Speaker 1: Mandra, Do you know what I need? I need to
Speaker 1: walk in these streets in my BA swag. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm really looking forward to? First of all, be
Speaker 1: your own Brown Boost. What an awesome phrase. I cannot
Speaker 1: wait to wear that on my chest like Superman. And
Speaker 1: what I'm really excited for, though, is I am a
Speaker 1: sweatshirt and like hoodie girl. So the classic Brown Ambition
Speaker 1: logo sweatshirt has my name.
Speaker 2: All over it. But where can I go? Where can
Speaker 2: I find it?
Speaker 3: I was hoping you would ask Young Tiffany. Tiffany, get
Speaker 3: your Brown Ambition swag at Brown Ambitionstore dot com. Five
Speaker 3: years in the game, we finally have merch for you guys.
Speaker 3: So get your Brown Ambition hoodie, your Brown Ambition crew
Speaker 3: neck tea, get a onesie for your littles. We got
Speaker 3: toddler teas. Oh my goodness, there's something for everyone. Be
Speaker 3: your own Brown Boost T shirt for sure. We have
Speaker 3: a Brown Ambition mug, which my family is most excited about.
Speaker 3: I had to do the fifteen out size for my
Speaker 3: big sister because she drinks coffee Like nobody's business.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know on the budget needs to write any
Speaker 2: special offer.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm also very glad you asked that question, Tiffany. Yes,
Speaker 3: with Brown Ambition fifteen, that's promo code Brown Ambition fifteen
Speaker 3: all one word, you can get fifteen percent off your
Speaker 3: order at Brown ambitionstore dot com.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see y'all in these BA streets
Speaker 1: repping ba bam with your BA swag.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, hey we're back. We're black, We're black. I
Speaker 2: did that for for Rio, Sirio.
Speaker 3: Hey weo.
Speaker 2: Hey managine that was for real. Yes, that was thank you.
Speaker 3: I'll let him know. I'll let him know. Oh my god.
Speaker 3: I was thinking we should do like a like a
Speaker 3: star spangled banner version of our intro because I feel
Speaker 3: I just am so excited for the election, and I like,
Speaker 3: my dad was giving me live updates from the Atlanta
Speaker 3: polls today.
Speaker 2: Okay, how.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm really impressed by Atlanta because they let you
Speaker 3: vote so early. We can't vote early in New York
Speaker 3: until the week before the general election. But yeah, so
Speaker 3: he he said. It was a long line. I think
Speaker 3: he was there for four hours or so, and he
Speaker 3: was sending me video updates. And I will say everyone
Speaker 3: was like socially distanced. I saw a lot of masks
Speaker 3: and it just made me feel so good because I've
Speaker 3: been stressed out the last week and a half because
Speaker 3: I guess I took for granted that everyone feels this
Speaker 3: real urge to vote and exercise their right to cast
Speaker 3: their ballot for elected officials, because like, I'm not gonna lie,
Speaker 3: Like I guess there's a lot of you know, my
Speaker 3: family in Atlanta, a lot of my dad's family. They
Speaker 3: I can't blame them, right, They don't trust government, they
Speaker 3: don't trust politicians. They say, no matter what we do,
Speaker 3: nothing changes. Black bodies are still being murdered by people
Speaker 3: and you know, wearing uniforms and it's completely sanctioned and
Speaker 3: nothing ever changes, and like and I and I get it,
Speaker 3: but I just thought, because I've I've seen my cousins
Speaker 3: go to like protests and talk about what's happening with
Speaker 3: Black Lives Matter and all that. But I started to
Speaker 3: get the sense that they weren't like registered, And I
Speaker 3: might have gone a little extra, but I feel really,
Speaker 3: I felt really compelled to do what I could to
Speaker 3: try to get them to at least register. And the
Speaker 3: deadline was the was the first week of October. And
Speaker 3: I might have gone a little overboard, but I was
Speaker 3: like texting and then I the good thing is that
Speaker 3: anyone can do this. You can go to your state's
Speaker 3: Board of Election site, and Georgia has a cool site
Speaker 3: where you can like check to see if you're registered,
Speaker 3: and you just need your date of birth and it'll
Speaker 3: tell you. It'll tell you actually are you registered, and
Speaker 3: the status if you've if you've mailed in a ballot request.
Speaker 2: I saw. I love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And my aunt, you know, she's older, she's disabled,
Speaker 3: her husband's disabled. So she was and she was like
Speaker 3: kind of offhanded, saying that she had mailed in her
Speaker 3: request for a mail in or not mailed in. Sorry.
Speaker 3: She submitted her request for a mail in ballot in
Speaker 3: September and hadn't gotten her ballot yet, and it's just
Speaker 3: like the smallest bit of information. She was thinking she
Speaker 3: had to go to like the her local like I
Speaker 3: don't know whatever local government office to check on her ballot.
Speaker 3: And I was like, let me just go on the
Speaker 3: internet really quick, give me your date of birth, let
Speaker 3: me check for you. And I could see that they
Speaker 3: had received it. I don't know why, but they received
Speaker 3: it a whole entire month after she had sent it
Speaker 3: and they had finally issued it this past week. Okay,
Speaker 3: so it's her, It's on its way to her. And
Speaker 3: then I could check my dad and I could see
Speaker 3: that even though he requested a mail in ballot, they
Speaker 3: said they had received it, but they hadn't sent his
Speaker 3: to him or he hadn't received it. So he was like, look,
Speaker 3: I'm just going to go stand in this line.
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 3: I sat. He did, Yeah, And I don't know that
Speaker 3: I've been I was trying to, Like, I was thinking,
Speaker 3: I'm just going to post for every single state what
Speaker 3: the deadlines are. And I'm like, that's I can't do it.
Speaker 3: But but if there's anybody, if if there's still time,
Speaker 3: if there's still time to at least get people in
Speaker 3: your life registered. You know, that's like the one if
Speaker 3: we could have just gotten one friend to vote who
Speaker 3: didn't vote in the last election, I think we would
Speaker 3: be an entirely, entirely different different worlds. So I'm just like, ah,
Speaker 3: please vote, Please be cynical after November fourth, yeah, remember third,
Speaker 3: just be cynical the next day if you want to,
Speaker 3: but please vote, please please please vote.
Speaker 1: Well, I, like I said, I got my mail in
Speaker 1: dall let's see filled it out yesterday, so me and
Speaker 1: Superman too. Tomorrow I'm gonna find I don't want to
Speaker 1: put in the mailbox. I'm gonna like, here where I live,
Speaker 1: there are those boxes specifically for ballots. I'm going to
Speaker 1: find one of those and take it in tomorrow so
Speaker 1: I can loosaw. The day of the Supermom, super Girl's
Speaker 1: mom came over. She's like, oh, you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: get my in the mail and but I believe here
Speaker 1: in Jersey we can actually go and pick one up.
Speaker 2: So she said she's going to do that as well.
Speaker 1: So it's just and then my sisters they still register
Speaker 1: at my parents, So theirs came in because when I
Speaker 1: went to visit my parents this weekend, I saw it
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, so you know, I picked
Speaker 1: up my sisters and the ones who lived near me
Speaker 1: and dropped it off to them.
Speaker 2: So I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: I feel anxious but hopeful. I guess those are the
Speaker 1: two emotions I feel about the upcoming election. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna take it because we you know, we were all
Speaker 1: feeling so smug last time, like and I was like, wait, what,
Speaker 1: so I don't you know I still feel anxious and
Speaker 1: I'm just brace on.
Speaker 3: I showed up in a pants suit to vote for Hillary,
Speaker 3: pants suit and pearls, and I look at that photo
Speaker 3: and I'm like, I just look, if only she knew
Speaker 3: I know, only that poor man, you were brilliant.
Speaker 1: But yeah, speaking of shady lately, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you know, but this is just random, but not kind
Speaker 1: of random.
Speaker 2: I have been getting like some people.
Speaker 1: I don't know, this is a new thing, but people
Speaker 1: will have been like, hey, we want you to be
Speaker 1: on our podcast or we want you to interview you,
Speaker 1: and then they send me a release form that basically
Speaker 1: says I own your life in perpetuity. One of the
Speaker 1: release firm literally said something about to be able to
Speaker 1: use it on any platform known to man in the universe.
Speaker 3: I was like, the universe stout, you don't own it's
Speaker 3: a song.
Speaker 2: I just I don't know if that's a thing.
Speaker 3: People don't read the fine print anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's been really crazy.
Speaker 1: I was like, what, I'm just coming on to talk
Speaker 1: about budgeting?
Speaker 2: I don't so I've had to go in and say no.
Speaker 1: Because one time I signed a contract I was doing
Speaker 1: like a conference, like one of these online conferences.
Speaker 2: I didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, the brand is sizeable enough and
Speaker 1: signed in, did the webinar or whatever the conference and
Speaker 1: it was great then, and I want to say six
Speaker 1: months like eight months later, I was someone sent me
Speaker 1: a screenshot was like, oh, I didn't know that you
Speaker 1: do spokesperson work whatever for this brand.
Speaker 2: I said, I don't.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, your pictures in an ad and I
Speaker 1: was like, because I used their service and I.
Speaker 2: Was like, hmmm, I didn't. I didn't sanction that.
Speaker 1: So when I wrote them the service, yes, I wrote
Speaker 1: them and I was like, hey, because I know some
Speaker 1: people pretty high up, because they've been trying to recruit
Speaker 1: me to do different things. I said, hey, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: this ad. It makes me uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't. I don't know what what what
Speaker 2: is this?
Speaker 1: This is not you know, I know we did like
Speaker 1: a you know, a conference together, but this is not
Speaker 1: what I agreed to.
Speaker 2: And they're like, oh, no, worries, we can take it down.
Speaker 2: I said okay, And then either the CEO or somebody
Speaker 2: came and.
Speaker 1: It was like, actually, when you signed you know, the release,
Speaker 1: you did agree to this girl, when I tell you,
Speaker 1: I was ready to flip over the table. I guess
Speaker 1: he realized, you know what, I don't want to smoke,
Speaker 1: because within moments he wrote back, was like, but you know,
Speaker 1: will gladly take it down and blah blah blah. So
Speaker 1: at tu he probably was right. I probably didn't fully
Speaker 1: read the release, but bruh, you don't want me to
Speaker 1: drag your service from six ways from Sunday because I
Speaker 1: was fixing to be like, oh, not what we gonna do?
Speaker 1: First of all, want I'm leaving the service too. I
Speaker 1: will let everyone know you are the literal worst. So
Speaker 1: I guess he thought about it because, literally, like I said,
Speaker 1: within ten minutes he wrote back and said, but we'll
Speaker 1: take it down, and they since paid me.
Speaker 2: To work with them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just just putting that out there for
Speaker 1: all you creators and things like that.
Speaker 2: Make sure you read your contracts.
Speaker 1: Lately, typically the release will say something like, hey, we
Speaker 1: can use your picture as it relates to this one thing,
Speaker 1: but lately they've been really really crazy. When this one
Speaker 1: said anything in the universe, I'm like, who wrote this wit?
Speaker 3: It literally said that, yes, that just covers like if
Speaker 3: there's life on Mars and they want to put a
Speaker 3: billboard up. I was like, the universe, they're gonna be
Speaker 3: watching your ads on the Tesla cabs to the movie.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. So yeah. I mean well, like I said,
Speaker 2: it was literally like, hey be on my podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, why don't we need to give you
Speaker 1: Why do I need to give you ownership of my
Speaker 1: of my likeness forever and ever and ever on Mars
Speaker 1: as well. So, just being min Fi, I just thought
Speaker 1: that was like randomly like this a little business funny,
Speaker 1: but not so funny because you want to make sure
Speaker 1: you read carefully, if you don't understand to ask questions,
Speaker 1: you know, if you can't afford an attorney.
Speaker 2: So yeah, there's that. So I just hat to share that.
Speaker 3: Oh well, that's I mean. It reminds me of like
Speaker 3: when you see stars in Hollywood kind of get bigger
Speaker 3: and then a studio that they worked with like ten
Speaker 3: years before the movie never got released. All of a sudden,
Speaker 3: it'll be on like straight to video or be released
Speaker 3: in theaters. They're trying to capitalize. So yeah, read that
Speaker 3: vibe right y'all. M h, what else, what's going on?
Speaker 3: I've recruited my mother to help me hire a nanny, okay,
Speaker 3: which actually, you know, my mom's retired and I'm like, hmm,
Speaker 3: you got some free time. Let me tell you how
Speaker 3: little time I have. It's like, I really really need childcare.
Speaker 3: And we've been like, you know, we've been cobbling in
Speaker 3: together between mother in law and between a neighbor's daughter
Speaker 3: in the neighborhood, who's sweet. But you know, to have
Speaker 3: someone who you can consistently rely on the hours you
Speaker 3: need them anyhow, So thanks shout out to my mama,
Speaker 3: and if y'all have any tips on vetting a childcare
Speaker 3: and a childcare worker in a pandemic, like I'm it
Speaker 3: has to happen. I just can't keep telling myself like this,
Speaker 3: this really needs to happen. This tiny human is like
Speaker 3: a tiny hurricane, really really really cute hurricane. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's it's next level now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, well, I'll have to say as far
Speaker 1: as like on the teacher, and you're definitely gonna like
Speaker 1: see if someone has like first aid, like you know,
Speaker 1: a certification things like that, you know. Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: also too like one thing that when I was a
Speaker 1: teacher was that we we would have to get a fingerprinted.
Speaker 2: So that's always like a nice like added level.
Speaker 3: Well like care dot com has a background check and
Speaker 3: then you can do additional ones. I think, well, the
Speaker 3: thing is my mom. I'm gonna I hope that she's
Speaker 3: gonna do like virtual interviews because for me, I just
Speaker 3: want them to be fun, like I just want them
Speaker 3: to have a fun personality and to cause I you know,
Speaker 3: I try and coach whoever is hanging out with the baby.
Speaker 3: It's like, you need to be silly, af you need
Speaker 3: to put on a show. You are a theater production
Speaker 3: and you need a new play every ninety seconds. Okay,
Speaker 3: that is the challenge and that's why it's so exhausting.
Speaker 3: But you just have to have just be as funny
Speaker 3: as possible. I just wanted to know that he's up
Speaker 3: there having fun and not bored. I don't know why that,
Speaker 3: you know, matters to me so much. But you know,
Speaker 3: anyone who's out there trying to vet daycare or whatever
Speaker 3: going into this flu season, just bless you. I'm right
Speaker 3: there with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard to vet, like just team members in general.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, we want to I want to
Speaker 1: do some rebranding and it's hard. Like I'm like for
Speaker 1: both the budget Neista just colors and font and in
Speaker 1: literature Academy and to find like it's so crazy, so
Speaker 1: many people like brand strategies websites are coming soon.
Speaker 2: I'm like, uh, what this is.
Speaker 3: Where you get to show and so I'm like, we're
Speaker 3: so busy doing other people's websits. We uh we'll get
Speaker 3: back to our.
Speaker 2: That's literally what it is.
Speaker 1: So I'm just like, ugh, so I've been looking yet
Speaker 1: because I want to, like I want to like, I
Speaker 1: want to like, you know, revitalize the colors and fonts
Speaker 1: and to have like a clear brand message.
Speaker 2: And so you go on You're like, oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this must be Bunjanisa because I recognize this font
Speaker 1: in color combination and I have not had that in
Speaker 1: a while. I mean, we've been managing with that, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, come on now, Tiffany, it's time. I used
Speaker 1: to be really conscious about it when I first started
Speaker 1: the business, and then it kind of just fell off.
Speaker 1: So if any y'all know somebody's shoe, I don't even know, Like,
Speaker 1: y'all just be doing the most.
Speaker 3: We have a person for our logo. Tip you want
Speaker 3: me to give you out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, that would be great honestly, because I know
Speaker 2: it's great. No, No, that's right.
Speaker 1: I would love because I just because it's not so much.
Speaker 1: I don't need logo creation because we have good logos.
Speaker 1: It's just color and font. I want to you know
Speaker 1: what else a brand it's not a brand kit. What
Speaker 1: are those things called? Like, it's like a brand meet guide,
Speaker 1: brand brand guide. So when someone is creating something, let's
Speaker 1: just say I was going to build a new website,
Speaker 1: I can say here's my brand.
Speaker 2: Guide, like the front guide. Yeah, yes, my style guide.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so like for example, like when the book the
Speaker 1: book cover for my book coming out next year, they
Speaker 1: are like working on the cover and they were asking
Speaker 1: me that I have a style guide and I was
Speaker 1: like no, but I like these thoughts, you know, So
Speaker 1: it would have been nice, you know, to have some
Speaker 1: cohesive thing to say this is you know, this is
Speaker 1: what I I typically lean towards.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I will hook you up. That's exactly what
Speaker 3: our are. I don't even know what to call him.
Speaker 3: He's actually my husband's good friend from college and he
Speaker 3: designed logos for banks and he is the mastermind behind
Speaker 3: our and I love Brown logo and fond and he
Speaker 3: even like, I remember when he was our most recent logo,
Speaker 3: we kind of refreshed for the merch and brandimisionstore dot
Speaker 3: com hashtag, used promo code, brand ambission fifteen and fifty
Speaker 3: percent off your career anyway, So he he even was like, look,
Speaker 3: I tried to find some styles that were made people
Speaker 3: of color. Fir sorry, font fonts that were made but
Speaker 3: designed by people of color, Like who thinks about was
Speaker 3: the person who designed this font black or white? Who
Speaker 3: were they? But he's, yeah, he's super thoughtful like that,
Speaker 3: and yeah, shout out to Wan Lee if he's listening.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, no, I'm for sure because yeah, some of
Speaker 1: the things that have come in, I'm like, uh, where's
Speaker 1: their sight? I can't tell what you do. I can't
Speaker 1: tell that's good or not, you know, So yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, now you got me thinking about twenty twenty
Speaker 3: one because you told me. I know we can't talk
Speaker 3: about on the show, but you got me excited about
Speaker 3: something happening in twenty twenty one. I feel like I
Speaker 3: need to force myself to look past November to what
Speaker 3: there is to look forward to next year. I don't
Speaker 3: know if big vacations are happening, but my one goal
Speaker 3: is I'm going to see my big sister, Like I
Speaker 3: really need to get some sister time. She has not
Speaker 3: seen her nephew in a year, and I'm trying to
Speaker 3: fit figure out. I don't know if I want to
Speaker 3: like throw the baby in the car. I don't know
Speaker 3: what to do. Bars So she's in Wisconsin. It's a
Speaker 3: good I don't even know. I'm not going to Wisconsin.
Speaker 3: I done told her, I'm like, you need to move.
Speaker 3: I want to go to Wisconsin. I think it's like
Speaker 3: seventeen hours listen, but we can't make it thirty minutes
Speaker 3: in the car without him freaking out. And I have
Speaker 3: to listen to the Elmo song for every one of
Speaker 3: those thirty minutes. Okay, there's no way I will literally die.
Speaker 3: I'd rather just take the risk and you know, fly.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's it's nonsense. Finally I had to see
Speaker 3: my little brother, have seen my parents recently. But she's
Speaker 3: just work, you know. Unfortunately, she works for one of
Speaker 3: these companies that has such a limited PTO offering that
Speaker 3: her vacation is just it's really hard for them to
Speaker 3: take time off. So, but I'm gonna try and plan
Speaker 3: something so that we can see each other in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one.
Speaker 2: That's yeah. Now, more than ever you realize how just
Speaker 2: how important family is.
Speaker 3: Amen, sis a friend? Alright, Well, anything else happened in
Speaker 3: the news or should we take a quick break and
Speaker 3: come back fus? Question I think is question. I'm excited
Speaker 3: for today's questions. I spent a lot of time combing
Speaker 3: through the inbox yesterday and DMS and email and all
Speaker 3: that jazz, and I found a couple husband themed ones
Speaker 3: that I think we want to answer. So come back
Speaker 3: for the tea, y'all. Okay, guys, we are back to
Speaker 3: answer your questions again. You can hit us up on Instagram.
Speaker 3: We are at Brannanmbisson podcast on the Gram send us
Speaker 3: a DM. We're also old school email brand Ambition podcast
Speaker 3: at gmail dot com dot com. So, as promised, I
Speaker 3: found a couple questions that each feature a problematic husband.
Speaker 3: So or I guess you know what I don't. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say partner husband whatever, a partner? All right,
Speaker 3: So let's read our first question. This actually has to
Speaker 3: do with a couple who's looking to buy a home.
Speaker 3: All right, and she wants to remain anonymous. She says,
Speaker 3: my partner and I are aiming to move from New
Speaker 3: York City to California to be closer to family next year.
Speaker 3: We like to buy our first home there with a
Speaker 3: goal of living there for good. My partner is all
Speaker 3: about using YouTube to learn about home buying. I, on
Speaker 3: the other hand, read my share of articles in but
Speaker 3: I'm seeking more guidance. Here's some background on us. I'm
Speaker 3: in my thirties and make fifty five K. My partner's
Speaker 3: in his forties and makes one hundred K. Likely we
Speaker 3: cannot continue working remotely at our current jobs. He's got
Speaker 3: about one hundred k in cash savings and is starting
Speaker 3: to invest, and I have forty k across my savings
Speaker 3: and investment acco. So here's my question. Besides an agent
Speaker 3: and a mortgage broker, is there someone who can advise
Speaker 3: us on buying a home? Is a financial advisor? Appropriate?
Speaker 3: Is a first time home buyer advisor? A thing? For
Speaker 3: whomever you suggest? Is there a way to check their
Speaker 3: background to avoid scammers? My partner is convinced there are
Speaker 3: home buying loopholes no one is telling him about. We
Speaker 3: both agree that if we pay for advice, we'd at
Speaker 3: least learn lessons tailored for our situation. Looking forward, looking
Speaker 3: to fellow Brown Ambition, Brown Ambition is for a place
Speaker 3: to start researching. Okay, is there such thing as a
Speaker 3: first time home buyer advisor, Tiffany.
Speaker 2: Not technically bud.
Speaker 1: There are some amazing first time home buyer courses. When
Speaker 1: I first bought my condo when I was in my twenties,
Speaker 1: I took one at my local bank, and it was
Speaker 1: a great place to start to learn about the process.
Speaker 1: But even though they're a little bit of a pain
Speaker 1: in the behind. NAKA NACA. What does NACA stand for? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so NAKA is Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.
Speaker 2: Here's why.
Speaker 1: So in the DreamCatcher, I've never heard of NACA before.
Speaker 1: I'm not affiliated with them in anyway. So I had
Speaker 1: in the DreamCatcher group and a friend of mine went
Speaker 1: through the NAKA process. So NACA educates you on the process.
Speaker 1: Then they helped you get get the lowest interest rate
Speaker 1: possible and help you with like help you with a doubt.
Speaker 2: I don't think helping with the down payment. It's mostly
Speaker 2: interest that they help you with.
Speaker 1: The people have been able to get interests like under
Speaker 1: two percent, sometimes even lower.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing There is.
Speaker 1: No better program for buying as it relates to your
Speaker 1: interests than NAKA that I have found. And there have
Speaker 1: been thousands of thousands of dream Catchers in my Facebook
Speaker 1: group because it's about five hundred thousand women in that group,
Speaker 1: and I've been watching them posts about NACA for like
Speaker 1: the last three years. So the critique of NACA is
Speaker 1: that you really have to be on them because it's
Speaker 1: a nonprofit organization, so it really works. You know, are
Speaker 1: not getting paid a ton of money, so sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes them a while to get back to you. But
Speaker 1: the more organized you are, the better there they are
Speaker 1: to help you. So I would look at NAKA as
Speaker 1: well because you'll be able to get potent so especially
Speaker 1: even now, an even better interest rate and learn the
Speaker 1: process along the way. So yeah, that's where I would start.
Speaker 1: Is first time home Buyer class. There's so many of
Speaker 1: them that are free. Just google, like sometimes the United
Speaker 1: Ways have them, many local banks have them. Now that
Speaker 1: things are digital, you could still look. You could just
Speaker 1: google free first time home Buyer class and see what's available.
Speaker 1: But when you're ready to make the move. I definitely
Speaker 1: would look at NAKA Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. It's
Speaker 1: an awesome nonprofit that helps folks purchase homes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think so, I mean her, it's almost
Speaker 3: like they're an analysis paralysis, Like they've done so much
Speaker 3: research and honestly YouTube articles whichever way you like to like,
Speaker 3: whatever form of learning works for you. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is like a very like Mars and Venus situation, were
Speaker 3: like guys are visual, right and women will take time
Speaker 3: to read. So it makes sense that he's into YouTube
Speaker 3: when you're reading, and that's fine. He seems like a
Speaker 3: little suspicious of the whole home buying business, so he
Speaker 3: thinks that there's loopholes that could kind of trap you guys.
Speaker 3: I mean, I want to like assuage a bit of
Speaker 3: your fears because thanks to the two thousand and eight
Speaker 3: housing crisis, which is weird to think, you know, a
Speaker 3: financial crisis that people are still trying to recover from.
Speaker 3: But in the Dodd Frank Act that came after it,
Speaker 3: there are so many regulations in the mortgage lending industry
Speaker 3: right now where banks, you know, it's it's quite difficult
Speaker 3: for banks to do what they were doing before, which
Speaker 3: is get home buyers to take on mortgages that they
Speaker 3: could never afford, Like people out your head, like two houses,
Speaker 3: and they couldn't afford even half of one of those
Speaker 3: two mortgages. So yeah, and so you can you can
Speaker 3: sort of trust that there are regulations in place to
Speaker 3: be very transparent, like you're going to get your lone
Speaker 3: estimate from any lender that you shop with, it's going
Speaker 3: to have all the fees outlined. And yes, you can
Speaker 3: have a real estate agent. You don't necessarily need a
Speaker 3: mortgage broker, but a mortgage broker can help and match
Speaker 3: you to different They basically have access to lenders and
Speaker 3: can help you find loan offers. Or you can shop
Speaker 3: on your own using an online marketplace and I'll plug
Speaker 3: lending trees and so obviously I work there. But there's
Speaker 3: other ones too where you can shop and compare mortgages.
Speaker 3: But as long as you guys shop and compare and
Speaker 3: get the best deal on your mortgage, you know, don't
Speaker 3: make it more complicated than it is. And it sounds
Speaker 3: like you guys are going for like you know, first
Speaker 3: time home buyers, you know, you aren't like getting a
Speaker 3: jumbo mortgage. You're not like doing some kind of weird
Speaker 3: type of loan that's not a conventional loan. I mean,
Speaker 3: it should be pretty transparent. And as someone who went
Speaker 3: through this process a couple of years ago, the only
Speaker 3: thing that I stressed out about was is this a
Speaker 3: good decision? Like is it a good decision to buy
Speaker 3: a home? Does it make financial sense? I did actually
Speaker 3: call my financial advisor because or my financial planner, Helen,
Speaker 3: because I just wanted to. I did want to just
Speaker 3: listen to someone else who was very smart and who
Speaker 3: I trusted kind of talk it through with me. What
Speaker 3: are the different factors, like what are home values looking
Speaker 3: like in the area we're buying in, what are the schools, like,
Speaker 3: how have home values risen over or fallen over the
Speaker 3: past decade? And Helen did talk me through it, and
Speaker 3: for me, I decided to call our financial planner for
Speaker 3: that reason, just to have someone who I trusted give
Speaker 3: me specific advice. And that's definitely something that is lacking
Speaker 3: from like online articles and YouTube videos is that they
Speaker 3: don't know you personally, which is why it's hard to
Speaker 3: answer questions here too. So I'm I'm a fan of
Speaker 3: like if you need it for your own peace of
Speaker 3: mind and just to have and for me too. It
Speaker 3: wasn't just about peace of mind. It was about my
Speaker 3: husband and I really were not on the same page
Speaker 3: about how much we wanted to borrow and where we
Speaker 3: wanted to buy and all that kind of stuff. And
Speaker 3: once again, my financial planner kind of became our couple's
Speaker 3: therapist and helped us. Yeah, just helped be like a
Speaker 3: I don't know, like a board, a sounding board, an
Speaker 3: objective you know, source in the middle of us trying
Speaker 3: to help us work through and like speak both of
Speaker 3: our languages. So I think, so you won't find like
Speaker 3: a first time home by our advisor that's not like
Speaker 3: a name, I don't think, but a financial planner who
Speaker 3: will just charge you like an hourly rate to have
Speaker 3: a conversation that could be helpful to you guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that is.
Speaker 1: And then honestly, to my this is not always typical.
Speaker 1: But my mortgage broker, David was amazing. He I never
Speaker 1: knew anybody who was like really passionate about mortgages, but
Speaker 1: he was, and I used to ask him. To this day,
Speaker 1: I have not gotten a mortgage from David. But I've
Speaker 1: sent send other people to him. It's just because in
Speaker 1: the house that we bought, we ended up paying for cash,
Speaker 1: as y'all know, and then when I thought I was
Speaker 1: going to do the cash reply cash out reply or
Speaker 1: reply cash out.
Speaker 2: We ended up not doing it. But I was working
Speaker 2: with David.
Speaker 1: But so sometimes, you know, you can get mortgage brokers
Speaker 1: can answer a lot of the questions. And I also
Speaker 1: had an amazing realtor that answered a lot of my
Speaker 1: I mean, I was one of those people who was like,
Speaker 1: but what about but what about?
Speaker 2: But what about?
Speaker 1: Because Samandy's point, they got to know me and knew
Speaker 1: what I needed. So you know, that's somebody else to
Speaker 1: bring into the mix, a realtor that you really like.
Speaker 1: Don't sign any exclusivity with anyone.
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 1: I was like in the beginning, I did, and then
Speaker 1: I learned my lessons, was like no, until I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I really do actually want to work with
Speaker 1: you and a mortgage broker, one that you find really
Speaker 1: helpful and willing to answer a ton of questions because
Speaker 1: you're going to have them, and rightfully.
Speaker 3: So yeah, absolutely, And remember the sellers pay, They usually
Speaker 3: pay the buyer's agent's fee, So you know, if that's
Speaker 3: something that you're worried about, you feel like you're stuck
Speaker 3: with this person, like you know that fee is usually
Speaker 3: covered by the seller. Okay, well, hope that was helpful
Speaker 3: and you and your partner figure things out. Okay, let's
Speaker 3: go to another question. This is another couple who's having
Speaker 3: differences of opinion about what to do with their emergency fund.
Speaker 3: Oh do I know this so well? Okay. Our next
Speaker 3: question comes from we'll call her Unus. Unis says, my
Speaker 3: husband and I have recently saved six months of expenses
Speaker 3: for emergency fund. Good for y'all. He thinks we should
Speaker 3: get a financial advisor to invest this money to where
Speaker 3: we have access to it in a couple of business
Speaker 3: dates if needed. I, however, prefer to keep the money
Speaker 3: in our bank account and a high interest checking account
Speaker 3: at one percent, which is at a credit union, so
Speaker 3: we don't have to ask anyone to use our own
Speaker 3: money if we need it. I'm very risk averse and
Speaker 3: skeptical of financial advisors. Plus, I thought an emergency fund
Speaker 3: was something you kept one hundred percent liquid, But my
Speaker 3: husband sees things differently. How would you, ladies say, we
Speaker 3: go about getting a return on our emergency fund. My
Speaker 3: plan would give us about two hundred dollars of interest
Speaker 3: per month, which is more than enough in my opinion,
Speaker 3: and we can keep money ourselves for an emergency. I
Speaker 3: love the podcast and I love the life updates from y'all.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Okaynis, So this is a really interesting scenario.
Speaker 3: So they've got hix months worth of savings. Fantastic. So
Speaker 3: her husband's looking at this pile of cash and it's like, Yo,
Speaker 3: we should be investing this to earn even more return
Speaker 3: on it. And she's thinking of it like, oh, we
Speaker 3: need to keep this safe and protected in a regular
Speaker 3: ass banking account, as I like to say, So interesting,
Speaker 3: what do you think.
Speaker 1: To Well, I can understand your husband's position, But the
Speaker 1: purpose of an emergency savings account is for risk management.
Speaker 1: It is not for growing wealth. Anything saved above them,
Speaker 1: go for it, you know, That's what I tell him. Like,
Speaker 1: so if we put our money into the market, right,
Speaker 1: let's just say, and then we hit an emergency, what
Speaker 1: will we do if we put our money into the market.
Speaker 1: Because when you invest, you have to think long term.
Speaker 1: You have to think five, ten, fifteen, twenty years. So
Speaker 1: you might put your money in today and the market
Speaker 1: drops and then someone loses their job, and then, well,
Speaker 1: what happens to your emergency fund. The literal purpose of
Speaker 1: your emergency fund is to be your first line of
Speaker 1: defense in the case of financial trauma.
Speaker 2: So I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't keep it in the checking account, just
Speaker 1: a high entry sealed savings. Did you say checking or
Speaker 1: did you tell you said savings, Mandy, she.
Speaker 3: Must mean savings if she's getting one percent, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, yeah, So there's nothing wrong with that,
Speaker 1: and you just tell him, like any money because so
Speaker 1: my husband and I have maxed out, we have saved
Speaker 1: because I'm you know, crazy, We've saved the year's worth
Speaker 1: of our expenses, and so anything above that now goes
Speaker 1: to one or two things. We have a bucket to
Speaker 1: invest into real estate, and then then we also I
Speaker 1: have a certified financial planner, Angelie, and then anything I
Speaker 1: also send money to Angelie to say, okay, put it
Speaker 1: into like, you know whatever, like our investments are with her.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, I don't believe in investing your savings
Speaker 1: because the purpose of it is to provide you are cushion.
Speaker 2: Since something happen.
Speaker 1: So I mean, but I know a lot of men
Speaker 1: are like go go, go, go go, and sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: it can be like, ah, what do we do?
Speaker 2: But that's what I.
Speaker 1: Would just share with him, Like, well, babe, if we
Speaker 1: invest his money and then the market goes down and
Speaker 1: up and then down, and then when it's down, we're down,
Speaker 1: then what you know? So yeah, that's what I was sharing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you're you're you're on the right path.
Speaker 1: But I can understand why he sees it as like
Speaker 1: it's a wait, it's really not.
Speaker 2: It's it's there to protect you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just like, this is the reason I spend
Speaker 3: money that I really don't need to spend on financial
Speaker 3: planner because like, I know my shit. But it's really
Speaker 3: satisfying when you, as the as one partner, are told
Speaker 3: that you're right by the person you're asking advice from.
Speaker 3: So I can kind of imagine Eunice like forcing her
Speaker 3: partner to listen to this episode, like you might want
Speaker 3: to skip ahead to the thirty four minute mark because
Speaker 3: there's a really interesting segment you might want to like.
Speaker 3: But you know, all jokes aside. I think it's I
Speaker 3: think in this case, like, Tiffany's totally right. You want
Speaker 3: to keep that money. You like, congrats, you say six
Speaker 3: months of expenses. That's major. Now, it's a and especially
Speaker 3: in times like this, it's not a bad idea to
Speaker 3: shore up your emergency fund and and really have that money. Like,
Speaker 3: it's not just about being accessible, it's about being safe.
Speaker 3: It is insured by the federal government, and whatever we
Speaker 3: can say about how crazy things are, FDIC insurance is
Speaker 3: still rock solid. So your money's not going anywhere like
Speaker 3: it would in the stock market. Your money is not insured.
Speaker 3: It's not protected when you invest it in the market.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think you're exactly right. And I think
Speaker 3: what's exciting is now y'all anything else is icing, Like
Speaker 3: y'all can start investing for real, you know, start with
Speaker 3: your four one ks, your IRA or then you know,
Speaker 3: open a brokerage account and have some fun now. But yeah,
Speaker 3: congrats on getting your your six months and good luck
Speaker 3: with the you think that's the first financial disagreement you're
Speaker 3: ever going to have.
Speaker 1: Oh lord, oh girl, me and Supman are going through
Speaker 1: it right now. I'm like, well, for whatever, okay to share.
Speaker 3: I love I love it. You feel normal right now?
Speaker 2: Well, we get on the other side of it, because
Speaker 2: we haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't quite run one yet, but I will so
Speaker 1: when I you know, once I finished my victory lab
Speaker 1: then I certainly will share.
Speaker 3: All right, how about my my husband went to the
Speaker 3: Apple store, came back with everything but the uh, the
Speaker 3: dongle that he needed, the damn dongle. Tiffany knows how
Speaker 3: many times I have started this podcast late because I'm
Speaker 3: looking for a damn dongle that I need for my
Speaker 3: for my mic to attach to my computer, and my
Speaker 3: husband's constantly stealing, and I'm like, can you go buy
Speaker 3: your own damn dongle? I just love saying damn dongles
Speaker 3: makes me so happy. But anyway, he came back with
Speaker 3: an Apple Watch, a labor case for his AirPods. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: you got discretionary funds. Is that what you're telling me?
Speaker 3: You got discretion Let's put something in Rio's fifty nine plan. Okay. Anyway,
Speaker 3: he eventually got the dongle. That's the moral story, and.
Speaker 1: Too, I mean, it happens like so you might so
Speaker 1: for example, there is there's negotiating, right, so you might say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I I adamantly am against us, like you know, investing,
Speaker 1: you know our savings. But you know what, maybe I
Speaker 1: well acquiesce two maybe two months worth, just so he
Speaker 1: can see and then you go back to you get
Speaker 1: back up to saving the six months. Do you see
Speaker 1: what I mean by giving a little something? Because it's
Speaker 1: marriage is long, girl.
Speaker 3: You have to lose some battles. You have to pick
Speaker 3: the battles that you're willing to lose every once in
Speaker 3: a while, you know, so that you can win the
Speaker 3: important You have to look at the long game.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know. Yeah, so that's what I would probably
Speaker 2: teach it.
Speaker 1: If this is Superman, I might say, like depending on
Speaker 1: how adamant he was, because sometimes he's like, eah, I
Speaker 1: can tell he doesn't mind losing, so I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just take all the victory. But then there's times
Speaker 1: that I'm like, you can tell he's pretty frustrated with me.
Speaker 1: You know what, let me loosen that.
Speaker 2: I'll give you two months sir, oh three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe it's like five, here's five hundred bucks. Here's
Speaker 3: a like shave off a little something for them to
Speaker 3: go play with. And I mean I tried that, but see,
Speaker 3: be ready to lose it though, because you're gonna lose
Speaker 3: it with a lot of teasel stock and tell you
Speaker 3: that right now. Anyway. Yeah, well, good luck to you
Speaker 3: and thank you so much for your question, Unics. This
Speaker 3: is a fun one.
Speaker 2: That was a fun one.
Speaker 3: Please you guys, if you want us to prove you right,
Speaker 3: send your questions to Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot
Speaker 3: com or hit us up on IG Brand Ambition Podcast.
Speaker 3: All right, boost and break.
Speaker 1: Yes, and now it's time to boost a break for
Speaker 1: all of family.
Speaker 2: Are you gonna boost? Are you gonna break? What you
Speaker 2: gonna do? Mandy? What you gonna do? Mandy? I wish
Speaker 2: you could see my hand moving. What you gonna do?
Speaker 2: Very Brandy esque? What you gonna do? Mandy?
Speaker 3: Shout out to Mosha, shout out to Sister Sister, shout
Speaker 3: out to Black Netflix. I love it. Yes, I'm so
Speaker 3: excited about my boost today. As I was digging through
Speaker 3: our dms in IG last night, I came across the
Speaker 3: story that just warmed my little heart. And it's from
Speaker 3: a listener. Her name is Ellen c and she just
Speaker 3: recently won a scholarship from a website called Student Loan Planner,
Speaker 3: and her scholarship essay featured Brown ambition. Yeah, so she
Speaker 3: called to share the link, and I'm gonna share in
Speaker 3: our show notes. But but I also wanted to read
Speaker 3: a little bit because her story is really interesting. So
Speaker 3: to get the scholarship, she submitted an essay to Student
Speaker 3: Loan Planner and it's all about kind of how she
Speaker 3: has transformed negativity of twenty twenty into opportunity. All right,
Speaker 3: So let me just I'm going to read a little
Speaker 3: bit of her essay. It's really cute, cute, really cool,
Speaker 3: all right. Ellen says, one of the main negative experiences
Speaker 3: I faced was in high school, wh my high school
Speaker 3: counselor stereotype me and did not give me the guidance
Speaker 3: I needed to apply to college. That was always my goal.
Speaker 3: I was working hard to be eligible. I received no
Speaker 3: support with college applications or financial aid. I pushed forward anyway,
Speaker 3: ended up going to college and earning a bachelor's degree,
Speaker 3: to master's degree and a doctorate an educational leadership. Only
Speaker 3: around five percent of Latin X in the US earn
Speaker 3: a graduate degree, and this includes masters in PhD. I
Speaker 3: was set on proving to my community and others that
Speaker 3: it can be done. The reason I read this experience
Speaker 3: up is that I turned that negative experience into a
Speaker 3: positive by becoming a high school counselor so that students
Speaker 3: would never have to experience what I did. I vowed
Speaker 3: to not only support students to get to and through college,
Speaker 3: but to make sure to have important information accessible to all.
Speaker 3: Fast forward to twenty twenty. We were living on one
Speaker 3: paycheck in an expensive city in an expensive state with
Speaker 3: our first child. I was at home full time flan
Speaker 3: like I needed to do something productive. I was introduced
Speaker 3: to the Brand Ambition podcast a few years back, but
Speaker 3: I never made the time to actually listen to it.
Speaker 3: I finally started to listen to the episodes from the
Speaker 3: very beginning around February twenty twenty, as the coronavirus started
Speaker 3: to hit and our state went into shelter in place.
Speaker 3: I wasn't binging Netflix like others. I was binging podcasts.
Speaker 3: That was my gateway into personal finance, and I started
Speaker 3: going down the path of learning how to budget, invest,
Speaker 3: and take control of our finances. And that's a little
Speaker 3: bit from her essay. Y'all check out the link and
Speaker 3: our notes. And that's so sweet it is. I love
Speaker 3: that in inspirational. Oh my gosh, Yeah, that reminds me
Speaker 3: of Michelle Obama story. That was like the famous Michelle
Speaker 3: Obama story. But how in high school her counselor told
Speaker 3: her that she wasn't what was it, Princeton material screwed
Speaker 3: the haters, Okay, And I love that. I love that
Speaker 3: you're going back into the same field to make sure
Speaker 3: that no student is left behind like you could have been.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is awesome. You know, it's so crazy. I
Speaker 2: actually had my guidance counselor.
Speaker 1: Although my school at Westfield was super super white, there
Speaker 1: was less than like, probably five percent of students were black.
Speaker 1: My guidance counselor was actually a black woman. I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: And she was so like supportive and encouraging. So I'm
Speaker 1: just realizing just how fortunate that was, because it wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been odd for her to be not a black woman.
Speaker 1: But yeah, she just always reminded me how smart we're
Speaker 1: actually from Facebook friends and she hit me like maybe
Speaker 1: a year ago and told me how proud she was
Speaker 1: of me. But wasn't surprised that she brought me something
Speaker 1: about like what does she say about how I was
Speaker 1: in high school? I'm like, really, she was like yeah, girl,
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised.
Speaker 2: And I was just like, oh, that was so nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yes that unfortunately, there are not enough people
Speaker 1: to encourage us.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad that you are now part of the
Speaker 2: solution where you saw a problem.
Speaker 3: And think about your counselor and how alone she must
Speaker 3: have felt working in a school with like I'm sure
Speaker 3: not the facult the faculty probably wasn't representative of the
Speaker 3: area either. But I thinking back on my high school
Speaker 3: experience there, I had a vice principal at the last
Speaker 3: high school I went to, and she she used to
Speaker 3: always just like invite me to her office just to chat,
Speaker 3: you know, about whatever. And it always seemed like, oh,
Speaker 3: she's just being friendly, but it felt like those invitations
Speaker 3: that really matters, and it does. And when you see
Speaker 3: a black woman and I think about her now, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, damn, she was like the only black woman
Speaker 3: in the faculty at the black woman, especially at this
Speaker 3: like super white high school, and it must have been
Speaker 3: hard for her too, you know. And anyway, she I
Speaker 3: remember when she gave me the that Doctor Juice book
Speaker 3: all the places, Oh the places You'll go, and my
Speaker 3: mind was like blown, Yes, I love that book. But yeah,
Speaker 3: shout out to our educators and definitely a big, big,
Speaker 3: big brown boost for you, Ellen, thank you so much
Speaker 3: for sharing and can crab on winning that scholarship.
Speaker 1: Yes, so I mine is not a brown boost. It's
Speaker 1: kind of well, I guess it's a brown break and
Speaker 1: more of a or maybe a brown and it's a
Speaker 1: hoosy breaking. So lately I've been seeing on social media
Speaker 1: something called SAR. So y'all know I'm Nigerian. Woop woop
Speaker 1: EQUI quin new a right. So SARS is the Special
Speaker 1: Anti Robbery Squad so Nigeria. Unfortunately, when it comes to
Speaker 1: it's civil workers, so like teachers and police officers and
Speaker 1: things of the sort, oftentimes won't These people will not
Speaker 1: be paid for months and months and months and months
Speaker 1: on end. It's resulted in a very unstable financial environment
Speaker 1: where people have resorted to an armed robbery. And I've
Speaker 1: seen it firsthand with myself. Every time I've gone to Nigeria,
Speaker 1: we've always gone with heavy, heavy, heavy like protection and
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's just it's unfortunate. And so in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, I guess something called the Special Anti Robbery
Speaker 1: School was formed called STARS. They were a special like
Speaker 1: a there were supposed to be a Nigerian police force
Speaker 1: unit that was supposed to combat this anti robbery.
Speaker 2: And I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1: My dad, he had not been back to Nigerian in
Speaker 1: a number of years, went with my sister Karen is
Speaker 1: driving down whatever road. Police stands in the middle of
Speaker 1: the road, tells them to pull over. Your light is out.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, it's not but okay, pulls over and
Speaker 1: says your light is out. That's going to be a
Speaker 1: fine of Let's just say, like I don't know two
Speaker 1: hundred n ira, which might be like I don't know
Speaker 1: a few dollars and he's like what no, so continues
Speaker 1: to tell him, well, well.
Speaker 2: Then you just go to jail. My dad's like okay,
Speaker 2: let's go.
Speaker 1: And I remember my sister Karen telling me this and
Speaker 1: at the time she was young, she was like eleven,
Speaker 1: she's now in her forty.
Speaker 2: Sorry, Karen, She's like.
Speaker 3: My business and there's no shot.
Speaker 1: And they took him to jail or it's either message
Speaker 1: to Karen, my sister at Lisa. Either way, they took
Speaker 1: him to jail and he sat there until he agreed
Speaker 1: to pay whatever kind of like ransom and that those
Speaker 1: were police officers I have seen firsthand. So last time
Speaker 1: that we went like as a family, my father actually
Speaker 1: hired police officers to be our armed escort so we
Speaker 1: would be pulled over and then they'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's my friend the other police officer, so we would
Speaker 1: be allowed to go.
Speaker 2: But I saw like.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, like like aka's to your car, pull over.
Speaker 2: Now I'm shooting.
Speaker 1: And it's reached a fever, a feverish peak with the
Speaker 1: SAR squad where they if you are a young person
Speaker 1: that has a nice phone or is dressed nicely, they
Speaker 1: have been stopping. People have been killed. And I actually
Speaker 1: was just what's happening with my cousin Effie and I'm Nigeria,
Speaker 1: just checking on him and seeing if he was okay,
Speaker 1: and he was like yeah, So he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm okay. I'm in Port Hardcourt that's where he lives.
Speaker 1: It's mostly in Legis in Abuja, which are two major cities.
Speaker 1: And he said, sorrows are what they are. Their activities
Speaker 1: are very notorious. They can harass you anyhow without you
Speaker 1: committing anything. If you enter into their net to bail
Speaker 1: yourself out. Sometimes you've pay over five hundred thousand k
Speaker 1: This is in naira. This might be a few hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: which is a significant amount of money, depending and some
Speaker 1: people come out to form or it's death, it's harassment
Speaker 1: and extortion.
Speaker 2: This is what he's just telling me.
Speaker 1: And he's like, people are tired of their listed activities
Speaker 1: and the protest is for the government to dissolve the unit.
Speaker 1: The last time the government agreed to reform the unit,
Speaker 1: there wasn't a proper mechanism in place. So but I'm
Speaker 1: just now looking and I was like doing some research
Speaker 1: because I wanted to post about it, and it looks like,
Speaker 1: literally as of a few hours ago, that the president
Speaker 1: has agreed to disband STARS, So we will see. Literally
Speaker 1: it says STARS has ended. The Nigerian police Force is dissolved,
Speaker 1: so we'll see there's a lot of This is why
Speaker 1: I think people in America don't understand why it is
Speaker 1: so critically important to maintain a middle class, because what's
Speaker 1: happening in Nigeria is that you have the very very
Speaker 1: rich and the very very poor. When there is no
Speaker 1: middle class, people will result, meaning those who are very
Speaker 1: very poor will result into feeding themselves and their family,
Speaker 1: oftentimes in ways that you cannot imagine. But we don't
Speaker 1: know that because we have a middle class to kind
Speaker 1: of balance out. But our current administration, the way it
Speaker 1: is structured itself, it is squeezing out the middle class.
Speaker 1: And it's so funny because it's like the middle class.
Speaker 2: That's supporting whatever.
Speaker 1: Some people are just they don't even realize that they're
Speaker 1: working against their own best interests.
Speaker 2: But okay, but yeah, so.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to, like, you know, so it's like,
Speaker 1: so we'll see. Hopefully I'm going to post some more
Speaker 1: bat it on my social because I thought to myself
Speaker 1: as a I consider myself African American, I consider myself Nigerian.
Speaker 1: I insider myself black a woman, So I posted a
Speaker 1: lot about Black Lives Matter. I can't be silent about SARS.
Speaker 1: At first, I was like, well, I don't only know much,
Speaker 1: and I was like, girl, do you know all the
Speaker 1: things about Black Lives Matter? And yet you posted so
Speaker 1: don't you know? I told myself, I'm not that's not
Speaker 1: the excuse, Tiffany. So yeah, I just wanted to share that.
Speaker 1: And if any of y'all are familiar or if any
Speaker 1: of our our listeners are actually in Nigeria or surrounding
Speaker 1: countries and you have like more kind of like on
Speaker 1: the ground, be back up of what's happening. I would
Speaker 1: love to know. Certainly tag me at the Budgetista. I
Speaker 1: want to learn more and like what the hardest part
Speaker 1: for me is, I'm not clear of what can be done.
Speaker 1: What other Nigerians are just asking is that you shared it,
Speaker 1: because in so sharing, you're shaming the government to make
Speaker 1: a move. But other than that is you know what
Speaker 1: else can we do? So that's probably my biggest I'm asking.
Speaker 1: I was just asking Iffy, my cousin, and he was like,
Speaker 1: right now, share as much as possible because right now
Speaker 1: it's forcing the government's hand because the world is watching.
Speaker 3: So yes, and it's almost like you know, America and
Speaker 3: for what it's worth, like I know there's people who
Speaker 3: are very much against the US interfering so to speak
Speaker 3: in other countries situations to come to aid or whatever,
Speaker 3: and of course we have like a not the greatest
Speaker 3: track record of doing that to anyone's benefit. That being said,
Speaker 3: I feel like if American citizens stand up and call attention,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's I feel like sometimes more powerful
Speaker 3: the same way that Nigerian citizens that seems like they've
Speaker 3: stood up and said enough, like we're not going to
Speaker 3: tolerate this anymore. Was it inspired at all, like by
Speaker 3: the Black Lives Matter movement? Because like that, so SARS
Speaker 3: has been around for nearly thirty years. Now, what do
Speaker 3: you think is changing now? Like people are rising up
Speaker 3: against it.
Speaker 1: It's funny because actually my sister Lisa, one of her professor,
Speaker 1: is one of the ones that started the movement. He
Speaker 1: has been on the ground for a long time. They
Speaker 1: actually arrested him on some bogus charges. They've since stripped
Speaker 1: him of He's out of jail after a year being
Speaker 1: held without cause, and they sent stripped him of his year. Hm.
Speaker 1: They stripped him of his passport, so he can't go anywhere.
Speaker 1: So he said, fine, if I'm stuck here, I will
Speaker 1: use social media. So what you're seeing is accumulation of
Speaker 1: his efforts and the efforts of the people who who
Speaker 1: just like him want to see a change. And so
Speaker 1: I think what helped is they saw the I don't
Speaker 1: it wasn't Black Lives Matter that made the movement happen.
Speaker 1: I think it's what it's like it helped to open
Speaker 1: the door for the movement to be heard because, like
Speaker 1: I said, I've been this, you know point Like I
Speaker 1: was like like the last time I went to Nigeria
Speaker 1: was like ten years ago, and I saw this myself
Speaker 1: with my own two So this is not a new issue.
Speaker 1: This is not something that Nigeria's have not been talking about.
Speaker 1: I just think that now it's like, Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: it's scary because there is at least some.
Speaker 2: Law in order here in some ways.
Speaker 1: But there are places like literally I saw the policeman
Speaker 1: like shoot his gun in the air and point it
Speaker 1: like at a family in a car and say stop
Speaker 1: or all of you it's I.
Speaker 2: Mean, and then what can you do? You know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like what Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's just so I think so a lot of
Speaker 1: people are afraid because you're really literally putting your life
Speaker 1: on the line some places when you protest. We we
Speaker 1: don't know, I mean we know, but we don't know
Speaker 1: that level of scariness where you know, yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: like well, I don't want to compare like, you know,
Speaker 1: struggle for struggle, but it's just a different level of Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just a different level of like what's allowed, and
Speaker 1: so I am grateful that Black Lives Matter has made
Speaker 1: Like you know, I don't want to take away from
Speaker 1: the movement of what they've done on their own, but
Speaker 1: I just think that it's emboldened this type of protest.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, so yeah, Like I said, I want
Speaker 1: to I want to share more. I want to learn more.
Speaker 1: If you guys know more, please share especially. I want
Speaker 1: to find solutions or things that people can do here
Speaker 1: and abroad to help and to be of service other
Speaker 1: than just sharing. But the sharing alone is really important.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for sharing, because I was not aware
Speaker 3: of that at all. So I learned something today.
Speaker 4: No problem, all right, Well that I believe is the show.
Speaker 4: It is another week, another week closer to elect Oh god,
Speaker 4: I hear the little one.
Speaker 3: He crawls like a sprinter, sprints like I have never
Speaker 3: seen a human move so fast on four lands and insane.
Speaker 2: These kids are fast out here in these streets.
Speaker 3: They're so fast. All right. Well, I'll take care, have
Speaker 3: a good rest of your week. Happy early voting, you too,
Speaker 3: Hi bye, y'all.