Hey, Hey, baf fam, I have been waiting to tell you, guys. I have been sitting on this news forever. But for the first time in Brand Ambition history, we are going live, y'all. We are going to be live from Newark, New Jersey. It is all happening October tenth at six pm. If you want to get tickets now, tickets are limited. We picked the best venue. It's a historic black owned bookstore in Newark, but seating is limited. This is going to be an intimate evening with me and Tiffany live in person.
It may be the only chance y'all get I'm not gonna lie to see us together live in twenty twenty four, So please come get your tickets. We want to make sure that the crowd is packed with true be a family. Okay, So if you want to get tickets, run, don't walk. Run to Brown Ambition podcast dot com to get the link right there and let us know that you're coming. Tag us, send us your receipts, send us your order. Maybe we'll send you some BA wag. We'll have some
BA swag at the event. Even we are going to be celebrating nine years of the show, y'all. Nine years. We're like geriatric podcasters in the very best way. But we cannot wait to see y'all in Newark. So go ahead Brown Ambition podcast dot Com to get your tickets to see me and Tiffany live for Brown Ambition Live in Newark, New Jersey. It's all going down. Like I said October tenth, get your tickets again at Brown Ambition podcast dot com.
It's time. Oh the b a qa a to b a q a. What you say the b a q It was me good to be aq with Tiffany the b big qa a. Hey, maje are you doing girl? Hi? Oh? What is said?
The Remy wiggles oh immediately when he talks when someone answers the phone and they smile at him, He's.
Like, Okay, I love that.
Oh man, I'm trying not to think about how many ba qas are left.
Oh, I gotta sing on my own. If you're wondering what we're talking about, check out our last episode. We had some big news. It's some sad news but also exciting news too about the future of the show. So yeah,
you should listen to it. But if you're here for Branna Bishen question to answer, you have questions, We have answers, but not the kind of answers that you could sue us for, because this is for entertainment purposes only, right that you're going to take what we say with the smallest grain of salt, because essentially we're just talking to each other. And if you want to do what you want to do, I suggest that you will lean on
over to your lawyer attorney. You're a doctor, your lawyer, whoever, And yet you know you're just like I had heard. But what do you think to the person that you paid professionally?
Okay, today we got money questions, a couple of like juicy ones. Let's start to miss Tiffany. The Budgetnista alich Angara from IG has an interesting question about budgeting. She says, I try to pay for everything with my rewards credit cards and pay off the balance in full every month. My question is should I have a separate section in my budget for credit cards credit card payments? Or is that redundant since the amount on my credit cards is reflected in other areas of my budget.
Oh, I see what she's saying. Yes, I'm gonna I'm gonna. I like that name. That's a cool name. I do too.
All right, miss budgetista, what do you have to say about this budgeting question?
Well, Ana, this question actually comes up more than you would think, so really when it comes to credit cards. So the only for you in particular a since you're paying here for credit card in full, and it's specifically for things that you you know, like oh you might put your rent on there, your mortgage, your light bill, your electric bill, that's already reflected in your budget, so
you don't have to reflect it under credit cards. So typically when this is what I tell people, if they're going to have like a line item that says credit card, it's credit card debt that you're paying off, you know, not you actively putting putting a let's just say your light bill. You put your light bill on your credit card and you pay it off every month. That doesn't need to be reflected as a credit card expense because it's not really a credit card expense. It's your light bill,
which you already have in this one line item up here. Now, if you came to me and we were doing your budget, we would have light bill, all your other bills, and we would have credit card. If you just owed a balance on it, you know, and then that's when you would have it like as two separate things. So I'm gonna want I love the way you're using your credit card because it's cute. Girl. You know, I am a credit ca our point Girly, that's how you made it.
How most recently, I was very very philanthropic with my credit card points.
How did you donate them?
Yes? I donated them. So a friend of mine sadly their their parent was not doing well and it was a parent that lived in another country, and so you know, we had talked about it earlier, like in the summer, and I was like, you should go. They're like, honestly, the cost it's not cheap, you know, to fly. It was them, their spouse and their child. They were like, you know, like we said that we wanted to come, but you know, my parent was like, uh not right now,
not right now. You know, I'm gonna I think like they had cancer and they were like, you know, I let me just you know, let me get back on my feet or whatever. But then it just took a turn and I was like, honestly, girl, you know you will regret not going to see your mom. I mean, you just got to go. See your mom, like, what can you do? And so I told them, I said, you know, they were like, She's like, I have enough money for me to go, but I would really love
but you know, that was the struggle. So she was like, well, I'm just gonna go because obviously it's my mom. And I was like, well, I have points and I can fly the three of y'all out on my points. I had so many on my American Express because, like you Angada, the way I use my American Express is then it is my business card, and so all things business flow through the American Express. So the points accumulate very quickly,
and I had seven hundred thousand American Express points. Now here is the caveat I if I would have so thank god for Instagram and TikTok because they have taught me how to maximize the point. So if I would have gone to American Express directly and said, hey, I want you to book these three flights from the United States to this European country, American Express would have said, okay,
it's seven hundred and fifty thousand points. So it would have they would have used all my points, plus it would have also it would also cost me be like, I don't know, like you know, five hundred dollars out of pocket or something like that, right, But because of TikTok and Instagram, I'd recently been seeing like, you know, how to maximize your points, how to maximize your points, And there were all these creators who were like specifically
for an American Express, there's a website called point dot Me and normally you paid like ten bucks a month or whatever, but they recently partnered with American Express. I don't partner with the R. I'm just feel serou. They recently partnered with American Express and they said, if you have a Platinum Card, which my business card is, you actually get
point dot me a membership for free. And I was like okay, And so point got Me is a website that somebody created external to American Express, but I guess they partnered or brought them out. And you can go in and say, hey, I have this many points and I want to go from here to here? How do
I maximize how? When I tell you it went from if I would have booked directly on American Express from seven hundred and fifty thousand points basically all my points to for three people Mandy if they flew Air Canada, because Air Canada I had some special because point me figures out the algorithm to two hundred and fifty thousand points for the three of them around trip. So it was like such right, and so it's like I saved five hundred thousand points. All three of them could go there,
am back, and it was such a blessing. And she went and you know, like many times when people like are in hospice, they rally right before they passed away. So she was actually a really great spirits talking and laughing and eating cheesecake and all this stuff. And then while they was while they were there, three days later of them landing, she passed away.
But to me, god, they got to see her, I mean.
Right, and who wants to be there by yourself if you you know? And so I just thought to myself, like to so even as like you know, because sometimes we're like I'm not gonna lie. I have become my mother. Where any any place where I can collect points, whether it's the supermarket, whether it's the hotel, whether it's the airline, I collect them sometimes not even for me, because I just don't know when somebody might need it, I'm not gonna lie like I'm like the point purveyor, I'm like,
who is points? And so I felt so good about it.
Here, baby, can get your pocketbook out.
I got minto my bag and so, you know, so I was so grateful and she was like, thank you so much. I was like, no, like, honestly, I was so grateful to be able to have done that because and it's not even like I told her I was a girl, It's not even it's one third of my points because you know, thank God for the TikTok algorithm
teaching me how to maximize. And so I just say all that to say, if you are not using points, I mean, obviously you have to be able to you have to want to be able to pay off the thing in full, like I got. You know, I'm sorry. I don't want to say I'm like I'm gonna every single month, but it is a blessing that not just for you, but that you might be able to help other people with your points. I mean I have used points where I remember a friend of mine was really struggling.
And every time I stay at a hotel, like if someone flies me out to like speak at a speaking engagement and it's a Hilton or Marria or whatever, I make sure to give them my reward number and I collect nights. But typically I never have to pay because if typically if I'm traveling, someone has paid me to speak. And so I've been able to help a friend who was really struggling about not knowing where they're going to stand.
I'm like, I've got four nights at the Marriott, and so at least in the meantime you can stay there, you know, and then figure it out from there, you know. And so I don't know to me, but that is why I really love points. And so yeah, that points can be like a tool for you to like vacation or really a tool for you to bless other people.
I think that's a wonderful way to do it. I have a love hate with my rewards cards.
Now all you do?
Yeah, homegirl, I can't be paying off my bills in full each month we see previous episode, Well are you able?
Because sometimes with points, you know, how like they can like you can use points to pay down the bill.
Yeah, you can get a statement credit, Yeah for sure, And definitely I have done that, not to pay the whole thing off, but Okay.
We're getting there.
Honestly, I'm in such a situation that I'm like, it's time for a budget. I might need to uh, I need to call in the budget, call in the budget guide. I wish I could me somebody who you have?
Anyone I know? Girl, I'm here, I'm here.
Oh god, Okay, all right if I quick break, can we be right back with question number two? All right, Tiffany, want to read our next question.
And it's funny because it's like her name is missus a Line, which I'm like, I love that because we're going to talk about alignment. Missus the Line says, Hi, question for missus a Line, my husband paid all of the bills. Oh yes, girl, And I'm wondering what I should do with my income beside save first of all, one time for missus a lot missed a Line. Okay, you're not mad at it? Also like I love that.
I feel like this is my wife is looking pretty good.
So what say you? Managra? Like what are the other options? It's like, well, if I don't have to pay bills, like what should missus the Ligne be doing with a kolid miss the Line?
I have a confession when I saw your question. I was like, you're going to answer that question. You don't have problems delete and then my wise mind to talk about wise mind and therapy. My wise mind whispered to me, Mandy, why were you so dismissive? What about that question bothered you? And I think in my time a financial need. It
just bothered me that someone's like I got money. But it took me like all of two point five seconds to realize, Oh, this is really a question about what should I do to maximize the income that I have and hopefully create some financial security for myself. And I think it is especially for the you know, if you were a partner who's fortunate enough, even if you know you guys are chipping in, if they're still left over money.
I just immediately was thinking of like tips about what to do with her extra money and how she could create some safety for herself since her husband is the breadwinner and or at least is the bill payer. It sounds like she has income from somewhere so that she, I thought, will immediately put away savings for yourself, like cash savings that you can you have access to. I
think there's a lot of focus on a prenup. But I also think just some good old cash savings so that you're protected just in case he if it turns toxic, or if he you know, isn't available for whatever reason. Just to have your own money. But then also think about your longevity and like how you're going to be
investing for your future. Women are going to live longer typically than their husbands, and so you know, if you want to contribute more to your own retirement fund, or you could use that money to start a business, You could use that money to invest in your home, to do something for the family. You can make your I know tip you're going to talk about this how you and Jarrell. I'll just hush and let you do it.
But talk about how you and Jarrell, what you did with your income and how you gave it different purposes. So everyone was like, oh, we're contributing, even though it was like an imbalance, you know.
Well, yeah, so so missus. The line went similar to you, my husband paid the bills at the time when we first got together. He was my boyfriend. I had moved in with him, and honestly, our bills wasn't that weren't that much because he worked for newer housing authority, and candidly, we lived in housing, and so our rent was like nine hundred dollars. I was like whoo. I was like, you want to have? He was like I'm good. I
was like okay. And then because we lived in housing, I don't think I don't even think we paid electric bill or we did was like very modified because he lived quote unquote on campus, like the unit that he took care of is where he lived. So he got to live like really inexpensively. So I was able to, you know, live with him. And then but at the time and the budgetest was just getting on her feet,
and then it started to make significantly more. And so although I made more than him, at some point, he still paid the bills. You know, I want to say, our bills were like under fifteen hundred dollars a month at that time. So I was able to rapidly save. And so I saved jointly because after we got engaged, I said, okay, so now we can have a joint savings and then a joint like an independent savings. So I had savings for myself and I had savings for
like us jointly. And it was with that joint savings that I was able to purchase our property, you know, like I mean, it was us, but it was from the joint savings that I was contributing to because he didn't contribute to the savings because he was paying the bills. So we worked it out where and especially after marriage, because you're married now, we really worked it out. We said, we want three accounts, joint and separate. We have a
checking account, joint checking, separate checking. Separate checking was for like spending, you want to get your nails done, hair done, and everything did, that's what you used that for. But then we had this joint checking where that's where we paid the bills out of and most of his check
one there. I didn't put really any money into the bills account except for the money that I gave my parents every month, because I would like send them money to help them out, you know, every single month, and so whatever money I was giving them, I would put into our bills account. So we had that. Then we had joint savings and separate savings. Separate savings because maybe
you want to save something for yourself. But then most most of my money that I made as Tiffany went into our joint savings to buy a house, to get a car, to get those types of things. And then the last account that we had joined and separate. We had joint retirement or investment account and separate investment accounts, and so that way it gives you. I just found like it found it worked best to have like separate and join everything, so you kind of have your own
autonomy for some things. But the vast majority of the family's money went to our joint accounts, joint investing, joint savings, joint checking, if that makes sense, but still slice to have thing for yourself. And so we did both, and so you know, you could check to see if that works. I don't know how much you make. I don't know what your agreement is, but I believe in transparency. It wasn't like, oh I had my secret check in you know,
if he acts up, I'm out. But I had my money that was mine and he had his money that was his. Because I found that, I used to look and be like, where you get them, Jordan's from, where you get this from? And so I realized, like we need to have some separate money. That way, I because I still need to have a little control. So I needed to be able to see the bills are fine, the savings is fine, the retirement is fine, and so if he bought those, it must have been from his
separate money. Let it rock, Tiffany, Damn, you're not the bulls for him, even though I want the balls. And so it helped to have jo and separate. So that's what I would suggest, is that yes, instead of not just saving, you know, potentially saving for the both of you and yourself independently, but also are you setting aside for a retirement. That's what I would just say is misaligned. Is that making sure that bills are paid, aid savings is say, but you're also setting aside for the future.
And if, however that looks for you, your money can contribute to all those or some of those things.
Yeah, And what if Husby is not actually contributing to like retirement funds because she says paying the bills, but is she considering retirement to be a bill? Does he know what's a bill? He should be doing it? So have a line. I just want her to have a line of sight into where the money is going. Yes, and then you know that you should encourage like either tell him, hey, this has to be a budget line at him, like our retirement or make sure that it's on your.
Yes, yes, exactly, those three things should be happening. Bills, savings, retirement.
Sorry for almost deleting your question. It was a personal problem. Nothing to do with you.
Great growth. Yes, Kelly, do you know Cyebar? Do you know that she's doing Resa Tisa? The Who the F? Did I marry? Who?
Did? I'm yeah, yeah, yeah, oh she's Yeah, she's doing the series.
I cannot wait. That is amazing. You know, people said so much about miss Lisa Tisa, but let me tell you, she's laughing all the way to the what the Bank? And that lady's a storyteller extraordinaire. Okay, I never watched all eighty what was it?
Eighty hour?
Me either? Girl, I couldn't, But I'm going to watch the show because that sounds a good place. I want to support a sister.
And also Natasha Rothwell's show, that's what we're talking about on Hulu how to Die Alone? Yes, yes, another black written, black owned program on your local station. All right, Miss Thang and ba fam, thank you for your questions. Don't tell a friend to tell a friend and we'll see you guys Monday for Holla back.
Yes, and they're probably likely. I've already sold out, but if you go to Brannan Vision podcast dot com you maybe can join the wait list or we might release some other tickets. We're going to try to see if the space can hold because we're just basically sold out for our live show October ten. Oh look, I'm sorry, were sick.
We were like, I wasn't even on a different tab.
I was like, yo, if you could have seen it, it was literally I was like, wait, if manything that on purpose? We're like those twins and.
We were like we were now we're trying and we're out of sync.
You know. That was hilarious. So yes, and if you have questions, you can sign in our d MS on i G. You could tweet us the brod Vision Pod don't wait, Yeah, and then.
Know the b A pod the baast.
On our that's on Twitter, but broad A Vision podcast on i G.
I tried to look into X It's like where's our money? You don't have an account?
Oh my god. But you can also also besides going to Brandabision podcast dot com for tickets or the wait list, you can also send us an email or a message there if you have questions you want answered.
Okay, okay, can I do a baby quick shout out to listener l T. Shine, who wrote a review. Yes, please, leaving a review is a kind thing to do, so go do it all right? Five Stars car Buying. She said, I'd never leave reviews, but I felt compelled after listening to your car buying episode. This is the one where you talked about Alyssa buying her first used car. I literally was buying a used car the next day, and the information you provided was so helpful. Keep doing the
work you're doing. You never know who's listening and what's happening in their lives that your information will help them with. Thank you.
Yes, not only did Lizzie pooh gear, tomorrow's her birthday. Actually, well you guys will Her birthday is a second is the first, so you won't. We're taping this on Monday. But yeah, so I'm like, look at her. Do do I have to get her present? We just got a car?
Listen that is between you and.
I know, you know she really wants to. I might get them for her because she's been such a good kid. She really wants the Airmax head homes. I know she really wants some Airbax headphones.
If you got it, give it. That's all I'm saying.
Right, so we don't see. I was gonna surprise her, but then I was like, she's probably gonna want some specific color because she's busy like that. So we're gonna see. We're gonna see what kind of attitude she gives me. So we're gonna have breakfast tomorrow for her birthdays. I'm excited to see her.
Oh that's all, have a birthday breakfast so wholesome. Okay, y'all. For the fifth we're trying to say goodbye, goodbye.
Bye, and it's a churche goodbye, you know, like they're five minutes by, let you go.
But what I was.
Saying, by y'all until next week.
Bye