Ep. 192 — $40,000 of Debt and Not Sure Where to Start

changed the trajectory of her career at CNBC. Anyway, mentioned to sharing we were talking about you, of course, that you're returning the Big four to zero, and the first thing she said is God, I love Melanin like, because she was like, I would never guess that Tiffany was forty.

like my life. I kind of feel like that the things that I sat out to accomplished as far as professionally, and the only things really that I'm like really working on moving forward is I feel like my personal life, like I want to build deeper relationships and I want to be a better person those kind of things like I I mean, of course I've got like world domination through the budget hay stuff, but I feel like that's

going to happen either way. But really I really want to work on being a better person and work all that aspect of my life. That's my little reflective turning forty south.

make sure you're home by midnight. That's to curfew. And I was like, wait, what So we come a long way, baby, I think you no more midnight curfew, grown woman.

You would not think that, like because it's literally Jabrill and seventeen women no drama know nothing. When I tell you fun, and I love that. I mean I don't think I laughed more or danced more. It was like summer camp for grown women, and Jabrill.

Although he doesn't he lives in Opland now, but like it's never there.

We had a barbecue. We went to Scott Scott Stales I called Arizona.

because she's been on the team. We say, people asked how were we able to like afford and so what we did was we saved two percent of our gross income from the companies and we stashed it in the savings account and then that's our budget. And actually we kind of came in under budget. I think I want to say we had like forty something thousand saves, and I

think we say we spent thirty nine thousands. So we played for flights, accommodations, even the car, your lift or you're whatever from the house to the airport and back again. Even that we pay for everything. I don't want you to pay for anything. This is just the time to enjoy. And so this is the second year we came on the budget last year. We came on the budget this year, so I was like proud of that that like, yeah, I would say probably cost around forty thousand dollars for

about twenty of us. We even got a videographer to kind of like document like our weekend together. So the Unicorn squad, it's like we're all amped up and everybody's extra and rejuvenated and so yeah, I would honestly love to hear from the listeners like, what's something that your employer has done that just made you like super happy and geeked because I'm always trying to be a better leader and a better employer, so that way people are super happy to work with that.

I'm like, no, I'm not savage, but they were like, you know what, that it was best for the team, and they kind of gave me some feedback up some interactions they had with with the admin, and so, I mean, it's just still we know we made the right choice. But it's just funny that she listens to the podcast for Tea Tea on the business.

felt like. I don't know what they were doing, but it was like every I mean, all of the black power in America was in Atlanta for this studio opening.

and blah blah blah. But I'm just saying, man, when a man can be that successful, a black man can be as successful as all the mediocre white people producing, Like come on, like, we don't all need to be oscar makers, Like when we have the right to be hella successful, hella rich, have big ass studios, do what we want to do and put out work that's not always going to be like the creme de la creme. That is when I feel like we've made some progress, right,

I mean, so let him make his media movies. And you know, obviously his content does appeal to his audience, and he knows his audience as well, so I give him nothing but respect. And it seemed like a really beautiful inspirational, you know weekend. So good for him and good for Atlanta. Like yeah, all that all that money from Hollywood moving into Atlanta. It makes me feel good to know that we've got like this is history. This is the first black owned studio like on this scale

in the country and it's in Atlanta. So go shut out to my hometown. Why did you get so cool it?

what's your favorite what's your favorite line of Atlanta? And she said, besides, Atlanta got a mayor named Keisha, And I just love that, Like Keisha, Okay, I don't know if there's a blacker name and I love it, but yeah, it just it was very I'm so glad that Ever kind of showed like the tour because I was blown away. I was like, that was actually gonna be my brown booth saying thanks man, driving what apps together? Yeah? No,

it just yeah, it looked amazing. I was like, wow, you know what, I think the biggest takeaway and actually had me thinking maybe we could talk about this like between us, like what like he said that what he wanted people to take away is that to dream bigger. What is your wildest probably not gonna happen, but you know, wildest dream you get think of. And I was thinking to myself, like, what would that be for me? My wildest, kookiest yeah, right dream?

But fifty years from now, people like kids are still talking about Molly Moore, the character the way they talk about like I don't know, the smirks or something. That would be my biggest wildest like Kookie is like that, Like I have, I grew Molly Moore and the brand to this billion dollar brand that includes like merchandise and bedspreads and and sneakers and book bags and TV shows and computer programs and all that kind of stuff. You know.

Also that would be crazy to me. But yeah, that's probably my biggest dream.

my current fantasy. But I'm sitting here wanting. I'm sitting here like, yeah, you can definitely make molly more a billion dollar business. But in my head, I'm like, Brol, You're never gonna red play like, You're never gonna be like you know how you like you lift up your friends and then you just like crap on you.

secretly listening. No, but I just think that, yeah, like you you know, this was a dream that you had. You didn't even know, like like what do we use? What material? Like, how do we edit? How do we look? You figured it out and now we're freaking rocking and rolling, So I don't think.

just finish a body of work. So I'd be so proud if I could, if I could do that, and I and I you know, I'm not to be corny, but I think about I I feel like there's extra pressure now that I'm having a kid to not let this be it, you know, Like I want and I

want several chapters after child. I want to have like a couple of different careers after I have a kid, and keep producing, keep creating, keep reinventing myself, and have interesting things happen in my life, you know, so that my kid will be excited about what's going on in my life, you know what I mean, Like, Yeah, I don't want it to be and she had a kid period. I want there to be multiple chapters after that. And

there's no excuse why there shouldn't be. It's just, yeah, it's it's a little daunting to think about, that's all.

out loud. So tweet it to us, send it to us on IG, message us in the email, like I would really love and maybe we'll share some of them, because I think there's something powerful in writing the thing and then speaking the thing and someone else is speaking the thing. So let's do that. What's your biggest craziest Like, Yo, if I could do this, this is what it would be. But there's no way, there's no way, but say it and we'll share some of them. How about that?

a few dozen questions over the past week. So I'm going to parse through and pick a couple of month favorites. Let's start with one from listener. Do they want to be anonymous? Okay, we'll just say their name is Olivia. So Olivia wants to know how can she build credit in college without taking out a bunch of credit cards. So here's her question. Hey, y'all, I'm a senior on track to graduate from university in December. My problem is that I have a really low credit score, but I

don't know how I can raise it. I've tried to apply for numerous credit cards in the past, student credit cards, secured cards, and otherwise, but I've always been denied. I do have some student loan debt about ten thousand dollars, so I'm guessing that that's why my score is so low. I want to attend law school next fall, and I'd really like to get my score up so I can establish credit and raise my score. But how can I do that if I keep getting it denied? For credit cards? Interesting question?

names these days. Oh it's self think. I guess that's their website now, yeap, that's what it is, self ink dot com, I n C. So what I like about self lender or self is that you do a full borrow. And so the way it works is that you go to self you say yes, I want to I want to borrow money. And the good thing is they don't lend you money based upon your credit score. They lend you money based upon like your oh what is that thing? Uh? Oh, mandy,

Like help me with the word that you know. Like, let's just say you don't pay a bank back or you over you after you don't pay the back, and then they tell on you and they put you on checkbooks though quick checks.

And then you're going to pay every month, which is I think it's like forty something dollars a month, don't quote me on that, but whatever it is a month, you'll pay it. And so they will report to the credit Bureaus Olivia has not only paid a debt monthly on time, she paid it off in full at the end of the year. And then you get your five hundred dollars back, because remember you never got the original

five hundred dollars loan. And so that is a great way if you've been locked out of the credits kind of like market. That's why Self came up with that solution. But Self is not the only company that does that. A lot of credit unions they just call a credit builder loan. So you can look at your credit union if you have one, if they have a credit builder loan, or if they don't. I like Self, I've been suggesting them for the last few years and I've never really

heard any negative feedback about them. I think they're a great company, so I would start there.

that's one way that you can also build credit. Again, you want to be sure that you know you're hitching your horse to hitching your I don't know, I'm going to mess up that analogy anyway. Just name sure it's the right move for you first, and that your parents and you are in the same page, and that you have you know boundaries and ground rules for how you

use the credit card. And also if you're going to be you know, thinking about law school, you know, when you graduate in those that ten thousand dollars where the student loans come due, as long as you don't miss your first payment. You know, it's easy to miss your first payment because you think, oh, I've got six months, and those six months fly by and you forget about that payment hitting your account, and then you end up,

you know, starting off on the wrong foot. Once you start making payments on your student loans, that should also improve your credit moving forward, making those payments each month, and a credit a student loans a type of installment debt, which just means that it's one blump sum and then you pay it off and fixed payments each month, kind of like a mortgage or an auto loan. And that

can also improve your mix of credit. If you let's say you get a self leunder account or you get added as an authorized user on a credit card, and you also have a positive installment loan payment history, like with your student loan, that will together start building your credit slowly over time.

So I definitely would would request wherever you made the request to, I would ask, you know, you know, am I going to receive something to share, like why I was denied? Like, oh, remember update, remember Mandy when I said I tried to get like an increase to my credit card and they denied me. So it turned out they had recently given me an increase, because they sent me a letter in the mail saying, hey, you were

denied because you recently had an increase. And I was like, oh, whatever, I guess okay, yeah, so and I kind of remember that, I vaguely remember, Okay, I do remember whatever, so but it was good to know. So usually when you're denied credit, they'll send you something in the mail to say why so that I would be very interested to know.

to tackle debt? If my husband and I have forty thousand dollars worth of debt from credit cards, student loans, and personal loans, should we consolidate our debt or try using a method like the snowball method for more information. We're both students, we have full time jobs and a mortgage, but we're struggling to save money while trying to pay off debt questions. So, just to recap forty dollars in total that consists of credit cards, student loans, and personal loans.

Interesting mass, and they're wondering how to tackle it. And that's collectively, that's collectively together.

this is how much my life costs. How much is left over after I pay my expenses? Oh, there's two hundred dollars left over, And then you can might decide one hundred dollars is gonna go to saving, because you should be saving and paying down debts simultaneously, so maybe one hundred dollars goes to savings. And another hundred goes to my debt paydown plan. So now you have your

debt paid down plan money. And if you're gonna do the snowball method, it would look like this, Hey, lowest balance debt, You're gonna get your minimum plus this one hundred dollars, and now I'm gonna pay it, pay pay, pay pay and pay pay it. And then when that's paid off, I'm gonna roll over the lowest debts minimum plus that one hundred dollars to the second lowest debt. So the second lowest det is gonna get effectively three

payments in one. It's minimum the first lowest debts minimum plus that hundred dollars, and then you're gonna pay pay pay pay pay it pay paid off, and then you're gonna roll it off to the third lowest debt. And so that's the way the snowball method works. Or you can use the add into method, which is when you pay off the debt with the highest interest rate off first.

And so the avalance method makes the most sense as far as mathematically, because you're basically paying off the debt that has that's costing you the most amount of money because the interest rate is the highest, and the snowball method makes the most sense emotionally because if you pay off the debt with the lowest balance first, you kind of get a faster return emotional return on your investment, because it might take you ten years to pay off

the debt with the highest interest rate, and so you might not feel as good about it. So I like the snowball method, although the obviously that oline method is amazing if you can stick with it. So yeah, I think that I think that that's what I would do. I would line it up like that, Honestly, I.

a snowball. But if you wanted to quick, you know, especially if you're kind of struggling, and let's say he's got some credit cards, You've got some credit cards, and you want a simple way to just keep track of everything in one place, you could look into consolidating those credit cards with a personal loan, for example, from a

credit union. If it means that you could secure a lower interest rate than what you're currently paying on those credit cards, because we know how difficult it can be to pay down credit card debt, and when it's got you know, what is the average APR in credit cards, and thing like seventeen percent that's with like perfect credit today.

If you're both still still in school, then maybe they aren't quite due yet, so they're not an immediate concern, but you definitely want to. I would focus on getting rid of that other types of debt, the credit card, the personal loans before you guys graduate, so that when you graduate, you can just throw everything you got at those student loans. If the student loans are an issue now.

You know, if they're federal, there's things you can do, income based repayment, for bearers, deferment while you focus on your higher interest debt like credit cards or personal loans to buy yourself some time. But eventually you got to tackle them right and even if you defer them, interest is going to still be accruing, So you want to aggressively as fast as you can get rid of the

other debt and then hop on those student loans. If they're private, you can look into well, if you've got them, you know, pretty high interest rate in your student loans and you think you're interested in looking at refinancing. That's also an option. If you guys have strong credit scores. There's lots of companies out there that will refinance your student loan debt today, which will help you secure a lower interest rate and maybe reduce your payments and help

you pay it off faster. But just keep in mind, if you have federal student loans and you're refinancing them, you're essentially turning them into a private loan, which means those flexible options I mentioned earlier, like income based repayment or forbearance are probably no longer available to you, so it has to be worth that trade off for you to refinance them and turn them into private loans.

you know. So, I mean there's companies like so far that I that are great companies for refinancing for private loans, but I always tell people, if you can keep them federal, it typically is worth it, just because if you ever fall on hard times, private loans don't care, but loans, but federal loans, there are things in place that you know that you can use to protect yourself if you fall on hard times, and it's much easier to default on a private loan, like a veteral loan is harder

to default. And so yeah, so I mean it's except for like maybe rare instances, it's almost always best to stay federal if you can.

which snowball method is excellent. I mean a study actually showed that people were more likely to keep up their good debt payoff habits with the snowball method, even though technically it's not the most mathematically logical method between avalanche, because with avalanche, you're paying off the highest cost debt first, so you save money over time. But the snowball method with people would stick with it longer because it builds

that momentum. It's so exciting when you pay off that twenty five dollars ballance, in the one hundred dollars ballance, in the two hundred dollars balance, and you start you start embedding those habits that bring you success later with those early wins and building momentum. And that's why people are so obsessed. And the snowball method continues to be, you know, one of the most popular debt payoff methods out there.

that way. But it's this whole just people, It's just it's this whole movement and my husband loves it for home improvement questions and all kinds of stuff. But there's there's this there's this general kind of of course trend with Reddit where most of the users, they don't do like a census of their user base, but most of the users it does feel very white, very male on Reddit. But there are subreddits that target or not target, but are meant to be like groups where people of color

can talk about whatever they're interested in. So there's one group called Black People Twitter and it's basically meant to be a safe space for black Reddit users to talk about whatever's happening in the news. Whatever people are ranting about on Twitter, but you know, what's happening in the news,

the biggest trends, whatever. But the moderators of this forum have realized that a lot of white people apparently, and it's hard for them to tell, but they suspected that a lot of white users were posing as black users and commenting on various topics on the black Twitter on the black Twitter People subreddit forum. So imagine if this was like a Facebook group for people of color and you had white people contributing commentary. Okay, not really the

intention of the group. So these moderators, you know, it's an anonymous forum, people don't put their faces as their profiles. It's not like Facebook. You're meant to be anonymous. That's that's part of the appeal of Reddit. So what they decided to do is ask their users to submit a photo of their forearm with their Reddit with their Reddit name written on their forearm, with a timestamp to verify that it was taken recently. To verify their blackness.

my winter foundation my summer foundation. So what was happening is some of the users were like, well, screw it, I don't want to be anonymous. I'm going to take a picture with all my family so you can see I have a black dad or a black cousin, dark skinned cousin, dark skinned dad, whatever, And even though I'm light skin, here's my family. And it's like, it's just it's created this. It's I think they meant well, but

the way they executed it is super problematic. On the other hand, I see the challenge like and and you know, knowing Reddit and knowing what the Reddit world is, like, I feel like there's there needs to be a safe space for black Reddit users to talk about what they want to talk about and to comment and this, you know, but to feel like people are posing as black people and contributing, and they're contributing comments that are proliferating stereotypes,

you know, saying things like well do we really need affirmative action like things like that, you know, come on controls, you know. But it's just like it's the challenge with Reddit because they let they let excuse me, they let users of these forums moderate them, and there's not really a system to to to control who can join. It's meant to be so open when you're trying to have a private discussion what can you do? So I just

thought it was a very interesting story. I don't really know how to feel about it, but that's what I wanted to share.

a child, you could stay, and so and so. But then we started getting started to get white men and so so we were getting First it started with black men, and you know, it was okay because you know, men could be a lot, so you're like, all right, don't act to up, you can stay. And then we start to get white women, and honestly, like, we have less trouble with white women that we have with black men.

So and then white men came. And when I tell you the trouble if I see what more Trump posted, we had to make a role, which sounds so crazy, no white men because they were coming and stirring the pot, saying outrageous and egregious things, and no other no one else was doing that. Like, yes, you definitely would get like some folks, like you know, I would say, as far as a large majority, So of course you get people who sometimes can be mean or nasty or whatever.

But when I tell you, we would add a white man unfortunately, and and it was like without fail, it would take off. Well, maybe if you get off welfare, you're like, why are you here? You know, like not white men in general, but just like you in particular, sir, why are you here if you're gonna spew nastiness? You know, this is not a You're not required to be a

dream catcher. And so we had to make a rule because it started to feel unsafe, and I was trying to be fair, and I was trying to be like, well, you know, we don't turn anyone away. Well, no, we turn away, we turn away. It sounds so terrible, and I don't care because I started dream Catchers in the budget needs to create a safe space for women, especially women of color. And you are welcome to come unless you bring the bullshit, then you are not welcome to come.

And so that is like one group that we don't allow them in the dream Catcher for anymore, because it was too hard to keep up with the handful that maybe weren't causing trouble. And I'm like, you know what, every space in the world is safe for you, every space. It's your space. This is one of the few spaces that we get to have. And everyone else respects this space. The black men respect the pace, space, white women respect the space. Everybody else was respecting the space, but except

for that subgroup. So yeah, so we made we had to make that defitit of ruin. I'm sure that's going to come back to bite me in the butt. Okay, be mad, Todd. I don't care because it's hard enough out here to like post you know that you're struggling financially and you're trying to figure out, like what to do with your kids without someone coming along saying maybe you stop having so many kids. You're like, are you kidding me? Yeah, that's the exactly what was.

say it. The space is really not meant for certain people. It's meant to be a safe space for a marginalized group, and it's and and when so of course your first loyalty is to your audience, the people you made the group for, and you need to make you need to continue to make it a safe space for them and buy And we can call it discriminating or whatever or keeping out certain people, You're doing it with the right intention. It's not to it's not to deny people their right

to for free speech. It is to make it a safe space and the people that you intended the group for in the first place. And I think that's what these people are doing as well. But it's just super problematic. Yeah, it's hard taking it.

feel like I can share like I used to. And I was like, that's not We're not doing that, and so like I just you know, I was like, we're gonna make an execute decision whatever, and make that choice and honestly, it's been so much better as a result, because for the most part, everyone else polices themselves. Like I said, we have a few playerups here and there, but for the most part, everyone is kind to everyone

in there. And yeah, so my well, my boost was gonna be Tyler Perry, but instead I'm going to boost my new obsession. Have you ever heard of the Terrell Show on YouTube?

the song itself. And honestly, it is delightful. It is funny. I mean, there are some people who just can sing down They're like wow. I mean there are people now who am following on Spotify as a result. And so if you need a little joy in your life, you know Terrell. It's literally just t E R R e LLL on on YouTube. And there's a there's a gentleman named Sammot or Samo that now I'm like in love with his voice because I saw him on The Terrell Show. Cynthia or Rebo, my girl who plays Harriet in the

new Harriet movie, was just recently a guest on the show. So, like I said, he's had, like, you know, some well known folks, and he's had some folks that you might know, like Amber Riley from Gale. Oh my goodness, her voice is the voice of an angel, and so just happy times. So yeah, I think that people would enjoy enjoy his show. You know, they're typically about twenty twenty to thirty minutes long, the videos, but you just really get to hear people's voice.

And if you really love music, I think you'll love the Terrell Show.

I was like, wow, it was it was traumatic and I was like, okay, I don't I don't want to hate people. So I'm just not gonna watch these movies anymore because it just makes you look around and you're like, why are you like this? So yeah, so yeah, So definitely the Harry movie. I cannot wait to see it. Yeah, because she's just so dope and I just got to hang out with her a little bit at Love's wedding

and she's just even dopeer. She's sang that saying love you down the aisle, so she was the one who likes Yeah.