Hey, hey, hey, it's not my usual vigor. It's been a long day. How you good?
It's been a long day, and Skype is trying its earlier today.
I know. Honestly, Skype is a hater.
Skype did not want Brown Ambition to happen tonight.
But Skype lost. Brown Ambition won Whoop whoop because we're back and were black and we brown.
How was your birthday?
Honestly, it was awesome. So Superman brought me some diamond ear rings, which he was so proud. I know. He made me open them in front of everybody and like good and passed him around because I was like, when am I getting my gift? He was like later on tonight he was like waiting for more people to come. Oh. So part of the gift was also that he invited like my family and friends to the house for my actual birthday, which was really nice, and he you know,
got food. He even got like vegan food for me for my favorite vegan restaurant, and even a vegan cake. It was a chocolate moose cake that was delicious awesome. I know, I was like, look at you because once I found out at first it was going to be a little bit of a surprise, and then I think he was just kind of like, well, let me just tell her. So once I found out, you know, I try to take over and he was like, yeah, so no, I'm the project manager. You just sit back.
Not a gift though, because it's so much it's so hard to sit back.
Yeah. What I was like calling all my friends secretly like okay, girl, so you could do it for her, right, Like what did he say to brain? Okay, no, this is what you need to do. But it was great, and especially when we opened up. He was like open up the present and I could barely look at that before he took them, was like passing them around the table. I'm like, honestly, okay, sorry, no, yeah, but honestly, it was an awesome, awesome, awesome birthday.
Oh happy birthday.
Yes oooh child. So you know it's so crazy, you know how week like I talked about the and I know you got some male about that that almost rape moment that I had back when I was like in college.
Oh right, last so.
Last week on the show, we were talking about all the Harvey Weinstein stuff.
Just in case y'all.
And Tiffany, you opened up about a really strange, scary, like sexual encounter you had.
Mom?
Was that in college?
Yeah? It was like yeah, I think I had to be maybe a freshman in college and then so I wasn't rape. For those of you are like, what, so listen to the show before, but I then then to home me too. So this was relating back to kind of like what's happening now. There's this campaign going around called me Too, where women are sharing their own sexual harassment or rape or molestation or whatever that looks like.
And it's so powerful in that seeing women that I know and I'm like really seeing their stories and it's I don't know that any woman has not said basically me too. Hashtag me too. It's just been really powerful. Have you seen it?
Oh yeah, I mean how could you miss it? I mean it's sadly, how could you miss it? It seems like half the women I'm on my Facebook feed, you know, are either writing it's It's nice because it's such a simple hashtag and it leaves it leaves you with the ability to not have to say too much, like you can just say me too, but not have to expand on it. But then some of my friends and colleagues and family have been like, you know, taking an opportunity to share, you know, more details and stuff.
But yeah, it is so this is kind of I'm just like, did you see did you hear about the story about American Airlines? And uh, Tamika said, Tamika Maori this is her name. She is a No, it's Tamika, that's what it is. She's a black activist. So I guess I'm just thinking this is just coming out that, like, she was booted from an American Airlines plane. Now they have this big well she's starting kind of like a campaign, I guess against American Airlines. So apparently she tried to
switch her seat, wasn't able to. I guess a pilot overheard her going back and forth with the gate agent, so after she would seated, so I guess at a Kiosk she switched her seat from middle to aisle but it didn't take at the gate, so she was going back and forth with the gate agent like no, no, I had an aisle seat, a middle seat or whatever. The pilot overheard and I guess when she got seated, then had her removed. This is like after they she went
back and forth with the gate agent. So anyway, it's just kind of random, and I was just like, what, you would think these airlines would be more more careful these days about removing people, Like not just for me reading it now, of course I'm not hearing what American Airlines is having to say, but reading it now, it seems like so petty, but you would think that they'd be more careful with how they've been sued so many
times for improper removing people, improperly removing people. One of my friends worked for an airline, so whenever something like this happens, I always ask him, like, you know, so like what you know, did they did they follow a procedure? What could what? What they what were they allowed to do or not allowed to do? And his his insights always really interesting when he's like, oh, yeah, they totally messed up or actually that's the procedure and unfortunately just
went left. So yeah, that's airlines.
Well, I mean, it's not just the airlines, it's like the people working, you know, it's like the PR, the PR person that the airline definitely would handle it differently, but like when it's down to like the individual at the gate and like and who they're hiring and like so many.
People it is, especially you know, it's not easy. I mean, I'm not saying that American I didn't make a mistake, but customer support and service can be because you know everyone, he's just so many personalities to deal with, and you know, just managing that, like the person before might have just yelled at you. The other person is like, I'm going to get you fired, and it's just so much. Don't
even know how I mean. I guess you could say I work in customer support in some ways, and sometimes I'm like, I'm all right on the other side, Yeah, well, being on the side of like service, you know, because like you'll try to serve somebody, Yo, there is no what is that saying about? Like no good deed goes unpunished. Like literally, I could give something like, hey, guys, I'm going to give you this present. It's so great here
and it's totally free. It will change your life, and somebody will still be like it's not purple though, and I'm like, what like it? Somebody will complain about something so random of this free gift. Oh. I remember one time a woman signed up for my Live Ritual Challenge, which is completely free and it's already years in, so you know, in the beginning, I can understand people are a little sketchy about like, oh, is this really free or is it like fake free? When they're like psyche,
got you. But it's like year four now, so there's no gotcha, gotcha. And so she wanted a one on one so she emailed and me was like, hey, you know I'm doing the challenge. I have a question. Can I can I get a phone call? And I was like, you know, unfortunately, because there's so many women at this time, it was a few hundred thousand, and you know that
I can't do one on one phone call. But you police post in the group because there's literally hundreds of thousands of women and someone has the answer for you. And she wrote back, and I'll never forget this. I remember looking at the screen and blinking, Well, clearly, this is not a program for me. If you can't take the time out of your day to get on the phone to help somebody, I think I'll remove myself. I'm like from the from the free program. Like I was
thinking to myself, ma'am, I'm literally this is okay. You could leave. I'd prefer if you don't. But I'm like, it's a free problem. Why are you mad at me because I won't take a call from all three hundred thousand women who hit me up. That's why I created the group, because I kept getting so many requests to talk that I said, there has to be a way that people still get help if I can't speak to anyone individually, everyone individually, and so it's like you still
get the help for free, no matter what. And so I just remember thinking like, wow, you could do a lot of good, but there's always gonna be somebody who's going to be like, I know you gave your arm, but you didn't give you a shoulder, you know. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, the service industry.
Yes, that service industry, it can be well. I mean I'm great, so on truth, people are nice. Yeah. So I was gonna say like, yeah, I have a lot. I mean, ninety nine percent of the dream catches are honestly, it's the thing that keeps me going. But then you get that one and you're like, girl, get on my inbox.
Hey did you see the Google doodle today?
Yes?
Eelena, I didn't realize today what is it the anniversary of her very first album in nineteen What are the people what an icon there?
I know, isn't that so crazy? There's some people who's because how old was she?
She was twenty th twenty four when she died. I mean she was like a baby exactly.
And I mean I wonder what it is about some people who are who leaves such a mark on the world that they literally change it and are forever remembered, you know what I mean, Like, like what is that magic sauce that some people have, because like I'm not even like into like necessarily, like I'm not sure what you would call the music, the type like her genre music.
It was well, she started out doing tehano music, I think, and then she was crossing over into pop music.
So I'm not like, you know, but still I knew about Selena like and her impact. So it just sometimes people just leave this mark and it's in, you know, it's just forever part of the fabric of I don't know, of our culture. And that's Selena. I'm like, oh, man, like, yeah, what a beautiful young soul. And You're right, she was a baby, and it's such a shame you could use.
The Selena today. Man.
I think what she represented too, the combination of culture from Mexico to America, because you know, she was grew up in Texas, but Mexican American. But that's like a different culture than straight Mexican than straight American. And I think she represented both worlds so so great, so well, and she was like both of ours, and you know, represented like a new generation of young Mexican American immigrants.
And of course she died so young. It's also just like the fact of someone dying so young and being so bright, like Aliyah, think about Aliah when you think about Selena. But if you want to go feel some kills and have like a little pick me up, go check out the Google all you have until midnight.
Actually it's over by now.
When you're listening to this, it's like it's that it's gonna be on YouTube though no, no, it's on YouTube.
If you go to them, they had the video that they have.
Is on YouTube.
You can just you can go to.
YouTube and look up Selena Google doodle.
And the middle pop up.
Yeah. Okay, do you want to break or do you want to boost? Because I won't want to I don't know what do I want to do? Break or boost? What do you want to do. I want to.
Break well, I always get torn. I want to do a break from more money, more problems. Okay, here's the problem. I feel like I'm at that place now where we had to have a you know, we had a financial planner and she was really useful to us, especially this
last year. She was a feeling planner, and we would pay her a monthly fee for her services, and then she would she would come sometimes visit New York to meet us in person, and she would just offer a lot of advice and help us everything from comparing you know, life insurance plans to when we got married, looking at our health insurance plans and you know, recommending which one to go with, and like really helpful and and anyway, so we've had a we had a great year and
it's been really helpful, you know, having this this this planner. But it's like now it's getting to a point.
Where we have we have our.
Goals, and we have money in the bank. But she's like, you have way too much in cash. And I feel like we're becoming that millennial prophecy or like the millennial stereotype of like we keep too much in our savings because we're afraid of investing. I'm afraid of investing, but just like we're hesitant to start investing with our with our savings, our cash money. You know a note both of us max out our four to one K is
like we have no problem doing that. But other than that, it's always been we're sort of like squirling and hoarding. And I say we but really it's me. Yeah, I'm sort of like nurturing this little that's like, yeah.
Little like.
My fresh it's a white, fluffy cat.
And I'm like, what do you mean there's too much?
Yes, oh my god, that must be the millennial like because I'm like, I'm generation is an X, right, is that what it is? Right before millennial? Yes, But I'm like on the I'm like I said generation yes, but I'm like a super like I'm on the young side of Generation X and that so I have a lot of millennial tendencies and that is so me. I've got a little stockpile for when the wear from the one the war comes, right, I'm ready, you know, I have so much cash sitting My financial advisor just looked at
me like, Tiffany, what are you doing. I'm like, I don't know because I am afraid to invest. I'm not gonna lie. I do. I have my I have my you know, my my retirement fund set up, so the superman. But there there is a part of me that it's really afraid to like not see the stockpile, you know, like no, no, because when the war comes and if recession hits, I'm ready. You know, I got my gold bars underneath the bed. So no, I totally feel you.
One of the things that she she gave us a plan, an action plan, because she gave us an action plan last month, and I've been really like procrastinating and actually doing it. But it's actually a plan on how much. So a lot of we've gotten this question before.
You know, after your four oh one.
K, what are you supposed to do with everything else that you earn over your lifetime? And you know you're blessed to earn money beyond that point, but like, what are you supposed to do with it? How is the best way to invest? And she's sort of had I mean, everyone's situation is different, but she started off by asking us our goals, which is one we want to we want to save a down payment for a house. I guess in my mind, I've just been stockpiling, stockpiling, stockpiling.
I live in New York City, so I'm like, oh, I don't know how much it's going to be enough for house a million dollars. I guess I'll never stop saving.
But that's not actually true. She you know, crunched the numbers. We actually, you know, for our budget.
We decided how much we actually needed to save for a down payment realistically, and then how much we have left over when we're going to want to use that down payment money, how much we actually want to budget for our annual vacationing and those larger expenses that we spent throughout the year.
That was pretty much our only big or two big earmarks for savings.
One for the retire sorry, one for a down payment on a house, and two for annual vacations and trips because we have, you know, vacations and also like seventy five weddings to go.
To a year.
Now, outside of that, she's like, you really don't end your emergency fund, of course, which is you know, we have about six months of income, she suggests a six months.
I like to keep twelve.
But we're going back and forth on that maybe we'll settle on nine after that. So one is obviously emergency fund, two the down payment for the house, three the vacations. So once you have that set aside, she's like, now with this extra money. And in my mind, I hadn't been letting myself spee it as extra. I'd sort of been, like I said, just tricking or like telling myself that I needed to save all this money for the down
payment when I don't really need to. And she's like, Okay, we're gonna start by create investing in some CBS, which is like a baby step above sea.
Yeah, and that's what See he told me that to Frank. Okay, I'm listening it. I'm like, oh, Frank said that, Okay, okay.
So CDs for you guys. So CDs was a CD was the.
Thing that my grandma bought me when I was born. And it's like a certificate and I literally got like this pink certificate check like thing when I turned eighteen. And I don't even know where that thing ended up, I think, But anyway, a certificate of deposit is just it's basically a savings account with some more rules and it has slightly higher rates than what you'll get on a savings account, a regular old savings account today.
And the longer you keep your money.
In a CD they sell three month CDs, six months CDs, nine month, twelve month, five years, on and on, and the longer you keep your money in, the higher your rate can be. The caveat is that that time limit is if you take the money out before that time limit three months, six month, twelve month, you'll pay a penalty for withdrawing the funds. So it really has to be money that you're not going to use anytime soon
or anytime within that window. And of course the higher the longer you put the money away for the higher your reward. So she suggested, you know, putting a small chunk into a five year CD, putting a little bit of a larger chunk into like a I think a three year CD, and then putting an even larger chunk into a one year CD and letting the money grow there.
And then from there she suggested opening up one both of us opening up an i RA outside of our four one K investments, and under I r S rules were both allowed to contribute what is it, fifty five hundred into an IRA oh really.
Even after you've maxed that, Even if you've maxed that, your your four one K.
Yeah, this is outside of your employer contribution, your four one k. This is your personal individual retirement account.
Okay.
And and you know, I actually already have one because I had like a rollover iray from before through Vanguard. That's kind of just sitting there and I can contribute, I can can keep I can just contribute fifty five hundred dollars to that for the year. And then my husband he doesn't have one yet, so opening up him and IRA and I know the next question people are wonding is like, well, where do you open an IRA at?
But you can do it at Vanguard. We can get a betterment account if we wanted to do TD and error trade. Charles Schwab. There's a bunch of discount they call them discount.
Brokerages or whatever.
That are out there, and they typically have like a minimum deposit, you know, requirement of like I don't know, five hundred bucks to one thousand bucks. And anyway, that was the next step is opening up those roth iras and putting money in there.
So she she a financial advisor that she's advising and she's going to do this, or she's like a plane, she's not.
Doing it, she's toe that's the That's why I'm from procrastinating because I have to actually do it anyway. So and I had her, you know, send the email with the whole plan. And there's other things too, like of course maxing out the four one Okay, here's here's the thing that I've learned about. So I've been you know, I've been talking about personal finance for so long. You know how you hear those like rules of thumb and you just like repeat them and then you're like, oh,
that's always been the way it is. You know, whether it's saved six months retire or save six months emergency fund or save ten percent for retirement. I always hear this rule every year at the end of the year. There's all these articles that come out saying end of year text or end of your financial planning advice.
And the first thing is.
Usually max out your four one K if you have additional funds or you get a bonus or whatever. And our planner says, you know, your income has increased throughout the year, you haven't been contributing, You're not going to max out your four to one case, you've got to boost your contributions to your four to one K to make sure you max it out before the end of the year. Now it's easier said than done, is what
I've realized. Like, it's not like your four to one K through your employer tells you when you've maxed out your account. You have to actually do the math and be like, I mean, some of them might do that, but mine doesn't. You have to actually say, Okay, well, i have year. What month is it October? I've got three months more in the year.
I've got six pay periods, so I've got to figure.
Out how much how much more I have to get to my limit, which is eighteen thy five hundred that's how much anyone who has a four to one K
can contribute for the year, the tax year. How much I can contribute to hit that mark, and then divide it by the six pay periods and then go into my retirement planner, my direct deposit, you know, back end stuff on my employee website and change my contributions and then you have to really watch it because if you go over then you can get penalized work by the IRS. So it's like trickier and more complex. Then it's just
one of those rules that I always hear about. And so I'm actually doing the thing that I feel like people have been asking, you know, what do you do when you've like, you got your retirement kind of covered, you played at your debt, and like, now what to do with the money. And That's That's what I'm doing. It's what I should be doing. Anyway, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. It's done, it's done, it's done. I did do the increase your four win K and contributions.
What a racket, though, I'm like, why do I feel like I'm still broke because I'm putting like half my paycheck away? Yeah?
Yeah, I remember those days where I used to be like, but then you try to tell yourself, well, you're not really broke, You're like what, I feel like I'm broke?
Yeah, it's fine, We're doing fine.
But it does feel kind of like, well, what do you mean I have to I can't, I can't have it.
But yeah, we've rune max of the four one k for the year.
I'm going to open the CDs. I think I've picked I think I've picked I mean, honestly, with CDs, it's really just like pick the ones that give you the highest rates. So there's a great website called the Positi Accounts dot Com. It's really nerdy, but if you're looking to just really compare CD rates to posit Accounts dot Com,
you can't go wrong. They're actually our sister site under lending Tree, and they are like they have I mean, I just got briefed on like the technology that they use to scrape banks for their rates, and they will find rates everywhere. So that's where I'm like comparing rates. And ally Bank has a no penalty CD. Those do exist where okay, you put it away and you actually won't get penalized if you take it out. They have a no penalty I think eleven month CD, which isn't bad.
And there's there's other ones that I'm kind of looking at.
I think I might. I might.
I don't know if I'm gonna do all my cvs in one place or not. It kind of depends on I'm not sure how how much I can tolerate managing accounts at like a bunch of different banks right now, which seems like a lot of work. But anyway, I'm gonna try, and I'm gonna I'm gonna do what she says.
I'm cramp it up.
I'm gonna I'm going I'll feel better because honestly, it's right, it's logical. Like the money you have sitting in your savings account, even if it's earning the maximum right now, it's.
Still losing because inflation is eating up anything that you might be earning. Yeah, so I know, and you know how you know that, I mean, I know that. And for those of you, like what's inflation, Inflation is that the cost of money lowers each years, Like so thanks for yourself. Like when you used to get a bag of chips when you were a kid, and maybe those chips cost twenty five cents, and by the time you're an adult, those same chips your money can do less.
Those same chips cost fifty cents, And so inflation means over time your money can do less. Basically, so the same thing costs more and more money. And so that means if you are saving and your money is growing at one percent, but inflation, so your money is growing, but inflation is actually lowering your money's buying power by three percent, you're actually gaining one but losing three, so you're losing two. So if you do the math, so hopefully that explains it. So my brown boost break is
going to be a break. I had something else, like something about the house just because I'm so over this process, but whatever, Hopefully by next time we speak, I'll be in the house. But I was just like whatever, So instead I'm gonna brown boost from because it's happened. A couple of clients have reached out to me to work with me and then totally trying to undercut and I'm like, I'm not like what, and so it's just I just saw I just saw this like thing scroll across my timeline.
I said, the hookup is a drain on black entrepreneurs. Charge folks and they will respect you more. And so this is not necessarily the hookup because you know these are like bigger companies whatever. But I just don't like that because one, you know, I've worked really hard to bring like clear value to the table. I could see like when I was first starting out, and I was like, well,
you know it's a long shot. No, I want I over deliver, and I when I'm showing the numbers, I'm always conservative, and even then it always exceeds like what clients are typically looking for, and they'll admit that like ooh yes, girl, that's way more than we thought. And that's still I will still undershoot because I'd rather overdeliver.
And then when you tell them a number which is more than reasonable, more like like it's the industry standard because I've you know, asked around and I know this is what colleagues are getting or whatever. So I love that we have our own like financial groups online because people will ask and I'll know and then they're like, oh no half that I'm like, are you kidding me?
And so that's happened a couple of times. But you know what, this is what I realized that it's one of the reasons why I'm so glad that my business model is not I want to say my mom, maybe twenty five percent of my business model is working with clients, meaning like companies or whatever want to work for. Everything else for the most part is B two C, meaning
like directly to the customer. So when that happens, like lately I've been walking away from it's not that the number that they're giving me is not a lot of money. Because it is relative to what I used to make before, but it's not fair compensation for the ask, especially me knowing what the industry number is and me even knowing
sometimes what you're paying other people. So that is my roundbreak because it's honestly, it's frustrating because I'm like, really, because that's fine what you pay such as such, even though they probably not supposed to tell me, so I'm like whatever, but still I'm still like or like what you know, like I can deliver or I've delivered before,
and you're still trying to tell me like this. So I've just been saying no, no, and I never said no before because I'm like, oh, Tippy, that's still good money, girl.
But I'm like, you know what for twenty eighteen, one of the things I really want to focus on because I learned, like, even when before I started dating Superman, I remember calling a friend of mine who was married and she too was like an influencer and had her own business, and she was she was she had just had a baby, and I was calling her and I was like, I'm tired of being by myself and she was like, well, do you make a relationship a priority?
And I was like, what do you mean. She's like, Tiffany, I know you go hard for your business, but are you going hard for your love life? And I was like, well, girl, I mean I look cute when I go out. She's like, do you go out? I'm like, I mean no, I did not go out. She's like, so unless you're dating a ups guy, which there's no harm in that, Like, where are you going to find this magic person? You have to make the thing that you want a priority, just like you make your business a priority. And so
I did, and voilat Superman. We's bury Now. So all y'all know that I want a little bambino or Bambina, And so for twenty eighteen, I told myself that I'm going to make that a priority. And so as a result, I'm really learning to say no to things that are not in alignment. Well one I've said I say no to things that are not emotionally in alignment or not
alignment with my values. But now I'm learning to say things like because I'm I have to make time for like taking care of myself, relaxing so I can be, you know, a vessel for a beautiful baby, a healthy vessel for a beautiful baby. So I am not settling myself short anymore because I'm like, why you know, And so it's just bothered me because it's happened a couple of times and I'm like, what the heck. So I'm just like, no, girl, kick rocks and if they come back,
they do. If they don't. The good thing about like I said, the way my company is set up is most of my income comes from treating their dream catcher as well. And as long as I do that, I'll never be broke. So yeah, so it's just but it's just and.
There's nothing with that either. Yeah, it's honestly the only way to do. You just can't focus on everything one hundred percent. And yeah, sometimes you gotta tip the scale in a different direction.
Exactly, and so yeah, that's it. I mean, like, so it's just so good. So that's why I even like now, I always think to myself when I'm working with other vendors, like in the beginning, when I was like broke, I used to really like negotiate hard, and I really try like not to unless I really think the vendor is like bugget, I'm like, girl, that's not what it goes for because I you know, I know what it's like to be the company. You know, so that you're like
wanting to pay. So either I am willing to pay the vendor or I'm not. So like, unless the vendor is literally asking for something ridiculous. You're like a flyer doesn't go for three thousand dollars girl, right, But unless it's something crazy, then either I pay the vendor. I don't because I think it's wrong to try to like undercut people. You know. That's my brown break. Now it's time for all your questions from the brown brown break,
I mean brown ambition inbox. That didn't go smoothly as I was holding you know what I was, claud you had good weeks before I did. I'm like, y'all just gonna have to give you that one.
You're a little stumble Honestly, I leave all the segways up to you. I really should chip in every once in a while.
Bab it's like, oh, that love it, that she enjoys it?
All right? What's the some question, y'all? I love our questions. We always get good ones. Oh where if you can send questions to? Where again you can send them to?
You can go to Brown Ambition Podcast dot com dot com and click on ask us anything, or you can just go right to the source and send us an email at Brianambition Podcast at gmail dot com. Come all right, So we have a question from someone with an awesome name. Her name is Tyranny. It's Tiffany but without instead of FS it's ours.
But no, Tyranny just found so powerful like Tyranny.
So Tyranny actually has a question about investing. She say, I enjoy your podcast and I feel like I have girlfriends in my car while commuting to work and back home.
Hey girl.
Says, thanks for providing. Okay, I'm not going to read all the praise, but it's nice. Thank you Tyranny. Onto my question. I recently downloaded and signed up for the Acorns investment app. It's been about four months since the app has been investing my spare change. The app is taking twenty dollars a month from my account in addition to using my spare change to invest. Do you have any advice on how to grow this account faster? How do I get the greatest return on my investment?
Oh?
Hello, husband calling during this show. Do you have any advice on how to grow this account faster? How do I get the greatest retch turn on my investment? And is this app really worth it?
Thanks?
So I actually have the Acorns app?
Have you?
Do you have the Acorns app?
Mandy?
I started an account, but then I ignored it, like I said, I have issues, But.
I remember you talked about this before. You've had an account for a while.
Right, yeah, And let me tell you, I'm the worst because I put my money in cash and I meant to invest it, and why a year and a half later, it's Mandy, I forgot because I guess I must have transfer two hundred dollars and I said, okay, I'm gonna this will be play money that I will invest. And then I didn't until I don't know somebody. I guess somebody.
I must have had a link somewhere someone signed up under like my link and it sent me like a little notification like hey, your friend Mandy signed up with your link, and I'm like, what is this? So I click on it and it's because right now they're giving away free stock. So if someone sends signs up under your link, they'll give you free stock, so they like pick your stock, And I was like what and it was like, I'm like, what's this two hundred dollars I
never invested in? Well, it's there, so I'm not even gonna lie I have it, although I cannot tell you if I mean I have gained money only because from just basic like I guess, I don't know, like interest, but and then like that little stock is going up like two percent or something like that. But from what I think, and I told myself I was going to do this with the two hundred, I believe you can. I don't know if you have to. If you have
to pick your stocks. I think you can increase how much money that you put in, and I believe you can. And you can kind of like fix your investment portfolio to be more aggressive. You can try that, don't You have.
To do a quiz and then it kind of gives you a portfolio according to your tolerance for risk. And if you yeah, Cross is too afraid to really take risks, and it's not going to put your money in as much in the market, it's not going to put as much in stocks, and then you may see limited returns because of that. So that could be the problem. Maybe you should maybe you should. You can readjust how you're
allocating your assets. So with acorns, they don't give you as long as I as long as I understand acorns, they don't give you so much control over like like picking your your investments, which is a good part, Like you shouldn't. That's why people like it because they don't
have to do so much work. But you could take the quiz again and give yourself like try and be a little brave when you make when you answer those questions, because the more you can show them that you're tolerant to taking risks and that you want big rewards, they will put your money into investments that have the potential to get higher rewards. And on the downside, you may see your money dip every once in a while because
the market can be more volatile. It's a stock market, you know, one company, like someone finds a piece of glass and a Starbucks cup in the stock falls, like you know, that's just kind of how the cookie crumbles.
Oh, I just and I'm in here now because I said, you know what, why is it keeping in here? Okay, So if you go to your investment profile, there's something literally that says goal and I had goal preserve my savings. So that's what they're like, well, girl, we just got to keep here in this savings account. So I just
clicked on growth. It's literally just a button, and then it says timeline, and then you can say it says experience, like so I chose not much and so and then ask you stuff like what's your risk tolerance and what's your liquidity? Like how important is liquidity to you? Very important? And liquidity is basically having cash on hand. So I've
now just chosen somewhat important. So now based upon that, it'll it'll start to invest my two hundred dollars, like okay, like grow some of my money, don't just keep it in savings, Like I have a like a mid range risk tolerance, and you know that my I'm like middle of the road as far as keeping things liquid, meaning like okay, I can have some cash at hand, but
I want you to invest most of it. So now hopefully you know, we can check back in next week and I can tell you how my how my two hundred dollars that I've done nothing with this is now doing.
That's a pretty low balance.
And I also Acorns charge is one dollar a month for their accounts I'm on there. I just want to I wanted to double check because I know these companies always change your fees, but they charge one dollar a month if you have less than five thousand dollars saved up, or you have a balance of less than five thousand dollars in your account. And if she's only it's only been four months and she's been putting twenty bucks in plush, their change, she might have one hundred bucks in there
and she's paid them four dollars. I mean that's a four percent investment fee. Yeah, paying which is you know, on the one hand, you don't you can open up account with a very small balance and they do a lot of the work for you, but that's going to
be eating into your returns as well. To consider that, so I would say, yeah, in addition to, like like Tiffany said, changing your profile, changing your goals, trying to whatever whatever you can do to get them or to put your you know, money in a bit more risky investment, not risky, but yeah, I mean I know you aggressive aggressive, Yeah, aggressive investment.
That can help. Also just contributing.
More, you know, more money. Yeah, it's going to increase your odds of you know, more money makes more money, you know.
Ratcheting up your savings.
But I also feel like if you're only putting that little in, just don't be so impatient, like just yeah, you know, hopefully hopefully you're not using this to say to like make to make you know a bunch of money so you can turn around and buy a house or something like that, because you're not going to get
there realistically, you know, at twenty bucks a month. I think Acorns is good, Like Tiffany said, like with your extra money that you you know, don't want to just leave sitting in savings, but you don't really need it necessarily, and you just want to, you know, be investing in something a little bit more lucrative than a regular savings if from on the side and agree where it fits in.
Okay, So yeah, I'm a check in Now I'm excited. I'm like, oh, let's say this two hundred dollars smack. I can't believe it's literally been like a year. But I was like, wait, I've got money here.
Just lose just losing track of checks. What what a wonderful life and must.
Be because you know what it is, because whenever dream catchers ask me about about like, you know, like an app or whatever. Well, one, I haven't endorsed Acorns because I said, let me, let me use it, so I signed up, but then clearly I did not do my full due diligence. So I've never endorsed it because I feel like if I, if I haven't done my full due diligence, I don't feel comfortable saying hey, it's awesome because I don't know, you know, And so I signed up so that way at least I could vet it.
But then clearly I forgot because I have the memory of a eighty year olds and so yeah.
It's only good if you actually will use it exactly.
So yeah, I can no law, I cannot. I cannot say Achorns is awesome, We're terrible. I have clearly not used it.
Well enough, all right, let's take one more questions one. So first, she commented on we talked about that. I talked about that tipping video last week that was posted on Yeah, was that the fusion Fusions facebook page? I posted on ours the history of tipping. She just mentioned that, Oh, one of my favorite YouTube series, Adam's Adam Ruins Everything. Yes, yes, apparently he did one of the history of tipping and the history of suburbs. So she just recommended I might
post a link to that in the show notes. But here's her question. It's an interesting one. So she's married. She says, my husband and I are established in our careers and we have good jobs doing what we love. He's a physician's assistant and I'm a college professor. We earn great salaries and are able to meet our monthly expenses, save and give.
Between the two of us.
We have a few credit cards after getting into trouble in my twenties, I'm now forty and completing the liverat or Challenge, Live Rich, or Academy Credit Challenge. I'm really on top of the way that I use my credit card. My wonderful husband is a little more liberal in his usage with a credit card frequency and amount, and I recently learned that he added me as an authorized user on his card. While I charge small amounts and pay off my card each month, he doesn't always do the same.
This means that it may take a few months to pay off the balances that he racks up. While I've heard you and Tiffany talk about the benefits of being an authorized user on an account of a person with great credit. What happens when the person's credit score isn't as high as yours? Does my credit score suffer? And beyond having a conversation with husby, what should I do? Should I remove myself from his account? And won't this
also lower my credit score? Well, if you use my question on Eric like to remain anonymous, sorry, I will edit this question and you will not hear your name. You will hear this though, because that's funny.
Yes, that is okay, Lily, Okay. So one, it's not supposed to if you're if you're an authorized user and you're not the one actually using the card, it's not supposed to lower your credit score. It's supposed to only you're supposed to only improve, but not lower. But you want to make sure that that's what's actually happening. So what it's, Well, this is what I mean from like my my my friends that are credit experts. I mean I find myself I dabble in credits, but I don't
find myself as a credit expert. But I from what I've asked, it's that let's just say your husband is late, you're an authorized user, but not a co it's a co sign. No, what is the other word? Yes, so authorized user. It's different than a joint user. Joint like so meaning like you guys have equal responsibility. That's different. So meaning like his name, my name, Like me and Superman we have a joint bank account, so we're both
equally responsible. But it's responsible yeah, well and so, but as an authorized user, they hold the primary responsibility and instead what you're supposed to do is, yes, that it's supposed to make it look good if you're connected to the account, but it's not supposed to harm you if they're not making completely wise choices. But I mean, like I said, I would look to make sure that that, like you know, like it's not showing up on my credit report, because you can get that removed if it does,
because it's not supposed to. I think the bigger issue here is like husband not using his credit cards. I guess as wisely as you'd like. And so maybe Mandy, I could tell you, like, this is what me, me and Superman finally figured it out. I'm like, we figured it out, well, we figured out how we want to work our money. We've been married now since June. I'm like, wait,
June July, I'm the worst. Anyway. We've been married for a while, not a long while obviously, but we've been married for a few months, and we've both been back and forth with how do we want to do the money?
How do we want to do the money? Because we honestly didn't have mixed money outside of we had a joint savings account that we used to travel with, and so we decided, well, I listen, he actually made the decision that he wanted me to take his check, which I'm like, I could do that, and we were going to live off his income and then with my money we save and invest, and so we're going to live off one income. And the way it's going to look is how I already don't do the bills anyway for myself,
is that with his money we paid bills bills. We also we just opened up a joint checking account, and that joint checking account is for what I call joint household non bills, so meaning like basically like food shopping and stuff like that. So there's a debit card at home, so when you go food shopping, I've already made the transfers and so you could take that that joint our joint debit card to go food shopping and do household expenses that are not bills, and then we have a
joint bills account that we pay bills out of. So I don't know if your husband would be open to combining your resources in a way where you can be responsible for paying off or paying bills like that. So that way, since he's not paying on time, that you can make sure they're paid on time if if you're being more responsible. It's kind of something you have to talk to him about. But that's something that and I'm not saying that this is definitely gonna work because we're
just needed that. We literally just open up a joint account last weekend, so we're trying to see and work out how do you and in your boo do it Mandy? As far as money, well, you know we.
Have the exact same she's going through right now.
Well, one just just to.
Recap when you're an authorized user, their positive behavior will help your score, not all and most most of the time the credit A lot of times credit card companies don't report negative behaviors, so it won't drag down your score necessarily. That's if you're a joint account holder. That's when you're both sort of dragging each other up or down. Yes, okay, correct, Yeah, so we have the same issue where I was way better.
I was just like I mean, for me, I trained myself to if I saw a balance, I just paid off whatever my statement balance was, and I knew if it was higher than what I could afford, it was bad news bears, and I was messing up somewhere. And then I you know, it took me a couple of years. It just always seemed like my husband, then boyfriend, and fiance always had credit card debt, and I was like, how are you always having the same like a.
Little bit of credit card debt? It seems to never.
Go away, And it always really really bothered me. And honestly, one of the one of the ways we nipped that in the bud was we got a financial planner, and that unlocked a lot of the awkwardness of having that conversation because we thought about it. You know, he didn't want to.
Tell me about his debt.
I wanted to know everything. I thought it was the only way for us to be successful is for me to know how much debt he had and create a plan to pay it down and whatever. He was like, I want to manage it. It's my problem, blah blah blah. When we got a financial planner, we had a third party in the mix, and all of a sudden, I know, I'm sitting in the back like you know, evilly, you know, with light fingers together, like, oh, I'm going to find
it all the tea, now, all the dirt. It wasn't that bad, but he became more comfortable when we had all the cards out on the table, kind of showing me exactly, you know, showing each other where our money was going and whatnot. And with her help, we decided that if he was really, if he was, he was very sure that he wanted to tackle the debt on his own. It wasn't very much. I think it was
like two thousand dollars or something like that. He was going to do it the smart way, which instead of just making his little monthly payments as much as he could every month, he was going to transfer the balance to a zero a zero percent balance transfer card, and he was going to really pay it off before that balance before the promotional period ended, which was twelve months.
And then that that gave me peace of mind because at least I knew then he wasn't racking up interest charges, because in my mind, I was like, well, I want this guy just let me pay off his debt for him and just be done with it, you know. But for him it was a point of pride. So the balance transfer was a really good compromise.
He had zero percent.
I wasn't worried about interest charges, and he could pay it off himself and you know it. And he was like, he was being true to himself and he was doing it the way he wanted. And that's how we handled that, And since then it has we've been much more transparent.
We select, okay, we.
Have specific cards that we use for specific purposes, and use one or Chased Reserve card for all of our restaurants and eating out purchases, joint purchases. We use one AMEX card for all of our grocery shopping, and we both know to use that. And then we both have our Chase or whatever bank account checking and we spend our checking however we want to use it, you know. And I pay the bills off mostly because it's just some of those two credit cards. I pay those bills off myself.
It takes time. I mean it took a while, like, oh my gosh. The other day, like I've been dating Sumn for like I don't know, maybe three and a half four years now, and so it took a while. Another day he looked at me and he was like, you know what, I agree. When it came to some money choice, I nearly wept. I was like, oh my god, because I have been working on him forever, you know, and so it takes some time. And I had to
learn to stop being such a bully about it. I could be a little bully myself because you know, like really trying to force his hand like no, this is the best way, because one I learned that my way wasn't always the best way, and two I had to honor that he has a he has a way too. When he came up with the let me give you my check thing, I was like, wow, this was that's actually really I had this other intricate thing in mind.
And when we sit down and we did our bills together, we already live under what he brings in, and so I was like, well, this is perfect because we're already living under you know, we're already living basically within the means of being able to live off your check, why not do so officially? So that way, and when I know what he loves about that is that one, he's the head of the household, you know that he's like, okay, I paid the bills. You know. It gets him that
kind of like feeling, which is nice, you know. And then two it's you know, it gives me this feeling of safety and security in that let's just say something happens with my businesses, the truth of the matter, risk we're still fine, you know. So I like that feeling because it allows me to grow without fear of can we afford our life?
You know, that's so true.
I think it's really smart to base your lifestyle on the lower earner. And I get really nervous. I have gotten really nervous to really try to avoid as one of us, you know, as our incomes change and go in different directions that were not upgrading the lifestyle just
because one of us earns more. Because I'm paranoid, you know, I have the same sort of fear you do about what if something happens to the higher earner, and then there's you know, and then your your lifestyle is no longer you can't support it and then you just have all those issues. That's that's my nightmare.
Mm hmmm. And so yeah, because it is a scary thing of like cause you know, like, yeah, there's that book, was it? Do we talk about the book for Elizabeth Warren before she was a senator? I wrote a book about living off one income. I can't remember the name of it.
Oh, it's called I remember you told me she wrote a personal finance book and I didn't believe he yes.
And it was actually really good. It was about living off what it's called the lie, the income lie or something like that. But it's about living off one income. And I think if you know, it's not possible for everyone, but if you can get as close as possible to living off the lower earner's income, the better.
Yeah. And sometimes it's good to feel a little broken.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Plus it's nice, you know, especially.
As you know, within reason.
But the reason, yes, don't send your baby to school with like holes in their.
Shoes exactly because nobody has stopped for that. Anybody got top through it.
Thanks for your question, Lily.
Yes, we have some good questions. If you have questions, please send them to Brown Ambition Podcast dot com and click ask us anything, or you can email us at Brown.
Ambition Podcast dot gmail dot com.
Whoa I know, look at me, because you know, I'm like, maybe likes it. She'll do it. Give it to baby, she'll do it. It's like the kick commercial. Give it to Mikey, he'll eat it.
I'm glad we're getting out of our rut. Yeah you assumes, yeah, exact.
Well in that case, how about some winds? Winds winds on this Wednesday?
Ooh, look at you. Okay, I'm not gonna lie. I'm still thinking about my win. You go.
My win is so excellent. I haven't even told you about this yet.
So here's what happened.
Was y'all know, I went on this great vacation last week for my art, my husband's cousin's wedding, and the Dominican Republic. It was beautiful, gorgeous, so relaxing, amazing. I come back.
I'm already on Monday morning.
I'm like, I'm going to show up to the office at eight o'clock. I am going to get my work done. I'm gonna get caught up. I'm gonna do amazing things before my first meeting at nine point thirty. I show up and I'm like, where's my laptop at though? And I start thinking immediately. I'm like, okay, I've shown up to the office before without my computer like a dummy, and I have to go back home and get it and come back. But then I'm like, wait a second,
I left straight from work to the airport. Did not have my laptop with me on vacation. I know it's here. And then I look around. Nobody's desks has have laptops on them. We all have our laptops at our desk at all times.
And I'm like, oh, shiyst.
And long story short, our office was robbed. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely definitely robbed. They took four They took three laptops, so luckily a couple of our employees. One took hers home over the weekend, the other one was out of town and had hers, and then they just didn't happen to see my boss's laptop underneath some papers. But yeah, they walked away with three laptops, including mine and a brand new one we had just ordered for a new hire,
like out of the box. Yeah, it's crazy. I've never had I mean, you always kind of like hear about you know, office break ins and you know whatever, but it's never happened to me before.
And it was it was really creepy.
That is creepy. How don't gotta win?
No, I was. It was a win. It was a win for insurance.
I think that I'm gonna I'm gonna spin this into a win for the power of insurance because well, one, you know, as a business, I think it's good to protect yourself and like ninety five money and lending Tree have lost prevention for this type of thing, but the same thing can happen so easily in your personal life, and I think it's important another reminder why it's important to have renters insurance or some form of homeowners insurance.
I don't know about homeowners, but when my brother's car was broken into and he lost his laptop during college, his renter's insurance policy replaced it immediately without any even though it didn't happen is in his apartment. So the damage to us really wasn't that as bad as it would have been had we not had that protection and insurance in place. So that's my win, and I'm going to update my Renter's insurance policy now that I'm thinking about it, because I don't.
Know if they know I live in as you know. Okay, I'll all have to fix that.
But in a win for the finest New York City Police Department who stayed in our office inexplicably for six hours all day. Oh chilling, just chilling, and shout out to the robber who didn't.
Have a bag to take the laptops away in.
So they dumped out a ridiculous like you know how you go to conferences and you get goodie bags. Yes, so our co founder Nick he got this ridiculous like pink flowery vera Bradley tote bag the giant ones like they sell at TJ Max from a conference, and they dumped everything out of it and took the loot in this like pink flowery fever Bradley bag. So I'm just waiting for them to find that security footage.
Yeah, it's just that lazy, like I mean, yeah, well, robber's hopefully your time is limited. So my win actually comes directly from our Facebook page. Brad Ambission, I forgot I shared this, so President and first Lady, I mean, well whatever, yes, I'm claiming them President first Lady from Barack Obama have chosen one of my favorite artists of all time and another young woman who I'm not familiar with, but I'm sure she's dope to paint their official portraits.
So you know, every president and first Lady have they have official portraits. And so what I love is he chose this African I believe it's Nigerian artist named K. I'm gonna say his name wrong, and every Nigerian is gonna roll their eyes. Okay, Khindi Wiley, Khindi, Khindi, Khindi. Oh, I'm sorry that Jan Massive, I'm sorry. And Amy Ryls so Amy I believe is African American as well. And
k Hindi his artwork is so beautiful. Actually posted this picture once I had gone to I think it was Brooklyn Museum, and he has this bust of a woman who her hair is braided. It's like three busts of women and their hair kind of like meets in the middle. And I swear that the woman's face because she could have been my sister. So I took a picture of myself to it, and I said, I came in search of beauty and I found myself or something to that effect.
It was so beautiful. His work is so beautiful, and it really highlights all the beauty that's in the brown and black diaspora. And so I love the fact that you know that they that they chose their their portrait. I just that's huge, you know, And so yeah, I cannot wait. So and he's the one you remember for Khindi.
He's the one you remember those huge oversized portraits of like you would see of black men in like tins and whatever, but they were postured like these like these old European portraits, like if you go to the Mets and like, you know, you see like these like European portraits of people like on horses or like they're all like formal or whatever. So he would paint African American men in like their regular street clothes but with this like very austere background. Like yeah, and they're huge, I
mean when I say huge, Lord of Ceiling. So you have to go see I've seen it, I think, did I see that the Met or the I believe I've seen his work either at the Met or at the Brooklyn Museum. But it was beautiful, and I remember just being stunned. So that's a win for you, young brother and sister. He's my Facebook friend only because you know I request. I always request random people on Facebook Friends. I'm totally a Facebook yes, like if you if you right?
Oh my god, my friend Sarah is so amazing. She just got such and such from Force magazine. I'm like, you mean my friend Sarah, Hey, girl.
That person.
I'm like, I want to say my circle. I want to feel the vibes, and I would say I have a good forty percent rate of like acceptance. I'm like, yes, me and Sara are friends now. And if I can't like, sometimes Basebook will say, Tippy, you have too many friends. I will own friend a friend that's not carrying their weight and be like, girl, you're out. Sarah's in. Oh my gosh, I'm the worst. Anyway, it's been awesome as usual.
Did this episode feel different to you?
What in a bad way and a good way?
In a good way?
Do you realize this is a one hundredth episode? Oh my god, I remembered, and then I forgot. Well you mentioned I meant to mention at the beginning.
Of the show.
We're just an old married couple.
Now old married podcast couple Forgetting Our Wow one hundred half of Verse one hundred episode of Versary.
I can't remember what I person met you, Maddy. Weren't you working at I don't think we just spoke on the phone. You're working at Yes, and you did an interview, and I remember I was so excited, like, oh my god, I'm famous.
Now, and then we were and everything happened for you.
Right, I was not famous then I was like what okay? And then you I met you at Think and I was like, wow, I like her in real life. And we took like a long walk like it was like, yo, we really corded, we really recording. Remember, we were like, you know what, let's get the the Finn contestivities. Let's just take a long walk on the byo. And I think you were talking to me about husband at the time, but he wasn't husband and my superman at the time.
If he wasn't my husband, Yo, look how far we've come. We've got married. Maddy has gone natural. Oh my goodness, there's somebody right. I started a new business, you started a new job. I mean, so many things have happened.
I'm pregnant, just kidding.
I right. Hopefully you know next podcast. But yeah, that's awesome. Thank you guys for listening our hundredth episode.
Thank you for wanting a hundred episodes. Because I remember not even knowing if this was.
A good idea. I just knew I really wanted to do it, and y'all who told me no?
And I was like, I'm a dude anyway, and I was gonna help.
I was like, okay, I was even sure what the podcast was and I was like, okay, yes, And I have to say that if you want to congratulate us on our hundredth episode, can you please leave review on iTunes? Yeah?
Can you give us as a gift on our episode aversary?
Please leave with the review. That'd be awesome.
Even if you have already you know, sign in from your husband's account, here's your mom, she doesn't use it.
Just just leave with the review saying how you know how you feel, which is awesome about us? Clear when you're listening, that's you, Jamal, Jamal, have you left a review? I know we pick on you, but you know, just I'm just saying, Jamal needs to tell a friend.
Everybody tell a friend,