Hey, hey, hey, I'm back. We're black, We're brown. It's Tiffany.
Hey, guys, happy brown ambition Wednesday. It's Mandy.
Yeah, so my dad about last week, guys, I was on a plane and I miscalculated that pst to ees T is a tricky one.
They don't need to know that we messed up. Well, we meant to do a rerun last week. It wasn't at all because Tiffany screwed up.
The schedule right six in the morning. So I was like, oh, Mandy, see this before I get on this flight.
Guilty concience, you have to like mess up.
I do. I do feel guilty. I was like, next, I feel like I was just away and now then I was gone again. That's okay.
We're human beings, fear.
Not well, So what's new? And in the in the world of Molly and Molly and then I'm gonna call you and and husband Molly and.
Then Molly nam Oh, Molly's naughty. She got out of the fence yesterday and my husband didn't notice. He was out there doing some yard work. And I usually track her on the nest cam. I'll have the app up and I'll just like check in on her and make sure that she's not up to any good, any you know, wrongdoing. But since my husband was out there, I was like, oh, there's an adult presence, so I'll just you know, meanwow, watch this rerun of Game of Thrones and relaxed. And
then I checked and I didn't see her. And I and usually if you shake the treat jar, she'll come, but she didn't come. And next thing I know, I hear my husband yelling her name and she's across the street and it's just like my It's like, it's my
biggest fear is that she's going to get out. I don't know if you guys have this the app called next door, which is this new it's like a yeah, yeah, we do yeah, and you can sign on in your neighborhood and people people like, we'll post sayings like, you know, for things for sale or we're looking for a housekeeper or something like that. But what people posted my neighborhood is a lot of lost dogs, and I'm always like, oh god, you know, if that was me, I would die.
So my name came home, happy as can be herself, just thrill.
I had a good time well in my neighborhood. People are petty with next door. One lady posted case of water stolen on front porch, then found half drink, not sure, cries. I'm like, oh my god, really like I'll get another case. They post all the petty things on my next Dora app. Well, I'm glad that I know. That is very strange, because yeah, I'm like, I suspect it was just a bunch of teenagers, like, you know, doing some slight vandalism, like let me take
this water and pour it out. Yeah, the utes, the utes. Then speaking of my neighborhood, Oh my god, we're rounding the bend. Just this is the month we'll move in. And now we have to buy I know, but we have to buy appliances. And I'm not gonna lie. It's killing me slowly quickly. Actually, it's killing me quickly.
Choosing too many options.
Oh my god. You know what it is. Well, one I've got I have like a microwave cabinet, you know, like there's a little space. But who knew that people don't put microwaves on the counter anymore.
I didn't know you can't have that. That's no, we don't do that.
Everyone was like yes, everyone was like, oh, Tiffany no, and I was like, what, okay, trash? So we got the problem is is that like that the specifications of this like this like microwave box, it's really it's not typical. And so I finally found a microwave that will fit perfectly, but it's not part of a suite that I want to be all the way honest. Like I've read that GE the refrigerators are like are trash because they're so loud, and I'm like, I don't want a loud refrigerator.
Can't have that.
Yeah, So but I heard Whirlpool has really great refrigerator. So after doing research, I found this to be true. Like consumer reports, everyone's saying they're great. You know, they had the least amount of incidents as far as being returned and YadA, YadA, YadA. But then I'm like, oh so now my GE refrigerator, will the stainless steel match my my GE microwave, will the stainless steel match my willproof?
Like you here yourself, this is like so one percent, Oh my god, my appliance.
And then it's so hard because you're like because then you're like, how much is too much? Like I had to reel myself in I'm like, Tiffany, are we really looking at thirty five hundred dollars refrigerators? No.
It escalates very quickly, especially and you know what got us is that delivery. Like you want something, it's available, you order it, you get excited, and then it's like not available until like two months from when you order it, and then you're like looking at the more expensive model because you want it. You need a fridge. We ran into that exact well. Our problem was a bit different.
The best thing if you're buying appliances, if you're doing if you're using like a company like best Buy, is that you can purchase them in advance and then make the delivery for as far out as you want, and then you can change the delivery delivery date a bunch of times. We were changing ours all the time because our house wasn't ready and there's no additional charge to
do it. What we didn't realize is there was a risk of that item going out of stock or being backwardered over the time, you know, being sold out and then on back order. So we ended up with the week of Christmas, you know, or we had this fridge delivery all set up and then they were like, oh, we ran out of those, so we had to get a more expensive one just to have a fridge.
It's been great, Like I said, we're here now, this is this is like the last major design choice that had to be made, and I really felt like I wanted to do, like I said, the heavy lift, because it's such a it's such an expensive choice. We have to get everything new, like the whole, you know, dishwasher. I never had a dish washer. No that's not true.
My parents asked. We did, but dishwasher, the hood for the oven, the stove itself, microwave, refrigerator, And I'm like, uh, I need to be in control of like what that budget looks like, because that, you know, you can.
Get the measurements. My husband was really he was in charge of all that and he was.
Meticulous without the measurements, right, yeah, and.
To be sure they fit. If you want any advice, you know, you can contact my husband. He loves electronics and choosing things. I want to write a book on it.
I do. I would loved And then I'm like, yes, but do you know what kind of friends did you guys choose? We got?
I don't know a big one. I love my husband. He he's like, babe's good library. I want to get some books. And I was like, okay, we never go to our local library, and it's a nice library. And we finally went and I'm like picking out my latest novel and he I go over to him and he's got a stack of like electrical wiring books with like how to how to wire house and diy home and he legit like studied these books and then taught himself
how to wire light bulbs and the ups. Like, we have a house that doesn't have center light fixtures like in the in the ceilings they'd have like you know, these jerry rigged lights that are either it's this lamp turns on when you flip that switch or this switch turns on that lamp or whatever. So he's been working on fixing that and I was nervous about him trying, but he's really good at it.
He's just yes, I handed, guy's such a good it's such a great right, I mean not ho, It's like yeah, I'm like, because okay, why can I be like, well, I guess that draw will be crooked forever. And I'm like, ser man, He's like it's a drawer. I'm like, I know, but it's been broken, like you know, like I'm just used to like looking at that stuff and being like, well, yes, that's how we live now, you know.
For me, it's about like not having to spend money getting someone to fix it because every time, you know, whenever he wants to spend money. Now, I'm just like, we've didn't we didn't we How aren't we done? Like didn't we do all the spending we're ever going to do in our life this year? So it's it probably saved us already a few hundred bucks.
Yeah, unfortunate electrician. It's like a plumber just to come out, isn't it like minimal? Like you have to pay at least twenty seventy five dollars just for them to come out.
But I know for them, plumber, I'm not sure we got we we luckily don't have any plumbing issues, but like for home, and yeah, so are our gutter. For example, that was the guy who we talked to you about coming to fix a gutter that wasn't draining properly. He was like, well, to come to your area, we need a minimum of this much money and this job isn't worth that, and then Enrique just learned how to do
it on his own. So yeah, I mean if and you know he had to when we were choosing to buy a house, like you need a partner who's you either need a lot of money to hire professionals, or you need a partner or you yourself should be prepared to start DIY. We're fixing things because I would have been very upset with my husbands if we got into this house situation. He wanted us to be in so desperately, and then we were just you know, burning made.
Yeah, it's paid all these little things. Yeah, because I was telling my Superman like, oh, with the TVs? You know, how are we going to hang them? He's like a Tiffany like that, I mean, all the TV's in a half. I forget sometimes I'm like I'm like, literally, he's a super of three hundred, three hundred units, why would he know how to fix something. He's like hey, I'm like hey, but just so sometimes you just forget because I'm just like I want everything to be done perfectly. He's like
I did, and he did. He hid the wires and everything. I'm like, well, okay, it's exciting moving in. Yeah, yes, I know that this month is I mean this is like a total one eighty three to sixty. But this month, no, this month is a mental health awareness month, right, that's what.
May is Mental health Awareness month.
Yes, for those.
Of you out there who are struggling with whatever is holding you back or weighing you down, this is a good time to reflect. I'm we're doing some fun things at our office. Actually, it's cool, like some companies will get into the month and we're having the animal We're having a what is it called the Humane Society. We're bringing some therapy dogs to our office for a day, and we're going to do group yoga at our office
for a day. And then we already have a wellness room, which is kind of just a room off in the corner. It's supposed to be a breastfeeding room, but we don't have any breastfeeding mothers right now, so it's just kind of like the room you can go in and stretch or sit in the dark, like I do for fifteen minutes a day sometimes. So for me, like if I'm
feeling stressed at work, that's what I do. And then I've my goal for Mental Health Awareness Month has been to get up and walk for an hour during the day. And so what I've been doing, because I don't take hour long breaks from work ever, is I've just been going on walks during conference calls, okay, and conference calls where I know I don't need to be like talking
a lot, okay, And it's been awesome. I did like four thousand steps today just wandering around the park looking at the birds, you know, listening in on this call. And that's been really helpful for me as far as like dealing with the just the like the monotony and the stress of you know, sitting at your desk and working all day.
No, that's good, honestly it can be because even though and you think like, oh, could you work for yourself? So no, like I there are days and I'm like, goodn'ty have you gone outside? Because you can work anywhere. I had even bought my self this little like it's like the size of a long cell phone. It's one of these portable charges for my laptop, so that way I could like just take my laptop and literally sit at the park bench and do work with the birds chirping.
And I feel like I don't take that take advantage of it as much. And when I don't get outside as much, it definitely you know, it's caused for me not feeling like like myself. And you'd be surprised how like financial you know, well, I think no people, nobody would be surprised how you finances and your mental health
played such a pivotal role with each other. I remember when post recession, I fell into like and I didn't realize at the time that's what it was, but I fell into a depression because I'd lost everything, like everything i'd identified with, Like Tiffany, you're a preschool teacher, not anymore, Tiffany, you own a condo, not anymore, Tiffany, you have retirement, not anymore. Everything was gone and for like almost two years.
I would say probably was bad the first six months, but like where it was like really bad where I was like I was and washing dishes. I wasn't washing myself. I was just in the house dark always. And I broke up with my boyfriend at the time. We had been together for like six years. I thought were going to get married. So it was like it was lost.
On top of loss and type of loss, I just felt I felt lost, And it wasn't until like I said, I think it was like my best friend Linda, she was like, you haven't come out, you don't call anybody. Where are you? And I kind of looked around and was like why am I living in Squalor? And I'm like what is this? And I'm like wait. Then it wasn't until I got out of it that I realized, like timmany, you really fell into like a depression and I don't know that it was a clinical depression, definitely
an emotional depression. And even then it took about like a year and a half for me to fully get out of this that funk of like a feeling like I was a failure because I'd messed up, you know, and what were someone?
Do you have like specific things that you think you did that helps you get out? I know one of them was starting the budget LISTA.
Yeah, you know, well it was one the most important thing in the beginning was honestly, I had like I had to talk to someone, Like it started with Linda because she called me, like all my other friends were kind of persistent, but I was like just ignoring everyone quite honestly, Like I wasn't picking up the phone. And then I don't know what made me pick up the phone or Linda call, but I know Linda literally like
my whole life. Our parents used to share an apartment and so we known each other before we were even here, and so Linda was more like, you know, like a sister versus like a friend. And so I don't know, for some random reason, I picked up and she was just like, what's going on, and you know, like okay. And Linda's like a ray of sunshine, So she was like the perfect person to call. And she's the least
judgmental person. You could be like, Linda, I killed someone and She'll be like, well, I mean that's not good. But and so I knew like I had not told anyone, So that to me that the first kind of break was like I had to tell someone what I was harboring because the depression was also coming from me. No one knew what was happening. They didn't know I'd lost my job. They didn't know that, you know, I'd lost
I was using my house. They didn't know anything. So we were talking and then it kind of spilled that I just started crying and saying like everything that I'd identified with is who I was is gone. I'm like, I love my money, I know if there's all these things that you guys, And she was like, that's it, girl, everyone's broke. I remember, She's like, are saying that, like literally everyone is broke, Like it's the recession girl. Like So it ain't really clicked to me that I wasn't that.
I was like, it wasn't just me, that this was like a wave that was happening. So one, I'm just getting acceptance from someone that I wasn't terrible. I wasn't this bad person because you know, these things had happened. And so once Linda kind of gave me the permission to basically start to forgive myself. So speaking to someone, starting to forgive myself, and then I also realized that a lot of the what I was feeling was like it was all it was self self, self, poor Tiffany.
Tiffany lost the Tifany lost that. And when I started volunteering, that's how I started the Budgetista. Really it was The Budgetista was supposed to be a nonprofit and it was so I started volunteering. Helping and helping other people helps you to stop thinking about you yourself and what you're going through and helps you to be more grateful. So like those two things really helped me to get over
the biggest hurdles. And then through the budgetista and volunteering and people started to ask, you know, how much do you cost and all that kind of stuff, and so the business grew. But it was really through forgiving myself, getting permission to forgive myself, forgiving myself and helping people that brought me out of the deepest part of the funk.
But yeah, it was hard because I really was like I just remember being like, yo, I had to throw away the dishes because like that's how bad, Like the sink had gotten, Like I could they were not, you know, redeemable. I was like, yes, it was really bad. I was like just in the house because I imagine just losing everything, your house, your future fiance, your you know, financial stability, your I just lost everything. And then I found myself like three hundred thousand dollars in debt and no way
to dig my way out. And I had just remember, I don't know if you remember I told that story about the guy that had gone through that financial scam. Yes, so now all of a sudden like that. That just hit it that time too. So now I owed thirty five thousand dollars in credit card debt, fifty thousand dollars of student loans, two twenty in my mortgage, no job, no retiring account, like no, you know, no man, Not that I needed a man, but you know we were.
That was like I thought I was going to marry him, and so like everything was gone and it was just too much. And so my depression it I just slept all the time, like I just I couldn't get out of bed. I just slept. Everything was dark. I don't even know what I ate when I drank. Everything was dark. I probably just showered every other day. I don't even know. I just remember I was like I didn't speak to anyone.
So yeah, So if you are experiencing, you know, any sort of mental breakdown, or you're feeling like, you know, it's only me, it's not. Honestly, it's so many people struggle through it. And I'm fortunate in that mind was
emotional versus clinical, meaning that because it's not. Sometimes it's not just easy, oh talk to your friend, because if you are, if you have are clinically depressed, it is there's something in your hormonal makeup, so it's not a matter of just talking to a friend, you know what I mean. So I can't imagine how hard that must be when it's it's not just oh, as your situation gets better. You can have the most amazing life and
still feel depressed if you are clinically depressed. And I can't I can't imagine how hard that must be and how you deal with something like that when you're like, I know nothing's wrong, but everything feels terrible, you know.
Yeah, I mean sometimes like just the financial stress can be the like the trigger that may bring about like some latent clinical depression, or if you have like if it runs in your family, you know, I know that you're predisposed to suffering from depression. Yeah, well, thanks for sharing. It's always I mean, I'm always I know I've heard your story a bunch of times, but I'm always like, damn, it's turned around. Good for her.
I'm not gonna lie. I don't even know how.
Well it's like, oh go ahead, no.
No, I'm gonna say. Sometimes I just it's not until like you said, someone like you say it, and then you're like, wow, it was really bad.
Kind of put today's worries in perspective. Yeah, well, you know, it can be really you know, we can make it can be talking to a friend, but then there's a serious issues like I read one stat there's a new survey that came out this week saying one in fifteen student loan borrowers has considered committing suicide because of their student loan debt. So if you're at that kind of place right now, suicide prevention hotline, I think it's one
eight hundred. I think it's one eight hundred prevention. I'll double check that. Yeah, talk to someone a professional if you can. And also when it comes to financial problems in general, you know, we got we got questions from listeners all the time, and it's not an easy problem
to fix right away. So part of recovery is acknowledging, forgiving yourself, you know, and acknowledging it's going to be a long road to recovery, especially if there's no quick fixes, like you're not about to inherit you know, thousands of dollars, or you don't have a big windfall coming or a big promotion. Sometimes those stars just aren't aligning, so it can it really can be like chipping away at a bit of a mountain and you just kind of kind of get in that. It's like starting to lose weight
or something. You just have to like get in the right mindset and understand it's going to be a long haul and then hopefully, like Bill, get a support system friends, family, loved ones, professionals to help you to help you get there.
Yeah, and just and that's exactly it is that you have to just know that it's just one foot in front of the other. Because people always ask how did you get to your tipany and I'm like, I honestly have no idea. I mean, like, yes, I work hard, but that doesn't mean I mean people work hard every day. It's just one foot in front of the other. And when you know you fall, you get back up and then you put another foot in front of the other. And some days you know you can't put one foot.
You just it's just too much. So then you do that, you do it tomorrow. That's it. I mean every day, I just take it a day at a time. I mean, there's there's always so much going on, especially in business. There's always something that's breaking that you're fixing that's this, that there's always something And I learned I used to think that if I could fix this thing, then I could breathe. That's just not going to be like I'm going to fix something and then something's going to break
on some other components of the business. And I've learned to manage that and say, I'm not here to make a completely whole, perfect existence. You know, that's not what it is. It's just one foot in front of the other. That every day I try to move the needle an inch and if I can move the needle and inch, then then that's awesome. If I can't, then I try
again tomorrow, and yeah, that's that's really it. And trying to like I try to live life with intention, like I always ask myself despite you know, like the budget Lisa, and I don't ever want to go back to a space where if something is gone from me, like as far as externally, that like my whole identity's gone, like the budget LISTA is really important to me. But I'm you know, I don't want to forget that I'm Tiffany.
So I'm very mindful of that and asking myself all the time, how do I want my life to be, Tiffany, is this how you want your life to be? Is this? Like?
Are you happy with the way your life is? I'm always asking myself that and then readjusting, Like I've made a big readjustment recently of like saying like, and I want to do budgetiesta a little bit less as far as like speaking and traveling because the life that I'm living now is exactly how I wanted it to be when I was like thirty two, so I would say I'm thirty nine now to like thirty eight. I was like, yeah,
this is exactly what I wanted. And then I was like, hey, I want to have a baby, just like fairly recently within the last year or so, and that changed and made me say, Okay, well I don't want my life to be like this anymore, not that anything's wrong with it, I'm just pivoting and now I'm recreating what I want my life to look like. So not being afraid to say, hey, you know, I don't have a bad life, but this
is not this is not the life that I currently want. Now, how do I put one foot in front of the other and recreate the existence that I want? And so that's just how I try to live intentionally and also too, I find that in when I'm really feeling bad, that's the best time to give of yourself. I mean, nothing picks me up more than like just like helping someone else because it has nothing to do with you, and it helps to alleviate whatever, like you know, whatever's weighing
you down. I mean, sometimes as simple as because I get hundreds and hundreds of Facebook messages a day, so I can't answer them all, but like, if I'm feeling in a really bad funk, I will go in and answer as many as I can. Sometimes I'll just literally tell people here, call me real quick, work through their financial issue, and I'll like, you know, I'll spend an hour or two doing that, and then it usually helps me to look at my own thing and perspective of like, Okay,
it's not all about you, Tiffany. Like it's a big world. There are other people who have things going on, and what you're experiencing is like like these appliances. I'm like, it's you gotta live. You gotta live with two different color stainless steal. It's fine, do you want to boost or do you want to brisie.
I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna do a boost. I feeling in a positive mood today. So we all were so sad to hear that Luke Perry. I feel like my sister was a Luke Perry fan when Beverly Hills nine or two win O was a thing. I think I was more of adjacent Priestley fan. But anyway, when he passed away, that was like for nineties girls, that was devastating. But I recently read that he was buried in a mushroom suit, which you may not understand a
personal finance angle, but don't worry. I'm getting there.
Soom suit, thank you.
I'm not not going to explain what the hell a mushroom suit is. So a mushroom suit is. It's been around for a few years, but it's infused with like fungi that when you're buried in it, so you're buried not in a coffin, you're just buried in the earth in the suit. And it's meant to be a more planet friendly and financially friendly way to be buried because apparently, like when your body is decomposing and you're whatever you're buried and is decomposing, it releases harmful toxins into the earth.
But when you're in a mushroom suit, like your body becomes life like, it becomes it becomes like a living organism, you know. It feeds the mushrooms that that you know, fungi feed off of. It's kind of gross, but it feeds off you. So it helps the decomposition process. But the other benefit is that they're only about fifteen at least this one company that seems to be they have
like the corner on the market right now. It's fifteen hundred dollars for a mushroom suit, which doesn't sound cheap, but when you compare it to the cost of a casket, which starts at according to the FTC, two thousand dollars and sometimes up to ten thousand dollars if you have that family who needs like the bells and whistles. But like you know, you're saving potentially thousands of dollars and you're doing the environment a solid.
Oh.
I love that, just sharing that little story. I mean, I don't know how, I don't I don't really know how I want to be buried, but I do feel like the whole coffin thing and the whole expense of a funeral. I would like. I like that we're coming up with alternative ways, like looking at the way that we bury people differently.
No, honestly, I think that's Have you heard the one where it's like you get buried and you turn into a tree.
Yeah, yeah, I've heard. Yeah, we did a story on that. Or people take they get cremated and then then although cremation is part of the problem because it releases toxins through the smoke of the the furnace or whatever, but yeah, you can like use it, use the ashes, mix it with compost, and then bury a tree or something like that.
But then I think that's awesome because like imagine being like a tree like someone, you know what I mean. I think that that's a beautiful way. But I love that too. The mushroom suit, it's like, you know, because it's honestly, it's almost it's really how we were meant to go in a way, right back to back to dust, ashes to ashes, dust to death. Yea, you know that,
to go back into the earth again. Yeah. I always wondered, like, what are we going to do when like eventually we're going to run out of space for these coffins.
I mean, you see those cemeteries in New York where it's like, I mean, there's stories people have written about how finding a burial plot is like trying to find an apartment. I mean, there's just it's expensive if you can find it. I mean, it's not always the extreme. I think plenty of places have plenty of room for extra bodies. But yeah, I mean it's we're all gonna die, so we I think maybe we should be thinking differently about how we save space because we're gonna have to
eat it. You can't like, come on, do you need that fancy?
I guess you know what I mean. I mean there's some I guess I'm assuming there's some religions that have their own like what you're supposed to do, like with your body. But I'm like, yeah, I'm with you. I love to be turned into a tree. Honestly, I'm like, be like, I'm over here to be shady for life, honey, shady for life. I came up with that just now. Isn't that clever?
Yes, very clever.
So mine is super random, as my my my brown boost and breaks off and on, so this is a boost. I know. I'm late I listened to their how I Built this Lara bar l A r A, Like, have you ever.
Heard larrapar Oh? I remember this episode?
Yeah, so it's great, but I never had one because I was like, oh, whatever these you know, like cause they have things like chocolate chip, cookie dough mid chocolate chip, all these things. You're like, meanwhile, they're mayde with like dates and then they're like, yeah, I'm not eating that fake not fake, but like I highly down. I'm sure it's super healthy, but I'm sure it's not delicious. But you know who put me up on? In Supergirl, we were at Whole Foods and I was like, what snack
do you want? So I was like like let her pidic on her own snacks. She's like, can I get some lwer bars? I looked at her like, okay, thirty nine year old woman?
What nine year old hipster?
I was like, what when did you get a lower bar? You know, like where were you even exposed to it? Because I've never bought one before, and so I said sure. So she was picking out like apple pie, all these different ones, and I was like looking dubious, like because meanwhile, Supergirl is twelve in seventh grade how does she have the refined taste? I know it's scary and so and so I was like, you know what, let me get one in Mint chocolate chip is my favorite kind of
ice cream. So I got a mint chocolate chip one just to try, and honestly, I love it. They're so good. I'm I am like really shocked because it's like a date, you know, like dates, walnuts whatever. I'm like, now, I'm not gonna pretend like you know it it tastes like a Snickers bar. It doesn't. But the the I think my favorite is a chocolate chip cookie dough. It's really good. Yeah a real yeah. Oh that one, Yeah, that one is good. They have a peanut butter one that's pretty good.
But yeah, I was just like, you know, just big ups. So it's one of my snacks. I'm so I'm back vegan again because the wait and So I was looking for like a snack that I can have in between that's like healthy, that that I can also maintain because I enjoyed it. And so Lara Bar is like my
go to, like you know, midday snack. I'm like, okay, Larra Bars, So if you have not tried one, because I know, there's so many of those fruit bars you know, that are out there, and so yeah, exactly, And I just wanted something that I was actually going to like that I wasn't gonna fake like. And yeah, I actually like it a lot. I mean sometimes I have to tell myself, Tiffany, if you eat three, it's the same as having a Snacker's.
Bar, So just have the snickers in that case, I know exactly.
So no, I have not been doing that. So I've been just having my one, you know, in the afternoon. But yeah, that's my boost. If you haven't listened to there how I built this, it's interesting as well their interview about how she started a Louer bar. But the bars are pretty delicious. Hopefold's had some super expensive. Of course, you can find them like much cheaper at shop stopping shop. I don't, well, it depends where you live. I guess.
We used to order them for the office on Amazon and she get them in bulk.
They're like, oh, I never thought about that.
Tend to run cheaper.
You is smart, you know.
I love me some Amazon Probably that I should. Probably That's another another conversation. Is the Amazon Prime bad for the environment, like all the packages.
Oh my gosh, the gas.
That we need to get things delivered. I mean to get these drones done soon.
Yes, I ordered, Like, so, my my ninja died on me. I've had it for a number of years, so I wasn't it was. It was sounded like it wanted to die. And so like you know, like the Ninja bullet where you can like blend your smoothies.
Yeah, I never got a ninja. I'm like, weird, not the only person.
What do you blend? You? Dude? Do you ever drink smoothies?
I'm not a big smoothie drinker. No, So okay, somehow survived.
I like, well, I mean I like a smoothie. Well, I would say I go through moods where I'm like smootie every day and then I'm like, oh I hate smoothies. But so my ninja, my neutron ninja, I think that's the one I have. It broke and I ordered, you know, a new one from Amazon. Of course it came like like next day, and I like, when I went to pick up the box, I was like, clearly I must have ordered something else, like maybe that I forgot, like
maybe a television, because what is this box. So I opened it and there's a smaller box inside like one fourth and then there's the news. I couldn't believe. I was like, why are they studying my new Troe Ninda in the TV box?
It was so they sent us a backscratcher the other day in a package, Like we didn't order the backscratcher, but it just came. I was like, Okay, I guess I need one of these.
You know, that is so funny, Like I didn't like sometimes those things randomly happened, like someone set me, Like I got this dress from it's either Banana or Public or the Gap. It's super cute, but it's not my size. But like it's at Tiffany Alice and it had like my address, and I'm like, I didn't I didn't, I didn't order. I didn't order. I mean it's to keep dress, but like I said, it's like a size or two too small.
But heard isn't it. And I'm like, wait, it's one of your fans sending you.
I don't think so, because the usually, you know, people will because it's it's not the kind of dress that it's like, hey, this is so Budgeanisa. It's literally like a shirt dress, and I'm like, I thought, I called my sisters to see if anybody send me, but they know my size. They wouldn't have got me the size, so I think maybe because it's not like I've never ordered from Banana or Gap before, so I feel like
there's probably with some glitch. And someone ordered a dress and for some reason, and my name got put on it, and I was like, well, I don't know who to return it to because when I opened it, I should have known anyway, because I was like, ooh, something from the Gap. I haven't ordered anything from the Gap, and I was like, ooh, key dress. And then it hit me like because my sister buys my clothes, so I thought maybe she ordered it. Then I looked at the size and I was like, this is not my sign.
I'll be giving away size eight dress.
That's only.
I know, right. I was like, oh, I remember those days and eight.
I think I came out of Smooth Starts twelve. I don't know that I ever had a size eight moment.
No. I used to be like, I used to be like a like a solid six for a long time. I can't even imagine now, Oh my god, my thigh alone is not sick. But I used to be a solid six, I would say all through high school. Well high school probably was because I was I was really skinny, but not in a cute way like in a are you okay? I take Tiffany to the doctor, where like my mom used to literally take me to the doctor
and say it's something wrong with her. So I was boned because I was so tall to be so skinny, Like like I look back at pictures and I'm like, I don't think I was eating. And then and then in college, I was a solid six, and I would say I was a six, a good six until late twenties. And then I moved into a and now you know who's mosy on in and settling into ten twelve, And I'm like, well, such as life.
And so I think there's something really just you know, formational about having stretch marks at the age of thirteen, Like it really made me the woman that I am today. And I just want to think my thirteen you know WHOA.
I just can't. It's so hard because the other day I was so worried about Supergirl because I was like, like, she's she's an eater. She eats, you know, and she does not gymnastics. She does cheerlead. She really loves dancing, so we put her in dance class sometimes, but right now she's really into cheerleading, so she does that every weekend. And so that's her, you know, besides Jim. That's her form of exercise, you know, and unt like I just
noticed lately that, like I'm like, oh, you want dinner? No, I'm okay, And I'm like, wait, you know that's how it starts because we don't we don't talk to her about her weight, so there's never any you can't eat that that'sid you know, like you.
Know, I mean too, she just seems to be a woman in the world. I'm like, na, the world will ruin her.
And I just feel so bad because I'm just like, what's going on.
I'm like TV, Internet, social media, It'll take care of it for you.
And I'm like, are you know you're not hungry, and she's just like, I'm like, it's you came home from school had nothing. It's now like, you know, six or seven, you have to be hungry. So that just worries. You know. We talk about eating healthy, so we like when I go food chopping, I take her to whole foods with me, and we pick out like healthy snacks, and so there is no restriction about her, you know, going because we don't have anything. We don't I don't buy anything crazy.
So that because I want her to feel free to be like I can always get an orange or a banana or a pair or you know, a lour bar or whatever, you know, like whatever like pretzels or so I always make sure that everything in the house is something that if she ate it. It's not like even the juice that we get, like we don't really get juice much, but even like her juice boxes are like the honest juice boxes, we're like ten percent juice and
like ninety percent water, you know. So yeah, and I purposely was like, no, I don't want her to worry about her weight, so we don't, you know, as long as we teach her to eat healthy and she's fine her you know, she's twelve, so her size is fine, you know, as far as the doctor's concern, that's all I worry about. As long as the doctor says that you're fine, then you're fine. Because there's diabetes that runs in Superman's family and he at one point was pre
diabetic even though he is. I mean, the man is if he was a woman, he'd be like for his side, he'd be like a size four. He's so skinny, like not in a bad way, but you know, so you people think of like pre diabetic or diabetes as like, oh, because you're overweight. I mean, nothing could be further than the truth. Like his job is really physical, so he is constantly moving. He's in really great shape and even and so that's what worries me is that, you know,
I know that runs in their family. So we meet Superman and Supermom, super Supergirl's mom. We are very conscious about making sure that she knows how to eat right. So that way, because she looks just like her grandmother and his Superman's grandmother, I'm a mother past and she was like in her early fifties and she slipped into a diabetic coma and just never woke up. And so that's something that you know, it's like on my mind just to make sure that, like, okay, that she's healthy.
I just this whole weight thing. I don't want her to worry about it, but it's hard for girls because it's always an issue. And she's tall, for her age, Like, I don't realize how tall she is until I see the other kids, and I'm like, wait, Supergirl's really tall. Well he's six six, So I knew she was going to be tall because we're the same height, and we were the same sized shoes. And she's twelve and I'm
thirty nine. But yeah, I'm just it's hard. I'm like, now, you know you want to protect kids from like all the like feeling bad about yourself, but you don't know. What do you say? What do you do?
You find out how I write the book and I'll buy it.
I know.
She'll be fine. I mean I went through such hell when I was a kid, and I'm fine, she'll be fine. I had no support. My mom was like, you know, eighties babies. She was like, just you're fed, here are some you know, you ate a sleeve of Ritz crackers or you're not hungry, good.
Let's cook it for me, right? Yeah? Anything? What do you do with Mother's Day?
We only have twelve? You want to rooin the end of the show, I'm talking about my mother in law. No, I just got the I got the phone call from my mother in law or no, I called her and I just got yelled at for not calling her enough. So we will be going to her house for Mother's Day. And I still stand by my statement that there's a double standard that my mother is not calling my husband and berating him for not calling him all the time.
But I sure do get those guilt trips. Yes, yeah, so if you're a daughter in law out there, daughter, I feel you on that one. But let's get to some questions.
If you don't want what I forgot, I'm like, wait a minute.
I was like, we got to go, I got to train to catch and a dog that I'm sorry to defcate.
Let's get to one question. Let's do that so we can't.
Okay, cool speak. Well, it's related that this is actually from an old friend of mine used to live here in New York City. Since us a question. Her name's Malaca, and Malica's got the cutest little girl, Oh my god, Lucy just turned four according to Instagram. And Melika is such a good mommy, Like I love watching U all their their life. They've moved to the West Coast from New York City and her I just love watching her
and her little girl. But she has a good question about feeling like she's behind on saving for Lucy's college fund. And if I know that you've got all kinds of fun set up for your nieces and nephews and Super Bowl, so this is a good question for us, Melaca says, I feel I've been pretty good so far making financial decisions for my family. I have no credit card or
school loan debt. We're both contributing to our four to one k. We bought a house last year with proceeds from oh her father passed away, my dad's life insurance, and we can comfort comfortably a fourd or mortgage payment. But we haven't put away a penny for our daughter, Lucy's college fund. Sometimes I think it's fine, she's only three, well,
now she's four. But then I'm thinking, like, oh my god, we should have saved tens of thousands of dollars by now, and she has no hope of ever being debt free. So her question is where do I begin. I know about five, two nine plans, but I don't know what I need to open one. Also, I don't know how much we should be putting aside for our daughter each month. How much will college cost in twenty thirty three help me.
Who jah five nine plan. It's a good place to start. When people say how much did they put? Aside, I mean I say, any is better than.
Nothing, right, like fifty dollars a month.
Yeah, that's what I do for like the you know, for now, I think supercar, I think I put one hundred dollars, But then I put fifty bucks for like my nieces and my nephew, and so anything is better than nothing, quite honestly, because who knows. Who knows if college will even be a thing by the time she gets to college.
Well, that's the thing about five two nine plans when you put money, at least the way that the legislator the tax codes written now, because five two nine plans are part of the tax code. When you put money into a five two nine savings plan, you have to use that money for education. With the most recent tax
reform changes, they did stretch that out. So before you could only use it for college education or higher education, but now you can also use it for private tuition for like private schools and stuff through K through twelve, which people were happy about. I think it's up to ten thousand dollars a year or something like that. I can share. I'll share a link with details on the
new rules on five two nines. But yeah, you're limited in what you can use it for, so some parents I know opt instead to do something like an IRA. Just open up an IRA in your child's name, like custodial IRA, and then you can put money into that account on the side. But you know, whatever you choose, even if it's just a basic savings account, you know, you know, I'm not even going to fault you, even though yeah, technically in eighteen years will you have beat inflation?
Probably not, but hell, you saved probably a good chunk of change for your kid without the stress of you know, investing it because five to two nine plans are a
type of investment plan, as are an IRA plan. So if you're not quite ready for that, like as a baby, step, just maybe set up a savings account for her and put money in it until you're sure what you want to do, like as far as a five two nine or a WRATH And even if you just want to, like hire a financial planner for the one hour consultation to give you direction on how to get started and set the accounts up. I think that's a good use of a couple hundred bucks.
I think I think so too one, because that's something I want to do because I have savings accounts for everyone and I and I know because I'm a little gun shyt the five to two nine, because I'm like, what if they want to what if they don't want to go to school? What do they want to start a business? What? You know what I mean, like, I you know, I have I have savings accounts and I made their their parents, Uh not a custodian? What is that when you're like, uh something, if I were to die,
they could get ownership of the account of sharing. Yes, there you go. And so I just did that for now. But then I'm hiring a financial plan. I'm in the last well actually I picked one, and so that's one of the things on my list with her is to say what do I do with this money? And because I don't know that each kid is going to want to go to college, and I don't want it to necessarily have to go to school, but I want to set it aside for them.
So yeah, I mean start small, like start like you would, you know, saving for your own nest egg, Like if you're not ready for further for one K start that little side savings account. A lot of my friends have small kids now, and what I love is around the
around the kids' birthdays or holidays and stuff. Those who have the five two nine plans, almost all these five to two nine websites now have a like You have a unique link that you can send toffriends and family, and then you can just like put money in that child's five to two nine plan account, which makes gift getting really easy. And then you're not just you're not just saving by yourself. So there's pros and cons to each.
I'll send some links to some explainers on the five two nine, but honestly, I think it's worth just hire an expert for an hour to get you set up. And there's you know, every state has their own five to two nine plan, but you don't have to use your states. You can use other states plans if you want, so there's different options out there. It can be a little overwhelming, so maybe it's worth investing in some expert advice.
I agree, honestly, to me, it just is, I mean, more and more I realize I'm like if I had boken up, but do you break a wronge and you go see a doctor and you pay that copay or whatever, because it's worth it, and it will be the shortcut to putting in in the right place. You'll make that money back in you know, whatever the investment yields, or savings over the life of your of that savings for your child. So it's worth that.
Yeah. And if you guys are doubt free and you have a house that you can afford, like, you're already giving her such a happy financial like environment to live in that you should pat yourself on the back for that too. Love you, Malika. Nice to hear from you. It's been a long time. Okay. We did one more quick one because I saw on my Facebook that I didn't realize someone that sent us a question on the Facebook. Where did it go? So from listener don Nell, she says,
you can use my question on the show. So in one of our previous episodes, we had talked about an emergency fund. She said she always thought that an emergency fund was the same as a savings account. Listening to our discussion last week, it sounded like two different things. Can we explain the difference between an emergency fund and a savings account.
It can't be the same.
I'd like to treat them differently. So I'm a big fan of like. So, first of all, an emergency fund is saved in a saving account like.
A safe Yes, that's what I thought you met.
I was like, wait, what savings account is just a vehicle to save You can call it whatever you want. It can be your college fund account, it can be your emergency fund account, it can be a you know, fu on ata here account. The point is that you have a purpose for what you're saving for. And because we have different goals in our lives sometimes and not
different goals in our lives. And then also when it comes to the goal of having emergency funds, think about the money that is in that account and how you want to use it. You only want to dip into it when it's truly an emergency. So to prevent yourself from dipping into it when like, oh, you know, you want to get that dress, or you had a light bill that was more expensive than normal, separating that emergency fund like having two savings accounts, one for general savings
and then one specifically for emergencies. That is like maybe it's at a different bank that you don't even have a debit card for like it's harder to get to. It's far away, it's out of sight, out of mind. Maybe you're like automatically contributing to it from your paycheck each month. That's what I consider. Uh, that's how I like to treat an emergency fund. But yeah, you can
call your regular savings an emergency fund. I just think it's important to label your savings account so yeatly yep, like you know, it's less, it's it just adds like a mental block.
And I mean I honestly label. I literally have a checking account that I call my bills account. I have a checking account where my money lands that I call my deposit account. Like on you can literally go online and name them so as you're pulling up your accounts, you can see, like, oh, I've got a bill's account and a deposit account. And same as Mandy said, I use an online only bank for my emergency account and
it's literally called emergency. And I have a separate savings account for when I was saving for the house, called like savings, and I have one for myself and Superman and it's called like us. So you can label them and making those transfers. So the key is yes not. I like having my emergency account where I don't have a checking account, so I can't make easy transfers and spend it because you know, with the savings account you can't.
It's not like you can like go go get your money and like, oh, you can't use a card to spend your money. That's a checking account. So I like to make my emergency fund inconvenient because it makes it more likely for it to be saved. Plus, an online only bank, they tend to have higher interest rates that they pay out because they don't have the brick and mortar, like the rant and all that kind of stuff that like big major banks normally do.
Ype Well, thanks for your question, don now thank you all for your questions. You can send us your questions. The best way is through our website. I don't check Facebook as often, so go to Broadnambition podcast dot com click click ask us anything, or you can shoot us a note directly at Brandnambition Podcasts at gmail dot com dot com. Love hearing from you guys. Thank you so much for listening to the show.
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