And we're back forth the b a q a q A, the b a q q the b q A. I wish you guys could see it's me and Mandy like we're like bopping heads.
The b a q A. All right.
We called the b a q A because it's Brown Ambition Question and Answer.
We do it every Friday for y'all.
You guys have amazing question owned so much so we had that to do a whole nother show for it. So if you have questions before we start, make sure you send them to us at brand Ambision Podcast at gmail dot com.
Right, is that a question? Yes? Correct? Correct?
I got it? Ding ding ding, all right, And you could also tweet us at Brown Ambish and Podcasts right on instag that's ad tweet us a install. You can send us to Instagram DM. We're Brand Ambition Podcasts and we're the BA podcast on Twitter.
Correct, yes, ma'am. And or if you just want to make it simple, just go to brandambisionpodcast dot com our new beautiful redone jujup glossy, gorgeous website and you can ask us anything there. Yeah, all right, let's get on into it. I'm gonna take the first question. All right, So this listener wants to be anonymous. She says, thank you for all you do. I've been listening for years. I love how you break down the answers to questions on your show. Thank you. Alrighty, So here's her question.
She wants to know when does it make sense to use credit unions. I recently combined finances with my spouse, and I'm more bothered when it comes to debt. I'm only comfortable carrying student loan debt, which I have about sixteen thousand dollars of. My partner is also trying to pay off about nine thousand dollars of personal consumer debt that has skyrocketed due to unemployment with the pandemic. And this year we've managed to also rack up close to
an additional four thousand dollars of consumer debt. This is low interest, this is low interest to no interesting twelve oh. We've also managed to rack up close to four thousand dollars of credit card debt on a zero percent financing
credit card for twelve months. That means that after twelve months, it's going to be it's going to be a lot more than zero percent, she says, I'm thinking it'll make sense to try to get a ten thousand dollars credit union loan to at least clear the high interest personal consumer debt that accumulated before our marriage. For additional context, pre tax, this year we've made about eighty five thousand dollars and my credit score is seven twenty. Thanks for
your help. Okay, what a time to get married and I've been dealing with debt together. Ye yes, I mean, I definitely think that the rationale of her tackling the high interest consumer debt. They do have this twelve months where the four thousand dollars is not accruing interest, you know, at zero percent intro financing, So I got I get that.
The bigger concern is that nine thousand dollars of debt that her husband has that is, like she said, been skyrocketing things to interest because it sounds like he was unemployed for a while. But the core question, when does it make sense to use credit unions like right now?
Yeah?
Honestly, here's it's a good time.
I like three.
I like to have like three financial like partners. If you will, one your brick and mortar bank. You know, they're my least favor because you know, they don't give you nothing, but they are convenient. When I say brick and mortar bank, you know, the big old banks on the corner. We don't say their names over here, but you know, like for the convenience of it all, this is where literally I just do my checking, like swipe my debit card, pay my bills, and leave me allowances.
Right.
Second partner, I like to have as an online only bank for savings because if I'm going to say, like Mandy talked about, like in our prior Brando Bisson episode, the one before this, go listen if you haven't, Okay, it's good. So she talked about that she and husband saved like a year's worth of savings, so they wanted to have it liquid before she kind of made the
leap into what she's doing now. So if you are going to save, I'm not talking about investing, but if you're going to save, it's better to save in an online only bank that's going to issue you a higher interest rate then that brick and mortar bank on the corner that's going to give you a piece of a piece of a piece of a piece of a piece of a penny. Okay, And then the third is credit unions. To me, I like a credit union specifically for their
interest rate if you need to borrow money. That is why I think everyone should have a credit union connect because with credit unions, you know, like if I was going to purchase a car and i'd had and I had payments, I would get my get my financing through
a credit union. You know, purchase a house, I would try to get my financing through a credit union because credit unions are many credit unions are nonprofit based, and they are typically like kind of like co owned by the members inside their credit union, which means that the rates that they issue are enough to keep the doors open and the lights on, but they're not as aggressive with trying to make money because that is not the purpose of a credit union. The credit union is a
community financial resource. And so yes, everyone listening, you know you should at least have a relationship with a credit union.
But did she say her name?
No, she wants to be anonymous.
All right, we'll just.
Call you Debbie, so debs because you know you have debt. Debbie, get debt Debbie. Okay, anyway, don't worry, Debbie. I'm not judging you because Shad Lloyd's knows I have I had a ton of debt, but you got a great credit score. You know, remember the beginning of perfect credit is a is a seven forty, but seven twenty is nothing to sneeze that. So I don't think you're not going to get turned by down by a credit union. To our money, I can't tell you like the amount, but it's very
likely that you'll get you know something. And I if it was me, I would remember, me and Mandy are not giving you personal advice, but we could just give our opinion like how we would do it. But if it was me, I would I would get a loan from my credit union, pay off that high interest rate debt, you know, really trying to negotiate down the lowest interest that I can get that the debt that I have the zero interest on. I would be very aggressive in
paying that off. Make sure that you know, find out at that the end of the payoff, if you have like two dollars left over that they're not going to then flood you with the full interest that you did not have to pay, Like figure out basically what are the terms of that loan? And yeah, and make your credit union your friend like, do most of your lending through them. That's what I would do if it was Moah.
Yeah.
The only thing I would add is credit unions like Tiffany's that are great. They even have a max interest rate they can charge you. It's eighteen percent, so you're never going which sounds like high. But when you think about some there are online lenders out there that are no better than payday lenders Yep, you know storefronts, and they charge like triple digit interest rates. I mean, so eighteen percent is their max on personal loans and things
like that. But even though, so, if you were considering your credit union, what I would say is your credit score is really good. See what interest rate they offer you and how much they offer you, and just get a couple other quotes, even from some online lenders. You do have good credit. I think it might be You'll have to decide, though, I'm wondering. She gives her credit score but not her husband's and it's his debt, So it's that kind of sticky, icky thing of am I putting my.
Credit on the line for your debt?
What's his credit score? That's what I'm curious about, And it is he taking out the loan cause and I'm gonna be for real, I've dot just because you know, I've talked to at least three different women recently through my career coaching who have been in really nasty breakups and they have been left on the hook for debt that their partner that they took on, you know, as a couple, but really it was you know, is it in a couple in in you know, in your feelings
or is it a couple on paper? Because what's often happening is you have one person taking on the debt. So I would definitely think carefully before you put your finances on the line to consolidate his debt. But let's say you know he's got solid credit, I would say one hundred percent he should be consolidating his debt. Start with a credit union, and then see if some online lenders you can get some quotes from as well, and ultimately go with the lowest rate possible on a fixed
personal on a fixed rate personal loan. That is just an idea. Like Tiffany said, we are not your financial advisor. We don't know everything about your financial picture. There's so many questions here, but that's just our thoughts for now yay marriage, but yours is mine?
Met all right?
What's our next question? Tif?
Okay? Is okay? Hi?
My sister turned me onto your podcast and it's been so helpful to continue our healthy relationship with money and talking about it with each other. Hey, sister, you're a great sister.
Thank you you.
I have a question for you. I have a job with a pension peer in Colorado. I can buy up to ten years of service time and accelerate my retirement by either ten years or work on my job until normal retirement age, but get nearly one hundred percent of my highest income for the life after I retire, for life after I retire. Problem is the cost of buying years accelerates quickly as I get older. Does it make sense to use a loan like a a heelock for yours who don't know? It's a oh my god, I'm
just joined a blank home equity loan. Yes, thank you, O child home equity loan A home equity line of credit to buy years of service. PARA will or PRA I don't know. PARA will loan me the money at seven percent, but I could get a heelock for less than five percent. Probably closer than three percent. Right now, I can see myself working there for the next twenty years. But I also would get the option to take a
lump sum out if I move on before retirement. This feels like a good idea, but it also sounds like cheating. Cheating any advice. Thank you so much, even if you don't answer this. I love what you're doing a public servant. Oh hey, ps public servant. So just to get yes ahead, I had.
No idea that you could do this. I didn't know that you could buy years of service. This is fascinating to me.
You should ask husband because he's a public servant as well, right, and I know my husband, Superman is a public servant. So we actually did this, although we didn't have all of the nuances that you have public service, meaning that
it didn't like he could have done it at any time. Basically, it didn't actually cost more the longer that he waited, so I was like, oh, you know, that was something new, so we you know, we it took us a few years to make the decision of whether it made sense, but we weren't in a rush, thankfully, because he didn't have to do that. And then also too it was. I think his max was like five years that he
could buy back. So eventually, after sitting with our financial planner on Jillie, hey girl, we decided it made sense now to your point, because he's going to technically quote unquote retire early. If if that's what he so decides, he's not going to get the hundred percent of the money he would have gotten. I think let's just pretend like, uh that you get sixty percent of your paycheck and your in your in your pension because my husband has a pension as well, right, so he's not going to
get that. It will be less. But he and you know, we did the math and we were like, okay, one, by the time my husband retires, we will have we already have one property that's basically done. We'll be able to rent it out for about twenty two hundred bucks a month. Now the property is paid off and renovated, so there's no mortgage. So if he saves half event and then the other half basically is what I told him, Now,
you're starting to replace your income. So I told him you have five years you know to you know, use real estate to replace your income. So him not getting the full pension is not as important as what was important to me was because he could technically like quit now, really, I guess, well that's not true because he doesn't have
the full money from the homes yet. But let's just say that we get an apartment complex this year and it's like, well, now he's making ten thousand dollars a month, he could quit.
No, I want that insurance.
Like for us, that's what made that's why we're like, no, I want him to finish out, because his insurance is a plus plus as it is for many public service like y'all know, for those of you who are ogis, you know, I did IVF for like three years, and it was probably would have cost us well, definitely into the six figures, if not multiple six figures because we did it for so long. But I paid ten dollars out of pocket when I went to see the doctor.
I paid nothing for all of the surgeries. It was, you know, it was I probably paid out of pocket less than three thousand dollars for the three years. And that's because I had to. You know, when you I froze some of the eggs and that's something that they
did not cover. So I just say all that to say, his insurance is so great, I want to take it with us, And so you know, I'm just I don't know the right choice for you, but I wanted to give you like a path of our thinking, like how important is it for you to have the full amount of money at the end? Do you get to take your insurance with you? I don't know that there's a right or wrong. Ten years is a lot of time. And does she say how close how she is?
No, she says she can see herself working there for twenty years.
But she doesn't know twenty years, but we don't know when her like, so meaning like if Superman works for the next ten years, he'll be able to retire, but we can shorten it in half. We don't know how far or close he is she is to like, whatever the full amount of years are, I guess we can assume it's twenty years.
She said that she's going to accelerate it, that she's thinking of buying up to ten years of service to accelerate her retirement by ten years. So it looks like she's looking to cut twenty into ten. Yeah, that's thirty down to twenty.
That's what I'm wondering at Yeah, I don't.
Know what do you think maydie?
What would you do?
Because I don't think there's a right or wrong here.
Girl.
The only thing I could think when you were telling your story is if you're listening to anything public servant, it's the fact that Tiffany, huh and Superman I keep calling him Husby. I'm sorry, he's Superman. I have husby anyway, that you guys went to Angelie your financial planner first, this is a prime example of a complicated math problem that you want to see seven different scenarios lined up, and that is something that I know my financial planner,
Helen would extraordinary force. So I'm saying this is a good it's such a big decision too. You're talking about also a helock. How does Superman pay for his year?
We saved it. We saved it, and you saved it. So I don't know if we would to pay cash. Yes, we pay cash because yeah.
Yeah, because a helock is a whole other element to this. That you got your house on the line, you know, that's your collateral. That's why you get a lower interest rate. So it's a very complex question, and I think that it's a perfect time. This is a big enough situation where finding a fee based or fee only financial planner
who can help you with this particular situation. They'll they'll get all your personal information down, your family, all that and their household expenses and debts, and help you walk through all of your options. Because to me, it's such a big decision that I would feel a lot better if you had. Personally, I would feel a lot better.
I don't.
I wouldn't make this kind of decision without talking to my financial planner, and I don't think necessarily you probably you could make that decision, but if you're doubting it, I would say, definitely lean on a personal financial advisor, which of course Tiffany and I can't do because we don't know that much. We only have, you know, a little email from you. I'm not trying to get out of saying an answer, but genuinely, I ain't got one.
I just say, yeah, it's a lot too. There's so many nuances, and you're right that. I think the biggest thing to take away is the fact that, like I did, we did not make this decision by ourselves.
You know, we asked, we were like, so.
What do you think and she was just like, well, she looked at how much savings we had. She actually asked, like, we had to go I had never seen his pension paperwork or whatever. We had to go download it get it for her so she could actually look through the pension paperwork to see, you know what, you know, do you get to take because I was like, do you get to take your retirement your your life it's not life insurance, your health insurance with you fully, like what does that look like?
So these were things, you know.
It's all so she weaves through all those things and was like, so here's what's on the table. Yes, you get to take it with you, Superman. You're not gonna make the full amount because you're gonna leave early.
This is what this is.
She even gave us an amount the differential between if you stay to the end to what you're making now, you know, so we can make that decision. And so and here's the thing. What's so great is that he could still stay if he wanted to, Like it doesn't mean I mean people work past quote unquote retirement age. So it's not like if he's like, you know what, actually I don't mind it, I'll stay an extra five years or whatever. He can still do that.
I just wanted for him.
He just wanted the option of being able to say, you know what, if I do want to leave early and I do have you know this other source of income coming in that I want to focus on, I have the option to do so. But yeah, Manny's right, this is a big, big, big decision, very complicated, and but honestly, you're in an awesome place to even be able to make this decision. Like who can say that I can buy ten years off my time?
That's awesome, I mean, hell's yeah. All right, Well, let us I feel like this this warrants a follow up email. Let us know if you find a financial planner if you're.
In Colorado, A good a good place to start for.
Finding a feed planner is National Association of Certified Financial Planners Napfah.
Yeah, we'll put a link, Yes.
We'll put a link in the in the show notes. But you can ask for referrals find someone in your state because they're actually probably going to have experience working with people who work with the pension system there. So you know, big decisions, grown up, grown up things, good grown up teams, Good luck, grown up things. All right, I think that's it for the ba QA this week. Thanks y'all for listening.
Yes, but you have questions, don't forget Send us your questions. We love you can send us your personal financial questions, but also too, you know, Mandy is quite the career educator these days. Send us your career questions and you know them all about that business, So send us your
business questions as well. Like we love business, career and personal finance questions because we are here to provide, you know, our thoughts on Obviously, we're not here to advise you specifically, but to provide our thoughts on it, and we love a wide range of questions, so you know, send them on over to brannabich and podcast dot com.
Click is it still called ask us anything?
Like?
What does it say on you know what?
As I was saying it earlier, I'm like, I don't even know what it says anymore. Our brand new website there is I think you just scroll down, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, and there should be a form there.
If not, you know, there's a contact least I say at work contact. There you go, there's literally a contact yep.
Yes, yeah, I know, we really trained ourselves over six years to say that exact expression, and now it's different.
Oh yeah no, and now as I'm here, now it looks great if you click a contacts First of all, this picture is super cute of me and Mandy. If you click the contact us page like box, it actually has like ba qas right there, like you can see it.
So that's right.
I remember deciding that. Okay, did I tell you my mom loves our podcast? She was like, she wrote me the most thoughtful review. You know how sometimes you're just like, I can't believe you took the time, mom, but thank you, she said. You know, there are some websites I just do not keep scroll if it's too hard to navigate. I'm doing it in her Midwestern Minnesota Minneesoula.
I love that navigate.
She will be so annoyed because honestly, there's more Georgia in her than she likes to admit. But anyway, she's like, it's just so beautiful and easy to navigate and so intuitive. So yeah, I'm excited it's go. It just makes me happy. I think it just really reflects our spirit much better. But you know, shouts out to our original og Brown Ambition podcast dot com. It served us well, but we growed we growed up now and I am Radio nominated, so yeah, we needed to level up.
Yes, I'll growed up. I love that all right?
Until next week by my