Speaker 1: Hey ba fam, Wait, did I hit record?
Speaker 2: Yes I do.
Speaker 1: Let's see Kerrie Washington. Welcome to the v a q
Speaker 1: A on this beautiful Friday. I am really excited to
Speaker 1: be joined here by Yan Nelly Spinal aka mis Be
Speaker 1: Helpful and Chris Browning aka mister Popcorn Finance himself. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be taking y'all's questions now. If you want to
Speaker 1: submit a question to Brown Ambition, please go to our Instagram.
Speaker 1: You can d m us at the Brown Ambition No
Speaker 1: What at Brown Ambition Podcast on ig or you can
Speaker 1: email us Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com if
Speaker 1: you want to have your question on the show. And
Speaker 1: we have some some juicy ones today. So I'm excited
Speaker 1: to have y'all's help here. So you know the Biel,
Speaker 1: get your salt shakers out. This is infotainment edutainment. I
Speaker 1: can say salt shakers are required because what we're not
Speaker 1: giving you is like paid financial investment professional advice. We
Speaker 1: don't actually know you personally, nor do we you know,
Speaker 1: need to be sued by you for any information we've
Speaker 1: given you. So let me hop on and I think
Speaker 1: we got some a mix of like career and finance
Speaker 1: today Our first one is from anonymous what should we
Speaker 1: call this anonymous person? We'll call her carry after after
Speaker 1: yan Ellie's girl crush, Kerry Washington. All right, she wants
Speaker 1: to know is it okay to decline a job offer
Speaker 1: that actually pays more money to listening to BA for
Speaker 1: a long time. I'm so grateful for you guys and
Speaker 1: what you've built. I'm so sweet. You've empowered me in
Speaker 1: so many ways, especially as a mom of two, to
Speaker 1: fight for myself in the workplace and to own my
Speaker 1: career trajectory. Thank you, hearthnds, Oh, thank you?
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So to get some wait did it do hearts? You should.
Speaker 2: Reading the question? I can't see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the red hearts just popped up. It was so cute.
Speaker 1: Then I go, I can't is it cute? Though it
Speaker 1: was so forny?
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: I think it's all right.
Speaker 2: That's fine, I'll call it.
Speaker 1: We'll take our little joints where we can take it,
Speaker 1: all right. So a little bit on Carrie's backstory. So,
Speaker 1: my husband and I moved our family across the country
Speaker 1: almost one year ago for what seemed like a great
Speaker 1: opportunity for him. But six months after moving, he was
Speaker 1: laid off. Luckily, my job allowed me to work remotely,
Speaker 1: so I've been able to maintain my income in between
Speaker 1: that and his unemployment. We've been able, excuse me to
Speaker 1: make ends meet. Right now, I'm making a little less
Speaker 1: than fifty fifty K annually, and I recently interviewed for
Speaker 1: position that will pay around seventy five K, and I
Speaker 1: stand a pretty good chance of getting an offer. It's
Speaker 1: an opportunity I prayed for after learning more and more
Speaker 1: about the role in the final interview, it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: at all like anything i'd.
Speaker 2: Want to do.
Speaker 1: Things I value clearly defined processes, organization, the ability to
Speaker 1: work within a team. This job would be the opposite
Speaker 1: of all those things. I'd be a team of one
Speaker 1: person working to help the organization create order out of chaos,
Speaker 1: guaranteed working longer hours. The idea feels nightmarish, so she says,
Speaker 1: part of me wants to remove myself from consideration. I
Speaker 1: want a job that will pay more money, but not
Speaker 1: at the expense of my mental health or time to
Speaker 1: spend with my family. But when I consider this would
Speaker 1: be a huge jump and income, especially when my husband's
Speaker 1: unemployment income has ended and he still hasn't found a job.
Speaker 1: The idea of walking away from an opportunity like this
Speaker 1: sounds crazy. Like Cardi B said, I got babies.
Speaker 2: I need some money. I need cheese for my eggs.
Speaker 1: Did she say I need?
Speaker 2: Is that a lyric?
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's in your eggs. I can't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: The lactose just won't let me. If I take this role,
Speaker 1: Carrie says, and do it successfully, I think it would
Speaker 1: put me in a great position career wise when I
Speaker 1: think about roles I could take on after my time,
Speaker 1: But my kids and husband are more important to me
Speaker 1: than anything. I don't want my relationship ships with them
Speaker 1: to suffer because I'm stressed out all the time. What
Speaker 1: turning down an offer like this be irresponsible? Especially in
Speaker 1: this economy? What would you do? Thank you for reading
Speaker 1: carry Chris.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna let you take it first because I got
Speaker 3: strong opinions. I'm gonna let you go first.
Speaker 4: Oh man, Okay, I I was formulating my thoughts here. Okay,
Speaker 4: I know I was.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 4: I'm torn. I'm toured right now. In my mind.
Speaker 3: That's relatable because part of.
Speaker 4: Me is like, Look, nobody wants to walk into a
Speaker 4: chaotic situation. Right, if you're happy where you're at. I
Speaker 4: get it because I've worked in jobs where I was like,
Speaker 4: this is pure chaos. Everybody hates it here, I'm stressed out,
Speaker 4: I'm working too much, and I wish I wasn't here,
Speaker 4: And so I never want anyone to go into that,
Speaker 4: the situation I don't walk in. Right.
Speaker 2: You don't feel that way, now, do you?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 4: They I'll tell you what I really think about all
Speaker 4: this later. But really it was that that job did
Speaker 4: set me up for better jobs down the line. It
Speaker 4: was a promotion for me. There was a big pay
Speaker 4: jump when I took it. It was kind of like this.
Speaker 4: It was about a twenty thousand dollars a year pay jump,
Speaker 4: and I ended up leveraging that job into something else. Now,
Speaker 4: I hated that job for four years. I was there
Speaker 4: for a long time, miserable, miserable, the worst job IVE
Speaker 4: ever had. And I find the two of those four
Speaker 4: I was trying to find another job. But if it
Speaker 4: wouldn't have been for that job, I wouldn't have had
Speaker 4: opportunities to find the job that got later that paid
Speaker 4: me more and gave me that balance that I was
Speaker 4: looking for. So I'm torn in the sense that, like,
Speaker 4: I don't want people to deal with that stress because
Speaker 4: life was horrible for a while, but I saw what
Speaker 4: that led to, and so that's I'm a little torn
Speaker 4: because like, yes, there could be another opportunity that might
Speaker 4: fill that role for you, allow you to get that promotion,
Speaker 4: allowed you to make that step up and get that
Speaker 4: experience and that pay. But sometimes you take the opportunity
Speaker 4: that presents itself and you use that to your advantage
Speaker 4: to get to where you need to go. So I'm
Speaker 4: kind of I'm very torn on this, but part of
Speaker 4: me is like, especially in the situation she's in, it
Speaker 4: feels like you know that that extra security might be nice,
Speaker 4: even though it is going to take a little bit
Speaker 4: of your time and it might be a bit of
Speaker 4: a sacrifice for a while. So that's that's that's my response,
Speaker 4: that's my media thoughts on it.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's real, that's real. I'm gonna be honest.
Speaker 3: My immediate thought was no, don't take it. And the
Speaker 3: reason and why is because compensation and benefits is one
Speaker 3: factor in a larger rubric that you use to make
Speaker 3: a decision about whether you want to take this step
Speaker 3: in your career. The other factors to consider are the role,
Speaker 3: the responsibilities, if there's growth opportunities, your work life, balance,
Speaker 3: your sanity, flexibility with time to come in, time to leave.
Speaker 3: You got kids, you got a husband, company culture, the
Speaker 3: mission and the values of that company. Right, the work environment,
Speaker 3: the location, proximity to your home, your commute. Is that
Speaker 3: going to be miserable? You know future prospects? Is that
Speaker 3: a stable job? Is the company actually stable?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: And personal intuition is one that I would include on
Speaker 3: my rubric. And your personal intuition is already waiving a
Speaker 3: big red flag saying everything about that interview told me
Speaker 3: what I needed to know that this was not the
Speaker 3: job I thought it would be. But what's most important
Speaker 3: to me in what you said was that you think
Speaker 3: that you are about to get this offer, which means
Speaker 3: you have the potential to make this money. You have
Speaker 3: what it takes. You're capable of getting an offer at
Speaker 3: that salary or higher. So this does not have to
Speaker 3: be the only job that you will get with that salary.
Speaker 3: Now that you know that you're capable, you can finesse
Speaker 3: that offer. Honey, get the offer in writing PDF that
Speaker 3: joint and take it with you to the next interview
Speaker 3: process and use it to negotiate a higher offer from
Speaker 3: another job that does align with the things that you like. Organization, stability, clarity, right,
Speaker 3: all of those things that you value that this particular
Speaker 3: job is making clear. It's not it's not the one.
Speaker 3: It's not it. So for me, I would think that
Speaker 3: if you were to do it just for the money,
Speaker 3: you're gonna end up presenting your hubby. You're gonna end
Speaker 3: up presenting him because he's kind of technically the only
Speaker 3: reason that you would do it, because he because he's
Speaker 3: not working, right, Yeah, because you want to do this.
Speaker 2: He still hasn't gotten a job.
Speaker 4: You had there that wasn't don't I.
Speaker 1: Didn't read that right the way man, he read it.
Speaker 1: She read it with that little and he made us
Speaker 1: move out here, ready with the country, be ready with
Speaker 1: extra sas song, probably like Nevada or someplace.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I hope it's not. Well, maybe Nevada is an income
Speaker 3: text free state. Good for y'all, But I just think
Speaker 3: I do think that y'all need you need to be
Speaker 3: honest with yourself about your personal intuition because the worst
Speaker 3: case scenario is you hate your job. You resent your
Speaker 3: job and you hate your husband. You resent your husband
Speaker 3: because he made you get the job that you resent
Speaker 3: and hate. And so I think at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, money ain't everything. We all about more money.
Speaker 3: But you can finesse that job offer into another job
Speaker 3: offer of equal or greater salary benefits if you make
Speaker 3: moves the right way. And obviously Mandy is the right
Speaker 3: woman to hook you up, so you're already in the
Speaker 3: right place.
Speaker 1: I know. I think both of y'all have interesting perspectives,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I agree with both of you
Speaker 1: in different parts. I've seen this question before, some version
Speaker 1: of this question many many times. This is like the
Speaker 1: this is like one of my haven't I said this
Speaker 1: a thousand times of questions like you in the stock
Speaker 1: market thing? Yeah, But honestly, when it comes to a
Speaker 1: situation like this, I have people who would tell me
Speaker 1: the exact same thing. But if you flip it, so
Speaker 1: like they're at a very chaotic or they thrive in
Speaker 1: chaotic situations, and they're going into a job interview, and
Speaker 1: it just sounds like everything is so rigid and so
Speaker 1: structured and more bureaucratic. It's a bigger company will they
Speaker 1: have as much freedom and flexibility and like, will they
Speaker 1: get to be a self starter as much? And I
Speaker 1: think it also I just want to like I want
Speaker 1: there to be like a level of understanding about how
Speaker 1: any job that you have, any job environment, it can change.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can come into a chaotic organization, or
Speaker 1: you can come into a very stable organization that can
Speaker 1: become chaotic. And like you could be working at I
Speaker 1: don't know, like what's one of the most oldest Procter
Speaker 1: and Gamble, like a big company, and like maybe the
Speaker 1: company itself is very stable, but you get switched to
Speaker 1: a certain team like I don't know, R and D
Speaker 1: or accounting or whatever, and either the whole team is
Speaker 1: a bit toxic, where your manager is toxic, and like
Speaker 1: you're on your own path at the company that you
Speaker 1: work and sometimes if it's big enough, like you have
Speaker 1: your own little inner company almost like a smaller company
Speaker 1: within a company. And I think there's just we need
Speaker 1: a healthy understanding of like the workplace dynamics and sort
Speaker 1: of have a healthy level of Okay, this may change
Speaker 1: and like it may not always be this way, and
Speaker 1: so I need to be a little bit flexible and
Speaker 1: just going into a situation at least saying like this
Speaker 1: could change and if it does, well, that's just what
Speaker 1: happens in some workplaces. And like we can again be
Speaker 1: like really upset that all of a sudden that my
Speaker 1: manager who loved me has left and now I've been
Speaker 1: assigned to a new manager and he's passive aggressive and
Speaker 1: like microaggressive and all that. And so when it comes
Speaker 1: to you, and I totally get what you're coming into,
Speaker 1: Like you're anticipating this is going to be chaos, that
Speaker 1: you're going to be spending long hours, and that is
Speaker 1: all entirely valid. Is it enough to like turn down
Speaker 1: the money that you need in this career opportunity?
Speaker 2: I kind of feel like.
Speaker 1: More on Chris's side, a little bit of like you
Speaker 1: need the money, take the job. You're not in a
Speaker 1: situation where you have a lot of options right now.
Speaker 1: Your husband's out of work, you have two kids. That's expensive,
Speaker 1: as hay, and even if you're in you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know, living on fifty K for a family of four,
Speaker 1: that's just I don't it's tough, you know. And CARDI,
Speaker 1: like CARDIV doesn't say it, but eggs is like really expensive.
Speaker 2: Now you know, like ten.
Speaker 1: Bucks a dozen, so they sold everywhere. Yeah, part of
Speaker 1: me is like, I see, I see where she's coming from.
Speaker 1: But I also feel like with the extra money, you
Speaker 1: could invest that in your family to bring to like counteract,
Speaker 1: if you're going to be spending more time at work,
Speaker 1: could you be spending you know, the extra money that
Speaker 1: you're getting if you get a nice vacation package with
Speaker 1: this company, could you be you doing a nice family
Speaker 1: vacation once a year. Could you be using the funds
Speaker 1: for the bigger picture for like the kids college education
Speaker 1: or their school tuition, or maybe you guys need something
Speaker 1: that as a family will make you happier. And like,
Speaker 1: if you can frame it not as like mommy is
Speaker 1: going to work for this company and it's I'm just
Speaker 1: assuming it's not a terrible place, it's just a chaotic place.
Speaker 2: Then that may help it.
Speaker 1: That may make it easier for you to show up
Speaker 1: and deal with the stuff that's going on because you're
Speaker 1: doing it for the right reasons and like you understand
Speaker 1: where your values are. You're still valuing your family, You're
Speaker 1: doing it for them, and you're not centering the company
Speaker 1: in its needs. And if you do that, I just
Speaker 1: feel like you'll be able to withstand that chaos a
Speaker 1: little bit better, because genuinely, I think one of my
Speaker 1: superpowers in corporate was that I could stand a little chaos.
Speaker 1: It was just like this, because chaos some people just
Speaker 1: like to get upset about things and complain about things
Speaker 1: and like oh this, you know, and worry about things
Speaker 1: like oh, did you hear what they said in that
Speaker 1: town hall meeting? It seemed a little different than that
Speaker 1: town And I'm like, yeah, but this is a corporation,
Speaker 1: you know, business business plans are going to change. Wall
Speaker 1: Street's gonna talk, and then the company is gonna make it.
Speaker 2: Move this way.
Speaker 1: There's always gonna be some chaos. Like I just think
Speaker 1: if you can like change your mindset, you can you
Speaker 1: can cope with that stress and that chaos. Does this
Speaker 1: sound like a really terrible advice?
Speaker 3: I just I don't think it's.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to.
Speaker 1: I just don't want you to like walk away from
Speaker 1: an opportunity that could be great for your career wise.
Speaker 1: And and yes, jan Ellie, with this, I love that
Speaker 1: you said, like, use this offer as a negotiation tactic,
Speaker 1: but if there's not another offer around the corner, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and in this job environment, ye, there may not be
Speaker 1: you can still take the job. And then you're like,
Speaker 1: you have the seventy five k as your you know,
Speaker 1: as your and you haven't even negotiated it can be
Speaker 1: harder than seventy five k. Now that part Call me girl,
Speaker 1: I can get you a ninety signing bonus what you want,
Speaker 1: like and I'm just saying like you could leverage that
Speaker 1: for more down the line, but like actually being in
Speaker 1: the role and getting that experience, it could just make
Speaker 1: you better, you know, better, more resilient, more battle tested.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, moms are so
Speaker 3: willing to sacrifice. I mean, she's Carrie said it herself
Speaker 3: that she's willing to do anything for her kids and
Speaker 3: her husband. So if you know that you're coming into
Speaker 3: this as sacrifice season and you're mentally equipped to handle
Speaker 3: that and you have accepted it, that's a completely different
Speaker 3: scenario than the one I was describing, where you go
Speaker 3: in because you need to because your husband's not working,
Speaker 3: because it's a job that you feel desperate and you
Speaker 3: have to take it. Those are two very different women.
Speaker 3: So Carrie, I think you need to decide which one
Speaker 3: are you where are you right now? And be honest,
Speaker 3: because there ain't no shame in doing a job that
Speaker 3: you hate for more money. But there's also no shame
Speaker 3: in turning a job that pays you more down because
Speaker 3: it doesn't align with your family and personal intuition. So
Speaker 3: I think you gotta you have a determination to make
Speaker 3: Carrie like which carry is the real carry?
Speaker 2: Carry?
Speaker 1: B carry?
Speaker 2: You're going to be carry bee? That was really well put. Yeah,
Speaker 2: well good luck.
Speaker 1: This sounds like a really adult problem to.
Speaker 2: Have, and I feel like if it's a good problem
Speaker 2: to have.
Speaker 1: Oh and just one thing I'll say, if you're going
Speaker 1: into the situation with the terrible reason with like your
Speaker 1: team of one and like all this chaos to order out,
Speaker 1: order out all this chaos to make order of, ask
Speaker 1: them during the interview process what resources you're gonna have.
Speaker 1: Because it's one thing to be, as you know, an
Speaker 1: independent person, But if they're gonna if they're going to
Speaker 1: acknowledge how much work this is and if they're going
Speaker 1: to give you the resources to make it happen, then
Speaker 1: that for me becomes a situation where I can cope
Speaker 1: with that. But if they're saying, like you gotta do
Speaker 1: it with no budget. We know you, we know this
Speaker 1: position could be like three people, but we're only hiring
Speaker 1: for one. Like that is where the toxicity can come in.
Speaker 1: But if they're gonna give you a budget to hire
Speaker 1: contractors and like work with other teams and stuff to
Speaker 1: get what you need to get done, then that's that
Speaker 1: becomes a different equation.
Speaker 4: Facts true, true.
Speaker 1: Well that was a juicy doozy one. Thank you, Carrie,
Speaker 1: Anonymous Carrie. All right, let's take a quick break and
Speaker 1: come back with question number two from Sasha. All right,
Speaker 1: ba fam, we are back with an email question from
Speaker 1: listeners Sasha, who has a money dilemma. All right, so
Speaker 1: Sasha says, regretfully, I have been bad with money and
Speaker 1: credit cards. I went from making around forty five K
Speaker 1: to ninety K and four years and let lifestyle inflation
Speaker 1: get the best of me. Now I have twenty K
Speaker 1: on my AMX and fourteen K on my Discover card,
Speaker 1: plus a mortgage plus student loans. I really want twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five to be the year that I make a
Speaker 1: dent in this debt. I called AMEX and asked for
Speaker 1: a rate reduction like you suggested on an episode a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, and they said, yes, my rate went
Speaker 1: down to seven point nine percent for twelve months, and
Speaker 1: it cut my monthly payment in half. Here's my dilemma.
Speaker 1: Do I defer my loans and take the difference of
Speaker 1: my old MX payment plus my deferred low payment, which
Speaker 1: is about five hundred dollars and throw it at my
Speaker 1: Discover card or throw it at my Discover card, throw
Speaker 1: it out my AMEX card, or save it and put
Speaker 1: it back to stack my savings. And then, if by
Speaker 1: the twelve month mark I have a decent savings, throw
Speaker 1: a chunk at the AMX before the rate goes back up.
Speaker 1: I'm so torn on what to do. I lost the
Speaker 1: plot here. There's a lot going on. Do I defer
Speaker 1: my loans?
Speaker 2: Defer?
Speaker 1: Does she mean like take a break from paying? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then take the payment she's what had been putting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So take the difference of my old MX payment
Speaker 1: plus my deferred student loan payment and okay, So what
Speaker 1: she's saving on the MX payment because they reduced her rate,
Speaker 1: take that amount plus the five hundred student loans and
Speaker 1: put it on her Discover card because at this point
Speaker 1: it's more expensive debt right than what's on her MX
Speaker 1: or should she save it, set it aside, and then
Speaker 1: save that for twelve months and then throw it at
Speaker 1: the MX car before the rate.
Speaker 2: Goes back up.
Speaker 3: Okay, I would not defer the loans. I think the
Speaker 3: tricky thing is like you're constantly going to be like
Speaker 3: tempted to stop in one place to then go in another.
Speaker 1: Can you just stop your student loans, like what.
Speaker 3: You can you can do? That's the thing. The crewl
Speaker 3: of the interest does not stop, and it continues to
Speaker 3: accrue on the principal balance plus any previous interests. So
Speaker 3: it's really important that you like recognize that you're not pausing.
Speaker 3: They're going to keep adding interest. You're actually just not
Speaker 3: paying it down. So I think that the key would
Speaker 3: be to try to call the student loans and see
Speaker 3: if they can work you down to the lowest possible
Speaker 3: minimum monthly payment that will still continue to keep you
Speaker 3: in good standing. It's not a deferment, it's not a forbearance,
Speaker 3: it's none of those things. It's just the lowest possible
Speaker 3: monthly payment that you can get. And that means you
Speaker 3: might have to change the student loan payment repayment plan
Speaker 3: that you're opted into right now. If you're opted into,
Speaker 3: you know, for example, income income driven repayment, you may
Speaker 3: have to change to the extended graduated. You may have
Speaker 3: to swap what repayment plan you have so that you
Speaker 3: can actually, you know, reconfigure that student low monthly number
Speaker 3: to be the lowest number that it can be. That way,
Speaker 3: you free up that other money without stopping completely your payments.
Speaker 3: Otherwise you're not going to be putting a debt in
Speaker 3: that debt and then that interest keeps accruing. So I
Speaker 3: would say, try that, And then I'm tempted to say, yes,
Speaker 3: take advantage of the lower interest rate that you have
Speaker 3: on the AMEX right now and go hamm on that,
Speaker 3: because once it's back up, there's no way. I mean,
Speaker 3: you can call them and say, hey, can you give
Speaker 3: me that low rate again, but chances are they gonna
Speaker 3: be like, girl, we just hooked you up, goodbye. So
Speaker 3: I think you probably will want to take advantage of that,
Speaker 3: being that they generously lower that rate, and so I
Speaker 3: would do. I would call the loans, try to get
Speaker 3: the lower amount monthly, take the difference, add it to
Speaker 3: the AMEX card, and then you can tackle the capital
Speaker 3: one card or the Discover card next, after the Discover
Speaker 3: card next.
Speaker 1: So you think you should throw it at the Amex
Speaker 1: which is at a seven point nine percent rate, Okay,
Speaker 1: either because then you Discover cards more expensive?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because only because of the fact that you're going
Speaker 3: to basically be locking in a deal that you won't
Speaker 3: ever get again with the Amex card. And then potentially
Speaker 3: what you could do is go on to the Discover
Speaker 3: card and negotiate that same deal that you got with
Speaker 3: the Amex card, potentially get a balance transfer or do
Speaker 3: a balance transfer, move that one somewhere where zero percent
Speaker 3: for eighteen months or twenty one months, right, so that
Speaker 3: one you can kind of get to it. But right
Speaker 3: now you got this opportunity that you can lock in
Speaker 3: this low rate, get rid of this debt at the
Speaker 3: lowest rate you'll you'll have it for. And I think
Speaker 3: there's something there that you should take advantage of before
Speaker 3: you lose it.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, No, I definitely agree with that too, because yeah,
Speaker 4: because it's just a different thing that's going to go
Speaker 4: right back up to whoever it was. I'm assuming twenty
Speaker 4: plus percent. And the thing is, when.
Speaker 1: I feel like she should just put the money on
Speaker 1: the Discovery, even though only because it's so much more expensive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but then she's gonna have two expensive ones once
Speaker 3: the mix is back to that same expensive rate again
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: She has twenty K on MX and fourteen K on Discover.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so not only does she have the higher balance
Speaker 4: on the American Express, she has now a temporarily lower
Speaker 4: interest rates. So what's happening is now every payment you
Speaker 4: make is gonna have a bigger impact as well, right,
Speaker 4: because you're more of it's going towards paying down that balance.
Speaker 4: You have less accumulating interest every single month, so you're
Speaker 4: not just paying down a bunch of interest. And she already,
Speaker 4: I'm assuming has a regiment of a schedule of paying
Speaker 4: both those cards already. And the thing that still got
Speaker 4: to me, she said, they cut my payment in half.
Speaker 4: And the thing is with the credit card, it cut
Speaker 4: your minimum payment in half, which is always the worst
Speaker 4: payment to be making anyway, it was making the least it.
Speaker 3: Is going to interest. The majority of that is going to.
Speaker 4: Interest fees exactly. So for me, I'm like, you just
Speaker 4: keep paying that as if nothing changed, You paying whatever
Speaker 4: the higher payment was you're paying before and in the situation.
Speaker 4: She's she's admitting like, we, oh, I've been there, lifestyle creep, right,
Speaker 4: we let things get more expensive. And so to me,
Speaker 4: it's like, in combination with this great breaky, all you
Speaker 4: have on interest is now re evaluating everything else you're spending.
Speaker 4: Because if you were able to survive on forty five
Speaker 4: and now you're making twice that, there are probably some
Speaker 4: areas that you can maybe some areas that were definitely
Speaker 4: needed to be upgraded, but there are probably some areas
Speaker 4: that didn't need to that you can bring back down.
Speaker 4: So I think it's not for a full evaluation because
Speaker 4: there's probably some more money you could be pulling from
Speaker 4: some other areas also just throwing it all at that
Speaker 4: card and getting those balances down because credit card interest
Speaker 4: it eats you up quick.
Speaker 2: I mean, what's the only.
Speaker 3: Thing worse then credit card interest is paid a lending interest.
Speaker 3: It's the only thing that's worse than it.
Speaker 1: And the compounding of it exactly that that that part
Speaker 1: is the worst, and everyone that you do that you
Speaker 1: don't send a higher payment compared to the minimum that
Speaker 1: they're charging.
Speaker 3: You, that's another month of you letting them just eat
Speaker 3: up your money to interest.
Speaker 1: Fees, yeah, balance transfers better. Yeah. I feel like this
Speaker 1: is one of those situations too, where you get the
Speaker 1: higher paying job and then you start acting like it
Speaker 1: immediately and you start you know, and I have been
Speaker 1: there too. It's like you think you're like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have this money coming in whatever, so you start
Speaker 1: to justify small increases to your spending like oh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have it, I'm gonna have it, and like, but
Speaker 1: you haven't actually earned the money yet.
Speaker 2: Ninety k is not like in your pocket immediately.
Speaker 1: It comes in these paychecks, so you really have to
Speaker 1: It's not about well, I earned double now, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: how much do you have hitting your bank account each
Speaker 1: paycheck this time? And still budgeting for that amount and
Speaker 1: not getting caught up in the whole ninety k thing
Speaker 1: and making a plan for how you're gonna get un like,
Speaker 1: get not just pay off these cards, but break the
Speaker 1: break whatever habits, whatever, like budget issues.
Speaker 2: There are that got you into this situation.
Speaker 1: So like throwing away those cards, cutting them up Dave
Speaker 1: Ramsey style, if you want to do that to your ministry,
Speaker 1: if not just stettying a budget and sticking to it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, cut them up, but don't close the accounts. Let's
Speaker 3: do that because we want to keep your credit good,
Speaker 3: especially because you have a mortgage. You might want to
Speaker 3: refinance that mortgage in a couple years when these rates drops.
Speaker 3: So you gotta be be mindful that there's a strategist,
Speaker 3: a chess game going on right now with all the
Speaker 3: components of your financial situation. You mentioned a mortgage, you
Speaker 3: mentioned sudent loans, you mentioned credit card. So it is
Speaker 3: you can't handle each one in complete isolation because if
Speaker 3: you if you, if you cut the card and close
Speaker 3: it now, you're affecting potential future mortgage refinancy rates. And
Speaker 3: so that's kind of you know, looking at the complete
Speaker 3: puzzle rather than individual puzzle pieces is going to be
Speaker 3: really important for you right now because this is a
Speaker 3: stressful situation to have. But it sounds like you have
Speaker 3: a menu of options. You you know, you've heard a
Speaker 3: couple of our opinions on what you should do, and
Speaker 3: think it is definitely a plan of attack. And then
Speaker 3: to Chris's point, I would double down on that sit
Speaker 3: down and go through the numbers like where are you
Speaker 3: doing too much? Where are you doing the most, and
Speaker 3: and what can you do to clean that up? I
Speaker 3: do this all the time, like at least once or
Speaker 3: twice a year, I will sit down and go, all right,
Speaker 3: I'm doing too much. I do not need to have
Speaker 3: Apple Music and Spotify. What the hell like, I need
Speaker 3: to stop, you know, And if you're doing that right now,
Speaker 3: check yourself because that that's a small example of ways
Speaker 3: that you become careless financially and in larger ways later.
Speaker 3: So you know, just be on top of yourself because
Speaker 3: no one else is going to be looking at your
Speaker 3: finances and checking you. You got to check yourself. Boo.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And then also if you're tacking that card and
Speaker 4: paying it down and you stop using it, what'n't happening
Speaker 4: to amaxually? But like, hey, we're making a lot of
Speaker 4: money off this person and we're not anymore. And that's
Speaker 4: when you start getting some those better offers too, to
Speaker 4: keep your interest rates low, and it's our offering, Like, oh,
Speaker 4: what about a little balance stress. If you want to
Speaker 4: bring over some of that Discover balance, We'll give you
Speaker 4: zero percent for a year. So you the more the
Speaker 4: more responsible you are, the more likely you already get
Speaker 4: some of these other breaks too. That will maybe make
Speaker 4: it a little bit easier for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good call for sure.
Speaker 1: I want her to like try to get a balance
Speaker 1: trends for the discover first ask if they'll reduce it
Speaker 1: or try to get a balanced trendsfer I mean, shit,
Speaker 1: MX may even say you can carry that.
Speaker 2: On over here and we'll get zero percent.
Speaker 1: Because it can't be the same issue where it has
Speaker 1: to be a different so Chase Bank.
Speaker 2: Of America, Wells Fargo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have options, h yes, but don't spend too
Speaker 1: much time playing the shame game or the blame game.
Speaker 2: Like it happens to the best of us.
Speaker 1: Just about like facing it, getting it done and then
Speaker 1: trying to remember how shitty it felt and not doing
Speaker 1: it again.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3: That's it right there, not letting it happen again to.
Speaker 1: The best of your abilities. And also don't have children
Speaker 1: and move to the summer.
Speaker 2: Also really.
Speaker 1: Really is a personal finance conundrum. I will say all
Speaker 1: r Iba fan, thank you so much for sending your questions.
Speaker 1: Again Brandimission Podcast at gmail dot com to have your
Speaker 1: question right on the show or hit us up on
Speaker 1: ig We're at brand Ambision Podcast And until next time.
Speaker 2: Bye.