¶ Intro / Opening
Mandra, Do you know what I need? I need to walk in these streets in my BA swag. You know what I'm really looking forward to? First of all, be your own Brown Boost. What an awesome phrase. I cannot wait to wear that on my chest like Superman. And what I'm really excited for, though, is I am a sweatshirt and like hoodie girl. So the classic Brown Ambition logo sweatshirt has my name all over it.
But where can I go? Where can I find it?
I was hoping you would ask Young Tiffany. Tiffany, get your Brown Ambition swag at Brown Ambitionstore dot com. Five years in the game, we finally have merch for you guys. So get your Brown Ambition hoodie, your Brown Ambition crew neck tea, get a onesie for your littles. We got toddler teas. Oh my goodness, there's something for everyone. Be your own Brown Boost T shirt for sure. We have a Brown Ambition mug, which my family is most excited about.
I had to do the fifteen out size for my big sister because she drinks coffee Like nobody's business.
Oh you know, I'm the budget nesh to write any special offer.
I'm also very glad you asked that question, Tiffany. Yes, with Brown Ambition fifteen, that's promo code Brown Ambition fifteen all one word, you can get fifteen percent off your order at Brown ambitionstore dot com.
I can't wait to see y'all in these BA streets repping BA bam with your BA swag. Hey.
Hey, hey we're back. We're black Capital B. We're Brown Capital B as well ambition. Hey man scha ambition.
Hey, thanks for reminding me. I gotta I did. I forgot to put that on a damn T shirt for y'all. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do.
Don't forget capital b's all the way.
Yes, Actually, you know, the Associated Press itself is officially capitalizing black, and so are we at our you know, our very influential content team at lending Tree, we also were capitalizing black. Yeah, times have it changed.
No, that's good for the for the better. So I know it's not time for like brown booths. But I've got a little something on my chest. I want to get off.
Okay, go for it.
So why is it that all these businesses now? I guess it's strange.
So I'm getting you know, so y'all know, I have my business, the budget Nissa, and sometimes people will offer like, hey, we want you to do like, you know, a keynote or a panel or whatever it is, and the type of discounts they're wanting because they're like, well.
It's digital, and I'm like, wasn't this digital last year?
So people are asking for ridiculous discounts, Like I just got an offer to tape like for damn near two days.
It was so much work and then they were like and here's the pittance.
And I just couldn't believe it was a huge brand that has plenty of money, actually had a huge, huge brand that just got some five just set aside five hundred million dollars for black initiatives, offered me to speak for free, and I'm like, wait, a billion dollar company, you just set aside money for this initiative. So it's
just very frustrated. I know it's not time for Brown Boost, but I don't know if y'all have seen that in these these streets of yours, if you're seeing that people are trying to undervalue and undercut even more now and blame me it on COVID, And I just want to tell you companies to stop it.
Well, I mean, I actually was going to talk about this potentially as a brown break or boost, but it's kind of the other side of the coin. And that's a really good point that you're making. It's like, how do you ask for what you're worth? Even considering COVID times. For me, I've negotiated the price of services with professionals that I haven't negotiated in the past, and I've had to be like, look, I want to pay half of
what you quoted me. Is that cool? And they both said yes, because I mean so it's kind of like I'm kind of taking advantage of COVID times to really want to negotiate.
Ticket line.
Don't quite listen.
I don't have five hundred million dollars, but I'm also not spending seven hundred dollars on some balloons for my birthday for my for my son's birthday party. Not I ain't have an inra but yeah, if you're in my It's funny because the same business that h did the balloons from a baby shower, I reached out to them for my for for Rio's birthday because I'm trying to
do something small in the house. I'm just like, can we get like an Elmo balloon display or whatever for the gram She quoted me seven hundred and I was like, let me, let me go get a helium tank real quick. And and Google had to make a balloon arch but now she cut it down more than half. Uh. And then the same thing where I'm I'm hiring the same designer who helped with our sourcing items and like doing
the interior design for our house. She's going to help me redo the basement to turn it into my what do you call it when it's a girl cave whatever she said, but like more than a she shaid a she studio. It's going to be or it's going to be my office because I don't really have my own space, Like all my company knows what my bedroom looks like,
which is really weird to me and uncomfortable. So I returning the basement into like a little workout area and it's going to double as an office space and then a recording space so I can do the podcast and also from a channel.
I love it, YouTube channel.
So I mean, I'm happy to support their businesses, which I you know, but I'm also which I feel good about But I'm also like, if you guys had ever a time to negotiate, it is time, you know, because people are willing to cut their prices just to get a gig.
I know, but I guess sometimes I know I'm on the other side. Well, you know, it's not like you are a regular person, so I can understand that. But like, you can't be a billion dollar company literally that has a Black people Advancement initiative and be like, oh girl, yeah, literally there was two and I if I were to tell you the names of the companies, You're like, no way, yeah,
what you have served trillions. I'll just say like that according to what you say, come on, now, you don't have a speaker's fee.
I just so you could push back, and what happened, Yeah.
No, I pushed back, and I just said, hey, cause the good thing is I have not only do I have my rate, So I use canvas see a NBA.
Y'all should use it.
It's free unless you want to get the upgraded version. And I create like a like I guess it's like kind of like a media speaker kit where it's like my picture, my bio, but also my numbers. Like we've helped over a million women save this amount of money, and my social media hits and how many emails I have just to show kind of like in a snapshot holistically, you know, the strength of the brand. And then I at the end, I'm like, okay, here are my rates.
You know, this is how much I charge for this, this and this, and we submit them so that way it's not just like I'm not just saying, hey, pay me this. And so at first the company came to me and said, hey, we'd love for you to speak it. I was excited because I'm like, wow, the names don't get bigger than this. And I was like okay, and they said, well one, you know, can you send your rates? And I said, sure, set my rates and then they were like, ooh, actually this is a little higher than expected.
And I said, okay, well you know, what are your rates because maybe there's some wiggar room. And then they came back and said, ooh, actually my bad, we don't have any money.
Oh keep me in mind for future opportunities. So yes, I'm like, so, how are you gonna ask me for my rates? And then say actually, Psych will give you our rates. Okay, actually Psych Psych we.
Don't have any money.
And you know what's really frustrating is that manby every time it happens, it's for their black you know how, Like I don't know if you have to set lending tree, but like some of these like really big companies have like their their black what do they call it, like, you know, like almost like they have a black group within the.
It's literally like the Black employee network group or whatever. I've been part of my fair share.
Yeah, so almost I would say ninety percent of the time that a huge organization doesn't want to pay it's for me to speak to their black employee network, which is very disheartening, you know.
Yeah.
So if typically if it's like, hey, come speak to everyone, it's like, oh, we have some money for you. Oh the Black employee network all growing. We don't pay anybody for those people. And it's very telling. And so I've actually turned down some huge names where maybe before I would have done it, you know, just for the exposure. But I'm like, you know what doesn't pay bills exposure?
Exposure, right, because who's going to be watching, who's at this company? Who's your audience, you know exactly? So yeah, yeah, so it's just very disappointing. Girl. You got to stand in your truth and you know what you're worth these days.
But you're right, I mean when it comes to when it comes to it's like the whole appraisal thing with homes, right when you find out it's in a black neighborhood or you know, has a very diverse community, Often you're undervalued and it's almost like you're out of all the financial experts and you are unique because there aren't that many people at your level women of color, and it's sad to see that even even you still have to
deal with this. But it's only going to change if you speak out and keep sharing it and show that you're brave enough to you know, kno back down.
Yeah, yeah, it's important because if you don't, here's the thing, and I remember you said this and it stuck with me, Mandy.
You I think you were answering like.
A question and you said that basically, if you don't negotiate your salary when you first start working, you spent basically your whole career trying to catch up.
Yep, and that always thank you for quoting me back to me. This is just making my day. I'm like I agree with that.
Oh I said, nobody was so powerful because even though I wasn't, I didn't take the advice as far as me like negotiating my salary. But what I did think to myself is Mandy's right. Then if I say, hey, huge company, you don't have to pay me, word gets out and then it's like you're always fighting to regain that footing.
And I get it.
You know, fifventy ten years ago, who was like, girl, I'm sorry, we have no groceries.
We're doing it for fifty bucks. I would do it for fifty bucks. I get it.
I'm not shading anyone who's first starting and they take less. But I challenge you to figure out and not quickly learn how to figure out how to make money outside of the budget Nissa, until people were willing to pay me what I believe I was worth. It took me probably like three or four years when I first started to finally say, you know what, we're not doing, Tiffany all this stuff for free, like I don't mind doing to me, Oh, we church wants me to speak for free?
Got you? Boys and Girls Club? Sis?
Yes, oh you're not a way got you? But you know it's so crazy. It's those organizations that always want to pay.
You know.
I've had little churches with like ten people say we took a love offering Tiffany, and here's some money, you know, and so yeah, like I said, it's just and it's just frustrating. But it's also important that you understand your worth. And I mean not to quote, you know, the illustrious Kanye West, but I was just reading.
Do you do you do?
You know the styary of Kanye and like his Nike deal versus Adidas deal.
Yeah, something is ringing a bell, but yeah, go for it.
So like in like in two thousand and seven, he I think he met the CEO of Nike and was like, hey, you know, I think we should work together. I would let's design a shoot together, and Nike was like, bet, let's do this. And so he from in two thousand like nine, I think like he started like the official release of like the Yeezy's, like the Air Yeezys came out and it seemed like everything was like going great, but he was like Nike, yo, I want like a
Michael Jordan deal. You know, I want royalties from every state from every sale. He said, I want to be like, like, like how you did with you know, the air Jordan's And Nike was like, yeah, no, but what we can do is we could do a small percentage toward a charity you first of all, you know, Kanye was like the hell and so he said, He's like, no, I should be treated like an athlete. I'm going to be
just as big as Michael Jordan. So what he decided and said was he split from Nike in twenty thirteen and he started working with Adidas, and he got an even better deal.
With Adidas.
He gets to retain one hundred percent of the Easy brand and instead he has an exclusive distribution deal for his Easys And so that's that's like crazy. And so as a result of that, in two thousand and nine, Easy did it. He sold about one point five billion dollars in sales, up fifty percent from the year before. And that's about half of what Nike made off Jordan. So Easy's made half of what Nike made, Right, But
guess who got paid more. Kanye got paid about ten million dollars more than mj So even though Kanye sold less half as many sneakers as Michael Jordan, he got paid more than Michael Jordan on his sneakers. And it was just a reminder that like, if you're able, because it's not always you have to feed kids and you know, you gotta you know, you got a you gotta make
sure that you are okay. But they're time a time when you have to stand up for yourself and say I am worth more, I bring more to the table and I'm going to hold out for someone who is going to recognize that.
And so can you imagine?
So I think Kanye got paid one hundred and forty million dollars from Adidas last year. Now, like I said, that's ten million more than MJ. Meanwhile selling over a billion dollars less than MJ.
That's insane.
So it was just like, you know, Kanye West is not always my favorite person, but when it came to that, it just like kind of put a battery in my back that we need to understand that ownership is wealth.
Oh I would remember, I'm put that on the shirt that.
Right, who good one?
Because well, another example a whole different kind of entertainer. I actually watched the Dolly Parton documentary on Netflix this weekend because Dolly Parton's like the one thing people can agree on. And you know, I Will Always Love You,
which was performed and made famous by Whitney Houston. Dolly Parton wrote that track like in the sixties or seventies or something, and at a certain point Elvis apparently wanted to record the song, but they wanted like a very big share of or they wanted like a credit that would have prevented her from recouping like profit from the song. And you know, ay, and even back then it was before streaming, but like when you heard the song on the radio, the producers and songwriters get a cut of that.
So anyway, Dolly was like Elvis was for her a huge star and she turned him down and she was like, let me hold on to this. And it wasn't until like twenty something years later when Whitney recorded it and made it super famous, and she's like that record made me was like the key to everything. And it was because she stood her ground. Little baby Dolly Parton. She's a badass business woman.
She is a bad I want to watch it that. I love a good documentary.
She and it shortened to the point and you know, I mean Dolly and Dolly is just I mean I haven't really thought about Dolly, but she is. You have got to respect the woman from where she came to where to the empire she has made. I mean from she has a freaking theme park named after herself.
I know Dolly's World, isn't it.
Dolly's Yeah, Dolly Land or I don't know now I forgot Dolly something. Okay, Yeah, So mad respect to her, and it's the same story. It's about that ownership. It's like having the wherewithal to, yeah, to read the fine print and stand up for what you think you deserve. And it's easier so than done. So I have I have so much respect for her and for yes, for ye, for Kanye. The man does not lack ego, that's for sure.
Yes.
I mean you know, even a broken clock is right twice a day. So yeah, hey, how is your birthday? Honestly it was amazing, Superman, And this is what I tell I'm going to tell you all you men's out there who are not good at planning stuff, because Superman is not tacked to plan, He's attacked to be like, Babe, I want to surprise you, but I don't know where spots and stuff are.
So here's my card and just book it. I'm like, that's not I know.
So I told him this time. I was like, honestly, it's been a very hectic couple of weeks. I want to have something special for my birthday, but I do not want to participate in the planning.
He looked at me like, wait, well, and so.
Instead he actually reached out to baby Lisa, shout out to you, baby Lisa, who's not a baby, she's thirty one, but she's my little sister, the youngest of the five of us. And Lisa hooked my guy up. When I tell you, she made a typed out itinerary was text messaging him, you guys have ten minutes to get to dinner. Don't forget about the SPA appointment. So we went to Equinox Hotel in New York City. So we all know kind of Equinox for the gym, but they have this amazing hotel.
About to say, what, I've never heard if they had a hotel.
Yes, well it's it's you know, Hudson Yards. Is that new like beautiful billionaire's row in the city. So it's five star. But I was like, one thing. I was like, I was like, we gotta preserve these coins. So I have so many points on my credit card because you know, I haven't been able to use them. So I told Lisa, like, you know, and I told Superman, I'm like, no, just use the points.
In our car. Are you crazy? Who's paying out of pocket for like the hotel?
And so the hotel has a spa, it had restaurants, so we were able to do a lot of those things there. So first night we got there, Lisa found a really amazing steakhouse in Harlem for us to eat. So we drove and actually traffic wasn't bad from Jersey. It was like thirty five minutes we ate got to the hotel. It was so gorgeous. We had this amazing view of the water. Honestly, I felt like I was like, this is how Beyonce feels. I'm like, no, girl, Beyonce's
in the penhouse. Either way, it felt like ow Beyonce felt maybe twenty years ago. But it was amazing. We walked in, he had like they had already put up the roses in the candle.
I'm like, how did they know we were coming in?
He was like ah, And so it was just honestly, even my chocolate chip cookies, which I love. I was like, they have fresh, big, talkative cookies they have waiting for you.
It was honestly awesome. I will say that, so you deserve that was It just was great.
And like I said, we had the spot treatment the next day and then we went on one of those rickshaws, like you know the bicycle people through Central Park. In our shout out to Vitali. He was hilarious, funny, kind and so knowledgeable about the city. And like I said, it was just an amazing weekend. I didn't do a lick up work, which I love, and yeah, it was a good time. But if there's anything I would say takeaway is I'm not y'all know, I'm not huge. Me and man are not huge on debt, and I'm not
huge on credit cards. But when I tell you, American Express, they don't pay me anything. I don't have any partnership with them. But girl, So that was the points that I use from my American Express card because my business partner and I Jabro we split the points because we have so many, and so we use the points from the card. And I didn't realize that when you use your American Express card. They're like, oh, breakfast in the room is on us. I was like why, They're like
you use your American Express. Oh you got an extra hundred dollars like credit for like whatever, you know whatever, like the mini bar or whatever. I was like, what it was?
There were so many perks outside of.
Like the mini bar for free.
Can you imagine? You know, you should have seen us in there.
He and I are such like cheap boats, and I was like, you think how much you think the water costs?
How much?
We were at it every and then it was so funny because before we were leaving, he was like, Babe, we got five more dollars.
We can't.
We can't leave five thousand people. Go ahead and grab the gummy beers.
No, I've seen you in Yahoo's free kitchen. I've seen you there.
Yeah.
I used to love Tavy and Yahoo's, oh Yahoo, just because I'm like, ooh, I get my kind bars.
So yeah, it was just awesome.
But like I like, I never, I've never I've never utilized American Expressing that way before, and I just didn't realize what, you know, just how much they catered service to you. So it just was really nice. And like I said, the hotel was amazing.
I mean.
A ten out of ten. Honestly, it was just amazing. And it's just so centrally located, so you.
Got to travel Like I'm kind of just jealous of the experience of just going somewhere with your boo and just like you even did like touristy stuff like the little rickshaw whatever bicycle.
Wow. Yeah, I don't know what they call it. I just.
I'm so self conscious. I'd be like, are you okay? Do you want me to suck at it in? Like, how can I make this a lighter load? No, but that sounds so sweet and so romantic, and you know what, shout out to your sister, Lisa, because that was a real solid move. The guy. I mean, I'm just kind of I've guys just need help. So if you have a friend or a sibling who you know is close with your significant other, I say, go all the way, just say hey, can you help him or her or
whoever it is? Just just help them for my own benefit. Yeah, yes, But husband and I decided to start something called bay day by day. Well, I kind of hate the expression date night, and it hasn't really worked for us. The idea that we'd have a date night once a week or whatever, and especially in COVID times plus having the baby, I'm like, what a night where I can't I don't have to be at home. I'm still nursing and all
that kind of stuff. So I was like, let's you know, and it's led to like disappointments, so that's what I'll say. And I said, Okay, how about instead we just name one day on like a Saturday or Sunday, like Bay Day, and we each do something nice for one another during the day, like a day kind of date or whatever. So we're going to try it out starting next weekend.
I just want to feel special. I just want to feel like there's something because it's the weekends can be monotonous, and also, you know, it is it's been a really freaking long time since we've had time to like be a couple who thinks about one another, you know, So we're gonna try it out. Baby yay.
I love that.
It's important honestly to just kind of because I you know, I work a lot, and so it was just nice to just be like, hey, cause you know, right now Superman is home because he had like the foot surgery. So even though we're home all day together, it's I don't want to get to see him and just hang out and just and not do anything other than just talk, you know, usually like in the morning we do and then right before we go to sleep. But like, it was nice that all day it was just like, hey,
how you, how are you? Oh my gosh, what's your favorite color again?
Oh?
Blue?
I forgot, you know. So it was really really really nice, I have to say. And I was really happy, and I was proud of him. I could say he was, but nobody's more proud of him than himself. Okay, because he was like, I did I heard about the phone? Yeah, man, I did it so good. I was like, that has to come for me. You are doing the most right now.
But he did do a really good job.
Give him this little pat on the back, Give this a little and before do you feel the pending doom of like the winter time I'm feeling I'm starting to feel like, let me get my last social distance outdoor hangouts and before we got to close up for the winter and go back inside our caves. Are you feeling anything like that?
Not yet?
Only because I have a fire pit in the backyard, so we gonna see how long that like lets me stretch out, and so we'll see. I have like a like a group of friends. There's like three of us that like hang out. They'll come here, Like my friend Rihanna lives around a corner, my sister lives down the street, and then Linda doesn't live far I need to disc Cobra. So we've been like, you know, kind of like hanging out. Like we'll just rotate houses so it doesn't feel as bad.
And plus two, you know, I always work from home, so it doesn't feel too crazy.
And I'm not gonna lie I am.
People think like I guess because I'm pretty, I seem like I'm so we're outgoing.
I'm not.
I'm just more silly and fun. But I'm actually pretty shy. So I love me a good. I'm just gonna be home.
Yeah, this whole virtual lifestyle is great for me. I went to a happy hour at three thirty. I never would have gone to in real life if it had been at a bar. I'm like, y'a, I'll do your little I'll do a happy hour quote unquote, you know,
talk to some people. It's so much better I don't have to like leave, there's no commute, there's no like I bet you're like me where you go to a function and afterwhard you come home and you're like so depleted from all the like for socialization and networking or whatever that is. My I can roll into bed if I want to or whatever. It's nice. Yeah, well we've got a busy We've got a very busy fall. We have this two week period where it's like Thanksgiving. Rio's
first birthday is Thanksgiving Day. This year it falls on Thanksgiving.
Oh really, I'm not having birthday right.
Little Turkey Turkey and then my and then we're trying to squeeze into baptism in between Thanksgiving and my husband's brother's wedding, which is and I really thank them for this. It's black tie optional, so that means your girl is gonna get a ball down.
It's nice.
I'm really excited. I want to like get my hair done, and I'm already kind of bullying slash just you know, just gently nudging one of our cousins to like get her hair done with me, and let's make a day of it. And we're gonna stay at this nice hotel or the wedding is gonna be so I'm looking forward to that, but it's gonna be quite a two week span. And then I feel like, okay, I'm gonna put you know the clothes sign on our house and just be like, Okay, goodbye.
That's it. See y'all in March. Hibernating hibernating. Yeah, yeah, something to look forward to for sure.
Okay, well, is it time for my favorite part of the show, I.
Believe, So let's take a quick break and we will be right back with y'all's question.
Question, and we're back for the FABE part of the show. Question Doll's question.
Don't do we have any questions?
Man?
Oh, well do we do?
We?
Ever? This is this is look, this is definitely our fa one of our favorite parts of the show, and honestly, I wanted to give you all an update. So a couple of weeks back, we got a question from a listener that really hit hit us in our heart strings. She was a single mother, really struggling, had some debt, had some savings, and was pretty much questioning whether or not she should pull all the money out of her four one K in order to pay off her debt.
And get on the right track. And you know, Tiffany and I talked at the time about like I was raised by a single mom, and I kind of shared how when my mom got to force from my father and separated, and she had four kids, like under the age of I don't know how thirteen or fifteen or something like that, but a bunch of kids and one
very small income. And so when we got that question, I think, you know, my advice was really the only way that we survived that period in our times was because my mom asked for help from her siblings, from my aunts and uncles, and we lived with my uncle, like and A kicked him out of his bedroom. He slept on the couch, and my mom and my sister and I crammed into his bedroom and my little brother and my older brother slept in another bedroom. And we lived there for a while, and then we moved into
my uncle's rental for a while. My mom's coworkers got us Christmas gifts that year. It was tough. Anyway, one of our listeners reached out, and I thought this was so sweet. She offered to she wanted to see if we could connect her to that listener, so that she could send her like a grocery store gift card or something. So just shout out to that listener and thank y'all for feeling like you can share these intimate stories. Yes, and you're stress with us.
Mandy.
Your advice was so because you know, sometimes we could get lost in the financial advice send it for it to be super technical, like well, you know you want to refinance your loan and you want to talk to da da da da, and you want to defer and forbearance, and you know, your advice was so empathetic and spot on, Like it just really warmed my soul that that a listener can ask a question and they could get advice,
but from a place of like heart and soul. It just honestly, I just as I was listening to you share, I was just like, wow, this is exactly what this
show is about. Yes, we certainly get to the you know X y Z, you know P plus L equals this, but we also get to the this is how my life is flavoring, you know, the advice that I'm giving you, and so I don't know it just I just wanted to tell you that it just really warmed my heart and soul and just it was just awesome advice that you gave her during our last episode.
Well thanks and thanks to her for you know, sharing that. And it almost was like her question and of itself was asking for help, which was a you know, it takes bravery. So thank you for sharing, and thank you to that listener. I'm going to connect y'all. Finally got the email, so thank y'all. But let's get into this week's question. Your favorite Tiffany real estate question. Lots of
real estate questions. It does feel like the hot the housing market if you're in the right location, is pretty hot these days as people are looking to move out of cities and get to the burbs since no one's going any damn ware all right. This question comes from listener named Natalie. She says, I'm shopping for a home
¶ I'm shopping for a home, I'm trying to decide if I should take on a renovation project. How do you find a good Reno team that will do a good job and not take advantage of you?
in a very competitive market. I'm trying to decide if I should embark on a renovation project or stick to the turnkey homes. I remember Tiffany renovated her home from top to bottom. Mandy, did you have renau projects in your home too? I want to know how did you find a good team that doesn't try to take advantage of you? And that also does a great job. I've heard the horror stories of renaults getting out of control
and costing way more than budgeted. Any tips you have would be great, thank you, and I love the show. So Natalie wa.
She wants she wants to either reno or buy a home, so.
It's a very competitive market. So she's like, should I try to go for a fixer upper basically, which would open up her options? If she's looking for a turnkey home, like a home that's ready to move in, you know, doesn't need any doesn't mean any fixing up, it would limit her options in this community market. So yeah, I was in the they we're both in the same boat.
I couldn't find a turnkey because it was just one too expensive. And I'm not gonna lie right now. To me, the housing market is a bit inflated because the supply is low, but the demand is high, so homes are going for way more than they would have gone for just a month ago. Like the people across the street. My face, Oh man, they didn't tell you. My fans are selling their house.
Your faves. Who are the faves? Wait? The guy, the guy, yes, neighbor Keith.
Yeah, So Neighbory Keith is selling his house and it went. It went literally in three days, for like way more than they probably would have went for just a month ago their home. And that's because the market that we're in. So I would I would actually caution folks against buying turnkey in a market like now.
But I'm not gonna lie.
I mean, I was fortunate in that, not so much that my contractor was so great, but I had a really great project manager that leaned on him, and that that was Rihanna and her husband. She was my designer remain home r E h Main m A I N home. That's what they are on on on ig but they were.
They were my project management team. She designed, He is a he's a carpenter by trade, but an engineer and so he they If it wasn't for them, the house would not have turned out the way it did because my contractor certainly was trying to cut corners.
So that's what I would say, is.
That, knowing what I know now, I would have started with a project manager that can help me vet a really good contractor, because there are some things that I would have missed had it not been for them.
I know you're you're, you're.
You had like a you didn't you didn't have a project manager, right Mandy.
Well, yeah, yeah, so we want more traditional. I mean, I guess we found our contractor first, and we interviewed three.
We found him by going, I mean my husband. Really he was our project manasurre in that sense, like he interviewed people that he found on Home Advisor or Angie's List good reviews, and then interviewed them and our and we looked for things I was especially looking for, not necessarily the lowest price, but the best, the most communicative, because you're about to go on a like a multi month you know project, no matter what they say, it's going to be months, and you want someone who will
like answer your email and so your texts show up on time. And the guy we ended up going with was ultimately he showed up on time. He was the first to respond to our email you know, about the job. He was very like professional and communicative, and he was in the mid range as far as the cost went. And we also worked with an interior designer separately, and I like, so Tiffany, like your interior designers. They recommended your contractor, Is that right?
No, so no, no, I actually found my contract of first, okay, but then we found the tier designer like right after that. So right as I was like deciding, like there was like three or four contract I was just kind of deciding, and then we found the project manager and he was like, wait, wait, wait, let me help you decide between the few that you're looking at, and so they helped mm.
Hmm, gotcha. Yeah. I think if you start with like an interior designer, which which sounds it is not just about drapes, Okay. It's not like someone coming to pick out what color your rug is going to be. For us, it was about Okay, what size kitchen counter can we fit in here? What size desk should we get?
That?
Stuff that takes like she was so valuable in helping me just like reassess my own like help me understand what could fit and what we actually could do with the space to maximize it. So honestly, if you find someone like that first, they probably have worked for worked with a bunch of contractors or other people that they know in the business and can recommend someone and that could be a good source of referrals. We had a
bit of like it wasn't that bad. But our contractor was kind of an afflement alpha male, and he didn't love so much my really adorable, petite Russian blonde Julie. I loved Julia, She's amazing. Didn't love how kind of pushy she was, but I did. I loved how pushy she was. Yeah, and you know, wouldn't respond to her sometimes, and I had to, like, you know, smooth things over. But I think I got, you know, overall, really lucky.
And honestly, it's tough to people. It's very it's scary because if you're going to be spending and we spent you know a lot of uh, we spent a lot of cash on our remodel. What made me feel comfortable about it was the way that he structured the contract where it was split up into certain payments after a job was completed.
Yep.
So you know it's like the kitchen or the demos or yeah, demo's done, here's a payment. Kitchens, floors are installed, here's a payment. You know, the big bathroom like, you know, big things like that. So I felt comfortable and that was all lined out in the contract, and then you just cross your fingers and pray pray that and make sure they get their the permits right. If you have someone who's trying to talk to you about oh, our cousins.
They listened to the show. I don't put their business out there, but they they were going to remodel their their backyard this summer and they found a really great guy who had a great portfolio. And it was during the pandemic and this guy was going to do it for real cheap, and he was like, Oh, you don't
need a permit for your backyard whatever. I Meanwhile, they're like taking down like part of this retaining mall and all this stuff, and one of their neighbors like reported them apparently, and they now have for months now have had just like half their yard, you know, demoed and this big ass dump dumpster in their driveway taking up all the space. So get your PaperWorks and dot your eyes and cross your t's and all that stuff.
No, absolutely, and yeah, you just you want to get someone who to Mandy's point, it's well one you One of the things I learned from Jermaine, from you know, my my project manager, is that we set aside about twenty five percent extra because things happen that are not the contractors.
Fault, like for example, they were like digging up. They're like, uh, there's a hole here, you know.
So you set aside twenty to thirty percent honestly kind of like extra and it's it's always going to take longer and it's always going to for the most part, going to be more. But if you have a good designer project manager, they can really help navigate. So we my husband and I Superman and I bought a second property totally tear down, well not really a tear down, but it was a beat. It was ten thousand dollars, so it tells you just how bad, what bad shape
it was in. So Jermaine again served as our project manager, and we are last time I checked, I think we're thirty thousand dollars under budget. So but that's also because of a lot of the COVID things. Because to your point, man, a lot of people are like, oh, I need work. So I know that gave you that bid before, but
I can do better. But you're wanting. You're wanting. That's what a good project manager or designer and things will help you with is to manage all like the bigger aspect of your home because it's not just oh, I like, you know, I want hardwood floor, it's like, well, how's that going to go with the door? And how is the layout of the house. Does it make sense for
the kitchen door to be here rather than here? And yeah, and I mean it's it's it's it's funish it can be when it's not being super stressful.
Yeah, I mean you definitely want to, like you wanna if you and it doesn't really cost anything for a contractor to come and give you a quote, so if you even and the thing is like in a competitive market, you have to like put in the offer really quickly,
but try to get ahead of it. Try to have someone like a contractor who can maybe take a look at the property and you tell them what you or even just tell them what you want to do and they can give you a rough estimate so that you can see, is this more than you're willing to spend, you know, to put into the house, And then you know, try and uh, yeah, get get lots of wine if you're a drinker, and just keep that you know, on standby, and yeah, get and just adjust your expectations like and
on top of setting aside twenty five percent. I would say, increase whatever quote they get you for the timeline by like a month, two months. Why not set your expectations very low. It ain't like AHGTV where you walk in and they're like, here's your house. I still have people coming in to like do this in that like months, like into February, and it was supposed to be done in December. So countertops get delayed, all kinds of fun stuff.
Oh yes, yes, yeah, Like literally they're like, oh, there's a tariff on your shelves.
I'm like, wait, what does that mean?
So yeah, but like all in all, you know, if you've got a good team around you, you end up with something beautiful and then you get something that's really suited to your style.
So if you're looking in Westchester, there's some really nice fixer uppers. I mean not nice, but they could be nice if you fix them up in our area. So come on down. I'm excited because I feel like our neighborhood's like a diamond in the rough and people investing and buying homes. Now I'm like, yay, go all right, let's take let's pueeze in another quick question. We spent a lot of time on that one because we had lost to say. But thank you again, Natalie with an
H for your question. I appreciate that. All right, our next question, all right, this one comes from someone who would like to remain anonymous, and that is perfectly fine. They have a question about a five to two nine, So they say, I have a question about getting a
¶ Is a 529 plan a good way to save for college for my 2 year old granddaughter? (read more about 529's )
five two nine started for my two month old granddaughter. Is it a good way to say for college for her? What are your thoughts? By the way, I love the podcast listen every week. Oh and I bought Happy Birthday Molly Moore for my granddaughter. Yay Molly Moore.
Wait a little about Molly Moore dot com. M A L I M L R E.
No.
I love that. Here's the thing.
And I don't know how you stand on five two nine plans. I'm not gonna lie management it's not my fave. What I do like about five to nine plans, you know, is that you know there are tax benefits right to your five two nine plan. But what I don't work is that I don't want to set aside money for a thing that might not happen. I instead, like I have like my nieces and my nephews, I have custodial accounts for them, which is just basically account where I'm
investing money for their future. And I can, you know, kind of hand it over to their mom, their dad or whoever whenever, or them whenever I want to. And and in my mind, I'm like, oh, this is for college. But what if Roman decides that he know is going to start his own business. What if Lily says, you know what, I you know, I don't want to go to college. You know, I'm I'm a stay at home mom. You know what if Amelia is like, I want to
take over the world. That's what she's working on now at three, you know, And so I didn't I So I with five two nine plans, really you're you're supposed to use them for education, and if you don't, there are some financial ramifications that I just I don't like, even though they've they've brought in how you can use it for education, because I from what I understand now, you can even use it now, like let's just say Amelia's in childcare, so her mom could use some of
the five to two nine plan money for childcare now, I mean for it for daycare now. But still it's just too limiting for I mean, so they're just not my fave.
Yeah, I agree one hundred percent they're not, are You know, A five two nine plan is a good way to save if you're sure which who knows what's going to happen that you know they'll go to they'll use the money for education. The good thing. I hate to say this, but with the Trump tax plan, there actually was a benefit which expanded the ability to use the funds and
your five two nine plan beyond higher education. You actually could use it for like private school tuitions for K through twelve, or school fees and things like that, so you know, you don't necessarily have to wait to use it for college anymore. I think it's up to ten thousand dollars or something like that. We can post a link to an article that has the details, so that's
something to think about. I actually do have a five to two nine for Rio, because Husbi opened one and he was so damn proud of himself, and I was like, okay, and I don't mind the you know, and the benefit is that you'll the money you put in grows tax free and won't get taxed, like as long as you use it for allified education expenses. You won't pay taxes on it later, and you invest it, and you can choose from a bunch of different types of investment, you know,
based on your risk tolerance and all that. So, but to your point, Tiffany, we were, I think we're recently we had Sharon Epperson, the CNBC correspondent, she was on the show back when we just got into quarantine, I think, and she has some teen she has teenage children, and she was she was saying, well, you know, you do invest your child's money when you open a five two nine plan her children. I think we're just we're close
to graduating high school. And because of the pandemic at the time, the stock market at crash and all that kind of stuff, She's like, oh crap, Like the gains on my investments have gone down. I mean luckily they
bounced back, but that is something to time it. You know, your time horizon's only like what eighteen years or so, seventeen eighteen years, So you want to be sure when you choose your investments that like, for example, for Rio, I think we're in some kind of version of a target date fund that should become more conservative closer to get too. Yeah, and it's cute because you can give a link to your friends and family and they can contribute all.
That, which is nice.
But one thing I don't like too about a five to nine plan is that, like, don't colleges sometimes it could be honestly, you might not get as much financial aid that college is consider it when deciding on financial aid. So it's possible that you talk would get less financial aid if you've got like a ton of BI two nine plan money like stashed away. So that's also too
But to me, I mean that's a big drawback. But honestly, to me, the biggest drawback is we're in such uncertain times, and not just because of pandemic and quarantine and stuff, but just because, like the way the world is shaping up.
Who knows if there'll even be a thing called college in ten years, And I just am nervous about betting on that with kids that are like, you know, like it's different for Supergirl, right, she's fourteen, so it's like, Okay, she's going to college, like college is still a thing. But Roman is five. I don't know what that's going to look like in thirteen years, you.
Know, yeah, well, yeah regarding and I know we just wrote an article about this on Magnify. It's it's it's a baby myth that like five two nine plans really dramatically decrease the amount of money you might get from financial aid. But it's definitely like it's a it's a risk, but it's not like quite as furious. Yeah, like it's huge. So anyway, but I'll post I don't have time to get into it now, but i'll post something. Yeah, I got time for that. But it's decent. But yeah, definitely.
And tip, do you have a custodial ir ray for them, like a ROTH or what kind of account you have for them? Just a savings account.
No, it's a custodial not a ROTH. It's just a traditional brokerage acount. But it's a custody gotcha.
Yeah, so I mean either way, or you can even just set aside some cash when you figure it out later, you know, put the cash into an account. Better something than nothing, right when you're saving for when you're saving for anything, analysis paralysis can just stop you from making from doing any saving it also exactly go for it. And kudos to you, grandma, you're very good granny.
Yes, especially she got the Molly Moore.
Book, right, Molly Moore at mollymore dot com. You're welcome, all right, all right, cool? Ready for a boost and break?
Yes, now it's time to boost their break. We're all our family. Are you gonna boost? Are you gonna break? What you gonna do? Mandy.
I don't know if you guys check Twitter today between the hours of like three and five pm, but there was a trending topic that yes, I saw that I can't have children in the car or a car if you have children in the area, just cover their ears hashtag zoom. Dick was trading all that. I was in the middle of like that happy hour call that I was doing, and I was like, what is going on? Why?
And I am a masochist, so I clicked. Apparently this like CNN contributor, New Yorker columnist or something, was on a call with colleagues and his manhood made an appearance on the call, and he issued a statement saying, this is very embarrass I thought I was not I thought I had muted my video, which that quote in and of itself tells you this man didn't know he was doing. Because you can't mute a video. Oh his poor colleagues, y'all can't wait?
Wait was he not wearing any pants?
So sources tell me that, uh, it has now come out that he was participating in a recreational activity on this conference call, a very healthy one that probably you know, like most of the most adults participated in. You know, it's great, no shame in that game. But maybe don't do it on a work call. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, disgusting. But that's like the extreme of poor And wait, Tiffany.
Myself, sir, what can be so.
Arousing arousing about a work call that you have to I just can't believe it.
Wow, yeah, he's like, I want to apologize to my wife. Yes you do, my goodness, it's a very healthy habit. But not on a zoom call, sir, I got. And I just feel bad for his colleagues. Oh it must have been like to stop it. I mean, I don't listen. Just the like the ego, like the male and men are just so dumb, just so dumb. Sometimes man keep it in your pants, they keep it in your pants. Do it with a door? You know, I am so like, I am so paranoid about being caught on video doing something.
I got one of those. Everyone should invest in these little like slidey cover thingies for your webcam that you can just keep it slid so that even if I open a Zoom and it automatically turns a video on, but I don't want the video to be on. It's just covered, you know, and I have a moment and gather myself and fix my hair or whatever before I open it, and I close the laptop anytime I'm not sitting at it, just you know, just to keep it
because I don't want that to happen. But I mean, at the worst case, what if someone see me like yelling at my husband or whatever, maybe taking a nap because for now my office is in my bedroom. But none of that. That is just disgusting. That, yeah, but what are some other zoom like bad virtual haven?
Remember that girl who got caught peeing on Zoom by mistake?
What she didn't realize it was in the very very very beginning, and so she was like, you know, she was on her computer. You see her like walking, You could tell, you see her reach and she you could tell she thought that she pressed the button because you see her with her laptop, walking, placing it down on the floor in the bathroom, picking down her pants and.
Sit in the poor and then she like.
Looks over and I guess it was that at that moment she realized.
The midstream and she couldn't stop it.
Oh, I mean you couldn't see, like you know, you couldn't see anything. You couldn't see like you know, the side of her leg or whatever. But you could tell she was I don't even know how you returned she the way she tumbles off of the.
Everyone was like, how did I miss this?
Everybody was like, Jenny, Jenny, Jenny, No, because I was like, first of all, I don't know what's worth Jenny peeing on zoom or the fact that.
Somebody recorded it and shared it with the world because I saw it.
I saw, well, you're right. That was another thing I wanted to point out poor zoom etiquette, Like you know, accidents happened. Someone sent me and it's no shade to this front, but someone sent me a clip, like a viral clip of someone's mother getting dressed with their with her son or nephew or whatever on his school zoom
call in the background. So she's in the background in the closet, you know, and you know she had pants on but no top, no bra, and she was caught and they recorded it and then sent it around and it's viral, and I'm like, that poor woman was just that's poor. She was just minding her business. She was probably like trying to go from work, you know, trying to do like get you know, her sons in school. She's just doing you know. I feel so bad for her.
So yeah, anyone who's recording that shit and taking advantage of it, you know, you're terrible humans.
Nor you really shouldn't because something like that. It's just like, I mean, people kids are home, was just talking about being your normal self.
And so yeah, that's.
Terrible, very terrible.
And my boost is really simple. It's nothing crazy or not my boost. So my break is these damn squirrels. So I thought I was cute. I said, I'm a homeowner. Now you know what, I'm gonna buy some pumpkins for my front yard because you know what, fall, pumpkins fall. Girl, those pumpkins getting the last twenty four hours before my ghetto hood.
Squirrels they.
Were they jack o lanterns or like full pumpkins.
No whole pumpkins.
Literally, Superman came back, was like, did you buy them like this? That's how quickly they tore. I was like by them, like what. And even my niece of my nephew, they came to visit. They said, Auntie, you what happened to your pumpkins? I was like, you know what? These damn squirrels. So the squirrels here in Newark. My friend was just asking. He was like, they're very aggressive here.
I'm like they are They look at you dead in your face and dare you Like I was literally at the window, knocking out the window, like, get off my pumpkin. The squirrel looks at me like girl made to get a continue to eat like it ain't It ain't real unless you come out here. But and even then I was like, you know what, I don't want it because if he's not scared of this window knocking, that's the type that jumps in the house and scares you in here.
So yeah, that was just.
My that you can't have anything good with these damn squirrels eating your pumpkins. I was wondering what my neighbor was doing because they had some pumpkins like on on on like these garbage bags and they were like spraying them, and she was she lacking them.
She's like I learned my lesson. I was like, ah, next year, next.
Lacking your pumpkins, you be the most suburban thing I've ever heard of my entire life. So I was like, oh, these pumpkins.
Yeah, she's bought some spray from home depot that basically, like you know, puts like a coating over there. So I said, I'm on pumpkin watch for hers, and if if, if you know, if they live, I'm going to I'm going to invest in that.
Next year.
You must say, damn, lil tasty pumpkins. My squirrels have not been bothering my stupid Really.
No, these girls around here are.
I was gonna say they're animals, but they literally are animals, but they're disrespectful animals.
So that's my fun little boost, my fun little break.
Actually about eat them my bonus. Since we're talking kind of about Halloween, hocus Pocus three or sorry, hocus Pocus to the sequel is like a done is happening. I just thought I would p s a that also sister Act three is happening, So shout out to Our Youth and two sequels that we actually do want and asked for.
She I love sister, I love both one and two and Lauren Hill, Oh my gosh, sister I two was everything.
I mean, who did not sing those songs?
Sister?
Direct that I saw that one first, I mean that was the second one. Yeah. I wanted to be one of those kids in that school. I have no talent for dance or song, but I wanted to be like an account.
Why joyful joy Oh my goodness, I love it. I just felt like Lauren Hill's mom was so unfair. She just wants to be a singer. Yeah, if you haven't watched it, go ahead and watch.
It's amazing and then watch Lizzo is what was it like the VMA performance when she patricks a amazing Okay, jinks? I mean, so, I think it's on Disney Plus so you can go catch up on your sister X. I don't know where hocus Pocus is probably also on Disney Plus. Let's be real, but yeah, I think I think we'll call it a show, Tiff, what do you think?
Yes, I agree, it's been a great show as per huge.
Per huge, All right, my husband hasn't come knocking because I made meat loaf and potatoes before I came to record, so I think I bought myself some time. He's happy, all right. Well, thank y'all again for sticking with us, and you will see y'all next week.
Next week, and follow us on Instagram. We like Instagram.
Followers, Yeah, follow us. We're at Branna Vission Podcast. Tiffany is at the Budgetista. If you don't follow her, then I'm shocked already. And you can find me at Mandy Money, Mandy with an Eye.
I just will say, Mandy with an eye. Don't forget that
Eye man, I money, all right, y'all, see you later