Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, new Year, New year, new you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I feel like, you know, New Year's saying me,
Speaker 2: well no, well, well yeah, I don't know. How was
Speaker 2: your New Year?
Speaker 1: My New Year was great. I'm finally in the house.
Speaker 1: By the way, Hey guys, Happy New Year. It's Mandy
Speaker 1: and Tiffany with Brown Ambition.
Speaker 2: Yesk me, I forgot. I'm so rude. I'm like, hey, Mandy,
Speaker 2: how are you? Oh hey, Brown Ambition listeners? My bad?
Speaker 1: Did you guys forget us? We missed two episodes.
Speaker 2: I know people were like, so where have you been?
Speaker 2: We've been here living our best life. Mandy's in the house.
Speaker 1: Right, I'm in a house. Yeah, my house looks really beautiful.
Speaker 1: We're like ninety eight percent done. I have realized that
Speaker 1: it's nothing like HG TV. I mean I already realized that,
Speaker 1: but in terms of like the moment when you walk
Speaker 1: in and you've been kicked out for a week and
Speaker 1: you come in and everything is perfect, that doesn't happen
Speaker 1: in real life.
Speaker 2: No bra.
Speaker 1: Over the holidays, I was telling tiff like, I had
Speaker 1: to host my family and my husband's family, and I
Speaker 1: had no countertop, no dishwasher, no stovetop, no sink no,
Speaker 1: no sink in the kitchen no, no nothing, no silverware no,
Speaker 1: because everything, Because you have to understand, like we moved
Speaker 1: into the house in April, but we never really unpacked
Speaker 1: because we knew we were going to do a renovation,
Speaker 1: and when the renovation happened, we like got out of there.
Speaker 1: And this is this was like us unpacking the house
Speaker 1: plus building furniture and yours your your your best, you know,
Speaker 1: most smartest podcast friend here decided to plan a housewarming
Speaker 1: party for New Year's and she thought that she was
Speaker 1: going to have a Christmas party and yeah, I still
Speaker 1: had my family over, but I had to cancel all
Speaker 1: planned functions except for the essential people.
Speaker 2: You did what you're what the kids called the most.
Speaker 1: I try, but like you get so excited, it didn't
Speaker 1: seem like that big of a deal. In November, my
Speaker 1: contractor was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Christmas. What he meant
Speaker 1: was Christmas, you'll have like, you know, we had the
Speaker 1: essentials we could move in and everything, but also just
Speaker 1: you have no idea what it takes to build. So
Speaker 1: we were building so much furniture, like the packaging. Our
Speaker 1: whole yard until today was just the backyard was filled
Speaker 1: with boxes and styrofoam, and I'm like, so sorry, Mother Earth.
Speaker 1: We promised we were re cycling it, but like the
Speaker 1: amount of packaging that these everything would come in from
Speaker 1: like a lamp to a you know, a bed frame
Speaker 1: was insane. But I know my way around a drill
Speaker 1: gun right now, So holler if you need any help.
Speaker 2: That's one thing about renovating it, like you become like
Speaker 2: a semi pro. You're like, oh no, that's the installation.
Speaker 2: It really needs to be packed tightly because you're like,
Speaker 2: where did I learn these things?
Speaker 1: Yes, if you guys are doing home renovation projects, here's
Speaker 1: a free, free tip is to go to PBS dot
Speaker 1: org or like YouTube and watch this old house. It's
Speaker 1: the best because they actually my husband's obsessed with it.
Speaker 1: But it's this It's been on the on the air
Speaker 1: for decades. But I feel like if you're doing any
Speaker 1: kind of home improvement, they have an episode for everything,
Speaker 1: and like just just YouTube in general, I mean obviously
Speaker 1: not for electrical and stuff, but for little things. I mean,
Speaker 1: we learned how to do so much just from watching
Speaker 1: just watching YouTube.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you university in the house, huh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was good. What did you do over
Speaker 1: the holiday.
Speaker 2: My holiday was pretty chill, like I Christmas was nice,
Speaker 2: hung out, my family, my my niece is my nephew.
Speaker 2: That's like, you know, I feel like Christmas is so
Speaker 2: a kid's holiday now. So Superman and I I'm like,
Speaker 2: thank god he doesn't this the podcast because Superman and
Speaker 2: I said, we're not going to exchange gifts. So what
Speaker 2: does that mean to you, Mandy? When you're not going
Speaker 2: to exchange gifts.
Speaker 1: You better get me something?
Speaker 2: No, Oh my god, you are on his side. I
Speaker 2: was like, Christmas. He he he whips out this watch
Speaker 2: for me and I'm looking and I him like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I didn't get him anything.
Speaker 1: Okay, awkward because.
Speaker 2: We said I must have said it like fifteen to
Speaker 2: an exchanging gifts, right, No, because we're working on the house. Yes,
Speaker 2: so we're not exchanging gifts. No, so you're sure. So
Speaker 2: I'm like, wait, why is this here? I was like, so,
Speaker 2: I it was so awkward. I'm not gonna lie. He
Speaker 2: had a little bit of a tude. I was like,
Speaker 2: what's your problem.
Speaker 1: He's like nothing, I mean with your family or just
Speaker 1: the two like this is.
Speaker 2: Just like you know, Supergirl had opened her gifts you know,
Speaker 2: it was upstairs, like you know, like rolling around and
Speaker 2: all her her new things, and I could tell he
Speaker 2: was like, here you go. I was like, oh no,
Speaker 2: God knows the best, and so I didn't even say anything.
Speaker 2: So then I at first, honestly I didn't think that
Speaker 2: he was going to be upset about it, because I
Speaker 2: wouldn't because we literally just spoke about it.
Speaker 1: You have receipts probably yes. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: so I don't matter. You should have gotten something.
Speaker 2: So the next day he still had attitude. I'm like,
Speaker 2: what's your problem? He was like, I can't beieven't give
Speaker 2: me anything for Christmas. I was like a He was like,
Speaker 2: we just said activity everybody gives gifts. And I was like, well,
Speaker 2: first of all, I did get you a gift me
Speaker 2: while Mandy who I didn't, but you know what Amazon
Speaker 2: Prime is the real o G. I was like, I
Speaker 2: did get you a gift. It was just delayed because
Speaker 2: of the holidays, and he's like you did. It was
Speaker 2: like it'll be here tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We will walking upstairs, like I told the Christmas White
Speaker 1: Lie Tiffany.
Speaker 2: But I will say he was very happy because I
Speaker 2: you know, he's getting his man cave in the new house,
Speaker 2: and so I got him it was a great, a
Speaker 2: great deal. I got him one of those those refrigerator,
Speaker 2: like like you know, many refrigerators that you can put
Speaker 2: like you know, your soda, your beers and all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. You know, yes, and so he loved
Speaker 2: like it's it's it was a good size, and I
Speaker 2: was like, who thank god it prime was on and
Speaker 2: popping and Lil was like, it'll be here tomorrow. I
Speaker 2: was like, you're a gift, be here tomorrow, so see,
Speaker 2: and he was like, yo, he loved it so much.
Speaker 2: I mean, when I say so much, I don't even
Speaker 2: feel bad about not being truthful about it because I
Speaker 2: feel so bad because I didn't realize how important it
Speaker 2: was for him. Maybe that's his love language gifts languages
Speaker 2: right now, Yeah, but I really like mostly I feel
Speaker 2: like his love language is mostly acts of service, and
Speaker 2: he's usually not a big on gift receiving. That's why
Speaker 2: I was really shocked at Or maybe it's just me
Speaker 2: because honestly, I could care less of it. I mean,
Speaker 2: the watch he got me was really beautiful. But if
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe it's because I just gifts don't
Speaker 2: mean that much to me, and so like, I'm more funny.
Speaker 1: You didn't tell him that when he gave it to you,
Speaker 1: did you?
Speaker 2: No? No, I loved it. I told me that it
Speaker 2: was beautiful and I loved it. He picked it up
Speaker 2: like a really beautiful watch. I was like, come my god,
Speaker 2: it's beautiful. And that was shocked because I was like,
Speaker 2: this is not even like one of those like we
Speaker 2: don't we're not giving gifts. But here's a Starbucks card,
Speaker 2: we're not giving gifts, or but here's some perfume. This
Speaker 2: was like, we're not giving gifts. Oh, here's a vital watch.
Speaker 2: I'm like, really, what this is more than just a gift.
Speaker 2: This is like a good gift. Why. So it was
Speaker 2: a lesson learned. I mean, he's happy now because he's
Speaker 2: got his fridge. And he was like, this is so dope.
Speaker 2: I told all my boys. I was like, who, I'm
Speaker 2: sure they're wise, like she can't get you know, and
Speaker 2: she just worried that. But I'm glad that, like, you know,
Speaker 2: he enjoyed it. So that was my Christmas and New
Speaker 2: Year's was super awesome. His sister always has an awesome
Speaker 2: party at her house. She goes all out. So we
Speaker 2: had a really good time for New Years.
Speaker 1: It must be nice to have a party. It's okay,
Speaker 1: I still have some friends over it. It's fine. It
Speaker 1: was lovely. I was gonna say we decided not to
Speaker 1: do gifts, but we ended up getting each other gifts
Speaker 1: that were for us but also for the house, so
Speaker 1: that is how we justified the expense. I got him
Speaker 1: a really nice Craftsman toolkit that he had been literally
Speaker 1: just like Slad just g chatting me every day. Just
Speaker 1: here's that link again. I got him that, and he
Speaker 1: got me a coffee maker, so now I can make
Speaker 1: because the biggest gripe I have about living out in
Speaker 1: the suburbs is that I can't just get out of
Speaker 1: my apartment and go downstairs and get a nice ltte.
Speaker 1: Now I have to like drive to the Starbucks or
Speaker 1: drive a dunkin Donuts. And I'm so tired of spending
Speaker 1: five dollars on you know, lattes. So now I can
Speaker 1: do my own lattes. So hey, but anss. So then
Speaker 1: we came back to work in reality and my husband,
Speaker 1: who you know, I was like, maybe you shouldn't have
Speaker 1: got me a gift because now you're basically not going
Speaker 1: to get paid for work, you know, because he wants
Speaker 1: for the government.
Speaker 2: This government shutdown has been like I'm like, I feel
Speaker 2: so anxious for folks, like, who, I know, this is
Speaker 2: not the first time they've had, you know, this government, Like,
Speaker 2: you know, the government has like shut down and federal
Speaker 2: workers have not been paid, but it's I guess this
Speaker 2: is kind of like the first time that I feel like,
Speaker 2: I know folks that are talking about it, they're like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, like I'm not I don't know when
Speaker 2: I'm going to get my next paycheck, and you know,
Speaker 2: some people are home. But the hard part is those
Speaker 2: people who actually still have to go to work and
Speaker 2: not get paid. I see the say workers, you know,
Speaker 2: I heard that there's been this huge like calling out,
Speaker 2: like everyone's taking their sick time, you know, like I'm not.
Speaker 1: Working for free, right because you work and you're you're
Speaker 1: not going to get paid, but the hope is that
Speaker 1: they'll retroactively pay you. So it's not like it's the
Speaker 1: first shutdown. That's true. My husband's work for the federal
Speaker 1: government for over ten years and he's gone through several
Speaker 1: shutdowns before, but he always got paid. Retro actively. But
Speaker 1: what's making everyone nervous is that we haven't had a
Speaker 1: human man baby in the presidency before, you know, holding
Speaker 1: holding everyone's paycheck's hostage over a dumb wall. So that's
Speaker 1: why I think this one's just a little bit crazier.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so my husband's worked, he's been working. He
Speaker 1: got paid I think the Friday during the holidays basically
Speaker 1: for the week, like for the work before, the two
Speaker 1: weeks before. And now he says he's at work because
Speaker 1: he's been deemed essential, but he's not getting paid. He's like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not working late tonight. I'm coming home because I'm
Speaker 1: not getting paid anyway.
Speaker 2: It's wow, not cool.
Speaker 1: But it's not just like workers. It's also us, right,
Speaker 1: so the IRS right now, who do you like their
Speaker 1: federal employees is so this is tax refund season, so
Speaker 1: there's concerns that tax refunds may not go out on
Speaker 1: time because there's not enough people staff. And already the
Speaker 1: IRS like didn't have enough people, you know, in the.
Speaker 2: Best of it works for the IRS. And he said that,
Speaker 2: you know, like you are going to have to send
Speaker 2: your taxes in in a timely manner, but they can
Speaker 2: I guarantee that you're going to get your refund done
Speaker 2: in a timely manner. I'm like, wow, this is really like,
Speaker 2: this is really a season where people kind of like
Speaker 2: reset their finances with their tax return tax returns, you.
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, I would like mine, please.
Speaker 2: Well I don't get tax returns anymore, so I'm kind
Speaker 2: of like, well, but still, like I remember when I
Speaker 2: was teaching how that was, like whoa, it was a
Speaker 2: great way to like boost my savings or pay down
Speaker 2: additional debt. So it's just crazy times now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're saying that things like what do you
Speaker 1: call it? I almost said welfare, but you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to say that anymore, are you. I don't know, can
Speaker 1: you say welfare? Welfare assistant? Food stamps may not like
Speaker 1: they're good for now, but they may not be good
Speaker 1: at the shutdown drags on forever. So it's not just
Speaker 1: it's like everyone's getting screwed, working families, poor families. I mean,
Speaker 1: how why it's so ridiculous. And I don't know what
Speaker 1: the latest is, but it doesn't seem like we're anywhere
Speaker 1: closer to reaching a deal than we were, you know,
Speaker 1: a week or two ago. So just hope that we
Speaker 1: get over this.
Speaker 2: Yes, because one thing I did see that, like, I
Speaker 2: saw this video of our current president and he said
Speaker 2: that that potentially this could last a year, And I'm like, wait, what.
Speaker 1: Like holding your own like holding your own government hostage
Speaker 1: and would then pay for hundreds of thousands of employees.
Speaker 2: This is Yeah, it's about eight hundred thousand people affected.
Speaker 2: I mean as far as directly affected. And it's like, uh,
Speaker 2: how does that you know? Yeah, that's and it's crazy
Speaker 2: because oh yeah, it's just really crazy.
Speaker 1: Here's hoping don't try and visiting national parks. There is
Speaker 1: like this really sad photo of a national park trashed
Speaker 1: because I had to pick up garbage.
Speaker 2: I saw that. I was like, wow, I heard DC
Speaker 2: is looking real filthy. Right about that?
Speaker 1: Well, I think teachers, I mean teachers and like policemen,
Speaker 1: those are state employees, right, so they're not impacted.
Speaker 2: No, I feel like because my sister in laws husband,
Speaker 2: I think he said that he was home. I have
Speaker 2: to I'd have to ask her, But I feel like
Speaker 2: he was complaining about it as one of the people
Speaker 2: I was talking about. And he's a he's a police officer.
Speaker 2: But I don't think but he also would be essential,
Speaker 2: So I just can't see it. Or maybe it was
Speaker 2: her I think maybe she works for the federal government.
Speaker 2: That's why she works for her. So it's herd that's.
Speaker 1: Home not Okay. Yeah, well, you guys, if you're impacted
Speaker 1: by the shutdown, we want to hear from you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: send us an email at brand Ambisson Podcast at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com, or tweet us at yeah you still got it,
Speaker 1: or tweet us at the BA podcast on Twitter. Yes,
Speaker 1: so you, miss thang, have a what's your liverature challenge
Speaker 1: for twenty nineteen. What what what would I do?
Speaker 2: No? No, no, no, no, no, that's fine. That's I thought you
Speaker 2: gotta say something else. Heck, keep going.
Speaker 1: Thought I was gonna scoop your boost. Yeah, we'll get
Speaker 1: to your boost. Okay, don't you worry.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited because we are. This is our fifth
Speaker 2: liberature challenge we so far have had, not including this challenge,
Speaker 2: but collectively over the last four years before this challenge,
Speaker 2: about seven hundred thousand, mostly women, get free financial education.
Speaker 2: The first challenge was all about the fundamentals, so like budgeting, savings,
Speaker 2: basic credits, all that kind of stuff. The second challenge
Speaker 2: was the Savings edition, so it was all savings. Third
Speaker 2: challenge was the Credit edition. That's the one I did
Speaker 2: with you Mandy and and Magnify Money. That was a
Speaker 2: really dope one.
Speaker 1: And then the.
Speaker 2: Fourth challenge was all about Network that was last year.
Speaker 2: And now this challenge is home the home Buying edition.
Speaker 2: And so the way the challenges worked, they're always free.
Speaker 2: It's really like my giveback to the community. So there's
Speaker 2: no excuse that you know, you like, you get all
Speaker 2: the tools that you need to help yourself in a
Speaker 2: specific kind of like genre of financial education. And a
Speaker 2: lot of folks just ask me, like how do I,
Speaker 2: you know, purchase a home? And I partnered with a
Speaker 2: friend of mine, the Tip of her. She has this
Speaker 2: company called m M n H Financial Services. But what
Speaker 2: I love about the Tip is that not only is
Speaker 2: she a credit expert like certified and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff, but she's also a certified she's a realtor,
Speaker 2: and she's also a certified home buying educator. So she
Speaker 2: works with like Freddie Mack and some some of these
Speaker 2: other kind of like UH federal and national like uh
Speaker 2: financial not financial home buying education kind of like uh
Speaker 2: uh firms and and and she she teaches around the country,
Speaker 2: and so I asked her if she could come on
Speaker 2: board and help me to structure this in a way
Speaker 2: that made sense, you know. So she she led her
Speaker 2: expertise and it's awesome. The first week is all about
Speaker 2: home buying knowledge. Second week is like all about really
Speaker 2: like implementation kind of like what do you need to
Speaker 2: do to kind of get yourself ready? And then the
Speaker 2: third week is all about funding, like how do you
Speaker 2: like what types of funding are out there, and like
Speaker 2: what's the best fit for you? And so even if
Speaker 2: you might not be ready to buy a house right now,
Speaker 2: which is fine, but it's almost like having it. It's
Speaker 2: like a first time home buyer class that you could
Speaker 2: take at the in the like the privacy of your
Speaker 2: own home. It's three weeks. The emails are delivered directly
Speaker 2: to your inbox. You could just go to l r
Speaker 2: C for Liverature Challenge l RC home Buying dot com
Speaker 2: and it's completely free. It's like I said, this is
Speaker 2: a and for some people who are like I'm not
Speaker 2: interested at home buying, but you talked about the other
Speaker 2: ones networth, credit savings fundamentals. You could just go to
Speaker 2: Live Richer Challenge dot Com and all of them are
Speaker 2: listed and just take one. It's a great beginning of
Speaker 2: the year, kind of like reset. And so that's why
Speaker 2: we always do it in the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2: And so those are automated. We're currently doing the home
Speaker 2: buying addition live and then we automated after fabulous. That's
Speaker 2: that way.
Speaker 1: Where were you two years ago?
Speaker 2: Huh huh for myself too. Shoot. But it's just good
Speaker 2: because like some things, I'm like, I'm learning, even myself.
Speaker 2: That's the thing about Like me, I'm like, I'm not
Speaker 2: an expert in all things. Like I know what I'm
Speaker 2: good at, and I try to stick to that. And
Speaker 2: then I my friends who are I bring them along
Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, can you can you show folks
Speaker 2: how to do this? And I've never gotten to know yet.
Speaker 2: And what I love about it is that you really
Speaker 2: get to learn. Like everyone you need on your team,
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, real, oh, I need to you know,
Speaker 2: maybe a mortgage lender. You know I'm gonna need potentially
Speaker 2: like you know, like uh, definitely, you're gonna want somebody
Speaker 2: to inspect the home, and these things that you can
Speaker 2: get ahead of time. And too, like you know, there
Speaker 2: might be a teacher next door program or a police
Speaker 2: officer next door program that you might qualify for. What's nakka,
Speaker 2: you know, and so knowing all of the funding resources
Speaker 2: that are out there and what you need to do
Speaker 2: to be prepared. So one of the things that the
Speaker 2: typic because she teaches, like I said, for like Freddie
Speaker 2: mack and and some of these other organizations, is that
Speaker 2: like that her students always come back to her and
Speaker 2: tell her that their lenders like you are like the
Speaker 2: one of the most prepared people have ever seen, Like
Speaker 2: all of your stuff is in order, because the way
Speaker 2: she teaches is to make sure that all of your
Speaker 2: stuff is in order, so when you do go, you
Speaker 2: are likely to you know, to get your proof. I've
Speaker 2: seen people find a house, get really excited, get it
Speaker 2: for your proof letter, only not to be able to
Speaker 2: close because at the end, you know, they didn't have
Speaker 2: their paperwork done or they really could not their finances
Speaker 2: just didn't match what the lender felt comfortable lending. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what this is for. So and yeah, they don't
Speaker 2: have to be ready right now, just for people who
Speaker 2: are just even interested in learning.
Speaker 1: I'm interested in learning more about like the tax implications
Speaker 1: of home ownership, especially now with all the tax changes
Speaker 1: from last year finally going into effect. Like, I think
Speaker 1: my next move is to get a new accountant because
Speaker 1: I had like a tax preparer before, which was like
Speaker 1: very simple because we just had like W two's and
Speaker 1: you know, nothing else to really account for. And now
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, you know, we just did this big renovation.
Speaker 1: We've did a lot of waste. We've we've made a
Speaker 1: lot of improvements to the house that save on energy
Speaker 1: costs and things like that. But what I'm not sure about.
Speaker 1: I'm not asking you for like an answer, because I know,
Speaker 1: but I'm just saying maybe maybe other people are wondering too.
Speaker 1: With the standard deduction for tax filers having gone up,
Speaker 1: what that means basically is it's made now it's makes
Speaker 1: less sense for you to itemize things like charitable deductions
Speaker 1: and the cost of installing new windows on your house
Speaker 1: or whatever. But I'm wondering now if we've made enough
Speaker 1: improvements to the house that it makes sense for us
Speaker 1: to itemize, And if we do itemize, it would be
Speaker 1: our first time and especially I think this is our
Speaker 1: first time filing as a married couple. I can't remember
Speaker 1: if we did last year or not. No, I think
Speaker 1: this might be the first year. So yeah, what does
Speaker 1: all that mean? And last year we ended up owing taxes.
Speaker 1: I'm just like I'm going into this time. I want
Speaker 1: to like prepare and get interviewing accounts now, just to
Speaker 1: get on the ball.
Speaker 2: No, that's I mean, it's it's critical because I mean,
Speaker 2: thankfully I had my accountant for the businesses, but you know,
Speaker 2: he doesn't just do my business. He does, you know,
Speaker 2: my my personal taxes as well. So just sitting you know,
Speaker 2: I remember when he sat down with us and you know,
Speaker 2: was we were kind of going back and forth, do
Speaker 2: we file married filing separately, married filing jointly? Like? Do
Speaker 2: we do we like claim? You know, he Superman has
Speaker 2: a has a daughter, my bonus daughter, Supergirl, Like do
Speaker 2: we claim her? So there were all of these So
Speaker 2: what I loved about Carlos ourccuntant is that he ran
Speaker 2: all the scenarios, like you know, with the house without
Speaker 2: a house, with Supergirl without Supergirl, all of these things,
Speaker 2: and and came up with how like which one was
Speaker 2: going to give us the best tax benefit? You know?
Speaker 2: And we came up with like the perfect mix. And
Speaker 2: so that's what versus a tax prepair, that's what your
Speaker 2: accountant can do is to really because with the UH
Speaker 2: typically with the tax prepair, like I remember, I used
Speaker 2: to go to like hn R Block, but I stopped
Speaker 2: because they were like charging me per page, you know,
Speaker 2: and it was like, oh, by the time they were done,
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's my whole refund. And so with Carlos
Speaker 2: and with most accounts, it's kind of just like a
Speaker 2: lump sum, and they're they're not just like you know,
Speaker 2: they're not just running your taxes. They're giving you advice,
Speaker 2: you know. So Carlos, you know, will give me like
Speaker 2: advice based upon changes that are happening, like well what
Speaker 2: about this and what about that? And what about this house?
Speaker 2: And you said you brought another one and what does
Speaker 2: that mean? And are you guys renovating all of these
Speaker 2: questions that seemed like small talks. I'm always thinking to myself,
Speaker 2: me and Carlos were like talking, and I'm like yeah,
Speaker 2: and then because I'm thinking with chit chatting like friends,
Speaker 2: but what he's doing is extracting information from my taxes.
Speaker 2: You want me away a therapy. Carlos is like, oh,
Speaker 2: that will affect your taxes in this way. And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: so you don't care about how my renovations are going.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh, that's nice, but that's how it's gonna
Speaker 2: affect your taxes. So yes, getting yourself once your taxes
Speaker 2: get to be a little bit more complicated, getting yourself
Speaker 2: a really good accountant. There's actually a website that Carlos
Speaker 2: told me about because people always ask me about if
Speaker 2: they can if they can hire him, and he's honestly
Speaker 2: not taking on new clients, but I am going to
Speaker 2: get you the link it is. He was like, you know,
Speaker 2: going on here and you know, basically doing your own research.
Speaker 2: Let me fand it. Where is the Carlos I know
Speaker 2: now that it's like it's like I'm under pressure. It's here.
Speaker 1: I swear it is.
Speaker 2: Don't dude, I'll edit.
Speaker 1: This out to be less scruciating.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I can't find it. I'm like, are you
Speaker 2: kidding me? I was just looking at it yesterday like oh,
Speaker 2: this is yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I'll keep it it. It's funny enough.
Speaker 2: It's like a s P A I A P A
Speaker 2: A s P A S C p A or something
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: Well, the American Institute of CPAs is the big national organization. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have a tool online where you can locate CPAs
Speaker 1: in your area and find them. Yeah. Yeah, we interviewed
Speaker 1: their experts all the time.
Speaker 2: Well there you go. So yeah, so he was just like,
Speaker 2: you know, looking there viewing someone because you really want someone.
Speaker 2: It's almost like your doctor. You want someone that you're
Speaker 2: going to feel very comfortable sharing kind of like your
Speaker 2: you know, your background, your history, the mistakes that you made,
Speaker 2: you know, so that way they could really advise you
Speaker 2: based upon like what's really happening in your life.
Speaker 1: You know, yes, one hundred percent, I am ready it's happening.
Speaker 1: My other resolution is just to actually go to a doctor,
Speaker 1: speaking of which I did not go to a single
Speaker 1: medical professional in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: Why. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just kept saying, I think I might have tried
Speaker 1: to go to the gynecologist. But I think what happened
Speaker 1: was I went this might have been last year of
Speaker 1: the year, but no, I'm pretty sure it must have
Speaker 1: been this year. I went to my gynecologist. And if
Speaker 1: you guys are in a busy city, maybe you have
Speaker 1: this experience. But I made an appointment. I went, They
Speaker 1: made me wait an hour and a half and I
Speaker 1: still wasn't seen and I had to go back to work. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I left and I did make a follow up appointment,
Speaker 1: but then I did not go, and I'm not I mean,
Speaker 1: it's very serious, I should go to a doctor.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I'm just like wasting the money
Speaker 1: I was spending on insurance. What you know, I managed
Speaker 1: to spend. I did go because you know, I saved
Speaker 1: money in my flex saving his account. And I only
Speaker 1: at my company. It's different from every employer. But at
Speaker 1: my company, they let us roll over five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: But I still had, you know, like a few hundred
Speaker 1: dollars to spend. So you know, I got some new
Speaker 1: glasses and some stuff at the drug store, but I
Speaker 1: needed to go to the doctor. I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Me feel bad, but you.
Speaker 2: Know, and I'm not gonna lie. I was really never
Speaker 2: really like a doctor person. But this year I went
Speaker 2: to the doctor alive. I guess because in preparation for
Speaker 2: trying to have a kid. But I found myself at
Speaker 2: a doctor that so it just got easy because I
Speaker 2: was always Honestly, the reason I used to not go
Speaker 2: is just for the economics of it. I was, you know,
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur that wasn't making a bunch of money. So
Speaker 2: I was like, this call will go away by itself.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure, you know, like, you know this mole
Speaker 2: looks it looks benign.
Speaker 1: You know, Okay, you didn't have a mole.
Speaker 2: What I'm just saying, like, I remember what time. The
Speaker 2: only time I actually read is like I dyed my
Speaker 2: own hair and I didn't revealize I was allergic to
Speaker 2: black guy and my whole head yes, manny. And my
Speaker 2: mother was like, do you want to die? Because I
Speaker 2: was like, I don't have money for the emergency room.
Speaker 2: She was like, I sent her a picture. It looked
Speaker 2: like do you remember the movie Mask with like Jim Carrey? No, no, no,
Speaker 2: oh wow, you are so young.
Speaker 1: Wait what other one is there? I was like, it
Speaker 1: turned your head green? What where is this going?
Speaker 2: No? Mask is with oh what is her name? A Cher?
Speaker 2: I want you to google it. Look up the Mask
Speaker 2: movie with Chaer and she had a son, Eric Stalt
Speaker 2: was but his name was Rocky Dennis in the movie
Speaker 2: and hits face like literally, that's my Facebook. I want
Speaker 2: you to Google so you can take a look. You're
Speaker 2: gonna be like, no, I don't want to. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Him, Yeah, I wasn't born when this came out. Sorry
Speaker 1: would you carry?
Speaker 2: Oh my good. So like that's how my facebooked. For
Speaker 2: those of you who were doing the Google search, it
Speaker 2: was because it was it was so swollen. But so
Speaker 2: I read later that here's a sector of the population
Speaker 2: that it's severely alerted to black dye. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I was supposed to do a test and I didn't,
Speaker 2: and so my face grew up like that. It was
Speaker 2: just all liquid underneath that I could feel it, and
Speaker 2: I was like, it'll go away, It'll go away. So
Speaker 2: I ended up walking to the emergency I went and
Speaker 2: they were like, you're having an allergic reaction. I'm like,
Speaker 2: no kidding. And they gave me basically a glorified Benadryl
Speaker 2: and then gave me a prescription, which I thought was
Speaker 2: like a prescription. And so I go to the pharmacy
Speaker 2: and they basically said Benajolo was in the aisle. Eight
Speaker 2: hundred dollars later.
Speaker 1: I was alive. Okay, you're not helping, just make a
Speaker 1: case for healthcare, Tiff, You're not.
Speaker 2: One of the things was that, And this is what
Speaker 2: I learned. I didn't know that you could negotiate your
Speaker 2: your bill, and so that's what I learned with that
Speaker 2: because I owed eight hundred, but I didn't have eight hundred.
Speaker 2: And I remember it was like, you know, like they
Speaker 2: sent me like the pink envelope that's like the envelope
Speaker 2: you get right before collections. And my brother in law,
Speaker 2: he was in medical school, He's like, no, you should
Speaker 2: call and negotiate it, you know. So I called and
Speaker 2: I was like, look, I don't have eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: They're like, well what do you have? And I'm like
Speaker 2: four hundred and they said, okay, we'll take it. I
Speaker 2: was like, oh wait, two hundred.
Speaker 1: Definitely negotiate.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that. So I negotiated down and so yeah,
Speaker 2: but it was a it was a lesson learned. And
Speaker 2: like I really was not planning on going to the doctor.
Speaker 2: And my mother's like, your faith doesn't even look recognizable.
Speaker 2: So you're you're you're gonna, you know, so it's just
Speaker 2: important for you to go to the doctor.
Speaker 1: I guess that's why I haven't gone because nothing's really happened.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty healthy, but I have gained weight this year.
Speaker 1: I think that's just I know why, because I've just
Speaker 1: been like not living a normal life. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna do all
Speaker 1: of it. I'm gonna go the dentist, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: to the guy ina collogist. I'm gonna. I need to
Speaker 1: find new doctors in my area. I think that's also
Speaker 1: part of it, when you know when you move and
Speaker 1: like you had to find all new medical professionals. Like
Speaker 1: I think I'm actually gonna I'm done with doc Doc
Speaker 1: because it's just like, you know, I feel like I've
Speaker 1: had a hodgepodge of medical professionals over the last eight
Speaker 1: years living in New York. I'm like, which one's closer
Speaker 1: to my job now, you know, and just flipping. But
Speaker 1: I think it'd be good just to have like a
Speaker 1: dedicated primary care position and take care of myself. In
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, hold me accountable on it, guys. Tweet me
Speaker 1: in three months if I haven't gone to a doctor,
Speaker 1: I'll pay something. I'll pay money to a charity.
Speaker 2: I don't know, Yes, I mean you can pay toward
Speaker 2: my renovation. You know, that's just putting it out there.
Speaker 2: You're all right, You're all right now, No, this is
Speaker 2: this is all good. See Like New Year's is such
Speaker 2: a great time to reset. So these are good resetting
Speaker 2: things for me for New YEARK Like I didn't really,
Speaker 2: I mean I have some like business goals, but really
Speaker 2: like my big like kind of like personal goal is
Speaker 2: really like like just continuing to build on relationships, like
Speaker 2: you know, being a good wife, being a good sister,
Speaker 2: a good daughter, you know, good friend, and just making
Speaker 2: sure a good bonus mom and like really just trying
Speaker 2: to solidify my relations and just making sure you know
Speaker 2: I'm president and I'm here. These are questions, That's all
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say. Because everyone hates when I mess with
Speaker 2: Hilaria's I got your messages.
Speaker 1: We're gonna bring that into twenty nineteen. We're gonna bring
Speaker 1: that jingle.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's the first prie the girl question.
Speaker 1: All right, to kick off the new year, we got
Speaker 1: a couple of good questions from some listeners. Let's start
Speaker 1: with the listener Veronica. Okay, Veronica says, my name's Veronica.
Speaker 1: Good good place to start. And I want to say
Speaker 1: I absolutely love your podcast. It brings me life. Since
Speaker 1: I started listening to you guys, my credit score is
Speaker 1: now seven oh one. Hey, no, good to you. And
Speaker 1: I think it's hilarious that Tiffany still doesn't know your
Speaker 1: social media hand. This doesn't sound like a question, Okay,
Speaker 1: on to the question. I am currently using a brick
Speaker 1: and mortar bank Boa the worst I have been, she says,
Speaker 1: not that was her words, not mine. I have been
Speaker 1: researching online banks and I really like what Ally has
Speaker 1: to offer. H sounds familiar, but I am scared to
Speaker 1: transfer all my money to an online bank. I guess
Speaker 1: because of the familiarity I have with Bank of America
Speaker 1: in the easy access. Do you ladies still use a
Speaker 1: brick and mortar bank in addition to banking online for
Speaker 1: your regular everyday checking and savings accounts? Would you suggest
Speaker 1: switching to a credit union and having an online bank
Speaker 1: in addition to that? There are so many options and
Speaker 1: I would like some advice. Thank you in advance. Veronica
Speaker 1: A loyal fan. Oh thanks, Veronica, Varo.
Speaker 2: That's why I used to call my best friend back
Speaker 2: in the day Varro.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I actually believe in having three. I like
Speaker 2: to have a credit union because if I'm going to borrow,
Speaker 2: best place to gets the best rate. I have an
Speaker 2: online only bank because that's where I keep my savings.
Speaker 2: I don't even have a checking account there because I
Speaker 2: like to keep my my savings far away from my
Speaker 2: checking because then they become the same thing. And then
Speaker 2: I use my brick and mortar for like basically like checking,
Speaker 2: like bills and and like where I get a lot
Speaker 2: of my deposits. So, yeah, I have brick and mortar.
Speaker 2: I use Oh I mean, I hate to say, but
Speaker 2: I mean I use a bank. Yeah, so we're gonna
Speaker 2: leave it at that. So but it's a brick and
Speaker 2: mortar very similar to your bank. But yeah, so I
Speaker 2: don't I don't think there's anything wrong with having those three. Actually,
Speaker 2: I like that because I like having a bank that
Speaker 2: no matter where I am and kind of in the country,
Speaker 2: I have access to my funds. And like, like I said,
Speaker 2: the credit union is great for savings as well as
Speaker 2: borrowing money, and then definitely online for for savings because
Speaker 2: it makes your money slightly inconvenient if you don't have
Speaker 2: for checking at that same bank. So I'll say go
Speaker 2: for it and add you know, have those three in
Speaker 2: the mix.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I mean it's not
Speaker 1: an all it's not an all or nothing thing. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to she mentions being afraid of transferring
Speaker 1: her money to an online bank, and I mean in
Speaker 1: terms of being afraid, online banks as long as they
Speaker 1: say their FDIC insured are equally as safe as a
Speaker 1: brick and mortar bank. Just because there's a storefront doesn't
Speaker 1: make it any less safe. In fact, I would argue
Speaker 1: it's less safe because it has a brick and mortar
Speaker 1: location that could just shudder at any moment, because that's
Speaker 1: the trends that we're seeing in big banks, is that
Speaker 1: it's getting too expensive to keep those physical branches, so
Speaker 1: they're they're shutting them down and they're trying to compete
Speaker 1: now with the online bank. So yeah, An, I have
Speaker 1: an ALLY savings account. I recently opened a checking account
Speaker 1: because it gave me the ability to write checks, so
Speaker 1: I like that, and it's easy to transfer funds back
Speaker 1: and forth. I still have a big bank account that
Speaker 1: I use, and I forget why I opened it, but
Speaker 1: it used to be nice before I realized that ALLY
Speaker 1: refund I used to like it, because you know, it
Speaker 1: was nice to have a big bank that I knew
Speaker 1: I can go to an ATM and access cash for free.
Speaker 1: Back then, I use cash a lot more often than
Speaker 1: I do now. And also since then, it's even less
Speaker 1: of a reason to stick with the bank because Ally
Speaker 1: and some online banks will offer a reimbursement to a
Speaker 1: certain amount for your ATM fees if you go you know,
Speaker 1: out of network, which you have to because they don't
Speaker 1: have a network of ATM fees. So I can swipe
Speaker 1: my ALLY, I can. I take my ALLY checking card
Speaker 1: and you know, I take it to the bodega to
Speaker 1: get money out, and then I get a refund for
Speaker 1: like the two or three dollars fee or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: I think it's up to fifteen dollars, but check the terms. Yeah,
Speaker 1: h Man credit unions though I don't I haven't had
Speaker 1: a credit I'm still mad at Georgia Federal or what
Speaker 1: is it, Georgia Telco credit Union. My friends they still
Speaker 1: have like fifty dollars that is trapped in an old
Speaker 1: checking account that I had way back in college because
Speaker 1: I can't remember my damn password.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding? No?
Speaker 1: And like I have to. I think at this point
Speaker 1: that my account's been deleted and I've tried to call
Speaker 1: multiple times, and I need like a phone password, and
Speaker 1: I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what
Speaker 1: nineteen year old Dandy thought was a good phone password.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're not using with everybody else that's using
Speaker 2: the year of their birth.
Speaker 1: I will. I'll try that next. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: have no idea. I have to like go physically to
Speaker 1: a branch in Georgia, which I don't live there anymore. So, uh,
Speaker 1: they got my money, but I'm coming for it every
Speaker 1: they still send me. They still send me account statements.
Speaker 1: It's really shady, Yes.
Speaker 2: You wish, maybe it's give me.
Speaker 1: Annoying. Anyway, thanks for your question, Veronica.
Speaker 2: That was a good one, even with the little shade
Speaker 2: about because you're right, I don't remember our social media handles.
Speaker 2: I was trying to wiggle out of it when I
Speaker 2: was telling you, and then I was like, oh, darn it,
Speaker 2: I don't remember them. So we're here now. It's okay.
Speaker 1: We don't have an Instagram, we don't take messages there.
Speaker 1: That's when I remember, I know, I know, Oh my
Speaker 1: gosh it, I'll never say we've been doing this how
Speaker 1: many years?
Speaker 2: I know?
Speaker 1: It's okay. You guys know how to google. You can
Speaker 1: find us exactly all right. And here's a question from
Speaker 1: paul Lette. It's a good question for the new year.
Speaker 1: If you're trying to rebuild your credit. She says, does
Speaker 1: it make sense to get a secured credit card if
Speaker 1: you already have a regular credit card? And how well
Speaker 1: getting a secured credit card plus having existing credit cards
Speaker 1: affect my credit and my credit score.
Speaker 2: Oh well, first, maybe I'll describe what a secure credit
Speaker 2: card is, and then Mandy you can kind of give
Speaker 2: some invice. So a secured credit card, I like to say,
Speaker 2: is like a credit card with trading will, right, so
Speaker 2: it's really secured. So every credit card is secured in
Speaker 2: some way. Like so like a regular credit card is
Speaker 2: like that's the bank's money. So every time you wripe,
Speaker 2: you a regular credit card, you're borrowing money. So next
Speaker 2: time you're at Wendy's, you are fixedally borrowing money for
Speaker 2: that chicken sandwich. But with a secured card, they're like,
Speaker 2: we don't trust you that much because your credit is
Speaker 2: either like you really don't have much credit, so maybe
Speaker 2: you're super young, or you're just someone who never borrowed
Speaker 2: any money, or your credit's not very good, and so
Speaker 2: they're like, we don't trust you, so we're not gonna
Speaker 2: let you loan. We're not going to loan you money
Speaker 2: through your credit card when you swipe. Instead, we want
Speaker 2: you to secure that card with your own money, anywhere
Speaker 2: from three hundred dollars is the lowest that I've seen
Speaker 2: upboards of like one thousand dollars. So you put that
Speaker 2: money up. They put it like a like a like
Speaker 2: a basically glorified savings account, a money market account for you,
Speaker 2: and they give you the card and let's just say,
Speaker 2: put up three hundred dollars. Your limit on the card
Speaker 2: is three hundred dollars, and so you swipe away pay back,
Speaker 2: swipe away pay back. I've seen that like as short
Speaker 2: as six months of using the card. Wisely, if it's
Speaker 2: with the bank that actually has a you know that
Speaker 2: also offers an unsecured credit card that they can say,
Speaker 2: like for example, Wells Fargum, they can say, hey, you've
Speaker 2: been doing so well with a secured card, we are
Speaker 2: going to make it in an unsecured card like everyone else,
Speaker 2: and we're going to give you back your three hundred dollars,
Speaker 2: and so that's basically what it is. Typically, secured cards
Speaker 2: are for people who are wanting to grow their their
Speaker 2: credit history but don't have access to a normal credit card. Typically, So,
Speaker 2: but what do you think about having.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't see a problem at all, especially if
Speaker 1: you've had credit in the past and your score is
Speaker 1: low and you're looking to rebuild but you can't get
Speaker 1: qualified for any new cards, or you don't trust yourself
Speaker 1: with regular credit cards and you just want the training
Speaker 1: wills back on and you want to just take out
Speaker 1: a secured card to build some good credit history. I
Speaker 1: don't think if you have a credit card and you
Speaker 1: also have a secured card, there should be much of
Speaker 1: any impact to your credit score. As long as you
Speaker 1: are using the secured card secured card properly and making
Speaker 1: your payments on time, your score should improve. And as
Speaker 1: long as the existing credit cards that you have, you know,
Speaker 1: let's say that there's nothing charged on them and you're
Speaker 1: not carrying a balance from month to month or getting
Speaker 1: paid you know, paying interest, then yeah, it shouldn't be
Speaker 1: hurting your credit. If you've had credit cards in the past,
Speaker 1: that you've been really delinquent on and that's still on
Speaker 1: your credit report. That's just going to have to take
Speaker 1: time to fall off your report. So the secured card
Speaker 1: behavior will count as good behavior, but the old credit
Speaker 1: card behavior won't.
Speaker 2: We leave you.
Speaker 1: You have to wait that seven year period to have
Speaker 1: it finally drop off your report. But as Tiffany always does,
Speaker 1: you know, when when they're calculating your credit scores, they're
Speaker 1: looking at Yes, they look at the past, you know,
Speaker 1: several years of history, but what's happened most recently tends
Speaker 1: to have a bigger impact. So the negative impact of
Speaker 1: that older history of yours will diminish with time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And so the short answer is that's fine.
Speaker 2: You don't have to I mean you could. You can
Speaker 2: use your current credit card wisely, you know, meaning like
Speaker 2: so the best way, like I found to use a
Speaker 2: credit card that like you're like, I really need to
Speaker 2: raise my credit score is that if you pay it off,
Speaker 2: if it's close to being paid off, that will be
Speaker 2: awesome paid off, and then put something really nomenal on
Speaker 2: and something under fifty bucks. So maybe like gym membership
Speaker 2: or I don't know, maybe like a magazine membership or
Speaker 2: something subscription and then you you leave the card home,
Speaker 2: let the membership charge the card automatically, and then from
Speaker 2: your bank account set up an automatic payoff. Just call
Speaker 2: the card company and say that is the statement date,
Speaker 2: like basically when do you issue me my statement? So
Speaker 2: you know to pay after the statement date, meaning after
Speaker 2: they've recorded the card has been used, but before the
Speaker 2: due date or by the due date. So there's like
Speaker 2: a window there, like, hey, what was her name again?
Speaker 2: Paul attellaid, Hey, Paula pau let's use the card credit
Speaker 2: bureaus so they've recorded that because you don't want to
Speaker 2: pay it off so quickly that they show that you've
Speaker 2: never used the card. So if you do that, And
Speaker 2: so I did that once when I when my car,
Speaker 2: my score had dropped from like an A or two
Speaker 2: to like a five forty seven after my foreclosure and
Speaker 2: the recession. So I did that with two cards, Like
Speaker 2: I had two cards that already had a zero balance
Speaker 2: because I had like a bunch of cards because I
Speaker 2: was wild out here in these streets. But I had
Speaker 2: two that had a zero balance because I had done
Speaker 2: I had done one of those rollovers, and I kept
Speaker 2: the cards open because I was. I wanted to pay
Speaker 2: down my debt, so I rolled it over to the
Speaker 2: cards that had less a lower interest rate, and so
Speaker 2: my credit score dropped dramatically like soon after that because
Speaker 2: I had a foreclosure. And I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: with these two cards. My friend who was a bankruptcy lawyer,
Speaker 2: I asked him, like, what do you usually tell your clients,
Speaker 2: and he was like, you know, Tiffany, just charged something
Speaker 2: really small, leave the card at home, and then paid
Speaker 2: the card off in full. So I did that with
Speaker 2: two cards, and by it took about a year, and
Speaker 2: that's some change. It took a while, but I was like,
Speaker 2: I think maybe a year, I went to a seven fifty,
Speaker 2: but that's with an active foreclosure on on my credit
Speaker 2: report and so and now I'm back into eight hundreds.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, if you have an existing card and
Speaker 1: you trust yourself to use it, then just do exactly that.
Speaker 1: You don't have to open a secured card. But maybe
Speaker 1: you're opening a secured card for another reason that makes
Speaker 1: sense to you. So but as long as you use
Speaker 1: both wisely, then it will be all fine. My neighbor's
Speaker 1: name is Paulette. By the way, I keep thinking about
Speaker 1: that Hey you pull it all right? Thank you guys
Speaker 1: for your questions again. Hit us up at Brandnambisson podcast
Speaker 1: dot com or shoot us an email or shoot us
Speaker 1: in an email at Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Or yes, you can go to Instagram at Brown Ambition
Speaker 1: Podcast on Instagram or on Twitter at the BA podcast.
Speaker 1: By the way, Yeah, who's contacted miss what's her face?
Speaker 1: Who owns the Brown Ambition Twitter handle? Can we talk
Speaker 1: to her? Can we get it please? It's been three years?
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, she's not ying it. Oh, I just kind
Speaker 2: of update it said. The White House says that I
Speaker 2: R S will issue tax refunds during the government chuckdown.
Speaker 1: Well okay, yeah, right, we'll see side.
Speaker 2: I I mean to be fair. That's according to the
Speaker 2: Shade Room.
Speaker 1: So I don't know how listen, okay qualified.
Speaker 2: So now it's time for boostand up break a boostreak.
Speaker 2: I have been waiting for this time. Do you have
Speaker 2: a booster break?
Speaker 1: Why you make me go first so you can just
Speaker 1: stomp all over my with your way better boost?
Speaker 2: I but no, you have rate.
Speaker 1: I'll go first and keep it quick. So I was
Speaker 1: just gonna boost. You know, it's not like I have
Speaker 1: legislation under my name, but I was going to boost
Speaker 1: certificates of deposits because I don't think they get enough
Speaker 1: credit as savings vehicles. So I would like to do
Speaker 1: a shout out for CDs. So, if you have money
Speaker 1: in savings and a regular savings account and you are
Speaker 1: looking to earn even more on your savings, online banks
Speaker 1: especially offer pretty good CD rates these days, and I
Speaker 1: took a risk because the thing with CDs is that
Speaker 1: you lock up your money for a certain amount of time,
Speaker 1: like three months or six months or twelve months, up
Speaker 1: to five, seven, ten years. So for me, a year ago,
Speaker 1: we decided we weren't going to need a certain amount
Speaker 1: of money and we could put it into a one
Speaker 1: year CD that earned at the time almost a full
Speaker 1: percentage point more than my regular savings earned, or is
Speaker 1: that true half a percentage point more. So we put
Speaker 1: it into a CD and it just matured this past
Speaker 1: couple of week, and it was so great to actually
Speaker 1: for it to work and to see that I've earned
Speaker 1: more money than had I just left it in my
Speaker 1: regular savings account. Even so, if you guys are like
Speaker 1: me and Tiff and you like to hoard cash, yes, right,
Speaker 1: a CD is like a baby step up. You're not
Speaker 1: putting the money in the market and risking it. You know,
Speaker 1: CDs are still under FDIC insurance. You won't lose your
Speaker 1: principle if the bank goes under. So yeah, CDs. I
Speaker 1: recommend if you have money that like you've got your
Speaker 1: emergency fund saved, you have money in case of emergency
Speaker 1: and a regular liquid savings account, and you have a
Speaker 1: little bit of extra money like let's say you're saving
Speaker 1: for ooh, for like Tiffany, for saving for a house,
Speaker 1: like a down payment. It's a great way to save
Speaker 1: put some money away into a CD, and then maybe
Speaker 1: if you're looking to buy a house in you know,
Speaker 1: a year, two years, three years, then it can be
Speaker 1: a nice way to earn morm on your money over
Speaker 1: that time. With the caveat that, when you get a CD,
Speaker 1: you're like locking in the rate, So you do want
Speaker 1: to pay attention into what's happening with rates right now.
Speaker 1: Rates have been going up, so you may not want
Speaker 1: to lock up your money in a CD for too
Speaker 1: too long if the FED decides to keep raising rates
Speaker 1: because when they raise rates, usually savings accounts and CDs
Speaker 1: you'll see deposit accounts have higher rates too, and you
Speaker 1: don't want to be stuck with like the twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: rate when the rates are higher in like twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: You know, so that's my boost. Okay, you go like.
Speaker 2: You guys know a couple of years ago. It's been
Speaker 2: three years actually, I mean so twenty fifteen. A friend
Speaker 2: of mine, her name was Angela B. McKnight. She reached
Speaker 2: out to me. She had just become the new assembly
Speaker 2: woman for in in Jersey City. I think it's like
Speaker 2: the thirty fifth of the thirty first district, and she
Speaker 2: reached out. I was like, I'm the new assembly woman.
Speaker 2: I really want to create change right away. I want
Speaker 2: to get some law paths. I want to focus on education.
Speaker 2: And I said okay, And so she was like, you know,
Speaker 2: obviously Tippany, she had taken my finalnial education class at
Speaker 2: the INN that a way. That's how we met, and
Speaker 2: she was like, I thought it was great. I'd love
Speaker 2: to talk to you about what would that look like
Speaker 2: maybe in the school system. So we met and I
Speaker 2: told her, you know, there's already a law and place
Speaker 2: for high school and she was like, okay, I didn't
Speaker 2: know that and I said yeah, and I said, honestly,
Speaker 2: I really believe the financial education start should start as
Speaker 2: young as elementary school and middle school. And she was
Speaker 2: like okay. And we met at Starbucks, like I said,
Speaker 2: December twenty fifteen, and she got her staffers to work
Speaker 2: to look up the law for high school and all
Speaker 2: of that that it meant, and to start to gather
Speaker 2: information of what we were going to need for to
Speaker 2: write the bill for the piece of legislation for the
Speaker 2: for our bill. So we did all of that she got.
Speaker 2: We had a little bit of pushback from some New
Speaker 2: Jersey administrators and educators because and it was great because
Speaker 2: I got to meet with them, and She's like, you know,
Speaker 2: they're coming to my office. I'd love for you to
Speaker 2: meet with them because we really need to get them
Speaker 2: on board. And so I did, and I understood their
Speaker 2: their pushback and their friction because they were just like
Speaker 2: me when I was a teacher. I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: here we go, another new piece of legislation for people
Speaker 2: who don't know anything about education, and they're making it
Speaker 2: harder for me to be a successful classroom teacher. But
Speaker 2: I told them that know that I believe in integration
Speaker 2: versus like stopping the educational day and creating space and time.
Speaker 2: And so they were like, wow, this is you know,
Speaker 2: this is really good to what we did is we
Speaker 2: crafted the bill to really talk about you know that
Speaker 2: like integrating financial education in elementary and middle school, not
Speaker 2: saying stop its financial education time. For example, like books
Speaker 2: that like so if you're going to order one hundred books,
Speaker 2: maybe five of them are are based in financial education.
Speaker 2: When I was teaching preschool, I taught for over ten years,
Speaker 2: I had a we did like a penny drive every
Speaker 2: year with the kids, and then every every week when
Speaker 2: we had the penny drive, the kids got to count
Speaker 2: the pennies and talk about who we were going to
Speaker 2: give the money to. So like really integrating or like
Speaker 2: doing savings boxes. So for art, we always did art.
Speaker 2: We always did like a major art project once a week.
Speaker 2: And so we would do sometimes like like they would
Speaker 2: bring in a two box from home. We would cut
Speaker 2: out pictures of things they wanted to save for and
Speaker 2: what that looked like. Even like for like as little
Speaker 2: as three years old, I would Every preschool classroom has
Speaker 2: like a job chart where the kids do jobs around
Speaker 2: the classroom. Most of them anyway, and so I used
Speaker 2: to pay the kids, like at three and four, like
Speaker 2: I would give them monopoly money, one dollar if they
Speaker 2: did a good two dollars if they did it not
Speaker 2: so great, two dollars that they did a great job,
Speaker 2: and no doubts if they didn't do anything right, cause
Speaker 2: you know, and then they got to save it in
Speaker 2: their savings boxing. At the end of the week, they
Speaker 2: got to spend it in our school store. So all
Speaker 2: of these things are integrations versus buying new materials, stopping
Speaker 2: all of it. Were required with some training for teachers
Speaker 2: to learn how best to integrate into their classroom. So anyway,
Speaker 2: we got all of this information back, wrote this bill
Speaker 2: based upon integration. Thought it was so great. It went
Speaker 2: through the committee, it went to the House, it went
Speaker 2: to the Senate. It had bipartisan except across the board.
Speaker 2: Got to Governor Christie's desk right when, so he you know,
Speaker 2: he wasn't going to be the government anymore. So he
Speaker 2: was on his way out and got to his desk
Speaker 2: and she, you know, spoke with him briefly. It was like,
Speaker 2: you know, please this bill is on your desk, please
Speaker 2: sign it, you know. But he had like I'm sure
Speaker 2: like hundreds of bills on his desk. He didn't sign it,
Speaker 2: So they call that a pocket veto. This was about
Speaker 2: a year ago, and so that just.
Speaker 1: For how long years this is through three years as
Speaker 1: long as the podcast has been running for.
Speaker 2: Really, you're right, And it was so disappointing because, you know,
Speaker 2: because you know, you worked so hard. I remember, like
Speaker 2: I mean, there were times when she wanted me to
Speaker 2: come to testify in front of Senate, but I couldn't
Speaker 2: because I you know, I was somewhere else enough out
Speaker 2: of state. But Angela really put in so much work
Speaker 2: on you know, assembly woman midnight, and so it was
Speaker 2: so disappointing. We were like, yes, it's finally he it's not,
Speaker 2: you know, but it's honestly such a It was actually, like,
Speaker 2: honestly almost like a blessing that he didn't sign it.
Speaker 2: So now we have a new mayor, Governor Phil Murphy,
Speaker 2: same thing. This was a little faster. So Angela did
Speaker 2: the same, like you know, it was the big bill
Speaker 2: went through the committee, the Senate, the House, all of that.
Speaker 2: There was pushback. She had to edit the bill to
Speaker 2: exclude e elementary school and just say middle school. So six,
Speaker 2: seventh and eighth grade. They felt more comfortable with that,
Speaker 2: so she said, okay, brought it all the way, got
Speaker 2: to the governor's desk. Not only did they say we're
Speaker 2: going to sign it, but we're going to get it
Speaker 2: a signing ceremony. So normally bills are signed. Every day
Speaker 2: you get an email saying, hey, your bill was signed.
Speaker 2: It's a law now. But this was like a ceremony.
Speaker 2: And they let Angela pick the school. And Angela picked
Speaker 2: the school in Jersey City called the President of Barack
Speaker 2: Obama School, which I thought was so awesome. She actually
Speaker 2: helped her rename that school, and so she picked the school.
Speaker 2: All these amazing students came, and what was even more amazing,
Speaker 2: So Angela, She's brown ambition, personified me. I'm brown ambition. Right.
Speaker 2: Then Governor Phil Murphy wasn't I don't know where he
Speaker 2: wasn't able to or I don't know if he's on
Speaker 2: vacation or if he's out of state whatever. So they
Speaker 2: had Sheila Sheila Oliver, which is the she's the first
Speaker 2: black woman lieutenant governor, and so she signed the bill.
Speaker 2: So here are all these brown women and black women
Speaker 2: on stage, the President of the school and not the president.
Speaker 2: The principal of the school was a a is a
Speaker 2: black woman, and it just was like so like if
Speaker 2: you look at the pictures, you're like, wait, what's happening.
Speaker 2: It's just all this beautiful brownness. And so I remember,
Speaker 2: So they had us all come on stage till one.
Speaker 2: Angela just gave me like the dopest shout out. When
Speaker 2: it was her time to speak. My mom came. I
Speaker 2: told her last minute, like the night before. I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, and she was it's such a type of
Speaker 2: thing that you forget to tell your mom and then
Speaker 2: she finds out later and is livid, you know. So
Speaker 2: she came. My best Friendrina came, my friend Rihanna and
Speaker 2: her daughter. She her daughter was home from school. She
Speaker 2: wasn't feeling well for a couple of days, but she
Speaker 2: was feeling a little bit better, but still had one
Speaker 2: more day office. She was like, I want her to
Speaker 2: come see this. Olivia is eight, so she's like, I
Speaker 2: want her to see history being made. So all of
Speaker 2: us standing on stage and then so you know, Lieutenant
Speaker 2: Governor Sheila Oliver, I'm like making the hand motion signed
Speaker 2: the bill and said it is officially now law that
Speaker 2: was January third, twenty nineteen. What an awesome way to
Speaker 2: start the year. So now but two thousand. So what's
Speaker 2: so awesome about it is that it takes place or
Speaker 2: goes into effect for the most upcoming school year, which
Speaker 2: is September twenty nineteen. So that means in the state
Speaker 2: of New Jersey, all of New Jersey middle school students,
Speaker 2: there's going to be requirement of integration of financial education,
Speaker 2: so something that's not going to be a heavy lift
Speaker 2: for the teachers, but it's going to start the conversation
Speaker 2: of financial education in the classroom as young as sixth grade.
Speaker 2: And so we're going to go back to write another
Speaker 2: bill to get that elementary school because I really believe
Speaker 2: that elementary school needs to be included as well. So
Speaker 2: I got legislators from Washington and Maryland hit me up
Speaker 2: saying they wanted to do this. When I was in Texas,
Speaker 2: the governor's wife we were talking about it, and she
Speaker 2: was like, when this goes through a New Jersey, hit
Speaker 2: me up because I want to do this in Texas.
Speaker 2: So it's just an amazing thing, and I'm hoping this
Speaker 2: is going to ripple outward to other to other states,
Speaker 2: and that's what we're hoping for.
Speaker 1: You're like the best.
Speaker 2: So I'm like literally so for those because some people
Speaker 2: are like, want to look it up? It's a fourteen fourteen.
Speaker 2: So if you just google New Jersey bill or New
Speaker 2: Jersey law a fourteen fourteen, it comes up. But I
Speaker 2: like to call it the budget este Law. Though you're
Speaker 2: not gonna see that on there, just know that that's my.
Speaker 1: Name for we know what it's called.
Speaker 2: But yeah, So honestly, it's it's surreal to think, like,
Speaker 2: you know, one day when I have my little one
Speaker 2: and they're like coming home with like financial literacy homework,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, you know, your mom did that right whatever,
Speaker 2: I'm like, now, real, I did do that.
Speaker 1: When they're watching that same old cartoon, I'm just a boob.
Speaker 1: You'd be like, well pause that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's just awesome to like really make lasting
Speaker 2: change happen, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know personally, but I'm kidding. That's
Speaker 1: so exciting, especially because we've heard the progress a long time. Listeners.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember like heard you talk about this
Speaker 1: for so long, and so yeah, it's exciting to see
Speaker 1: you win. My friend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just like, like I said, I like it.
Speaker 2: To me, I played a really small part. Angela, like
Speaker 2: all the all of the legislative like maneuvering you have
Speaker 2: to do. It was really such a civic lesson. I
Speaker 2: was like, wow, this is all it takes. And Angela,
Speaker 2: I mean, if you get a chance to google assembly
Speaker 2: Woman Angela Vie McKnight, because I was telling my dad
Speaker 2: about it, and my dad's like the smartest man I know,
Speaker 2: and he was like wow when I told him about
Speaker 2: the law. He's like, do you know how many legislators
Speaker 2: and how many people in government who could get law passed,
Speaker 2: never in their whole legislative career ever get a law
Speaker 2: pass This is like her third or fourth law, Mandy.
Speaker 2: She's only been in she's only been in office like
Speaker 2: three or four years.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. The tiede have even seen like all the
Speaker 1: posts from like the new class in Congress thing sworn
Speaker 1: in and like, yes, all the women and women of color.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know all the crap happening in the
Speaker 1: country right now, but it is so like Galvani It's
Speaker 1: like gives me hope, yes all over again. So it's amazing.
Speaker 2: I just love that she's championing things that people would
Speaker 2: not normally. She just got a law path for I
Speaker 2: don't know if hair braiding is huge in New York
Speaker 2: and New Jersey, so for those of you listening thing,
Speaker 2: it might be huge in your city as well, but
Speaker 2: especially in really urban cities, hair braiding is huge. But
Speaker 2: the problem is that they were treating hair braiders like cosmetologists,
Speaker 2: and they were making them having to go to school,
Speaker 2: which is about twenty thousand dollars to get all of
Speaker 2: these certifications that they didn't need for hair braiding. And
Speaker 2: so Angela worked and it seemed like such a small thing,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't because what it meant was that women
Speaker 2: who had started these businesses, like you know, like hair
Speaker 2: braiding shops, they were kind of operating illegally. They couldn't grow,
Speaker 2: they couldn't advertise because if they did, and they came
Speaker 2: to their shop and they said, where's your cosmetolity certificate?
Speaker 2: And you don't have one, even though you're not washing here,
Speaker 2: you're not dying here, you're not cutting here, not anything,
Speaker 2: you're just literally braiding. And so she got a law
Speaker 2: pass to say that hair braiders no longer in New
Speaker 2: Jersey no longer have to have have to have a
Speaker 2: cosmopology degree. They instead just have to have an OSHA
Speaker 2: certificate certificate. And OSHA is just like the protective arm
Speaker 2: to make sure you're treating your employees correctly and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. So how like that's I mean, it seems
Speaker 2: like it's a small thing, but like this is going
Speaker 2: to transform those women's lives that they can they can
Speaker 2: operate openly and legally and really grow their businesses because
Speaker 2: now they're not required to get this like the certificate
Speaker 2: that has nothing to do with what they're doing. And
Speaker 2: I just love Angela for that. She is always looking
Speaker 2: for ways to to like how are everyday people struggling?
Speaker 2: And how do I make their lives better? And like
Speaker 2: I said that that was this is like her third law,
Speaker 2: a third law only being in office for three years.
Speaker 2: Like that's incredible. Like she she's incredible, you know, So
Speaker 2: it was a pleasure to work with her.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it's just the beginning, my friend. Amen, Well, congratulations,
Speaker 1: that is a good way to start the year, right.
Speaker 1: You know, I got my countertops, you got your bill passed,
Speaker 1: You're doing okay. A year ago, you didn't have a
Speaker 1: budget EASTA bill a year ago on and have countertops. O. Hey,
Speaker 1: like we're doing okay.
Speaker 2: Perspective, We would love to hear honest sleep from you guys, like, so,
Speaker 2: how is your year? Like yehie, I know you're gonna
Speaker 2: give to your resolutions, but how is your year going?
Speaker 2: I know it just started, but share something good, you know,
Speaker 2: let's set the tone for an awesome, awesome new year.
Speaker 1: Positive vibes only,