It's time for the b a qa a. The b a q a.
Okay, the big a q a. What you said, Brian, ambition, question and answer. You have questions, we have answers. Ish, But we're not your financial advisor, you're attorney, you're a doctor. But we're two smart brown girls who have something to say. But take it with the grain of salt. Don't suit us, no way?
Oh say that, Say that's that's the new that's the new theme song or b a q a. I don't know where you get your energy from, my friends, I.
Don't know either, you know, I feel like the tide of more.
I'm literally like a little kid, you know, like the more tired they get, the wall that they get.
That's me.
Oh my god, yes, well, yes, yes, we had to get up for early flight yesterday, so yes, I know, my my. I was laughing so hard at Rio. We were so tired, Like he was tired. I was so tired. Everything he did was hilarious. He went running off the plane, he banged into the gate, he banged into the desk at the gate and whacked his head and fell down. And I almost I mean, I'm not even gonna lie. I peed myself a little bit. I was laughing so hard. Up my child. He was strolled on the floor and
Enrinka is nowhere to be found. And to everyone who was standing in the c terminal Alagordia for the American Airline flight from Saint Louis around whatever noon yesterday, I'm not insane and I don't hate my child. It was just so tired, so so tired.
Oh, I know what I'm gonna send Rio. Did he have his own luggage? Yes, he does.
He has a cute little he doesn't say it himself.
No, No, I'm going to I was gonna say, I just found a really cute luggage set. I was gonna say he's into dinosaurs because I just bought one for Roman and like this unicorn set for a Milia and they're so cute. It comes with a book bag, little hardshell book bag and a roly that's perfectly like their size.
And I was like, ooh, I'll send him, But you say he has it's like a cute sick because it's so.
Yeah whole, and let him know Auntie Tiffany loves him. Okay, yeah, he has a little teeny. He has a miniature like it has buses and cars and construction trucks because that's his jam. Anything with wheels, Uh, he's into. But what what a delightful human I have breized, That's all I gotta say. I don't have these questions today.
Yes, we're going to be leaning into the money questions we did career last time. Actually, can we get an update? Do we have any update? Because if you didn't listen our last BAQA, which comes out every Friday, we had such a great question from frustrated and tired husband Kevin. Kevin chat o Kevin. Did Kevin ever write back?
Kevin has not written us back, according to these questions that we've gotten. But y'all were so funny on Instagram with some of y'all's comments. Yes, Maggie Angelica on Ig said, y'all answer this question so well and remind you Kevin was contacting us because you go back to last week and listen to it. His wife Life didn't want to go for promotion at work, and Kevin was concerned, and Kevin wanted her to be a good influence for their daughter, and Kevin meant well, but Kevin was you know, Kevin
was not entirely in the right. Maggie Angelica said, yell, answer the question so well. I have had opportunities to take on management roles with pay increases, and I'm just not interested in giving up the time and mental energy that it would cost. Amen to that. Mandy Pandy, Hey, Mandy Pandy, she says, Mandy Pandy, and Ig says she sounds just like me. I don't want to be responsible for other people. Okay, y'all, it's okay. Lean into that.
I don't want to be a boss. Snuggy ninety nine said, as a new supervisor myself, this position can be a nightmare.
Yes, first of all, the misrel banks is hillar. She said, that's the response. Okay, girls, She said, I've given this response to too over the years, to many managers and executives when I'm asked why I'm not either a manager or an executive. Besides, they look stressed all the way, and I wrote, child, because if it looks like what.
You look like, I'll pass. She was like, okay.
My last manager was cool, and when he asked me why I responded that way, I said, sir, you look exhausted.
I don't need that type of energy in my life.
So if you are not following.
Us on on ig, you should Brown and Bison podcast because we we will post little clips of you know, some of our favorite moments on Brown and bishon so you can get your life in the comments as well.
We hit fifteen k on ig by the way.
Ooh to b a Okay.
I remember it was just my birthday. Last year we hit ten K, so I were at fifteen K. So exciting.
Yes, So we're gonna take so many questions today. So first question comes from and sidebar. Thank you so much for validating me y'all who loved Gem and the Holograms, because y'all was tweeting me all the all the every day like tivity, Gem and holiday was it was.
It was a cultural mode and so producer Tanya was so geeked when you mentioned it.
So I was like, yo, when I got so many tweets about Gem and the Holograms, I just.
Want to say, I feel seen, I feel heard.
Okay and so yeah too Hot in Texas says hey, lovelies, please consider answering this on your next baqa. I want to take a loan from my four oh one K to do the following one payoff school debt and re enroll in the fall. Two pay off credit card debt. Three for the school debt, I owe sixteen thousand. Should I pay the balance or the two with the high interest credit card rate? If you read this over your podcasts, I prefer to me anamous. That's why two hot of Texas.
So yeah, she said I could, I could be too hot, too hot in Texas, and I'm strictly referring to the fact that it's currently one hundred and six so basically too hot. Wants to take money from her fur one k to pay off student loan debt and to pay off her credit card debt. And she wants to know one is that a good idea? And if it is a good idea, which way should she do it?
What say you, Mandra?
She needs to take a cold shower first and foremost, cold shower. Too hat in Texas. The sun is addling your brain. The heat is interfering with your with your logic right now. But my first reaction is, oh no, please don't dip into your four one k. I think your four one k is I mean, in very very few circumstances, it should feel like a vault. It should feel like a treasure chest, a vault for your future self.
We don't like to touch him, especially because we're investing through our four and one K, right, so we need time for that to marinade. It'd be like stopping the slow cooker before the chili was done. Like, no one wants slow cooker chili. After thirty minutes, it's gonna taste like trash, right, we want that nice. And I'm stealing this metaphor from Deli and the money coach who just uses to describe investing the other day, so I have to give her all the props, but I love it
slow cooker investing. Yeah.
So.
And the fact that it's school debt, So I'm going to assume here you haven't told us what kind of debt it is. But if it's federal, those typically have really flexible repayment plans, so there's not a lot of and the interest rate can be a lot lower than what you can gain by keeping your money invested in the market. I can understand how between school debt and your credit card debt, you're feeling a little bit stressed out, you know, you feel like you want to get rid
of this debt. But I would say how can we increase your income and save more, put more aside to pay off these paid on those debt, the debt that you have, versus dipping into your your little baby nest egg. Yeah, she mess to marinate some more.
I agree, because if you would draw that money, and here's the thing, there's that thirty percent because I'm assuming you're not fifty nine and a half two lot of dixes. So with the penalties, Yeah, it's like a thirty percent penalty if you don't pay it back within I think
it's a year. So if you're just barring it in your like it's sometimes people will borrow because they're like, I need it temporarily, but I'm going to pay it back before the you know, before the end of the tax year, so that way I won't incur the taxes. That's one because you're gonna have to pay taxes on that income. And two the penalty because you you've withdrawn that money before you're quote unquote old enough to withdraw that money.
Don't do it. I did it. I did it. I did it, and I regret it.
I had thirty thousand dollars in my four one K. The recession hit and I said I was going to use it to pay off debt, and YadA, YadA, YadA, Sayspumbada. I didn't get thirty thousand. I got thirty thousand minus taxes minus thirty percent.
I was like, don't stop me. The narrow.
And so it was like it felt like it was half, you know, like I think I got back like a little under twenty thousand dollars and I was just like, yike, that was money that like basically I lost. So you know, unless you're literally like drowning, and it's like I call it like if you're going to be without a home, if it's going to make you unsafe to not pay something, or if it's going to make you, you know, you will be hungry as a result that I obviously understandably
we get that. But if it's something that it's like, okay, it's just going to require more time. The other way, you know, me and manager both are on the on the lead a money alone train.
Yeah, and thanks for mentioning. I'm looking back at her question. She does say she wants to take out a four to one k loan, and another downside to taking out a loan is that like if you were to get if you were to get let go or you were to leave your job yourself, you could you will owe that loan back like in full. So it's taking a gamble. And you know me and maa mantra, no job is stable, so it's taking a bit of a gamble there. So
I would also take that into consideration. Now, as far as credit card debt, you know, there's other ways you could pay that down without dipping into your four to one K. You could consolidate it through a balanced transfer, you know, get a small installment loan from a credit union to pay on that credit card debt. But I would tackle the debt. Take that cold shower, chill out, leave that money alone in your four one k for now. You got some time to figure it out. Yes, my
dog is losing her damn mind. Molly said no. All right, y'all, We will be right back with another question, this one coming from listener Sidney. Right after the break. All right, y'all, we are back ba Fam with your next question. It comes from listener Sydney, who says, hello, my beautiful black money queens, thank you. I'm gonna get a placard that
says that just weird. I am someone whose anxiety makes her very anal about keeping her money organized and making sure I do not spend money allotted for one thing on something else. Over time, I've ended up with four checking accounts and three savings accounts. Savings accounts checking one is for routine transactions. Checking two gets fifty dollars per
paycheck and I put that towards travel. Checking account number three is a joint account with my fiance where we each deposit and I use that money to pay the bills for our home, and Checking account number four get seventy five dollars per paycheck that I put towards medical bills because I have annoyingly high copays no matter which
insurance plan I pick, When is enough enough? How do I condense all of these accounts but still make sure I have the appropriate amount of money allotted for things? Are there considerations I should take into account when condensing my accounts? Since I'm getting married next year? Girls help?
First of all, I want to say, girl, you's not like me. I love it. Girl. I used to have the seven accounts too.
What is it about looking number seven?
But I'll say this, there's nothing wrong as long as it's you. Like, as long as you it's organized for you, it's okay to have multiple accounts. But they and here's the thing. The banks were noticing that we were doing this, and then they created what is that thing called mandy where it's like the same account, but it's like.
Dropped down like yeah, sub accounts, yes, so little.
You can have one checking account, but then they have sub accounts under that checking account, so all the money is really in that account, but you can almost like it's the envelope, the digital envelope system.
So so you have accounts.
Under your one checking account.
Now here's the thing. You can do that.
But because I'm forty two and stuck in my ways and I've got gray lashes, I don't do that. I say you should have came up with sub accounts fifteen years ago when I started this process. I still have my seven accounts. So I say all that to say that it's okay. You know that you've done that. If you want to switch over to sub accounts, and that's your business.
The only thing I.
Will say is it would behoove you to have sub accounts like my checking accounts. I've done some like loopy loops where I don't have to pay the monthly fee. So that is the downside of having multiple checking accounts, because you might pay that ten dollars or whatever that fee is. So if you're paying that fee, you might want to combine into sub accounts. And if you're not
and it's working for you, then that's fine. The only account that I might consider is you have this checking account for travel, la la, and I think that honestly, I probably make my my travel account a savings account because I'm assuming you don't dip into it regularly. So if you have a savings account, you know, for travel, you might be able or at least a little bit of you know, interest on that savings account. But you talking to the wrong one if you want me to
talk you out to have a multiple accounts assist. I live by my multiple accounts. I've got my deposit account, that's what I call it, where all the money kind of lands and I and and I also call it my allowance acount because I leave enough money there to pay, like to pay for cash things. I've got a a bill's account, which is also a checking account. That's for my husband and I. We used to deposit our like
you know, money there to pay bills together. I've got a long term savings account and so I put that money there, and when I get a lump some of it, I hit up my financial advisor and she pulls it out and puts it into the market for me invests. And then I have a short term savings account and that's my my uh like emergency fund. So I have a year's worth of emergency fund save there. But I also have account for taxes because I am self employed,
so I have to set aside money for taxes. And then I even have like like there's nothing in it right now because I'm not saving for anything. But I also have like this account where I'm like saving for something, so maybe it's a car or a home or whatever. And so I like having the separate accounts. I like naming them because I like, I'm not super organized in my day to day life. But cha, my money will never be funny. So I say all that to say
that if it's working for you, it's okay. Just don't pay extra fees unnecessarily.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like the question one is enough enough?
Enough?
Is enough when it starts being when it starts being a stick that you kind of beat yourself up with. Then I think enough is too much. Like maybe if it's starting to get too stressful for you and you can't management manage it, then just like do something different. You can consolidate some of them into one. Personally, I did have a bunch of accounts, but they were mostly savings accounts. Like I would have different long term savings goals and I would like call them different things, but
I always just had one bucket of cash. And because I automated my savings contributions, so I would get paid or I would, you know, take an income and then I would automate you know this trans this gets transferred to that account, this much gets transferred to this other account. Then I knew whatever was left over in my checking I could use for my other expenses, and that just gave me peace of mind. But to be honest, I
lost track of that life a long time ago. I put everything on credit cards and it's paid off in fool each month. I'm just like too lazy for all that now, So I don't know if I can be of much help. But when you're ready to consolidate things, I mean condense them, consolidate them. Yeah, just find maybe, just find a bank like Tiffany said, that offers sub accounts for free, doesn't charge you any fees, and be happy.
Yeah.
Also shout out to your fiance for actually contributing to that that separate account, because that's sometimes the hardest thing is getting them to cooperate.
And congrats on getting married. It's awesome. When it's good, it's good. So congrats on getting well.
If you guys want your questions read on the BAQA, you can hit us up Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com com. You can also slid into our dms like dojacat and go to Brown Ambition Podcast on ig and Oh what's the third way? Oh Brownambision Podcast dot com dot com.
Yeah, we love answering your question.
We'd like to flip flop back and forth between money questions and career questions, but they're all welcome here.
See y'all next week.
Bye.
Hey, ba fan, we could not do this show without your support or the support of our team behind the scenes. The Brown Ambision Podcast is produced by Cumulus Podcast Network. It's edited by the wonderful Emani Crosby and produced by Tanya Bustos, Dennis Stimplinsky is our in house tech guru, and I am Bandy Woodrid Santos your co host, and I will see y'all next week.