Hey, hey, hey, oh the wine down. How are you feeling?
I'm feeling good. I can't believe next week I'm gonna be leaving to visit my family for the holidays already. And like Christmas is that Sunday this year? Is it a Sunday or a Monday? Christmas Eves a Sunday? I think, wow, yeah,
it's all happening. I feel like this is like the I feel like everyone out there, if you're working, this is to take a deep breathed week, because it's like you're looking at the calendar and you feel like you're in like the you know the movie scene where like the walls are pressing in on you and you're like you're gonna get Like that feels like what's happening right now because you're like, oh my god, I have to get everything done before ye Christmas time, and I'm not
gonna make it. I'm gonna die. This is where I'm gonna die.
I'm dead, yeah exactly. I feel like my ghost is right here. This is my ghost. This is not my real person, and this is my ghost. I'm like, I don't know. Every year that I do the challenge, my liverature challenge, around this time. I'm like, why did I choose this end of the year like again, because on top of everything else, it's like people are winding down and the challenge is making us wind up. You know.
Yeah this is and people stop instoring their email this time of year. It's hard to get stuff done this time of year. But I know, I said, I'm fine. Maybe I'm not fine, you know what I am? I am fine because I feel like that training I did last week, I have literally I don't know. I've just been so at peace being back at work, Like nothing's really changed in terms of my workload, but my perspective
has shifted a little bit. I just keep reminding. I just keep saying to myself, like I have internal dialogue, and I'm like, you can't do everything today. It's just not possible. You can only do a few things a day. I love one of the one of the things that are And for those of you who didn't listen to last week's show, I was at a week long training at the pointer Or Institute, which is this really renowned
organization that trains journalists around the country. UH with any national Association of Black Journalists, but anyway, like one of the things. So one of our mentors was Mizelle Stewart, who runs USA Today, the entire network of one hundred newspapers, and he looked at us and he was like, when you get to work, you have to ask yourself, what is it that only I can do when you're like prioritizing your day? And I was like, that is I
don't know. It really clicks something in me because I feel like, and especially if you're bad at delegating, you get to your work, you get to the office and you immediately start at least okay, I'll just talk about myself here. I immediately will start looking at my to do list, and I'm doing a bunch of stuff for other people and helping other people or doing things that other people on the team could be doing on their own.
And I'm like pushing, I'm putting off things that only I could be doing that are like more high level because I'm like getting stuck on the small stuff that I should be delegating. And when he said that, I literally I got to work yesterday, what today is Tuesday? Yesterday and today? And I was like, what can only
I do? And it really has helped me be less frazzled at work, Like instead of getting to the office and editing and editing all the stories that I have a managing editor to help me with, I focused on big level things like higher and we have two open positions right now, and I really need to like get through resumes and get interview set up, and I focus on doing that first instead of the little shit that I would do in the morning, you know, like the
small stuff. And I just like, just by flipping my day around, I just felt less like harassed and less stressed. And I'm like, dang, that was that. That whole week just changed my entire like mentality around how I'm working. And I'm really really excited for to like start rolling out some changes at the office slowly so they don't get overwhelmed.
They're like, oh, god, she went to a conference, you know, but it's no.
I know, we were all laughing about that. We're like, what you what you're not going to do is get there and start spreading the gospel right away. They're going to think you're like a zealot, but we're like, we're talking the people who did the thing and were like strategizing. So on the first day, I'm only going to do
this like today, I just brought it. I bought a massive point SETA because her office is so white and so stark, and I'm always like complaining about it, so drabbing here, and I'm like, why don't I just do something about it? And I bought this massive point SETA and the whole thing just cheered everything up. Everyone's like, oh, look at this, and you know it's just that little thing. Little they know there's more coming.
Are really are really pretty. I love point settus cool. Just they just they just add like a nice little holiday touch. So I you know, I spoke at that that women's conference, the Massachusetts Wmen's Conference is one of the largest conferences in the in the nation, and everybody was like, how Mayby, I said, Hi, I love my ambition. I'm like what. It was so awesome. Honestly, it was so awesome how many women there listening to brown ambition? Because I just feel like I'm talking to you, And
I was like, what you listen? They're like every week or like, people just reiterating the things that like, you know, we shared like and then tell many I said this, and don't worry about your surgery and did you get the house, I'm like, oh my gosh, you guys really listen.
That's so nice to hear.
Yeah, that was really awesome. I mean like honestly a bunch of women. I really was like, Wow, we really got some listeners out there.
One of the guys that came that was in the same training as us, he was like he was so quiet, and then I finally sat at his table and he was like, Mandy, I love Brown Ambition. I was like, who are you, Marshall?
What a Jamal another.
Jamal Marshall from good old Birmingham, Alabama. When now he's in Atlanta. I was like, thank you Marshall. That's so nice.
Wow. You just never know, like, yeah, I just love that when people come up to me and say that. I'm just like, so do the more, because you know, it makes such feel good to know that we're out here in these streets and people are listening and appreciating.
Yeah. So you've got the Liverature Challenge coming up.
Yes, this is I'm really excited because I really try to listen to what people from the previous challenge today because we always ask survey questions like you know, what did you like well, didn't you, like, what do you want to learn? And it seemed like the theme for Dreamcatchers for twenty seventeen was really like make more money, side hustle, that kind of thing, and so I kind of decided that I was going to elevate that to net Worth. So this is a net Worth edition.
And this is the challenge third or fourth year.
Fourth this is the fourth year, so I'm like ooohoes. And so the challenge is free like it always is, and it's three weeks of daily tasks delivered to you via your email. It should be up hopefully by the time this is live at LRC for liverat or Challenge
Networth dot com, So LRC network dot com. It starts live January first, So you sign up, you'll get like a confirmation email, then like a survey to like a registration survey to fill out, and then starting January first, we will all be getting the same emails together every morning and we'll work through all of the tasks. If there's twenty two tasks, we'll work through them together. And the task will lead you to like a plan toward
having a stronger network. So networth is less debt, more assets, and so that's what I want for you for twenty eighteen.
Fabulous. I might need to get on this challenge this year might be my challenge.
I'm so excited about it, and so I told myself because it is such a beast, I don't think people realize all the moving parts. Even now, we're still you know, scrambling to get things together in time. But I decided that, so I'll do five challenges, So this will be the
second to last one. I'll do the fifth one, and then what I'll do is we'll just we'll revamp the first one and do them in order again, so we'll still do them every year, but I'm not going to come up with a brand new one because it's just honestly, like, I love doing it because it's free, and like I said, I continue to do it, but the it is so labor intense, like it's just nothing like it and I'm like,
all right, like I feel like passing out right now. Yeah, So I just said, you know what, one more challenge and then we'll just loop start from the beginning, like, okay, fundamentals, then the Savings Edition and the Credit edition, the net Worth and whatever the fifth one will be and we'll just every five years we'll start the loop all over again, so we can continue to serve, but in a way that doesn't like kill me personally.
What do you get for completing all five challenges? Ooh?
Why you should get something? You should get like some sort of gold star thing.
You should get a little badge like in brownies.
Yeah, you should. That should be dope. But I have to figure that.
Out, Like, yeah, one more thing for you to do. Figure that out.
You know when people tell you that, they'll say like stuff like, oh, tivity real quick, and I'm like, uh, there's no such thing. It's real quick because I have to stop what I'm doing, do the thing that you ask, and then somehow get back you know. So yeah, I mean, such his life.
Well, I'm excited for the Liberature Challenge. What is that? Lrcnetworth dot com mm hmm holla. What else is happening in the world.
I don't know. I'm not even gonna lie. I have not been like on like social media too much. I know the New Year's coming now.
Yeah, the holidays are coming. I can't Yeah, I've I kept I talked a big game about not wanting to do gifts and I do this, I might do this every year, like I should know myself by now, like Christmas is stupid. It's not about gift giving. Why are we doing this? And then I'm like, oh oh, but I like this for that person, and I like this for this person, and I just love giving gifts. I can't stop, like throughout the year even I just love
sending stuff to people. I mean, I'm not going to go crazy, but my family we did decide we're going to do white Elephant instead of everyone gets a gift. Because we're like adults now and nobody has kids. It feels kind of silly to get your adult siblings something for nothing. Do you know White Elephant.
Yeah, that's like when everybody gets like a general gift and then you kind of like pick from it.
Right, Yeah, it's really fun. Well, it's like white Elephant or Yankee Swap, and it's where everybody brings a gift, and it's like you want the gift to be kind of quirky, but something that you still would want for yourself. Like, don't do what my little brother did in Christmas of two thousand and nine when he brought laundry detergent balls as a gift like did not fail. That failed that everyone Christmas. Everyone was like I've never seen my mom was so mad. They got in the biggest fight. So
bring a good gift. Yeah yeah, but then you like draw numbers and then you you pick the gifts in order and you can steal from each other and it's like really fun.
Oh that's why I think I've seen that part. But I still honestly that link that you gave me draw names dot com it's still bay. It is like the best thing awesome. So my sisters and idly love it. So I have my person even though. So the fun thing about draw names one it's free and two because like where it's just the five of us, So I can go in and be like same list as last year. And the only rule is like that you can set the rule. The rule is I cannot get the same
person I got last year. So when we used to like we used to literally meet up for Thanksgiving and pull names from a from a hat, but then you might still get the same person again, you know. Yeah, and you know so with this no, you know, you definitely don't get the same person and they get to update. Like so for example, the system that I have. Apparently every day she decided something new that she wants. So every time they update their list of what they want,
you get an email. I'm like, really, dude, oh.
You can put a list of things that you want on there.
Yeah, so you can put like your your you could put like your what is it called. You're like, so first you put your budget and then you're like, oh, you know, I have whatever amount of money, you know, fifty I think we did fifty dollars for our budget. And then I said, you can, you know, write down three to five things that you want you want like that would be within that budget. And like, I feel like every day it's like it'll send me a message
like hey, your secret sad person updated they're giftless. I'm like, really, I'm like, decide one thing. So hopefully she's yeah, she's picked out what she wanted. But honestly, I just love it because it makes it easier. I'm just gonna hopefully. I think I'll try to order something today from Amazon for her, and I think she'll love it because, you know, do something she picked out.
Do you want to know my trick for getting gifts for husbie. So it's kind of creepy and I probably could get in trouble, but it does. It's not I'm not doing it because I don't trust him. I literally just think this is the best way to find out what your significant other wants is to just look at their browser history. Like he's so, I know, I know, I like, I know it could go the other one. I know it's like terrible, but it works for us
because my husband's so boring. There's nothing interesting in there. It's just like shoes, pants, suits.
Like I'm not kidding, I'm pretty sure I know it's in Superman. Is that in cars? I'm not buying him.
A car, but I like, I don't like to ask people what size they wear. I really want them to be truly surprised. So for me, it's like I can go into search history. I can see what size he was looking at, what color, what pattern he was looking at for his hope he's not listening.
I have.
I mean, I seriously, I've When we first started dating, I tried to find the dirt. There is no dirt. He's just like the straight and narrow anyway. So but if the thought of checking your significant others browser history like sends you into hives. Maybe don't do it, but for me it works. You could also do what we used to do, which was like use pinterest and pin stuff, but uh, this works too, And now I can see all the ridiculous things he looks up on YouTube, Like,
I had no idea. He was looking up like fifteen different videos on how to iron, how to clean and iron.
Wow, I'm not kidding. Ah, go leave right would be a bad influence on him.
I'm like, uh, keep him apart, keep him apart.
No, that's actually that's a good idea.
Though. I also feel like this is the time of year when we all reflect on what we're going to do. You know, as cliched as it is, it is nice to like take a deep breath and look at the year ahead and think about things we're going to do in our lives. Plans, we have, goals, we have. Do you want to talk about some of your I mean, I don't want to say that our word, but some of your goals or ambitions for twenty twenty eighteen.
Yes, So probably my biggest obviously is to have my house finally. I'll just when we finally get it, that's when I'll play you guys, because I'm over it, but yes, to have my house and hopefully have the second house working on and I'm going to wait to give to give the blow by blow when that's finally done as well, but to have two houses by next year, and to
take of course the businesses to the next level. But really my most exciting project for me, I really want to launch my children's book project, and so that's like my biggest desire for twenty eighteen. It's for me to fully launch the Molly More book series, which will teach pre financial education to kids three to six. And I'm so excited about it. I even figured out, like I was talking to a friend of mine. She was like, oh,
how do you spell Molly? I said, well, I was gonna spell at m O l y, but that was taken well because there's actually like a Molly More, like a journalist who's named that, and so I didn't want to take that name, and so I decided m m O ll i E. And she's like, oh, because my daughter has a best friend and she spells her name Molly m Ali like the African country, and I was like, oh, so shall I. It was like a life all moment,
and so how dope is that? Because I really want Molly Moore to be like the door the Explorer, you know, like the next door of the Explorer, this little cute brown girl with the fro, and her name is Molly, but it's m A l I, So her name is Molly Moore. Of course I ran and I jumped, and I got mollymore dot com, I got you know, her Instagram, her Twitter, all of it. So so I just excited because I'm just like, oh my gosh, she just gave me like the best idea. And so that's my big like
goal for twenty and eighteen. It's you know, of course I have financial goals, but to me, I feel like I've I've accomplished most of my financial goals. Now I'm really wanting to make like some deep seated changes in our community through some projects. And that's my biggest one.
M I can't wait for Molly Moore.
I think she's gonna be so adorable. I'm gonna like when it's like, you know, closer to I'll share the picture. Well, I'll share the picture of you anyway, because you know we're friends. But I think I think you think she'll so she's so adorable.
Well from a fellow last year. First name, so with an eye. I appreciate that she's going to have Molly with an eye, Yes, Molly.
What about you?
Well, I actually have you. Guys know. I'm working on a book, a novel that I've been working on for a while, so my but I don't think i'll probably finish it realistically in twenty eighteen. But my goal is definitely to keep working on it. This time last year, I had the idea for the book, and I'm at least proud to say that I did not like I've actually stuck to it and it hasn't changed so much because I've had like a gajillion ideas before and I just never really do anything with it. But I'm still
I'm still trucking away. It's going to probably take another year, probably a couple more years. But one of my goals
is just to consistently write outside of work. But I don't think I'll be able to do that unless I hit my other goal, which is to continue to improve myself as a manager at my office so that I actually have something left to give to my to my to the things that made me happy after work, because I come home, and I'm so tired, and like, if you're staring at a computer and you're writing and typing all day, the last thing you want to do is come home and do that some more. And I can't.
I don't really have anything to give to my like creative projects outside of work. But I think, like I'm not kidding when I like, I just feel like things are starting to click. I'm getting much better at dealing with you know, becoming a manager and building a team and stuff, and I just feel like the better I become, the more energy I'll have for everything else in my life. So that's one of my primary goals. Financial goals, financial goals,
financial goals. I know everyone's like word a house at because you know, my husband really wants a house. I wouldn't call that a goal for sake, because I'm still like not into the idea. But I guess we're going to buy a house next time. I mean, I guess it's probably going to happen. But I feel really prepared, So I guess my goal is to like not screw that up, like, don't do anything in my find, you know, because mortgage like mortgage lenders, I know you didn't get
a mortgage. But for people who get mortgages, like any little thing you do with your money, like the six months before you apply for a mortgage, you know, like it can easily throw your application off and ruin things for you, like anything like transferring a big sum of
money into your savings. Like let's say your parents give you help with the down payment and not like minor, but just in case you guys have like a family who's giving you a gift like five thousand dollars or whatever, if you just put that in the bank, you know, a month before your sets to close, that can really
throw your application at a whack. And because they don't want to see any sort of large transaction happening close to one you're about to close in your loan, Yeah, opening new credit, Like I'm thinking about this kind of stuff, Like I'm not opening any new credit. We're done. This is our credit cards, the new Uber visa cards out. I don't care not getting it. I don't want to. I'm just trying to like make sure we have a
clean report card so we're in good shape. And at least that part, I know, you know, Like there's so much more stuff that can go wrong when you're buying a house, so I'm just trying to make sure the mortgage process at least it's so yeah, yeah.
Because that can really hold you up. So like something actually wrote me today like, hey, I opened a bank account with Ally, a savings account, and my credit score dropped three points. So I'm like, uh, pretty sure that that's not related. But I said, you know, you know, I said, well, let me just check, because it threw me for a loop. She seemed like upset, like you said Ally wasn't gonna do a hard pool. I'm like, safets accounts don't do hard pools. Let's say you know what.
Let me. I was like text chatting with Ally just to be on the safe side, and they said they do check obviously, credit check systems, which is what I call the Nana Naboo boo of like banks where banks if you overdraft and don't pay and all this kind
of stuff, they can report you to check systems. And that's where banks checks to see if you've been put on the detention list and they won't let you into their bank, right And so you know, they were like, yes, we check check systems, but that check does not affect your credit score. So I don't know why her credit score drop eight points, but it wasn't because you open a savings account. So and I think people always get confused.
You find that that people get confused, Like somebody will say, so, Tiffany, how many points will I gain if I do this? And I'm like, yeah, that's how that works, because your credit is like you're literally like your financial GPA, like in school. So that's like saying, if I get an A and RT, what's my GPA for the year going to be? Well, it all depends on the other classes, and not just the classes from that semester, but the classes from the previous years. So your credit score is
really just your financial GPA. So there's no way for one single person to tell you if you do this one thing. These are exact number of points you're gonna get that It's an average of all of your financial choices. So all I can say is the more the better. If you can multiply the number of financial choices, like do more positive financial choices then negative will, then your score is going to go up. There's no number that somebody can choose for you.
Yeah, and also she shouldn't. I mean, there's so many things that could have caused an eight point drop on her score, Like I'm sure if she was checking her score in like credit CARDMA or whatever. If those websites even change the way that they calculate scores, it could have a marginal impact on scores on the estimate that you're getting, So it may not even be something that you've done. Or maybe she like spent more on her credit card this month and her utilization rate it went
up a little bit. But also, like eight points, I don't think anyone should be following their credit score to where they're like, oh my god, it moved up and down one point. Yeah, I don't think that that is productive at all.
It's not. And I mean, well, I'll say this that if you're on the CUSP, so anything above really like seven forty seven fifty, you're going to get the best interest rate. So if you have a seven forty exactly and you lose eight points right before you're about to apply for a mortgage, I can understand. But let's just say you have seven seventy eight points, like you're not going to get like a less of a great interest rate because you're eight points. It's like basically like if
you are in the minuses. So if you're getting an A, B minus or C minus in in credit, then yes, you're on the cuff. And like, eight points can definitely bring you down the grade level. But if you're solidly in A, then you're gonna be fine.
Yeah. Was she solidly in A? Or was she like on the cusp of good and best?
She didn't say. She just said tivioty. I wasn't sure she.
Was your fault.
She said, you said Ally was good. I signed up and I dropped eight points, and I'm like, I'm.
Not related at all, but.
I think so let me let me take a screenshot of my conversation with Ally, and so I did, and I was like, hey, so I'm sure you did drop eight points, but likely wasn't because of the savings account.
Man, hey, I've created a monster. Actually, and my husband has better credit than me. Now his scores higher than mine. It's not there. It's my fault. It's really my fault. I mean, it's not fair, but also was my fault when we got when we got our auto loan, we paid the car off, but when we got the auto loan, it was just in Enriquez name and at the time, I was like, this is just going to be your thing. I want nothing to do with this vehicle. I don't care.
I don't care. And I think that it really helped his mix of credit, and I think that's what's giving him an edge, and I don't have I don't have a good mix of credit on my file. Like damn, okay, I really messed myself up. I mean, it's time. But he sure is strutting around the house with his eight hundred credit score just just loving it, just loving And at.
One point he had his credit because my credit score for a long time was like stuck at like seven thirty, seven forty, and I got him to seven fifty and because I had like mark foreclosure and so now that even my foreclosure is like in its last leg, I'm an eight oh two two now now that I don't know if it's fallen off or like basically it's not affecting it like the way it used to. So I'm like, yay, I'm back where I should be. On tap.
Seven years goes by so fast. Everything I did with my bad with my credit was about seven years ago when I first got when I graduated college, well, I guess I was like eight years ago, but I'm finally. The reason on my score is like been so high is because I miss, like, you know, get out of college. You miss your first few student loan payments, and it really screwed me up for then, it screwed me up, but it was like holding me back all this year, and it's been really nice to see those drop off.
Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I think a lot of people do like in your because now once you get into your thirties, hopefully you've left those ways behind. Well, I mean, let me not say that, because Lord knows, I've made mistakes of my thirties.
You need customers, don't you.
Yeah, I know, and I've made mistakes of my thirties, and I continue to just less mistakes. We'll just say that, the.
Less big mistakes.
Yeah, are we ready to brown break or brown booth oose?
So ready?
Are you gonna rake or to boost?
I want to boost. I want to boost a young man who is only twenty four years old, and I cannot freaking believe it. But have you been seeing Chance the Rapper just like saving the world?
No, I haven't. No, I mean a little bit. I know that he gave a million dollars to Chicago school system.
Yeah, but like recently, I mean, yes, he did that and that was a big deal. But he just doesn't stop, like when is he going to run for president? And also how was he twenty four years old? Twenty four, twenty four? I mean, I just want this. I feel like he's being I don't know, it's just amazing, but he So the story this week was that he went to a Chicago high school and surprised all the kids with Jordan sneakers, which.
I so cool. I know, you're like, right, I'm like, is that a is that a thing? I guess, I'm right, kids like Jordan's right.
I guess. I mean, I'm glad he didn't start off by giving the kids Jordan's like, he actually put money into the school system first, you know, sending the right message. But I just I think, you know, he's like a rare bright spot in all the media lately, and my little brother is a huge chance the rappers stands. So I'm trying to pander to him a little bit with this brown Boost So brown boost do good celebrities.
Yeah, that is awesome. Well mine is gonna be well, actually, mine is gonna be a boost to Alexa. I actually put this on our brand ambition page on Facebook. Plug Plug check it out. So Alexa is one of those like what would you call those like Echo Alexa, you know, like those like AI.
She's like a personal assistant, an electronic personal assistant. It's like a little device that sits in your house and you can tell it to do stuff.
Yes. So if you ask Alexa Alexa, do black lives matter? How Alexa is? Well, Alexa said, yes, black lives do matter, and that it's a movement, that it's that it's a movement that's been created because of the way our country has treated African Americans currently in its history. And some folks are angry but serious. Cousin is well, yes.
Oh my god, I want to go ask her right now. We have an Alexa I know.
Do you want me to play it?
Yeah?
Yeah, okay, let's we can play it. It's really fast, and I was like, ah, this is awesome. Okay, let's see Alexa. We're okay. So here I'm about to it's just booting up on my computer.
Dora, Wait, you have Alexa on your computer?
No, No, I'm just I'm just like it was an article on the route and they have just like the I guess the little snippet. Okay, yes, I'm just gonna pull it us.
I could just go in my living room and talk to her right now, right, let's see what happened. Yeah, I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna I'm gonna we're gonna travel, guys, because I'm recording from home today. I'm gonna play this real quick. Okay, let's see if she's obedient today.
Just say it's do black lives matter?
Hey, Alexa? Do black lives matter?
Black lives and the Black Lives Matter movement absolutely matter. It's important to have conversations about equality and social justice.
Mic drop Alexa.
Yo, Alexa, I'm gonna make you a plate with neckbone with all the delicacy of African American heritage and history. You get neckbone greens with neckbone, you get college Canny yams, corn bread, macaronia chiese. No, you get the corner of macaroni cheese, you get peach cobbler. What else that are so delicious that you can only.
Get, like potato pie?
What Alexi, you get? We're gonna put you a plate aside and I'm not gonna let anybody take it. I'm gonna hide it just for you, Alexa. So when you come to the barbecue, we got you. I'm gonna make you some jellyfries, okay for the West African and you Alexa. Yes, is that so dope?
Yeah?
I want to give Alexa. Yeah. I want to do a boost for Alexa because that is pretty amazing.
Whoever, what's Yeah, it's an Amazon product, Jeff Bezos be woke.
Well, you know, there's a lot of things I can say about Amazon, but I'll give him that just because I'm feeling in a good mood.
You shop at Whole Foods. I just recently went there. I have not noticed a difference in the prices, Like it still feels really expensive at Whole Foods.
It does because I brought like sparkling water, some sushi, some vegetarian sushi, and like something else. I was like seventy dollars.
Well, like lit at the worst when you go for like a couple of things that don't even make sense together, like you can't make a meal lot of it, and you still spend like seventy dollars.
I was like, wait, five began cookies this sushi and like it was really so random, and I was like, I feel like I should have a car. I didn't even know what to put back because I'm like, well I don't I don't know what to do. Yeah, Whole Foods is definitely really really expensive. I still don't go full fledged food shopping there. I just do like few things. But I do find a new burger that I want to try called Beyond Burger. Have you have you heard of that? Uh?
Is it a vegan burger?
It is, it's supposed to be really good, so we'll see.
Hmmm. I haven't you know what those those vegan like the vegetar the veggie burgers kind of saved me out, Like there's always like a green color like orange or something like not natural.
Well, Beyond Burger actually looks like a burger. It's sizzles supposedly, like so the guy who made it on burger is it even it even bleeds. It's not bleeding, no, no big juice. It's beet juice and so just a.
I can't.
It's plant based and there's no soy, and so I like I heard about it because I was listening to how I built this and like the the founder was all talking about like he wanted to create a plant based burger that actually tasted like a burger. And so I said, you know what, I'm going to try it. And the folks that Hopefool was when I picked it up, they were like, oh my gosh, you're gonna love it. It's so oh good. You You're gonna think you're eating
a burger. I'm like, shut up. So if I like it, then when I go to the cookouts, I'll bring my own burgers with me.
You're gonna be like a beat bloodied bag. They're gonna laugh. Throw this on the grill.
Right like t my beat burger on the girls. I'm telling you, if it's delicious, people.
Say you are a millennial at heart?
Is that very millennial my beat burger?
Come on? Yeah? Yeah? But I mean, yeay, healthy, very good veganism all about it. That's hey, Jennifer Lopez is a vegan. So you're steps closer than I am to my goal of becoming j low Ah.
We've gotten so far away. Brown Break, Brown Booth got back and we're gonna answer some questions.
We're gonna answer a question a question, and this is my official request. Send us your questions for the new year. We're going to be taking I guess, I guess. So we're not gonna have a sure way. We're gonna have a show next week. Happy our last show of the new year.
Yeah right, because yeah we should right, yeah.
Yeah, that's right. So the next week, the twentieth, the last show, and then we'll be gone for a couple of weeks after that. So if you have burning questions, now is your time send them. Send them to Briannambition Podcast at gmail dot com, or you can visit us at Brannhambition podcast dot com. It's a handy little tab called ask us Anything. It'll also get your questions to us and maybe we'll do like some naked a question to answer show for the new year.
Okay, that sounds good, but.
For now, we have one question for tonight. So this is from Deshaan to Anne, which is an amazing name. Thank you for your question. She says, I'm trying to climb my way out of debt before it buries me. So I make what I so, I make what I feel as decent money for a single person with no kids, fifty dollars annually. But like most Americans. I'm living check to check. I'm not sure on I'm not sure about where I can cut back in order to build up my savings. I honestly feel as though it's my high
bleep car. Note she's real comfortable with us, and I appreciate that. With my car, Note, how do I successfully get out of the car and into another car? How do I maximize my income to build savings and pay off my debts? Any advice is appreciated. I'm seeing. Yeah, we've gotten a few auto loan questions lately. I feel like it feels like there's you know, a lot of people are talking about like the auto loan bubble and how it's getting as bad as almost not as bad
as the mortgage crisis from before. But like so many people are like drowning an auto loan debt and feel like they can't get out.
Yeah, so.
Fifty k doesn't say where she lives. But fifty k is a decent income, especially if we don't have any kids.
Yeah, but not in New York, New Jersey. You know what it could be.
What's the least amount of money you've made living in New York, New Jersey.
The least amount of money I made was about thirty thirty five thousand dollars a year.
And I was living at home, that's my number. But I was a renting an apartment.
Oh, you were running an apartment.
I'm like, I made thirty five k my first because I yeah, my second job in New York, thirty five k, I say, there for fifteen months. I think I got one raise maybe to like forty two K or something like that. But I made it.
Like I remember, but you didn't have a car because you were in New York, right.
No, didn't have a car, did pay rent and like bills and student loans and all that kind of stuff. But I think it's doable. I think for her, the first step is going to be she says, I'm not sure where I can cut back to start building up. I think you got to start by writing down, like just getting real with yourself and writing down exactly what's going out and what's coming in, and find out where the most of your money is going. Maybe it is your car note that's eating up most of your income.
If that's the case, maybe it's time to sell it.
Yeah, I was thinking that sell it.
And downsize to a more affordable car. Get it, get it, get a what do you call it? A beat up car?
Yeah? Or just like you can you can get like a decent car for like five to six K. You know, like you can because I definitely have. But if if your car note is like your biggest kind of concern, then you might have to basically take the l and do that, because I like, unless you're going to pay that card for the next five or six years, and that's a significant amount of time not to have excess money to invest and grow.
Well, yeah, she says, how do I maximize my income to build savings and pay up debt? I mean this she needs to join the Liverture challenge for this.
Yeah, that's true.
This is net income. This is exactly what net income is. It's like, how do you how do your only way you're going to increase your net income is if you start earning more or you're in decreasing your debt, saving more and decreasing your debt. I think the first step is cutting back expenses, cutting down that car note, trading into trading down into a more affordable car is one
clear thing you can do. I doesn't say what she does for work, but maybe look for additional sources of income or look at moving jobs to see if you can get a promotion or a raise where you have more money in the bank on top of like cutting your expenses at the same time.
Yeah, because you know, net worth truly is that it's cutting down on the debt in which you pay out and increasing what you make. So doing those two things together, like it's that's ideal because you really can't save your way to weal, not really, you have to save then invest and make more, you know, And so yeah.
Yeah, I love that. And you also can't coop on your way to wealth either. You can't just like trim expenses until you're living out of a you know, in a tent in the forest, Like it's not realistic. Yeah, I think if some people, like I think, you get caught up like with the penny pinching and the small stuff, which is like important, and it certainly if you're you know, if you're really struggling to make ends meet, it matters.
But at a certain point you got to turn the other way and not just focus on making what you work with. But how can I gain more wealth and how can I build something else and bigger?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, and sometimes it's like, honestly, like there are moments when you have to make decisions where they're just like, uh, the one that's not great and one that's really not great. It's like, you know what I mean, Like sometimes that's what it looks like. But taking a step back does really sometimes help you take a step forward.
I mean, Mandy and I both have had to really take significant kind of like cuts to the kind of life that we wanted to live at the moment so we can have the life we wanted to live moving forward.
And there's nothing wrong with that, you know. I lived in a room for a few years because I wanted to be able to have excess money to put toward my business, and now I'm buying two homes, you know, and so like know, so it's I've learned to welcome kind of like the trend back because I know that it also comes with the leap forward if I do it right.
Yeah, I moved in with my mother in law for eight months.
So yeah, exactly.
Oh that was a sacrifice. I mean, no, that's they came out badly. It was awesome, but it was definitely a step down from the freedom we had living in our two bedroom apartment to living in you know, my husband's childhood bedroom. Wow, that that was a that was an experience. But we had a beautiful wedding and still has savings in the bank and assume we will be buying a house that I don't want. So yay, thanks for your question. D I have it. We have another
email from our listener. It's not a question, but she did she had something to share her So her name is Krista. Thanks for emailing as Krista. She says. This is in regards to so last week, Tiffany, you talked about Headspace. Yeah, and you just found out that, like Headspace is only free for a certain amount of time, right, Yeah. I was like, yeah, yeah, so this is just maybe I'll start sharing because you guys do send us some really nice notes sometimes that aren't questions, but I still
think it's fun to share them. So Christa says Tiffany, I tried Headspace, but I ran into the same issue instead. I decided I like the Calm app at c ALM. There are paid versions, but I find sufficient. I find this one sufficient at the free version. I also love that you both talked about professional development in the workplace. And receiving feedback even though you work in the for profit space. My favorite tool of nonprofit management has a
lot of applications. It's a book called Managing to Change the World by Green and Hauser. They run the Management Center Excellent Tools. Thank you for all you do. You make my week brighter.
Wow, I love that. Okay you said the commap. I'm definitely going to download that because honestly, I have to say headspace has worked just I don't know, it's like a really great tone for the day for the most part. I mean, you know, of course you have to day like it. We're just like, oh, kill me, I'm dead. My ghost is talking. But then you know, but it just is a I want to continue to kind of have that meditation down time every morning, and so I
can't wait. I think someone else. I feel like Drina, my best friend and my publisher. I think I feel like I told her headspace costs money and she was like, oh, I like the comment to her. I feel like she said that same app So great minds think a light.
Thanks thanks Christa. And the book is Managing to Change the World, The Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Getting Results Dope thanks to recommendation. Yeah, if you guys have recommendations for books you're reading or apps that you like to use, it help you with your finances or your career or anything like that, you should definitely let us know. Send
us an email at Briannambition podcast dot com. You can tweet us or hit us up on Facebook at the Brown Ambition Podcast podcast pages, or check us out at Brannambition podcast dot com.
Yeah, I think it's Brondambisson's podcast at gmail dot com.
Right, what did I say?
You said, Bronambition podcast dot com. That's the website.
Oh my god. Yeah, you guys.
I know, I caught it and caught it, but honestly, I feel like the best place to go is briandhambitionpodcast dot com because you can click contact us, you can see all of our episodes and so everything is right there, all of our social media handles and channels and stuff. So that's like a great centralized location.
It's a one stop shop.
Mm hmm.
I ready wrap this up on our Wednesday with some winds wins.
Okay, so my win. So actually Angela, Oh what is Angela's last name? Angela cares? Oh, Angela, I can't remember your last name. She's an assemblywoman in Jersey City. Oh, Angela V. McKnight. She's an assembly women in Jersey City. Uh, maybe a year and a half, maybe even two years ago. She contacted me because she was newly elected, and she was like, I want to pass a law about financial education,
and I said, I know just the one. So she and I work on a law together because New Jersey already has a law where you have to learn financial education in high school. And I told her, honestly, it should start as young as elementary school, so elementary and middle school, that that should be a law. And so we wrote it and submitted it to there's all of these steps which I was learning, like it's basically like junior Civics class, but i'll spare you all the details.
It goes to all these committees and voted up and then voted up. So now it's finally going to the Senate committee, which is a pretty big deal because it's not too many steps after that. And so unfortunately I won't be able to testify or to kind of like speak because I'm going to be at a conference. But she's super excited because she's been really pushing for this. It's not a law yet, it's for it to become a bill. I think it's a I think is it a bill now, child, I don't know. I think it's
a bill. And then we're just basically pushing for it to become a law. And if it's going to happen, it will happen in January for it to officially become a law. So right now, like I said, it's gonna
go before Senate. I probably do some tweets and some posts about, you know, tweeting or emailing your your senator for those of you who kind of live in the Jersey area to tell them to vote for this law because it's just a good law that it would make it mandatory for them to be financial education for elementary and middle school. And I'm just like, woo hoo. So it's it's it's uh informally called the Budgetista law. I was like, yes, they couldn't call it that legally because
the Budgetista is a business. But I'm like, whatever, that's what we're calling it. So yeah, I'm just really excited because that's huge, you.
Know, huge, you it's huge. I don't know why I said that.
Oh my goodness, I needed that lap. It's huge, huge, So yeah, I just want to say thank you Angela v. Midnight for being such a champion for this. You know it could not have happened with Dallian. Thank you for like choosing me to work with you on it because you know my passion for financial education and because we can get the kids. Uh Like, all it takes is one generation of like well financially educated children to shift a whole community and culture. And so that is my aim.
I believe that.
Let that lead the way. Remember everybody knew that song from beginning to end.
I can't say that I do anymore, but I definitely know the beginning. Awesome. So I'm gonna win. I feel like Pixar has become my therapists. They just teach me how to feel, you know what I mean. And I need to give a win for the new film called Coco, because it is if you if you need something to do, you want to get away from your family this holiday season or whatever, bring the family together, go see Coco, bring some tissues. It's just going to give you life. Have you seen Coco.
I haven't, but I've seen like the the like commercials oh it looks so good.
So cute. It's about so it takes place in Mexico, and it's about Da de los Mortos, which happens on November. Is it the second or the first? Every year? It's like the day it's after Halloween, Halloween, but it celebrates it. I didn't. I mean, I knew of Da de los Mortos. I knew that it was like honoring the dead, and you go visit, you know, your loved ones. I always thought you went to the cemetery because I happened. I was in South America during dyadalls Mortos one day and
there was like people visiting the cemetery and stuff. But it's so much more than that. It's like you build an altar for your loved ones and you put like their favorite foods and things that you things that they loved in life at the altar, and you light candles
and you remember them. And the movie is about a little boy and how he I don't want to give it away, but it's a little boy who wants to play music, and of course his family doesn't want him to for some like old family history reasons, and he ends up stealing a guitar from a famous person who is passed away and he ends up in the land of the dead and has to find his way back to his family. And it's just it's so good. I mean,
it sounds weird, but it's so good. It's like all about the end of the The end of the movie is all about how important it is for us to listen to the stories, listen and remember people that we've lost. Like if you don't leave thinking about your favorite grandma who passed away, your favorite grandpa like I did, Like you know, just it really just hits you right in the fields.
Man, Oh Ruby, I remember Grandma Ruby.
Yeah, good old Grandma Ruby. Yeah. So that's my win.
Oh yeah that Actually, that's a looking really good movie. Maybe I'll take home Supergirl.
That's why I love the holidays. The best movies come out this time of year.
Yeah they do. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Lifetime has been going over dry. It's like, you know, Santa has a Christmas Christmas Love Holidays of the Hill. I'm like, okay, we get it.
All right, Well, okay, one more week, y'all. Yes, so the holidays begin, well, continue, we can make it. You can do it. Deep breaths You can't do everything in one day.
Now, you cannot. You just have to know that, and it's okay, heart, yes, And just know if something doesn't get done, what's the things that that could not get done and still be okay? Just do the things that must get done.
Absolutely, okay, I'm ready, okay for the end of the show.
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our family. B r ol wn and bit Shine.
You're gonna get us hit with like a trademark lawsuit or something a soon.
Well we're not selling it.
I guess that's true.
All right.
Yeah, happy holidays, Happy holidays, Alight, eat some dinner, We eat some bloody beat burgers. Yeah.
Sorry,