Speaker 1: It's time for the b a q a a to
Speaker 1: b a q a. Woild you say the b a
Speaker 1: q eight with mandad be a q to be a
Speaker 1: qa A. Hey, manra, how you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm doing amazing. I'm here to be a passenger princess
Speaker 2: from todays y a q a.
Speaker 1: You know, you know every Friday we do be a
Speaker 1: q a where we answer your question. But the caveat
Speaker 1: is we're not your lawyer, your doctor, your financial advisor,
Speaker 1: which is two really cute brown internet cousins who know
Speaker 1: a thing up to about money, career, entrepreneurship and beyond.
Speaker 1: But you are going to take this advice for the
Speaker 1: entertainment value it's made for and the smallest grain of salt.
Speaker 1: And if you feel like suing someone, look in the
Speaker 1: mirror and pick yourself. Okay, all right, man, we have
Speaker 1: a question. Oh if they want to ask questions, maybe
Speaker 1: where can they ask them? Oh?
Speaker 2: Slid into our DMS. We're at Brand Ambisson Podcast on ig.
Speaker 2: You can also email us Brandabission Podcast at gmail dot com,
Speaker 2: com 'or head on over to our website, the hub
Speaker 2: of Hubs Brandnambispodcast dot com.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: Okay, we have a question today Miss Tiffany from Tara
Speaker 2: on Instagram, who says I'm currently in over my head
Speaker 2: making less than what I owe. I'm in the corner
Speaker 2: now to where I am a pinky link away from
Speaker 2: pulling from my TSP. I currently have twenty three thousand
Speaker 2: dollars and I'm thinking of pulling ten thousand dollars to
Speaker 2: cover some debt. It's the only solution I can think
Speaker 2: of that will help. I hope to input ten percent
Speaker 2: or more back into my TSP once I am backstable.
Speaker 2: Is this a bad decision that will hurt me in
Speaker 2: the long run?
Speaker 1: I know, because you're just for one, Tara. I want
Speaker 1: you to just because that back against the wall feeling
Speaker 1: is really a terrible feeling.
Speaker 2: And I can say to know very well we both
Speaker 2: do we have Girl.
Speaker 1: You know I took all my money on my with
Speaker 1: harmit well one, I had not really heard of TSP before,
Speaker 1: And you're like, girl, know what that is? To keep
Speaker 1: tell the people what the TSP is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, TSP thrift savings plan because my husband has one.
Speaker 2: So if you're a federal employee, you have a thrift
Speaker 2: savings plan which is your basically it's a four oh
Speaker 2: one K. So you choose what your investments are and
Speaker 2: then how much of your paycheck gets deposited into the TSP,
Speaker 2: and if you're lucky, you get some kind of I
Speaker 2: think the pension is also kind of run through there,
Speaker 2: like the potential pension that you can get paid out later,
Speaker 2: but it operates very closely to like a four to
Speaker 2: one K. And I remember back when we were renovating
Speaker 2: the house, my husband did do a loan. I'm wondering
Speaker 2: if she's talking about a loan or withdrawal, okay, because
Speaker 2: those are different and the implications for the impact to
Speaker 2: you are different. Yes, So where to begin?
Speaker 1: So I'll certificate, like one, ideally, taking money out of
Speaker 1: your any sort of retirement plan is not the idea.
Speaker 1: You know only because it is your younger self job
Speaker 1: to look after your older self, and God willing, we
Speaker 1: all get older and you want to make sure that
Speaker 1: your older self has access to income because it's not
Speaker 1: likely that you'd be able to support yourself, So you're
Speaker 1: kind of like supporting yourself for yourself now, but also
Speaker 1: for yourself older. So all that said, I'm not judging
Speaker 1: because child, when the rubber hit the road, your girl
Speaker 1: went to her four H three B. That's the four
Speaker 1: to one K for anybody who works for like nonprofits
Speaker 1: and stuff. I went straight. I had thirty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in there. I took every stitch out, you know, because
Speaker 1: that's why I thought my back was against the wall.
Speaker 1: So I'm telling you from a place of been there,
Speaker 1: done that, kind of wish I hadn't, but I didn't
Speaker 1: feel like I had a choice. So one, I want
Speaker 1: to make sure that, Like doctor Green, my therapist would say,
Speaker 1: is it true? Is it the only truth available? So
Speaker 1: let's explore is it true? Is it true that, yes,
Speaker 1: your back is kind of against the wall, you're struggling financially.
Speaker 1: It's sounds like, I mean, who would know better this
Speaker 1: is true? Is it the only truth available? Is taking
Speaker 1: money out of this TSP the only way? Maybe not?
Speaker 1: I would ask to yourself, like have you look in
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have a mortgage or rent
Speaker 1: Like one of my sisters was just telling me about
Speaker 1: this rental assistant program that she had signed up for
Speaker 1: in not me telling her business or whatever we're here now,
Speaker 1: that she had signed up for during the pandemic, and
Speaker 1: they hit her back and said, girl, you want us
Speaker 1: to make your rent for the next two or three months.
Speaker 1: She was like, I mean, if you want. So there
Speaker 1: was like, you know and so that program because you know,
Speaker 1: so many people were out of work because of COVID
Speaker 1: and she was one of them. So there are have
Speaker 1: you explored rental or mortgage assistance programs. There's a great
Speaker 1: organization called not Knack Up? Oh? What is it called
Speaker 1: the NFC let me, don't give me the lion.
Speaker 2: N fcn FCC.
Speaker 1: Yes, CC dot org g. It's a nonprofit that helps
Speaker 1: with I think it's like the National Foundation of Credit
Speaker 1: Counseling and so they are a national foundation, Yeah, credit counseling.
Speaker 1: What I like about it is that you can get
Speaker 1: connected with a credit counselor. That's probably my best bet,
Speaker 1: best bet certified. They have over twelve hundred certified credit counselors.
Speaker 1: They served thirty five million people since two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: They're trusted and their nonprofit and they will find someone
Speaker 1: in your area. And I believe counseling is on a
Speaker 1: sliding scale, meaning you could pay as little as zero
Speaker 1: dollars and upwards. They just have a bunch of partners
Speaker 1: and resources. So I would reach there for someone to
Speaker 1: kind of look at my finances to say are there
Speaker 1: other ways? Have you reached out to your creditors to say, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm having a hard time. Is there a way to
Speaker 1: lower my monthly expenses? Here? And then, last, but not least,
Speaker 1: there is a great website called find help. I just
Speaker 1: found it. Wow, that's fine, I just found it. It's
Speaker 1: called findhelp dot dot org. So you can find free
Speaker 1: or reduced cost resources like food, housing, financial assistance, healthcare,
Speaker 1: and more. If you go to find help dot org,
Speaker 1: you put in your zip code and it will literally
Speaker 1: help you to find whatever assistance that you might need.
Speaker 1: So I would exhaust those things first, because even if
Speaker 1: you take the money out and you put it in
Speaker 1: there is right now the market is on fire. I
Speaker 1: don't know how you have your money invested this year.
Speaker 1: The market is on fire. You're going to miss out
Speaker 1: on that growth that your older self might need later.
Speaker 1: So I would start with the NFCC dot org to
Speaker 1: get a credit counselor to look at my finances to
Speaker 1: see what I can do. They will help walk you through,
Speaker 1: like you know, talking to debt collectors and things like that.
Speaker 1: And if you're really in dire strates as far as
Speaker 1: like yourself personally, I would go to find help dot
Speaker 1: org to see what other assistance is available to me.
Speaker 1: And if your back is super duper duper against the wall,
Speaker 1: then yes, you have the option to take the money
Speaker 1: out of your retirement account. I just want that to
Speaker 1: be the last option because it's not the only truth
Speaker 1: available just yet.
Speaker 2: I want to add also, that's about half of your
Speaker 2: you know your balance right now, ten thousand of twenty
Speaker 2: three thousand. And if it's a traditional I keep wanting
Speaker 2: to say four to one k. But if it's traditional
Speaker 2: versus a ROTH, then you'll have to pay taxes on
Speaker 2: what you withdraw. So the ten thousand dollars could end
Speaker 2: up being like seven eight I don't know how much,
Speaker 2: like what your tax rate would be, which means you
Speaker 2: have to take more than that to cover your taxes.
Speaker 2: So if you want ten thousand dollars, you have to
Speaker 2: like think ahead to how much do I need to
Speaker 2: withdraw so that after taxes I have that ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: And if that ten thousand dollars is not going to
Speaker 2: like wipe your slate clean, I would definitely say, like
Speaker 2: just continue, like try to find some options like talk
Speaker 2: to like get a credit counselor get with a credit
Speaker 2: counselor the NFCC is a great bet. But look at
Speaker 2: some ways that you can manage your debt so it's
Speaker 2: a little bit more manageable. Whether it's consolidation, if it's
Speaker 2: credit card, we don't know anything about the types of
Speaker 2: debt that you have. If it's a credit card debt,
Speaker 2: maybe you can qualify for a balanced transfer to get
Speaker 2: yourself some wiggle room. And then from there it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: so what additional sources of income can we add if
Speaker 2: there's any like if there's any potential for more, whether
Speaker 2: it's at work or like additional income from outside of work.
Speaker 2: But I get it, like when you're when your head
Speaker 2: is on fire, you just need a bucket of water.
Speaker 2: You don't have time to think about the what ifs
Speaker 2: and all that. And it's so difficult in a situation
Speaker 2: like that because it's just it's like a ringing in
Speaker 2: your ears. It's so loud, and it's hard to see
Speaker 2: what the options are.
Speaker 1: Somebody, do you think she should work with? Somebody meaning
Speaker 1: like tell like a bestie, a sister, a cousin, because
Speaker 1: sometimes when they can help to see to your point, Mandy,
Speaker 1: we said, your head is on fire, it's like what
Speaker 1: do I do? What I do? And it's like your
Speaker 1: best friend, I could see, well, it's actually not your head.
Speaker 1: It's just a little part of your hair, and I
Speaker 1: can help extinguish it alongside of you. Even that they
Speaker 1: should connect with someone to maybe walk through this process
Speaker 1: with them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, someone that you trust and someone that you're saying, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm not asking you to fix this for me, but
Speaker 2: I'm just asking for you to help me look at
Speaker 2: this even a therapist. Therapists don't are not obviously they're
Speaker 2: not a financial planner, but there are times in my
Speaker 2: therapy sessions where she's like, what are you worried about? Okay,
Speaker 2: so read me the numbers and I just read them
Speaker 2: and just kind of like saying it out loud can help.
Speaker 2: But that can be Yeah, like you said, a sister
Speaker 2: or a friend, a neighbor, whoever you feel is trustworthy and
Speaker 2: just saying it out loud, and I mean maybe even
Speaker 2: writing this question was a bit therapeutic for you. But
Speaker 2: if you can avoid if I would say, like, it's
Speaker 2: only worth it. I mean at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: will it will you die?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Will you have a chance to put more into your TSP? Yes,
Speaker 2: I don't know how old you are, how much time
Speaker 2: you have, but it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 2: But if you don't get to the heart of like
Speaker 2: how you've gotten into this situation and if you're not
Speaker 2: able to wipe out like everything with that ten K
Speaker 2: that you're going to withdraw, like is it worth? The
Speaker 2: cost benefit for me is a little off because there's
Speaker 2: just the potential that it's not going to get you
Speaker 2: out of the hole and you're just going to end
Speaker 2: up in the hole again, like in another It'll buy
Speaker 2: you some time, but it won't actually get to the
Speaker 2: root of helping you.
Speaker 1: The rip got to get to the rip. So, Mandy,
Speaker 1: have you ever gone to find help? It's like really awesome.
Speaker 1: So I'm in here now. I put in my zip
Speaker 1: code it says in Newark, New Jersey. There are two thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred and thirty two programs. And the programs are
Speaker 1: broken down by food, housing, goods, transit, health, money care, education, work,
Speaker 1: and legal. And it's amazing. And then when you kind
Speaker 1: of like hover over, it's like you need help paying
Speaker 1: for school. You need preschool help. You need screening and exams.
Speaker 1: You need skills and training. I'm legal. You need medication,
Speaker 1: representation and interpretation. You need adoption post adoption girl for
Speaker 1: adoption and foster care loan. There are thirteen resources here.
Speaker 1: This is a really amazing free site. Find help out this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like type in like your's IT code, that's what comes
Speaker 1: up at corporation.
Speaker 2: It's like, really already I'm here at two thousand and something. Yeah,
Speaker 2: clothes for work, retirement benefits, yeah, benefits.
Speaker 1: Close for work. I mean, people don't realize what all
Speaker 1: the resource that are out there. Help pay for food,
Speaker 1: you need meals, nutrition education is on here and new
Speaker 1: like help pay for bus passes? Wow, help pay for
Speaker 1: a car, He'll pay for gas?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh hell yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. There's just they have a sober Living thing, substance
Speaker 1: abuse counseling, drug testing, detox And what I love is
Speaker 1: they'll tell you how many like resources. So for drug testing,
Speaker 1: there's seven resources for outpatient treatment, there's forty nine money.
Speaker 1: Help pay for childcare? There teen resources. Help pay for food.
Speaker 1: They're twenty three in Newark. This is just Newark Financial
Speaker 1: aid and loans twenty nine resources supplies for school too,
Speaker 1: So this is pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I've never heard of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I already know who taught me. Instagram taught me.
Speaker 1: This is this guy that I followed. He I heard
Speaker 1: get his name, but he posts like all these kind
Speaker 1: of places where you could find free resources. And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, fine, help, let me put that in
Speaker 1: my back pocket, because it's just a you know, you
Speaker 1: don't have to be in dire straits, you might just
Speaker 1: want help. And what an awesome like organizational tool for
Speaker 1: wherever you live. And so there are just so many
Speaker 1: resources out there. That's why I said, like, you know,
Speaker 1: like so candidly, I had a hard time moving and
Speaker 1: so like if you're looking at my background, this is
Speaker 1: the first time I'm taping in like my office at
Speaker 1: my at the condo, and I had a really hard time.
Speaker 1: Even though my stuff was here, I was still sleeping
Speaker 1: like on the couch because my bed was here, and
Speaker 1: and like my house, you know, where I was living.
Speaker 1: I just could figure out why. And you know, doctor
Speaker 1: Green reminded me of Tiffany. This is not oh I
Speaker 1: have a new condo. I just I just moved out
Speaker 1: of my parents' house. Isn't it so exciting. She's like,
Speaker 1: you're not moving as a result of that, you don't
Speaker 1: have to pretend like you should be so happy that
Speaker 1: you're leaving this house that you built with Jarell. And
Speaker 1: she said, why don't you ask a friend if they
Speaker 1: could stay over with you? And I kind of felt like,
Speaker 1: I'm not a baby, you know, like I'm grown like girl,
Speaker 1: and she was like that, sometimes we need additional assistants,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes we need like someone to like stand
Speaker 1: in the gap for us. And so my sister Lisa,
Speaker 1: you know, came. Yesterday was the first Yesterday day before
Speaker 1: Yesterday was the first day I spent the night here.
Speaker 1: And it made all the difference to have someone here,
Speaker 1: because if I was here, honest I was looking around.
Speaker 1: I said, if I was here by myself, I'd be like, eh,
Speaker 1: I'm going back home. I'm going back home and go
Speaker 1: to sleep on a couch because it just felt like
Speaker 1: all too much. But having Lisa here was like having
Speaker 1: a piece of home here in the house with me.
Speaker 1: You know, Lisa is the baby going to stay with
Speaker 1: me for a couple of weeks. And so I kind
Speaker 1: of get like, you know, feeling not so It's not
Speaker 1: the living alone park, because I've lived alone many times.
Speaker 1: It's just more so like the transition that I need
Speaker 1: help with, and so we all need help, you know,
Speaker 1: and asking someone to stand in the gap with you
Speaker 1: sometimes just to witness and bear witness. They don't need
Speaker 1: to solve it, they don't need to whatever, sometimes just
Speaker 1: to hear the numbers, to open that piece of mail,
Speaker 1: you know, to sit with you. And so I just
Speaker 1: wanted to get in the habit of asking for help.
Speaker 1: And I love that this site is here. Maybe you
Speaker 1: ask one of your girlfriends, can you look at the
Speaker 1: site with me, you know, and like, look at what
Speaker 1: resources are available? Can you sit with me when I
Speaker 1: talk to the credit counselor you know, whatever that is.
Speaker 1: I just hope that you guys have at least one
Speaker 1: person in your life that you can reach out to
Speaker 1: to say, like, I don't want to go through this
Speaker 1: by myself, because we're not meant to We're really not.
Speaker 2: Meant to receive that. It may take you a minute
Speaker 2: to like let the what she's saying, what you're saying
Speaker 2: to you, like sink in for the listen, But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a it's a much needed reminder and something that
Speaker 2: I need to remind myself of we all do all
Speaker 2: the time. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Before we jump off, I wanted to do something fun.
Speaker 1: What if like I would love to like read some
Speaker 1: listener confessions about some of the crazy money choices or
Speaker 1: business choices they made totally anonymous. I would love that,
Speaker 1: you know, like a new little segment, you know, like
Speaker 1: to maybe like test out like just whatever your your
Speaker 1: your b A confessions. It could be like I stole
Speaker 1: toilet toilet tissue, I worked for three years. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna read your name. We're not gonna you know, or
Speaker 1: like child, you know, it could be something serious where
Speaker 1: my husband does not know, you know, I ran up
Speaker 1: the credit card bill at Vegas, or yes, I want
Speaker 1: we want, I want the tea. Maybe we should call
Speaker 1: it b A T so financial t you know, so
Speaker 1: I would just I don't know. I saw someone had
Speaker 1: posted something on like ID where they were reading excepting
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, I would love that because
Speaker 1: to your poor Mandy, sometimes just saying the thing out.
Speaker 2: Loud is like yeah, so honestly send us d m us.
Speaker 1: We'll never read your name, you know, no, and obviously
Speaker 1: you don't want to be like on Tuesday on First
Speaker 1: Street in Georgia on dinner. Like, if we want you
Speaker 1: to keep it bag, just send us some of your
Speaker 1: te that you need to get off your chest and
Speaker 1: we will read it. And we won't We're not gonna
Speaker 1: offer advice. We're just here to read it and key
Speaker 1: key with you. Like I know you did not steal
Speaker 1: total the tissue from your job for three years girl,
Speaker 1: how much you say you know? Like, so send us
Speaker 1: some dat so we can all key key and giggle
Speaker 1: and help you release. Okay, you know. Sliding our DMS
Speaker 1: go to brannabis and podcast dot com click contact us
Speaker 1: sliding our DMS on ig. Like I said, we will
Speaker 1: never ever ever share your name or anything. And if
Speaker 1: it is just say, this is b A T. This
Speaker 1: is not like A We ask you to send us questions,
Speaker 1: but this is just T. We're going to read it.
Speaker 1: We're not giving advice. We're just going to read and
Speaker 1: maybe have a little common or two, a little side
Speaker 1: I little, a little giggle, but we're not here. We're
Speaker 1: not giving advice for B A T. It's just some
Speaker 1: fun to add, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. Like we're like a like a priest.
Speaker 1: Yes, we'll have to figure out good name. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: B a T or B A confession. I don't know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna figure out what we're gonna call it.
Speaker 2: But okay, someone's gotta be in charge of remembering that
Speaker 2: you just said this, because.
Speaker 1: You're in between the two of us. It's already forgotten.
Speaker 2: Between two of Somebody write it down.
Speaker 1: I would be like, why don't we have all these
Speaker 1: things in the DM.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's right, these are our confessions. Okay, yeah, we'll try.
Speaker 2: We'll see if you guys never hear about it again,
Speaker 2: then you know, maybe time. It's truly up to y'all.
Speaker 2: If you d ms, we'll remember, okay, when y'all had said.
Speaker 1: What the hell are these? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's up to y'all.
Speaker 1: Do you want this to happen or now?
Speaker 2: All right, y'allky Sam, don't forget to leave us a review,
Speaker 2: tele a friend to tell a friend, share the show,
Speaker 2: and we'll see y'all next time. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, three
Speaker 2: times a week. Bye bye,