Speaker 1: Hey, ba fan, Mandy here or Mandra, you can call
Speaker 1: me Mandra, that's fine. I have a simple request for you, guys.
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Speaker 2: Hey hey, I'm sick of black trauma.
Speaker 1: Oh hey, hey bye.
Speaker 2: I know listen, last week was rough. It was, and
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. I really don't even want to, like,
Speaker 2: you know, because every podcast of my faves that I've
Speaker 2: listened to I kind of skipped like this past week
Speaker 2: because I was like, yeah, although I appreciate because obviously
Speaker 2: you don't want to pretend like nothing is happening. I
Speaker 2: just my soul is weary.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and honestly, what I want people,
Speaker 1: I want other people besides black people talk about it.
Speaker 1: Let someone else be outraged for a while and in pain.
Speaker 1: I don't want to sit here. And I know we
Speaker 1: could just we could spend hours talking about the same
Speaker 1: thing that has been in reality for so long. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not like anything new. So I'm with you. I'm
Speaker 1: with you. My heart goes out to the families who
Speaker 1: have lost their loved ones senselessly because because of racism
Speaker 1: in this country. My heart also goes out to everybody
Speaker 1: who everybody black, everybody black like you and I, who
Speaker 1: have to find a way to deal with that trauma,
Speaker 1: carry that pain with us through our days to our
Speaker 1: day to day and just say, like, for me, the
Speaker 1: key has been one hour at a time, like hour
Speaker 1: one hour at a time, because I'll have a good
Speaker 1: hour and then a bad hour. But some things that
Speaker 1: have been giving me life and enjoy lately has been
Speaker 1: I redid my zenden.
Speaker 2: I know it was so cute because me and man
Speaker 2: manager just tape something earlier. I was like, I had to.
Speaker 2: I literally thought it. I'm so cute. Maybe I thought
Speaker 2: it was one of those fake backgrounds like on Zoom.
Speaker 2: I'm like, is that a fake background?
Speaker 1: Oh? Thanks, It's just a giant curtain that's covering up
Speaker 1: stacks and stacks of shelves with junk on them. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just down here so much, and I just moved
Speaker 1: all the furniture around, and I'm trying to make a
Speaker 1: zennier and I'm thinking I want like a little rock
Speaker 1: garden or something. But I truly have ooh ooh, And
Speaker 1: I got a moon pod. Don't judge me.
Speaker 2: Have you seen a moon pod?
Speaker 1: You might have seen on Instagram as I did so.
Speaker 1: And I blame Stacy for this, Stacy who does my hair.
Speaker 1: It's all Stacy's fault. She because I was talking about
Speaker 1: I need a place to nap. So, as you guys know,
Speaker 1: I started, I redid my I didn't redo. I judged
Speaker 1: up the basement and I turned it into my home office,
Speaker 1: which I'm calling the zen den because I don't just
Speaker 1: want a desk. I wanted I put my peloton down here.
Speaker 1: I put a yoga mat. I wanted to have a space,
Speaker 1: a door to close for the first time and nearly
Speaker 1: a year in the pandemic, just to become like myself again,
Speaker 1: you know, just to like. This is where I come
Speaker 1: down to invest in Mandy. You know what does Mama
Speaker 1: Mandy need. She needs time to work feel good about that.
Speaker 1: She needs to sweat on the peloton, she needs to stretch.
Speaker 1: Whatever I need. So I realize I need a nap
Speaker 1: spot just to you know, in between meetings or whatever,
Speaker 1: just take a sweet little nap without having to go upstairs.
Speaker 1: Because when I go upstairs, the problem is that I
Speaker 1: can't avoid the baby. He's in the house, like he's everywhere,
Speaker 1: and he knows the sound of my footsteps on the
Speaker 1: basement staircase, so he comes running. This isn't a very
Speaker 1: big house and he's not at daycare yet, so yeah,
Speaker 1: so I decided I'm gonna like put. I was like,
Speaker 1: maybe I should get a little shadse lounge or just
Speaker 1: honestly an air mattress or something. And then Stacy was like,
Speaker 1: have you seen this moon pod? And all I can
Speaker 1: say is it is a grown up bean bag chair
Speaker 1: and it is growing the best thing it is. So
Speaker 1: it's so nice. I'm gonna take a picture. It looks
Speaker 1: kind of ridiculous, but it's so comfy. I took a
Speaker 1: I took a delicious nap yesterday in my moon pod.
Speaker 1: I got a weighted blanket and I am investing in
Speaker 1: my nap time.
Speaker 2: So this looks very, very comfy. I'm like, wo moon pod.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's like sciencey things about why it's so good,
Speaker 1: but it's really good. And when you when you do that,
Speaker 1: the combination with the moon pod where you're feeling weightless,
Speaker 1: and then you add the weighted blanket, which just is
Speaker 1: like someone just hugging you, but like who doesn't smell
Speaker 1: bad because they haven't showered lately, you know, or like
Speaker 1: their body heat is not like becoming too hot. It's
Speaker 1: like a great experience with the weighted blanket. I recommend it.
Speaker 2: Yes, So I will say this. I had a really, really,
Speaker 2: really good and this is for because you know, when
Speaker 2: I've been having these good talks with doctor Green and
Speaker 2: she gathers me all the way together and then I
Speaker 2: pass it on to you so she can gather you
Speaker 2: together the juice, and I'm paying for it. We might
Speaker 2: as well all benefit. So so something that doctor Green
Speaker 2: shared with me, it was like so good. I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: So for those of you who are like me and
Speaker 2: Mandy who team too much, you know, we'd be doing
Speaker 2: a lot, and sometimes we do so much that we're like, okay, Sis,
Speaker 2: it's okay to rest, she said to me, because I
Speaker 2: told her, I'm like, okay. The book you know, it
Speaker 2: made near time bestsellers second week in rub but theah
Speaker 2: blah was naming all these things like okay, okay, she said, okay,
Speaker 2: that we can agree your magic wand is working. Say
Speaker 2: what noo? She said, your magic wand is working. You
Speaker 2: have manifested enough times to see that your magic wand
Speaker 2: is working. She just means that, like, and this is
Speaker 2: for you, who is listening, who does the most, who
Speaker 2: doesn't break, doesn't rest, I'm looking at the mayor, so
Speaker 2: I'm not judging you, but I'm talking to you. Sis,
Speaker 2: the one who's looking at the looking at like whatever
Speaker 2: contraption that you're listening to the podcast on, and you're
Speaker 2: looking like, oh, she trying to read me. I'm reading you.
Speaker 2: Your magic wand is working. You don't have to go
Speaker 2: so hard, you don't have to go so long, you
Speaker 2: don't have to do as much as you've been doing.
Speaker 2: You can actually put your magic wand down and enjoy
Speaker 2: a little life a little bit more and guess what,
Speaker 2: it likely will recharge and work even better. And she
Speaker 2: was like, you have manifested this life that you're living.
Speaker 2: Now say it out loud with me. The seeds I
Speaker 2: plant grow, the seeds I plant grow. So you want
Speaker 2: to be even more mindful of the seeds that you're planting.
Speaker 2: You want to garden intentionally. You know, you're not picking
Speaker 2: random fruit. You're picking the fruit from the seeds that
Speaker 2: you've planted. And so if you're wanting to pick different fruit,
Speaker 2: then you have to make space in your garden for
Speaker 2: something differently. And so I convince myself that, like more
Speaker 2: and more and more heart, you can do it. You
Speaker 2: can do. It's like nosis. You don't have to go
Speaker 2: so hard. You're planting the right seeds, you're picking that fruit.
Speaker 2: But if you're wanting rest and relaxation and more harmony,
Speaker 2: then you have to plant those seeds as well. Your
Speaker 2: magic wand is working. And I just felt red for filth,
Speaker 2: so I figured, you know, i'd read you for filth
Speaker 2: as well. So there you go. I'm cury, doctor Green.
Speaker 1: Thank you, doctor Green. I don't think that was red
Speaker 1: for filth. I just feel like that's it's how do
Speaker 1: you mean you must feel like it's permission. It's permission
Speaker 1: to it's permission to trust yourself, and it's like getting
Speaker 1: to a place where you trust it is. I love
Speaker 1: that garden metaphor because it's true. You know, you can
Speaker 1: only harvest so much, and you can only use the
Speaker 1: earth so so much before it doesn't yield anything. Yes,
Speaker 1: deplete it. It's like over. It's like over harvesting can
Speaker 1: actually diminish future crops. So you have to tend to it.
Speaker 1: And then you you harvest what you can, use it
Speaker 1: the best that you can, and you try and store
Speaker 1: them away for winter. Okay, I'm doing.
Speaker 2: This whole mend no, and you said and then you
Speaker 2: said the perfect words. She said, trust that I've been
Speaker 2: using my magic wand as if I don't trust that
Speaker 2: it works because I have overworked around it and it's
Speaker 2: like gnosis, you don't need to do all of that
Speaker 2: that it was a lack of trust, and she's like,
Speaker 2: can you trust yourself to me that you're going to
Speaker 2: be the bomb dot com without having to do so much?
Speaker 2: Like girl, you got it. You don't have to do
Speaker 2: all this to shine like you know. So it was
Speaker 2: just like, yeah, now when I say read for film,
Speaker 2: I didn't feel offended. It was perfect because to your
Speaker 2: point many I needed the permission to be like, it's
Speaker 2: okay to sit down. God, it's not gonna go away
Speaker 2: your trust, it's gonna be here. You put the work
Speaker 2: and it's gonna be here.
Speaker 1: Your Wanda's like, take a break, girl, why does like this?
Speaker 2: You exhausted me in my elderly age that those who
Speaker 2: don't know Wanda is my eighty year old self, That's
Speaker 2: what I call her. Wandas like, grow, I'm tired. Look
Speaker 2: at you. You are wearing that body out since we
Speaker 2: need it for now, so so just go ahead.
Speaker 1: Can we actually listen to a voicemail that we got
Speaker 1: from a listener. I know we were gonna do it
Speaker 1: during questions, but I kind of feel like this is
Speaker 1: the perfect time to play that voicemail. Sarah, do you
Speaker 1: have that cueued up?
Speaker 3: I am Denay from Manhattan, and I'm listening to your
Speaker 3: show on April sixteenth, and I just want to let
Speaker 3: you know. I want to thank you for letting me
Speaker 3: know that I shouldn't feel guilty for not being career
Speaker 3: ambitious in my career will because I'm working from home,
Speaker 3: raising children and dealing with Corona, just mentally wiped out,
Speaker 3: and I just don't have the goal or the ambition
Speaker 3: anymore that be the best employee, So thank you.
Speaker 1: I can hear him in his voice. I think he
Speaker 1: said vane or renee, but I can hear the exhaustion
Speaker 1: and if that's what you needed to give yourself permission
Speaker 1: to rest and recharge, take it, Yes, take it. You
Speaker 1: don't have to keep go, go going. Isn't that the
Speaker 1: perfect kind of to supplement and compliment what you had said, Tiffany.
Speaker 1: It sort of like he just sounds run down and
Speaker 1: like he needs time to recharge, and he's acknowledging that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, honestly, I'm glad that you got that permission.
Speaker 2: It's hard sometimes you need to hear people say it
Speaker 2: because you're like, I'm not giving my quote unquote best anyway,
Speaker 2: but it is, this is what you have to give,
Speaker 2: so that is your best. And so yeah, sometimes you
Speaker 2: just need permission to not work so much. And sometimes
Speaker 2: we need permission to be okay, not you know, to
Speaker 2: be exactly where we are. And so yes, I'm glad
Speaker 2: that that you're enough.
Speaker 1: Yes, that the work you did today was enough. I
Speaker 1: think if we can talk about my therapist, doctor Lauren. So,
Speaker 1: one of the things early in the pandemic that I
Speaker 1: had to learn was to I was constantly even when
Speaker 1: I was on maternity leave, it was I don't feel productive.
Speaker 1: All I did was, you know, breastfeed one hundred times
Speaker 1: a day and you know, bounce on the yoga ball
Speaker 1: until the baby fell asleep, and I had a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee and that's like that was my entire day.
Speaker 1: And she said that is enough. She said, that is enough.
Speaker 1: You were productive. That was the job that you had
Speaker 1: to do, and we need to like we need to
Speaker 1: celebrate the quiet work. This I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: want to call it small, but you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like the little tasks, the little jobs that we do,
Speaker 1: because some days, especially during the last week that we
Speaker 1: just had, some days it is all you can do
Speaker 1: to put one foot in front of another, sit in
Speaker 1: front of the desk, answer the day of emails, talk
Speaker 1: to the boss, you know that kind of stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: do the work, or you know, just sit down and
Speaker 1: be there present for your children. It's that is enough.
Speaker 1: And certainly don't kill yourself trying to do what you
Speaker 1: think you should be doing on top of that, because
Speaker 1: some days you just need to be at peace with
Speaker 1: what you have done and tell yourself that you're enough.
Speaker 1: And if what was that mantra? Something about a seed.
Speaker 2: That the seeds I plant grow and I'm going to
Speaker 2: be mindful of the seeds that I plant and garden intentionally.
Speaker 2: The seeds that I plant grow, so I will garden intentionally.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 4: M m.
Speaker 1: I feel like we need to like home.
Speaker 2: I know, I just feel like, you know, what I
Speaker 2: really love is that, like, you know, one of the
Speaker 2: things that Mandy and I really try to do. We're
Speaker 2: not here to show up perfectly, but We're here to
Speaker 2: show up fully, you know, like to admit we're like
Speaker 2: I'm overwhelmed, I'm not working. It's not good because I
Speaker 2: don't want to pretend like everything is okay, because I
Speaker 2: think that's not just detrimental to y'all who are listening,
Speaker 2: but detrimental to me and to Mandy if you don't
Speaker 2: show up fully and truly, because I want to see,
Speaker 2: Like I don't care how great it looks from the outside.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's a hot mess, and people struggle no matter
Speaker 2: what stage or what phase they're on life. And sometimes
Speaker 2: you're actually your most calm and zen when you are
Speaker 2: your least outwardly successful, you know, and so all of
Speaker 2: that you get to see, like what it all looks like,
Speaker 2: like the truth of all that it looks like with
Speaker 2: where we are and not just you get to see
Speaker 2: like our growth. I feel like, I'm sure if you
Speaker 2: were to listen to me from like a year ago,
Speaker 2: I sound way more stressed or way less connected. But
Speaker 2: I'm feeling so much better. And even though like the
Speaker 2: launch took a lot out of me, Like I'm reassessing,
Speaker 2: like you know what next steps look like, and I
Speaker 2: feel more in control that I don't have to do
Speaker 2: all the things, And like I'm actually seeing things differently, like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can do those five projects without doing those five projects.
Speaker 2: Let me call Taylor, let me call this person, let
Speaker 2: me call that pert. They can do those projects for
Speaker 2: me under the Budgetista. So I'm even learning how to
Speaker 2: navigate differently. I used to think, Mandy that whatever I
Speaker 2: had new projects, I used to be like, oh gosh,
Speaker 2: because in my mind I was thinking about all the
Speaker 2: work I had to do, and It's like why why
Speaker 2: can't Like Taylor writes great courses, Like I want to
Speaker 2: do a course for get Good with Money, And I'm like,
Speaker 2: why do I have to write that course? The book
Speaker 2: is written. You did that? Give Taylor the book and
Speaker 2: say make a course based upon this. Taylor is one
Speaker 2: of my course writers. And I was just like, oh, yeah, duh,
Speaker 2: you know, like every relegate, yes, And so I just
Speaker 2: feel like, hopefully that you get to hear it's the
Speaker 2: ups and downs, the side to side and see that
Speaker 2: growth is a journey that you never never finished with.
Speaker 2: And yeah, and that to give yourself the space and
Speaker 2: the grace.
Speaker 1: Space and the grace. I love that. Can I make
Speaker 1: a quick confession speaking of showing up fully. I actually
Speaker 1: gave a presentation a week or two ago and it
Speaker 1: was like five steps to use technology to save smarter
Speaker 1: and at the you know, this wasn't necessarily a technology hack,
Speaker 1: but for me, the most an important step in there
Speaker 1: was to recalibrate. So once you celebrate your winds, recalibrate
Speaker 1: And by that I meant, you know, not treating whatever
Speaker 1: it is your budget or your financial plan as one
Speaker 1: and done like a rigid set of guidelines that you're
Speaker 1: just going to beat yourself up against forever. Because as
Speaker 1: we've learned the past year, like income can change, you know,
Speaker 1: your health can change. Your circumstances where you live can
Speaker 1: change so quickly, and I think that people should give
Speaker 1: themselves grace when it comes to their financial plan as well,
Speaker 1: and to bake that into your process. And it was
Speaker 1: something that as I was writing it for that talk,
Speaker 1: I realized I had not done that, Like I had
Speaker 1: not looked at so my income. My income did increase
Speaker 1: significantly this past year just because of some career choices
Speaker 1: I made, and I hadn't really reassessed how I was
Speaker 1: saving and spending, and I started to get really stressed
Speaker 1: out about it like there was a Friday not long
Speaker 1: ago where I was like, wait a second, where is
Speaker 1: where's it all going? You know, are we what are
Speaker 1: we doing with it? Are we investing? Like where's it?
Speaker 1: And I had just lost track. I had. I finally
Speaker 1: sat down, you know, after I wrote that line in
Speaker 1: my presentation, because I didn't want to be a hypocrite,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Okay, I'm going to recalibrate, like
Speaker 1: what is happening? You know, our income has increased, so
Speaker 1: what are we doing? And for me, it was it
Speaker 1: was sitting down and just methodically going through the different
Speaker 1: accounts and seeing like what is going out, what is
Speaker 1: coming in? And it was so it was so for me,
Speaker 1: it almost like gave myself permission to acknowledge that I
Speaker 1: had kind of lost track of my financial I don't
Speaker 1: know what you want to call it, like framework or
Speaker 1: plan and just to kind of get a gut check
Speaker 1: like where am I at? And it turned out I
Speaker 1: had all these automatic transfers, I was contributing twice to
Speaker 1: this brokerage account, and I had, you know, doubled up
Speaker 1: on some kind of contribution to a savings fund for
Speaker 1: my son. And it was good, but it was also
Speaker 1: kind of sloppy and messy, and so I got everything
Speaker 1: cleaned up. I made new more ambitious goals as far
Speaker 1: as saving and investing. And I just wanted to say
Speaker 1: that because even myself, you know, having done this for
Speaker 1: so long, even I sometimes forget to recalibrate and look
Speaker 1: at how my situation has changed and sit down and
Speaker 1: just go back to that. That'll be word the budget.
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to remind y'all it's been a
Speaker 1: really hell of it's been a hell of a year.
Speaker 1: And if you guys need that, like, sit down, look
Speaker 1: at how the financials are doing, and see if your
Speaker 1: goals that you made, you know when you started your
Speaker 1: budget still align with where you are today, and if not,
Speaker 1: then just just change them. Like you can change them.
Speaker 1: You're the boss. You can change them. And there's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with that. Yeah, that was really inspiring, Tiffany.
Speaker 2: No just listening. I'm just like you reflecting. I'm just like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like one of those like USA.
Speaker 5: Like.
Speaker 2: It just feels good to let go. And if twenty
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one has taught me nothing else that help
Speaker 2: asking for help, asking for help, asking for help, like
Speaker 2: do not go it alone. What might have taken me
Speaker 2: three years to figure out will take me three months
Speaker 2: with help. That is critically and help meaning like it
Speaker 2: might be therapy, it might be coaching, and might be
Speaker 2: reaching out to your team, and might be asking your sister.
Speaker 2: The baby said, like, do not go this life alone.
Speaker 2: If you have the ability, please ask for help.
Speaker 1: Eight man sister friend speaking of asking for help. Should
Speaker 1: we take a quick break and like transition, I'm really
Speaker 1: good on my segways today. All right, we're gonna take
Speaker 1: a quick break and we'll be right back to answer
Speaker 1: your questions. All right, we are back to answer your
Speaker 1: questions again. Y'all can leave us a voicemail, like our
Speaker 1: listener Renee did earlier. Hit us up eight four four
Speaker 1: eight five eight eight zero eight zero, leave us a voicemail,
Speaker 1: try and keep it brief. If you feel a little wordy,
Speaker 1: you might still want to reach out to us via email,
Speaker 1: or you can always DM us at Brand Ambition Podcast
Speaker 1: on Insta or at or sorry. Our email is Brand
Speaker 1: Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. If you're feeling a
Speaker 1: little wordy, but we'd love to hear from you, It's
Speaker 1: nice to hear y'all's voices eight four four eight five
Speaker 1: eight eight zero eight zero. All right, let's dig in.
Speaker 1: Let's dig into that voicemail Sarah, what do we have?
Speaker 4: Hi, ladies, I have a quick question about in Tooy
Speaker 4: stock purchase plans. So my company allows us to buy
Speaker 4: stock at a fifteen percent discount through payroll deduction. I'm
Speaker 4: seeing conflicting information online. Do you feel like the best
Speaker 4: way to capitalize is by immediately selling the stock to
Speaker 4: get that fifteen percent discount or holding on to it
Speaker 4: for the long term to get the tax advantage. Thanks
Speaker 4: so much, bye, bye.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Well, thank you so much for your question. Employee
Speaker 1: stock purchase plan. So this is actually a great benefit
Speaker 1: that some companies offer, and basically it's and if you
Speaker 1: have a publicly traded company, they may offer you a
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen percent discount on that stock, which if
Speaker 1: you take advantage of that, I mean, who wouldn't want
Speaker 1: a ten or fifteen percent discount on a stock today
Speaker 1: like that? Actually, I mean you're lucky if you make
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen percent on the stock over a year,
Speaker 1: you know, So it can be a good benefit. Now,
Speaker 1: the pros and cons of holding on to it or
Speaker 1: selling it, right away. I'm not surprised that you found
Speaker 1: conflicting information. I wouldn't call it conflicting. I would just
Speaker 1: say it's one of those questions where it's like there
Speaker 1: is no exact right or wrong answer. And to remind
Speaker 1: you guys, like, I'm not an investment expert, I'm not
Speaker 1: your financial planner. I'm just Tiffany and I are just
Speaker 1: your financial girlfriends, just here telling you what's worked for us.
Speaker 1: So for me, I sometimes get a little I'm more
Speaker 1: on a weary of holding a lot of stock in
Speaker 1: a company that already pays my bills. I would much
Speaker 1: rather invest outside of my company stock. For example, at anytime,
Speaker 1: I was granted stock through restricted stock units in the past,
Speaker 1: So this is a little bit of a different way
Speaker 1: that companies can give you stock. So restricted stock units
Speaker 1: is just we're gonna give you stock in the company,
Speaker 1: you know, but we're not gonna give it to you
Speaker 1: right away. You gotta work here for a year, and
Speaker 1: you gotta work here for another year to get the
Speaker 1: you know, the next batch, and then year after that
Speaker 1: to get the next batch. So it's like an incentive
Speaker 1: to stick around. I always sold those things lickety split. Immediately,
Speaker 1: no matter what the stock had done. I treated it
Speaker 1: like a free cash bonus and I sold it. That
Speaker 1: worked for me because I personally didn't want to have
Speaker 1: a lot of money tied up in one single stock,
Speaker 1: let alone a stock that like they already have my
Speaker 1: paycheck and my income, like if they crash, I could
Speaker 1: lose what my stock value and my job Like that
Speaker 1: for me was too much to risk. So that's why
Speaker 1: I sold it immediately. Now where you're talking about tax
Speaker 1: implications is if you sell it and then you pocket
Speaker 1: the you pocket your proceeds. So that is where you
Speaker 1: need to think about the tax implication. If you decide
Speaker 1: to sell it. You know that could end up working
Speaker 1: in your in your favor if you, you know, make
Speaker 1: a certain amount of money on it. But you have
Speaker 1: to also weigh the cost of short term in a
Speaker 1: short term tax on on that sell out selling that stock.
Speaker 1: So I would say talk it through with whether it's
Speaker 1: an accountant or your financial planner, and just see if
Speaker 1: it's worth the amount that you're paying in taxes. For
Speaker 1: a lot of people, Like for example, back in January
Speaker 1: TIF when everyone was buying not everyone, but a lot
Speaker 1: of people were game stop and what was it like
Speaker 1: AMC there were you know, I think I even had tweeted,
Speaker 1: you know, be careful because if you purchase game Stop,
Speaker 1: you know, in December and then the stock I don't
Speaker 1: even know how much like quadruple or tenext a couple
Speaker 1: of months later, and you sold to profit off of that,
Speaker 1: you also had a tax had a tax hit because
Speaker 1: you get taxed more when you hold the investment for
Speaker 1: a shorter period of time. And a lot of people
Speaker 1: on Twitter were like, yeah, we know, like don't you
Speaker 1: shouldn't discourage people from investing just because of the tax implication,
Speaker 1: Like you can still make a lot more money even
Speaker 1: after paying taxes. And that's true. That's why I'm saying, like,
Speaker 1: if you want to sell to get that benefit because
Speaker 1: you bought the stock at a discount, cool, But then
Speaker 1: also ask your financial planner or CPA or whoever you know,
Speaker 1: what would my tax implication be and would it be
Speaker 1: worth it? Nothing is stopping you from selling that stock
Speaker 1: like I did and then using it. I didn't sell
Speaker 1: it to cash the profit. I went turned around and
Speaker 1: bought index funds or ETFs with it, so I instantly
Speaker 1: diversified what would have been all the money tied up
Speaker 1: in one stock by investing in an index fund or ETF,
Speaker 1: which is how you can, you know, be exposed to
Speaker 1: multiple stocks, not just one. So that's personally what I did.
Speaker 1: And again I'm sure it was like a bunch of
Speaker 1: conflicting information on that one answer, but yeah, there's really
Speaker 1: there's really no one right answer. It's like a combination
Speaker 1: of what makes sense financially and then what helps you.
Speaker 1: What's the kind of decision that you can sleep with
Speaker 1: that night, and that's something you have to come to
Speaker 1: on your own.
Speaker 2: That was good. I was like, that's your this is
Speaker 2: I feel like when it comes to employee employe, but I.
Speaker 1: I've buy some shares. A budget needs to end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I will say we are switching so many
Speaker 2: of our ten ninety nine contract workers as to W
Speaker 2: two employees at the end of this month. So I'm
Speaker 2: super excited about half the team is making this, well
Speaker 2: more than half the team is making the switch. We're
Speaker 2: offering our four one K a four one K plan
Speaker 2: I'm looking into matching, and we're also offering health insurance
Speaker 2: that includes vision and dental. I saw, I feel like
Speaker 2: such a grown up in business isn't that great?
Speaker 1: Dude? You're really like a startup that has now gone
Speaker 1: has just reached like all the things you're talking about,
Speaker 1: learning how to delegate and like doing all the things
Speaker 1: in the beginning. It just sounds a lot like you're
Speaker 1: a startup and now you're a big business.
Speaker 2: You know, we are business now. I don't know about
Speaker 2: big business, but we have business.
Speaker 1: Business a business business.
Speaker 2: That's awesome, so all of that. Honestly, just thinking about that,
Speaker 2: I'm like, huh, I wonder you know, if we ever
Speaker 2: do you know, do stock, Like what does that look like?
Speaker 2: So like this has just all been interesting. No, but
Speaker 2: that was good.
Speaker 1: I mean, imagine if like a big bank purchased a
Speaker 1: budget needs to ink and then you had I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that's what happens with startups. You know, like you're
Speaker 1: still a startup. I'm not saying that you would sell
Speaker 1: like Tiffany, don't sell out, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, I mean, I you see this happen.
Speaker 1: And I have friends who have like worked at well
Speaker 1: I'm making this up, but let's say they started working
Speaker 1: day one at Peloton, and you know they'll sometimes offer
Speaker 1: you I don't know, what they're called. But they'll give
Speaker 1: you stock without calling it stock. It's like a certain
Speaker 1: class of shares because they haven't gone public yet or
Speaker 1: no one, you know what I mean. And then you
Speaker 1: kind of can see at least then you have some ownership,
Speaker 1: like if they were to sell, you have something. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of an exciting that's kind of an exciting
Speaker 1: step for a budgetese to if you do ease it tease,
Speaker 1: but first, like vision insurance, that's great. People need to
Speaker 1: get their glasses and stuff. That's exciting though. All right,
Speaker 1: and for our final question, this one comes from the GRAM.
Speaker 1: All right, this says, hi, ladies, I'd like to buy
Speaker 1: a home in twenty twenty five or twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Is it smart to place home savings in an investment
Speaker 1: account starting now or a high interest savings account? I
Speaker 1: have my six month emergency fund saved and I'm currently
Speaker 1: paying down some consumer debt. Good question.
Speaker 2: So this is twenty twenty six, so you have one
Speaker 2: how many years?
Speaker 1: Years? Four or five years timeline?
Speaker 2: Yeah, a five year timeline actually is not that because
Speaker 2: usually people will tell you that like kind of like
Speaker 2: the rule of thumb is, if you're investing, you want
Speaker 2: to at least leave it alone for five years. So
Speaker 2: if I had five years, I probably wouldn't just keep
Speaker 2: it in. I wouldn't I wouldn't put all in an
Speaker 2: investment account, but I wouldn't put all in the savings.
Speaker 2: I probably would do like some sort of half and half,
Speaker 2: because five years is just about the cusp of what
Speaker 2: you're looking for when when you're thinking about investing, Because
Speaker 2: what I don't want you to do is not to
Speaker 2: have the money readily available. But then I don't want
Speaker 2: you to miss out and potentially earning more than you
Speaker 2: with a savings account.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, she says she's got six months of
Speaker 1: emergency fund saved and she is paying down some consumer debt,
Speaker 1: and maybe I mean the consumer debt, like I don't
Speaker 1: know how much it is. I don't know. I can't
Speaker 1: even say whether it sounds like it's a lot or not.
Speaker 1: But let's assume it's not very much. Let's assume that
Speaker 1: she can pay it off. Maybe the next few months,
Speaker 1: you can do a hybrid. I mean, if five years
Speaker 1: is about the yeah, it's it's about like is that
Speaker 1: a short term or a long term investment? And then
Speaker 1: what I would say is Investing in the market can
Speaker 1: mean a bunch of different things. So if you're looking
Speaker 1: to invest in something that could potentially give you a
Speaker 1: you know, a good return on investment, but not make
Speaker 1: you overexposed to any one single stock, I would say,
Speaker 1: you know, choose ETFs or even opening up a brokerage
Speaker 1: account that has Like, for example, I opened up a
Speaker 1: brokerage account recently, and there was a certain fund you know,
Speaker 1: based on time horizon and based on risk tolerance. Those
Speaker 1: are just fancy words for how much time do you
Speaker 1: have to invest for and then how stressed out are
Speaker 1: you going to be if the market goes down and
Speaker 1: goes up. So based on those answers, I was directed
Speaker 1: to a specific kind of fund and it instantly diversifies,
Speaker 1: you know, put money in and it spreads it across
Speaker 1: several ETFs and that you know worked for what I wanted.
Speaker 1: So you could look at options like that to help you,
Speaker 1: you know, make sure that you're investing, you know, putting
Speaker 1: your money for your home down payment somewhere that you're
Speaker 1: broadly diversified over the next four years, so four or
Speaker 1: five years, so when company goes down, it doesn't like
Speaker 1: take your whole down payment with it, so j I
Speaker 1: would just say acknowledge the risks of that. You know,
Speaker 1: the biggest difference between a savings account at an FDIC
Speaker 1: insured bank and an investment account is that it's FDIC insurance.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful thing, baby, it's a beautiful thing. It
Speaker 1: means if the banks collapse, then the federal government ensures
Speaker 1: the money in your account up to two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars, I think, And you don't have that
Speaker 1: when you're investing, so you have to sort of assume
Speaker 1: the risk of what happens when you invest in one
Speaker 1: hundred percent. You know, consult a professional if you'd like to,
Speaker 1: and do your own due diligence because you really have
Speaker 1: to make the best choice for yourself. Isn't it crazy?
Speaker 5: Though?
Speaker 1: The housing market, like I've heard stories about, especially in
Speaker 1: like I have a lot of colleagues who live in
Speaker 1: Charlotte and does of offers on the same home and
Speaker 1: basically for the for the typical first time home buyer,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you have ten twenty percent saved sides
Speaker 1: for a down payment, like maybe you're looking at an
Speaker 1: FAHA loan or something like that. It's really hard to
Speaker 1: even find a home that's affordable, because like you may
Speaker 1: look at a home and say, oh, that's four hundred thousands,
Speaker 1: I have eighty thousand dollars cash for a down payment. Great,
Speaker 1: But then there's a bidding war and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the house is six hundred thousand and you don't have
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty thousand, you know, and it's it's
Speaker 1: just way out of your price range so fast. So
Speaker 1: I just feel like.
Speaker 2: But honestly, this is what I'll say. I remember right
Speaker 2: before the last recession, how home prices were astronomical and
Speaker 2: people were scrambling to get homes, and I just want
Speaker 2: to tell people like, this is artificially high. You have
Speaker 2: to ask yourself, how does a home go from two
Speaker 2: hundred to four hundred. I just I cost people from
Speaker 2: rushing to get anything, just something, just anything. I get
Speaker 2: it because I've been there when I'm I gonna just
Speaker 2: want anything, do something, And I did that. And guess what.
Speaker 2: The house that I bought when I was twenty five
Speaker 2: has never reached back up to the two twenty that
Speaker 2: I bought it for. It's been almost it's been over
Speaker 2: twenty years. No, it's been over fifteen years if.
Speaker 1: You internet stock your ex condo.
Speaker 2: I do. It's't that crazy because I want to justify
Speaker 2: one day it would have been worth it. It's still to
Speaker 2: this day, Mandy, the hiat has gotten is one eighty.
Speaker 2: I bought it for two twenty. So I don't want
Speaker 2: you to get something at this height of this artificial
Speaker 2: market just to have something only five years from now
Speaker 2: to find that you are you are underwater, which means
Speaker 2: that your mortgage is actually more than what you could
Speaker 2: sell the house for. So sometimes the blessing is that
Speaker 2: you didn't get it, you know, like, I'm not purchasing.
Speaker 2: I had set aside a bunch of money to buy
Speaker 2: some homes, but I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to. I have much rather put my
Speaker 2: investment towards something where there's going to be a yield.
Speaker 2: Where Why would I buy an inflated house for five
Speaker 2: years from now for it to go back to the
Speaker 2: value where it's supposed to be and I've lost some money.
Speaker 2: So just be mindful about getting a house just to
Speaker 2: get a house, just to get a house.
Speaker 1: Amen to that, absolutely, And I like the fact that
Speaker 1: it sounds like she's cooling her jets until twenty twenty five. Yes,
Speaker 1: people may not want.
Speaker 3: To hear that.
Speaker 1: But if if you're I like I mean, Tiffany, it
Speaker 1: sounds like you had sort of a budget in mind
Speaker 1: for what you wanted to spend where you wanted to
Speaker 1: spend it. And if things are getting too out of
Speaker 1: control and you're having to stretch yourself to you know,
Speaker 1: to a point where you're really financially uncomfortable, then just
Speaker 1: just sit down. Markets go up and down. That applies
Speaker 1: to the housing market as well. It may take a
Speaker 1: year or two because a housing market moves very slowly sometimes,
Speaker 1: but hopefully we'll come back to a realm of normalcy
Speaker 1: in the next couple of years in the housing market.
Speaker 1: But definitely don't just buy to buy. That's yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: I mean it's you know, it's fine, but it's it's
Speaker 1: not necessarily the best way to.
Speaker 2: Yes, I don't want you to end up like me
Speaker 2: stalking my old content, like what day you'll be with whatever?
Speaker 2: It kind of was like never never.
Speaker 1: That is like going back and stalking your ex.
Speaker 2: It's so funny, all right, waiting for your exit, live
Speaker 2: a bad life, and they're like, Grandma, you're flourishing, leave
Speaker 2: me alone.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank y'all so much for your questions.
Speaker 1: Take a quick break and come back with brown Boost Brown.
Speaker 5: Break, And now it's time to boost break b st breaker,
Speaker 5: b stie breaking.
Speaker 2: Well you go do, Mandy, you gonna boost? Are you
Speaker 2: gonna break?
Speaker 1: I'm going to boost today. I actually came across this
Speaker 1: news article a colleague has sent it to me today,
Speaker 1: and even though it's from October, I hadn't read this,
Speaker 1: maybe because I was still in the haze of pandemonium,
Speaker 1: but I hadn't read this, this research that had come out,
Speaker 1: and this phenomenal economist named Dana Peterson, black woman. She
Speaker 1: had worked for City Bank for a long time. Now
Speaker 1: she's a chief economist at a company called the Conference Board.
Speaker 1: But Dana decided last year that she was actually going
Speaker 1: to put a number on the cost of systemic racism
Speaker 1: to a society, to America, Like how much has the
Speaker 1: economy missed out on? Because if you're black and brown
Speaker 1: in this country, you're how your home is worthless because
Speaker 1: you earn less over time because you don't get you know,
Speaker 1: a certain salary. All those all those different factors, and
Speaker 1: the number that I don't know if this is a
Speaker 1: boost or break. I think it's a boost for Dana
Speaker 1: because she took her own experiences this article Bloomberg will
Speaker 1: put a link to on the show. Note she took
Speaker 1: her own experience encountering racism as she worked up you know,
Speaker 1: worked her way through financial services, and decided to actually
Speaker 1: quantify it. And the number that she came up with
Speaker 1: is kind of insane. But racism has cost America sixteen
Speaker 1: trillion dollars. Sixteen trillion with a T dollars okay, that
Speaker 1: could have paid for sixteen stimulus plans, right like economic
Speaker 1: relief packages. So I just wanted to highlight that and
Speaker 1: say thanks to Dana. In this article, she also just
Speaker 1: shares like a bunch of anecdotes about how she had
Speaker 1: encountered bias herself and how she decided to tackle this
Speaker 1: question and use her skills as an economist and researcher,
Speaker 1: and bless her for that, to use those skills to
Speaker 1: actually give people, to help people see that when we
Speaker 1: talk about wealth building for black and brown people, it's
Speaker 1: not just costing us, you know, it's not just costing
Speaker 1: our children wealth. It's also costing the country wealth. Because
Speaker 1: when you don't. When everyone is not succeeding and everyone's
Speaker 1: not successful and thriving financially, it actually hurts the economy.
Speaker 1: You know, they have more people who are unable to spend,
Speaker 1: which drives business. Right, So if we really want to
Speaker 1: to improve the economy, we should all treat financial equity
Speaker 1: as a real urgent need and an urgent call to action.
Speaker 1: And so I love this this little piece of research.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Dana and uh yeah, we'll post
Speaker 1: a link to that in the show notes.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Dana. I am going to boost as well.
Speaker 2: So everybody's favorite financial fairy godmother, Lynette so Forms Women
Speaker 2: to reached out to me, I don't know, some months
Speaker 2: ago and asked me it was this a thing that
Speaker 2: I did called the One, And it was supposed to
Speaker 2: be about who was like the one person in your
Speaker 2: professional life that like made all the difference, you know,
Speaker 2: And of course I was like, that's easy, Lynette, And
Speaker 2: so I talked about how as a result of like
Speaker 2: meeting Lynette so many years ago, I don't even know,
Speaker 2: it was probably like about ten years ago. You can
Speaker 2: go on if you go down Forbes. It's just it's
Speaker 2: called how the budget needs to save people millions with
Speaker 2: help from an unexpected mentor. And it's just really nice.
Speaker 2: It's just this six minute video that came to my house.
Speaker 2: They recorded me kind of just talking about how when
Speaker 2: I first met Lynette, how I made a mistake and
Speaker 2: how I treated her nothing disrespectful, but like it was
Speaker 2: embarrassing now that I look back on it, not for
Speaker 2: Lynette but for me, and how she poured so much
Speaker 2: into me in that first car ride and how to
Speaker 2: this day it really helped to catapult me to where
Speaker 2: I am now and all the things that she used
Speaker 2: to share and tell me are where I am now.
Speaker 2: And the thing about Lynette kwed Fondi Cox, if you're
Speaker 2: not familiar, she's one of the first black financial educators
Speaker 2: women to be seen publicly. I mean Good Morning America today,
Speaker 2: so all the shows, Lynette did it before everybody. And
Speaker 2: not only just that, she's just like the kindest, like honestly,
Speaker 2: I you know, I told my story and I posted
Speaker 2: it in our in our Black money group, Mandy, and
Speaker 2: like the comments were just feels like about Lynette stories
Speaker 2: and one time she helped me and one time she
Speaker 2: did this, and and that's what I aspired to be
Speaker 2: I aspired to be a Lynette. I told the story
Speaker 2: on social media the other day about how one of
Speaker 2: my other mentors shared how she had made a mistake
Speaker 2: when she had a mentor because she thought she and
Speaker 2: the mentor were neck and neck at one point because
Speaker 2: they had been on the same stages, but not understanding
Speaker 2: that you could be on the same stage in different levels.
Speaker 2: And how she learned very quickly that although she was
Speaker 2: a light pole and it seemed taller than her mentor,
Speaker 2: but her mentor was a tree and had deep roots.
Speaker 2: And when her foundation was shaken, her light pole fell
Speaker 2: and the mentor's tree remained, and it quickly humbled her
Speaker 2: to realize that nasis don't compare here, your instant flash
Speaker 2: with someone's years and years and years of work. And
Speaker 2: I could never hold a candle to Lynnette like what
Speaker 2: she's able to do, how she's been able to help folks.
Speaker 2: I mean, Lynette is to me the ultimate goals. How
Speaker 2: she shows up as a wife, as a mother, as
Speaker 2: a friend, as a mentor, as a financial educator. Lynette
Speaker 2: been a New York Times bestseller and just the humblest
Speaker 2: and kindest and just I just wanted to say all
Speaker 2: that I know she's herd earl. I love her. She's
Speaker 2: just she's goals and when I look at Lynnette, that's
Speaker 2: what I hope to grow too. So yeah, that was
Speaker 2: just it. I just wanted to share that. Just shout
Speaker 2: out to Forbes and especially Forbes Women for giving me
Speaker 2: the opportunity to brag on my mentor and to I
Speaker 2: didn't even say share her with the world because'slready been
Speaker 2: shared many, many times, but to share at least my
Speaker 2: personal story with her with the world.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love that. I love Lynette. I feel like
Speaker 1: she's the Tom Hanks of Brown Ambition, like Tom Hanks
Speaker 1: is like the most or is it Alec Baldwin. I
Speaker 1: don't know on SNL, but Lynette has been on the
Speaker 1: show at least three times, I want to say, most
Speaker 1: recently to talk about how she and her hubby Earl
Speaker 1: are creating a real estate investing empire just across all
Speaker 1: these United States. So check out. Well, I don't remember
Speaker 1: what the episode is, but I'm sure we can figure
Speaker 1: it out and post that in the show notes. If
Speaker 1: you want to go back and get your fix of
Speaker 1: Lynette the Money Coach, ask the Money coach. That's her website.
Speaker 1: I think yes, she's awesome. All right, well that is
Speaker 1: the show. Can't wait to see y'all next week. Get
Speaker 1: some rest, go plan some seeds or something.