Speaker 1: And we're back.
Speaker 2: Did you miss us?
Speaker 3: I know I missed you guys. Sorry for that noise.
Speaker 3: I was adjusting my chair so I can get comfy.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year, I'm happy New Year. The people have
Speaker 1: been thirsting for the podcast today.
Speaker 2: We have not been here so long.
Speaker 3: Honestly, even though like I'm not gonna lie, me and
Speaker 3: Maddie have seen each other.
Speaker 1: We just just by ourselves. We just needed alone time,
Speaker 1: you guys just need we needed to get back to us,
Speaker 1: you know, and like just connecting.
Speaker 2: Again, like get back to why we all started.
Speaker 3: And I shouldn't know, but honestly, there's been so many,
Speaker 3: so much awesomeness in Shenanigans, and I have just been
Speaker 3: bursting to share. So I cannot wait to get started.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So how is your New Year?
Speaker 2: Say? It was really good. My Christmas was great.
Speaker 3: I spent it with of course the Supers, but also
Speaker 3: my family, my other family, dearly Chase.
Speaker 2: And then my New Year is really great.
Speaker 3: Superman's sister had a cute party at her house and me,
Speaker 3: Supergirl and him. We all wet and the food was amazing.
Speaker 1: Wait, was Supergirl had a New Year's party?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: No, Superman's sister had a New Year's Okay, I'm like,
Speaker 3: she's nine, no, ten, going on fifty four, and yeah,
Speaker 3: so it was honestly, it was just a really good holiday,
Speaker 3: kind of like breaking weekend and yep, so I mean
Speaker 3: it was perfect.
Speaker 2: What about you.
Speaker 1: I remember when I used to leave the house on
Speaker 1: New Year's Eve, put on shoes that were open and
Speaker 1: tides and do my hair. Yeah, those days are gone.
Speaker 1: I love not leaving the house. So we've started a
Speaker 1: new tradition where every New Year's Eve, I have this
Speaker 1: group of friends. We do camping in July, fourth of
Speaker 1: July and then we do New Year's Eve together. Those
Speaker 1: are our two holidays and so that we always switch.
Speaker 1: Like the location. This year, we went down to one
Speaker 1: of the couple's houses on and Asbray Park, New Jersey,
Speaker 1: which is right on the boardwalk and it's a really
Speaker 1: cute little old town. It kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: the South because all the houses are like big, kind
Speaker 1: of colonial style, I mean, right in the beach. Not
Speaker 1: that we were on the beach, but just had a
Speaker 1: good time. We just played games and watched my girl Mariah.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's all I know, It's all. This is
Speaker 1: all old news. But you guys know we've been gone
Speaker 1: for a while. No, I had a great Christmas. We
Speaker 1: were in Wisconsin, I know, doing things. We were, it
Speaker 1: was it snowed. It was like a perfect little white Christmas.
Speaker 1: It was nice because I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: well you have the the fortune of having like family
Speaker 1: in the same state as your fiance. But you know,
Speaker 1: we're all over the place, Georgia, New York and Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: So this year my mom's year, and I was quite
Speaker 1: happy because you know, I didn't do very well last year,
Speaker 1: not going home for I was like a big baby.
Speaker 1: So it was really good to see her and I
Speaker 1: I'm not going to brag, but I got her the
Speaker 1: most amazing Christmas gift. You think, I've never been more excited.
Speaker 1: So I bought this in August. I got her tickets. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, backstory, When I was ten, my parents
Speaker 1: got divorced. This was like how in the mid nineties,
Speaker 1: and who was like the biggest diva singer in the
Speaker 1: midnight besides Mariah and Whitney. It was Celine Dion and
Speaker 1: my mom and I were like obsessed with Selene Dion.
Speaker 1: She was like the soundtrack to the divorce and like
Speaker 1: female empowerment afterward, and we would like cruise around in
Speaker 1: the minivan and listen to Selene and anyway, so she went,
Speaker 1: she's coming back to Vegas. She's back in Vegas this year.
Speaker 1: So I got my mom and I tickets to go
Speaker 1: see uh Seline Dion in Vegas in February.
Speaker 2: Ooh nice.
Speaker 1: She lost her mind.
Speaker 2: She was so excited.
Speaker 1: Well, she was like so excited she was she went
Speaker 1: into shock. And I was like, you know, I was expecting, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you're the best daughter brother, but she
Speaker 1: like she did. She was like so shocked. It was
Speaker 1: like she she got really quiet, and it was very
Speaker 1: scary for a little bit there.
Speaker 2: But they're like, wait a minute, now you are right.
Speaker 1: She's like what does this mean? I think she was
Speaker 1: too excited. She was like afraid that it meant what
Speaker 1: she wanted it to mean. And I was like, it
Speaker 1: means what the tickets say. It means we're going, So
Speaker 1: that's gonna be fun. I'm excited.
Speaker 2: Isn't it the best? Though?
Speaker 3: When you like come up with a really great present,
Speaker 3: not because of the expensive it or anything else, it's
Speaker 3: just because it's like the perfect fit for the person
Speaker 3: you're giving it to.
Speaker 2: That's the best.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got really, I get like really like uh
Speaker 1: not snotty, but like a cock not cocky, but you know,
Speaker 1: I like feel I'm like, yeah, I got it this year.
Speaker 1: This year, I did it. Did a good job. You know,
Speaker 1: there's always like the off years. But yeah, I'm super stoked.
Speaker 1: She deserves it, she said, she's a good lady. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have fun. We're gonna cry. We're already crying. We're
Speaker 1: watching YouTube videos of it, like, oh, going back.
Speaker 2: I just looked down Mandy and I forgot my ring.
Speaker 2: Darn it.
Speaker 1: So how do you got your ring? Where?
Speaker 2: Oh? No?
Speaker 3: No, So last night I washed my hair and like
Speaker 3: I was like watching it, and it kept getting to
Speaker 3: have locks, you know, and it kept getting like snagged
Speaker 3: on my locks, I said, and I literally like, never
Speaker 3: take it off. So I was like, oh, I took
Speaker 3: it off and put it on the window sill because
Speaker 3: I was like, you know what, this is just gonna
Speaker 3: rip up my hair.
Speaker 1: And then when I was waiting a second, that's like
Speaker 1: the beginning of a really terrible comedy movie, is when
Speaker 1: she puts the engagement ring on a windowsill.
Speaker 3: No, but at the house obviously, because you know, I
Speaker 3: was watching my hair in my own shower. And then
Speaker 3: last night when I got into bed, I said, oh, babe,
Speaker 3: I should get up. I forgot my ring on the windowsill.
Speaker 3: He was like, it's on the windowsill. It's fine, don't
Speaker 3: worry about it.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's on a windowsill. Anything could happen.
Speaker 2: And then I woke up, of course, and I forgot,
Speaker 2: and I went I taped them.
Speaker 3: I was on ABC seven this morning taping about like
Speaker 3: credit tips or whatever.
Speaker 2: Forgot the ring. I just looked down still forgot. I said,
Speaker 2: this is why I like taking it off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I learned early on you do not take it off.
Speaker 1: I used to put it in my pocket when I
Speaker 1: wash my hands, and and then I would have these
Speaker 1: moments of terror when I looked down in my hands
Speaker 1: and it wasn't there, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: the ring isn't there. Word I put it in. It's lost.
Speaker 1: It's lost. Oh my god, it's gonna be some Oh
Speaker 1: it's in my pocket.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm gonna have to figure out how to
Speaker 3: wash my hair with the ring because I'm like now,
Speaker 3: I'm like, Tiffany, You're never gonna remember when you I
Speaker 3: need to, like wright on my hand, do not forget
Speaker 3: to take the ring off the window sill in the
Speaker 3: bathroom because I was like, I.
Speaker 2: Should have never listened to Superman.
Speaker 3: Now I'm on TV just flashing my bare hand like
Speaker 3: I'm available.
Speaker 1: Please.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what he said.
Speaker 1: He was like, girl, bye, that's what happens when you're
Speaker 1: not man. If that were the case, everyone will be good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta put it on. You just have to like
Speaker 1: learn to do like it used to bother me when
Speaker 1: I slept too. But I'm I just I will everything
Speaker 1: I take off of my person I lose, So I'm
Speaker 1: not leaving it to chance. Although I did add it
Speaker 1: to my renter's insurance policy just in case. So if
Speaker 1: even that.
Speaker 2: Yet, yeah, we need so I don't even think about that.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: So I'm super excited because I got my first sponsored
Speaker 3: opportunity for the impending wedding slash. I don't know elopement,
Speaker 3: because y'all know I'm not trying to I'm not thin
Speaker 3: to have some big old wedding. But so I want
Speaker 3: to go to Justice of the Piece like this month
Speaker 3: or next month. And but I do want to have
Speaker 3: some sort of reception, like some sort of like Sunday
Speaker 3: brunch where I can wear my dress again sometime in
Speaker 3: the spring, not because I really don't like cool weather.
Speaker 3: And so I met this young woman named Andrea. She
Speaker 3: has a brand called Pantora Bridle.
Speaker 2: Right, yes, she's really young, but so dope.
Speaker 3: She actually just got married last year and her stuff
Speaker 3: is amazing. And so I met her at the Kotier Retreat,
Speaker 3: which is hosted by Munoluchi Bridle.
Speaker 2: They do it every year.
Speaker 3: I think it's their thirty year and it's a retreat
Speaker 3: for wedding professionals who service brides of color and so
Speaker 3: it's great and I was a speaker two years in
Speaker 3: a row and it's just been it was amazing.
Speaker 2: And I met Andrea there. We became cool.
Speaker 3: And when she saw that, I got engaged because she
Speaker 3: actually met Superman on the retreat because I brought him
Speaker 3: both times as like my guest, and so she actually
Speaker 3: Andrea actually got engaged at at the at the retreat
Speaker 3: in the Bahamas, that's where it was in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3: She got engaged, surprise, engaged there. So it was just
Speaker 3: really beautiful and so as a result, she'said, oh my god,
Speaker 3: you're engaged, you know, let me hook you up with
Speaker 3: a dress. And I said, I mean, okay, so that's happening.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited to time.
Speaker 1: Mean, is she gonna make you one or do you
Speaker 1: get to just pick one out? I don't know.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I don't know. I don't I think I'm gonna Honestly,
Speaker 3: I think I get to borrow one, whatever it is,
Speaker 3: because honestly, I don't necessarily want to keep some dress
Speaker 3: forever and ever and ever.
Speaker 2: I'm not all that sentimental, as you can tell.
Speaker 1: So she's me either, thank you. My mom's like, aren't
Speaker 1: you in a dryer bouquet? I'm like, who the mom?
Speaker 1: I had all three of your bouquets and where did
Speaker 1: that get?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: So, but I'm excited because I mean, I don't obviously
Speaker 3: she's gonna fit it to my body. So because she's like,
Speaker 3: you know, we can do something for your elopement and
Speaker 3: then we can like like tailor rich for something a
Speaker 3: little bit different that same dress or something like that
Speaker 3: for your for the actual like reception slash, you know,
Speaker 3: like kind of official wedding in the spring. So I'm
Speaker 3: just excited because that's like one major thing off my
Speaker 3: off my plate.
Speaker 2: My yeah, that's the.
Speaker 1: Least that's that's awesome because you don't mean to tell
Speaker 1: you what a horrible experience that was, but that's awesome.
Speaker 1: So do you have to like what instagram at or
Speaker 1: something or give her a shout out? What's there's contract?
Speaker 2: Honestly, there hasn't been it.
Speaker 3: She just was like, I would love to, like, you know,
Speaker 3: let you borrow something where And I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: I mean I'm assuming, you know, I'm sure when I
Speaker 3: go to go try on dresses, I'll do like a
Speaker 3: whole you know thing about it.
Speaker 2: It's on social.
Speaker 1: Media of her idle dot com.
Speaker 3: Yes, and remember I told you about her when you
Speaker 3: were looking for dresses and you were looking for dresses
Speaker 3: for women with curves. And I was like, well, you know,
Speaker 3: I've seen the women that she's dressed and they're all beautiful, brown,
Speaker 3: curvy women because she herself is a woman of color,
Speaker 3: although Andrew is pretty thin, but still like, she's a
Speaker 3: woman of color. So she just really understands like, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is how you're built and you're beautiful, and let's
Speaker 3: enhance that. And so all her dresses actually really celebrate
Speaker 3: curves rather than downplay them.
Speaker 2: That's what I love about her stuff.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. Yeah, I found the perfect dress, but it just
Speaker 1: took way longer than it should have. So bless her,
Speaker 1: bless anybody like her. Smart lady.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's the like adventures of wedding hood. I think, honestly,
Speaker 3: if we do do justice of the peace. I was thinking,
Speaker 3: like just to be corny, maybe like Valentine's Day weekend
Speaker 3: or like, you know.
Speaker 1: It's a corny why not I So I was just
Speaker 1: like it might be busy, but you know.
Speaker 2: I know right, that's what I was thinking.
Speaker 3: So I had to call City Hall and be like
Speaker 3: so because I was like, you know, I would love
Speaker 3: to wear a pretty dress, get my face downe put
Speaker 3: my hair up in a bun like looking super cute.
Speaker 3: So I mean, I do want pictures and stuff. I
Speaker 3: just don't want the huge fanfare.
Speaker 1: It's it's almost it just sounds so romantic, just the
Speaker 1: two of you, you know, and a judge and you're
Speaker 1: just you know, declaring your love for each other. Do
Speaker 1: you think you're going to be nervous?
Speaker 3: I don't know, I think so honestly. Now you just
Speaker 3: never know how you're going to react until you get there.
Speaker 1: I'm constantly I'm in, well, this is what happened. I
Speaker 1: knew it was going to happen after the new year.
Speaker 1: I knew that everything was going to get real real
Speaker 1: because you know, the wedding is coming up first week
Speaker 1: of April, and but in my mind, April is the
Speaker 1: fourth month. So I've been thinking, I have four months.
Speaker 1: Do you know that's dumb because I only have three.
Speaker 1: You only have three months. Invitations hadn't been sent out.
Speaker 1: I just had it in my mind I was going
Speaker 1: to do everything in the new year. And but you know,
Speaker 1: the the I'm prepared, like I've got all the big stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm like very organized and happy, and I've been
Speaker 1: I just called the venue last week and I negotiated
Speaker 1: down the price of our liquor, and I negotiated some
Speaker 1: freebies or giving us like free center pieces, and that's nice.
Speaker 1: I just started looking at my my wedding budget and
Speaker 1: I was like, something's got to give, and some places
Speaker 1: so we are. We hired a really expensive photographer and
Speaker 1: he charges like crazy. He's like insane for his videography
Speaker 1: fees or like five thousand dollars. So Savannah happens to
Speaker 1: be the home of a art school called Savannah College
Speaker 1: of Art and Design.
Speaker 2: OKAYCAD hasn't heard of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's it's a it's it's a pretty well known
Speaker 1: art school. And there's one in Atlanta too, and a
Speaker 1: branch of it in Atlanta. But I a while back,
Speaker 1: I had it in my mind, you know, if we
Speaker 1: can't afford a real photographer, I'll just, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: we'll reach out to someone at SCAD. I put up
Speaker 1: a posting on the SCAD career website and it didn't
Speaker 1: It wasn't so hard. I just had to like submit
Speaker 1: it for approval. And I was just seeking, you know,
Speaker 1: amateur videographer photographer students. And I got some resumes back,
Speaker 1: but I didn't think anything about it. So I went
Speaker 1: and I dug them all all the old emails, and
Speaker 1: I actually found this young woman who's twenty two and
Speaker 1: she's from the Dominican Republic, which is the first like hello,
Speaker 1: light bulb. Yeah, because E's family is Dominican and.
Speaker 3: So she's gonna get the nuances and like, oh okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 3: I get nimbly them to speak to people and speak.
Speaker 1: Like them, yeah, and make them comfortable and you know.
Speaker 1: And so I saw some of her work and she's
Speaker 1: done like some film and then her fiance. I talked
Speaker 1: to her and realized her fiance is a film student
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. So they are like, they offered to do
Speaker 1: all of our video for just free because we're helping
Speaker 1: them build up their portfolio, like they actually want to
Speaker 1: do it. So we're saving like thousands of dollars. And
Speaker 1: I know, and I know it's a gamble and everyone's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't know what they're gonna do. They're students,
Speaker 1: but I do know how hard people work when they
Speaker 1: want their portfolio to look good. And I also know
Speaker 1: that I don't really like My favorite thing growing up
Speaker 1: watching home videos was like the jankiness of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I love the fuzziness. I love the you know,
Speaker 1: the shaky camera and like all the you know, the
Speaker 1: dark whatever. It's just it's just fun to watch them.
Speaker 1: And I kind of I don't want my wedding video.
Speaker 1: Like if you go on YouTube and watch the kinds
Speaker 1: of wedding videos like my photographer is done and others have,
Speaker 1: it's like a they turn it into like a music
Speaker 1: video and it's like they all have the same like
Speaker 1: Ed Shearing song in the background, and I just want
Speaker 1: to I just want to see Grandma dancing, and like,
Speaker 1: you know, I just want to see all the fun
Speaker 1: moments like as they happen, not.
Speaker 2: You know, alternate and polish.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's what I mean, not so polish, so.
Speaker 3: No, but honestly, like that's I think that that's super
Speaker 3: smart because ultimately nobody cares about your wedding video.
Speaker 2: But you like your friends really don't care.
Speaker 1: They really know. No one's gonna watch a six minute
Speaker 1: video with Edge Shearon in the background if all these
Speaker 1: fading in and out and hear the shoes hanging from
Speaker 1: a tree brand and hear.
Speaker 2: A book of poems like nobody. I only think I'm
Speaker 2: looking forward to myself. I'm like, where's me there? I
Speaker 2: am okay, I don't care anymore. That's literally it. Oh well,
Speaker 2: there was something.
Speaker 3: Oh so you know, we have to talk about your
Speaker 3: old employer and the slip that was heard around the
Speaker 3: Twitter universe and was kind of hilarious.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on that pivot. That was like an amazing segue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I awoke two days ago. See all everyone knows I
Speaker 1: used to work at Yahoo. Yes, and if you don't know,
Speaker 1: now you know, now you speaking.
Speaker 4: That was a good segue because so for those of
Speaker 4: you who know Biggie what he says after that, if
Speaker 4: you don't know, now you know, there's a word after
Speaker 4: that that Yahoo's accidentally I'm not gonna say, of course
Speaker 4: the hell out no right that Yahoo put So they
Speaker 4: were supposed to say something like Donald Trump believes that
Speaker 4: a bigger navy would.
Speaker 2: Like I don't know, it would be better.
Speaker 1: Trump wants a bigger navy is what they should have said,
Speaker 1: and bless the heart of the social media person, but
Speaker 1: the N is right by the B on the keyboard,
Speaker 1: and they accidentally hit N and they did not read
Speaker 1: over their work and it went out to the universe.
Speaker 3: So instead of bigger navy, just switch out an end
Speaker 3: and that's what they put out. Black Twitter had I mean,
Speaker 3: to a black Twitter's credit, they could have been like,
Speaker 3: you know, they really didn't even really drag Yahoo. What
Speaker 3: they did was they turned that they turned into a hashtag.
Speaker 3: So they turned they turned we're just gonna say bigger navy.
Speaker 3: So they turned bigger navy with an N into a
Speaker 3: hashtag and went and it was huh, last funny.
Speaker 1: I laughed when I saw it. I had so many
Speaker 1: text when I woke up, and my two my two
Speaker 1: friends who are always like my you know, they're always
Speaker 1: like debating politics and music and TV on, we have
Speaker 1: like a group text and they were really upset. They're like,
Speaker 1: this is just you know, they should have known when
Speaker 1: checks how many editors saw this? And I was like,
Speaker 1: you guys, it was a typo like and I know
Speaker 1: that I do know the person really well. Who did
Speaker 1: the social media who to us the social media post?
Speaker 1: And I know how it works there anybody and you
Speaker 1: know this was Yahoo Finance in particular, where I worked,
Speaker 1: and anybody has access to the system that sends out
Speaker 1: tweets and there's no checks and balances, there is no
Speaker 1: editing of the tweets, and there should be, yes, but
Speaker 1: when you have a bunch of people in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: you know the mistakes are bound to happen. It just
Speaker 1: is insane that it was this.
Speaker 2: It was like nice word and.
Speaker 1: A Trump about and a tweet about Trump, And at
Speaker 1: this time in our history.
Speaker 3: I was like this, That's why I said to give
Speaker 3: black Twitter credit. It wasn't really even like a dragging
Speaker 3: of They turned it into just this hilarious hashtag of
Speaker 3: if black people, if there was a black people maybe
Speaker 3: what what that would be like? Like you know, like
Speaker 3: just stereotypical blackness, like half the Navy can't get their
Speaker 3: hair wet.
Speaker 2: Walking around.
Speaker 3: I was like, honestly, look, look, look, look this is
Speaker 3: another one hashtag the Navy hashtag navy in quotes, they're
Speaker 3: sending me to Korea black moms. Well, until I get
Speaker 3: career parents number, you're not going nowhere. So it was
Speaker 3: just a lot of just like you know, like stereotypical
Speaker 3: but fun, you know how like, well, because I'm Nigerian,
Speaker 3: so with my Nigerian friends, we have these things that
Speaker 3: we say, oh, you know, our parents do this, our
Speaker 3: parents do that, so you know, you know, amongst black folks,
Speaker 3: there's stuff that were like, you know, that's obviously across
Speaker 3: the board. Everyone doesn't do this, but it's something that
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's common in our community, and it's
Speaker 3: become like a fun joke amongst us, and that's what
Speaker 3: it turned into totally.
Speaker 1: And you know what it wasn't It wasn't meant with
Speaker 1: any intentional racism either. That's why I just like muted
Speaker 1: that group texts. I'm like, you get mad about legitimate
Speaker 1: things that are out there that are racist in the media.
Speaker 1: This was literally the world's most unfortunate typo that was
Speaker 1: not anywhere near as bad as the other media f
Speaker 1: up last week, which I want to talk about quick.
Speaker 1: So apparently the Washington Post has like an insert it
Speaker 1: that it gives out maybe it like gives it out
Speaker 1: in the subway or like on the streets or whatever
Speaker 1: called wah what is it, WAPO Express or something like
Speaker 1: that they put so the day after the inaugural, after
Speaker 1: Voldemort is sworn in as president, which there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a march on Washington for women, a women's march. It's
Speaker 1: been organized for months now anyway, So the front page
Speaker 1: of this like insert was supposed to be celebrating the
Speaker 1: women's march, and it was, like, it's a graphic and
Speaker 1: you just have to google it. It's a graphic of
Speaker 1: like hundreds of women who are like women protesters from
Speaker 1: far away, standing in the formation of what should be
Speaker 1: the women's horoscope symbol or the women's like what do
Speaker 1: you call it? That symbol for like women women? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's it like a zodiac or what.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Yeah, but I know what you mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, except it's the male symbol. Talk about getting by editors,
Speaker 1: Are you kidding? Someone had to go someone. I can
Speaker 1: just picture the graphics guy and be like, yeah, what's
Speaker 1: the women's symbol. Let's look it up real quick, and
Speaker 1: then you have to get the symbol physically, put the
Speaker 1: little women in all the different shapes of the symbol,
Speaker 1: and the whole time it's the wrong damn symbol.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just funny Women's march that so many eyes
Speaker 4: can see something and not really see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, it's just like a you know,
Speaker 1: shit happens. Yeah, I've made so many mistakes as a journalist.
Speaker 1: I can't even I really can't judge at all. I
Speaker 1: I you know, I've I've literally written story, you know,
Speaker 1: a story about someone who was lying about everything he said.
Speaker 1: So I cannot. It's a difficult job, but it's still,
Speaker 1: you know, we need to do better. We always can
Speaker 1: be doing better all ways, all of the time. And
Speaker 1: that's just a reminder of it, I guess, a funny one.
Speaker 3: So this is just one other thing. Tonight, I was
Speaker 3: like scrolling through my timeline and I realized, tonight it's
Speaker 3: the Golden Globes and apparently, according to huff Post Black Voices,
Speaker 3: it's the most racially diverse show in their seventy four
Speaker 3: years of existence.
Speaker 1: This is like night and day from last year.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 3: So it's like Easa Rey, there's the women from Hidden Figures.
Speaker 1: Today. I literally went to see it today. That was
Speaker 1: my win for today was going to be like black
Speaker 1: film because twenty sixteen, if one thing it did right
Speaker 1: was black film and just film in general. There was
Speaker 1: so much diversity in film inclusiveness and film this year. Yes,
Speaker 1: from Ava du Verney with Queen Sugar and then the
Speaker 1: amazing documentary Thirteenth to Moonlight to Loving Hidden Figures, which
Speaker 1: I've been waiting to see you and I've been talking
Speaker 1: about it forever, and I finally I've tried to see
Speaker 1: it on Friday and yesterday and it kept selling out
Speaker 1: like here in Jersey City, and I was like, this
Speaker 1: movie must be good. I'm like excited, but I'm also like, damn, y'all.
Speaker 1: It's one of those they changed. It's the seats where
Speaker 1: you get to reserve your seat so you can buy
Speaker 1: them at advance. So anyway, finally went to go Seat
Speaker 1: at two pm on a Sunday and it was really good.
Speaker 1: It was like it was everything you wanted, but I was,
Speaker 1: it was everything you wanted in like a historical picture
Speaker 1: about real women who broke barriers. But I was, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I only I've only been in Jersey City for a
Speaker 1: week now, but I really like feel the people of
Speaker 1: New Jersey because people in the audience were loving it.
Speaker 1: They were clapping, they were snapping. They were like being like,
Speaker 1: oh no, she didn't. Welcome to Jersey reminds me of Atlanta.
Speaker 2: But so expressive Jersey.
Speaker 1: Afterward the credits roll, people were laughing. I mean people
Speaker 1: were clapping, like and I started clapping and I was crying,
Speaker 1: and my fiance is like, what's happening?
Speaker 2: Welcome to Jersey.
Speaker 3: Jersey is like the Italy of the United States, you know,
Speaker 3: like Italians. Well, the first time went to Italy and
Speaker 3: I saw people speaking in real life, I said, wait.
Speaker 2: They really do speak like that.
Speaker 3: Like all the passion and the emotion and the you know,
Speaker 3: like all of that and that's Jersey. Just all of
Speaker 3: this passion and emotion, you know, just for you know,
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, the movies driving whatever.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think you're about I really feel, you know,
Speaker 1: I love it here. We we just moved in like
Speaker 1: the day before New Year's so this is our first
Speaker 1: weekend like actually in our apartment, and like the whole weekend,
Speaker 1: and I've been googling trying to like learn more about
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. And I didn't realize. Excuse me. I did
Speaker 1: realize because we went to dinner one night the first
Speaker 1: weekend we were here, and I like to look around
Speaker 1: at a restaurant and see how diverse the crowd ISCAU.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a good example of like you know,
Speaker 1: like a burger place. That's a good example of the
Speaker 1: neighborhood is like and I saw so many different races
Speaker 1: and ethnicities and I was awesome. And then I went
Speaker 1: back and actually looked it up and Jersey City has
Speaker 1: one of the YEP, it is one of the single
Speaker 1: most diverse places in the country. Like yes, it's like
Speaker 1: such a like a perfect mixture. It's like thirty percent white,
Speaker 1: twenty seven percent African American, like twenty something percent Asian,
Speaker 1: I mean Latino. And then the Asians, and there's a
Speaker 1: huge there's a huge Indian population, a huge Filipino population,
Speaker 1: and I just like, I feel like I've arrived in
Speaker 1: the perfect little, just melting pot of land that I
Speaker 1: wish it were always like this, But yeah, I'm really excited.
Speaker 3: No, you're right, Like it's honestly, Jersey City is very,
Speaker 3: very very diverse. Yeah, so you're just in a great space.
Speaker 3: I mean, because it's right outside New York. They've got
Speaker 3: great restaurants, it's right.
Speaker 2: By me, it is, so it's just great.
Speaker 1: You know where to find me now, I.
Speaker 2: Know, can't you hear me?
Speaker 1: Now? Quality of life has improved. I have to say.
Speaker 1: We have a dishwasher, yes, a laundry machine. Can I
Speaker 1: get an aah? Man, I've done so many loads of laundry.
Speaker 1: And not only that, but it's our commute to work
Speaker 1: is like cut in half now, which is just improving
Speaker 1: my life in so many.
Speaker 3: Right, if people don't realize that, it's so crazy that honestly,
Speaker 3: you can live in New York and live in Jersey
Speaker 3: and get to Midtown Way faster in Jersey depending on
Speaker 3: where you live in New York.
Speaker 1: You know, absolutely it's it's faster. Well, It's kind of
Speaker 1: like I call it the Astoria of Jersey because I
Speaker 1: lived in a Story of Queens which is on the
Speaker 1: other side of the East River and across from Manhattan,
Speaker 1: which was the same thing. I was like five stops
Speaker 1: from Manhattan, and now I'm on the across the Hudson
Speaker 1: River on the west and I'm like two stops into
Speaker 1: Manhattan from Jersey City. And so long as the Path
Speaker 1: train knock on wood does not, you know, f up,
Speaker 1: then everything is golden. Everything is great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Path Train is bay.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad the New Year's after a good start.
Speaker 1: We haven't even talked about the Liberature Challenge yet.
Speaker 2: I know, do you want to make that?
Speaker 1: How have we made it?
Speaker 2: I know, let's let's make that. Let's make that tips.
Speaker 2: How about that? We'll just do tips, credit tips.
Speaker 1: I actually have the perfect question if you guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you stick around for the question segments, it'll go
Speaker 1: right perfectly with the Literature Challenge. It's about credit.
Speaker 3: So let's do some boosting or some braking. You want
Speaker 3: a boost, you want a break.
Speaker 1: Well, we kind of already did my break, so I'm
Speaker 1: going to do a boost. So my break was going
Speaker 1: to be I have a boost and a break just
Speaker 1: in case I come prepared. So the break was going
Speaker 1: to be wedding planning, which is just getting you know.
Speaker 1: We got their invitations last night and I was so
Speaker 1: excited and we realized they gave us, you know, they
Speaker 1: it was a cool feature. I used minted dot com
Speaker 1: and I had all these coupon codes and I saved
Speaker 1: a lot of money on them. But they, for some
Speaker 1: reason sent us triple the number of addresses that already
Speaker 1: had the I mean sorry, tripled the number of envelopes
Speaker 1: we needed. And I was like, oh, there's so many
Speaker 1: extra envelopes. And but I ordered them with the addresses
Speaker 1: printed on them of all my people that I'm sending
Speaker 1: them to, which saved us so much time. It was
Speaker 1: supposed to save us so much time, but I didn't
Speaker 1: realize that they had They had done duplicates, so we
Speaker 1: had three we had three of the same envelope. I
Speaker 1: just gave my fiance half of the envelopes and I
Speaker 1: gave myself the other half, and I was like, you
Speaker 1: stuff these, I'm stuff in these. And we brought them
Speaker 1: together and I was like, wait, we ran of we
Speaker 1: have not enough envelopes for the number of invitations, like
Speaker 1: what's happening here and realize we had just stuffed the
Speaker 1: same dame and then we had ites. Is like such
Speaker 1: a nightmare. We had to go back and figure out,
Speaker 1: you know who had one of Some people had three
Speaker 1: envelopes and something like two and like, oh, just you know.
Speaker 2: My already I have a headache.
Speaker 1: He's like, where are you so stressed? I'm like, you
Speaker 1: don't understand. I was supposed to be so simple.
Speaker 2: I know, can it be all so simple that yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I haven't sang for you and ride you know you
Speaker 2: miss it? Well, I'm gonna boost.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, I'm gonna boost getting help because I have
Speaker 3: One of my stresses used to be laundry, because I
Speaker 3: don't know for three people, super Girl is ten, Superman
Speaker 3: is you know my age thirty six, thirty seven, I
Speaker 3: don't know. I mean, I'm like, so are we changing
Speaker 3: clothes midday every day? I don't know why we have
Speaker 3: so much laundry every we so much And it just
Speaker 3: got to be so stressful because it would take me hours.
Speaker 2: Like I in plus two. I'm the type of person when.
Speaker 3: I get in a role or I want to keep
Speaker 3: doing work until like, you know, like if I can
Speaker 3: do a block of an hour or two, but if
Speaker 3: I'm doing laundry, you know, every thirty minutes you're changing
Speaker 3: out stuff, your folds and clothes. Anyway, laundry was like
Speaker 3: the beating of our existence, and me and Superman used
Speaker 3: to like be like, oh, it's your turn, No, it's
Speaker 3: your turn, or you haven't done laundry.
Speaker 2: It's too much laundry, hunk.
Speaker 3: So just just like maybe I want to say, a
Speaker 3: month ago, I started sending our laundry via my personal
Speaker 3: assistant AKA and my sister, who only comes whenever she
Speaker 3: feels like it, because that's how baby sisters do.
Speaker 1: That's right. We didn't get an update on on your
Speaker 1: hiring your sister.
Speaker 2: Yeah, girl, I love it though.
Speaker 3: Okay, so she dropped off my laundry and when she
Speaker 3: picked it up, it was so nicely folded my laundry plate.
Speaker 3: So I told her call around and find the least
Speaker 3: expensive place because I'm the budget. He said, I don't
Speaker 3: play that, and thankfully so my laundry places actually end
Speaker 3: up being like right next to my clean so that's
Speaker 3: really convenient.
Speaker 2: And you know.
Speaker 3: I checked them under after her and it is indeed
Speaker 3: the least expensive place in my city. And I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't trust you because I was like, that's really
Speaker 3: convenient that it happens to be next door.
Speaker 2: You sure you just didn't choose it because you don't
Speaker 2: want to do extra work. But she was right, and yeah,
Speaker 2: it was.
Speaker 3: First of all, what I love about them is one,
Speaker 3: you know, obviously they washed their clothes well. Two, they
Speaker 3: fold them so perfectly, and they like organize them so
Speaker 3: all the towels are together, all his t shirts.
Speaker 2: All my jeans.
Speaker 3: I mean, because I also hate putting laundry away, but
Speaker 3: it's like a joy to put laundry away because it's
Speaker 3: so organized. Maybe I cried tears and joy when I
Speaker 3: see the laundry. I'm like, I just I just want
Speaker 3: to hug the lady, like I just want.
Speaker 2: To say I love you.
Speaker 3: It's just so I'm doing a brown boost for like,
Speaker 3: you know, paying for help. I thought to myself, Oh,
Speaker 3: this is crazy spending like fifty sixty bucks.
Speaker 2: A month on laundry, but laundry takes me hours.
Speaker 1: It's not crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just so Yeah, I'm just looking for other
Speaker 3: little ways, you know, to make my life a little
Speaker 3: bit easier.
Speaker 2: So I would just want to boost to that to
Speaker 2: actually paying for help when necessary.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a great boost, anything to expedite life's menial tasks. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I'm still in the honeymoon phase with my laundry machine.
Speaker 1: We'll see how long it lasts. But it's just nice
Speaker 1: to treat my clothes right, because you don't have much
Speaker 1: control over what they do to your stuff.
Speaker 2: You don't send them the good. We don't send them
Speaker 2: the good.
Speaker 3: We only said, like, I still dry clean like all
Speaker 3: my good stuff and anything I'm not sure about.
Speaker 2: We do it at home.
Speaker 3: But most of our stuff, honestly is like regular average clothes,
Speaker 3: you know, like just kind of like I call them
Speaker 3: play clothes.
Speaker 2: So that's fine.
Speaker 1: Well, I actually had a quick if you don't mind
Speaker 1: doing an extra thing, I wanted to talk about this
Speaker 1: Ted talk that I read because I don't for some reason,
Speaker 1: I don't like to. I like to read the transcripts
Speaker 1: for Ted talks instead of having to watch the whole thing.
Speaker 1: I think it goes faster. But so I read one
Speaker 1: this morning and I liked it a lot, and I
Speaker 1: was going to make it a boost. So anyway, I'm stealing,
Speaker 1: I'm doing an extra boost, so I thought it was
Speaker 1: really it made me think. You know, I'm in a
Speaker 1: point now where I'm getting ready to hire more people
Speaker 1: at Magnify Money, and I've already hired a couple, and
Speaker 1: you know, I've I've worked in at several different companies
Speaker 1: since I moved to New York seven years ago. So
Speaker 1: this TED talk was called givers versus Takers, I think,
Speaker 1: and it talks about the three different or the two
Speaker 1: different types of employees or workers. And this is probably
Speaker 1: applicable if you're, you know, run your own business or
Speaker 1: you work for, you know, a business itself or whatever.
Speaker 1: But it talks about givers versus takers. And givers are
Speaker 1: the kind of people in a work environment where they
Speaker 1: are the first ones to say, how can I help you?
Speaker 1: What can I do for you? What do you need?
Speaker 1: You know, let me drop everything and show you how
Speaker 1: I did it to help you and and support you.
Speaker 1: And then there's the takers. And the takers, although they
Speaker 1: can be really successful, it's because they are more likely
Speaker 1: to ask, you know, what can you do for me?
Speaker 1: Who's here that can help me? I need to get
Speaker 1: something done, I need to get to the next level
Speaker 1: and the whole it wasn't so much. I mean. One
Speaker 1: of the interesting parts of the Ted talk is that
Speaker 1: at the after he kind of describes givers, he says,
Speaker 1: you know, we found that he studied thirty thousand employees
Speaker 1: from around the world to figure out if givers or
Speaker 1: takers are more successful. And he starts off by saying,
Speaker 1: you know, givers, the ones who are contributing and helping
Speaker 1: with others, are least likely to be successful financially in
Speaker 1: their career. And then he was like, how many of
Speaker 1: you guys in the audience would self describe as a giver?
Speaker 1: And obviously very few people raise their hands, And he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet you would have raised your hands if I
Speaker 1: hadn't told you the results. Yeah, here's the twist. We
Speaker 1: also found that givers were among the highest earning employees
Speaker 1: through at the bottom or at the top. And he
Speaker 1: said that the givers were more successful because they were
Speaker 1: helping other people, but they the people who were succeeding
Speaker 1: as givers were also learning how to be takers.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh, Mandy, you don't understand.
Speaker 3: When you started talking about the giver, I was thinking
Speaker 3: to myself, if that is not me.
Speaker 2: But this year, like I.
Speaker 3: Finally started to learn how to also take. And I
Speaker 3: guess I don't even like to call it take. I
Speaker 3: guess I'd like to call it ask. But I was
Speaker 3: the ultimate giver, Like I would deplete myself and then
Speaker 3: you know, and then I would recharge, you.
Speaker 2: Know, myself, and then go back and give everything away,
Speaker 2: like over and over and over.
Speaker 3: And this year really and maybe like a little bit
Speaker 3: of last year, I finally started to say, Tiffany, you
Speaker 3: have to ask for help. You have to say, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, would you like to participate in this thing
Speaker 3: that I'm that I'm doing without having to be like
Speaker 3: give away the farm. Because I would be the type
Speaker 3: to say, can you do this project or whatever in
Speaker 3: conjunction with the budgetista in return, I'm going to give
Speaker 3: you ten times more than what you're giving me.
Speaker 2: That that was my normal.
Speaker 3: But I stopped doing that because I found that a
Speaker 3: lot of people wanted to work with me just to
Speaker 3: work with me, that I did not have to give
Speaker 3: away everything, you know. And so I'm learning that because
Speaker 3: it's hard, because I like as a I think I
Speaker 3: was telling my my friend Cabrel, he's like one of
Speaker 3: my confidants, and I was telling him that one of
Speaker 3: my character flaws is I always play small personally, not professionally,
Speaker 3: but for Tiffany, Like twenty sixteen, big year for the Budgetista,
Speaker 3: small year for Tiffany. And it's because I, you know,
Speaker 3: I was like really asking myself why, and I really
Speaker 3: trace it back to me being like sort of like
Speaker 3: a middle child and a big family and always learning
Speaker 3: to be over accommodating.
Speaker 1: What do you mean small year for Tiffany.
Speaker 3: Meaning small year for myself, as like looking after myself,
Speaker 3: not like you know, I mean I got engaged and that,
Speaker 3: but meaning as far as doing for me, like I
Speaker 3: stopped exercising, you know, more than halfway throughout the year,
Speaker 3: I wasn't taking time for myself. I was working seven
Speaker 3: days a week, like a small year for looking after
Speaker 3: me personally, because I was taking care of.
Speaker 2: The budget Nista and everyone else.
Speaker 3: But at first I didn't think that, because I thought
Speaker 3: to myself, that's not true. You do a lot for you, No, No,
Speaker 3: I do a lot for my business. The Budgetista is
Speaker 3: not Tiffany, you know, And I thought, okay, you know
Speaker 3: that I had not really taken time for self care
Speaker 3: like I like to read.
Speaker 2: I used to read Avidlea. I can't remember the last
Speaker 2: time I fully read a book. I don't have time.
Speaker 2: I don't have time. But that's a Tiffany thing. I
Speaker 2: like to walk.
Speaker 3: When's the last time I took a walk. I don't
Speaker 3: have time because the budgetista needs this. That's a Tiffany thing.
Speaker 3: And so I found myself scaling back on things that
Speaker 3: I enjoyed as Tiffany in order to surge forward things professionally,
Speaker 3: and then also looking after those people around me. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I told myself twenty seventeen, really, for me, it's gonna
Speaker 3: be the year of living big and stop telling myself
Speaker 3: I can't do for myself. And you know, because like
Speaker 3: I said, honestly, I'm.
Speaker 2: A natural gift. I always attracted.
Speaker 3: Like one of the things the reasons why I life
Speaker 3: Superman so much and love him so much such is
Speaker 3: that for the first time, I'm actually with a giver.
Speaker 3: I've never been with a giver a giver. Typically, givers
Speaker 3: attract other takers and you let them take from you
Speaker 3: until you have nothing left and then you break up.
Speaker 2: But he's a giver, and it's so weird.
Speaker 3: At first, it was this weird tug of war like no,
Speaker 3: no you have this, No you have it, No you haven't,
Speaker 3: And it would be so weird because neither one of
Speaker 3: us knew how to concede and say I receive.
Speaker 2: You know, it would be so weird talking about it.
Speaker 3: No, but meaning like like you know, like it could
Speaker 3: be something like as simple as like oh, you know,
Speaker 3: i'll buy dinner.
Speaker 2: No, i'll buy dinner. Well, I'll I'll make dinner. Well,
Speaker 2: I'll do the dishes, well, I'll do the laundry, you know.
Speaker 3: And so it's it was this weird like tip me,
Speaker 3: allow this man to give to you, And I used
Speaker 3: to have to teach him, you know, allow me to
Speaker 3: do for you. So yeah, like that that whole I
Speaker 3: think a lot of women fall into that giver giver category.
Speaker 2: I know that I did.
Speaker 3: And you know, this year I told myself, like every year,
Speaker 3: I give myself a theme for the year, and my
Speaker 3: theme really for this is to live big, you know,
Speaker 3: meaning to be okay with accepting and to purposefully do
Speaker 3: for myself. Like I after the Liverature challenge, which we'll
Speaker 3: talk about later, is over, I want to go away,
Speaker 3: And I said I was gonna I said, well, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't want to be away too long because the business,
Speaker 3: and so I think I'll just go someplace domestically for
Speaker 3: like two days. And I'm like, Tiffany, I like, what
Speaker 3: the heck are you just never going to travel again?
Speaker 3: And you're never gonna I said, where do you really
Speaker 3: want to go, Tiffany? I really want to go to
Speaker 3: Santerini and I want Superman to come with me. I said,
Speaker 3: then you're going, because like what are we waiting on
Speaker 3: until I'm eighty and I have like one leg and
Speaker 3: then I finally can slow down. So I'm going to
Speaker 3: go to Santorini, Greece, which is like my favorite place
Speaker 3: in the world. First week in February. I deserve it.
Speaker 3: If I can't find it on sale, I'm still going
Speaker 3: to go, because that's another thing I do I do
Speaker 3: to myself, like I'm.
Speaker 2: Still gonna go.
Speaker 3: I actually have travel money saved up that I never
Speaker 3: use because typically people if I travel somewhere, they'll they'll
Speaker 3: they'll pay for me to speak.
Speaker 2: So I'll just make that into a mini vacation.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just think, like it's such a hard
Speaker 3: thing sometimes to switch because you know, especially as women,
Speaker 3: we've been taught them. When you take, that's bad, that's selfish,
Speaker 3: that's you're You're not a good.
Speaker 2: Person if you take.
Speaker 3: And you know, good people give and you never ask
Speaker 3: and you never receive, and you should live the life
Speaker 3: of a martyr. And that's how I was living. And
Speaker 3: I was not happy. Honestly, I was not unhappy, but
Speaker 3: it was this weird gray area where I was like, Tiviny,
Speaker 3: are you happy? And I'm like, I don't h well,
Speaker 3: what does that mean? I couldn't tell you. I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't know. I feel this weird kind of like
Speaker 3: I guess I don't you know. I'm like, well, when's
Speaker 3: the last time you were like, Okay, I'm happy. And
Speaker 3: it's been a while, you know, like for myself personally,
Speaker 3: because I had not looked after myself, but twenty seventeen,
Speaker 3: so y'all messaging me all day in my Facebook inbox.
Speaker 2: I love y'all.
Speaker 3: But that's why I started the group so you can
Speaker 3: get your questions answered there, because I don't want to
Speaker 3: kill myself in an effort to be of service that
Speaker 3: I can decide what service looks like with that guilt,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that I think that the key there
Speaker 1: is that you can still give while also taking for yourself.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's something that's helped me a
Speaker 1: lot in my career and at times hurt me a lot.
Speaker 1: In my career. I've definitely switched. I've got I've gone
Speaker 1: from being too giving to being too taky, and you know,
Speaker 1: and being like the selfish one. And sometimes you kind
Speaker 1: of have to do that and you know, put your
Speaker 1: blinders on and just sort of be selfish and and
Speaker 1: take whatever you need from something, and then you have
Speaker 1: to sort of like get back and shift back and forth.
Speaker 1: So I'm not I'm not perfect in any any one direction.
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna try, but I think that it
Speaker 1: was just I don't know, it just really struck a
Speaker 1: chord me. It definitely struck a chord with you. So
Speaker 1: you should go watch the tent Talk.
Speaker 3: I should stand it or like put it in the
Speaker 3: things it because I'm like, oh my gosh, that is
Speaker 3: I just don't want to be like eighty years old, Like, dang, girl,
Speaker 3: when's the last time you did anything for yourself, like
Speaker 3: truly for yourself, not for yourself by way of business
Speaker 3: when I give.
Speaker 1: You tips because I'm really good at it. Like I
Speaker 1: just bought myself Broadway tickets last night. It's like, I
Speaker 1: feel like the last couple of years, I found out
Speaker 1: what I like and what I value and what makes
Speaker 1: me happy, and I just keep doing it. And it's
Speaker 1: just like, I mean, I'm not happy, you know, blissful
Speaker 1: all the time. I'm human, but I have That's gonna
Speaker 1: sound terrible, but I mean not terrible, but I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna say it. This year, I it was like the
Speaker 1: worst year, you know, in a lot of in many
Speaker 1: ways for the country and for future and everything like that.
Speaker 1: But I just had so many highlights, you know, personally
Speaker 1: and with my family and you know, my brother and
Speaker 1: I went to London this year. I got to go
Speaker 1: to India this year. I saw Hamilton this year. You know,
Speaker 1: I went camping with my friends this year. I I
Speaker 1: you know, I got started working out again.
Speaker 2: This year.
Speaker 1: I got certified to be a Zoomba instructor. I started
Speaker 1: a new job. I it kind of blew my mind,
Speaker 1: you know, this year, and I think I and in
Speaker 1: some aspects I let some of my you know, I
Speaker 1: you know, personally, like for the fun stuff I've been
Speaker 1: doing a really good job. There's some goals that I've
Speaker 1: had that I've put on the back burner because I
Speaker 1: have been saying that I have there's you know, just
Speaker 1: like there's too much going on right now, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, can't normally have time to focus on that.
Speaker 1: And I started a new job and I'm sort of
Speaker 1: making that, you know, there's a lot of stress and
Speaker 1: challenge around that, and I've kind of let some professional
Speaker 1: goals of mine slip away. But one of the first
Speaker 1: things I did last week was I got rid of
Speaker 1: a couple of responsibilities that I've had, obligations that I
Speaker 1: haven't been bringing me much happiness, and I've been adding
Speaker 1: stress that have been on a volunteer basis, and I quit.
Speaker 1: I put in my resignation for a group I'm a
Speaker 1: part of, and it was really hard to send that
Speaker 1: reject I even it was in my drafts for like
Speaker 1: two days, resigning from this group that I was on
Speaker 1: the board of. And I but I was like this,
Speaker 1: you know, it's taking up time and it's not making
Speaker 1: me happy doing it, and I and I'm I'm slowly
Speaker 1: starting to like free up space for this one big
Speaker 1: ambition I sort of have for next year Brown Ambition, Hey,
Speaker 1: And I'm just like doing it because it's the only
Speaker 1: way I'm going to be able to do my job,
Speaker 1: which is already really time consuming and still keeping myself
Speaker 1: happy and do this other project on the side. So
Speaker 1: I yeah, I'm feeling I'm am I saying, like, am
Speaker 1: I jinxing myself? But I feel like twenty seventeen could
Speaker 1: be even better. But I'm not going to stop doing
Speaker 1: the fun stuff. Like I already bought Broadway tickets for February,
Speaker 1: and that's what I want to start.
Speaker 3: I want to I feel like we should almost like
Speaker 3: I want to check in because it's easy for me
Speaker 3: to say it, but sometimes not easy for me to
Speaker 3: do it, like checking in even with the Brown Ambition listeners,
Speaker 3: to check in to be like what did you do
Speaker 3: for yourself this week?
Speaker 2: You know, like did you you know what's a what's
Speaker 2: a you moment?
Speaker 1: That wasn't that on the Oprah The Making of Oprah
Speaker 1: podcasts that you turned me on too? That was really good?
Speaker 1: Like a classic Oprah thing is you know, write down
Speaker 1: a list of priorities that you have and then check
Speaker 1: your list, say where am I on this list? And
Speaker 1: like the women is almost never at the top.
Speaker 2: Never yeah, but just checking in, like, you know, did
Speaker 2: you do anything for you?
Speaker 3: It could just be as simple as you know, like
Speaker 3: I you know, I went for a walk or I
Speaker 3: read a book or you know whatever that looks like
Speaker 3: you know what really cracked open the door for me?
Speaker 2: My friend I have.
Speaker 3: I'm really grateful that one thing I'm smart enough to
Speaker 3: do is to have friends that are not like me. So,
Speaker 3: like one of my friends, he's really fancy, I mean
Speaker 3: like Fansee there's fancy, and there's Fonsee.
Speaker 2: He is from See and.
Speaker 3: So he's the type that like like he'll like So
Speaker 3: he's like my my my gay husband. And so Superman
Speaker 3: is always where are you going out with your gay husband?
Speaker 3: I'm like, And so when we go out, he always
Speaker 3: will be.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, let's try this restaurant, like places that I
Speaker 2: would never go.
Speaker 3: I go with him, you know, things that I would
Speaker 3: never do, like we do, and so I like it.
Speaker 3: In the beginning, I used to fight against it because
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I don't really want to. I'm like
Speaker 3: Tiffany's e bury in something different than you would never
Speaker 3: do or go. And so he really has opened my
Speaker 3: eyes up to like, okay, you know, the these things are,
Speaker 3: you know, just as valuable as you know, like you
Speaker 3: can't count pennies all the time.
Speaker 2: And honestly, it's not even then I'm all that cheap.
Speaker 2: It's not.
Speaker 3: It's just that I always feel like I don't deserve.
Speaker 3: Not I don't deserve, but it's not that serious. I
Speaker 3: can use this and help someone else, you know. And
Speaker 3: so he asked me what my ideal car was, and
Speaker 3: I my, like ideal.
Speaker 2: Car when I'm like super rich.
Speaker 3: That's what I told him. Anyway, was a land Rover,
Speaker 3: a range Rover, and a range Rover. And he was like,
Speaker 3: have you ever test driveny one? And I was like, what, boy,
Speaker 3: anybody by I know, eighty thousand dollars car. That's just like,
Speaker 3: you know, the dream car you have in your head.
Speaker 3: He was like, at least test drives if you don't
Speaker 3: have to buy it, and I'm like, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't want to, And I don't know why I
Speaker 2: didn't want to. I was just afraid.
Speaker 3: And so he made me go and we test drove
Speaker 3: one and I loved it.
Speaker 1: And those things are huge. That's a Jersey girl coming out.
Speaker 3: Yeah no, no, I drove a sport, so it's like
Speaker 3: it's much smaller than the other one.
Speaker 2: So the sport is Yeah. So they're really cute.
Speaker 3: And so we were talking to the lady about how
Speaker 3: much across the month and he was like, you know,
Speaker 3: because I'm thinking eighty thousand dollars, and honestly it was
Speaker 3: like maybe like nine something a month and maybe like
Speaker 3: with insurance, maybe like I don't know, thirteen thirteen, thirteen
Speaker 3: hundred dollars a month, which obviously.
Speaker 2: I'm like, girl, anybody buying that?
Speaker 3: But I told myself, but what if your business makes
Speaker 3: three million dollars, you know, and you take home of
Speaker 3: that three million, you take home nearly a million of that?
Speaker 2: Would that be crazy? You know? And I thought it wouldn't,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, and that's not Honestly, that's not too
Speaker 3: far off the you know, the budget. Lisa is on
Speaker 3: tasks to be that, not this year, but definitely on
Speaker 3: track to do that. And so what it did was
Speaker 3: it made this thing that seems so out of reach reachable, like, Okay,
Speaker 3: so if your business takes in a certain amount and
Speaker 3: you your take home pays a certain amount, that's not crazy.
Speaker 3: That's like telling Oprah she can't buy a five hundred
Speaker 3: dollars short why she's a billionaire.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's important though that you're waiting, you know. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of people who have range rovers can't have
Speaker 1: one of exactly.
Speaker 3: I would never obtusly like that. I would never get it.
Speaker 3: I would definitely that that's well. The budget he sent
Speaker 3: me is always like it has to make financial sense.
Speaker 3: But what it allowed me to do is say, well,
Speaker 3: you told yourself no without even knowing what the numbers were.
Speaker 2: That's how does that work for me?
Speaker 3: Both ways are crazy when you buy something without knowing
Speaker 3: the numbers and putting yourself in harm's way.
Speaker 2: But it's also silly to.
Speaker 3: Not even ask what the numbers are, just to say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: I can't get it.
Speaker 2: How do you know?
Speaker 3: What are the numbers? And so it was just a
Speaker 3: great lesson. It's just a great lesson for the for
Speaker 3: the brown ambition listeners that like, if there's something that
Speaker 3: you desire that you know, if whether you're impulsive like
Speaker 3: some folks or whether you're reserved like me, either way,
Speaker 3: figure out the numbers first before you move, and then
Speaker 3: from that make your decision and then if it can't
Speaker 3: work now, it doesn't mean it won't work later, and
Speaker 3: so just plan for it to moving forward so that
Speaker 3: way you can make it work.
Speaker 2: So is it tips time?
Speaker 1: It is tips time? Tips time? What tips? So this
Speaker 1: is a great time to talk about the Literature Challenge.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and tell the people this is the annual
Speaker 1: Literature Challenge.
Speaker 3: Yeah so yeah, so the people. The Liverature Challenge is
Speaker 3: something I do every year. Well, this is our third
Speaker 3: year doing it. It's a free online financial resource that
Speaker 3: I created specifically for women. And the way the resource
Speaker 3: works is that you sign up in the first three
Speaker 3: weeks of the new year. Collectively you get to work
Speaker 3: alongside a whole bunch of women working on the same
Speaker 3: thing every day, so in your inbox, we all get
Speaker 3: the same task that's related to the year's theme. This
Speaker 3: year's theme is all about credit. Like twenty sixteen it
Speaker 3: was all about saving, so twenty seventeen all about credit.
Speaker 3: That means for twenty two days, three weeks, you get
Speaker 3: an easy, breezy credit tip or resource in your inbox.
Speaker 3: And what's great about it is that you're not alone
Speaker 3: because upwards of two hundred and sixty thousand women from
Speaker 3: around the world are have signed up for the challenge.
Speaker 3: Of course everyone's not doing it because you know, people
Speaker 3: sign up but don't do it. But still it's a
Speaker 3: ton of women who are doing it along with you.
Speaker 3: And we have a private Facebook group where you can
Speaker 3: get daily support and we are sponsored by the amazing
Speaker 3: Magnified Money where Mandy works. And what I love about
Speaker 3: Magnified Money is that I have been rocking with Magnified
Speaker 3: Money for like the last I don't know, like two
Speaker 3: or three years, way before any sort of sponsorships or anything.
Speaker 3: It was just such a great website. Actually, you know
Speaker 3: what I remember, Magnified Money. I use them as a
Speaker 3: resource and shared them as a resource in the very
Speaker 3: first challenge. So that's how long we've been rocking together.
Speaker 3: And so for them to come in as a sponsor.
Speaker 3: So also because it's already in alignment, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: lie and tell the snick.
Speaker 2: But when we were going when we were going.
Speaker 3: Through the task of like where he was like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, part of sponsorship, I'd love for us to
Speaker 3: be on this day.
Speaker 2: On this day, girl, y'all are there.
Speaker 3: Because like, honestly, that's why I love about it, Like
Speaker 3: I love Magnified Money.
Speaker 2: Like so it was I would say ninety.
Speaker 3: Percent of the requests it was already there because I
Speaker 3: was like, uh, we were gonna we had you there anyway, Okay,
Speaker 3: well we had.
Speaker 1: Got this for free.
Speaker 3: No, But honestly, it's I mean, obviously like putting your name,
Speaker 3: you know, on the on the challenges is huge. But
Speaker 3: still I say that to say that for those of
Speaker 3: you listening Magnify Money. It's just this great website that
Speaker 3: I have loved for a long time. And what I
Speaker 3: love about it is that if you're looking to compare
Speaker 3: a financial resource or product, you go to Magnify Money,
Speaker 3: and you know that you're getting an honest comparison in
Speaker 3: an honest review.
Speaker 2: There are some websites that compare, but companies pay them
Speaker 2: for good reviews. You do not have to worry about
Speaker 2: that at Magnified Money.
Speaker 3: And what I really like too is that it's so easy,
Speaker 3: like you know how to say, well, I don't is
Speaker 3: it good or bad?
Speaker 2: I don't get it. No.
Speaker 3: Magnifying Money is like this is an F, this is
Speaker 3: an A, this is a C. So you know exactly
Speaker 3: very quickly what this financial product or services rated, and
Speaker 3: then two, you can read deeper as to.
Speaker 2: Why they have that rating. So it's just a great fit.
Speaker 3: And so if you have not signed up for the challenge,
Speaker 3: the good thing about the challenge is, yes, we do
Speaker 3: it collectively in January, but then after January it's over.
Speaker 3: I automated, So it's actually automated now, so you can
Speaker 3: sign up at any time throughout the whole year and
Speaker 3: do the challenge at any time with yourself or with
Speaker 3: someone else. If you go to l for Live, R
Speaker 3: for Richer, c for Credit l RC credit dot com
Speaker 3: and you can sign up, it's totally free.
Speaker 2: It will always be free.
Speaker 3: This is our third year of free on free and
Speaker 3: it's really my goal and my intention to help as
Speaker 3: many women, especially women of color, have the tools, resources,
Speaker 3: access and encouragement they need to live your life.
Speaker 1: And I know we have a lot of dreamcatchers listening anyway,
Speaker 1: So shout out to you guys. Good luck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're a catcher, like, tell them what a
Speaker 2: dream catcher is.
Speaker 1: A dream catcher is someone who participates in the Super
Speaker 1: Secret Private Literature Challenge Facebook group. Right, that's kind of
Speaker 1: the name that they've you take on. You become a
Speaker 1: dream Catcher because you're going to go catch your dreams.
Speaker 1: I don't know what is a dream.
Speaker 3: Yeah, basically I've said Dreamcatchers, like anybody who just basically
Speaker 3: is doing the challenge or maybe you follow my brand
Speaker 3: the budget He's said, Oh, you know, you don't necessarily
Speaker 3: participate in the challenge or not on Facebook. So anybody
Speaker 3: who is working with me directly anddirectly to to really
Speaker 3: work on their finances, you are a dream Catcher. You
Speaker 3: are actively working toward your best life and your better life.
Speaker 1: And so what I love about it, Emily, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: And what I love is that no matter where, we
Speaker 3: just launched so actually, oh I can announce it here.
Speaker 3: We just launched our official DreamCatcher chapters and by next
Speaker 3: week they'll people will be able to see exactly where
Speaker 3: they're located. So you can join the DreamCatcher chapters meet
Speaker 3: in person. So if you're like, you know what, I
Speaker 3: actually want to meet women and work together to get
Speaker 3: my finances straight, you can. There's about I want to say,
Speaker 3: between twenty and thirty official chapters, and we'll be adding
Speaker 3: more on and you're going to have support, support, support,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, being a DreamCatcher is pretty dope, because
Speaker 3: no matter where you go in the country, there are
Speaker 3: always women there who are really there to help you
Speaker 3: get on track, and you're never alone.
Speaker 1: And the dream Coachers are just so nice for the
Speaker 1: most part, Like they just.
Speaker 2: Are the most nice.
Speaker 1: Even sometimes they get a little saddy and I'm like,
Speaker 1: they're on their good behavior on the first week of
Speaker 1: the challenge.
Speaker 3: I have to say that because you have to think
Speaker 3: to yourself, it's a group of like really passionate women,
Speaker 3: so sometimes you know they can get a little sassy,
Speaker 3: But I would say, honestly, for the most part, I
Speaker 3: would say ninety percent of the time, the dream Catchers
Speaker 3: are on their best behavior, and you know, and those
Speaker 3: that are not, I have a zero tolerce Like typically
Speaker 3: I'm super like, super nice, happy, go lucky, but we
Speaker 3: delete and ban any negativity.
Speaker 2: You get no second chances with negativity.
Speaker 3: But how could they be for real, I'm like, delete band,
Speaker 3: and then they'll hit me behind the scenes and be like,
Speaker 3: I am so sorry girl.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, me too.
Speaker 1: Nope, when you're out, you're out. Well on behalf of
Speaker 1: Magnified Money. Just want to say we're I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I obviously it's just you know, it's the perfect my
Speaker 1: world's colliding situation. I get to be, you know, supporting
Speaker 1: Tiffany in a tangible way, which is awesome, you know,
Speaker 1: providing some of the fun little freebies you guys get
Speaker 1: during the challenge, and you know we hand wrote those
Speaker 1: things and prepared them for you guys. So with love
Speaker 1: and Magnified Money, the mission is completely consumer financial education,
Speaker 1: which is just perfect synergy with whose synergy with the
Speaker 1: literature challenge show can't wait? Hopefully again and again, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope.
Speaker 2: So, so what's this question that we have?
Speaker 1: I mean, it couldn't be better. In fact, I almost
Speaker 1: wonder if Nick, because it's from someone named Nicole, I
Speaker 1: almost wonder if Nick wrote this question.
Speaker 2: Nick is the founder of Magnified Money, I know.
Speaker 1: Because it was Nick could not He is the king
Speaker 1: of Magnified Money, but also the king of what I
Speaker 1: call the balance transfer king, and that he is obsessed
Speaker 1: with them and that's like his favorite tool for getting
Speaker 1: out of debt. But let me go ahead and read
Speaker 1: this question from listener Nicole. So I'm a huge fan
Speaker 1: of both of you, and thank you for the work
Speaker 1: you do. I've accumulated quite a lot of credit card
Speaker 1: debt last year, but I still managed to pay more
Speaker 1: than the minimum thanks to four streams of income. Go
Speaker 1: girl and keep my credit score up. However, yesterday I
Speaker 1: called my credit card company to request a lowered interest rate,
Speaker 1: and they told me about offers for balance transfers. I've
Speaker 1: never used balance transfers before. Though I basically know what
Speaker 1: it's about, I'm still a bit unsure. I asked a
Speaker 1: lot of questions, so I'm pretty sure I know all
Speaker 1: of the terms. My only issue is finding a tool
Speaker 1: to help me calculate the amount I should transfer in
Speaker 1: which offer. She's got a couple of different offers on
Speaker 1: the table. Any suggestions and advice you can offer is
Speaker 1: greatly appreciated.
Speaker 2: Hello, I mean Magnify Money.
Speaker 1: People not sound like Nick wrote that question? I know, like, no,
Speaker 1: I can find help me with balance transfers. Yes, there
Speaker 1: is that Magnified Money dot Yeah.
Speaker 2: Literally you go.
Speaker 3: If you go to magnified money dot com, there's a
Speaker 3: button that says like compare on the top, and then
Speaker 3: it's to drop down and then it says balanced trans
Speaker 3: or Honestly, I can honestly say I.
Speaker 2: Think it was two years ago.
Speaker 3: I use this tool and I was like, Oh, I
Speaker 3: have this credit card and my interest is about to
Speaker 3: kick it, and I really want to transfer it to
Speaker 3: another card so I can pay it off interest free.
Speaker 2: Because typically the balanced transfer card.
Speaker 3: That you're getting will offer you, if you have good credit,
Speaker 3: no interest for six months upwards, sometimes at fifteen months
Speaker 3: I've seen.
Speaker 2: So that means that.
Speaker 3: When you don't pay interest on debt, that means all
Speaker 3: the money you send to it goes to the principle
Speaker 3: to what you actually owe versus what you owe plus
Speaker 3: a little something for the company that you own. That's
Speaker 3: what interest is, aka a little something for the company
Speaker 3: you own.
Speaker 2: Right, And so so I use magnified money. I found.
Speaker 3: I think it was like the Chase Fire card or whatever,
Speaker 3: because I also put in that I was looking for
Speaker 3: a travel card because I wanted like a card or
Speaker 3: a venture card. I think that's what I got. So anyway,
Speaker 3: I balance transferred my my balance over and I had
Speaker 3: good credit, so I think it was like a year.
Speaker 3: They gave me a year of interest free and I
Speaker 3: made sure it was a travel card, and so it
Speaker 3: was like a win on win. So yeah, magnify money,
Speaker 3: but ask yourself aside from just balance transfer. Is there
Speaker 3: anything else that you like your card to do for
Speaker 3: you so you can get like a double win.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, But the thing she mentions as she mentions that,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a balance transfer fee and she's wondering
Speaker 1: about that. So just a couple of cautions about balance transfers,
Speaker 1: because the first thing that I like to say with
Speaker 1: balance transfers is that you can get in a cycle
Speaker 1: where it's like where you can think, Okay, well I've
Speaker 1: transferred my balance onto a zero percent interest credit card,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hey, I'm amazing, I don't not pay
Speaker 1: an interest to anymore. So let me go to the mall,
Speaker 1: let me charge this, let me charge that, and when that,
Speaker 1: when that twelve month period ends, they're going to hit
Speaker 1: you with all that interest, you know. So a lot
Speaker 1: of them do have interest clauses where they can hit
Speaker 1: you with interest at the end of the twelve months,
Speaker 1: and of course those offers are temporary. So it's really
Speaker 1: important to ask yourself how you got in the situation
Speaker 1: that you're in beforehand, like what is it in your
Speaker 1: is your budget out of whack or did something a
Speaker 1: one time expense come up that you weren't prepared for.
Speaker 1: And you had to put it on credit and you
Speaker 1: had a hard time paying it off, and just sort
Speaker 1: of identify the problem before you put a band aid
Speaker 1: on it, because the balance transfer is just a band
Speaker 1: aid on what might be a bigger issue. But just
Speaker 1: down to the facts, balance transfers obviously come with fees.
Speaker 1: There's usually a fee of three percent. It can be
Speaker 1: worth it if you have a pretty large balance, but
Speaker 1: just make sure you compare the fee to what you'll
Speaker 1: save an interest when you're thinking about it. Also, you
Speaker 1: have to do them quickly, so on most cards, balance
Speaker 1: transfer offers are only valid if you complete the transfer
Speaker 1: within the first sixty days, so the clock starts ticking.
Speaker 1: Don't just get the transfer, get the offer, and then
Speaker 1: forget about it, because then you're stuck with your old
Speaker 1: high interest debt and you've got a new card that
Speaker 1: you have to worry about. And then one month before
Speaker 1: your rate expires, if you still have a balance, Like
Speaker 1: I said, it's really important you start looking around for
Speaker 1: another balance transfer offer out there because if you have
Speaker 1: a zero percent interest period, when it expires, the interest
Speaker 1: rate's going to rise significantly. Yeah. And then lastly, you
Speaker 1: just don't spend on the new card. I mean, unless
Speaker 1: that zero percent offer is going to extend to whatever
Speaker 1: you charge on it, You're going to be charged the
Speaker 1: interest on any spending you do on top of your
Speaker 1: your transfer and just rack up more debt and be
Speaker 1: in even more trouble. So those are the cautionary tips,
Speaker 1: but definitely go to Magnified Money. You're not going to
Speaker 1: find a better tool to compare balance transfers on the
Speaker 1: interwebs sore.
Speaker 2: And we're not really just saying that.
Speaker 3: Like I said, even before you know, Magnified Money became
Speaker 3: a sponsor for the child, Like, that's literally the tool
Speaker 3: that I use myself personally about two or three years ago,
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, this is easy, done and done, and.
Speaker 1: We're gene Chatski approved. We found out gene Chatsky mentioned
Speaker 1: us on the like the Today Show one time, and
Speaker 1: so yeah, Jean I loved.
Speaker 2: I was just on her podcast. She has a podcast
Speaker 2: called Her Money.
Speaker 1: I need to get around to listening to that. I
Speaker 1: love Jean's just so I just want to give her
Speaker 1: a hug or something.
Speaker 2: And she's really nice. I met her at fin Con
Speaker 2: and that's when she invited me to come on.
Speaker 4: She called me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she called me the energizer bunny of personal finance.
Speaker 3: I don't know where she got that idea from.
Speaker 1: Well there could be worse.
Speaker 2: No, I don't mind, but yeah, she was. She was
Speaker 2: at fin Con.
Speaker 3: She because Fidelity, I guess, was one of the sponsors,
Speaker 3: and they had like this like, uh, Tanya and Melody
Speaker 3: who are friends of ours are financial friends.
Speaker 2: Tanya of my fab Finance and Melody of Dear Debt.
Speaker 3: They hosted a party for Fidelity and she was like
Speaker 3: one of like the guest guest speakers or whatever, yep,
Speaker 3: and she was super nice, super.
Speaker 1: Approachable, miss much this year.
Speaker 2: When I didn't go, you gotta go next year or
Speaker 2: this year?
Speaker 1: Well, thank you Nicole or Nick. As for your question,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask him, I know right, like ck, did
Speaker 1: you make your smooth real smooth? If you guys have questions,
Speaker 1: we have quite a few questions that accumulated over the
Speaker 1: over the break, So we'll get to them, I promise,
Speaker 1: and if we don't, I'll send you guys an email.
Speaker 1: You can email us at brand Ambition Podcast at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com or just go to Brunambition podcast dot com
Speaker 1: and there's a super easy form to fill out. It
Speaker 1: is the same exact thing as sending an email, goes
Speaker 1: straight to our inbox and we will maybe read your
Speaker 1: questions on the show.
Speaker 2: All I do is win, win, win, no matter what.
Speaker 2: You know, you missed my voice, so here I give
Speaker 2: it up.
Speaker 1: Okay. Twenty seventeen edition of The Winds.
Speaker 2: Should see I've actually doing a shoulder bounce, like you
Speaker 2: can actually see. You're like, yes, I.
Speaker 1: Can hear the bounce. I can hear it. I gotta say,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited because we booked our Honda moon on Friday.
Speaker 1: I spent like all Friday evening working on this and
Speaker 1: it's actually a financial win because my goal was to
Speaker 1: pay for the flights and hopefully more with points from
Speaker 1: our credit cards, and I can say I accomplished it
Speaker 1: with flying colors. And I also one of my other
Speaker 1: goals was to go on the most ridiculously romantic Like
Speaker 1: I was just like, where would Audrey Hepburn go on
Speaker 1: her you know, honeymoon and like just you know, be
Speaker 1: just in love and fabulous. And we chose Italy and
Speaker 1: the spun Yeah.
Speaker 2: Whoa, We're in Spain, Barcelona, Madrid.
Speaker 1: Well, Spain is the shortest leg of our trip. So
Speaker 1: one of the benefits of working in Magnify Money is
Speaker 1: that our co founder Brian Karimzad, who's like just like
Speaker 1: incredibly intelligent on so many levels. But he also founded
Speaker 1: a mile a website called Milecards where he's like a
Speaker 1: travel rewards points kind of expert and anyway, he's really knowledgeable.
Speaker 1: So I was like, Brian, I really need your help.
Speaker 1: I've never booked a trip with points before. I have
Speaker 1: all these points. Between the two of us, we have
Speaker 1: over two hundred thousand points with Chase Ultimate Rewards, and
Speaker 1: I just want to do you know, I want to
Speaker 1: book a honeymoon with it. And he showed me. So
Speaker 1: one thing is that it's a one to one transfer
Speaker 1: from Chase Points with United. So he's like, go to
Speaker 1: United dot com. Here's how you search for flights by
Speaker 1: for with points versus like dollars, and here's how. And
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, did you know that when you travel
Speaker 1: internationally with this United mile Pluses program United mileage Pluses program,
Speaker 1: that they give you a free second international flight during
Speaker 1: your trip.
Speaker 2: So I was like a new wait wait wait wait
Speaker 2: wait wait we were on that. Say that again.
Speaker 1: So when you book three United so we booked our
Speaker 1: trip to Italy. So we're flying from New York to
Speaker 1: Italy and then we got a free second flight from
Speaker 1: Italy to Spain in the middle free plus like twenty
Speaker 1: bucks for the taxes or whatever. Yeah, just that's the
Speaker 1: thing that they do. I don't know the why, that's
Speaker 1: the way.
Speaker 2: It's a way.
Speaker 3: So if I let's just say I want to go
Speaker 3: to like I don't know, I want to go to Greece,
Speaker 3: I can get a second flight free.
Speaker 1: If you book through United using the points or whatever.
Speaker 1: As far as I know, I mean, i'll give you
Speaker 1: Brian's email address. But that's what he told me. And
Speaker 1: it's true. The little zero came up. It was a
Speaker 1: magical and I'm doing a whole I'm going to do
Speaker 1: a whole story. I was taking screenshots the whole time.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do explainer of how I did it.
Speaker 1: And it was it's even interesting. I had to learn
Speaker 1: how to transfer points from my fiance's account to me,
Speaker 1: and then how to transfer those points to United, and
Speaker 1: it all kind of happened really luckily, very fast, so
Speaker 1: that I was able to find the flights I wanted
Speaker 1: and then transfer the points within like ten minutes and
Speaker 1: then they hit my account in the next like twenty
Speaker 1: so I just kept the browser open.
Speaker 3: So what's what's the best what's the best card to
Speaker 3: use for you to because I because United has their
Speaker 3: own card right their own or does it.
Speaker 2: Matter they do?
Speaker 1: But the thing about using a Chase card that I
Speaker 1: love is that you get points for everything you purchase,
Speaker 1: and those points can be transferred to United. I think
Speaker 1: with the United card you only get points on certain
Speaker 1: purchase says perhaps or the most points for flying with
Speaker 1: the United. I don't know all the particulars. That's Brian's lane,
Speaker 1: but Magnified Money has a review I believe of that cards.
Speaker 1: You can check it out. But we both use the
Speaker 1: Chase So I took out the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.
Speaker 1: I talk to you about this card.
Speaker 2: Yes, you did, like I need to like.
Speaker 1: Here's one one warning is that they actually so the
Speaker 1: bonus offer for Chase Sapphire Reserve right now is one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand points plus three hundred dollars travel credit plus
Speaker 1: a bunch of other perks. But they're cutting the bonus
Speaker 1: in half beginning in like a couple of weeks from now.
Speaker 1: You have to Google it. But it's ending soon. So
Speaker 1: if you want it, do you know, figure out if
Speaker 1: you if you can like deal with it, because like
Speaker 1: I said, it has a really high annual fee and
Speaker 1: it has all this other has a high annual fee
Speaker 1: of four hundred and fifty dollars. But there's tons of benefits.
Speaker 1: Like I got three hundred dollars every year. You get
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars refunded to you for any travel purchase
Speaker 1: for ubers, ubers, flights, trains, cars, whatever. And on top
Speaker 1: of that, you get one hundred dollars refunded to you
Speaker 1: if you apply for the Global Entry Program, which I
Speaker 1: just did and I got my little immediately. I got
Speaker 1: credited one hundred dollars, so that made that free. You
Speaker 1: get three points on travel and dining three which is
Speaker 1: the best of any card out there. Those benefits are
Speaker 1: staying the same. What's changing is that the bonus offer
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand miles, which is worth fifteen hundred dollars
Speaker 1: in travel. Sorry, this is very satisfying.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 3: I'm like, honestly, I'm like online now, like, uh, I
Speaker 3: need to because you know what, like right now I
Speaker 3: have beg of America has a travel card, and honestly.
Speaker 1: We talked about this, you're supposed to get rid of that.
Speaker 3: I know I want to strangle them because I was
Speaker 3: at Nola and I look like a thief because I
Speaker 3: was like trying to swipe. They were like card says,
Speaker 3: it doesn't recognize.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh am, I mean Nola, not Nigeria.
Speaker 1: Out like this is part of your personal care because
Speaker 1: you and I talked about that in December when I
Speaker 1: was in India and we had the whole thing about
Speaker 1: the chase and you're like, I'm gonna do it and
Speaker 1: it's been a month.
Speaker 2: No, I'm gonna, I'm go.
Speaker 3: And actually because I'm like, uh see, I'm the type
Speaker 3: of person all you have to tell me it's about
Speaker 3: the clothes, and I'm like, girl, let me get it.
Speaker 1: But still, you know, I don't want to like and
Speaker 1: not just because I know you can handle it, but
Speaker 1: you know, people listening, it's not like there's always catches.
Speaker 1: You know, the interest, it's not a zero percent. Usually
Speaker 1: with new credit cards they have a zero percent interest promotion,
Speaker 1: but they don't have any of that. So if you need,
Speaker 1: if you can't afford to pay off four hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty dollars right away. Then you're gonna hit with interest
Speaker 1: because they charge the annual fee right away. So that's
Speaker 1: one quid pro cro quid pro quo. But if you
Speaker 1: could handle it and know how to you know, work,
Speaker 1: you know, work it out, then it can work out
Speaker 1: for you like it did for us. Like I took
Speaker 1: out the card, he took out the card. We had
Speaker 1: instantly we had one hundred, one hundred thousand miles apiece,
Speaker 1: and then we've been earning points on points on points
Speaker 1: because we travel a lot and we eat out a lot.
Speaker 1: So you know, we had over two hundred thousand points
Speaker 1: to use and I only used wait for it, I
Speaker 1: only I only use seventy thousand miles or seventy thousand
Speaker 1: points for this trip to Italy in Spain.
Speaker 2: No, I'm timing out because this don't make not a doubt.
Speaker 2: Like honestly, it doesn't make anense.
Speaker 1: That's why they're stopping the offer. They did it for
Speaker 1: press and they got a ton of people interested in
Speaker 1: the car. Now they have all these new Chase customers.
Speaker 1: They got what they wanted, and now they're ending it.
Speaker 2: No, I'm signing out because it really doesn't make any
Speaker 2: sense I have to.
Speaker 1: It's free.
Speaker 2: It's free money.
Speaker 1: I mean it's free money. I mean we paid four
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars, but with the three hundred dollars
Speaker 1: travel credit, we basically paid one hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: annual fee. But then I got thee hundred dollars goaluntry refund,
Speaker 1: so I really only paid fifty. I mean it pays
Speaker 1: for itself, honestly, so many times over.
Speaker 3: So if it makes sense we talked about this earlier
Speaker 3: Brown Ambition listeners, is that that when you're making these choices,
Speaker 3: like if you're impulsive or you're reserved like me, either way,
Speaker 3: the math will tell you if it makes sense for you,
Speaker 3: And for me it makes sense. I'm like applying while
Speaker 3: we're talking right now, I'm like, mm, girl, checked down,
Speaker 3: and don't.
Speaker 1: Be don't be one of those people. Don't be one
Speaker 1: of those people who who spends money on a credit
Speaker 1: card just because they're gonna earn points, Like that's ridiculous. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm gonna spend if you're gonna spend the
Speaker 1: money anyway. That's one thing. And it helped me too,
Speaker 1: because I have been paying for a wedding, which means
Speaker 1: my expenses has been a lot higher this year. So
Speaker 1: I was able to put things like the venue on
Speaker 1: the credit card and get points and you know that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff helps. But if you don't have a
Speaker 1: certain level of spending, then it mays I do then
Speaker 1: add it to you.
Speaker 2: I know you do.
Speaker 1: You should make it your business card, like I am.
Speaker 2: Honestly, that's when you said that.
Speaker 3: I was like, literally, I'm gonna switch over all of
Speaker 3: my because I spend that with you know, just with
Speaker 3: business expenses. Things that like my website, my this, those
Speaker 3: things come on my card and I pay it off
Speaker 3: every month. But I'm like, why am I not earning
Speaker 3: you know, like these incredible rewards for something I'm doing anyway,
Speaker 3: Like I for me, like I don't even in my
Speaker 3: bag of America card, I don't use it like to swipe. Instead,
Speaker 3: it basically like stays home and things just get added
Speaker 3: to it for my business. And then what I do
Speaker 3: is if I travel, this is a travel card, I'll
Speaker 3: use it to book flights and things like that in hotels.
Speaker 2: But America you need to get rid of them.
Speaker 1: They're the worst. They are the worst worst.
Speaker 3: I think I'm sorry, I'm not sorry, but yeah, it's
Speaker 3: been time and this is self love, but this is
Speaker 3: this is the year of what lived, Big B I
Speaker 3: G for T I F f an.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm getting rid of them.
Speaker 3: And actually, while we're speaking, I'm like, I don't know
Speaker 3: if you can hear the tapping that is me applying.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's really fast.
Speaker 2: I was shot.
Speaker 1: Well, the Chase has the thing where they I've written
Speaker 1: about this before. If you're like a if you well
Speaker 1: you're not. I'm not either, But a lot of people
Speaker 1: were pissed off because they are there the kind of
Speaker 1: people who run up travel cards, get all, they apply
Speaker 1: for a bunch of credit cards. They have like over
Speaker 1: a dozen credit cards, and they keep applying, getting the
Speaker 1: bonus offers and then closing the cards. So Chase wised
Speaker 1: up to that. And if you have opened more than
Speaker 1: five Chase cards or five I think maybe even five
Speaker 1: new credit accounts I forget within the last two years,
Speaker 1: then they they probably won't approve you for the card,
Speaker 1: and you might have to go through like extra underwriting
Speaker 1: to convince them to approve your what or whatnot. But anyway,
Speaker 1: we got the cards. Happy story, happy ending. We spent.
Speaker 1: We only had to pay for taxes and fees, So
Speaker 1: all in all, I booked a fifteen day trip to
Speaker 1: Italy and Spain for two hundred and forty six dollars.
Speaker 3: Oh Mt Mandy, Honestly, if you don't write a black
Speaker 3: Quost blog, I'm gonna like beat you next time.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: If Vandy does not write a blog post and put
Speaker 3: it on our page, we will collectively jump her, just
Speaker 3: so you know.
Speaker 1: And we still have like over one hundred thousand points.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what are we gonna do with these? Just
Speaker 1: calm down, You're live your life girl.
Speaker 2: You gona oh child.
Speaker 3: I'm like, see, had I known this, I could have
Speaker 3: been in Sancorini right now taping this with that with
Speaker 3: a bad connection.
Speaker 2: Like I can't hear you girl the ways.
Speaker 1: So I just said Santorino. I was like, yeah, Greece,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be next. But I always had a love,
Speaker 1: you know. I. I feel like everyone has their Italy trip,
Speaker 1: but I have since I remember doing a project on
Speaker 1: Italy when I was six in sixth grade, I had
Speaker 1: to make like a project, you know, the three the
Speaker 1: three board or three flap project boards, the big presentation boards,
Speaker 1: and I did the Big Flag, and I've heard about
Speaker 1: food and like the history of Italy and I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to go, and I I can't wait. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna do Florence. And the best thing also, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's so many fridge read offits of working at Magnified Money,
Speaker 1: but one of them is that Nick is the co founder,
Speaker 1: is Italian and has deep, deep connections in Sicily and Florence.
Speaker 1: And he's like, you go and I'll have you taken
Speaker 1: care of. And I don't know what that means, but
Speaker 1: I'm going.
Speaker 3: That by way of a sponsorship. I'm gonna put that
Speaker 3: in our sponsorship agreement.
Speaker 1: Next I'll let you know what that means, don't I
Speaker 1: don't care if it just means a free bread basket
Speaker 1: when I get there, I'll take anything.
Speaker 2: I got a free bread basket. It was free though.
Speaker 1: And you know, Enrique, forget it, we're getting married. His
Speaker 1: name is Enrique.
Speaker 2: Everyone knows it.
Speaker 1: Now. I'm so done having to edit out my own
Speaker 1: voicing and Thinkayrique. Uh, he's a Catholic, obviously, let's you know, Catholic,
Speaker 1: perfect combo. And he's just he wants to go see
Speaker 1: the Vaticans and we're gonna do a day in Rome
Speaker 1: and you know, just take the train to Florence and
Speaker 1: I don't know to see whatever. I'm not over planning it,
Speaker 1: but I'm really excited. So we're gonna do I think
Speaker 1: we're doing Rome and then Florence and then Cecily and
Speaker 1: then we're flying to Espanya for four days at the
Speaker 1: end of the trip. So yeah, I can't wait. I
Speaker 1: can't wait.
Speaker 2: And it's like, what I know, I know what my
Speaker 2: win is.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's your one, Tiffany, You're approved?
Speaker 3: Yes, now go spend four thousand dollars quick now, girl, Like, honestly,
Speaker 3: that's in three months.
Speaker 2: Like that's that's that's probably a monthly. So it's wait,
Speaker 2: let me make sure. I'm like, don it.
Speaker 3: I hope it was the right card. It's the Chase
Speaker 3: Sapphire Reserve, right, Yes, that would be such a tivioty move,
Speaker 3: like the Chase, like you know, Emeralds. You're like, girl,
Speaker 3: that is not even the right car. So yes, Maddie,
Speaker 3: see look at Mandy getting me together. See this is
Speaker 3: what brown ambition folks do for each other. We help
Speaker 3: take each other to the next level.
Speaker 2: And you.
Speaker 1: Can your mind sing it?
Speaker 2: Girl? You better thing?
Speaker 1: I then? Oh man, I'm really excited. So I can't
Speaker 1: wait to European Adventure. I'm almost like I need to
Speaker 1: knock on some wood. I've really been in my feelings
Speaker 1: about the goodness of this year, even though it you know,
Speaker 1: had its low points. But I and I and I
Speaker 1: need to start.
Speaker 2: I need to give back.
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of good things, a lot
Speaker 1: of good things have been happening, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I need to pay back in some way. I'm not
Speaker 1: I haven't really found the way yet, but you will.
Speaker 1: Do you ever feel like you just like a lot
Speaker 1: of stupid good stuff's happened, and I just want to
Speaker 1: find a way to I mean, I bet I've done
Speaker 1: little I give money to little things, and you know,
Speaker 1: but just something, you know, to to give some good
Speaker 1: vibes to the universe that's been good to me and us.
Speaker 1: Just to be healthy, you know, just to be And
Speaker 1: I think that all the time.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you know, you're healthy.
Speaker 3: You know everyone that you know that I really really
Speaker 3: care about is is relatively healthy and fine.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's just you're right that it is one of the
Speaker 3: reasons why I give back because it's you give out
Speaker 3: of gratefulness, and I don't. You know, I don't give
Speaker 3: any other way, Like I don't. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: people who ask me, can you do this?
Speaker 2: Or can you speak for free? Or can you And
Speaker 2: when I tell them, you know, no, they'll get angry.
Speaker 3: But I only give when I can give out of
Speaker 3: genuinely wanting to do it, because that's the energy I
Speaker 3: want to bring to the table.
Speaker 2: So I give a lot so I don't feel guilty.
Speaker 3: When someone says, you don't want to speak to this
Speaker 3: homeless teams for free, And I'm like, girl, I spoke
Speaker 3: to you know, three groups last week, but you would
Speaker 3: know that, And that's fine, But that's because I wanted
Speaker 3: to do that. That Like, I'm really learning to only
Speaker 3: serve when it's from the place that this is what
Speaker 3: I desire to do, not out of guilt, because I
Speaker 3: don't want to bring that energy to the table.
Speaker 2: So when you find the right thing, it will be.
Speaker 3: The right thing, and you're going to bring the right
Speaker 3: energy to the table and they're going to be blessed
Speaker 3: times ten because you're giving.
Speaker 2: But then you're also giving from the right place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta do some thinking. Maybe I'll you know,
Speaker 1: you can donate miles. I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah you can't.
Speaker 1: You donate some of the miles we have left over. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just so I'm excited. April cannot come. Well, actually
Speaker 1: it can come soon enough. I have a lot to do,
Speaker 1: but you know, getting off to a good start. I'm
Speaker 1: really happy with stuff. Stuff's good, Stuff's all right, can't
Speaker 1: ask for more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm we need to turn back on my heat.
Speaker 3: I'm freezing. So for those of you who don't know,
Speaker 3: me and Mandy have to turn off our heat because
Speaker 3: we love you so much. So that way, the quality
Speaker 3: audio of this show sounds great where we're like, oh cold.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you might have noticed the significance improvement in the
Speaker 1: audio from the first ten minutes. I apologize for that.
Speaker 1: We had some heating issues. Tiffany's a diva. She likes
Speaker 1: to be warm.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's crazy, I know, for too much.
Speaker 3: So yeah, oh, this is a great you know, coming
Speaker 3: back because you know, like I'm not gonna lie, you know,
Speaker 3: the end of the last year, it was kind of
Speaker 3: like whoo child. But I feel like we're you know,
Speaker 3: we are We're coming back this year strong. Well we
Speaker 3: I mean we're always good, but meaning that our energy
Speaker 3: is definitely up, you know, considering you know how last
Speaker 3: year ended politically. But I feel good. I feel like
Speaker 3: this year is going to be amazing. This year is
Speaker 3: going to be a big year for Tiffany and a
Speaker 3: big year for the Budgetisa. I'm not going to list
Speaker 3: wall and I cannot wait to hear you know what.
Speaker 2: This would be great. How about you tweet what's our
Speaker 2: twitter again? I haven't we haven't said it so long
Speaker 2: at the BA podcast.
Speaker 3: At the BA podcast, how about you tell us what
Speaker 3: your theme for the year is. I think that would
Speaker 3: be great. Tweet Mandy. I would love to know, like
Speaker 3: what your theme for I feel like everybody should start
Speaker 3: the year with like some sort of like big intention
Speaker 3: and so like, you know, very Oprah esque.
Speaker 2: I'd love to know what it is. Call me now,