Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Hey, I'm back. I'm black and I'm brown.
Speaker 2: Hey, mandra Oh I missed you so much.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it feels so weird being back in
Speaker 1: my bed talking on my computer.
Speaker 2: Budget puff.
Speaker 1: You know, it's crazy because honestly, I didn't, Like usually
Speaker 1: for a vacation, you go somewhere, and I didn't go anywhere,
Speaker 1: and it was exactly the vacation I needed.
Speaker 2: That sounds awesome, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I took a social media break too, which
Speaker 1: was honestly everything, because I didn't realize how stressful Instagram,
Speaker 1: especially Facebook. Yes, but Instagram is honestly kind of stressful.
Speaker 2: Oh, I one hundred percent think I agree with you.
Speaker 2: I take my own like little breaks after work.
Speaker 1: So it was just it was just nice to just
Speaker 1: take a full break, like I went for a walk.
Speaker 1: So it was like I had like a list of
Speaker 1: like things I wanted to do. It's like I want
Speaker 1: to get my nails done, I want to get I
Speaker 1: want to wash my hair, I want to get my
Speaker 1: hair retightened, like I had like these little I want
Speaker 1: to get a massage, and so I want to take
Speaker 1: a walk in the park. And because right now in
Speaker 1: Newark and some it's cherry blossom seasons. Newark has the
Speaker 1: largest amount of cherry blossom trees in the United States
Speaker 1: and one concentrated area. So it's when I say beautiful, Mandy,
Speaker 1: it looks like a like a wonderland. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just it was exactly what I needed. No emails, no,
Speaker 1: you know, work conversations. I mean, Superman and I went
Speaker 1: on several dates. It was just really nice.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so glad that you had some time to
Speaker 2: recharge and reboot yourself. It seems like the perfect time too,
Speaker 2: right before spring really gets underway.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So what were you guys up to when I was galaxies?
Speaker 2: Oh you know, we uh, we cheated on you a
Speaker 2: little bit. We had Lynette California Cocks on the show
Speaker 2: last week. We had Marcus scared from paychecks and balances.
Speaker 2: So thank you to them for coming through and filling
Speaker 2: in your massive shoes. They did their best.
Speaker 1: Oh well, I mean I already know, I mean, let
Speaker 1: no shade to Marcus. But Lynette, I know, she's a beast.
Speaker 1: That's my that's my mentor oursel. I'm like what Lonette?
Speaker 2: Yes, love it and best wishes to Sandy again. Sandy
Speaker 2: Smith of yes, I am cheap. I'm definitely gonna try
Speaker 2: and get her on the show again, because I've been
Speaker 2: trying to make this happen forever, but fate just keeps
Speaker 2: getting on our way. I hope Sandy is recovering well
Speaker 2: at the hospital and her health is obviously top priority.
Speaker 2: M hm, cool, let's get back in the groove. What's happening.
Speaker 2: I read a story today that millennials lie on their resumes,
Speaker 2: and I just have to say, you guys, don't do it.
Speaker 2: I've literally gotten to a point where I have like
Speaker 2: hired a candidate, like given them an offer letter, they've signed,
Speaker 2: and then you know what happens after that point is
Speaker 2: a background check happens like that's what companies do with
Speaker 2: the stage. Once you've signed the offer letter, then there's
Speaker 2: like the asterisk of you know, ending the background check
Speaker 2: and they will check your damn resume and your LinkedIn
Speaker 2: profile versus records. And you know, we had to rescind
Speaker 2: an offer to some candidate who lied on her resume
Speaker 2: about completing a master's degree which had nothing to do
Speaker 2: with a job that she applied for. It was like crazy, Ugh,
Speaker 2: she put it on LinkedIn and she put it. It would
Speaker 2: have been one thing if she for you know, put
Speaker 2: it on LinkedIn, but she put it also on the
Speaker 2: actual application form for the job, and for that reason
Speaker 2: she had to. She didn't get the.
Speaker 1: Job, carringing, Oh my god, that's a big thing to
Speaker 1: lie about.
Speaker 3: It's huge.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. I went to my LinkedIn page
Speaker 2: because I understand there's like this.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: There's just this human instinct to just over it like hype,
Speaker 2: like to be hyperbolic, or like overinflate your credentials. I
Speaker 2: think we all do when we're telling stories about ourselves.
Speaker 2: You know, everyone has that mom or that auntie who exaggerates.
Speaker 2: It's just this human instinct. But you have to check
Speaker 2: it when it comes to your professional your professional credentials,
Speaker 2: especially on you know, platforms like LinkedIn or in a
Speaker 2: hundred percent on applications, because like, one, why set people
Speaker 2: up for disappointment when they find out who you really are?
Speaker 2: And two it's just it's gonna it's just so embarrassing
Speaker 2: and it's going to blacklist you forever from that company.
Speaker 2: If you let that happen.
Speaker 1: It doesn't end well yikes, no, man, Well, uh, poor Paris.
Speaker 1: I was like, what, no, todam what happened?
Speaker 2: And it seems like I don't think they know, but
Speaker 2: it's I'm I'm glad that at least to hear that
Speaker 2: it wasn't as bad, like the whole structure wasn't damaged.
Speaker 1: Yes, but I was definitely like the pictures of seeing
Speaker 1: people's faces, it just it was. It was, honestly. I
Speaker 1: mean so many people were just like outside watching and
Speaker 1: they just looked just devastated, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was trying to think of like the equivalent.
Speaker 1: I was trying to think of a house of worship
Speaker 1: where I was like or just even just like a
Speaker 1: structure in general that people would be devastated, like oh
Speaker 1: my goodness. And I really I don't know that we
Speaker 1: have any the equivalent to that.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I mean it wasn't a terror attack.
Speaker 2: He can't really equate it to the World Trade Center.
Speaker 2: But Empire of State building a statue of liberty. You know,
Speaker 2: they're not of worship, but they're iconic.
Speaker 1: But I feel like it's a statue of liberty caught
Speaker 1: fire because you know what it is, Because it's not
Speaker 1: like I feel like the statue of liberty I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like housing these like you know,
Speaker 1: antiquities of like seventeen seventy. You know. I feel like
Speaker 1: with the Statue of Liberty, we'd be like, whoa the
Speaker 1: statue of Liberty, but they put it back up, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's all selling. Jesus Christ wore the
Speaker 2: crown that's on her head, Like they saved this crown
Speaker 2: that apparently Jesus himself wore, you know, say, I was like,
Speaker 2: I didn't know they still had his crown.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. Yeah, that's what I mean that I think
Speaker 1: what it was. It's like there's just so much history
Speaker 1: that's there that you know, but you know, it's so
Speaker 1: crazy that you know, like that gets that gets so
Speaker 1: much pressed. But you know, not too long ago, there
Speaker 1: was a house of worship. I can't remember what Middle
Speaker 1: Eastern country, but it was the equivalent of that, you know,
Speaker 1: in that country, and it didn't get the same amount
Speaker 1: of obviously like press, but I remember people were like
Speaker 1: devastated because it was like an extremely important house of
Speaker 1: worship that is is purposely destroyed, you know, and people
Speaker 1: were like standing outside like just beside themselves, and it's
Speaker 1: just a shame that. I mean not to take away
Speaker 1: from what happened in Notre Dame, but I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that there, you know, there are or civilizations, and there
Speaker 1: are people whose history is destroyed on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: and in the world, you know, turns a blind eye.
Speaker 2: You know, well look at what happened in New Zealand.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's so many examples of houses of worship
Speaker 2: being a target of hate crimes and you know, truly
Speaker 2: devastating ones. So at this point, it just sounds like
Speaker 2: it was like some kind of fire that was caused
Speaker 2: during a renovation process, which is even more ironic and tragicy.
Speaker 2: But I guess there's a bit of gratitude in that. Okay,
Speaker 2: thank god people, you know, someone wasn't evil to attack
Speaker 2: Notre Dame. Like anyway, just thoughts and prayers with the
Speaker 2: fireman who went into that blazing church and somehow managed
Speaker 2: to rescue it, and like that was amazing. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: sure that, I'm sure they will they will rebuild. It
Speaker 2: will probably take a long time.
Speaker 1: But there was already a billionaire who who's Who's pledge
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars, which is awesome. So the renovation.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so while I was gone, one of the
Speaker 1: things I put myself because I was like, okay, so
Speaker 1: tax season is finally done, thank you Jesus. I mean
Speaker 1: unless you filed your extension and then you've extended the misery.
Speaker 1: Sorry is due exactly? Yeah, yeah, tax season is all exactly,
Speaker 1: it's already done. But it made me really look at like, okay,
Speaker 1: what can I do better? And so I am firing
Speaker 1: my current financial planner.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Frank.
Speaker 1: He definitely listen to the podcast.
Speaker 2: So whatever. I've never heard Frank's name before, I.
Speaker 1: Know exactly because Frank doesn't do much. So he started
Speaker 1: off great and then he's just you know, fizzled, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, Frank, hello, Hello, let's just thing on. And
Speaker 1: so that's like my pet peeve. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: you get my money and then you disappear. And so honestly,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't even know what I wanted. So
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what's been very helpful. I actually created
Speaker 1: this document where Jerrell and I sat down, Oh Superman
Speaker 1: well whatever y'all know his name probably Superman and I
Speaker 1: sat down and kind of talked about like, well one
Speaker 1: I said, I think it'll be important for our current
Speaker 1: financial planner or our new financial planner to know where
Speaker 1: we stand, because they always ask the same questions. You know,
Speaker 1: how much you make? How about this? How much you
Speaker 1: haven't saved things? What about retirement? So I put all
Speaker 1: of that down in this dock, and then I put
Speaker 1: like underneath it, like so current situation, and then I
Speaker 1: have our goals, like, you know, within the next five years,
Speaker 1: we would like to be financially independent. We'd like to
Speaker 1: make one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, like
Speaker 1: as a household passively, you know, because we make that
Speaker 1: more now, but we work for that so passively our
Speaker 1: money yielding that what we have to do. We'd like
Speaker 1: to maximize because I set aside money for all my
Speaker 1: nieces and nephews and my godson. But I'd like to
Speaker 1: be more strategic with like so we have a whole
Speaker 1: list of things, and not that a financial advisor. It
Speaker 1: might be a mix of people that will help. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to get out like what our goals were,
Speaker 1: long term and short term, and it's been so helpful.
Speaker 1: I put in a Google doc and then I posted
Speaker 1: and this is just I'm sharing this with you all
Speaker 1: BA listeners, because if you're looking for a financial advisor,
Speaker 1: I would suggest figuring out first well, first creating a
Speaker 1: document or where do you stand? And then what your
Speaker 1: goals are long term, short term or otherwise. And then
Speaker 1: what I did is I put in a Google doc
Speaker 1: and with Google Docs you can share, share, create a
Speaker 1: link to share. So I posted on like these financial
Speaker 1: Facebook groups I'm a part of and said, hey, looking
Speaker 1: for a financial planner. I wanted a fee own So
Speaker 1: financial planners you want to explain Many like the difference
Speaker 1: between like fee and like someone who gets paid based
Speaker 1: upon your portfolio.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Sure, a fee only planner, a fee based planner. They'll
Speaker 2: just charge you, like an hourly rate or a flat
Speaker 2: rate to take a look at your finances, and they
Speaker 2: may do it every time you have a conversation, or
Speaker 2: they may charge you a flat rate for an overall
Speaker 2: financial plan that costs you a certain amount, and then
Speaker 2: they charge you an hourly rate moving forward. But you
Speaker 2: always know upfront what their fees are going to be.
Speaker 2: Other financial advisors may tie their pay to the type
Speaker 2: of investments that they point you toward, where they're getting
Speaker 2: a kickback or a fee attached to the investments that
Speaker 2: they push you toward. Oh dang, didn't put my phone
Speaker 2: on silent rookie mistake. Or they're getting a bit of
Speaker 2: the fee from the investment they point you toward. Or
Speaker 2: they're taking a percentage this is very common, a percentage
Speaker 2: of the returns they help you earn by giving you
Speaker 2: investment advice, which is pretty common.
Speaker 1: Yes, so I am like so in the beginning, like
Speaker 1: typically if you don't if you can't afford the fee,
Speaker 1: which is fine, because I like I couldn't up until
Speaker 1: like recently that or I just didn't want to pay
Speaker 1: the fee, or so you know, people, I allowed financial
Speaker 1: advisors to to make their money up from a percentage
Speaker 1: of my portfolio what they helped me to earn. But
Speaker 1: I've since moved away from that, and I really just
Speaker 1: want to pay a flat fee. And quite honestly, I'm
Speaker 1: sick and tired of handing my money over because I'm
Speaker 1: like all these fees on fees on fees on fees,
Speaker 1: Like I'd much rather say, hey, planner, you know whatever
Speaker 1: you charged me two hundred dollars safe to sit down
Speaker 1: me for this hour. Here's some questions that I have.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put my I'm going to open up, say
Speaker 1: like a Vanguard account or account, I don't know whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, one of these accounts, but you can manage
Speaker 1: your own money. Let's just say Banguard. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm going to open up a Vanguard account. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of a total stock market fund, which is Vanguard has
Speaker 1: this account where they the fund mirrors the S and
Speaker 1: P five hundred, so that as a very well known
Speaker 1: US market, the top five hundred companies in the United States, right,
Speaker 1: and so well top meaning like earning and so you know,
Speaker 1: you're their fund will basically invest your money into like
Speaker 1: those companies. And so it's an index fund, so literally
Speaker 1: like an indexes. You know, it's like a list of
Speaker 1: like I'm not talking to you obviously, Mandy, but those
Speaker 1: listening and an index fund and indexes like if you're
Speaker 1: looking at the index of the back of the book,
Speaker 1: a list of like like you know, maybe like I
Speaker 1: don't know words inside that book. So an index fund
Speaker 1: is a kind of like a list of all of
Speaker 1: these companies. And so I might ask my planner, you know,
Speaker 1: is this a good idea to put my money in
Speaker 1: an index fund to mirror the market, because typically the
Speaker 1: stock market goes up over time, although there's ups and downs,
Speaker 1: there's ups and downs on its way up. How you
Speaker 1: know what percentage of my money should I put there?
Speaker 1: Should I put my money also in a total market
Speaker 1: bond fund, which is a little bit safer, you know
Speaker 1: as much, but you also don't have to pretend you
Speaker 1: to lose as much. Just these kind of questions, and
Speaker 1: you know, you might be like, what's the bond? What's
Speaker 1: the stock exactly? So I really just want someone who
Speaker 1: I can ask questions of, take my own money and
Speaker 1: based upon, you know, the responses and the information that
Speaker 1: I get, make decisions with like my money, and not
Speaker 1: feel like I'm just handing my money over because I
Speaker 1: feel like that's what I've been doing. And I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna pretend like, you know, some of my financial planners
Speaker 1: have not made me money. I mean, it's not that
Speaker 1: Frank hasn't made me any money, but I honestly don't
Speaker 1: know what's going on, you know what I mean? Mandy,
Speaker 1: I'm like, so what are we doing? He doesn't answer
Speaker 1: when I text, or I'm like, are we supposed to
Speaker 1: have calls? Isn't it what I paid this flat fee
Speaker 1: for and if I look like I looked at my
Speaker 1: portfolio for twenty eighteen and I made I mean, I
Speaker 1: made a decent return. I think maybe like ten or
Speaker 1: twelve percent something like that. So it's not like I'm
Speaker 1: losing money, but I don't, like did I?
Speaker 2: But I just have a damn target date fund and
Speaker 2: no funny, no advice exactly.
Speaker 1: And that's what I feel like. Honestly, I feel like, great,
Speaker 1: you know, but can I just put exactly? I was
Speaker 1: thinking that, like, why can't I just put my money
Speaker 1: in the target date fund? Why do I have to
Speaker 1: pay you rank? And then I'll save money and fees,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: And because I'm and you han, I think that what
Speaker 2: you're looking for is a financial planner who can bring
Speaker 2: value in other ways beyond like return because I think
Speaker 2: like if you look at actively managed funds, like basically
Speaker 2: in investment firms that manage your money for you versus
Speaker 2: like just putting your money in an index fund, a
Speaker 2: lot of times the index fund wins out. So you
Speaker 2: have to find people who add value beyond the returns
Speaker 2: and don't believe them if they say they can, Oh,
Speaker 2: I can do double what the S and P did
Speaker 2: last you're like, no, that's bullshit. And you know, ask
Speaker 2: people what they can give you beyond just the regular
Speaker 2: return that anyone would expect, because you have to keep
Speaker 2: those realistic expectations and people who won't like oversell you.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm like, I'm wanting like that, like
Speaker 1: you know, like yes, like because beyond that that could
Speaker 1: literally be one conversation. Well, typically this is my favorite
Speaker 1: index fund because here's why the fees are low and
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. And I'm like, okay, but I want more,
Speaker 1: like I want like, I want to offer value to
Speaker 1: my employees. I want to be able to give them
Speaker 1: a retirement account. I can't do that on my own.
Speaker 1: There are financial planners and advisors that can help me
Speaker 1: with that, you know. Yeah, So I'm just excited about interviewing.
Speaker 1: So I literally I think I posted and like I said,
Speaker 1: I created the doc and I sent everybody the same message.
Speaker 1: It was like fifteen maybe fifteen people that reached out
Speaker 1: to me, and I was like, hey, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for reaching out. You know, I've created a document
Speaker 1: to help give you a clear understanding of where my
Speaker 1: husband and I are and where we'd like to be
Speaker 1: you know, please review. And in the dock it was clear, like,
Speaker 1: you know, how I wanted to work with the person,
Speaker 1: like I would like to pay hourly. I don't want.
Speaker 1: I want to manage my own money, so that way
Speaker 1: people could eliminate themselves. And of the fifteen, I would
Speaker 1: say there's probably five people that are viable. Some people
Speaker 1: eliminated themselves because they're like, oh, I don't do fee
Speaker 1: only or I only, you can only pay me yearly,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, nah, that yearly is I want to
Speaker 1: pay you hourly because if you suck, I've only paid
Speaker 1: for one hour, you know. So I'm excited though, because
Speaker 1: I feel like this is like the next frontier. I've
Speaker 1: got a dope accountant and CFO and so I just
Speaker 1: want to kind of like a personal CFO of my life.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited, and I'll keep you guys abreast of, like,
Speaker 1: you know, how the interviews go and who I end
Speaker 1: up choosing. And even if I don't choose someone in
Speaker 1: their dope, you know, I plant I can obviously share
Speaker 1: some of the amazing people that I was able to
Speaker 1: connect with, because that's another desire of mine, is to
Speaker 1: kind of like create a list of dope financial experts
Speaker 1: because people ask me all the time, like what do
Speaker 1: you suggest for this, and I can be like, well,
Speaker 1: I interviewed her, she was great. Wasn't a fit for
Speaker 1: me because I needed more business assistants, but she might
Speaker 1: be a fit for you.
Speaker 2: You know, yes, I'll be waiting those those recommendations like
Speaker 2: everybody else do the work force, Like seeing those commercials
Speaker 2: for Home Advisor where it's like, do you know a
Speaker 2: good contract or cool? Could you vet them for me
Speaker 2: and get different rate schedules.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's why I was like, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: excited though, because I'm like, yay, I just you know,
Speaker 1: you know, you're on the cusp of like, uh, this
Speaker 1: could need to be really good. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: like the mc hammer. I mean it's like, ooh, there
Speaker 1: was like this short period in his career where like
Speaker 1: money was booming and he mismanaged, and I'm like, ooh,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do the mc hammer syndrome. I
Speaker 1: want that, you know, like I you know, I make
Speaker 1: right moves now, so ten years from now, I can
Speaker 1: be like Ooho, even if the budgets is not popping,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm still good financially.
Speaker 2: Now, that is the goal to build up an My
Speaker 2: goal to build up an investment fund that is just
Speaker 2: generating income on income on income without you doing anything.
Speaker 2: That's something Mike Marcus and I were talking about last
Speaker 2: week too. He has his own goals for how much
Speaker 2: he wants to have like invested, so he's making passive income.
Speaker 2: So next level exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Speaking of questions though, should we take some.
Speaker 1: Yes, I actually have a really good question where I'm like,
Speaker 1: Yike just came of my inbox, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to read it in a non judging voice, and
Speaker 1: I SA, yes it is. And then too, I'm also
Speaker 1: going to, uh, you know, I'm not going to obviously
Speaker 1: share this person's name. Okay, So good evening. I co
Speaker 1: signed a super loan via s DA Ali May for
Speaker 1: a d quote friend. My question is is there a
Speaker 1: way that I can be released from the loan. I'm
Speaker 1: asking because my son starts college in the fall and
Speaker 1: I might need to get a loan for him, and
Speaker 1: I'm also planning and purchasing a home at the end
Speaker 1: of the year. Signed, what should I do?
Speaker 2: Like, unless you are a parent co signing, you know
Speaker 2: your daughter or son's student loan. The answer, I feel
Speaker 2: like nine and a half times out of ten is
Speaker 2: going to be no, because you were just putting you
Speaker 2: were making yourself so vulnerable and so liable. If that,
Speaker 2: you know, the person on the other end of that loan,
Speaker 2: whether their friend or family, no matter what their good
Speaker 2: intentions are, if they default in their loan, then that
Speaker 2: is your problem. One hundred. She can't go back, she
Speaker 2: can't undo it. So what steps can she take now
Speaker 2: to you know, reach her financial goals while also being
Speaker 2: tied to this the student loan. Does she mention if
Speaker 2: it's federal or I'm assuming it, Well, it might be,
Speaker 2: it could be federal, but probably more likely is it private?
Speaker 1: I was going to say, it's probably more likely private
Speaker 1: because typically with federal, unless it's like higher education, you
Speaker 1: usually don't need a co signer, yeah, for for your
Speaker 1: for your what's called degree, unless it's like masters or something.
Speaker 2: So let's say it's a private student loan, she's co signed.
Speaker 2: There's a couple of ways, so you could ask your
Speaker 2: friend to rEFInd it.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, yeah, this loan, which.
Speaker 2: Means she'd have to apply for a new loan and
Speaker 2: use that loan to pay off her existing loan, and
Speaker 2: in the process, she'd be the only applicant for that loan,
Speaker 2: so that would take you off of it. Some lenders
Speaker 2: like if she contacted the bank, she could ask what
Speaker 2: their process is for removing a co signer. It may
Speaker 2: be that she has to prove financial worthiness, income assets,
Speaker 2: credit score, and basically another form of refinancing the debt
Speaker 2: to get you off of it. But if she needed
Speaker 2: you to co sign in the first place, or she
Speaker 2: or he, it may be that they're not financially I
Speaker 2: don't know stable enough to qualify for a different loan,
Speaker 2: but that's that's the only avenue I can think of.
Speaker 1: Well, and well, I'm going to make the assumption that
Speaker 1: you did this a while ago, only because I'm assuming
Speaker 1: that if your son's schooling was coming up fairly soon,
Speaker 1: you likely wouldn't have co signed so quickly to his
Speaker 1: college opportunity coming up. You can also consider consolidating your
Speaker 1: loan with other loans that you may have. That's kind
Speaker 1: of a way. So typically to do refinancing or even
Speaker 1: consolidating with another loans because we're not consolidating, is not
Speaker 1: a good idea. If you are refinancing if you have
Speaker 1: a federal loan, because then you lose like kind of
Speaker 1: federal loan protections. But we're assuming this is private because
Speaker 1: they needed a co signer, But the bar is gonna
Speaker 1: need basic credit history, stable employment, and really enough income
Speaker 1: to prove enough income, like many said, to cover the
Speaker 1: monthly payments, because the purpose of having a co signer
Speaker 1: from someone who's lending is I don't know that you
Speaker 1: can afford it, but between you and your friend, you
Speaker 1: can afford it. And so if your friend is gone,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can afford it. So basically
Speaker 1: your friend would have to kind of prove, hey, I
Speaker 1: can afford it now, and I don't necessarily need this
Speaker 1: co signer, So refinancing or consolidating with another loan, those
Speaker 1: are kind of your only two options. But if you're
Speaker 1: listening and someone is kind of asking you to co
Speaker 1: sign honestly, it's just not because just like you know,
Speaker 1: what should I do?
Speaker 3: Ask?
Speaker 1: What should I do? Is also wanting to purchase a home,
Speaker 1: and so this is debt for this person, and so
Speaker 1: when you're purchasing a home, they're going to out see,
Speaker 1: like one, how much are you making? But then two,
Speaker 1: how much do you owe and your debt to income
Speaker 1: ratio DTI number that you know that's important to lend
Speaker 1: us because they're like, well, if you already owe fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars here you want us to lend you three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand. We only feel comfortable lending you to fifty
Speaker 1: because you already owe somebody else fifty thousand dollars. So
Speaker 1: it's just keeping all of that in mind before co signing.
Speaker 1: It's just it's rarely, rarely ever a good idea.
Speaker 2: One thousand percent. And if she's she says she's looking
Speaker 2: to take out a or co sign alone for her kid,
Speaker 2: right a student alone, you know, check with your student.
Speaker 2: And again like this another another good opportunity to remind
Speaker 2: folks like if they need a co signer, I mean,
Speaker 2: double check if they've maxed out their federal student aid
Speaker 2: and even you know, if you're I don't know. I
Speaker 2: feel like at this point in time, with the way
Speaker 2: the cost of college is, if you're having to take
Speaker 2: out a private loan to fund your education on top
Speaker 2: of the federal loans, is all that debt worth the degree?
Speaker 2: And like taking a look at the cost of that
Speaker 2: college and is there are there any scholarships he could
Speaker 2: or he or she could apply for any grants, any
Speaker 2: aid or are there any other avenues of financing that
Speaker 2: tuition for this year? You know, without you you needed
Speaker 2: to co sign. If she's looking to do it this false.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming they've they're you know, like a like a
Speaker 2: high school senior and they're going to school for the
Speaker 2: first time. There's still time to look for a more
Speaker 2: affordable school. You know. Think about what you're setting your
Speaker 2: kid up for post graduation in four more years. How
Speaker 2: much debt they will have?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what should I do? Hope you have your AUSA.
Speaker 1: Do you want to take another question?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got another question. Let me see. So this
Speaker 2: actually came from one of my family members. I went
Speaker 2: and visited some family over the weekend, and of course,
Speaker 2: after I destroyed them and I mean destroyed them in
Speaker 2: yacht sie several times, one of my family members asked me,
Speaker 2: you know, because they're about to get a windfall from
Speaker 2: their employer, and they wanted to know because they just
Speaker 2: took out a mortgage a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 2: they wanted to know, should I take this windfall and
Speaker 2: apply it to my mortgage debt, because you know, I've
Speaker 2: always been debt free. The mortgage was the only dead
Speaker 2: I have right now. Cars paid off. You know, this
Speaker 2: is someone in their in their in their late twenties.
Speaker 2: Cars paid off, no car note, no student debt, just
Speaker 2: a mortgage. Should I take the windfall and paid off?
Speaker 2: And it's a significant sum. So no, it's not from
Speaker 2: our reader inbox. But that was the question. Good question
Speaker 2: the way that I oh.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Since I already gave the answer, it's too late, really,
Speaker 2: but I figured for that person. But for you guys,
Speaker 2: if you're wondering now that I have a mortgage, I
Speaker 2: feel like, you know, the first thing I asked him
Speaker 2: was what was what's your interest rate on your mortgage?
Speaker 2: And yeah, say that, Yeah, it's something like four point
Speaker 2: zero percent because you got it, yeah, over a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago when rates were really low, you know.
Speaker 2: And I said, take a look at your four oh
Speaker 2: one k take you know, log into your He never
Speaker 2: logged into his retirement plan at work. Log in and
Speaker 2: tell me what your annualized rate of return was for
Speaker 2: twenty for the last year, like year to date, how
Speaker 2: much have you earned on your investment. It was something
Speaker 2: like thirteen percent twelve or thirteen points.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good, yeah, which.
Speaker 2: You know, this was a really it was kind of
Speaker 2: an up and down year. It was like a big
Speaker 2: crash last year in the beginning of the year, but
Speaker 2: then the market rebounded. But I was like, take a
Speaker 2: look at the percent you're earning on your little four
Speaker 2: to one k investment, which was I think he has
Speaker 2: some kind of target date fund, and then take a
Speaker 2: look at what you're earned, what you're paying on your
Speaker 2: mortgage rate. And for that reason, I think one of
Speaker 2: the first things you should consider is putting more towards
Speaker 2: your retirement fund. With the you know, with a mid
Speaker 2: year kind of windfall like that, it's not like you
Speaker 2: can your market to max out your four to one K,
Speaker 2: But I said, what you could do is open up
Speaker 2: a ROTH individual retirement account. So Roth's IRA. Max that out.
Speaker 2: Do you think it's sixty five hundred for the year
Speaker 2: something like that?
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: And this is also someone who doesn't have a huge
Speaker 2: emergency fund, and I said, get comfortable with your emergency fund,
Speaker 2: so max out what you think you need for six
Speaker 2: months or whatnot, and then think about opening a brokerage
Speaker 2: account with the leftovers, and you can invest in the
Speaker 2: same types of funds that you're four one k's invested in.
Speaker 2: You can just do that on your own with a
Speaker 2: you know, a tax attacked brokerage account through E Trade
Speaker 2: or Vanguard or whatever. There's a million options. But you know,
Speaker 2: rushing to pay off the mortgage even though it's debt,
Speaker 2: and this is something that I thought about too, Even
Speaker 2: though it's debt, you have to think about, Okay, well,
Speaker 2: what's the value of the home, what's your equity. It's
Speaker 2: not like it's debt that's like a credit card debt
Speaker 2: that has no value for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that was honestly that you couldn't have
Speaker 1: given a more perfect answer. I was thinking that because no,
Speaker 1: but I get it, because you know, you and I
Speaker 1: are both like debt averse, so you know, I get
Speaker 1: it where you're like, I don't know what this at,
Speaker 1: but if the debt's costing you, Like I had to
Speaker 1: make that decision with my student loans when I was
Speaker 1: aggressively paying them off and then I had to stop
Speaker 1: because at some point I really was looking at a
Speaker 1: tiffany your student loan indust rate. This is before you know,
Speaker 1: on the fullestness that y'all are paying now, my student
Speaker 1: loan interest rate was like three percent. I was like, Tiffany,
Speaker 1: you are losing three percent, you know, to student loans, right,
Speaker 1: but and looking at your retirement account, you're gaining ten
Speaker 1: twelve percent, so you can pay off the student loans,
Speaker 1: so you can stop losing three. But then you missed
Speaker 1: out on the opportunity to gain ten. And what I
Speaker 1: ended up doing, anyway, is I just started paying student
Speaker 1: loans the minimum and I put the money toward my
Speaker 1: business instead, because I realized that that my return on
Speaker 1: investment from the Bunjanista was even better than my retirement account.
Speaker 1: And I grew my six figure a year business, my
Speaker 1: low six figure business, to a multiphole seven figure of
Speaker 1: your business. So and then last year I had more
Speaker 1: than enough to say, hey, I have a lump sum.
Speaker 1: My student loan debt was like fifty three thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: I have a lump sum to pay the student loan debt.
Speaker 1: But that was like seven years in the making, you know,
Speaker 1: So it wasn't it just it made more sense to
Speaker 1: use that money to make money than to use that
Speaker 1: money to pay off debt, because debt free is not wealth.
Speaker 1: Wealth can make you debt free.
Speaker 2: Though, one hundred thousand percent.
Speaker 1: Okay, I know it's a little bit of a short episode.
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna dip our baby tow in do
Speaker 1: we have brown break brown.
Speaker 2: Boost always I've missed this sole segment. It wasn't the
Speaker 2: same without you brown boosting and brown breaking.
Speaker 1: Well, I was gonna say ladies first. Meanwhile I'm a lady,
Speaker 1: but go ahead, and youth with more beauty for age.
Speaker 1: I don't know, just go ahead. You can round break
Speaker 1: around boost ters.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. This is what I've been complaining about
Speaker 2: for a while now. If you're out there hiring right now,
Speaker 2: I just want to, you know, raise a glass of
Speaker 2: wine to you and say clink, because it is so
Speaker 2: hard finding good job candidates and people continue because right now,
Speaker 2: the the job market is so good. I mean, everyone's
Speaker 2: got jobs. So if you're looking for help, like you're
Speaker 2: looking for people, whether it's freelance or full time, it's
Speaker 2: a struggle because you're in the position of needing to
Speaker 2: poach people. And often when you're poaching people, it's sort
Speaker 2: of like when they say it's a seller's market or
Speaker 2: buyer's market when it comes to housing right now, I
Speaker 2: feel like it's a buyer's market. So it's an employees
Speaker 2: market where you have people like me who are looking
Speaker 2: to find really talented people, but you already have jobs.
Speaker 2: So there's there's it's driving up the cost of labor,
Speaker 2: so people you're needing to pay people a lot more
Speaker 2: than usual because you need to like lure them away
Speaker 2: from jobs that they may be happy at. You know,
Speaker 2: then may be like yeah, fine with and you know
Speaker 2: a lot of people have gotten jobs in the last
Speaker 2: couple of years, so it's not like they've been there
Speaker 2: very long. So it's just a struggle. And one of
Speaker 2: the things that you know, it's just it's just part
Speaker 2: of you know, what it is hiring, And in spite
Speaker 2: of it, I've still managed to put together a really
Speaker 2: strong team. But you know, as any manager, like the
Speaker 2: recruitment never ends. I feel like I'm always trying to
Speaker 2: fill one role for whatever reason. But one thing, like
Speaker 2: a piece of advice I would give from my experience
Speaker 2: hiring the past few years, is like, if you are
Speaker 2: in a job, if you're in the job interview process
Speaker 2: and you're toward the end so either you're about to
Speaker 2: get an offer, or you've gotten an offer, or you're
Speaker 2: in the final interview round. At that point, if you
Speaker 2: decide to withdraw from the the you know, you decide
Speaker 2: to turn down the offer or withdraw yourself from the
Speaker 2: interview process, send a note to the hiring manager personally.
Speaker 2: And I say this because I've had candidates who I've
Speaker 2: invested a lot of time myself in and pushed for
Speaker 2: and they've turned around and withdrawn or turned out an offer.
Speaker 2: But just send an email to the random recruiter who
Speaker 2: they emailed, like maybe in the beginning of the process,
Speaker 2: maybe even not if I was the first person to
Speaker 2: reach out to them. And as much as I know
Speaker 2: I'm not supposed to be offended, it really like kind
Speaker 2: of pisses me off. It makes me feel disrespected that
Speaker 2: they wouldn't take the time to send a personal note,
Speaker 2: you know, thinking me for the time or whatever. And
Speaker 2: also I'm still hiring right, so if in the future
Speaker 2: this person you know, wanted to be employed or wanted
Speaker 2: to to follow back up about another position, like, don't
Speaker 2: you want to leave the interview process in the best
Speaker 2: possible with the best possible you know, tone and like
Speaker 2: leaving the right taste on someone's mouth afterward, you know.
Speaker 2: So that's that's my advice. I do the same thing
Speaker 2: in return. I make sure you know, I was on
Speaker 2: vacation on Friday and I called two candidates to turn
Speaker 2: to tell them personally that that we were not moving
Speaker 2: forward with their applications or you know, for the jobs,
Speaker 2: because I wanted to give them the treatment that I
Speaker 2: that I, you know, prize and respect from candidates in return.
Speaker 2: So that's just my that's my break and my advice.
Speaker 2: If you are like, it's smart, you know, if you
Speaker 2: have a job right now, and if people are reaching
Speaker 2: out to you. I get emails personally from recruiters all
Speaker 2: the time. So and so was hiring this. You know,
Speaker 2: are you interested if you take those calls, if you
Speaker 2: entertain those offers just because you're trying to see what
Speaker 2: else is out there and see how much money someone
Speaker 2: might be able to pay you, but you have no
Speaker 2: intention of taking the job. Think about what might happen
Speaker 2: if you let it go very far and then bow
Speaker 2: out of that. You know, at the very end, when
Speaker 2: someone's invested time, When you think about that, your reputation
Speaker 2: and your reputation professionally. And also I'm not saying it's
Speaker 2: not smart to do that. I'm not an idiot. Like,
Speaker 2: the only way I was able to catch up and
Speaker 2: actually earn what you know, a market salary because I
Speaker 2: was hired at the bottom of the recession, when people
Speaker 2: when the rates were so low for people doing what
Speaker 2: I was doing, the only way I could catch up
Speaker 2: with my peers was to job hop. Stand it. It's smart,
Speaker 2: but you have to do it in a respectful way. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're not burning those bridges because they're all comment over. Yes,
Speaker 2: one hundred percent. Yes, and especially in a small world
Speaker 2: like personal finance, journalism.
Speaker 1: Get up. But my sister said that she was in
Speaker 1: a she was a scientist in pharmaceuticals, and she was like,
Speaker 1: I can't. She literally went from Jersey to Chicago to
Speaker 1: hear it, and she's like, I'm seeing the same people
Speaker 1: like around the country and she was like, WHOA, If
Speaker 1: I pissed these people off, this would have been like
Speaker 1: a really bad you know. And so so mine is
Speaker 1: really just a quick little boost. My boost is just
Speaker 1: for the first time. I tried to rent the runway.
Speaker 3: For the first time.
Speaker 2: Hello, twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: I know. I mean you no, I'm not an early adapter,
Speaker 1: let's say, and so you know, because I mean I'm
Speaker 1: you know, fairly frugal, and you know, I'm just doing
Speaker 1: more and more speaking engagements, and I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: like I'm either having to like run get like a
Speaker 1: new dress, which I don't spend a whole lot of
Speaker 1: money on dresses. I would say I averaged probably like
Speaker 1: forty fifty bucks. But still you think about like I
Speaker 1: might have three engagements in a week, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: unless I'm re wearing the same thing over and over
Speaker 1: and after a while, you know, I have maybe like
Speaker 1: ten fifteen staple dresses, which sounds like a lot until
Speaker 1: you say you've done fifteen things whether it's TV or
Speaker 1: whatever in a month, and then you're like, well, what
Speaker 1: do I wear next month? So I decided to try it.
Speaker 1: I have to say that my first crop was already awesome.
Speaker 1: I picked four dresses I'm doing like the Unlimited, and
Speaker 1: three of them were a hit. I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: three of them fit well. One was I didn't realize
Speaker 1: it was a split. I needed to read the directions, like,
Speaker 1: like the description a little more. I was like, ooh,
Speaker 1: this is too sezy for the sake for the stage.
Speaker 1: But it was still cute, so I had to say,
Speaker 1: I'm really pleased, and yeah, I like it. I love
Speaker 1: the packaging that it comes in. It's super easy to use,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I really want to buy less clothes. I
Speaker 1: just want to be able to wear it, be cute
Speaker 1: and then send it back. So rent the one way.
Speaker 1: I know I'm late, but whatever, I'm just getting a
Speaker 1: boost because you know, I had not tried it yet.
Speaker 2: I know it's been in medicine. I've used to actually
Speaker 2: forgot about it. I'm like thinking, dang, it's been I
Speaker 2: used to use it all the time. I should get
Speaker 2: back on it. You're right, it's annoying to have to
Speaker 2: buy new stuff. Yeah, I'm just teasing you.
Speaker 1: It's fine, It's okay, but I'm like, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: a little late. I was like, what even like the
Speaker 1: place at my office, there's like a young receptionist she
Speaker 1: can't be more than like eighteen nineteen, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm getting my first rent the runway.
Speaker 1: She looked at me like, girl, are you like, where
Speaker 1: have you been living in the cage? That was like
Speaker 1: what the front desk. Girl uses fout the runway. She's
Speaker 1: like girl all the time, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: well whatever, So yeah, that's my, that's my, that's napist.
Speaker 1: So I know it's time to say goodbye to all
Speaker 1: our family. B r own Ambition. I'm so glad to
Speaker 1: have you back to It's great to be back, honestly.
Speaker 2: Hope you feel lovely and rested your little staycation. As
Speaker 2: goals for me, I'm hoping to do something this summer,
Speaker 2: finally take a little break.
Speaker 3: Good good, Just let me now.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, that's the show. I forgot to mention it,
Speaker 2: but if you have questions, hit us up Brand Ambition
Speaker 2: Podcasts at gmail dot com, or you can go to
Speaker 2: our website brandhibition podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: All right, I'll see you on the interwebs.