Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, ba fam. Please follow us on Apple
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Speaker 1: and now onto our show.
Speaker 2: Heyba fam, I can't believe we've already passed the halfway
Speaker 2: mark to June. How have I survived this long without
Speaker 2: my girls? Any I'll tell you what these guest co
Speaker 2: hosts have been phenomenal. Everyone has been so gracious, so
Speaker 2: game to chat with me and open up about their
Speaker 2: financial journeys. And today's co host, I have to say,
Speaker 2: is no different. Jamila Souffran is the founder of Journey
Speaker 2: to Launch, which if you have not subscribed, stop this podcast. Okay, fine,
Speaker 2: you can probably multitask. So go to Apple or to
Speaker 2: Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts and go find
Speaker 2: her podcast and subscribe and follow. Jamila founded journey to
Speaker 2: launch in twenty sixteen, after she decided during her three
Speaker 2: hour commute yes from Brooklyn to New Jersey to her
Speaker 2: corporate six figure job, that she was done Capital d done.
Speaker 2: She eventually quit her corporate job after having her third
Speaker 2: beautiful child and went on her journey to retire early.
Speaker 2: It was along the way that Jamila realized, you know,
Speaker 2: retiring early didn't have to be something that was put
Speaker 2: on the backburn for ten, twenty, even thirty years. She
Speaker 2: decided to build the lifestyle today that would not only
Speaker 2: help her get to a place of financial independence, but
Speaker 2: actually help her find a career in a professional platform
Speaker 2: that would fulfill her in ways that her nine to
Speaker 2: five job just never could. I hope you guys enjoyed
Speaker 2: my conversation with Jamila and getting to know her a
Speaker 2: little bit better. I honestly think between the stories about
Speaker 2: her husband and my husband, and her journey to motherhood
Speaker 2: and the fact that she left Corporate America, I just
Speaker 2: felt like Jamila and I were talking to each other
Speaker 2: at the exact right time that I needed it. Please
Speaker 2: enjoy my conversation with Jamila, and if you haven't yet,
Speaker 2: go check her out on all social media. She's at
Speaker 2: Journey to Launch, and while you're at it, I have
Speaker 2: a little, tiny additional request for you, guys, whether you've
Speaker 2: been enjoying Brand Ambition for the entire six years we
Speaker 2: have been on the air, or even if you just
Speaker 2: found her podcast six days ago, we would really appreciate
Speaker 2: if you went to Apple podcast and left us a
Speaker 2: five star review. Right now, Brown Ambition honestly is not
Speaker 2: sitting where it deserves to be sitting. I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: go ahead and say it on the podcast rankings, not
Speaker 2: by a virtue of downloads. We get amazing downloads from
Speaker 2: our loyal listeners. Honestly, what's hurting us right now is
Speaker 2: the lack of fresh review. So it only takes a
Speaker 2: couple of seconds. Find Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to
Speaker 2: your you know, wherever your smartphone or your desktop computer is.
Speaker 2: Leave us a fire star review. Doesn't have to be long,
Speaker 2: can be five words, ten words, fifteen, one hundred words.
Speaker 2: If you're feeling, you know, very verbose, leave us a
Speaker 2: review and show your love for Brown Ambition. Let's get
Speaker 2: us to the top of the charts, y'all. I know,
Speaker 2: I know, I know. Bea fan will not let us down. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's it for me until we come back in a
Speaker 2: brief moment with today's show featuring Jamila Souffrant of Journey
Speaker 2: to Launch. Hey, Hey, hey, everybody, I am so excited
Speaker 2: to introduce you to this week's guest co host. I
Speaker 2: have to say this whole guest co host situation has
Speaker 2: been a little well, well, first, I was a little
Speaker 2: bit nervous to have someone in the chair besides Tiffany,
Speaker 2: but it has been so amazing to talk to these
Speaker 2: these wonderful personalities, these wonderful personal finance nerds, people who
Speaker 2: have made it. There's their life's mission, just like we
Speaker 2: have to really encourage folks to build wealth and take
Speaker 2: control of their finances. And today's co host is no different.
Speaker 2: Jamila Souffran, thank you so much for joining Brown Ambition.
Speaker 3: Hi, Mandy, this is so exciting for me. So I
Speaker 3: can't even tell you.
Speaker 2: Hey, you're finally here. Yes, podcast sisters from Afar, So
Speaker 2: tell me everything about you. Okay, So first and foremost,
Speaker 2: I know I'm gonna do your little intro separately, but
Speaker 2: your podcast is called Journey to Launch. What came first?
Speaker 2: Was it your was it your blog? Journey to launch?
Speaker 2: Was it the podcast? You know, did you did you
Speaker 2: discover financial independence, retire early movement and then launch the podcast?
Speaker 2: Tell me everything I want to know about the Jamila origin.
Speaker 3: Well, it's like what came first, a journey or the launch?
Speaker 3: So okay, for me, it's always a journey. Is the
Speaker 3: first part of the process. I really discovered financial independence
Speaker 3: and this idea about financial freedom and just optimizing your
Speaker 3: finances because I was not happy at my job. I
Speaker 3: had a nine to five, a crazy commute and was
Speaker 3: commuting from Brooklyn to New Jersey every day and I
Speaker 3: was doing that for years. So yeah, in my early twenties,
Speaker 3: that's what I did. I graduated from school, got full
Speaker 3: time job, and it was always a commute from Brooklyn
Speaker 3: to New Jersey. But that was when I didn't have
Speaker 3: any kids. That was when I was single, you know,
Speaker 3: it was I had more capacity for that. But I
Speaker 3: always had these dreams that I'd be free, Like I
Speaker 3: was one of those kids that I grew up and
Speaker 3: I just felt like I thought differently. I just didn't
Speaker 3: like following the rules, and so I never imagined myself
Speaker 3: working in a corporate environment forever, Like even if that
Speaker 3: was going to be the case. I was going to
Speaker 3: be done by thirty. That was my goal when I
Speaker 3: started to work full time at twenty two. I'm going
Speaker 3: to find a way to escape this cubicle life by
Speaker 3: thirty years old. And then life happened. Started to make
Speaker 3: a little bit more money in my career bills, and
Speaker 3: I couldn't really figure out, how am I not going
Speaker 3: to work and pay for the lifestyle I want and
Speaker 3: live like everyone around me works until they retire. Everyone
Speaker 3: around me is not happy. So who am I to
Speaker 3: like want more? And it was really when I was
Speaker 3: commuting again in my early thirties. So now I've been
Speaker 3: working in corporate America for a while. I missed this
Speaker 3: deadline of quitting my job by thirty. Now I'm thirty one,
Speaker 3: pregnant with my first son on this commute from failure.
Speaker 2: You know I give it up.
Speaker 3: Well, you know I'm listening. I'm ambitious, I have that
Speaker 3: brown ambition.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I was like, okay, thirty one, non pregnant, and
Speaker 3: this commute usually it takes me an hour and a
Speaker 3: half two hours one way driving. Okay, this commute one
Speaker 3: way when I was pregnant with my first son. It
Speaker 3: was like three four hours, no lie of just traffic everywhere,
Speaker 3: and I remember like breaking down in the car, you know,
Speaker 3: just crying, hormones raging, and I was like, I'm not
Speaker 3: doing this. I can't do this. So do those feel
Speaker 3: of wanting to be free really swallow up in me again?
Speaker 3: And I feel like I awoke in from this sleepwalking
Speaker 3: life that I was living, and I said to myself,
Speaker 3: there's no way that I want to do this rest
Speaker 3: of my life. I have to figure out something else.
Speaker 3: And so I started to when I got home, when
Speaker 3: I got to work, you know, over the next couple
Speaker 3: of months, how do I quit my job? How do
Speaker 3: I retire? Early all these catchphrases that you you know,
Speaker 3: put into Google when you may not be happy with
Speaker 3: what you're doing. And I came across podcasts and blogs
Speaker 3: talking about financial independence and freedom and I said, wait
Speaker 3: a second, if there are people out there doing this,
Speaker 3: I can figure out a way. And so that's essentially
Speaker 3: how I started to become aware of this as an option,
Speaker 3: financial independence. And then I started to listed to the
Speaker 3: blogs and podcasts on my community, which then shaped me
Speaker 3: into starting my own blog, Journey to Launch, which eventually
Speaker 3: became the podcast and brand and what I do full time.
Speaker 2: Now, Okay, wow, that was a great summary, but it
Speaker 2: made it sound like it was just like lick at
Speaker 2: it split. I was pregnant and then I had a
Speaker 2: blog and a podcast. But what year was it? I
Speaker 2: like to I like the timeline of things. So when
Speaker 2: was this? When was this breakdown in your car? By
Speaker 2: the way, my pregnancy hormonal breakdowns usually happened during an
Speaker 2: Ed Sheering song whenever Ed Shearing came with it something
Speaker 2: about his ginger voice. It just really touched my soul.
Speaker 2: But anyway, yeah, so when was that breakdown? And then
Speaker 2: when did you actually launch the platform?
Speaker 3: Great question, so let me try to remember all the
Speaker 3: dates now. But I was so I gave birth to
Speaker 3: my first in twenty fourteen, and so this would have
Speaker 3: been about twenty thirteen at some point, and I would
Speaker 3: say this, So I told the story, and it seems
Speaker 3: like I just you know, jumped and skipped and everything
Speaker 3: worked out and it was clear, But it wasn't. I
Speaker 3: didn't start Journey to Launch as a blog until a
Speaker 3: couple years later, so you know, I sat on it
Speaker 3: for a while because I didn't know what I wanted
Speaker 3: to do with it, and I didn't want to be
Speaker 3: like the face. I didn't know that this would be
Speaker 3: my thing, like my business, my brand. It was more, Hey,
Speaker 3: I'm listening to these people do it. I'm going to
Speaker 3: start doing it myself and then let me share how
Speaker 3: I'm doing it. And so it wasn't I think the
Speaker 3: blog officially started. I always get this mixed up, like
Speaker 3: two thousand and sixteen, I want to say, so it
Speaker 3: did take a couple of years to actually like put
Speaker 3: pen to paper or is this, you know, make a
Speaker 3: blog post about it. Hey, this is how I'm going
Speaker 3: to quit my job and reach financial impendance. By forty
Speaker 3: that was like my timeline and I had I was
Speaker 3: with my second kid by then, so I have three
Speaker 3: kids all together now. So there were a lot of
Speaker 3: you know, things that happened along the way that even
Speaker 3: encouraged me more to figure things out than the podcast
Speaker 3: though became the Well, the blog became the podcast officially
Speaker 3: in twenty seventeen, So it took a couple of years
Speaker 3: for that to all happen.
Speaker 2: Wow. Well, from one solo, I was what was I
Speaker 2: trying to think of, Like the people in the slobble
Speaker 2: chairs at work, you know, using the company Wi Fi
Speaker 2: to launcher side hustle, Like I really, I see you,
Speaker 2: I feel you. That was me when I launched Brown Ambition.
Speaker 2: So that's amazing. And you also had three kids along
Speaker 2: the way. All right, so that's your goal then to
Speaker 2: retire officially by forty.
Speaker 3: Well okay, So here's the thing. This is the beauty
Speaker 3: of what I call the unfolding of the journey is
Speaker 3: because when I started Journey to Launch, I said I'm
Speaker 3: going to reach financial independence my version of it, by
Speaker 3: the way, which meant I didn't have to work in
Speaker 3: corporate America. I can literally choose what I wanted to do.
Speaker 3: We can live off our investments, I will say, because
Speaker 3: I don't like when people leave things like this out.
Speaker 3: I do have a husband. He did intend to still work.
Speaker 3: He's a teacher, and so it was like a combination
Speaker 3: of him still working but also us living off our
Speaker 3: investments and or me earning money however I wanted to.
Speaker 3: But the premise was that literally if we didn't want
Speaker 3: to work, or if I didn't want to work and
Speaker 3: bring in any money, we didn't have to. And then eventually,
Speaker 3: like my idea of what financial freedom and independence meant
Speaker 3: to me changed because I started to have this thing
Speaker 3: on the side, Journey to Launch. I had a very
Speaker 3: demanding corporate career, was having more kids, and I said
Speaker 3: to myself, there's no way I'm not even going to
Speaker 3: sacrifice the next four years juggling this all and being unhappy,
Speaker 3: this two hour commute one way, these kids, this job,
Speaker 3: this business on the side. Something has to go. And
Speaker 3: you know, the kids weren't going to go, the husband
Speaker 3: wasn't going to go, and I love Journey to Launch,
Speaker 3: So it was the job. And so I actually made
Speaker 3: the big decision for myself and the family that I
Speaker 3: would leave my job right after giving birth to my
Speaker 3: third child in twenty eighteen, which would change everything about
Speaker 3: my journey because I could have stayed working in corporate
Speaker 3: America kind of getting this so called guaranteed income, you know,
Speaker 3: climbing the corporate ladder, and just it's all about the money.
Speaker 3: I don't care how stressed I am, Like, I'm going
Speaker 3: to make this money in this short amount of time,
Speaker 3: save and invest as much as I can. Then we
Speaker 3: reach our financial goals. And along the way, I said
Speaker 3: to myself, you know what is not worth it. I'd
Speaker 3: rather have a more sustained and balanced journey to freedom.
Speaker 3: So if that means making less because this business is
Speaker 3: not coming, you know, having a lot of money. You know,
Speaker 3: my husband's a teacher, so his income was not going
Speaker 3: to cover everything when I left my job, So that
Speaker 3: meant dipping into our savings and not investing, it was
Speaker 3: all worth it because for me, it was about freedom
Speaker 3: in the now. I didn't want to wait. To me,
Speaker 3: it was like, you know, some people say, oh, I'll
Speaker 3: just work this job until I'm sixty five and then
Speaker 3: I'll be happy. And I said to myself, while I
Speaker 3: find myself on this path to financial independence. The one
Speaker 3: thing I didn't say is when we started out and
Speaker 3: we were both working in our jobs, we were able
Speaker 3: to save a lot of money because I had a
Speaker 3: high paying job. My husband was a teacher, and so
Speaker 3: we in two years saved and invested one hundred and
Speaker 3: sixty nine thousand dollars. Now, of course that is a
Speaker 3: function of our income and just how kind of hard
Speaker 3: we went in the paint to do that. But I
Speaker 3: said to myself, it's okay if we don't ever do
Speaker 3: that again, because right now, as a mom of going
Speaker 3: on three kids. I'm wanting freedom, finding my passion finally
Speaker 3: with journey to launch. This is what matters the most,
Speaker 3: not the money. And so I always say that me
Speaker 3: quitting my job and jumping into entrepreneurship full time either
Speaker 3: has delayed the number side to financial independence. So maybe
Speaker 3: it will take longer now that you know there's no
Speaker 3: guaranteed income. Anything could happen, or it can accelerate it,
Speaker 3: which I actually think it's accelerating it at this point
Speaker 3: because I am working in my strengths and passion and
Speaker 3: I do believe that with that flow comes money, comes
Speaker 3: all the things that you do want. So yeah, my
Speaker 3: version of financial independence and how I'm getting there has changed,
Speaker 3: and I'm excited about.
Speaker 2: It, manifest it. I love this. Well, Okay, there's so
Speaker 2: much to unpack with what you just said, but the
Speaker 2: most the key thing that my heart is just you know,
Speaker 2: growing ten times its size as you're talking, is the
Speaker 2: concept of waight like that that that analogy of someone
Speaker 2: who wants to you know, just thinks of themselves. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to keep working. I'm just I got
Speaker 2: this job. There's a pension in twenty Maybe if you're
Speaker 2: lucky there's a pension or you know, you'll get your
Speaker 2: Social Security income. I'm just going to like keep working
Speaker 2: until I'm sixty two or sixty five. But what like
Speaker 2: that time isn't promised. And what I love about you know,
Speaker 2: your message and what it seems like you've chosen for
Speaker 2: yourself is no, let's let's build the life that we
Speaker 2: enjoy that fulfills us. Now that also is a financially
Speaker 2: fulfilling life as much as it is you know, mentally
Speaker 2: fulfilling life, and then you know, whatever happens happens. But
Speaker 2: like like it's like not waiting to be happy, it's
Speaker 2: making it's taking risks and making decisions today to get
Speaker 2: to where you want to go, but to actually enjoy
Speaker 2: the life that you're living now. I just I love
Speaker 2: that and I've that's exactly sort of how I've approached
Speaker 2: my career as well. It's like time isn't promise. Something
Speaker 2: about having a baby just makes you think of yes, death,
Speaker 2: aholl the time and I don't know, like like what happens,
Speaker 2: Like their life is so you know, their childhood is
Speaker 2: so short, and you know it's it's like, why let's
Speaker 2: not wait let's let's make it happen.
Speaker 3: And you know, I find with being a parent too,
Speaker 3: you just you want to be I want to be
Speaker 3: a living example of what I want for them, and
Speaker 3: you know, I want them to be happy, I want
Speaker 3: them to be self sufficient. I want them to be
Speaker 3: all these things in the world. And I can't really
Speaker 3: tell them to go out and you know, follow their dreams,
Speaker 3: be self sufficient if I can't do that, you know,
Speaker 3: if I'm not a walking testament to that. So that's
Speaker 3: kind of like one of my main reasons. I want
Speaker 3: to show them what's possible.
Speaker 2: So you also got invested in property, So I know
Speaker 2: you mentioned you and your husband saved one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty nine thousand dollars or invested rather that's phenomenal. But
Speaker 2: I read a little bit about you. I know you
Speaker 2: and I have chatta before. I've google stocked you just
Speaker 2: a little bit. And I know that you bought property
Speaker 2: when you were super young. Can you talk about whether,
Speaker 2: like what that decision was like for you and kind
Speaker 2: of walk us through how you were able to buy
Speaker 2: property young? And you know, I don't know how many
Speaker 2: years it's been since then, but a chunk of time
Speaker 2: has gone by, and certainly a few kids have gone
Speaker 2: by since then, and how that investment is working out
Speaker 2: for you today. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I put down on my first property at twenty two.
Speaker 3: So it's a condo in Dumbo, Brooklyn. So anyone who's
Speaker 3: not from New York City, that sounds for down under
Speaker 3: the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. So it's the Academics for Dumbo.
Speaker 3: And it came about because one, I was interested in
Speaker 3: real estate from a fairly young age, like in my teens,
Speaker 3: because of examples in my own neighborhood and in my
Speaker 3: real life that owned real estate. Now I got to
Speaker 3: just step back a little bit. So I am Jamaican.
Speaker 3: I was born in Jamaica, the island, not Queens, nothing
Speaker 3: wrong with the borough Queens. But I was born on
Speaker 3: the island of Jamaica and came here when I was
Speaker 3: two years old and born into a single mom who
Speaker 3: had me at And that's important to say because she
Speaker 3: had to come here first and to kind of like
Speaker 3: establish herself and leave me behind at like eight months old,
Speaker 3: which I can't even imagine how she did it, but
Speaker 3: I kind of can. As a mom, you know, she
Speaker 3: just had to forge and figure things out to have
Speaker 3: a better start for me. And with saying all that
Speaker 3: we came to this country with nothing, and the eventually
Speaker 3: she she got her education, got her college education, and
Speaker 3: then her education was really important for me, you know,
Speaker 3: as most immigrants like that is like the way, the
Speaker 3: path to something more. So I focused on education. And
Speaker 3: while growing up, I saw my grandmother who really came
Speaker 3: like as older Jamaican woman, typically you can't really do much,
Speaker 3: you know, like other than wash, you know, clothes, her
Speaker 3: take care of children, like that's what typically the older
Speaker 3: generation did. And she came to this country with nothing
Speaker 3: and ended up being able to buy a home in
Speaker 3: the area that also was like up and coming in Brooklyn,
Speaker 3: and so I kind of saw that happen. I saw
Speaker 3: how hard she worked. I saw her hard and my
Speaker 3: mom worked, and so I had this idea, wow, real estate,
Speaker 3: Like if my grandmother could do this with the little
Speaker 3: that she had, I maybe this is something I can do.
Speaker 3: And so that was important for me to see because
Speaker 3: people asked me, how did you know at such a
Speaker 3: young age that you wanted to buy something? It was
Speaker 3: because of these living examples in my life. And so
Speaker 3: at twenty two, I had this really bright idea that
Speaker 3: I wanted to own a Brownstone in Brooklyn, and I
Speaker 3: was really going for things like in Bedstide Fort Green,
Speaker 3: but at the time, being twenty two, like, I could
Speaker 3: not afford any of that stuff, and I saw an
Speaker 3: advertisement for this new development. It was pre construction, actually
Speaker 3: condominium units in Dumbo, Brooklyn. So this was before Dumbo
Speaker 3: is what it is now. Like now it's like one
Speaker 3: of the most expensive places like in like Brooklyn and
Speaker 3: New York City. And before back then, when I was looking,
Speaker 3: it was just like a pile of dirt. There was
Speaker 3: nothing there, no development, but it was like condos raging
Speaker 3: studios from like the low three hundreds to like upwards
Speaker 3: of you know whatever. But in comparison to the Brownstones
Speaker 3: I was looking at, it seemed like a deal, even
Speaker 3: though it was like such a small studio apartment. And
Speaker 3: so I went there with my mom and I said,
Speaker 3: you know what I want. I believed in the vision
Speaker 3: that the developers had for the area and for the building,
Speaker 3: and so I put down ten percent to hold that
Speaker 3: unit while it was being built, and so the property
Speaker 3: it took like two years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and how old were you twenty?
Speaker 3: I was twenty two, when I put the money down,
Speaker 3: and I always got to give props to my mom
Speaker 3: because she gave me a little portion of the ten percent.
Speaker 3: And I say that's important because this woman came here
Speaker 3: with nothing before she even owned property. She gave me
Speaker 3: money to help me buy my property. And so that
Speaker 3: ten percent held the unit and then I had two
Speaker 3: years until it was completed to come up with the
Speaker 3: next ten percent the closing costs and.
Speaker 2: To couple my son was given.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the unit was three hundred and eighty five
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, so ten percent was thirty eight thousand dollars
Speaker 3: and I had to we had to put down ten percent.
Speaker 3: And at that point, like that was like literally everything
Speaker 3: I ever had. And the reason why I had any
Speaker 3: money was because I had an internship at with Inroads,
Speaker 3: which I put minorities into Fortune five hundred companies, and
Speaker 3: I was working. I was doing that in summer, making
Speaker 3: decent money for like an eighteen nineteen twenty year old
Speaker 3: for the last three years. And I was a saver
Speaker 3: because my mom and grandma grandmother always taught me to save,
Speaker 3: so I had some money to save up for that.
Speaker 3: My mom also gave me money and so that helped
Speaker 3: with the first ten percent, but it was not done
Speaker 3: like that's not like, oh, we have the property, We're
Speaker 3: good now. It was now you need to come up
Speaker 3: with the next ten percent in two years to you know,
Speaker 3: close on it and the closing costs and also technically
Speaker 3: my income. So one of the saving graces was that
Speaker 3: I knew when I was graduating from college I would
Speaker 3: get a full time offer from the company that I
Speaker 3: interned with, so I knew i'd had like a job.
Speaker 3: But when I did the calculation, my income at that
Speaker 3: point was going to barely cover like the mortgage when
Speaker 3: we calculated it. But in my head, I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: if I can save up enough, if I like save
Speaker 3: up for the next two years while this thing is
Speaker 3: being built all my money, if I lived at home,
Speaker 3: which I was able to do with my mom, God,
Speaker 3: like I said, God bless my mother, then I could
Speaker 3: maybe have a fighting chance to like actually close on
Speaker 3: this and not lose our ten percent and like live
Speaker 3: there and then I should make more money and hopefully
Speaker 3: this place appreciates and we'll be okay. Hey, And I
Speaker 3: will tell you, Mandy, like all the stars aligned the
Speaker 3: grace of God that yes, It worked out because in
Speaker 3: the two years that it took to build, I was
Speaker 3: able to save up the additional money to close on it,
Speaker 3: the additional ten percent, and then extra to cover my
Speaker 3: mortgage because my literally my my checks were like just
Speaker 3: covering the mortgage. And I will tell you this just
Speaker 3: like the last thing about this is, you know, with
Speaker 3: the collapse of with the collapse of the markets back then,
Speaker 3: So this was like around twenty fifteen, you know when
Speaker 3: the markets Wait, what year was it that the market?
Speaker 3: Two thousand and eight, Yes, crisis, Yeah, the housing crisis. Okay,
Speaker 3: so yeah, I need to go back further, lists, go
Speaker 3: back further. Two thousand and eight. They were doing no
Speaker 3: loan doc closings at that time, which is why so
Speaker 3: many people got in trouble, right, because they bought things
Speaker 3: they couldn't afford. I was one of those people, Like
Speaker 3: if they would have checked my salary stubs, they would
Speaker 3: have like.
Speaker 2: Just about to ask, how did you get this loan?
Speaker 3: Exactly? So I'm telling you, like the stars aligned, the
Speaker 3: grace of God, all these things worked out in my
Speaker 3: favorite because literally I was not really supposed to be
Speaker 3: able to close on that, but I took the risk
Speaker 3: because I said to myself, listen, like the worst case scenario,
Speaker 3: like look where you come from, Look where your moms
Speaker 3: come from. Like the worst Yes, you lose like your
Speaker 3: down payment, but maybe like at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: you can sell it before you have to close on it,
Speaker 3: but without any risk, there's no reward. And so I
Speaker 3: really did go into this like almost like with everything
Speaker 3: that I had, and it worked out. So by the
Speaker 3: time I ended up closing one, I was able to
Speaker 3: close because for no loan mortgage document process. And then
Speaker 3: also it did appreciate, so I knew at the end
Speaker 3: of the day once I moved in, like let's just
Speaker 3: say I couldn't cover the mortgage after a while, like
Speaker 3: I could sell it or rent it out, but the
Speaker 3: real estate market had to bounce back a bit, and
Speaker 3: so I was in a good place. And I still
Speaker 3: own that property today. And I will say that that
Speaker 3: is the riskiest but most rewarding thing I've ever done.
Speaker 3: It's changed the trajectory I feel of my confidence and
Speaker 3: my family's like wealth because I planned like to keep
Speaker 3: it forever. It's more of an emotional purchase and I
Speaker 3: have small kids and there's there's not too many people
Speaker 3: who look like me that own in Dumbo, in that building,
Speaker 3: And so I'm just excited for my kids to be
Speaker 3: able to one day, you know, share it because they
Speaker 3: probably fight over it, but share it in terms of
Speaker 3: likeaby to live as their first starting place or maybe
Speaker 3: when they have going they're going to college if they're local.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited to have it.
Speaker 2: They get to be those kids that other kids hate.
Speaker 2: Oh no, their mommy not hate, but like, oh, their
Speaker 2: mom has a studio in Dumbo, Like they don't have
Speaker 2: to work that hard.
Speaker 3: Well no, but I get it because somebody and I
Speaker 3: get like I have had and I was like to
Speaker 3: acknowledge like my privilege in a way, like there's a
Speaker 3: lot of things like I didn't have growing up, but
Speaker 3: I did have some privileges, and I think it's important
Speaker 3: to acknowledge that and see that like for what they are.
Speaker 3: But then I think about my mom who had nothing,
Speaker 3: and so maybe someone can't relate they don't have a
Speaker 3: supportive parent, they don't have a parent that can give them, like,
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of thousand to help with their
Speaker 3: down payment. But then I think about like where my
Speaker 3: mom came from, as like literally a single mom with nothing,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, wow, Like, but you can change your
Speaker 3: family's trajectory. You can't do something else. And I just
Speaker 3: feel like if my mom was able to do it,
Speaker 3: not even me, Like, if my mom was able to
Speaker 3: do what she did, I'm like, you are my inspiration.
Speaker 3: I can do anything.
Speaker 2: Wow. Well, I have a soft spot in my heart
Speaker 2: for Jamaican mamas because I feel like I have three
Speaker 2: Jamaican neighbors and they like before, I was a little
Speaker 2: freaked out because when I was pregnant with my son
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, my especially one neighbor, Paula, Oh,
Speaker 2: I love her so much. She basically started calling him
Speaker 2: her son and called me her daughter. And I was like,
Speaker 2: who is this nice lady? But like she is all
Speaker 2: she is. But they they just care so much, like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, they care and they love. So that
Speaker 2: is my That is my shout out to all Jamaican
Speaker 2: mamas out there.
Speaker 3: Because Paula's such a Jamaican name too.
Speaker 2: Pault Yes, Oh, she's got a whole I should have
Speaker 2: paul Otte in the show one day. She's like one
Speaker 2: of eleven. Anyway, I digress. Yeah, Jamaican mama's but no,
Speaker 2: that that's really extraordinary and listen and it's it's one
Speaker 2: of those things where, oh, to be twenty two and
Speaker 2: to have the to have the audacity and the bravery
Speaker 2: the courage to make a huge decision like that, and
Speaker 2: that's just amazing. It's amazing, and you could never like
Speaker 2: recreate that time in your life before kids, before a husband,
Speaker 2: like when you are just doing things for yourself and
Speaker 2: you you just believed in yourself so much like you
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, that was really you.
Speaker 2: It feels like taking a bet on your own cap,
Speaker 2: like your own human capital. Yeah, I'm going to even
Speaker 2: And you were like the mortgage lender in a sense
Speaker 2: because even though they weren't checking your income like you
Speaker 2: were doing it and you knew what you were getting into.
Speaker 2: And you said, I know this is a sticky situation,
Speaker 2: but I know me, I know my prospects, and I
Speaker 2: know that I can do this. And you really did.
Speaker 2: You took a chance on yourself in a really beautiful way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think this is a thing like
Speaker 3: this is why personal finance, like on paper, if you
Speaker 3: would have listed everything, all these things out and like
Speaker 3: this is not a good idea and I think personal
Speaker 3: finance and these decisions that we have to make. It's
Speaker 3: really about having this almost belief in yourself that you
Speaker 3: when things go wrong, Because I did think of the
Speaker 3: worst case scenario, and I said to myself, will I
Speaker 3: be able to recover? And I was like, I will,
Speaker 3: Like I won't die. I do this soll even now
Speaker 3: when I'm coming up with big decisions, I'm like, what's
Speaker 3: the worst that can happen? And will you be alive still,
Speaker 3: you know, other than something out of side of your control,
Speaker 3: And most likely it's yes. And so I'm able to
Speaker 3: take risk and I still take risk like this, like
Speaker 3: leaving my job, like all these things, because I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna bet on myself and I'm telling you, like
Speaker 3: I would not be and have what I have today
Speaker 3: without obviously standing on the shoulders of my mom obviously,
Speaker 3: and then also just like this belief in myself and
Speaker 3: going after it.
Speaker 2: So you mentioned your your husband, you're your husban. Everyone's
Speaker 2: got a Husbane. I call my husband husby. Listen. I
Speaker 2: feel like we have a lot in common just in
Speaker 2: the way that our relationships maybe have played out. But
Speaker 2: you tell me if I'm wrong. But my husband works
Speaker 2: for the government and he's always been our you know,
Speaker 2: he likes to call himself a stable one. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm going to keep my job, I'm going to get
Speaker 2: my pension. You know, it's very secure his his job,
Speaker 2: and he'll get his little raise every once in a while.
Speaker 2: But it's not the you know, the way I approached
Speaker 2: my career was sort of like I didn't think of
Speaker 2: it as like a corporate ladder. I pretended like every
Speaker 2: three rungs were just empty and I had to skip
Speaker 2: a few rungs to get to the next one, and
Speaker 2: I would just hop all over the place. And he,
Speaker 2: you know, he has been you know, we have very
Speaker 2: different approaches to I would say career into finance. But
Speaker 2: it's been a pretty good balance. Although there have been
Speaker 2: those times when I had the next big idea, or
Speaker 2: I have I'm going into a salary negotiation and I'm
Speaker 2: asking for way more money than he ever thought was possible,
Speaker 2: and we have these different Yeah, there's just fundamental ways
Speaker 2: that we approach our finances were a little bit different,
Speaker 2: but it is a good balance. I wanted to ask about,
Speaker 2: you know, you and your husband's dynamic because you have
Speaker 2: this ambition to retire early and to you know, you
Speaker 2: left your job and all of that. What was what
Speaker 2: were those conversations like for the two of you And
Speaker 2: was he always on board with it from the jump
Speaker 2: or was that something that you guys kind of had
Speaker 2: to grow into together, Especially for or couples who are listening,
Speaker 2: or people who have partners who are listening and aren't
Speaker 2: really sure how to like match their two long term
Speaker 2: plans together.
Speaker 3: This is so important because he was He looked at
Speaker 3: me like I was crazy, because he is a very
Speaker 3: simple man and he's very easy going. Right. So, and
Speaker 3: you know, again, when i came to him a few
Speaker 3: years ago and I'm telling him about all these stories
Speaker 3: on podcasts I'm hearing people retiring and quitting their jobs,
Speaker 3: He's just like, really, because I don't what are we
Speaker 3: gonna do? Like what are you talking about? And it
Speaker 3: really took some conversations to get him to kind of see.
Speaker 3: And one of the things I always say with couples
Speaker 3: is like, don't like I had to show him one
Speaker 3: the numbers, the numbers for him, even for me, like
Speaker 3: I had to believe the numbers, meaning I had to
Speaker 3: map out Really is this possible. Will I be able
Speaker 3: to one day quit my job early? How much money
Speaker 3: can we save and invest if we aggressively do this,
Speaker 3: if we cut back, if we become more optimized in
Speaker 3: our finances, how much money can we have? So literally,
Speaker 3: when I came home and told him the first time,
Speaker 3: he looked at me like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 3: And then over time what I did was I didn't
Speaker 3: push him to this is really important. Just because you
Speaker 3: come up with the realization or have an epiphany doesn't
Speaker 3: mean like your partner world they have they have They're
Speaker 3: on a whole another timeline. So I respected that, but
Speaker 3: also started to show him, like the numbers, Like I
Speaker 3: created this spreadsheet, and it showed like, if we do this, like,
Speaker 3: first of all, step back from the spreadsheet, what does
Speaker 3: a life look like now that we enjoy and what
Speaker 3: does the life look like now in like twenty years,
Speaker 3: right when the kids are this age, and like they're
Speaker 3: at the house and we can travel, and how can
Speaker 3: we balance that now? So we started with the dream
Speaker 3: of our lives, what they are now and what we
Speaker 3: want them to be, and then we like did numbers
Speaker 3: around it, and I showed him, well, if we do
Speaker 3: this make these changes in our finances, save and invest
Speaker 3: this much over time, we can have you know, over
Speaker 3: a million dollars in twenty years, and we can do
Speaker 3: all these things. And that started to get him excited
Speaker 3: because instead of me just saying it and talking, he
Speaker 3: saw the numbers. And then the other thing I really
Speaker 3: was important to say was yeah, I want to do this,
Speaker 3: so I quit my job. But also, like you know,
Speaker 3: I'm the mom. I'm I'm the one giving birth and
Speaker 3: having three kids. I also have the crazy commute. See
Speaker 3: my husband his job is maybe like ten minutes away
Speaker 3: from our house. So he also knew the pressure of
Speaker 3: just like my life, and he wanted me to be happy.
Speaker 3: And so I made sure that like, oh, not only
Speaker 3: like we were going to pursue what I wanted, like
Speaker 3: in terms of a career or quitting my job, but
Speaker 3: what is it that you want? So I definitely we
Speaker 3: made sure that include his wants and hopes like into
Speaker 3: what we were doing. You know, I don't really care
Speaker 3: about having a nice car. We used to have nice
Speaker 3: cars quote unquote back in the day before kids and
Speaker 3: getting a little bit more optimized with our finances. But
Speaker 3: I say, look, if I can I want to buy
Speaker 3: you a car, you know, Like it was things like
Speaker 3: that that got him excited. So that way we both were.
Speaker 2: That was my way into baby. I said, save for
Speaker 2: a Tesla. Let's was for a tesla. Yeah, let's investing
Speaker 2: for a Tesla.
Speaker 3: It's so important because he is a little bit more
Speaker 3: like fancier, I would say, than me right, like I'm
Speaker 3: good with kind of just like bare minimum, but sometimes fancy.
Speaker 3: He's like, if I could do it fancy all the time,
Speaker 3: I would, So talking about it in that term really
Speaker 3: helped to let him know that this is a team effort.
Speaker 3: It's not just about what Jamila wants. And also like
Speaker 3: if I'm miserable because I'm working and driving all this time,
Speaker 3: like those whole family is not gonna be like happy.
Speaker 3: So let's work to a place that we can get to.
Speaker 3: And so he eventually got on board with that. But
Speaker 3: he's very easy going and laid back. Thank God for
Speaker 3: that in terms of he pretty much trust me. We
Speaker 3: have the open conversations about it, and even when it
Speaker 3: came to quitting my job, because that was huge, like
Speaker 3: my income was more than half of the family's combined income,
Speaker 3: and so like it would almost been better if I
Speaker 3: was a teacher and then he had his career, because then,
Speaker 3: like you know, he can kind of stay on his trajectory.
Speaker 3: But for me to walk away, it was like a
Speaker 3: big step because what does that look like as a family.
Speaker 3: We have three kids, we have a mortgage, like so
Speaker 3: we literally had to save up enough money to cover
Speaker 3: our expenses while journey to launch like started to you know,
Speaker 3: become more stable, and that was scary, but we did
Speaker 3: it together. We had the conversation and it's it's working
Speaker 3: out so far.
Speaker 2: So that's no, that's wonderful. I also have always been
Speaker 2: it's so funny how the you know, in no shade
Speaker 2: to your husband. I always talk to my husband. I'm like, dude,
Speaker 2: you work for the government and you have the boogiest
Speaker 2: taste of like where do you come off with this?
Speaker 2: Like what He's like, I must he has like this
Speaker 2: very specific T shirt brand. He gets custom shirts. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm the one shopping in the clearance track at H
Speaker 2: and M. But the same as you, I I we
Speaker 2: I was I was earning probably like two three x
Speaker 2: what he was earning at the at my peak earning
Speaker 2: career in you know, corporate America, so to speak. But
Speaker 2: that's so that's so funny, and it's also you know,
Speaker 2: shouts out to shout out to partners. You know, I
Speaker 2: don't put genders on and but partners who are willing
Speaker 2: to maybe maybe they have their doubts, but they just
Speaker 2: you know, have those in the shower alone. They they
Speaker 2: support and they you know, have faith in their partners
Speaker 2: to to really bet on themselves and to take their
Speaker 2: career to a different place. That's really wonderful that he's
Speaker 2: been supportive to you, and I I appreciate you talking
Speaker 2: about the whole the values you know, and how you
Speaker 2: as a partner. I've struggled with this too, probably a
Speaker 2: little bit more than it sounds like you did. But
Speaker 2: I was like, it was very hard for me to
Speaker 2: start to share in the values based investing. Like so
Speaker 2: for example, you know, I had no problem spending money
Speaker 2: on values or experiences that I particularly wanted to have,
Speaker 2: but when it came to a you know, if it
Speaker 2: was a car or you know, uh, I don't know,
Speaker 2: concert or something that you know, Enrique really wanted it was,
Speaker 2: it was like, hmmm, it's not really worth it. And
Speaker 2: I had to had to learn to share in that
Speaker 2: I was. That was probably my one of the more
Speaker 2: difficult challenges for me financially and like mentally as a
Speaker 2: spouse was bringing them in and being open to you know,
Speaker 2: they're what they value and not not discounting it and
Speaker 2: making that a part of the overall plan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's important. Just like for me,
Speaker 3: I think as growing up without really you know, I
Speaker 3: didn't have a father in my life, or I had
Speaker 3: father figures, I didn't really have a close relationship with them,
Speaker 3: and so I was like for me, the value based
Speaker 3: things like the simple even though I say he's fancy,
Speaker 3: like the other things that he's about, which is like family,
Speaker 3: and he's very grounded and supportive. Like it's like one
Speaker 3: of the first signs like I saw in him, like
Speaker 3: when we first started dating years ago, that I said, like,
Speaker 3: out of all the things I want in someone, it
Speaker 3: would be the opposite of what I knew my dad
Speaker 3: to be. And so I think, whatever that is. I
Speaker 3: know some people meet people like that and they are
Speaker 3: not they don't turn out to be this way eventually.
Speaker 3: But he that's what he is and who he is.
Speaker 3: And so even as an entrepreneur and now like I know,
Speaker 3: like having three kids, like he is an equal partner
Speaker 3: in the house and in parenting. I still feel like
Speaker 3: I do a little bit more, but I feel like
Speaker 3: he is as much equal as outside of my controlling
Speaker 3: self he can be in terms of how I like
Speaker 3: things done. And it's been when people say how do
Speaker 3: you do this? Like how did you manage all that
Speaker 3: stuff when you were working and commuting and the kids,
Speaker 3: and how do you even do it now? As like
Speaker 3: a business owner and with the kids, It's like, well,
Speaker 3: because I leave, he's an equal partner in this, and
Speaker 3: that has a lot to do with I think how
Speaker 3: it allows me to make money and be happy, and
Speaker 3: how our household lives and how we choose to spend money.
Speaker 3: So I'm proud of the fact that I chose I
Speaker 3: chose him as my husband.
Speaker 2: Oh what's his name, Woody? Oh that is adorable. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's really adorable. So let's talk about them babies as brat,
Speaker 2: Carrey says, let's talk about the kids. So what are
Speaker 2: their ages? Have to ask?
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, my gosh, So all the birthdays are coming
Speaker 3: up or have passed. So one just turned three, one
Speaker 3: just turned five, and one is turning seven tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, three to seven. So they all still are
Speaker 2: just like attached to Mama and they don't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like, look, they don't care about anything but themselves.
Speaker 3: It's like you should see this house, like every morning.
Speaker 3: It's like it's crazy.
Speaker 2: I have seen the destruction that one tiny human can create. Jamila.
Speaker 2: I do not. Like there are days when I just
Speaker 2: want to. I close the door of the Zenden, which
Speaker 2: is my basement, and I just come down here and
Speaker 2: I just like take some deep breaths because it just
Speaker 2: pots and pans, Jamila, like all the utensils, dog toys,
Speaker 2: It's insane. It's never actually toys. It's like everything in
Speaker 2: the cabinets.
Speaker 3: And they feed off of each other. Sometimes if one
Speaker 3: works up before the rest, it's like, okay, we can,
Speaker 3: I can do this. And then like when they all
Speaker 3: like get up and they're just feeding off each other,
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right, okay, got it. I got it.
Speaker 3: And I'm definitely I was my mom. She jokes with me,
Speaker 3: because I was never like that nurturing like I had.
Speaker 3: I have many siblings, but my mom has I have
Speaker 3: a little sister, and I was about fourteen when she
Speaker 3: was born. And I never changed the diaper. Like that's
Speaker 3: the kind of like big sister I was. So she's
Speaker 3: like now as a parent, I'm like, I need my space.
Speaker 3: But it's hard at this age because they really all
Speaker 3: just fight to give me hugs, which I love. But
Speaker 3: it's it's a lot.
Speaker 2: It's a lot. But I wanted to talk about that
Speaker 2: because we just were is the pandemic over yet? I
Speaker 2: can't tell, but it feels like so at least a
Speaker 2: solid year of pandemic life has gone by, and that
Speaker 2: wasn't that far into you launching your business. So talk
Speaker 2: to me, like, what what happened in y'all's world? And
Speaker 2: I'm assuming you guys, you're not in the studio apartment
Speaker 2: please say no, oh no, thank god, but paint a
Speaker 2: picture for me. So do you work from home? You
Speaker 2: got the three kids at home with you, your your husband,
Speaker 2: I imagine during virtual school at home? What has that been? Like?
Speaker 2: How have y'all? And congratulations for surviving it, but kind
Speaker 2: of talk to me about how did that change the
Speaker 2: dynamic of the household and your business while that was
Speaker 2: all going on?
Speaker 3: Oh, it was really rough for me. So I like
Speaker 3: I quit my job right after giving birth to my
Speaker 3: third in twenty eighteen, so I would say two as
Speaker 3: in nineteen was my first full year in entrepreneurship, so
Speaker 3: I count the s the first year twos nineteen kind of,
Speaker 3: so I was in twenty now, hello pandemic. And so
Speaker 3: it was hard because I was just feeling like I
Speaker 3: was getting into the groove of being at home by
Speaker 3: myself in the day and working, and then so this happened,
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, okay and virtual learning, and they're
Speaker 3: all at the age where they need assistance. They're not
Speaker 3: independent like you can like go go, you know, just
Speaker 3: go over there and chill kind and do your work,
Speaker 3: and so it was really hard emotionally mentally. You know.
Speaker 3: The good thing about is we did have live in help.
Speaker 3: So my aunt, bless her heart, she was staying with
Speaker 3: us and helping out with the kids. So she would
Speaker 3: help mostly with the baby, my daughter. But the boys
Speaker 3: wanted nothing, like they if they know we're upstairs, They're like,
Speaker 3: I'm going to hang out with mom. And so it
Speaker 3: was really hard because at first everything I felt like
Speaker 3: more of it was on me because you know, so
Speaker 3: I had to almost like look to my husband like
Speaker 3: we're going to take turns with this virtual stuff, right,
Speaker 3: and so we took more of a shared process while
Speaker 3: he's still virtual learning him like teaching himself. So because
Speaker 3: I also had work, it wasn't like I didn't have work.
Speaker 3: We both had work, so to kind of like have
Speaker 3: that kind of shared responsibility helped. And then you know,
Speaker 3: the other thing that really helped me was getting back
Speaker 3: into fitness because I needed to get out. So when
Speaker 3: I did feel safe to go take a walk and
Speaker 3: to run, I started to do that and that helped
Speaker 3: tremendously because I just needed something for me outside of work,
Speaker 3: outside of the kids, outside of the husband, and that
Speaker 3: definitely was helpful. And what it is my recovery from
Speaker 3: this whole thing.
Speaker 2: I want to get there. I had gotten a peloton
Speaker 2: last fall, and it's been wonderful. Look at me. I
Speaker 2: just did the thing where they say if they if
Speaker 2: someone has a peloton, they'll tell you. Anyway, my point is,
Speaker 2: forget the peloton. I really got into a good exercise
Speaker 2: groove last fall and I was starting to feel so
Speaker 2: much better just mentally and physically. But then I left.
Speaker 2: So I left. I started my new solo predewer path.
Speaker 2: I guess now, I don't know, a couple of months ago,
Speaker 2: my fitness routine has gone out the window. It's I
Speaker 2: how any advice because it's almost like not having that
Speaker 2: that I'm going to be working from nine to five
Speaker 2: and having more of this I build my schedule every
Speaker 2: day thing has given me this sense of oh, I
Speaker 2: can work out whenever I want. But the problem is
Speaker 2: that I just don't do it. Wait, any advice, I
Speaker 2: feel you.
Speaker 3: So the thing about this is probably so I used
Speaker 3: to be more fit before the kids. I was like
Speaker 3: into CrossFit, doing all this crazy stuff I felt like.
Speaker 3: And then the kids, you know, and then I had
Speaker 3: like developed something called Diaz DISCRECTI you know, the separation
Speaker 3: of the abs that a lot of oh moms have.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So for me, it's the stuff of nightmares that
Speaker 2: I would read about before I had my baby.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was hard. It was hard, and so
Speaker 3: I was like at this I was I gave up.
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I feel like my body will never
Speaker 3: be back. I didn't, and I didn't expect it to
Speaker 3: go back to what it was. But something that I
Speaker 3: felt like because I identified so much with being fit,
Speaker 3: So I would say all this because running that's one
Speaker 3: thing I do now, and I say I hate it,
Speaker 3: but I still do it because I like the results
Speaker 3: and I like the feeling afterwards. But I have to
Speaker 3: schedule it in and I have to remember how I
Speaker 3: feel after, because if I only think about the feeling
Speaker 3: like right before, I don't want to do it. And
Speaker 3: so I give myself grace. So for the times where
Speaker 3: I'm overwhelmed, I need a nap, I take a nap.
Speaker 3: But for the times where I know you will feel
Speaker 3: so much better if you just go out there and
Speaker 3: even just walk, maybe you don't run today, or if
Speaker 3: you do go for that run, do it because you
Speaker 3: you'll feel better because of it. And so for me,
Speaker 3: it's literally just remembering the joy of the afterward and
Speaker 3: the results that I'm seeing in terms of feeling better,
Speaker 3: having more energy, feeling more like my old self. And
Speaker 3: I literally do look at it as like me time,
Speaker 3: like it's what I'm doing for myself. So that's kind
Speaker 3: of what keeps me motivated. And to my husband is
Speaker 3: kind of fit and I'm like, I'm sorry, there's no
Speaker 3: way you're going to keep like running, working out and
Speaker 3: looking like it's bad enough. You never had to like
Speaker 3: get birth and you don't have to change in the body.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you're not going to leave me behind, Like
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I'm gonna also do my best for me
Speaker 3: because I want to feel good about myself. So that's
Speaker 3: kind of what motivates me.
Speaker 2: Oh that's nice. My husband's the one who can just
Speaker 2: never gain weight but eat all the donuts, and he
Speaker 2: is like, just come have a donut. What's the big deal.
Speaker 2: I'm like, biologically, my I, it's we're not the same.
Speaker 2: Get out of my face with that. That's awesome. Oh well,
Speaker 2: I feel like this conversation has gone way too fast,
Speaker 2: But I guess we should take a break really quick,
Speaker 2: and we'll come back and answer some some listener questions
Speaker 2: and then we'll have our special don't forget the brown
Speaker 2: Boost Brown Break at the end. Be thinking about what
Speaker 2: your brown boost and brown break could be. And I
Speaker 2: will be right back with today's co host Jamilasu front. Okay,
Speaker 2: we are back for questions again. You guys can reach
Speaker 2: out to us, hit us up on Brown Ambition Podcast
Speaker 2: on Instagram or headever to our website Brownambition podcast dot
Speaker 2: com and click ask us anything to submit your question.
Speaker 2: All right, Jamila, are you ready to shake up? Okay? Sweet?
Speaker 2: All right, we have a couple I love great questions
Speaker 2: from our listeners. First question comes from someone anonymous who's
Speaker 2: expecting a little bit of an inheritance and wants to
Speaker 2: know what to do with it. Alrighty, So they say,
Speaker 2: I have about forty two thousand dollars in credit card
Speaker 2: debt and only five thousand dollars in my emergency fund.
Speaker 2: Due to a loss in my family, I'm expecting an
Speaker 2: inheritance of about fifteen thousand dollars. Should I use that
Speaker 2: money to put a dent in my debt, or to
Speaker 2: beef up my emergency savings, or even try to grow
Speaker 2: it through investing. I'm leaning towards putting it toward my debt,
Speaker 2: but I was curious what you would suggest. Thank you, So, Jamila,
Speaker 2: Before we take this one, I have to remind y'all,
Speaker 2: we are your financial girlfriends, not your financial planners. So
Speaker 2: we're going to give you some advice. We'll give you
Speaker 2: some opinions, but ultimately you have to do it's best
Speaker 2: for yourself and definitely seek out a professional financial advisor
Speaker 2: or planner or other expertise if you really want to
Speaker 2: get the best advice for your situation. Okay, disclaimers a
Speaker 2: forty two K in credit card debt. My stomach is
Speaker 2: turning in nods. Yeah so, but this has been a
Speaker 2: wild year and fifteen K from an inheritance is not
Speaker 2: a small amount of money. What are you feeling about this, Tamila?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so all right with these questions. You know, I
Speaker 3: wish I could just like talk to the person to
Speaker 3: get more background. By no, we don't have time for that.
Speaker 3: So it looks like the five K things that if
Speaker 3: you're listening to this or anyone in this situation, I
Speaker 3: would ask, Okay, how long does that five K take
Speaker 3: you if there is an emergency or loss of income
Speaker 3: on your beer bones like kind of budget. And so
Speaker 3: if you tell me that can take you three to
Speaker 3: six months, I don't know, depending on what that looks
Speaker 3: like for you, then I'd say maybe put another one
Speaker 3: two thousand another month or two on top of it,
Speaker 3: depending on how much your cash flow is like to
Speaker 3: live your life bear bones. And then I would look
Speaker 3: at your debt and then make sure you are looking
Speaker 3: at your highest interest rate debt, so you could either
Speaker 3: look at a highest interest rate or lowest balance. But
Speaker 3: if you want to do the be like math wise,
Speaker 3: you pay off the highest interest rate first. It's not
Speaker 3: all on one card, but it's almost like I would
Speaker 3: put a couple thousand in emergency fund depending on if
Speaker 3: it doesn't take you out for three to six months,
Speaker 3: and then put the rest on your credit card. What
Speaker 3: do you think, Mandy O.
Speaker 2: This one's hard. Forty two thousand dollars in credit card
Speaker 2: debt is a lot. I mean, if you're thinking about
Speaker 2: the average APR, I mean even if you have like
Speaker 2: perfect credit, what would it be like seventeen eighteen nineteen
Speaker 2: percent is double digit? Yeah, credit interest rate and that
Speaker 2: that forty two k it can just balloon so quickly.
Speaker 2: And fifteen thousand dollars dett I don't really know the
Speaker 2: particulars of what happens with inheritance, how it gets taxed
Speaker 2: or not taxed. Is it fifteen k entirely or is
Speaker 2: it like you know, when you get a bonus and
Speaker 2: then it becomes ten k instead of fifteen. But my
Speaker 2: gut is saying, put a dent in that debt. But
Speaker 2: what concerns me most of all is the fact that
Speaker 2: you know you've gotten that big of a credit hard
Speaker 2: hole to begin with, and what might be like, that's
Speaker 2: a pretty strong symptom that there's something off kilter and
Speaker 2: your either your cash flow or your expenses, you know,
Speaker 2: it's just not lining up. So and without having more information,
Speaker 2: I would say, definitely look at you know, where did
Speaker 2: this forty two K and credit card debt come from?
Speaker 2: What caused me to accrue this debt? And this is
Speaker 2: no judgment, like shit happens. I believe me. I'm no
Speaker 2: stranger to debt myself. But you know, figure out what
Speaker 2: was it and if it was, you know, I never
Speaker 2: really had enough money in my emergency fund and maybe
Speaker 2: it was medical bills or it was an unexpected expense
Speaker 2: that you know, drove you to wrack up that credit
Speaker 2: card debt that honestly, by not not putting cash away
Speaker 2: for your emergency fund, you could just be like what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get at is if you put that
Speaker 2: entire money toward your credit card debt and you still
Speaker 2: have a very small emergency fund, will you be quickly
Speaker 2: racketing back up that debt because you don't have that
Speaker 2: buffer of cash, you know, So I'm leaning toward more.
Speaker 2: I don't like put put maybe half of that fifteen
Speaker 2: k in your emergency fund and use the other half
Speaker 2: to start chipping away that credit card debt. But then say, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm putting this money in my emergency fund. It is
Speaker 2: on lockdown. That is for you know, that is for
Speaker 2: my own financial security, to be sure that you know,
Speaker 2: my family and myself are taken care of, and then
Speaker 2: get really aggressive about attacking that that remaining credit card
Speaker 2: debt balance looking into options like I love talking about
Speaker 2: debt consolidation loans, for example, you know, you can take
Speaker 2: out a personal loan through a credit union or through
Speaker 2: an online bank or something like that at a reduced
Speaker 2: interest rate. Then you're how much the credit card debt
Speaker 2: is costing. You get that all consolidated under one loan,
Speaker 2: and then you have a fixed payment monthly that you
Speaker 2: know how much a cost. And you also can live,
Speaker 2: you know, without them the crazy high interest rates accruing
Speaker 2: over your head that would accrue with a credit card.
Speaker 2: TEF and I talk about balance transfer cards. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you've ever used a balance transfer offer from
Speaker 2: a credit card, youmala or not. We didn't even talk
Speaker 2: about credit card debt, but I.
Speaker 3: Have, I have and it's smart. And I love that
Speaker 3: you're going back to like the behavior and habits that
Speaker 3: got her into the debt, because that you're right, that
Speaker 3: does matter in terms of what you do with this
Speaker 3: money that you're getting now.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, And I would say, like if it was
Speaker 2: if it was fifteen K and that was going to
Speaker 2: knock out your credit card debt and you could start
Speaker 2: from scratch, I might say, Okay, go on and do it.
Speaker 2: But it's just such a big total. And after the
Speaker 2: year we've had, I just feel like people need to
Speaker 2: put their own safety, you know, life, vest on first
Speaker 2: and have a little bit more cushion in their emergency fund.
Speaker 2: But then listen, there's no getting out of that forty
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars in debt. That's not going to involve
Speaker 2: really looking at either how much you're spending or really
Speaker 2: pursuing increased earning. So I think twenty twenty one, this
Speaker 2: new post pandemic year, has got to be the year
Speaker 2: where you really sit down and, you know, think about
Speaker 2: how can I bring an additional income to chip away
Speaker 2: at this debt. And I don't know anything about your life,
Speaker 2: and I'm really I'm sure there may be circumstances that
Speaker 2: prevent you from taking on a side hustle or or whatever.
Speaker 2: This is a no judgment zone, but if you're capable
Speaker 2: of it, I would I would really try to start
Speaker 2: looking at ways to increase your income so that you
Speaker 2: can get that debt off your back and truly be
Speaker 2: on your way toward investing, which it sounds like you
Speaker 2: know you're thinking about investing as well. That is, that
Speaker 2: is an amazing goal to have, but it's it's difficult
Speaker 2: to get there when you also have such a huge,
Speaker 2: you know, credit card debt balance at the same time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, last thing I'll add on this is that you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not a fan of overthinking. Sometimes we can paralyze
Speaker 3: ourselves with like doing so much research we don't do anything.
Speaker 3: But don't think that as soon as you get the
Speaker 3: money you have to make an instant decision. I love
Speaker 3: that one. You're like listening to this podcast and you're
Speaker 3: setting in the question because that means you're aware, you
Speaker 3: know you are doing the work upfront, but don't be
Speaker 3: pressured into having to make a decision right away. Continue
Speaker 3: to think about all the things that Mandy and I
Speaker 3: just said, but make a decision I do think you should,
Speaker 3: but don't rush to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it's important too, Yeah exactly. It's not like
Speaker 2: that money. You can just clunk it in your savings
Speaker 2: account and see how that feels for a bit while
Speaker 2: you're figuring out how to tackle that credit card debt.
Speaker 2: Just don't you know. I mean, the one thing I
Speaker 2: would say don't do is maybe don't buy bitcoin with it,
Speaker 2: so that that would re buy you like a third
Speaker 2: of a bitcoin these days. I don't know. All right, Well,
Speaker 2: I hope that this was helpful for you. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for leaving us your question Again. Y'all hit
Speaker 2: us up at Brandon Mission podcast on IG if you
Speaker 2: have more questions for us. All right, Jamila, it is
Speaker 2: the time we've all been waiting for. It is the
Speaker 2: all important brown boost, brown break at the end of
Speaker 2: the show, what are you going to boost or break today?
Speaker 3: I'm going to break the expectation that we as women
Speaker 3: or leaders in our family who are in this role
Speaker 3: have to do everything. I think our lives just waking
Speaker 3: up by yourself, even if you don't have kids, okay,
Speaker 3: It's like life is hard, okay, and so I think
Speaker 3: this pressure on us to be perfect moms and to
Speaker 3: be fit and to know to send all the thank
Speaker 3: you notes and have just all these things. I think
Speaker 3: we need to really rebelegance and know that you're doing
Speaker 3: okay the best you can. And so it's really important
Speaker 3: to prioritize yourself and be selfish. And I know that
Speaker 3: sounds crazy, but for some people not anymore. You sound
Speaker 3: crazy to me, but I know that if I am,
Speaker 3: then everyone else in my family is happier because I
Speaker 3: can give more. And so I want to break the
Speaker 3: expectation that we have to be everybody to everyone else,
Speaker 3: and we need to be what we need for ourselves first.
Speaker 2: I love that, and I feel like that is that
Speaker 2: message and that thought process is so evident on your
Speaker 2: social media. I really love following you because I feel
Speaker 2: like it's so positive. So if you guys don't follow
Speaker 2: Jamila yet, go to follow her you twice. First follow
Speaker 2: her at her personal handle Jamila'suffront, and then second go
Speaker 2: follow her at Journey to Launch. On all social media platforms,
Speaker 2: it just feels like, yeah, it's a breath of fresh air,
Speaker 2: and thank you for that positive message.
Speaker 3: Oh thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, let me end the show with a quick
Speaker 2: boost myself. We just celebrated the first official Juneteenth holiday
Speaker 2: on the federal calendar. It happens so quick, and I
Speaker 2: know that there was I don't know how you feel.
Speaker 2: We only have time to get into it, but there
Speaker 2: are some feelings about Juneteenth. Is it enough? Is it
Speaker 2: not enough? But you know what I decided. Of course,
Speaker 2: there's still so much work to be done. This is
Speaker 2: not it. You can't just give us a holiday and
Speaker 2: then call it quits. But I'm like, for one thing,
Speaker 2: we got something in the summer, y'all, Like it's not
Speaker 2: the dead of winter. That's nice to have some a
Speaker 2: chance to celebrate to blackness. And so what I decided
Speaker 2: to do this weekend was the weather was going to
Speaker 2: be okay, So I threw a last minute barbecue for
Speaker 2: my neighbors. And just in my neighborhood is, like I said,
Speaker 2: we have a lot of diversity. Mostly it's like a
Speaker 2: largely black neighborhood here in my county outside of New York.
Speaker 2: And I just invited the neighbors over. I got a
Speaker 2: big ass cake that said Juneteenth Freedom Day on it.
Speaker 2: We made burgers and hot dogs and it was just
Speaker 2: a I don't know it was just an opportunity to
Speaker 2: just come together as a community and to heal a
Speaker 2: little bit from the trauma, the trauma of a lifetime,
Speaker 2: but especially this past year. So I just wanted to say,
Speaker 2: you know, unapologetically, you know, celebrate these small pockets of
Speaker 2: positive time that we've been given. And if Juneteenth is
Speaker 2: an opportunity to do that, I would say, do it
Speaker 2: without apology. It was. It was really beautiful, and the
Speaker 2: work continues. You know, we still got to fight for
Speaker 2: voting rights and law enforcement reform and all of the things,
Speaker 2: but you know, it was it was a nice opportunity
Speaker 2: to sip back and just celebrate ourselves.
Speaker 3: And if I can add something there, I'm with you
Speaker 3: Mandy on that we need to lean into joy and
Speaker 3: choose joy, especially for those of us we have little
Speaker 3: ones watching us. And so for me, you know, we've
Speaker 3: been celebrating birthdays all for the last six weeks since
Speaker 3: they're all like kind of lumped up together. And so
Speaker 3: we went, we had fun, We went to Coney Island,
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, we deserve joy, we deserve rest,
Speaker 3: and we deserve to know we we can also earn
Speaker 3: money and be good with money and have the freedom
Speaker 3: we want with and without money. I know money is
Speaker 3: the baseline. I know that, but you know there's so
Speaker 3: much other untapped currency in our relationships and enjoy so
Speaker 3: let's lean into that.
Speaker 2: I love that. Well, Jamie, lastufront Journey to launch. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much for joining me in the co host chair.
Speaker 2: I hope it was fun.
Speaker 3: Ah, this was so amazing and exciting. I can't believe
Speaker 3: I'm like, you know, Tiffany, like I got a chance
Speaker 3: to like kind of step in for her because you know,
Speaker 3: I love her and you. So this was awesome.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. All Right, well, best of luck
Speaker 2: with the as the journey continues. And thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me