Ep 332: A BA Halloween Special

Hey va, fam, it's Mandy Money here. Now. I believe that we all have a unique superpower in life, me personally. I was lucky enough to discover mine about ten years ago. I was just a few years into my career as a financial journalist. I had spent weeks I was interviewing at this huge media company which you guys may or may not have heard of, called Yahoo, and they wanted to poach me. I suspected that I was underpaid at the time, and I was ready to finally tip the

The Beast Coast Atlanta. A.

All right, well, this is going to be such a fun show, y'all. We got a lot planned for y'all. We are going to be taking questions live, so if you have questions, feel free to drop them in the comments. Through some magical YouTube magic, we're going to be able to see your questions and take them live as we go through the show. That's what I've been told. I've rid to introduce myself. I'm Mandy woodrib Santos, one half of Brand and Bisson podcast. So excited to have you

The rule was if Halloween landed on a Monday, you celebrate the weekend before and then it's over.

You do, but it's the week before because there's like days at the school and like different crap happens, and then there's the parties and everyone wants you to come to their party, so they have on different days of the week, and it's just like I'm dragging in Atlanta.

Every day's a party, So like, I feel like they've been celebrating since well all month, pretty much like every day, I feel like someone like has a mask on or they have like a cosson on. It's just this weekend where everyone's just going crazy. I'm sure it's probably going to be until next weekend too.

Yeah, it's funny like I'm I'm in the middle. Because you've got Mandy with the kids, Marks clearly going through his party phase.

I'm like, I pass the party phase. I don't want kids. I am in the I'm going to stay home and party all by myself.

I do have plant babies, though I have three of them. You could see one, actually it's not here you go. There's one here you go, and then there's a few others in here and they are alive and well.

But no, I was gonna wear a costume, but I left it in the uber because I was too wasted at two am. I do have company.

Very scary for you guys though.

So maybe for it. Can you see it?

Oh?

No? Is that a bill? Instagram is down? Yeah, now listen, don't let's let's let's be honest here. How many of y'all saw your followers drop today and you were like, what happened?

I got canceled?

Flash Tag Barrel wallet, just to see if I got canceled, And I was like, my friends didn't tell me I got canceled.

What's going on with that? Is that not as we're speaking of, like we're going to talk about some scary money topics. But I feel like in our game, in our business, it is one of the scariest propositions, like prospects is getting canceled, because like, if they won't, if they don't want to, if they don't listen to us, how are we going to make money anymore? I don't know what I'm gonna say. Oh god, well, let's get

But I like sweat every time I get real mail, not like junk mail, anything related to my money, my four to one K, my bank accounts.

For some reason. Yeah, I have like an aversion to opening physical mail. Same way.

Yeah, yeah, what is it? And why does it feel like if it comes in the mail, it's like that much scarier And do y'all get the eye arrests rando mails? Like the snail mail all the time. I got an eighteen thousand dollars bill, not kidding, this is why don't put my mail I had missed, like the first notice. Yeah, like the state of New York. If you're if you're a business owner, like it's not all sunshine and daisies. You think that you get like your tax situation all settled,

And you have to be careful too, because some of them, some of those letters might not even be from the irs or from the government in general. When I first opened up my LLC I got when I was back in Philly. I got a note from Pennsylvania and it was saying, hey, like, you need to pay like two thousand dollars in order.

To open up the LLC.

And it was really really official, and I'm like me being like the way I am, I'm like, there's no ways it's true. Like I feel like I paid all the fees I needed. And I googled it and there was some lawyer, you know, was saying, hey, like, here's the newest hoax. And I'm like, man, like, I almost fell for it. I can't imagine how many other people would have probably like fell for this.

So I've seen that with with trademark applications. Mark, I know you recently got your trademark waiting for mine. So apparently as soon as you file for a trademark, you start getting bombarded because it's public. It's public, so you start getting bombarded with mail from people. Yeah, was saying, oh, you have this additional fee for your trademark, this additional fee, and immediately my attorney told me you're going to get these notices, ignore them. I still got freaked out. I

Listen, trademark. Hel is my life right now. I don't know if I told y'all, but I discovered that there is another Mandy Money out there. Well, the man, there's a Mandy Money with a Y. Mandy with a Y money, Yes, And I found that out when I went to file my trademark. And I don't know if you and I use the same trademark attorney Deli. Her name's Kristen. Yeah, okay. So we met and she was like and I was in the middle of telling her, I'm like, yeah, it's

And yeah, but those are like that's a really good money point. In general, I think I get questions from people all the time because we're in this kind of like frugal world where people are like, Okay, I need to cut costs wherever. And when it comes to being like or getting a CPA or having like a trademark lawyer, I think it's invaluable, Like you want to make sure that you pay as much as you can for people are going to protect your business and then also keep you away from uncle uncle Samuel.

So like I know why I was filing.

I was trying to be frugal initially, and I was like, okay, well I can I can do this trademark thing on my own. And then I started thinking about what could possibly happen if Fidelity owned better Wallet the name of better Wallet, and I had to go against them, or maybe if they filed before I did. So I think it's really key to make sure you're paying for those folks like you're doing. What was the quote again, let go and let the money flow.

Oh yeah, I just came up with that because just just accept the fact that you're going to have to reserve a part of your budget for the help that you're going to need, like to be in defense mode. I don't really watch sports, but you know, like defense.

If you're watching any sports, watch watch my Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia Eagles.

They're doing really well. I have already checked out of this conversation.

Oh you're in San Diego.

The only thing I care about is the World Cup.

Sorry, all right, Well we've talked about some spooky stuff. Let's let's pivot and talk about Halloween. So I am going as the black teacher from Hogwarts. That is my look today. The cool one that you know got cut because you know, she was a little too saucy for the children, and so all her lines got cut from the movies. But I want to talk about y'all's favorite like Halloween memories as you were kids, Delly, you want to start growing up in Miami.

What was it like, I mean, it's funny because, yeah, I grew up in a condo, right, we never had a home, so Halloween was going to the mall, also.

Playing around the stores. So it wasn't big in my house.

Like other holidays were bigger Christmas, but Halloween wasn't a big deal my mom.

It's not something really Brazilian celebrate.

You know, I'm Brazilian and so my mom didn't really get it.

But I feel like, y'all want to have some funky costumes in but I.

Don't understand what's happening.

It's like we're just knock on people's houses and ask them for food.

This is weird, Like don't get that.

They're like, no, everyone's a socialist on Halloween. There you go, you get candy, You get candy.

Yeah, get it. And we just it was very low key around my house.

I did the whole party, you know, go out party, the sexy costumes, you know, the this year, I'm wearing a onesie, like this was my Halloween costume. Last year it was you know, it's a onesie. I was like, I'm going comfortable comfort. I see word and you know, I'm turning forty this year, so I am leaving so hard into my forties. I'm like this, I did it, y'all. I got through my.

Twenties, I got through the thirdies.

Forty is about comfort and doing what I want with like no not caring how other people are going to think about me, how they're going to judge me.

And I'm really really leaning hard into that.

And I'm child free by choice, So I do feel for the parents and all the extra work you guys have to do around the holidays, because these kids will not let you slip these days.

Like they have social media now they see.

What their friends are doing they wanted to so they're got you know, they You guys can't get away with what like my parents got away with. So yeah, your hands full.

Thanks for your sympathies and your pity. I appreciate it. Your best rich on tea life, and I will live vicariously through you and visit you in Portugal. All right, Mark? What is what was little baby Mark dressing up for Halloween as oh man?

So so growing up like delly am My parents really then celebrate it, and it was more because they were both from families that came from the South and were raised in the church. So my memories of Halloween quote unquote was our church forced us on Halloween Night to stay at the church like overnight, and I did that for years. So they didn't want you to go out

What's your favorite candy? What's your favorite candy?

Oh god, anything with caramel or carmel, however you pronounce it. So I mean, one hundred gram was like my thing even now, Like I was. I was at the store not too long ago and I saw one. I was like, oh my god, it's two for one. I can definitely eat both of those. And I was like, like, I'm on my health kick. Right now, I'm doing berries, you know, every every other day, like I can't so, but yeah, that was my memory growing up. It wasn't until college

Do you know that thing was inside washed it in between halloweens? Please tell me you did? You know?

That's what they say you should do in college. I'm answering like a politician. But yeah, no, I I tried.

To, but some start talking about the importance of keeping antibiotics in our out of our poultry and change the subject. Okay, be a fan. We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more of our Halloween treats and Delli, you're about to like move to Portugal, right Plus, you're turning forty. You're living all of our rich auntig dreams. Catch us up. What's going on in your world?

Yes, I switch my least month to month. So the process is in the works. I've hired an attorney to get the paperwork done. The goal is to move to Portugal in the next four to six months, probably closer to six months and yeah, I'm gonna have a It's a wild process because you actually have to.

Like rent an apartment before you even get there.

So you have to you have to rent it like sight unseen, and you have to have everything like lined up, you have to have a bank account open in the country, all this stuff. But again another thing that you could totally diy.

But I don't mess.

Around when it comes to immigration, being you know, former immigrant myself, where I went through the immigration processing.

The United States, I'm like, no, I'm going to hire an attorney and I'm going to get help so that it's because it's also a very.

Stressful process in general, I'm like, why not have support.

So I'm you.

Know, I've hired somebody, and it's it's exciting, it's nerve wracking at the same time I'm moving there.

The goal is to to go buy myself a.

Home eventually and bring my mom and retire my mom as well. So I'm trying to like reunify our family right because my mom's in Brazil, my.

Sisters are Hawaii.

So the goal is to like get us all like in one place so that we can be a family again in one country, which is a lot.

Are you the big sister?

I am?

And you can tell I am not like that.

A matriarch more than my mom, you know.

And this is something that a lot of first gens and like older daughters unders stand that we take on this role of, you know, matriarch because usually we're the ones that have made it and we have money, and so we're kind of making these big decisions for our family.

And I do it in a way that like.

I'm not dictating my mom's life, Like I literally send her money every month and I'm like, do what you want with this money, like no strings attached, Like this is for you to do.

As you please.

And I think that that's how you keep the peace when you miss when you mix like family and money is you can't put too many rules on it because then resentment starts to increase, and then the whole thing turns into chaos.

So we've been able to make that work. My mom's very excited about Portugal.

She's already got her bags packed even though she's not coming for like a year or so.

So it's it's exciting. We all speak the language. It's a very beautiful country.

If you haven't been, I highly recommend and they just opened a digital nomad visa.

So if you have a business or if you're allowed to be a remote employee, you can now move to Portugal.

What all right, listen, I might have to make that happen.

I don't know if.

It'll be Portugal, But I mean, what scares me these days? Or the midterm elections? Can we just do a quick shout out for early voting? Y'all got to vote? Because I know, Deli, you're about to flee the country, which is but you're going to keep your citizenship, right absentee? Right listen? You ho midterms coming up next week? Freaks me out. So that's what's scary to me right now. And I'm just like, especially as a parent, like what God, what what's this world that my poor baby boy is

Yeah, I mean it's funny, it's I already consider myself like semi retired because I work about ten twelve hours a week, right.

Now, So it's pretty good.

You know.

I'm pretty happy with the balance that I have found, which is one of the reasons why I walked away from CNN because a lot of people didn't understand. They're like, why did you do that? And it's what's the point of saving all this money, quitting my nine to five creating this business if I'm not going to lean into

Right, because I am in my no phase.

I'm in the please don't ask me to do things. I am trying to lean into my soft life, my luxury life, and that includes time freedom for me, which is why we all teach people, you know, how to manage their money, because the whole point is to like lean into freedom, isn't that the whole idea?

Yeah, I kin you for just making that move. I mean a lot of people would be like, oh, well, CNN, and like they think of like the aura behind it, and then they find themselves being in a position where they don't like what they're doing and they dread getting up in the morning and doing what they have to do. And I did that for many of years, you know,

Yeah, and somebody just said, well, how did you pick Portugal. I'm Brazilian, so I speak Portuguese and that's one reason. But I would have gone there even if I don't speak the language. But it's also one of the safest countries in the world. It's actually the third safest country in the world, so crime is like very very low, which is top of mind for me, especially as a woman, as a single woman. When I went with my mom, we would walk around at two in the morning, no problems,

The sardines though. I took my baby moon in Portugal and I was like, my baby's gonna love seafood if my husband doesn't. I was eating octopus sardines like everything that came out, oh so good, so fresh.

Yeah, and it's just yeah. It's just a vibrant country with a lot of history. And it's an easy jumping off point both to the United States and to the rest of Europe because it's a six to seven hour flight to New York. Not bad.

So we'll see you around, I hope. I see some questions coming into the chat. The Beauty Pop podcast a fellow pod. They have a question. They say, with the recession looming, oo looks like the monster in the closet under the bed. With the recession looming, should I make any adjustments to my I ray Slash four one K contributions. Also, it's almost the end of the year, so great question

Yeah, I mean with the recession looming or we're in it, whatever it might be. I think what remains constant is what you should be doing with your money, and that's contributing early, contributing often, and trying to control what you can.

And it's the.

Prior to right.

I think a lot of people try to control the market. The market's going to do their thing, like just let them, like let them, I could do whatever it does, but try to control what you can. So when I'm talking to a lot of my mentees, it's really important that you number one, start contributing to your retirement if you're not already. Number two, really think about like what you're

Stopped looking, Mark, I'm not gonna lie. I stopped looking.

Stop looking.

I intentially logged into my Vanguard and it was like.

FuG well, you're young, right, so you have key time until you have to retire. So I mean that's like a good word of advice, Like don't don't look at it, like, because when we think about performance, we look at it over the course of decades versus years or months or days or you know, sometimes people look at in terms of hours, and that's not going to help your It's not going to help your portfolio, right, You're not going to look at the market and the market is going

Bringing that fact out. I love that and women, right, like, we're better at it.

Oh yeah, just because I mean, clearly smarter, right men?

That so horrible, but.

I mean that's it's so true. Like I was talking to a brand the other day and they're just like, we think it's really fascinating that half of the people or sixty percent of people who follow you or women, And I was like, because women are smart, and women understand what it means to actually invest the right way, and they tend not to jump into ultra risky investments that won't pay off into the future, and that's the

Yeah, that's great changes.

Yeah, I think four oh one K. Just to remember the difference between the IRA and the four to one K. The four one K the you know, it closes on December thirty first, so that's the last time, last chance to make a contribution.

And we're talking about the four to one K through your employer and the IRA.

You actually have until April twenty twenty three, right, you have until you file your taxes to.

Make twenty twenty twenty twenty two contributions. So even if you're like, oh my god, I'm not going to hit that six.

K max, you have like a few more months to get it to get it in. So just remember that also the four one K, the IRA contributions are going up next year.

Everything's going up next yeah, right, it's going to be sixty five hundred and.

The four hu is it twenty two to five?

The four to one case twenty three five?

So remember to adjust your contribution percentages if you need to for next year so that you're getting as close to maxing it out as possible. And the question that I always get is does my maximum contribution include my employer matches.

No, it does not, So you actually your employer can throw in like another like fifty to sixty K.

Their contributions that their side of the contribution is much much higher than yours. And then for my solo, for my solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, you know, I always feel like we leave them out, you guys, have your solo for one case, your sapphire rays again, you can contribute as both employees and employers, and you also have until like April to make those contributions. So it's important to know how these

And because the IRS likes to complicate things.

Yeah, that's it shocking government does that. Let it go and let the money flow towards this problem, especially right like this is one where I just so I transferred. I thought I converted to an escort, but do you know how slow the IRS is to like officially approve that ish So officially I don't even I like, I don't even know if I'm officially an escort. I've been acting as such. So I hope it gets approved. But

Did you traditional or WROTH?

I don't remember Roth? Wait, I don't remember.

Good question, Yeah, because I was going back and forth as well. I mean, you have time to switch, but I was going back and forth initially as well.

Pre tax, pre the traditional yeah, pre pre tax.

Yeah. So if everyone doesn't know, as Mandy mentioned, traditional is pre tax, and then roth will be after tax grows tax free. You take it out at fifty nine and a half without having to pay taxes. So I was going back and forth as well. And if I wanted to do a traditional Roth or I'm sorry, a Roth solo for one K or traditional, and I chose Roth. But there are not many options out there to do a Roth solo for one K besides Vanguard, which unfortunately

But it sucks. But I've been with them for so long. It's if you're listening, Vanguard, why can't you be better? Like with all the money that we're in syncing into you, why can't you invest in some IT support, you know what I mean, like some of the stuff you can't get on your phone anyhow. Anyhow, they just don't put.

Enough money into technology. And it has been happening since I started in twenty twelve.

Well, I mean one thing about Vanguard, you know, I say I'm a Vanguard customer as well, and I always tell people to use them.

Yeah, their priority will and always have been the shareholders. Like they are.

They prioritize keeping their costs as low as possible so that they can keep the fees as low as possible.

So it's funny because like.

We'll complain about the platform and then somebody you know, and then you've got like other companies that are putting a bunch of money to their platform, but then they're jacking up their fees, and so it's like, which.

One would you prefer?

And I'm like, I'll take a Yankee outdated website as if that's going to save me one hundred to two hundred thousand dollars in the long term from fees, you know. So we have to we have to pick our battles and it works. It's not fancy, it's not snazzy, it's not sexy, but it works and my fees are low af so I'm here.

Thanks for bringing me back down to earth. It's also like they don't want you to have fun on their play want you to get in and get out, literally not treading and doing stuff. They're like, we just want your money once and then go live your life.

Well, they give you everything that you need and nothing more. And I would totally agree that. Leanne like, luckily, you know, it's privileged enough to be at vanguard and positions where I was able to make a lot of those decisions and a lot of times when you're at certain companies are like how much money can I make off of X or this project whatever? We never talk about that. Every single decision was made based off the client. Were like, how are we improving the experience? How can we lower

Dang, that was such a fun episode. Thank you Mark and Delian again for joining us live in the Brown Ambition studio to our BA fam. Hope you guys are safe and well. If you miss the episode live and you want to see what my version of the Black Teacher at Hogwarts looks like, definitely go check us out on YouTube. Just search Brown Ambition. You will find the episode. You'll find our channel and why not subscribe while you're there. Okay. We love engaging with our audience in this new and

Of our team behind the scenes.

The Brown Emission Podcast is produced by Cumulus Podcast Network. It's edited by the wonderful Imani Crosby and produced by Tanya Bustos. Dennis Stimplinsky is our in house tech guru, and I am Bandy Woodard Santos, your co host, and I will see y'all next week.