It's time forward the b a qa A to b a q A what you say?
The b a q eight with mandate the b a q what'da the b a qa A.
Hello, beloved b a q A listeners, Let's get it back in this suit.
I forgot that we're bringing back in this suit.
I was also blown away by how many questions we had when we came back from the holiday. I was like, y'all were busy getting your lives and order.
And asked us today we have to ask the track the questions. Now you guys want to know.
Oh good, we got some juicy money questions. If you guys want to submit a question to the show, you know how to do it. Go to IG and slide into our d MS. If you'd like a chance to be seen in the studio in person and get your answers question live or wait answers answer, Wait questions answered live Wow baby Brain. Then submit a voice note through IG. You get sixty seconds to make your pitch for your question, and producer Emani may reach out to you and invite
you on the show. Otherwise, you can go Old Fashion and email us from Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com dot.
Com we're going to do some Mulah questions this week.
Money Honey, you're.
Gonna jump right in with Ronia as No, Well, ron I saw ron La girl.
You had it three different letters to.
Where I could read ron La says and enjoin your content as per usual.
Quick question, what hurts your credit score more?
Lack of credit mix or low available credit that affects the debt to income ratio and porquet.
Why keep up the great work, ron La.
Great question, Well, ron La, there are five composers to your credit score, right, and so these are two of the opponents and they're literally on the opposite ends. So credit mix is ten percent of your score. So credit mix just means do you have a mix of ways that you're borrowing and paying back money. So one of the ways is revolving debt. That's basically credit card debt. You know you paid off, you could use it again,
paid off, use it again. There's also it's a loan, but I forget the way like the no, what how do you installment? Yeah? Installment loans, So that's just like you know, I have a student loan that or I've got a car note and then I paid every month until it paid off, right, So they like to see a credit mix. And here's the reason why. Let's just say you say, like Mandy says, no, let's do me because I'm not a good cook. Let's just say I'm like, well,
I'm a good cook. And I'm like, you're like and man, it said once you make girl, I was like spaghetti, you know, and what else? Girl? You know some other pasts of this, and it's like, girl, you made a good cook. You're good at noodles, right, because it doesn't show that I have a wide range of experience and doing a wide range of dishes, so I'm not really a good cook. The same thing for your credit if you only have you're like, oh, I have five different
credit cards. It's like, okay, great, you're good at revolving debt, not necessarily other types of way to borrow and pay back. Okay, but that's only ten percent. You don't have to do anything there except for live a little longer, right, as somebody's grandma will say, you just got a live child, because as you get older you will incorporate naturally.
Different types of debts.
That's ten percent, now thirty percent is your basically amounts old you know, meaning how much. When you said how much credit do you have available, that's basically amount's old meaning what you could borrow from what you have borrowed. That's huge, And that's usually the thing that's taking people's score because thirty five percent is like payment history, meaning like do you pay off every month? Do you pay
off in full? That's great, but you know, people don't realize that even if you're making your monthly payments on time, if you keep high balances in relation to your life limits, then you're taking your score. Ideally, if you want to raise your score, you want to be under fifteen ten percent, meaning if you have one hundred dollars limit on your card, no more than five ten dollars fifteen ten dollars on
your on your card. You know, if you want to maintain your score, you could say at about the thirty percent mark and you'll be fine.
And so the reason.
Why it's it's more that I suspect credit bureaus take
it's more important. It's because you know, if you owe too much, then you're then you you are more likely to default and not pay people back, versus if you have a variety of people that you owe, you know the credit mix, and so like owing too much in relationship to what you could borrow put you in a really dangerous space that if you lose your job, if you have some sort of crisis that comes up, that you're likely to not be able to pay anybody back.
So ram Law, hope that's help anything many that I miss that I missed from now.
Yeah, it was really hard to keep my credit utilization low early when I was remember when I was younger, because my limits were so low and I didn't really know how to use cards yet. But that gets easier the higher your limits are. And also I will say, if you have a lot of revolving credit card debt and it's tanking your score because it's like high in relation to your available limit, then maybe it's you could look into a personal loan because a debt consolidation loan,
because a debt consolidation loan is not revolving. That's an installment loan. It's a fixed like you have fixed payments. You're going to pay it off a certain you know, after a certain period of time. So it helps you in two ways, Like it will immediately lower your the balance that you're revolving on credit cards, and then it also gives you that mix of different kinds of credit.
But that's of course, like you have to look at your own situation and you know, to like compare credit card APR rates, like how expensive is your credit debt versus you know, a debt consolidation loan and what rate you can get and then actually pay that loan off because like some people get debt consolidation loans. You paid on your credit cards and you're like.
Oh, I'm debt free, but no, you're.
Not dead free. Yeah, good, good, good, solid question.
Yes, keep them questions coming. What do we have next, Mandy?
Oh, well, should we take a quick break and come back with question number two?
Good?
It's a doozy all right, BRB y'all. All right, we are back with number two, A question from listener Ell, who sent us an email. Okay, Elle says, hey, Madian in Tiffany. I am a home owning single, forty something with no kids. I have a decent job with a good income of about ninety thousand dollars a year. Prior to this year, I was a public school teacher and I just started and I decided. I decided when I started the new job to keep living as if my salary hadn't changed much.
Oh.
I love that I have money automatically deposited into specific savings accounts, but my emergency account took a hit when I had to replace my AC unit earlier this year, so unfortunately, all my accounts are in a building stage. As I mentioned, I own a home and idal i'd like to own a couple of homes, but I think it'll take me so long to build enough income to
afford another one that I don't want to wait. My alternative is to sell the house I currently own and rent a place wherever I want, no longer tied to any one specific location. But I'm afraid that letting go of this house will be a big mistake, and that renting will open me up to a vulnerability that I haven't experienced. How do I know if selling my home is right for me? Thank you all.
That's interesting?
Okay, So she's like wanting to potentially sell her home move into a rental so that she has income to buy another couple of homes.
Yes, and so like.
I'm just listening to reading her ps about like her, I guess her house has flooded since then and she was inspired to send this letter after listening to me purchasing a condo and wanted to be a rich auntie. She's like, I want that too, because it just add some more context. So well, let me take a step back, back back, So what are you thinking, Mandie, Like, would you take a step back, like, I mean.
I feel like renting. I'm trying to follow her thought process. I guess what she's thinking is if I rent a place, it'll be cheaper than maybe the cost of a home, and I can save more for a new property. And maybe there's so much equity in her home that she has. I'm wondering does she need to sell it or could she use like a home equity loan?
Girl?
Okay, good, go good, because I'm like, I'm trying to like pieces together. Yeah, if you if you want to leverage the equity in your home to then purchase a second property. You know a lot of ways that people do that is you can take out a home equity loan and then use that that loan as a down payment, you know, on your next property. I mean, and I'm assuming you'd want to like rent out that other property,
which can be a great source of additional income. So I'm like, I don't know, I'm more opposed to like selling the not a pose, but like I'm a little like take a pause about selling in the house and maybe see if you can, yeah, leverage that loan a home equity loan to to have to have the funds to buy another property.
Because if you ll which itself, like you did purchase your home before twenty and nineteen, you likely have a lot of equity because remember the houses the prices with the native run them up, grow and you in Florida, I know they ran your prices up, meaning that you have a lot more like almost unnatural equity. Even though home prices have come down, it's only like the new ones, you know, like not like the houses that were brought prior to twenty nineteen. They got their normal boost plus
a supercharge boost, you know. So I just say all that to say that, like, you probably have equity in this home. And ultimately, when we're making decisions and I'm in this space now thinking to myself, like do I want to get this kindo?
What do I want to do?
YadA YadA YadA, that you have to ask yourself. Money is supposed to do what's best for you. You are not supposed to do what's best for money. I'm talking to me and you L, because I almost missed out. I'm purchasing this epic kind.
And we'll see.
It's still on the you know, still negotiating because I wanted to get a super deal and I underbid, and so because in my mind, I was putting money before what Tiffany wanted, which is not always a bad thing if you need to be in a financial space, you know. But I'm okay, and it's like, Tiffany, what is it that you want for Tiffany? And I want this place, so then I have to spend more money. And so I'm just telling you L. I want you to get
clear on what does L want in general. And so because you can potentially get that, and to Mandy's point, you might say, you know what, because I know you have flooding or whatever, you might fix the house, let someone else pay the mortgage and rent it out.
If you want to go rent someplace else by yourself, you can still do that.
You could own your home, allow it to continue to you know, let the streets pay world, hey, you know, and then you can live wherever you want and your Airbnb you can live that fancy life while because the truth of the matter is home ownership is still a cornerstone for wealth in the US of A. You know, like because I'll give you example. I my husband and I am and you know Drella and I. We had
purchased this property from the city for ten thousand dollars. Okay, it was a tear down basically, but we put one hundred and thirty thousand dollars into that house. We've just now that was about the house less than five years ago. Just sold it to his twin brother for basically three hundred thousand, like two ninety five, three hundred thousand, So you think yourself, basically put one forty into it, got back we doubled. That's what real estate can potentially, not
every market can potentially, do you know. Or what I could have done is I could have just rented it out and pulled money out to do whatever I wanted to do.
So I'm just.
Saying that when you have real estate, you have the opportunity for that level of flexibility. So before you're like throw this house out the window, I'm going to sell it, really consider maybe I should just rent it out and see.
What like this rent life outside of this looks.
Like Yeah, and I'm wondering too if, like I get the sense because she's so she was inspired by your story, but the rich auntie life and she's forty. No kids like girl live in the dream, not the dream, but like a different dream. Don't you wish you kind of had it both ways? Anyway?
Yeah?
And and like you got this new job, I really want to know. I'm so fascinated by the public school teacher like journey, and I want to know what your new job is and how you got it because I'm just fascinated anyway. But I'm like, if this is what and you sound like you know renting what you like is you're not no longer tied tied to just one place.
If you want some freedom, there's nothing stopping you from renting for a while figuring out if you want to buy a property somewhere else, if you want to live in that property and just have some freedom. You mentioned like the vulnerabilities that renting could open you up to, and I don't know what vulnerabilities. They may be different than owning a home. I don't know, Like, Tiff, what do you think like potential of make sure if you if you can't make your rent payments, but then you have.
A house, say like you know, with renting, I mean to me, there's financial vulnerability because you don't really grow anything, right, and it's not necessarily depending on because I mean, for me, I can almost hear hear my head, ah home owner said, it doesn't always according to what I know, re meet we knew Like for example, in New York that makes sense because the amount that you're going to spend or pay, you know, because you know, owning in New York, it
actually probably makes more sense in New York City to rent, you know, in a long financial run. But you know, for many parts of the country that's not necessarily true. So I just think that like I want you to have both. I want you to have like if you notice, even though I'm leaning into my rich auntie life, I'm.
Still the budgetista.
At the end of the day, right sold that house double my money, you know, and was like, but I'm still keeping the house I live in right now because I put this house I bought for one eighty, put one eighty into it, was that three sixty. The house is now worth well over four fifty, but I'm not selling it.
I'm keeping it because it's going to continue to raise.
You know, my sister and her kids will live in here and now like likely live in the condo.
That condo.
You know, we're closing around the five hundred thousand, you know, Mark, but I suspect you know, in five to ten years that place will be worth more. Although I'm not necessarily going to be selling it, you know, So I'm just saying that, like, as you are pursuing the softer rich auntie life, it has to be fueled by financial wisdom, you know, So just keep that in mind as you're making these decisions that we're not just here like remember you're here to tell money what to do, but you
want to be telling your money what to do. Like, hey, money, this is the life I want to live. Let me be smart in these choices. So, but welcome sins.
It's cute over here.
Yeah, Well, thank you so much for sending your question into okrap. Was her name, el Ela el Ell. That was really great of you to send a question. Thank you so much. I want to know my follow up question is, like, what was your curer pivot from being a school teacher because I love that kind of stuff, and keep us posted all right on your journey, rich auntie journey. I feel like we have a lot of rich aunties listening to Brown Ambition.
What girl I is here for the rich Johns we take the same time.
I'm new to this riche Auntie live. Well, you know, well that's not true. I've been I made it, but I was a married with Johnty. So now that I'm a single with Chounty, I'm like, what y'all do out here? Like?
What else should I be up to? I'm I think I want to take up crocheting. I know it doesn't satisfancy, but I'm like, what happens is that.
For Michelle Obama? It's good enough for anyone?
Okay, you know I'm in my.
I'm in my we got food at home stage. That's the stage I'm in. Just ask my husband every day this week, I'm like, the menu will be leftovers. I love it all right, y'all. Well, we'll see y'all next week for more Brown Ambition. Send us your questions and we will see y'all later. Talk to you later. Bye, Hey, ba fam, We could not do this show without your support. Or the support of our team behind the scenes. The
Brown Ambition 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 curu, and I am Bandy Wichard Santos your co host, and I will see y'all next week.