It's time for the b a q a A b a q a which your sir be a.
Q eight with man day, let me be a q a tip a. Let me be a q a A.
Hey man, you know what, we just did the same we're doing that far twin thing. We did the head at the same time. Oh man, you can't teach that kind of choreography.
Either guy, or you don't.
Hello, all right, what's up? B a fam Hey Tiffany, I'm excited for b a q A. You got some juicy questions you guys. If you want to semitic question, you can go to Brand Ambition Podcast on i G and slide into our d MS, or you can mail us directly at Brandanambispodcast at gmail dot com dot com. And oh yeah, we need to do the don't sue us?
Oh yes, so here's the thing.
This is for entertainment purposes, Holy Solemn, which means like child, do not sue us because you got to reach out to your doctor, yoloya, your financial advisor. We're not none of those things, which is two super cut brown girls on the interwebs just talking our talk, you know, not giving advice, just talking and giving a little entertainment aka Sue your Grandma not us.
Thank you?
All right, let's jump on in here. Instagram user Jalisa says I love the show, keep them coming, please and thank you.
Question?
Is it smart to have a home equity line of credit on standby in the event that you need it? We bought our house almost three years ago, and I'm not sure that we have a ton of equity just yet, but I heard a financial advisor on IG talking about it. Thoughts love y'all.
Well all those IG advisors.
Wow, maybe it was someone really good. But yeah, I actually I actually am considering doing just that.
So okay, well let's tell the people what is a he lock.
A home equity line of credit is basically turning the equity in your home into a piggybank. But don't get a twisted it is a loan. And it took me ages to sort of like understand what a second mortgage was. This is a second mortgage because you are taking out a loan against the value of your home. But the specific thing here is that it's the value of your home minus your loan balance. So like, if you have
one hundred thousand dollars of equity in your home. Meaning if you owe one hundred thousand dollars on your loan, but your home is appraised for two hundred thousand dollars, that means you have one hundred thousand dollars of equity.
And the other thing didn't understand about a home equity line of credit specifically, because there is such thing as just a home equity loan, which is when you will get a lump pay, a lump sum deposit of like, okay, we're going to give you, like, let's say again, your equity is one hundred thousand dollars. Lenders will some of them may give you up to like eighty percent of yours of your equity as a lump sum, but it can vary by lender. But let's say it's eighty thousand dollars.
You can get that as a one lump sum payment. A home equity line of credit is you'll have that eighty thousand dollars available to you to use, and you'll have something called a draw period, which is basically how much time during this time window of time I think it's like five to ten years something like that, where you can actually use that line of credit like a credit card to pay for things around your house, whether it's home upgrades, consolidating debt, buying a car, whatever it
may be. You can use the money for whatever you want. They're also usually a lot lower, lot less expensive than credit card dead or other forms of borrowing because and this is the big thing, your home is securing it. So the same with your first mortgage on your home. If you default on your payment for that loan, you could lose your home. So on the flip side of that, because the bank knows they're going to get something, they
leave in here with something you don't. Yes, they're leaving there with something, and that's something is going to be the roof over your head. So they give you a cheaper interest rate. And I'm not surprised that she saw someone talking about it because so many homeowners like me who are stuck in a starter home but have a lot of equity. You know, it is an attractive option to sign up for a home equity line of credit.
You don't have to use it all at one time, but you have access to it like this, like Jalisa has said, and Tiffany, as you pointed out, in harder economic times, it may not be banks may not be as willing to loan to offer helocks, so.
Because they know the girl is going to be like, ah, let me go to my house, which is like a piggybank. So I'll share with you what my financial advisor, an Jelie, said she'd asked me.
She said, Tiviny, do you want to go ahead and get a helock? Think about it? And I was like why.
She said, well, bird on the street is you know, the people are worried about an upcoming recession, and when that happens, banks oftentimes take heelocks off the table because they know a lot of homeowners leaning on them, and oftentimes they lean in on them when they need it the most, which means you're likely not to be able
to afford to pay it back. So she said, if you think that you might need access, but I had a year's worth of emergency savings saved, so she was like, it's not something I'm suggesting, just something they could think about. If you think that you might need access to additional income, your additional money, you can get one holded and that way, if something really bad happens, you have this money. But because you have a year's worth of emergency savings, essentially
you have your emergency saving. Just wanted to put that out there because you also have to remember that oftentimes there are variable interest rates, which means the interest you know, the percentage that you pay on what you borrow, can go up and down. And then you know, and here's the thing. Sometimes there's closing costs and fees. So it's not just like you know a.
Lot of time there are I mean, it's just like when I saw I got a quote from a lender, and when I saw that, I was like, oh, this is this really is another mortgage, like the same stuff points and closing and origination costs, and yeah, it felt like that, and I'm like, oh, this is not just a casual little.
Yes, it's not something.
So it's really if here's what I would say, like, you know, something to consider. If you're like, you know what, we bought this house, it's probably worth significantly more.
I am a little bit worried about the job market, you know what.
Let me have this kind of like and I can trust myself not to just use it. Let me have this like money, this credit set aside that if something happens in the next couple of years, we'll have some money to kind of see ourselves through or if you're someone who because there's some like even tax benefits. If you're like, yo, we want to like renovate, they have to make it even better depending how you use your
your your he lock. The interest may be deductible if you use it to buy, build, or sustainably improve your home. And it requires a loan, so there might be some some tax benefits there too.
Just something to think about. There's no right or wrong, just information to make the right choice for you.
Yeah, I got a quote from a lender. It's better dot com. It's an online lender. It's just one of the easiest ones to get a nice little quote from if you're just curious what you might qualify for it so soft credit check. So I recommend playing around. But then you got to remember they're going to call you up every five minutes after you put in that. Okay, so put the there's a there's a special setting on your phone. Unrecognized numbers get sent to voicemail just preparing you.
Sorry to Jonathan for you're doing a great job, but I don't want to talk yet. The rate that I was quoted was eight point eight seventy five percent. Well, that's one like market rates are in these days, is it?
I thought mortgage? Wait, they're not under seven percent?
Yeah, I don't know. I wonder like what the differences between like what tends to be the difference between like a traditional like but they're both thirty year mortgages. But again that's based on my un my husband and my's unique financial situation. Are credit scores all of that. So I'm just sharing what my information is. And I haven't yet gotten a second quote, So Jonathan, chill out, okay, because I'm not.
It's its average luck rates between eight and ten percent.
Yeah, yeah, and it also matters how much you're borrowing. And this is just based on I think what does it say? Sixty five thousand dollars would be the line of credit. So that's based on that amount. And you can, just like a traditional mortgage, you can choose is it thirty year, fifteen whatever? Is it adjustable rate? Is it fixed rate? This is a fixed sorry, this is an
adjustable rate. And the hope, I mean my hope would be, uh, you know, as the Fed continues lowering rates, which they're trending in that direction, that maybe the rate wouldn't be going up, but I don't know that's the rate right now.
On average, at least in the state of New Jersey is like seven point three percent for thirty and six point three four fifteen.
So slightly higher.
Yeah, but I mean, you know yourself, if you're like yo, I'm in this position, you're a nurse chod or you are never going to be un a bluid. But maybe you're in a position where during the last procession or downturn you were let go and you know you have you know, a job that kind of tends to do that or a career that tends to do that. You might want to say, you know what, let's prepare ahead of time. So that was a really great question.
Helock, excellent. Just compare your rates, y'all, shop around. Keep Jonathan at bay All right, next question.
We gotta take a quick break.
Oh yeah, I got excited. Yeah, quick break.
And we're back. So what is our next question? Because you said it was in the DMS, right.
Oh no, oh, no, I made it up. That's right. So oh, this is a great time to plug the brand Ambition listener survey. Y'all, please go to the show notes. It's going to be a link to our survey there, or you can go to brand Ambition podcast dot com. At the very top of the page is a blue, bluish greenish banner that says, twenty twenty four listener survey. We haven't done one in a hot minute. I love
doing surveys because y'all leave such thoughtful feedback. And anyway, based on that initial survey results hot off the presses, we have about one hundred and fifty responses so far, and I wasn't surprised, but I was like, Okay, we're going to continue talking about this topic. A large percentage of our audience is struggling with credit card debt and
housing costs, So paying down debt. Out of the seven different sources of financial stress that we have here, housing costs, childcare, food, transportation, paying down debt was number one, with sixty four percent of listeners saying that was their biggest source of financial stress, and which was way more than any other topic. Housing
costs was a distant second with forty five percent. So because of that, and because we're heading into the holiday season, because Tiffany and gonna be here for November, we have to get her now right, we have to do a little talk about holiday spending when you are also navigating debt and I want some real tea real advice for listeners, because I know y'all are probably feeling like I am, like I still got to get these legos. So what do we do?
Well, here's some of the things that I recommend is that, like, literally, it sounds like silly, but you really do have to make a list, like making a list, chegging it twice, gonna find out if you know or not anyway, so truthfully, like if you know, okay, I'm gonna buy presents, irregardless.
I know that's not a real word, but we're black. Why is it? My present is re god list?
So then I want you to do it within parameters. I want you to say, Okay, I am willing to spend five hundred, six hundred one thousand whatever that is. That is within the parameters of although I have dead you know, I'm willing to do this.
And one of the best.
Ways to stay within those parameters, quite honestly, is to not go.
To the store. The store is.
Lack because when you go to the store, you're like, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, I don't want to be targeted home goods.
A child don't.
So instead, what you're gonna do is go sit your happy behind down in front of the computer.
Dora.
That's a computer for those of you who don't seakpa
like me and Mandy. All Right, So you're gonna see in front of your computer, and you're going to, like, you know, you're gonna like, you know, Auntie such and such, uncle, this person, whatever it is, and you're going to like create your list of what you're going to purchase and how much it costs, you know, so that way you can do your budget and your list off the same time at the in the safety of your home, and you're going to sign up for things like I love
It's not ebaits anymore racketin because racketon lets you get cash back and they'll find coupons. Honey has like a it'll allow you to see Honey racketing Honey. And there's a third one, Capital One has one too. These are pop ups that pop up on your screen when you get to the payment page and says, hey, we found coupons for you. So these are like coupon finders. And when I tell you, I would say a good fifty
to sixty percent of the time. Well, maybe I'm fifty to six per thirty to forty percent of the time, Like I will find a coupon. I just brought some jeans last night and it said, hey, you found a coupon. I said, okay, I pressed it. Fifty percent off coupon. I couldn't believe it that I didn't know of. And so this will allow you.
Yeah kind of luck.
Yeah, so it's because I use all three.
This cone has been expired.
Well, that's because I use all of them. Like I'm like, I have no loyalty. I use racketin, I use whatever the capital one is, and I use use honey.
So between the three of them, at least something.
It might only be a dialog off or free shipping or whatever, but something like thirty to forty percent of the time will pop up.
And so if you do that, it'll allow you to.
Say, Okay, I have outlined everything I'm buying for everyone. I know exactly what you know what I'm getting. Here are my discount and code, this is my budget. Boom, I'm done, you know. So that is one of the best ways that you can manage your holiday spending. Even if you're like I probably shouldn't buy this stuff, but
quite honestly, I'm doing it anyway. Something else to think about is that, like you can collectively decide with your family to do something different this year, so you can like, so my sisters and I started this some years back. I want to say, it probably has been over ten years now where we don't actually get each other because
there's five of us, so that's too many gifts. So instead on Thanksgiving we pull a name what we use this thing called ooh, it's like secret Santa dot com or something like that.
It's free umber you yeah, talking about it, yes, And so.
We just go on and we use the same one every year. Or Elfster I think that's what. Actually that's what I think. It's called elf Ster like elf but stir and so we go in and then it will everybody puts in their name and like kind of like the gifts they want, and then we collectively decide as sisters,
so as your family, what is the budget. So when things were tough, fifty bucks, when things are better, two hundred bucks, and so we'll decide this year what the budget is, and then we'll press like Elvester will email you secretly be like your person is.
Tracy, you know, and then it'll list all the things.
And what's so great is that if you use the same one, like we use Elvester every year, it will say you had Tracy last year, So they will purposely not give you.
The person for the year before, which is kind of nice, you know.
And then you're just like all right, and then we all know the budget. You know, I get my one person the thing and that's it. So that helps a lot too. You might say, we're actually not going to exchange gifts this year. How about everybody just brings bring their best dish that they make, and then we have like a holiday pot luck. So having the conversation ahead of time Thanksgiving is a great time because the family's all there could kind of decide how we're going to handle.
Gift giving this year. That's really really helpful, you know.
And to do that, but also too lean into your faves like social media. Typically your favorite brands are going to give away things or codes or whatever on social media, Twitter, whatever that they actually don't have on their site.
And so there are certain brands that I like to follow.
And I'm like, wait, they have twenty percent off, they have thirty percent off textless.
Yeah, oh yeah that textless is everything. Now.
The key though, is is that you don't want to overspend. That's why you want to have your list first. If you're like, oh, I'm going to get my sister these gap jeans, I'm going to get my brother, you know, this flute from whatever, I'm going to get whatever that is. It's like you want to get on the test list from the things that you actually want to purchase for people and not and and have your budget ahead of time so you're not overspending unnecessary Seven.
Well, can I share a tip, especially when you have a little kid. A huge hit for my family last year and then I'm gonna have Rio du again this year, is you can buy like a big bin of Legos for like thirty bucks, like five hundred Legos or whatever, and it comes with a little booklet of these most adorable little like figurines that you can build. And they don't take that much time. They're like for ages three
and up or whatever. And Rio made the cutest little Lego characters for everybody in the family, and we wrapped him up and he wrote and tears people just oh my god. Real Mamsmiley Face and Real Mania Rainbow Heart. Oh they loved it. So that was a really great way because I want Rio to like learn the power of gift giving because he's a great little griplin. So handmade gifts from the kiddos, you can get away with that when you got the cuties.
Okay, it's true. It's true.
And then also too, like like thinking about gifts in different ways, like you know, I mean it sounds kind of corny, but cha, I bet you many would love a gift. It was like, you get ten free babysittings this year. It's like, girl, holy done.
My god, that's a thousand dollars present. I mean ten times one hundred dollars. I mean, you know, so no one told about the babysitter tax have a happy marriage.
And so that's the thing.
So imagine, like with the people that you really really care about, is there service you can give instead of presents? You know, like, oh I can babysit, I could walk the dog, I can come over and do dishes, I can make dinner, you know, so consider doing that. But having the key with all things when it comes to money is having the conversation ahead of time and not just doing the thing, you know, so that way people understand like, hey, this year, I want to try something different.
How would you feel, everybody, family if I gave service this year? Oh I love that okay? Or like you know, like even when I go all my my girlfriends for like dinner, I'm like, all right, So how are we doing it?
Are we splitting evenly?
Do we have like a certain like stay under you know, the you know, the threshold having pre conversations about anything money, but especially about the holidays. It's really going to save you from a lot of frustration and heartache and heartbreak. Like Jenelle and I used to like say no gifts then instead we were just gonna go and go somewhere, you know, So that way it'd be like, Okay, no gifts.
Or if you are going to like, you know, slip up because you want to do something sweet, keep it under twenty five bucks or whatever, and then we would put the money in our travel account and then we would just have the best time.
So things to consider.
I was just sharing with our producer Tanya and Mandy that I just found out that if you are a Bonvoid member, which is free to join Bonvoid, is the reward program from Marriott. So Marriotte owns a bunch of not just the regular marriout that own a bunch of different hotels and properties. So you can sign up even
if you never even stayed at the Marriotte. But if you use Uber uber eats and you connect your free Bonvoi membership to your Uber uber eats, do you know you can earn like a night stays, so.
You could earn points.
So one of the ways too, if you're so like me, I get so many points that that also might be a gift too. Like my sister is going to Nigeria this year and I was like my gift to her is I was like, I had so many points, we were able to find a really cheap flight.
We use points.
I have American Express on my business and so we were able to use this website called points do me that is basically an algorithm for American Express points, and it said, for you to go from New York to Nigeria, here is the best flight where normally it would cost you on America Express dot com two hundred and fifty thousand points, but here's sixty thousand points. If you fly your France out of this area and so I was able to gift.
So if you're someone who also has points, that's a great gift too.
You know, we talked about points before, but you can literally give people travel with your points if you're someone who collects a lot of points too. So just some ways to think about the highday season in ways that don't have to be so stressful, and you don't have to be you know, you don't have to say I'm not doing anything. It's like no, you could just say I'm going to host a holiday party. And that's my gift to y'all.
Have the conversation, let your dad take you on an eight hour fishing trip. They'll be set.
You'll be set for the.
Next year at least. All RBA fan thanks for listening to the b a QA. We'll see you next time.
Bye bye,