Hey, hey, hey, we're black, we're black, We're brown.
It's Tiffany, except y'all it's Mandy.
Yes, I've got some shady news, mandra.
Oh please share. Let's kick it off with shade.
Yes, because you know, but it's like good shade, you know, when bad things happen to bad people. I mean, I'm sorry, Jesus, just take a moment. Just give me a moment, so if you might, you might know if you follow the budgetista that.
Haven't heard of her, have no idea what you're talking about.
Well, the infamous start of the brand was like a really bad time. So right before the recession, young vigeanista myself, I made the extremely poor choice to trust who was a friend of mine with like how do you invest? Because back then, you know, when you're like in your early twenties, you think that if someone has a nice car, in a nice apartment and all, like.
Really not like Ferrari all that stuff.
I really thought that that meant he actually had money. You know, he was like in his thirties and I was in my early twenties. I was like, Wow, he's got money. Let's call him Bob. Bob's got money, you know, and so I'd bought. I just bought a house, and I was saving. I was doing all the right things, and I said, I want to learn how to invest outside of I had money in my retirement account. I was setting outside that, but I had excess money, and I was like, what do I do with this excess money?
I want to learn how to invest. You know who's independently wealthy, Bob. So I reached out to Bob and I had sucker written all over my face.
Oh man, you went to him.
Yes, So long story, very very very short.
I ended up in twenty five thousand, no, twenty five to thirty thousand, well, twenty five thousand dollars in debt. I took money off of a credit card because we were invested, and put it back. I mean, I didn't even know you could take money off a credit card, so he convinced me to do so.
Meanwhile, back then I had no credit card debt.
I used to use like one card to like pay for gas and just paid off three month, so I wasn't even familiar. And by then too, I had paid off my my undergrad student loan debt because it wasn't much.
I commuted from home. And my parents helped out.
And so maybe I had like five thousand dollars an undergrad debt, so I paid that off, and I think I was still in grad school, so I didn't have I was accumulating my master's debt, but I didn't like have it have it yet. So anyway, I was basically, you know, pretty good. I had a home, and so we did this thing and took the money off the card.
He promptly ran away with it.
But before I realized he ran away with it, I bought I bought a online to.
See this is I was stuper on top of stupid, so.
I bought an online course from like a well known like financial expert that we all kind of know now.
I think it was like something crazy.
It was definitely over five thousand dollars because I wanted to learn how to start a business. And I was like, look, I'm about to be rich, Mandy, Manny, don't don't you gas, Mandy.
I know how it ends, and I'm still just like on the ende of my seat.
I'm about to be rich.
I mean, according to Bob, we're about to take this money and it's gonna the money's then you'll be twenty one hundred dollars a week, Mandy for two years. You do the math, Mandy, sounds about right, right, I was like, sounds about foolish. And I said sure, and I'm not gonna tell nobody because they're just gonna ran on my parade. I'll let them, I'll let it rain on them and then they'll see that I was right. So this was, you know, twenty three, twenty four year old tipany thinking.
So yeah, I, I, you know, gave Bob the money he but I didn't know he ran away with that at first because he said I won't I won't get my money like the first month. It'll start coming in after that. And then yeah, so then I ended up. I didn't even use the car to like buy clothes and notything like that. I literally bought.
This one course.
So it took whatever it is it was in the twenties that that I took off to give to Bob, And it took me from that to thirty or thirty five thousand dollars from no credit card deb to thirty or thirty five thousand spent so long, and so here I am taking this course which was like like it was weak at best, but I'm like, you know, I wanted to prepare for this new money that's coming in that never came. And then after month one, Bob, were
you at calling, texting, crying. I mean, like, it took me a long time to really understand that Bob took my money because we signed a contract.
I'm like, well, I have a contract, so which.
Meant nothing because Bob, like you know, just ran away basically, and I found that there was someone else that there was, like a mutual friend that he'd introduced me to.
At some point I reached out to him and he was like, bobst my money.
Too, and I was like wow, I said, well, I don't know about you, but I'm getting my money back. So for two years, really maybe like a year and a half, I pursued Bob everywhere he went, everywhere.
I followed him on social media. I tried to do pop ups. I'm like, oh, you want to be in Chicago.
I don't even have the money for Chicago, but I'm gonna see you one day, Bob. You gotta come by New York and I'm gonn to you. And it never happened, even though he was terrible, because this is what was so bad about Bob is not that he wouldn't pick up the phone, Mandy. Can you imagine Bob would pick up the phone and be like, Oh, I'm sending you the me tomorrow.
Pick up the phone.
Oh, you didn't get my wire transfer. It's in there, and then had the nerve to ask me at one point, Oh, I got stuck in whatever country's in could you just wire me like fifteen hundred dollars and as soon as I get back, I'll have your money.
I said. So, I'm supposed to give you my fifteen hundred dollars for my mortgage to you, Bob, and you have not paid me the twenty five thousand that you owe me. Wow. And he was just like, you know, it's only because I'm stuck here.
I mean, if you want your money, I can't be stuck in whatever country that he's supposedly stuck in.
Of course, Nee Lissa said, I did not give him the fifteen hundred dollars. I was like, well, give me my money.
So that went on for like a year and a half. I mean everything, it just was. I was hysterical at one point.
Was he also one of the co founders of the Fire festival.
You know, he mustn't. He must know that.
But the thing is, I've been to his pen half, like he's had a party at his penthouse suite in New York.
You know, I've seen him and it's his ferrari. So I'm like, Bob's got money.
Yes, that was the people's money, and so yeah, So that went on for like a year and a half. I never got my money, but it then there was session hit then, I you know, so here I was thirty five thousand dollars in credit card debt. My student loans finally hit because I graduated until fifty something thousand, and my condo I could no longer afford two hundred and like twenty thousand. So I was like, you know, over over three hundred thousand dollars in debt and no
income coming in, and it was just really devastating. I moved back home, started the Budgetista. As I began to rebuild my life, I realized I wasn't the only one who needed rebuilding. And so, you know, because my father was an accountant in the CFO, and he'd already sent me to all of these classes, had all these like certifications, Like when I was younger about how to manage our money. And so the investment part is the only part that we never really talked about. That's why I made that mistake.
But anyway, I dug myself out, and as I was digging myself out, the teacher and me started helping my friends, and then their friends and then their friends, and the budgetista was born. Basically, so, I think last week we talked about something and it made me google Bob.
I said, let me see.
And meanwhile, so at one point I had to, like, I had to release the expectation that I was ever going to get my money back, like I had gone.
I got a friend of mine was a lawyer. She looked over the contract. She said, Takes, did you read this?
I was like, now, she said, so apparently Bob is a citizen of France. Although and so she was like, so this says you can sue him in France.
I was like, oh, well, clearly I didn't read it.
And so and by then too, I had already spoke to Carlos, my accountant, and so what Carlos did was he said, this, we can start to write this off a year after year as a loss. So I already you know I took the you know, my my taxes reflected this this investment loss, and I said, okay. So then I blocked Bob on everything because he was like weird.
He would call me and reach out and pretend like he sends the money or he was sending it, and it got to be honestly, it got to be a lot on my spirit, you know, like like expect and expecting like I was going to get the money didn't come.
So I blocked him on the phone. I blocked him everywhere.
But then like literally I haven't thought about him, like I don't know the last six seven years.
And then I did something we spoke about last week, maybe google him. So apparently Bob.
Has been scamming everywhere with Who's surprised. So Bob has scammed in Florida, where I met him. He's on trial for that, scammed in Georgia. But I remember he said he like stayed a lot of time, like spent a lot of time in Atlanta, and scammed in New York. But Pete this, I mean, I'm sure Bob scamed regular people. But Bob, being the fool that he is, scammed the United States government. There is literally a he's in federal prison right now, which I'm like, oh, look at that, just dessert.
So where did they prosecute him? Was it in the States?
Yeah, so apparently Bob so themly there's like a like I was looking online and it says the United States of America's versus Bob, not his name obviously, and apparently what he tried to do is, Hey, they're prosecuting him for aggravated identity theft. He tried to make false statements on a US passport. So I don't know if he had been kicked out and tried to come back, but he tried to falsify and get like a fake passport, which is not super smart, and so you're not gonna
win against the United States government. And so he's now in federal prison because that is a federal you know, offense, and like I'm just reading all this like how he's fighting against it, saying he didn't know that he filled it out incorrectly by a mistake, and they're like, you travel to over thirty different countries and you're you know, such as such a year's old forty seven years old,
that like that wasn't a mistake. You did it on purpose, So yeah, it looks like and meanwhile, it's not just there. Bob also has pending cases in Georgia and New York. And I said, look hip, Bob, Well, scammers never see so now I know what the blob up.
Because of the fire festival talk. It made me say, let me see what my scammer's up to.
So yeah, I was running away and I'm in prison. So hopefully, you know, he'll stay there for a long while. And I know, like the people that he sold from will never get their money back, but hopefully it didn't set them.
Back in a way that they never recovered.
But hey, Bob, if they let you get rand Ambish in jail, tell your bunk made.
I said, hey, you know, let me stop.
But yeah, what it just shows though, is that, like you know, eventually the things you do do catch up to you. Even you might not reap what you sew, well, you might not reap where you sew, like I you know, wasn't able to do something to him, but you definitely what you sew. So eventually his bad deeds caught up with him in another space and place.
Well, I mean, I know, not everyone has to endure what you had to endure on that level. But I think, I mean, don't feel bad obviously, I think the best of us can get scammed by people who sound like too good to be true. So at least he got his come up. And how many years later has it been? Ten years?
I know? Is that crazy? Yep? Ten years later? So yeah, a belch.
But the lesson and all of that, honestly, like you guys are always asking us questions and stuff like that, and that's good. The lesson is to you know, not take one person's word for anything. Is to do your own research, you know, like a wealthy investor is an educated investor, like, you know, do your own due diligence. You know that, And there's no shortcut to growing wealth, like you have to participate actively in it.
Yes, and ask your friends for advice, even if it's not what you want to hear, because.
My friends would have been like, are you kidding? Yeah? Yeah.
So another disturbing news, did you see Jesse Smollett from Empire got attacked apparently by two white men in a subway like the restaurant what late at night in Chicago of all places, like they were wearing they were allegedly wearing make America Great Again hats and tied a rope around his neck like a noose and beat him up and poured bleach on him. And I'm like, were they following him? Why did they just happen to walk into a subway restaurant at two am with a lot of lebleach in a row?
Like what? So? Details?
Yeah, I'm sure more details will come out, but if
it's if it's all true, it's really really disturbing. There's a picture of him and he looks really bad, like his face is all swollen and stuff, and that's just I mean, that's what that is the danger of all this, Like you know, everyone asks, everyone thought that, you know, Trump was so innocuous and just a side show, like a publicity slide side show or you know, harmless, but he really gave he really gave credence to the type of behaviors and hate speech that we're seeing now, and
he kind of gave them permission, like these people permission to be more forthcoming with their beliefs and to really act on them, you know, because they probably see what happened in places like Charlottesville, where he where our own president didn't want to denounce you know, white supremacy and the white supremacists who were, you know, at the forefront of that and probably think that they can get away with it now, like in the country that we're in now.
And that's what's like truly disturbing about something like this happening twenty eighteen in Chicago. You wouldn't think that would happen in Chicago. Yeah, I just wow, nineteen Sorry, I'm like, what year is it?
Yeah? Wow, wow, wow, wow wow.
I don't even know what to say. That's insane. I just can't even I just pray that he's going to be okay.
Me too. I mean, I think I recently saw this play. There's a new of course I did. I'm getting back into my Broadway groove. But there's a new show a new music hall called Choir Boy, which is about a teenager a black So it's about an all black or a majority black prep school for boys, and about a graduating senior in the school who's in the choir and he's gay, not openly gay, but he's himself and he definitely presents as gay but hasn't come out and said it.
And it's kind of about how his other classmates interact with him being openly but not openly gay, and I thought it was such a beautiful show. And I saw it with a good friend of mine and who I won't call out, but it's a good friend of mine who grew up in the South, just like me, being black, and then you know, had to sort of discover his
sexuality over the years. And there's it's already hard enough to be black, and then you throw in also being gay on top of that, and the stigmas and the stereotypes and you know what you have to endure not just from just the general like homophobia that exists, but also within the black community on top of that. It's really hard. So like, on the one hand, I was celebrating that play as, oh, this is a really you know, this is the kind of musical I don't think could
have been made ten years ago. And look at the time we're living in and you know, all happy with my friend, and then for something like this to happen, it's just sort of like, oh, okay, it's still it's still not like you know, there's good with bad for people in that situation.
Yeah, it's just so much like, oh, you know, from yeah, I just there's just so much. He didn't just feel like I just can't like from R Kelly, you know that you heard that Sundance and there's this like a new movie about Michael Jackson kind of like yeah, and honestly, I'm not Drina, y'all know, like my best friend but also my puplicists at sun Dancing.
She was like the screening was like legacy shattering and like it was really bad, like.
Seven year olds eight year olds, you know, and just pay off. I have to pay off, have to pay off, and it's like, what is happening?
You know?
Where there's smoke, there's fire, Yeah.
And it's justially continue to smoke over and over and over, you know, Like I know people don't want to hear it, they want to see it. It's just so much and you're just like, what in the heck kind of world?
You know?
That's why when people used to say, you know, back back in the day, but when when President Obama was elected there's no more racism. I was like every black bron person I know was like, what someone just called me the M word yesterday?
What are you talking about? Just because people.
Are not overt with it, But now I feel like so much stuff is coming to the light. Some people are flaunting, they're they're just foolishness, and some people it's just coming to the light because people finally are sharing their stories of abuse, and it's like, oh, what is everyone terrible? You know, when you look at the people, you know, you're like, well, my husband's not terrible.
I hope. I mean, I don't think, you know, and.
I know, you know, you just I just feel like I'm questioning everything. I mean, I don't question, but it's just that there's just so much happening, Just like, how do you process all of this dismantling of all that you know, you know.
I think just talking about it honestly and not ignoring it anymore and having they're really uncomfortable conversations, and I feel like we've all been forced to have them over the past, you know, a couple of years, and especially with the Me Too movement and looking at what happened with R. Kelly, Yeah, and whatever happens with Michael Jackson and even you know, what happened with Kevin Hart and the oscars, Like everybody is just on a high alert
and the and You're right, like, the more people talk about it, the more we may have to look back and face uncomfortable truths like Bill Cosby, that whole thing happening.
I think just.
Talking through it and also giving yourself the like no one has the answer, and I think, you know, there's no black and white with people. You can have people who do good things and then do really terrible things.
You know.
I know there was an interview with Harvey Weinstein's wife, you know, where she's talking about a great father he is. I believe that he probably was a great father, but
also a sexual predator. Yeah, and that's where it's really And if you if you haven't had someone in your life who's really been you know, been one thing to you that's very positive, and then to hear you know, it's like when you I'm sure in every everyone's lives, you've heard about a relative that you loved and like you hear bad things about them after they passed away
at the funeral or something like that. You know, it's maybe not to this degree, but people are, People have skeletons, and yeah, we just have to be just I think it's it's almost good because we're kind of being taught not to think about people critically and not to take people like like your friend who you realized was a scammer.
He was so charming, like you would be like, oh my gosh, I like your friend Bob. He's so charming, he's smart, well travel like you would never if let's just say this, if I would have never, if I would have never said, hey, Bob showed me how to invest, and all of a sudden he didn't look at me as a mark before because I'm sure he's like, she's a preschool teacher.
She didn't have any money, you know.
So up until then, if I would have never kind of like exposed, like, hey, I have some money, me and Bob might still be friends today. I would never know that he was secretly stealing from people on the side. Yeah, you know, you know so, Yeah, that was one of the things that that was one of the things that struck me about the Firefestival.
I watched both the.
Hulu and the and the what was it Netflix that everyone said that Billy, the guy who you know sparked this controversy, the founder of Firefest, that that he was really charming, that he was cool. I mean, you could tell even in the way people spoke about him that they they were conflicted, like.
Oh, Billy was so chill, he was so cool, but.
My people didn't get paid, you know, so they were like, wait, it's the same guy. So yeah, it is very I mean, there's a there's actually a book I think. I was like at Barnes and Nobles this weekend and it was like this book about how this young woman was raised by like a famous serial killer and she didn't know until she got older. She's like, wait, what my dad was killing people because that was her dad and as far as she could tell, he was a good dad.
But it didn't mean on.
The side he wasn't killing people, which is so crazy, you know. So yeah, it's just I'm telling you. Sometimes it's just like ooh, ChIL, I.
Think critically about the people you interact with your financial planners, Like every you know, your accountants, don't just like do your own research on your own vetting, because yeah, I mean, people are not always what they seem to be, especially if you have if they have a way to gain from you and being attached to you for sure, speaking of people being taken advantage of the governments, finally not shut down temporarily, Husby's going to get a paycheck. Hey,
I'm excited about that. Yeah, that's all insane and it's finally kind of ending. But we don't really know if they're gonna because Trump could turn around at the end of these three weeks. What is it, we're back in session or back I think the government's back in full swing until like the fifteenth of February or something.
M h.
But he could turn around and be like, nah, no wall okay, let's do another shutdown, and that would just screw so many families up. So hopefully it doesn't happen.
Yes, I just like but the fact that I'm just so glad that people are getting their back pay, but not contractors, which is hard, you know, but like you know, employees are getting their back pay and so they can help to sort of like reset. But you know, there there is there are costs that you'll never get back, you know, Yeah, if you're you know, if you're late, and what if your landlord still charges a late fee, and what if you know, like there's there's extra interest
on your credit card. So they're just you never quite get back what you lot, but hopefully it can it can get as close as as possible.
Yeah, and if you're if you're a government employee and you and you're dealing with a bank situation where your credit card payment you won't be able to make it or something like that, just contact your bank because most of the main issuers, the main banks out there, have programs where they will waive interest fees or waive late payments if you're unable to make them. Even now having to having missed two paychecks with the shutdown, So contact your bank and at least try and get some reprieve
until that paycheck comes. Questions, I thought you fading.
I know, you know I used to do the transitions. But yes, coo, weest y'all especially, I know we have some good ones. I'm glad that you guys are hitting us back up in the inbox because we really love your questions.
Yeah, please send us to your questions. You can hit us up at Brandnambisson podcast dot com dot com.
Oh you waiting for dot com.
I'll edit that out so it wasn't as long. Okay, all right, leave me hanging branimissionpodcast dot com, or send us an email at Brandambision Podcast at gmail dot com. You can remain anonymous. Just let us know, and we love your questions and they they're always really interesting. And I've got a couple of let me shake up the reader mail bag right now or listener mail bags. So we have one question from someone who'd like to remain anonymous because she is a government employee who's been impacted
by the shutdown. So here's what this listener has to say. We'll call her Alana. Alana says, I'm a federal employee for the Department of Defense, so I'm not affected by the shutdown personally. That she must have been considered an essential employee and been able to get paid. However, we are only funded through the thirtieth of September twenty nineteen. As a pessimist, I'm already having anxiety about what happens
come the first of October. If this shit show shut down, her words continues, and we do not have funding, I'm definitely at pay the rent, keep the lights on, have food and transportation type of person, so credit debt will immediately fall to the wayside for me so that necessities are met. My questions are what's the best way to save more money? So I'm okay if something happens and
there's another shutdown, When should I start saving money? And what's the best way to manage credit card debt when you're trying to prioritize other necessary expenses if something like a shutdown were to happen and you're suddenly not getting a paycheck anymore. Good questions. Like, personally, I'm really I'm not happy about the shutdown by any stretch, but I think it's a good reminder and a good wake up call for a lot of families that you know, unexpected,
like even your government job can be unpredictable. And for people working in the private sector, we live with that fear every day too. Because we were for public companies, they could decide, oh, I don't need a content team anymore and buy Mandy, And I need to have my you know, I need to have my savings on the side to cushion that blow. So it's a good reminder that you need to have at least a couple of months worth of emergency savings set aside, and like the best time to start is yesterday.
Yep, pretty simplar. I agree.
Also, I would say this then, knowing what one of the biggest mistakes I made during the two thousand and eight two thousand and nine. The session is that I didn't adhere to my noodle budget faster like we talked about it, I think last week.
I don't know if we talked about it.
But anyway, your noodle budget is your ramen noodle budget, meaning that your lowest common denominator, what's the least amount of money you could spend to maintain your life, so that you only do that during extreme hardship like government shutdown historically long, you know, So it's not something that you do regularly unless you really can't afford life. So I wish I would have, because what I did instead
was I continued my lifestyle, and I liked. I depleted my savings to continue my lifestyle because I just knew relief is coming around the corner. Relief is coming around the corner, and so in the meantime I depleted my savings, relief didn't come.
Around the corner.
I ended up spending all this money on a house that I ended up losing anyway, like tens of thousands of dollars, And I could have used that money to set myself up more solidly someplace else. So if I was in this position now knowing that February, Like he's given you a date, so I would not be aggressively
paying down your debt. That what's really important right now is having access to funds, So I'd be paying the minimum to my credit cards, savings, safe saving, activating my relative noodle budget like you know, so meaning like let's cut some of these things down until after February fifteenth.
Then let's just see what happens, you know, because.
I would want, I want you to have more money on hand, so all of a sudden that does happen again, you have a little bit more space to breathe.
You know, That's what I would do, especially since you know you have a date.
Yeah, one hundred percent, and you don't have to you know, you don't have to let the big goal of a few months worth of savings frighten you and make you feel like you will never get there. Just start saving something now, you know, something is better than nothing. You know, I still to this day have an auto savings amount that automatically get sent to my savings like at a minimum, and then sometimes I add more on top of that.
But that just you know, that whole set it and forget it thing is really crucial for my own success. And she also talked and Tiff, you've mentioned that before in terms of what happens when you don't have money in the bank and you have all these compete eating priorities like home, food, credit card bills, maybe utilities, things like that, and how do you sort of prioritize when there's just not enough in the bank to cover everything all at once.
Honestly, well, you have to prioritize like your your basic necessities, right, so food and someplace to live. And so for me, I moved back home, but you might not have that option. You know, you might not have the option to move with your cousin or friend or whatever. So making sure that one the money that you do have, that you put it toward what's going to maintain basic life, Like you have to have sheltered, you have to have food, and you have to have like some sort of way to get to work.
So maybe it's you know, I'm gonna be able.
To take the train to work, But so it might mean credit cards don't get paid, it might mean Verizon doesn't get paid. And I had to make that decision that you guys are not gonna It was like the hardest things I'd never not paid. I didn't have it, so I was like, you're just not gonna get paid. I have to pay the thing that like that sustained basic life so I can live healthy. I have enough
food to you have a safe place to stay. And then as I got myself on my feet, I went back to like negotiate new terms to settle some things. I mean, my credit score before the recession was eight oh two, and then after it was all said and done, I went down to a five forty seven, and I was like, oh my gosh. So it took two years to rebuild it back up to like a seven seven fifty. Now, normally you don't it doesn't take as long, but I had so many things it took two years. Because your
credit score is really an average of your choices. So I had a lot of bad grades on my credit report, and so it took a long time to build myself back up. And now despite having a foreclosure and late payments in the past, I'm back in the eight hundreds. So I just say all that to say that sometimes you have to make a decision of who is not going to get any money. And one of the things I did so I decided that my mortgage wasn't going to get paid because I just didn't have it.
But I had enough for the rest of my bills.
I was on unemployment, so I said, okay, so, if you're getting about two thousand a month, your mortgage is sixteen hundred. The rest of your bills it's about sixteen seventeen hundred. You're getting two thousand.
So guess what.
I'm not gonna pay my mortgage. I'll pay the minimum to the rest of my bills. I'm gonna tell student loans to kick rocks for a moment and put you on the deferment. And this is how I'm going to live until I get on my feet. And so, but the mortgage company was brutal. They used to call me every day, and it was so stressful until I found a cease and assist letter. I straight googled it. I
went to the local staples and faxed them police. You're no longer allowed to call me, and literally is just a Google search for that that you can contact me via email and be a letter because at least, you know, you can kind of stop the constant pressing of like I know I owe you, but to call me every day it's too much, and so you're able to do that as well. Just because you owe someone doesn't mean
they have the right to harass you, you know. I mean, you're you know, but obviously you're you're wanting to pay, you just don't have it. And so, like I said, eventually you know, they stop because by law they have to. If you said to cease and desist letter and then eventually, you know, I work why it wasn't even able to work something out.
They just took the house.
Yeah, so I think it's I mean, it's there's so many ways to answer that question, and like how you prioritize, but sometimes things have to fall to the wayside and you just have to be prepared for the repercussions when they do, until you're able to get back on track. Yeah, but that emergency fund will save you a million times, I mean, if as long as you replenish it, but
keep you know, make that a priority starting now. Like you said, you have as a as a DoD employees that you have until the end of September before the chance of a shutdown for you guys comes up again. So make that your mission for the next However, many what is that eight months to really shore up those those defenses of your own because that's like I mean,
I call it my freedom fund because you're free. You're free to make choices, You're free to do what you want to do when you're not tied to that bi weekly paycheck.
I love that.
Thanks for your question, Alana.
Mm hmm. Next question, let's.
See, Okay, we'll call this listener Susan. Susan has a question about her scholarship money that she's getting for college. She says, I've been listening since I've listened to the podcast since my freshman year of college, and I'm in a far better financial standing because of your knowledge. Meh, thank you. I'm now a junior and have been filing my taxes is twenty sixteen because I work. While I
have a scholarship for my university. I also have outside scholarships to help me with room and board cost as well as books. Are these things I should be listening on my taxes? If so, how can I go back and file for those in previous years? I never received tax documents from these organizations just to checks themselves, so I'm not sure what I should file. Any advice you have. Can any advice you can provide will be much appreciated,
Susan good question. Yes, that's a question that has you know, it really depends on what you're going to be using the scholarship money for. And as so long as you're getting these scholarships and you're using the money for edub god, I can't use English words today. Eligible education expenses like you said, you're using room and board and books, they shouldn't be taxable. They should be non taxable. If you're worried, you can always reach out to a tax preparer to
get their opinion. In my opinion, if you haven't gotten any sort of tax form from those organizations, it probably is a good indication that there's nothing for you to worry about. And certainly, like in school tuition scholarships, those are non taxable. You don't have to worry. The only time you have to worry when it comes to like college funds that can be taxable is let's say you
have student loan debt forgiven. Then in some cases that can be they can consider the amount that was forgiven as income and then you can get taxed on that. But that doesn't sound like what you're dealing with now, and I don't know if to add Tiffany, but I can. I'll share a link to a story we have on student loan hero dot com, which is really solid and has more details on sort of how the I r S looks at scholarships.
No, honestly, that's not my forte. I was gonna say, I never heard of them. That that would be crazy, So I'm gonna file your lead on that one. But yeah, that would be creazy. That's because I've known people who've gotten like hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships.
Definitely forgiveness.
I knew that, but like, that would be crazy if the government was like remember the year when they made.
Swag for celebrities tax taxable like income.
Oh yeah, that was like wow, fair enough, Okay, fair enough.
So I was like, you know, I mean, but I mean, that would be crazy. But let's just say I would never put it past them, So you know, we'll see.
One thing that happened to me real quick in school is I did win an award like a journalist, a student journalism award that came with some money, and I got a tax form to account for that award. On my taxes, which was fair because I didn't. It wasn't money that I was supposed to use or went directly to my school. I think I used it on like a vacation or something.
So mm hmm.
But on the on the bright side, if you're in college, you should still be filing your taxes even if you don't think that you're gonna get a refund, because I made that mistake when I was in school. I never filed my taxes because I was like, well, I'm not even earning that much money. There's no way that you
know I'm going to get a refund back. But I should have been filing at the very least, because I could have gotten back the tax I was paying taxes out on my paycheck, So the federal tax dollars that you're you're paying with your paycheck, they could that could end up being a refund back to you. If if it's true like I was, you know, not getting paid enough to really earn to to be tax at all. So I missed out on some tax refund money.
Ah, and you probably needed it the most back then.
I sure did, But let's not talking about my I went back and looked at like how much I earned and in high school and in college or working part time, and I'm like, where did that money go though? Like it was fifteen thousand dollars or something like that.
Crazy, I think, what do I have a new life to show for it?
Don't you just think back and you're like, uh, I can just only imagine how many thousands and thousands of dollars like that, like Wendy's and McDonald's and Joyce Leslie.
Nagles out of my my little fingers, they.
Have Zaxby's up here, yet I don't think they do.
No, I never heard of that. Is that like a Joyce Leslie.
I don't know what that is, but that's like the cheapy like it's like Joyce Leslie.
What, Yeah, I know it's a it's a cheapy like clothing store.
Oh No, Zaxby's is the fried chicken spot that we would hit up after school.
Mmmm that you just called back the chicken the chicken shack up here?
Yeah? Well, thank y'all for your questions again. Hit us up at Brannabission Podcast at gmail dot com with your questions.
It's time for boost a boost and every boost in a break.
I've been the boosts.
What about you, Managra, I'm gonna do a boost too quick boost.
Do you want to go first?
Let me go first. Mine's really quick. I want to do a quick boost to the classic film, uh, nine to five, which I know Tiff always teaches me about not being up on my historical pop culture knowledge from the eighties, but I must say, I I've loved like Grace and Frankie so much. Like I didn't know a show about two old ladies left by their husbands who found out that they were gay and you know, in
a relationship together for decades. I didn't know it would be so good, but I love the show is so funny, and like Lily Tomlin, who plays Frankie was Miss Frizzle, who I didn't make that connection until I started googling her after Grace and Frankie, and I was like, Miss Frizzles has a loop company.
It's amazing.
And Miss Frizzle like makes old people vibrators is awesome. So I decided to go back and watch like their very first film they did together, which was nine to five, which you know, with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin. It's about three like middle aged women who are basically office secretaries. And I got to say it, it's sad but true and kind of awesome, but mostly sad that the movie is still so damn relevant, Like, I mean, this guy could have been named Harvey, essentially their boss
in the in the movie. I mean, it's really funny and fantastical, but shout out to them for making that movie in the in the early eighties. I don't think there's anything like that even now.
So it was dope. And I is that all the song working now? Too bad? Yeah?
Yeah, Dolly, I'll learn the words eventually. But you can watch that yourself on Hulu if you have Hulu. That's where I found it. Good stuff.
Yeah, I'm like Dolly Parton.
There's actually a really good movie on Netflix which called where It's like The good Man.
Wasn't it so good? It was? It was? I really liked it. It was.
It was one of those I can't go to sleep, so I want like something really sweet to wear before I go to sleep, so I'm sleep to watch and so it was so good.
If you haven't watch Dumpling on Netflix, you're missing out big beautiful Yes, let's say yes.
All right, So my boost actually is posted on our IG page. If you're not familiar, Get Familiar Brown Ambition podcasts, you can find us on IG.
So let's see.
So there's an article by the Washington Post the Secret success for Women. A new study advises that don't network like a man. So in the study, they found that seventy seven percent of the highest achieving women had strong ties with an inner circle of two to three other women. The lowest achieving women had a male dominant network and weaker ties with other women in their network. So you know what that means. It means a girl power is everything.
And so I can attest to that, like, you know, like my closest network really is women and we lean on.
Each other and you know, we we help each other out.
And so no, I think that that's just awesome because you know, like they would have you believe that in order to get ahead you have to kind of like think, maneuver and connect yourself with men more so than women.
So it's nice to know that that's not true.
Yeah, one hundred percent. I think we talked about that a lot, but I feel like, yeah, I mean, there is the assumption that to get ahead you have to be a certain way. But I just I found this so motivating because it's what I've been, It's what I've just naturally always done, which is gravitate toward a small circle of women, professional women, you know, personal relationships with women.
I just always have been more inclined to have a few really good relationships versus having a million associates and like getting coffee with people every day and that kind of thing. And it was just really me. It just be like, Okay, I'm doing okay. And I think one of the reasons is that the quality of my relationship relationships with women in my circles is so strong. And you don't know where the people you know you're hanging
out within college you're going to end up. So to really invest in those relationships early, it's like a form of investing, you know, I will say, like an investment because as they rise, hopefully if you have good relationships, they will want to rise help you rise too, or in turn, like you can be the one helping them, and then that may pay dividends. You know, I don't
know where I'll be a decade from now. Maybe I'll be out of a job and then I'm like, hey, Tiffany, like, I need, you know, can I be the you know, the whatever at the budget needs to ink and hopefully she give me a job. But that those types of relationships means so so much. You were very quiet when I said I'm very qualified.
I'm going to review your resume because you know I'm not. Really you were too quiet.
Still his wedding.
Yeah, honestly, I was looking.
I was like, oh, I was looking at all the awesome responses under the picture. Honestly, I really love when you guys hit us up on social and so, yeah, our Instagram is brown and yeah Brown Ambition Podcast. So please continue that. We love when you hit us up there because it just makes us realize that, you know, there's a community out there. Sometimes, you know, most times, honestly,
it's just me and Mandy talking. Sometimes we have to forget and we're like, wait, we should start recording, you know, because you know, we were friends in real life, and so it's just nice to know that we have other friends. I can't I didn't even tell you, Mandy. Like the other day, I was, I met with dream Catchers in New York to just go hang out. And a friend of mine has a a a business, a juice kind of like I guess a juice restaurant, juicing restaurant, healthy restaurants,
Moodie restaurant. And so one friend gave me this idea that you make a run on black businesses, so you basically call all of your friends and say, hey, we're going to support this business today. So we did that with the Dream Catches in New York. It was like fifty women came to this juice bar and.
We all ordered like you know, juice or salad or whatever.
It just gave her a lot of business exposure and then we just got to hang out.
And so one of the women was like, I'm gonna give.
You a hug.
This is for Mandy. I know you don't hug, but Mandy dads and I just thought like, oh, I just love it.
I know that that's how they get you.
So like, I just love that you guys do that that, Like when you see me out that you're like tell Manby, I said, Hi, give me Mandy hug. Sorry, girl, you just gonna have to pass it on through. So it just makes me feel really good to know that we've got this dope listenership that you guys have been writing with us for like over three years now.
Right, Yeah, it's kind of crazy.
I know, like literally, I remember when we went on our first little you know, rendezvous walk in New New Orleans and getting.
To know each other like hey, hey, how you do? Not good? And then next thing, you know, we have a podcasts.
Just two women making something happen. I know. Let me, let's read some of the comments from our listeners, like on the.
Post, Yeah, let's to do that. My bad, I was supposed to do that.
I'm just help. I'm just helping you.
Back to mother, all right.
So, Tatuiana neck One says, Lately, everything I do goes to tell me how important my circle is. I've gone through so many years either with no circle or the wrong circle. I'm working on myself and my new circle of friends and business associates. I want my network to be beneficial and prosperous for each of us in the circle. Thank you for this information. It definitely explains a lot.
Oh that's awesome, Tatiana. So yeah, I mean you guys, that's really awesome comments you attacking your friends in this saying that I feel like you do this already. I see this old just flashes like I love this. That's how we will make it all happen. So yeah, it's just been Yeah, it's just I just love the response to this post, and just keeping in mind that you don't.
Have to be less woman in order to be successful.
As a matter of fact, the more woman you are, meaning like standing in how you show up, the more successful you're likely to be.
Yeah, well, thank y'all. On the Instagram, you can hit us up. It's at Brown Ambition Podcast on the Gram and on Twitter we are at the BA podcast. We're also on Facebook, so.
Yeah, Brown and Bishing on Facebook, so we ch out. We love to hear me, y'all. We love Y'allparobo.
You guys are all right. I'd hug you on the street.
Yeah, exactly, she woulded.
I would often the stand beside and wave and be like, please don't touch you now.
I mean I would hug, but you know, under Durest