Speaker 1: Hey, hey, ba fam, it is time for another b
Speaker 1: a qa A b a q A what you say
Speaker 1: a b a qa with manday? I don't know why
Speaker 1: I am singing tiffin A b a qa. All right,
Speaker 1: Today we are breaking down all about how you can
Speaker 1: manage your money, from planning to budgeting to spending. We
Speaker 1: have got you covered.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing, ba fam. If you'd like to ask
Speaker 2: us questions, we'd love to receive them. But remember that
Speaker 2: before you slide into our dms on ig Bandi Vision Podcast,
Speaker 2: before you send us an email Branda Vision Podcast at
Speaker 2: gmail dot com, before you go to Brandavision podcast dot
Speaker 2: com and click contact us, remember that the questions that
Speaker 2: you are asking us are not going to your doctor,
Speaker 2: They're not going to your attorney, they are not going
Speaker 2: to your financial advisor. Just two really smart, sillier, cute
Speaker 2: brown girls who for entertainment purposes only. And he said
Speaker 2: to say that are just you know, answering questions from
Speaker 2: the BA vault. Take a listen. Do you what did
Speaker 2: the first question?
Speaker 1: I didn't take a breath you read it.
Speaker 2: This is from Ashley from ig Hey, Mandy, I was
Speaker 2: one of your first Mandy money makers. Woo woo. We
Speaker 2: love a stand of Mandy. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: all that you've done and taught me. My question today
Speaker 2: is how can I protect myself from identity theft? This
Speaker 2: morning I woke up to new emails about small business
Speaker 2: social security account update and a purchase of two new iPhones.
Speaker 2: Please help, Ashley, do you have to pay for credit security?
Speaker 1: Ooh wow, something's going on there, Like they're saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: your social security account has been updated, purchase of two
Speaker 1: new iPhones. The first thing I do whenever I get
Speaker 1: those emails is check the email address that it came from,
Speaker 1: because I just, for example, I just started to advertise
Speaker 1: on Facebook a week ago and I got the most
Speaker 1: legitimate looking email about my ads account being in violation
Speaker 1: of their rules, which is like one of the It
Speaker 1: can happen all the time with your when you're doing ads.
Speaker 1: It's really easy to like upset the Facebook gods. And
Speaker 1: you don't want to do that because then you waste
Speaker 1: money in time anyway, And I was almost like, I
Speaker 1: need to click this link and figure out what I've done,
Speaker 1: but it just something about it, like the formatting, and
Speaker 1: so I check the email address and it was like
Speaker 1: from an Outlook account, you know. So I think the
Speaker 1: first thing for to secure yourself is to be aware
Speaker 1: of what phishing attempts look like, which seems so old school,
Speaker 1: but they still happen, you know, So check that email address.
Speaker 1: You can also hover over any hyperlinks and see where
Speaker 1: it's actually trying to direct you to. And if it's
Speaker 1: not to, you know, a legitimate website, then I would
Speaker 1: just say, excuse me, immediately kick it to spam or
Speaker 1: to junk. That's how I feel about email. But now
Speaker 1: it's like, come into your text do you get do
Speaker 1: you get phishing text?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Girl?
Speaker 2: Yes? Talk about this the irs. I'm like, girls, are
Speaker 2: you texted now?
Speaker 1: With your lack of funding?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: So no, first and foremost that like whatever I get
Speaker 2: to Manny's point, you know, I checked the email to say, like,
Speaker 2: who's the email at just coming from? And then typically
Speaker 2: I'll call the company directly if that's available to me
Speaker 2: to call the company directly. But one thing I had
Speaker 2: to do so when my late husband was still here
Speaker 2: his I don't know why, but they used to steal
Speaker 2: that man's, that poor man's identity all the time. Like
Speaker 2: literally one time they bought a car and we only
Speaker 2: knew because they they were like based in I don't know,
Speaker 2: like upstate New York or someplace far where they were
Speaker 2: getting tickets from easy Paths and so they.
Speaker 1: Were going on tour with Janelle's name, Jerelle's name, and
Speaker 1: then got a loan or.
Speaker 2: Something something, and then they were get like, you know,
Speaker 2: they had an easy pass account they put in his
Speaker 2: name and was not paying the ticket, so we were
Speaker 2: getting easy Pass tickets. That's how we found out. It
Speaker 2: was just a mess. I would say at least three
Speaker 2: times when I was with them and he said it
Speaker 2: happened before, Like I'm like, so I'm assuming that his
Speaker 2: probably information was on some crazy you know, like what
Speaker 2: it's like the dark web, you know, and so they're
Speaker 2: probably just swapping it out. Plus two, Jerell's an identical twin.
Speaker 2: His twins name is Terrell, So you have Jerrell Smith
Speaker 2: Terrell Smith, both born on the same day, and so
Speaker 2: oftentimes they would see each other's things on each other's
Speaker 2: credit reports, because that happens too with juniors. Oftentimes that
Speaker 2: will happen, especially if you're in the same house. Your
Speaker 2: dad is a senior, you're a junior, but you're both
Speaker 2: named Robert Smith and you live at the same place,
Speaker 2: so sometimes you'll see your stuff on each other's credit report.
Speaker 2: But it happens with twins who have similar names too.
Speaker 1: Oh really, so what would they do then? Would they
Speaker 1: have to like dispute it or yeah? Girl, there was
Speaker 1: like whatever.
Speaker 3: I was like, this is why your credit like whatever.
Speaker 2: So when I came along, I said, bab, we got
Speaker 2: you something about this because this is crazy. So we
Speaker 2: actually this is not sponsored or anything like that. They
Speaker 2: haven't give me any money like as Budgety Store or
Speaker 2: Brown Ambition. We actually signed up for LifeLock and it stopped.
Speaker 2: Did instantly tell me about LifeLock or these?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I haven't. I have never invested in something
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: I can't remember how much LifeLock costs because now I
Speaker 2: just like, have it automated. I think at the time
Speaker 2: it was like maybe like ten bucks a month. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's a little bit more now maybe twenty bucks or something.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is. So we got LifeLock, signed up for it.
Speaker 2: And what I like about LifeLock is even for me.
Speaker 2: I remember once I went to go open up a
Speaker 2: bank account at like my regular bank or whatever, and
Speaker 2: the bank was like we're not able to, and I'm
Speaker 2: like why, And then I got a text from LifeLock
Speaker 2: saying someone's trying to open up a bank account. If
Speaker 2: that's you, click yes. If that's you, click no, And
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, that's right. So I had to approve.
Speaker 2: So I would get a text or emails, and typically
Speaker 2: it's a text, email and phone call to say any
Speaker 2: new card, any new bank account, any new debt that
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get into. LifeLock would hit me up
Speaker 2: and say is this you, which you know like sometimes
Speaker 2: if you forget like me, which I always forget, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, why can't you open it?
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, that's right.
Speaker 2: So that's one thing like LifeLock, but also too you
Speaker 2: can go directly to like Experience, Equofax, trans Union and
Speaker 2: you can actually freeze. I did this with Durell after
Speaker 2: he passed away. My financial advisor, Angelie said right away, Tiffany,
Speaker 2: because when people know that someone passed away, they know
Speaker 2: you're in grief, and they will sometimes attack that person's
Speaker 2: you know, financial credit and background and just start using
Speaker 2: it up. So I went into each of those specific
Speaker 2: accounts and froze his credit. And you can freeze and unfreeze,
Speaker 2: but I froze it obviously indefinitely, so no one can
Speaker 2: open up anything in his name. And I just am
Speaker 2: not paying attention because it's not me. And so that's
Speaker 2: something so smart too.
Speaker 1: I did that now I'm remembering because I was telling Tiffan, like,
Speaker 1: I think I'm pretty delinquent with my identity. But I
Speaker 1: did do the credit freeze. This was I mean, think
Speaker 1: Equifax data breach back in like twenty sixteen really spooked me.
Speaker 1: But I mean there's so many. It's just so many
Speaker 1: data breaches they can't even keep It's not even that
Speaker 1: big of a news anymore because it just happens all
Speaker 1: the time. But yeah, credit freeze. And I remember then
Speaker 1: I started shopping for a mortgage and I was annoyed
Speaker 1: by it because I'm like, damn it, I got to
Speaker 1: unfreeze and all that. So now that I'm not shopping
Speaker 1: for a mortgage, I did. You can saw it, and
Speaker 1: then it's just annoying because you have to like thaw
Speaker 1: it at the bureaus where your loan. Your lender is
Speaker 1: going to request to chut it, you know. But I
Speaker 1: think it's totally worth it because why wouldn't you want
Speaker 1: to have that extra layer of protection, you know, because
Speaker 1: like even opening a cell phone, you can't do that
Speaker 1: if you have a credit freeze nothing.
Speaker 2: So a credit freeze to me is if you know
Speaker 2: you're not getting anything for a while and something like
Speaker 2: this has happened, you can freeze just to stop any activity.
Speaker 2: Let's just say your stuff is in a dark web,
Speaker 2: I'm freezing it for the next two months, no one
Speaker 2: is gonna and then after that, if you don't want
Speaker 2: the issue, like Mandy said, the thaw and freeze, saw
Speaker 2: and freeze, you can get like a lifeblock or some
Speaker 2: similar type of company where before anything happens, you know,
Speaker 2: you get the text or the call.
Speaker 3: You just have to prove.
Speaker 2: And so those two things honestly, since then, you know,
Speaker 2: Jerell's identity stopped being stolen and I never had my
Speaker 2: identity stolen. But I signed up because I was like, well,
Speaker 2: we're here now, because you could do like a family plan,
Speaker 2: and so my identity has never been stolen, which is
Speaker 2: you know, there have been things on there. They're like,
Speaker 2: I don't recognize this, and I realized, like, oh, the
Speaker 2: company sometimes has a different working name than a doing
Speaker 2: business name, and I'm like, ah, that was me.
Speaker 1: Oh God, I've been there. I'm like, who, I would
Speaker 1: never spend that much. Meanwhile, it's like, yeah, the little
Speaker 1: those four am Instagram scrolls. They always get me with
Speaker 1: their kids' shoes ads. Oh man, what else do I was, Oh,
Speaker 1: there's something else? So oh. A friend of a friend
Speaker 1: recently lost eight thousand dollars right before Christmas, right before
Speaker 1: the holiday season through like it was a phone called
Speaker 1: tech scam. And so it started with text messages from
Speaker 1: her bank. It was City Bank texting her and it
Speaker 1: looked really legit, and then they escalated to calling her
Speaker 1: and we're so convincing that she ended up giving her
Speaker 1: account information over the phone, and then they drained her
Speaker 1: not her, and it was her checking account, which is
Speaker 1: really painful, you know, because with your checking account it's
Speaker 1: sometimes harder to get those funds back. And it was
Speaker 1: a Zell or Sorry, she didn't give them account information,
Speaker 1: she zelled them. She zeld them. And if you guys
Speaker 1: know anything about Zell, one of the pieces of controversy
Speaker 1: is that you know you go through these steps when
Speaker 1: when you send a transfer where they're like be sure
Speaker 1: you know this person because if you don't, we are
Speaker 1: not covering you because if it's you who hits the
Speaker 1: submit button and you know what you're doing, like, we
Speaker 1: are not liable libable, we're not liable for funds that
Speaker 1: you lose. So she was I think she's still fighting
Speaker 1: to maybe get that eight grand back. But she's like
Speaker 1: a single mom, and you know, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: money to lose. So if they're asking you for zell,
Speaker 1: you deserve to be asking for every ounce of proof,
Speaker 1: and banks probably will not be doing that. I would
Speaker 1: just say that first and foremost. And then she ended up.
Speaker 1: I think something struck her as and then she called
Speaker 1: City herself and they're like, oh no, oh no. So
Speaker 1: if they're if they're saying that they're from City, don't
Speaker 1: bother about inconveniencing them, Like, don't worry about that, you know,
Speaker 1: hang up, say cool, you can call me back before
Speaker 1: they want this eight grand and call your own number directly.
Speaker 3: That's the key.
Speaker 2: One of the women that we know, I think her
Speaker 2: name is Shannon. She lost her house down payment because
Speaker 2: they have the scam where you know when you make
Speaker 2: the transfer like the wire transfer when you're purchasing at home,
Speaker 2: and so what they'll do is they'll they'll send you
Speaker 2: a fake bank like, hey, I know we said this
Speaker 2: is the wire number. This is actually the updated wire number.
Speaker 2: She did not know because it looked official. Because what
Speaker 2: they do is they like mimic what your bank sends,
Speaker 2: and she sent it, and wires are notorious and once
Speaker 2: it's gone is gone. They had me social because you know,
Speaker 2: I bought my house cash five hundred and twenty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars that can't go to the So what I did
Speaker 2: was I'm mosy my way on down to the bank
Speaker 2: and said look me and and that's when we did
Speaker 2: the wire on the phone. Like so the key with
Speaker 2: that is always, always always. I didn't call the number
Speaker 2: that was on the paper when we're making the transfer.
Speaker 2: If I think I had the money and like Ally
Speaker 2: or something like that and I was transferred to like
Speaker 2: their bank was like Wells FARG or whatever that like
Speaker 2: I call. I go to the Ally website and called
Speaker 2: that number there. I never the key with anybody. Sometimes
Speaker 2: somebody is telling you something financial, even if it seems
Speaker 2: up to I don't like, I want to hang up
Speaker 2: and I'm just going to call back because I'd rather
Speaker 2: call back the official number, so I know for sure
Speaker 2: that like, oh, this is who I'm speaking to, versus
Speaker 2: like who is this? So that was key I was,
Speaker 2: but I was still nervous because you know, you just
Speaker 2: you just feel like you never know, you never know.
Speaker 2: So thankfully, you know, like it all worked out, because
Speaker 2: that would have been like you would have seen a
Speaker 2: weeping willow of a tiffany, like I love that.
Speaker 1: And when it's wired and it's gone, you know it's
Speaker 1: in the Canaries or you know, some other country and
Speaker 1: you can't get that back. Man, what else? Two factory
Speaker 1: authentication is huge for any accounts that you have, because
Speaker 1: I feel like you break into my Gmail, you have
Speaker 1: my life, you know everything about me. So two factor authentication,
Speaker 1: these these basic practices. But I'm glad at least that
Speaker 1: your like spidy sense has perked up enough to ask,
Speaker 1: because that is wild and credit monitoring. You can with
Speaker 1: your credit card. It's smarter to just, you know, in general,
Speaker 1: buy big things with your credit card or or use
Speaker 1: your credit card for most purchases if you know you
Speaker 1: can do that responsibly, because you do have Most credit
Speaker 1: cards offer zero dollar fraud liability, so if there is
Speaker 1: fraud and it's on your credit card, then they will
Speaker 1: cover it, you know, no questions ask, whereas with your
Speaker 1: debit card, some of them have limits on how much
Speaker 1: they'll cover or limits on you have to catch it
Speaker 1: and report it within a certain timeframe like thirty to
Speaker 1: sixty days, and if you don't, then there's less of
Speaker 1: a chance that they'll be able to recover the funds
Speaker 1: for you. So that's why there's like a bit of
Speaker 1: a case for using credit versus debit for any big,
Speaker 1: you know, purchases and things like that. But yes, stay vigilant, y'all,
Speaker 1: stay woke. Two factor authenticate, look up the email addresses,
Speaker 1: call them directly. That's our last that's a good summary,
Speaker 1: summarized summaration. I can't talk summation, recap of our of
Speaker 1: our of our advice. We're really really smart, trust us. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: Let's take a break. It's like I'm gonna get the
Speaker 1: next one. Manny's stop, get down.
Speaker 2: We take a break, RUSSA, pay some bills and be
Speaker 2: right back in blank.
Speaker 3: So we've got somebody name. Do we want to use
Speaker 3: her name? Because what does she doys want that to
Speaker 3: be her name?
Speaker 1: She should have used a pseudonym Isabella. Let's go with Isabella.
Speaker 3: That's my okay, Isabella.
Speaker 2: So Isabella says, Hey, Mandy and Tiffany, I recently found
Speaker 2: her show.
Speaker 3: And I've been obsessed. We love that Isabella.
Speaker 2: My partner and I have a goal of buying a
Speaker 2: house in five years. I have and HYSSA. But when
Speaker 2: I'm doing my research or what is the best place
Speaker 2: to save, the best way to save for a down payment,
Speaker 2: I've been getting overwhelmed with all of these ways to save.
Speaker 2: Should I be using an HSA, HYSA investment or open
Speaker 2: ACD account? Currently working on paying down my loans and
Speaker 2: credit card debt while building an emergency fund. Once I
Speaker 2: get all of these things taken care of and debt free,
Speaker 2: my goals will start saving toward a future home.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, advance Love you girls.
Speaker 1: Ea Sabla all right, okay, So high yield savings account
Speaker 1: is hyssay. I mean the good news is that high
Speaker 1: yield savings accounts are actually high yield again because the
Speaker 1: FED has been raising rates. I think I'm more up
Speaker 1: to like over two percent in online only banks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: two whole pennies, yes, one hundred dollars yep or one dollar.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, so it's been I mean, you got.
Speaker 1: Five years, which is a long time horizon. So the
Speaker 1: good news is that you do have these other options
Speaker 1: you could you know, there could be a case for
Speaker 1: a semi aggressive ish investment account to save for that
Speaker 1: to invest for that house. You do have to look
Speaker 1: at the economy, of course. I mean, if you were
Speaker 1: going to drop money into an investment account, would now
Speaker 1: be the worst time? No, it depends on what happens
Speaker 1: in the rest of the year. But the market has
Speaker 1: gone down, down, down, down, downtowntown, So there could be
Speaker 1: the expectation that you could put some money in there
Speaker 1: and then if you weather the recession that's coming, that
Speaker 1: it would grow five years from now. History would tell
Speaker 1: you that that is probably the case. But you know,
Speaker 1: I feel uncomfortable predicting the future. So there's that. So
Speaker 1: it depends on like your level of risk, you know,
Speaker 1: uh a version are you or risk tolerance? Can you
Speaker 1: handle the idea that you may lose some money if
Speaker 1: you sink it into investment account or do you want
Speaker 1: to know that every penny you sock away will remain there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And if that's the case, then a CD could definitely
Speaker 1: be a nice little alternative. With the CD, you do
Speaker 1: have to lock up your money for a certain amount
Speaker 1: of time, but in return for locking it up, they
Speaker 1: will give you a much higher interest rate than what
Speaker 1: you make it from, even the high yield savings accounts.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's definitely an option to what do you think?
Speaker 2: Well, for sure, the number one thing, Isabella is that
Speaker 2: you want to make sure that wherever you're checking is
Speaker 2: this money ain't because Lord knows, if you're like me
Speaker 2: at Target like ooh, checking is like sis, now you
Speaker 2: know you don't have it. Savings is like, well we
Speaker 2: have it, girl, And then you petch a finger on
Speaker 2: the button and transfer from checking the savings and in
Speaker 2: two point two seconds you have your money available. So
Speaker 2: that's number one for Isabella or anyone listening. Any money
Speaker 2: that you want to have saved. You have to make
Speaker 2: your money inconvenient, because inconvenient money gets saved, So that's
Speaker 2: first and foremost, And a highyield savings account is inconvenient
Speaker 2: as long as you don't have a checking account at
Speaker 2: that same bank. Investment account definitely inconvenient. That means it's
Speaker 2: not super liquid and a CD is definitely inconvenient if
Speaker 2: it was me. But here's the thing that I'm reading
Speaker 2: in this is she wants to pay off her credit
Speaker 2: card debt.
Speaker 3: So here's the here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Because of the way the market is, I mean, things
Speaker 2: are down like woof, like the market is down bad.
Speaker 2: But as Mandy said, it doesn't ever stay down bad.
Speaker 2: It has yet to stay down in history. But then again,
Speaker 2: we haven't had a pandemic in one hundred years, so
Speaker 2: we don't know.
Speaker 3: If it was me.
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, Isabella, because you know, I
Speaker 2: can't give you investment advice. But if it was me,
Speaker 2: I probably would be putting some in an investment account
Speaker 2: and then some in either high yield savings or a
Speaker 2: CD because I would want to try my luck.
Speaker 3: A little bit.
Speaker 2: Like let's just say if I was aside, if I'm
Speaker 2: paying off my credit card debt, I told myself, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna save like, say, you know, I don't know, three
Speaker 2: hundred dollars a month towards the house. I might do
Speaker 2: like a hundred in my investment account or a one
Speaker 2: to fifty, no more than that, and then the other
Speaker 2: one fifty in either like you know, in a high
Speaker 2: your savings and then save up enough until, like you know,
Speaker 2: had enough to put like a good amount into a
Speaker 2: CD for like a year or two years, whatever, you know, whatever,
Speaker 2: whatever length of CD that you're looking for. The longer
Speaker 2: the length of CD, the more money that they will
Speaker 2: pay you an interest.
Speaker 3: That's probably what I would do. It's a mix of
Speaker 3: the two if it was me.
Speaker 2: Because I cannot give you financial I cannot give you
Speaker 2: investment advice. I'm talking about Tiffany. Yeah, but I will
Speaker 2: say this, I don't know how much your what your
Speaker 2: interest rate on your credit card debt is. If the
Speaker 2: interest on your credit card debt is double digits, then.
Speaker 3: You need to double down on that.
Speaker 2: If the interest is under double digits, then I would
Speaker 2: be saving for the house at the same time as
Speaker 2: paying off my credit card debt. Because you basically have
Speaker 2: to say, ask yourself, will the cost of the credit
Speaker 2: card debt, meaning the interest, wipe out any returns that
Speaker 2: you might get on your investment, because on average, you know,
Speaker 2: you're looking at a ten percent return annually on investments.
Speaker 2: I mean, some years you'll get more than ten, some
Speaker 2: years less than ten, but it'll average out to be
Speaker 2: about ten So if your credit cards cost you more
Speaker 2: than ten, even if the market gives you ten, the
Speaker 2: credit card debt will credit card interest rate will wipe
Speaker 2: that way those gains. I hope that makes sense. So
Speaker 2: if your credit card debt interest rate is twenty percent
Speaker 2: thirty percent, pay that off, do not pass go, do
Speaker 2: not collect two hundred dollars. If it's eight percent, nine percent,
Speaker 2: six percent, seven percent, I'll be doing both credit card
Speaker 2: debt and and setting aside for the house. And when
Speaker 2: I say set aside for a house, I mean like investing,
Speaker 2: so that way I could take advantage of these these
Speaker 2: of the market being down. But that's about with Tiffany,
Speaker 2: not if I was Isabella, because they Devella got to
Speaker 2: the side for herself.
Speaker 3: You see see what I did there?
Speaker 1: Yeah, assue me. I mean, the more I think about it,
Speaker 1: I feel like because she wants to build up her
Speaker 1: emergency fund too. I think OHIL savings accounts a great
Speaker 1: place for an emergency fund. It is, like Tiffany said,
Speaker 1: harder to get to, but it's still you're able to
Speaker 1: get to it, you know, because it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: really easy to get to. And if you wanted that
Speaker 1: separation I like the separation of accounts for your goal.
Speaker 1: So if you wanted that separation for your your down
Speaker 1: payment fund, then you've got five years or more. So
Speaker 1: open that CD, you know, get a long term CD.
Speaker 1: You can even do. You can google and you'll probably
Speaker 1: find an old article that I edited at Magnify Money
Speaker 1: on how to do a CD ladder, because I'll never
Speaker 1: forget it is the labor of love. So you know,
Speaker 1: if you don't like the idea of getting like a
Speaker 1: five year CD and putting everything in there, you could,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of stagger it so you can get
Speaker 1: a twelve month CD and then like an eighteen month
Speaker 1: and a twenty four month and like, you know, work
Speaker 1: your way up. But I like that. It's it's really
Speaker 1: hard to get to and it's your home fund, and
Speaker 1: you know, when you can choose how much you want
Speaker 1: to put into those CDs and just kind of set
Speaker 1: them to the side, and they'll grow at a higher
Speaker 1: rate than they would and your you know, your high
Speaker 1: heeled savings.
Speaker 3: I know, hopefully I know those. It's like that, That's
Speaker 3: what I ask you, guys.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I know, basically what we're saying is there's
Speaker 2: no wrong answer, as long as you make your money inconvenient.
Speaker 1: Do a little bit of all of it. She's like,
Speaker 1: just tell me the one thing to do.
Speaker 2: Yes, It's like, oh, that's probably what I would do.
Speaker 2: I probably would do a little mix.
Speaker 3: Was helpful.
Speaker 1: On the info, good luck on saving for the house though,
Speaker 1: very exciting, and thank goodness you're not in a rush
Speaker 1: because I don't know. This is a tough time to
Speaker 1: buy it is. Should take a quick break and come
Speaker 1: right back with another question.
Speaker 2: We're going to do some Mulah questions money Honey, you're
Speaker 2: gonna jump right in with Ronia as no. Well, Rona
Speaker 2: La girl that you had three different letters to read,
Speaker 2: ron Lass, enjoying your content as per usual. Quick question,
Speaker 2: what hurts your credit score more? Lack of credit mix
Speaker 2: or low available credit that affects the debt to income
Speaker 2: ratio and porquet Why keep up the great word, ron La?
Speaker 3: Great question.
Speaker 2: Well, ron La, there are five composers to your credit score, right,
Speaker 2: and so these are two of the components and they're
Speaker 2: literally on the opposite ends. So credit mix is ten
Speaker 2: percent of your score. So credit mix just means do
Speaker 2: you have a mix of ways that you're borrowing and
Speaker 2: paying back money. So one of the ways is revolving debt.
Speaker 2: That's basically credit card debt. You know you paid off,
Speaker 2: you could use it again, paid off, use it again.
Speaker 2: There's also.
Speaker 1: It's a loan, but I forget the way, like the no,
Speaker 1: what how does installment?
Speaker 3: And yeah, installment loans.
Speaker 2: So that's just like you know, I have a student
Speaker 2: loan that or I've got a car note and then
Speaker 2: I paid every month until it pays off. Right, So
Speaker 2: they like to see a credit mix. And here's the
Speaker 2: reason why. Let's just say you say, like Mandy says, no,
Speaker 2: let's do me because I'm not a good cook. Let's
Speaker 2: just say I'm like, well, I'm a good cook. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, you're like, man, it said what you make girl?
Speaker 2: I was like.
Speaker 3: Spaghetti? You know, like what else? Girl? You know some
Speaker 3: other pasts of this, And it's like, girl, you're read
Speaker 3: a good cook.
Speaker 2: You're good at noodles, right, because it doesn't show that
Speaker 2: I have a wide range of experience and doing a
Speaker 2: wide range of dishes, So I'm not really a good cook.
Speaker 2: The same thing for your credit if you only have
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, I have five different credit cards. It's
Speaker 2: like Okay, great, you're good at revolving debt, not necessarily
Speaker 2: other types of way to borrow and pay back.
Speaker 3: Okay, but that's only ten percent.
Speaker 2: You don't have to do anything there except for live
Speaker 2: a little longer, right as somebody's grandma will say, you
Speaker 2: just got a live child, because as you get older
Speaker 2: you will incorporate naturally different types of debts.
Speaker 3: That's ten percent.
Speaker 2: Now thirty percent is you're basically amounts old, you know,
Speaker 2: meaning how much When you said how much credit do
Speaker 2: you have available? That's basically amount's old, meaning what you
Speaker 2: could borrow from what you have borrowed. That's huge, and
Speaker 2: that's usually the thing that's taking people score because thirty
Speaker 2: five percent is like payment history, meaning like do you
Speaker 2: pay off every month until you pay off in full?
Speaker 2: That's great, but you know, people don't realize that even
Speaker 2: if you're making your monthly payments on time, if you
Speaker 2: keep high balances in relation to your limits, then you're
Speaker 2: taking your score. Ideally, if you want to raise your score,
Speaker 2: you want to be under fifteen ten percent, meaning if
Speaker 2: you have one hundred dollars limit on your card, no
Speaker 2: more than five ten dollars fifteen ten dollars on your
Speaker 2: on your card. You know, if you want to maintain
Speaker 2: your score, you could stay at about the thirty percent market
Speaker 2: and you'll be fine. And so the reason why it's
Speaker 2: it's more that I suspect credit bureaus think it's more important.
Speaker 2: It's because you know, if you owe too much, then
Speaker 2: you then you you are more likely to default and
Speaker 2: not pay people back, versus if you have a variety
Speaker 2: of people that you owe, you know, the credit mix,
Speaker 2: and so like owing too much in relationship to what
Speaker 2: you could borrow put you in a really dangerous space
Speaker 2: that if you lose your job, if you have some
Speaker 2: sort of crisis that comes up, that you're likely to
Speaker 2: not be able to pay anybody back. So Ramlaw hope
Speaker 2: that's help anything, Mandy that I missed That I missed one.
Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, it was really hard to keep my credit
Speaker 1: utilization low early when I was remember when I was younger,
Speaker 1: because my limits were so low and I didn't really
Speaker 1: know how to use cards yet. But that gets easier
Speaker 1: the higher your limits are. And also I will say,
Speaker 1: if you have a lot of revolving credit card debt
Speaker 1: and it's tanking your score because it's like high in
Speaker 1: relation to your available limit. Then maybe it's you could
Speaker 1: look into a personal loan because like a debt consolidation loan,
Speaker 1: because a debt consolidation loan is not revolving, that's an
Speaker 1: installment loan. It's a fixed like you have fixed payments.
Speaker 1: You're going to pay it off a certain you know,
Speaker 1: after a certain period of time. So it helps you
Speaker 1: in two ways, Like it will immediately lower your the
Speaker 1: balance that you're revolving on credit cards, and then it
Speaker 1: also gives you that mix of different kinds of credit.
Speaker 1: But that's of course, like you have to look at
Speaker 1: your own situation and you know, to like compare credit
Speaker 1: card APR rates, like how expensive is your credit debt
Speaker 1: versus you know, a debt consolidation loan and what rate
Speaker 1: you can get and then actually pay that loan off
Speaker 1: because like some people get debt consolidation loans, you paid
Speaker 1: on your credit cards and then you're like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: debt free, but no, you're not debt free. Yeah, good, good, good,
Speaker 1: solid question.
Speaker 3: Yes, keep them questions coming. What do we have next? Mandy?
Speaker 1: All right? Number two a question from listener Ell, who
Speaker 1: sent us an email. Okay, Elle says, hey, Madian Tiffany.
Speaker 1: I am a home owning single, forty something with no kids.
Speaker 1: I have a decent job with a good income of
Speaker 1: about ninety thousand dollars a year. Prior to this year,
Speaker 1: I was a public school teacher and I just started
Speaker 1: and I decided. I decided when I started the new
Speaker 1: job to keep living as if my salary hadn't changed much.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: I love that I have money automatically deposited into specific
Speaker 1: savings accounts, but my emergency account took a hit when
Speaker 1: I had to replace my AC unit earlier this year,
Speaker 1: so unfortunately, all my accounts are in a building stage.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, I own a home, and ideally I'd
Speaker 1: like to own a couple of homes, but I think
Speaker 1: it'll take me so long to build enough income to
Speaker 1: afford another one that I don't want to wait. My
Speaker 1: alternative is to sell the house I currently own and
Speaker 1: rent a place wherever I want, no longer tied to
Speaker 1: any one specific location. But I'm afraid that letting go
Speaker 1: of this house will be a big mistake, and that
Speaker 1: renting will open me up to a vulnerability that I
Speaker 1: haven't experienced. How do I know if selling my home
Speaker 1: is right? For me. Thank you all.
Speaker 3: That's interesting.
Speaker 1: Okay, So she's like wanting to potentially sell her home
Speaker 1: move into a rental so that she has income to
Speaker 1: buy another couple of homes.
Speaker 3: Yes, and so like.
Speaker 2: I'm just listening to reading her ps about like her
Speaker 2: I guess her house has flooded since then, And Susan
Speaker 2: inspired to send this letter after listening to me purchasing
Speaker 2: a condo and wanted to be a rich auntie. She's like,
Speaker 2: I want that too, because it just add some more context.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: Well, let me take a step back, back back, So
Speaker 2: what are you thinking, Mandy, Like, if you take a
Speaker 2: step back, like, I mean.
Speaker 1: I feel like renting. I'm trying to follow her thought process.
Speaker 1: I guess what she's thinking is if I rent a place,
Speaker 1: it'll be cheaper than maybe the cost of a home,
Speaker 1: and I can save more for a new property. And
Speaker 1: maybe there's so much equity in her home that she has.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering does she need to sell it or could
Speaker 1: she use like a home equity loan girl? Okay, good,
Speaker 1: go good, because I'm like, I'm trying to let pieces together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you if you want to leverage the equity in
Speaker 1: your home to then purchase a second property. You know
Speaker 1: a lot of ways that people do that is you
Speaker 1: can take out a home equity loan and then use
Speaker 1: that that loan as a down payment, you know, on
Speaker 1: your next property. I mean, and I'm assuming you'd want
Speaker 1: to like rent out that other property, which can be
Speaker 1: a great source of additional income. So I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I'm more opposed to like selling the not
Speaker 1: a pose, but like I'm a little like, take a
Speaker 1: pause about selling the house and maybe see if you can, yeah,
Speaker 1: leverage that loan, a home equity loan, to to have
Speaker 1: to have the funds to buy another property.
Speaker 2: Because if you l which is itself like you did
Speaker 2: purchase your home before twenty and nineteen, you likely have
Speaker 2: a lot of equity because remember the houses, the prices
Speaker 2: with the they dove run them up, growing you in Florida,
Speaker 2: I know, they ran your prices up, meaning that you
Speaker 2: have a lot more like almost unnatural equity. Even though
Speaker 2: home prices have come down, it's only like the new ones,
Speaker 2: you know, like not like the houses that were brought
Speaker 2: prior to twenty nineteen. They got their normal boost plus
Speaker 2: a supercharge boost, you know, So I just say all
Speaker 2: that to say that, like, you probably have equity in
Speaker 2: this home. And ultimately, when we're making decisions and I'm
Speaker 2: in this space now thinking to myself, like do I
Speaker 2: want to get this kinda?
Speaker 3: What do I want to do?
Speaker 2: YadA YadA yadda, that you have to ask yourself. Money
Speaker 2: is supposed to do what's best for you. You are
Speaker 2: not supposed to do what's best for money. Talking to
Speaker 2: me and you L, because I almost missed out, I'm
Speaker 2: purchasing this epic kind.
Speaker 3: And we'll see it's still on the you know, still.
Speaker 2: Negotiating because I wanted to get a super deal and
Speaker 2: I underbid, and so because in my mind, I was
Speaker 2: putting money before what Tiffany wanted, which is not always
Speaker 2: a bad thing if you need to be in a
Speaker 2: financial space, you know. But I'm okay, and it's like Tiffany,
Speaker 2: what is it that you want for Tiffany? And I
Speaker 2: want this place, so then I have to spend more money.
Speaker 2: And so I'm just telling you L. I want you
Speaker 2: to get clear on what does L want in general,
Speaker 2: and so because you can potentially get that, and to
Speaker 2: Mandy's point, you might say, you know what, because I
Speaker 2: know you have flooding or whatever. You might fix the house,
Speaker 2: let someone else pay the mortgage and rent it out.
Speaker 2: If you want to go rent someplace else by yourself,
Speaker 2: you can still do that. You could own your home,
Speaker 2: allow it to continue to go, you know, let the
Speaker 2: streets pay, let them world they you know, and then
Speaker 2: you can live wherever you want and your airbnb. You
Speaker 2: can live that fancy life while because the truth of
Speaker 2: the matter is, home ownership is still a cornerstone for
Speaker 2: wealth in the US of A. You know, like cause
Speaker 2: I'll give you an example. I my husband and I
Speaker 2: am and you know, Drella and I we had purchased
Speaker 2: this property from the city for ten thousand dollars. Okay,
Speaker 2: it was a tear down basically, but we put one
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty thousand dollars into that house. We've just
Speaker 2: now that was about the house less than five years ago.
Speaker 2: Just sold it to his twin brother for basically three
Speaker 2: hundred thousand, like two ninety five, three hundred thousand. So
Speaker 2: you think to yourself, basically put one forty into it,
Speaker 2: got back we doubled. That's what real estate can potentially,
Speaker 2: not every market can potentially, do you know, or what
Speaker 2: I could have done is I could have just rented
Speaker 2: it out and pulled money out to do whatever I
Speaker 2: wanted to do. So I'm just saying that when you
Speaker 2: have real estate, you have the opportunity for that level
Speaker 2: of flexibility.
Speaker 3: So before you're like throw the.
Speaker 2: House out the window, I'm going to sell it, really
Speaker 2: consider maybe I should just rent it now and see
Speaker 2: what like this rent life outside of this looks like?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm wondering too if like I get the
Speaker 1: sense because she's so she was inspired by your story,
Speaker 1: the rich Auntie life, and she's forty. No kids like
Speaker 1: girl live in the dream, not the dream, but like
Speaker 1: a different dream. Don't you wish you kind of had
Speaker 1: it both ways?
Speaker 3: Anyway?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And and like you got this new job, I really
Speaker 1: want to know. I'm so fascinated by the public school
Speaker 1: teacher like journey, and I want to know what your
Speaker 1: new job is and how you got it because I'm
Speaker 1: just fascinated anyway. But I'm like, if this is what
Speaker 1: and you sound like you know renting what you like
Speaker 1: is you're not no longer tied tied to just one place.
Speaker 1: If you want some freedom, there's nothing stopping you from
Speaker 1: renting for a while figuring out if you want to
Speaker 1: buy a property somewhere else, if you want to live
Speaker 1: in that property and just have some freedom. You mentioned
Speaker 1: like the vulnerabilities that renting could open you up to,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what vulnerabilities. They may be different
Speaker 1: than owning a home. I don't like, Tiff, what do
Speaker 1: you think like potential if you can't make your rent
Speaker 1: payments but then you have.
Speaker 2: A house, say like you know, with renting, I mean
Speaker 2: to me, there's financial vulnerabilities because you don't really grow
Speaker 2: anything right, and it's not necessary depending on because I mean,
Speaker 2: for meet, I can almost scare in my head a
Speaker 2: home owner said, it doesn't always it going to what
Speaker 2: I know re meet, we knew like for example, in
Speaker 2: New York that makes sense because the amount that you're
Speaker 2: going to spend or pay, you know, because you know,
Speaker 2: owning in New York, it actually probably makes more sense
Speaker 2: in New York City to rent, you know, in a
Speaker 2: long financial run. But you know, for many parts of
Speaker 2: the country that's not necessarily true. So I just think
Speaker 2: that like I want you to have both. I want
Speaker 2: you to have like if you notice, even though I'm
Speaker 2: leaning into my rich Auntie life. I'm still the budgetista.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, right sold that house
Speaker 2: double my money, you know, and was like, but I'm
Speaker 2: still keeping the house I live in right now. Because
Speaker 2: I put this house I bought for one eighty, put
Speaker 2: one eighty into it, was that three sixty.
Speaker 3: The house is now worth well over four fifty. But
Speaker 3: I'm not selling it.
Speaker 2: I'm keeping it because it's going to con you to
Speaker 2: raise you know, my sister and her kids will live
Speaker 2: in here, and I'll like likely live in the condo
Speaker 2: that condo. You know. We're closing around the five hundred thousand,
Speaker 2: you know, Mark, but I suspect, you know, in five
Speaker 2: to ten years that place will be worth more. Although
Speaker 2: I'm not necessarily going to be selling it, you know.
Speaker 3: So I'm just.
Speaker 2: Saying that, Like, as you are pursuing the softer rich
Speaker 2: auntie life, it has to be fueled by financial wisdom,
Speaker 2: you know, So just keep that in mind as you're
Speaker 2: making these decisions that we're not just here like remember,
Speaker 2: you're here to tell money what to do, but you
Speaker 2: want to be telling your money what to do. Like, hey, money,
Speaker 2: this is the life I want to live. Let me
Speaker 2: be smart in these choices.
Speaker 3: So, but welcome sis. It's cute over here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank you so much for sending your question
Speaker 1: into Oh crap was her name? El Ela el Ell?
Speaker 1: That was really great of you to send a question.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I want to know. My follow
Speaker 1: up question is like, what was your curer pivot from
Speaker 1: being a school teacher? Because I love that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff and keep us posted all right on your journey
Speaker 1: rich auntie journey. I feel like we have a lot
Speaker 1: of rich and he's listening to Brown ambition.
Speaker 3: What girl?
Speaker 1: I is here for the rich aunt.
Speaker 3: I'm new to this riche auntie life. Well you know,
Speaker 3: well that's not true. I've been ever.
Speaker 2: I made it, but I wasn't married with Johnty. So
Speaker 2: now that I'm a single rich aunty, I'm like, what
Speaker 2: y'all do out here?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What else should I be up to? I'm I think
Speaker 2: I want to take up crocheting. I know that doesn't satisfancy,
Speaker 2: but I'm like, what happens is that.
Speaker 1: For Michelle Obama? It's good enough for anyone?
Speaker 3: Okay, you know, I'm in my.
Speaker 1: I'm in my we got food at home stage, the
Speaker 1: stage I'm in. Just ask my husband every day this week.
Speaker 1: I'm like, the menu will be leftovers. I love it
Speaker 1: all right, y'all. Well, we'll see y'all next week. For
Speaker 1: more Brown Ambition, send us your questions and we will
Speaker 1: see y'all later. Talk to you later. Bye,