for today.
Speaker 2: Oh God, Yeah, I feel you. And especially I remember
Speaker 2: the story of my dad. My dad drives a he
Speaker 2: drives for the public transit service in Atlanta called Marta,
Speaker 2: and one day he's like, Mandy, one of my pastors
Speaker 2: was telling me about penny stocks he lives. He used
Speaker 2: to be a stockbroker in New York, and he's like,
Speaker 2: you need to get all these penny stocks because they're
Speaker 2: worth pennies today, but they can be worth millions tomorrow.
Speaker 2: And I said, Dad, you're going to take advice from
Speaker 2: a very nice man. But he used to be a
Speaker 2: stockbroker and now he's riding your bus. And that's the
Speaker 2: man that you want that you're trying to become. No no,
Speaker 2: no no no no no no no. But if it's
Speaker 2: not something on the bus, it's like the guys the now.
Speaker 2: I keep using the cookout analogy, but really it is
Speaker 2: the group text now group text or Facebook groups, investing clubs, Twitter,
Speaker 2: you know, like elon, musk tweets and bitcoin tanks or
Speaker 2: sores whatever, like people, it's just so crazy out there
Speaker 2: right now. I don't know how listen. I don't feel
Speaker 2: like I would take investment advice from friends either, But
Speaker 2: what would get you to maybe like listen to a
Speaker 2: stock pick from one of those group texts, or has
Speaker 2: any of them ever worked out for you.
Speaker 3: From a group text? I don't know if there's anything
Speaker 3: that any of my friends could do to make me
Speaker 3: take one of their pieces of advice. The text message.
Speaker 3: You know, this is probably like a trust issues. So
Speaker 3: I had a friend who he was really into, like
Speaker 3: buying and selling shoes when we were younger. He was
Speaker 3: a sneaker head, so he would buy you buy shoes.
Speaker 3: He would go to these releases and he's like, hey, Chris,
Speaker 3: you got to do this, man, I'm making so much
Speaker 3: money doing this. And I was like, okay, let me
Speaker 3: do this. I went with them and I bought these shoes.
Speaker 3: I remember there were these Sinko de Mayo nikes that
Speaker 3: had the Mexican flag on the side.
Speaker 4: Okay, it's very specific.
Speaker 3: He's like, you get this, man, you're gonna be able
Speaker 3: to flip this. I was like, great, long story short,
Speaker 3: I did not make any money.
Speaker 2: You didn't make any money off for Sinkle the Myo sneakers.
Speaker 3: No, I did not. And I think ever since then,
Speaker 3: I've had trust issues with people giving me random advice
Speaker 3: through text messages. But yeah, no, it's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think for me, you really got to understand something,
Speaker 3: Like I'm sure he knew what he was doing and
Speaker 3: he could flip those shoes and be great. I'm sure
Speaker 3: some of these people I've spent hours studying these these stocks,
Speaker 3: and they have good data to back up their decisions.
Speaker 3: But I don't. And I think that's the part that's
Speaker 3: it's you'd be cautious. Was like, if you don't feel comfortable,
Speaker 3: don't just jump into this just because somebody else feels
Speaker 3: comfortable doing this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean for me, for you,
Speaker 2: it was single to MYO sneakers. For me, it was
Speaker 2: beanie babies.
Speaker 3: Oh man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still waiting for my millions aunties and friends
Speaker 2: at school who told me to get all of them
Speaker 2: and we would like spend money, we would protect them
Speaker 2: at all costs. I think I put one in a
Speaker 2: time capsule, like you know, I was thirteen when y
Speaker 2: uk came along, or didn't come along rather, And yeah,
Speaker 2: I buried my millennium beanie baby, thinking wow, I'm really
Speaker 2: just like burying my nest egg right now. I can
Speaker 2: dig this up in the after and cash it out
Speaker 2: of the bank. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, my mom has a garage full of beanie babies
Speaker 3: still in their protective cases.
Speaker 2: Oh no, she has. Oh that's so funny. Well, you know, hope,
Speaker 2: and she's going to hang on to my bet.
Speaker 3: They're not going anywhere. I mean, hey, look, Pokemon cards
Speaker 3: for some reason going wold. Maybe beanie babies will circle
Speaker 3: back around dude.
Speaker 2: My husband was just like, he just went home to
Speaker 2: his parents to go try and dig up his whole
Speaker 2: Pokemon cards. He couldn't find them. He was so mad
Speaker 2: about Pokemon cards.
Speaker 3: I did the same thing. I called my dad, like, hey,
Speaker 3: are those Pokemon cars still in the garage because I
Speaker 3: wouldn't need those. He could not find them. They were
Speaker 3: nowhere to be found. I was very disappointed.
Speaker 2: But the beanie babies were okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, beanie babies. No, they're still on their shelf. They've
Speaker 3: been on the same shelf for I think ten years,
Speaker 3: just sitting there in their nice clearcases.
Speaker 2: Oh lord, all right, well that's really funny. Okay, So
Speaker 2: my break is going to be it's going to be
Speaker 2: a big one. I'm going to try it to go
Speaker 2: on too long. But as I said, I'm from the
Speaker 2: state of Georgia, which has a lot of great things
Speaker 2: going forward. You know, world of coke, black people thrive
Speaker 2: in Atlanta. It's wonderful. We saved the Senate this year
Speaker 2: with John Osoff and Rafael Warnocks win and the Senate race.
Speaker 2: You know, we also saved the election. If you guys
Speaker 2: don't remember black women and Lena did. We did that,
Speaker 2: thank you, I'm like taking credit. I don't even live there.
Speaker 2: I don't vote in Georgia anymore anyway, but Georgia still
Speaker 2: has a lot of craziness happening. And I kind oft
Speaker 2: believe this headline, but it's something that I wanted to
Speaker 2: talk about because it's just showing how important local elections
Speaker 2: are beyond the presidential election. And I will continue harping
Speaker 2: on this, y'all because look at the Shenanigans. My state
Speaker 2: is up to my God. So the Georgia Education Board
Speaker 2: has passed a resolution just a few days ago to
Speaker 2: limit the ability of teachers in schools where they educate
Speaker 2: children who will go out into the world in the
Speaker 2: future and be citizens in this country, limit them from
Speaker 2: talking about race and the history of racism in this country.
Speaker 2: Like that's the thing that the Board of Education could do.
Speaker 2: And the governor Brian Kemp, who by the way, stole
Speaker 2: the election from Stacy Abrams a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: That's Stacy Abram's whole you know, launch into this Fair
Speaker 2: Fight Action nonprofit that she's built to expand voting rights
Speaker 2: and voting access across the country, but especially in Georgia.
Speaker 2: Brian Kemp was one of the reasons why, and he
Speaker 2: himself was the one urging the the Board of Education
Speaker 2: to take quote immediate steps to ensure that critical race
Speaker 2: theory and its dangerous ideology do not take root in
Speaker 2: our state standards and curriculum. And it passed. So this
Speaker 2: is I'm just like, oh, I mean, I remember in
Speaker 2: school talking about like people getting really fired up about
Speaker 2: Georgia state flag because it had the Confederate emblement it
Speaker 2: and they were going to change it. I remember that
Speaker 2: being being really confused by how intensely debated that was
Speaker 2: in class and stuff. And I was in class when
Speaker 2: we were reading Huckleberry finn In. One of my white
Speaker 2: female classmates asked, why can't we say the N word?
Speaker 2: And she said the N word? Like, what's wrong with it?
Speaker 2: They say it in the book? Why can't we say it? So,
Speaker 2: as a kid who used to be one of the
Speaker 2: only ones in her class, I can't. I can't conceive
Speaker 2: that we could be going backwards like this. It's really
Speaker 2: scary to me. And I just want to raise awareness
Speaker 2: of that, of this thing that's happening in Georgia, and
Speaker 2: I hope. I don't know if there's a way to
Speaker 2: to vote this away or to undo it. But it's
Speaker 2: scary that so simply and easily you can deny children
Speaker 2: who are supposed to be educated. This discussion is about
Speaker 2: this very important, very bloody, very tragic, you know, chapter
Speaker 2: or book in our nation's history that is still impacting
Speaker 2: them today. It just it like boggles my mind that
Speaker 2: this is even happening.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't understand it. I saw I saw
Speaker 3: the same article, and I mean, it's not like there
Speaker 3: are they currently were teaching like in depth history of
Speaker 3: what was really happening in America over the years. I remember,
Speaker 3: there's so many things I didn't learn about until I
Speaker 3: was in college or just learned about on my own,
Speaker 3: including like the Tulsa massacre, Like that was something that
Speaker 3: people in Oklahoma don't even know about that beause they
Speaker 3: weren't talked about it in school. And it's like to
Speaker 3: then even say we can't even mention the factual history
Speaker 3: and the discrimination that's occurred in the state and in
Speaker 3: the country. It's it really makes you think, like why,
Speaker 3: why is that even possible to do something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I will give a shout out to a
Speaker 2: teacher named Tracy Penley. She was named the state Teacher
Speaker 2: of the Year and she unfortunately doesn't have a vote
Speaker 2: on the board despite being State Teacher of the Year.
Speaker 2: But she also spoke out against it and says to
Speaker 2: say that we're not a racist state flies in the
Speaker 2: face of all the research that I've been taught and
Speaker 2: that I've looked at. And it's true. I mean, racism
Speaker 2: is alive and well in Georgia, despite how there are
Speaker 2: so many is an amazing it can be an amazing
Speaker 2: place to live, and I was I'm proud to be
Speaker 2: have been raised there. But until we can't become a
Speaker 2: better state or better country until we're willing to acknowledge
Speaker 2: these flaws in ourselves. And racism is very much alive
Speaker 2: and well in Georgia. I don't know what the breakdown is,
Speaker 2: but I can guarantee you Georgian's made up a fair
Speaker 2: few number of state rioters at the Capitol back in January.
Speaker 2: And beyond that, I'm just a person who knows there's
Speaker 2: freezes people in my home state. And as a mom,
Speaker 2: like I'm already like my son that are get ready
Speaker 2: I'm going to be investigating all of his textbooks, I'm
Speaker 2: going to be like, where's the chapter on slavery? What
Speaker 2: do they talk about? You know, what are their references?
Speaker 2: And I think it's really important as parents today to
Speaker 2: just be woke about, really engaged with what our children
Speaker 2: are being taught in school, so that we can listen
Speaker 2: at the end of the day. If it's definitely easy
Speaker 2: for obviously boards of education, nepacities to sources of resolutions,
Speaker 2: but it's also easy to take your kids to the library.
Speaker 2: It's also easy to talk about things at the dinner
Speaker 2: table that maybe aren't maybe when I was growing up,
Speaker 2: weren't considered polite conversation. But we've got to educate ourselves
Speaker 2: and make sure our kids are educated. And thankfully there's
Speaker 2: a million different ways to get that education. And it's
Speaker 2: still really troubling, but I'm at least heartened by the
Speaker 2: fact that, you know, you have some schools, on the
Speaker 2: other hand, who are teaching critical race theory and teaching
Speaker 2: sixteen nineteen project by Nicole Hannah Jones from The New
Speaker 2: York Times, Like, so there's education out there. We just
Speaker 2: have to be really, you know, on top of it
Speaker 2: and just make sure that kids are getting a very
Speaker 2: like realistic and honest, factual telling of our country's history,
Speaker 2: good and bad.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, I mean, and I mean this just goes
Speaker 3: back to your point of saying how important these local
Speaker 3: elections are because these people making the decisions they really
Speaker 3: want to keep their jobs. They really want to keep
Speaker 3: those positions. And if they're pressed, and if their people
Speaker 3: are vocal about their like their displeasure with what they're
Speaker 3: doing and the decisions they're making, you can both them
Speaker 3: out or you can put the pressure in them and
Speaker 3: make different decisions. But if they feel comfortable like they're
Speaker 3: never going to get pushed out, then they'll continue to
Speaker 3: make these horrible decisions.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. And you can get so mad at an article,
Speaker 2: but you know, were you there at the polls when
Speaker 2: you had a chance to vote. So all right, Well,
Speaker 2: that was definitely a heavy note to end on Chris
Speaker 2: that I had to do what I had to do it.
Speaker 2: But listen, this has been such a pleasure having you
Speaker 2: joined the show. I'm so glad that you're out there
Speaker 2: doing what you're doing. I hope Popcorn Finance you guys
Speaker 2: got to go check it out, subscribe or sorry you
Speaker 2: follow it now on Apple.
Speaker 3: Podcast and they have changed the language everything yet it's following.
Speaker 2: Follow popcorn Finance, leave a review, go find Chris. He's
Speaker 2: on all the socials at Popcorn Finance, and then also
Speaker 2: check out his other show, This is Awkward. Who is
Speaker 2: your co host?
Speaker 3: It's Allison Alison Baggerley.
Speaker 2: Alison Baggerley, awesome. Thank you Chris. Any last words for
Speaker 2: the BA fan, I would.
Speaker 3: Say, thank you so much for having me. Mandy was
Speaker 3: grigging and talked with you on here, and you know,
Speaker 3: I just I appreciate you. Just let me join you
Speaker 3: here while Tiffany's off for a little bit of a break.
Speaker 3: But it's been so great talking with you and all
Speaker 3: of the audi answer.
Speaker 2: Thank you. You made it less scary for me to
Speaker 2: be without Tiffany for the first time ever. I feel
Speaker 2: so crazy to do it without her, but this was great.
Speaker 2: Thank you Chris.
Speaker 3: Oh no, thank you so much. It's great talking with you.