We live, We laugh, We laugh.
Hey Mandy, Hey, how are you on this rainy Sunday? This glorious day the Lord has made.
I know, you know, I actually I kind of like a rainy Sunday because it's a nice lazy day you can just chill. I was already like planning out. You don't understand. Like before we got on, I was like, what should we eat for dinner? I'm always pre planning my meals, like in my head, just because I like to eat. And I was like, ooh, chili. And I got so excited that we're going to have chili for dinner.
The best part of weekend is deciding what to eat exactly.
Forget Polders.
I have not left my I have not left my little my new cave, this room that we live in now at my in law's place. I haven't left all morning. I don't know where em fiance is at.
He loves You're like, bring me back sustenance.
I heard the rain pitter pattern and I was like, ooh, an excuse, let me just right. We were out and about all day yesterday.
Really, what you guys do well?
My little baby brother's in town, Alex James as I call him. He's in town for a Governor's ball. You know that that, you know music festival that young folks go to when they stand up all day and watch people sing. I don't know, no, not my cup of tea. But I met up with him and his friend back in my old neighborhood for brunch and that was really nice. He's so grown.
Oh how does he take it over? It?
Twenty four going on forty four. When I tell you, we was sitting down. I hope his girlfriend doesn't listen, but if you're out there, I'm sorry. He was sitting there talking about how with such conviction and it's not like that he's always been this way. He's like, I just feel like my purpose is to have kids. I can't wait to start a family.
Yay.
And he's like, I don't care what anybody says. I've always known this. People say you're not supposed to know what you want when you're so young, but I've always known I wanted this, And I was like, okay, okay, okay, congrats, congrats. He always was the more stable one. I was the one who was like, you know, I'm going to move to Chile. I'm gonna move here, I'm going to live there, oh New York, you know, and uh, but he's got
his he's got his head on straight. But it's it's kind of like it like takes me aback sometimes by how like serious and adulting he is. I was not that way when I was twenty four, for sure.
Not at all kind of thing. What was I doing at twenty four? No, I mean honestly I had There's definitely some moments. I feel like I was way more serious in my twenty.
You had a house, well, like really young though, right.
At twenty five, Yeah, but I wasn't. I was. Yeah, I was way more serious in my twenties than I am now my thirties. So like in my twenties, you would have met me and you'd have been like, okay. I was like, yeah, so I have my four one Kitlin and I've got my financial priority, like I had a house, I had like fifty thousand, thousand, saving eight or two credit score. I mean, I was an adult. And then my mom was like, so, what are you gonna have fun? And I was like, what's that? You
and Daddy taught me to like handle business. I'm handling business and they were worried because I cause I didn't know that. I didn't know how to have fun because my whole life they had taught me to be responsible. And I remember my mom was like, you don't even like you wear the same clothes all the time, Tiffany, Like, you know, you should go out and have fun with your friends. I'm like, no, I could put that money in savings. My parents actually, out of desperation, gave me
five hundred dollars to buy new clothes. Meanwhile, I had like tens of thousands of my bank accounts, but I took it. I'm sorry abouty Sorry daddy, And I bought new clothes. But meanwhile I bought new clothes all on sale, all mixed separates that I could wear with different outfits. I mean, like yeah, and then when I lost my job during the recession, it shook me up and like made me realize that, like, you never know what life's gonna bring, so to enjoy it.
This is true. Yeah, I lost my when I was twenty four. I had gotten laid off. That was my first I was twenty four, right, how old was I when I moved to New York? Who knows? I forget it's been so many years. But yeah, my very first job here was laid off. I got here and I like got a mattress, I bought an iPhone. I was so excited. And promptly two months after my hire, I was let go as part of like a ten percent global staffing. It was at a big magazine, old magazine.
I can just say it's Reader's Digest, and yeah, I was completely cut loose and I had like no savings and that was my I'm really I'm really grateful for that though, because I feel like it was a perfect wake up call for me. And it was. I mean, it's the entire reason I got into what I do now writing about money, because I, you know, had no savings.
I wasn't prepared, and I was like, well, that's not going to happen again, and just decided that I was never gonna cause you can have you never know what's gonna happen when you work for someone else. You can always be let go. But I just made it my mission to like never be taken by surprise financially.
Again, you know what I mean, Yeah, for sure, But it.
Is that balance. It's like you want to be smart about what you're doing. But you also want to live your life because you can get hit by a bus tomorrow.
So exactly, it is such a hard balance, right because sometimes you sway all the way one way. You're like, okay, but you're likely not going to be hit by a bus tomorrow, so I need you not to spend every penny. But no, yeah, you're right, you know. But then you're like, then you're like, okay, you're you're preparing for the future, that's all you're doing, and you're like, you're not living
for today. It's it's definitely, I think a pendulum swing that I'm always trying to especially me as a libra. I always trying to find my balance, like okay of living life and enjoying but also like recognizing there might be more life. So let's prepare. Yes, any any fun things in the news, Any despicable news?
Oh there's oh despicable. Yeah, we can start with the despicable. There is I giggled at this. I'm really surprised it was a New York Times story. But so there is this group wait, let me pull up the actual lead of this story. There's this group called pop Out Boys, a rap collective from bedsty and Brooklyn apparently, so all they like write music and put out mixtapes or whatever. They wrote a rap song about their credit card fraud ring.
Oh my gosh, some of the lyrics were were in their credit card fraud with that you can go online the dark Internet and you can like buy credit card numbers.
So whenever you hear like home Depot credit card members got their you know, information hacked, what happens with all that, Like when these scammers steal thousands and millions of credit card numbers and information, they'll post them on the dark web and they'll sell them like one hundred bucks for this credit card with one thousand dollars limit, five hundred bucks for Stacy Brown with a ten thousand dollars limit. You know. So these guys would go online to buy
these credit cards and then go rack up. They racked up more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of goods from Barney's and Sacks Fifth Avenue over the last year. But the fact that they wrote a song this is I don't even know if I'm gonna get the I'm not a rapper, my little brother is so pardon me. But the lyrics are I'm cracking cards because I'm a scammer. Watch the money do a backflip early morning at Saxon. Yeah you want it, you have it?
Yeah, Mandy, you better, you better give us that rend?
What idiots?
Right?
So they got caught obviously, I.
Don't know why what is wrong? Because you know right now, like on Instagram, that's like the funny cute thing to talk about that you're a scammer, like you know, basically, well, the Instagram comedians. I follow a lot of Instagram comedians and like that's they do a lot of skits like making you know, teasing at that. But there's a lot of scammers. Back in the day before uh, before I guess it became digital, it was the bootleggers. Oh yeah, you know, Like so there's always a like to get
over people. Like even Superman. He would tell me like, oh, like we would drive past someone, He'd be like, oh, such a suppose to be out of jail. I'm like, well, who's that? He's like, Oh, that's the is the bootleggers and the boosters. So the boosters are the people who go to the mall and steal like boosting is like stealing, like retal products and stuff and then come back to come back to wherever and sell them. And I'm like, so, I guess now things have gone online, and.
Like it's so much easier now.
Yeah, what like someone well it was like old school. But someone stole my credit card? Did that tell about that the other day?
I don't think so.
So I went to the laundromat and I dropped my credit card at the laundrymat. And I knew I did because when I got in the car and I drove like I was going to like Marshall to return something, and before I got out of the car, I was looking for my credit card and I said, hey, it's missing. Well, I haven't gotten at a car since the laundromat must be there. Drove back, it's like a five minute drive away. Came in, was like, hey, do y'all have my card
and they were like, no, we don't have it. So anyway, fast forward ten minutes later, I go home to check my balance and I thought maybe I dropped it in the car, but I couldn't find it. I checked my balance. There's someone who ordered forty dollars worth of cheese steak, Like, what are you low?
Ambition.
Yes, forty dollars worth of thirty seven ninety nine three effect worth of cheese steak from some cheese steak place. And I was like okay, and I call the credit card companies obviously, and like you know, quickly canceled my card and you know, reported the fraud. And in the morning I saw I had another charge. I'm like, how is this possible? But I guess it didn't post right away. It was at the same dry cleaner. I had dropped
up my dry cleaning. It cost me forty bucks and I saw another charge for forty six bucks, and I'm like, well, that's not me. So I called the dry cleaner and they searched the tapes and they're like, we see you coming in, oh, Tiffany. We see you throwing your garbage bag that you had your clothing away, and when you threw at Tiffany in the garbage, we see the card fall from your hand, and they're like, okay. We see
a client, a customer coming after you. We see him pick it up and throw it toward the desk and miss but he doesn't realize he misses. Then they're like, uh oh, now we see an employee pick it up. Look to the left, look to the right, pocket the card.
It was an employee.
Yes, and then this employee because I mean, clearly, when God was passing our brains, they were getting cheese steak.
This employe wouldn't used the card at the drug cleaner.
Yeah, at the same dry cleaners were where you were. Honestly, I would not have been able to find them if they had just stuck the cheese steak. But no, they were like, let me use it for my friend and like pay for his clothes. So they were The dry cleaner has literally like forty cameras every angle of the dry clean and so they were able to watch them
use my card. And obviously they were fired, and you know, so it's all good now, but we wouldn't have I mean, I would have gotten my money back regardless, But now this person is gone, and I'm like, how dumb. You should have just stuck the cheese steak and just just enjoyed life, but you decided you wanted to call your friends and them and say, hey, come on down, girl, I got a card and your your laundry is on me.
I'm laughing, but I get so angry at that kind of thing. Oh, I hate it when you people steal from people. It's just all right.
It is hard when someone steals from me because it feels so personal, but to them it's impersonal.
I guess I don't know why they want to steal that worthless bottle, but you know what I mean, Like.
Cause I remember there was like in middle school, there was like a rash of thieves. It sounds funny now, but at the time, as a middle schooler, who's say, if you're allowance, you finally have five bucks. Losing it is like losing your leg. So like we would go to gym class and then we didn't even have lockers
on our lockers at the gym. You know, you have your little locker and your book bag inside your own and your locker and you come back and then all of a sudden, like everybody's money was missing, and we were like no, and I was like devastated, and we found out it was like a friend of ours, and she was like so notchingant, like well, I mean I wanted to get the doll.
We were like, girl, where are your parents?
Yes? And so it was just crazy. It's how we caught her, because you know, middle schools are so extra. Someone was like, Okay, you know what I'm actually gonna I'm gonna hide in the bathroom after everybody goes into gym, I'll put my legs on the toilet and we're gonna see who comes in after. And that's how we caught her, oh God, and confronting her with our own middle school. I don't even know if we told the teacher. I think we were just like, you know, like we had
like an intervention, like what's happening. Oh, I wonder if she still seeks to this day.
Well, it's easy to tell. And I mean honestly, like when someone steals your credit card, if you still have it, you can easily like get the money back the bank. You usually are protected, especially if it's credit. But like it's scary. It becomes scary when like this happened to me, is someone just tacked my social Security number and they just opened up a whole other like a Chase credit card. Wow,
when I was like eighteen or nineteen. But when I had just turned eighteen nineteen, and I didn't realize it because I didn't own the card, so I didn't like think to go check that account. I didn't realize it until I moved to New York was renting an apartment. Wanted to rent an apartment, and they check your credit and they were like, so you have this twelve thousand or a living on this card from two thousand and five that has been you know, in default or delinquent
for like seven however many years, seven eight years. Oh, and it was in a room. It's like completely was destroying my credit. So you do, Oh so I filed errors on all my so you have the three credit reports I went to all I went to free credit report dot com or whatnot. I filed errors and all three accounts and I had the fraud take it off, like they deleted it when I, you know, complained, but I still had to like beg my, uh the landlord to give me the apartment because that kind of stuff
takes a long time. I think. I think the credit reporting agencies have like thirty days to get back to you if you are yeah, hi, hi, oh thank you sorry, I'm working.
Yes, real life, Mandy, y'all see what's happening. Maybe speaking Spanish too. We got to keep this in. I don't want her to edit this out. This is amazing. So if this happens to you. Guys. Just know that if someone tells your credit, if someone takes your identity, This is why it's so important. Guys. I'm so mandy. I've been doing it.
I don't I don't want to leave that in.
Leave it in. It's good, it's real.
It's pretty so annoyed. I don't want breakfast. I'm not hungry. All right, anyway, let me go back.
What was it saying, I'll go back. Let's keep it. It's good. People are gonna love it, I promise you.
Oh my god, this is what it's like living with your in laws.
People.
They just burst into your room when you're working.
Yay, you could be naked, like wait, my booms are out.
Oh my god. I know she's she's she's a very soft knocker. I didn't even hear her knocking while I was talking.
That, you know, because I was just giving an example that, yes, that if this happened. This is why it's so important to really check your credit report periodically throughout the year.
Oh so important. Yeah, And I completely was. I had never checked it before. So that guy checking my credit was the first time my credit had been checked any but by anybody, but yeah. I ended up having to write him a letter and ask him to give me a chance, like please, I promise it's fraud blah blah blah. And it worked. But that was my uh my first and last time having that happened to me.
Yeah, I can't even imagine imagine that that person. There are people who have had their credits and people bought getting mortgages.
Oh yeah, I bet getting like.
I remember, like I think I went to one of those kiosks at the mall. I was getting my very first don't don't play me or don't judge me. I was getting a pager.
Oh well that's useful, more useful than parasiltan cologne.
I know, but I'm like, how old am I getting a damn page? So anyway, he used my account and stuff information to get to open like pagers and cell phones or whatever up and like his friend's name. And meanwhile I was getting the bill at the house, confused, like why is this bill coming? My Dad's like what
is this? I was like, I don't know. When I went back to him, he was like, I don't know, But it was that that was so easy to be tracked, So I like called his boss and he was like, uh so the guy who turned out all his friends pagers and stuff on in my name, you know, got obviously fired because I was able to bring in the
bills that were still coming to my house. Like if he was smart, he would have sent the bills to his friend's houses cause they had like his friend's name, like hey Jean Paul, but Tiffany's payment information, Like did you think I was gonna pay this? Like how did you? How was this working in your How were you assuming this was gonna work for you? And so he got fired. But yeah, it's just really important to check your credit reports regularly. Isn't Annual Credit Report dot com? I believe
that's where you can get it for free. And if you could do that, yeah.
Yeah, what did I say before? I don't even I was like distracted by the knocking Annual Credit Report dot com where you get them off for for free. But and when my stuff was stolen, that was like pre before we had sites like credit Carmel where you can sign up and they would have pinged me saying, hey, Mandy, noticed you have a new hard pull on your account and there's a new Chase credit card. And I would have been like, I didn't open that card, and I
could have. I could have got on top of it, live and learn.
I know, any other despicable news or good news.
Well good news, you know speaking of credit card credit scores, and you know how all these credit card companies like American Express, Bank of America, Barkway Cards, City Chase, all most of them have if you're a customer, you give you some sort of free BICO score. But discovered this past week or so, they became the first one to give everybody and their mama a free credit score. Yes,
if you go to discover dot com. And of course they're doing it with the hope that while you're there you might you know, they're probably, yeah, sign up for whatever discover it card or whatever kind of credit cards. But you don't have you can ignore all that yeah, and go on there if you want. And I believe it is your experience BICO score. They offer you your TransUnion Biker score if you are one of their customers
for the wide open access BICO score. Its experience. The only reason it matters that it's experienced and not TransUnion. And so there's a three major credit bureaus and when it comes to these like free FIGHTO scores and stuff. You aren't getting your free FIGHTO score from all three bureaus. You're getting them from one, and they should be about the same in all three. But it's really best to know your score from each of the three credit reporting bureaus. But it's better than nothing.
It is, I think credit karma. What do they give I think they give Equifax in TransUnion?
Is that what credit card they do too? Yeah, I don't know which ones exactly, but there's definitely they're the ones that have that they have two different credit importing buers with I think is better than any of the others.
Yeah, so it's just good though everybody. There's no excuse not to know your score. But I mean, I think you mentioned this before that you have to just be mindful that versus thinking that this is your final hardcore number. This is more like a credit score estimate, right, because if you go, you're never a nick for magnified money. Your new boss, I remember him saying that, like the only way you'll know one hundred percent for sure is when you hit that lender and the lender pulls your score.
You know that's the one but true.
Oh and just a quick thing about the credit Karma. That's not your FIGHTO score. It's some more of like a credit Karma and the credit sesames they use their own like they use their own algorithm or mathematical equation to come up to your score, and it's supposed to
be close to what your foto is. But when I whenever I've gotten my FIGHTO score checked by I think I've done it through Bank of America and American Express Capital One, it's always been lower than what credit Karma, like by about twenty points, which isn't so bad, but I don't know if it's but it's it's I guess good for me to know because Fighto is the score that ever, like the real like when you're getting a mortgage, that's what they really use, the FIGHTO score.
So yeah, but credit Carmer, I will say, and the sites like that, like the sesames and all them, those things are good for not not just your score or like you know, your score adjacent, but for learning the why. That's what I like about those those like educational sites like why is my score this way? What are the components of my credit score?
Totally? And I look. My favorite thing about credit karma is that you can put in like, what's going to happen if I open a new credit card? Oh my god, yo, that's oh no, I'm Superman in the kitchen.
Oh my god. I could just see him running for the album for the what's it called? Like, Oh my god, running because you need to press the button on the and I know he's like, oh god, Tiffany's tabing. She's gonna be mad at me.
This has just been a day of family interruptions.
Mean, while I'm sitting in super Girl's purple and pink room under her door, the Explorer lamp, like, so this is where I'm taping today.
This is real life people Sunday and the Costa Day Tiffany and Costa Day, Mandy exactly. Oh, I have one last little bit of good news to uh, you know, so I feel like whenever I fly Delta, it's just gotten worse. But the service and everything called money. If you want to breathe, that'd be five cents, you know what I mean. But they just on start in July one. They're going to be making all their movies and TV
and stuff on the plane for free. Awesome free in flight movies on ninety percent of its plane, So go ahead, delta.
No, that's good because it does get very annoying to be Nickels had died to death. Yes, ma'am, Yeah, that's good.
Thank you. I thought so too.
So what do you It's brown break ground boost.
Time, yes, ma'am.
Brown break round booth, Brown break round boost. I am giving a brown I thinking did I break last time? Well, I'm gonna give a boost a brown boost to essence Fest. Just become speaking this year, and I'm super duper excited and I've never been. So for those of you who are essence Fest heads, you know, definitely tweet me. We tweet us at the BA podcast or tweet me at the budget Nissa to tell me kind of like what are some of the you gotta do this so you
got to eat this. I've been to New Orleans before, but as far as like essence Fest is concerned, because although I'll be speaking, you know, I'll have a lot of downtime and I want to make the most of the best. So I'm brown boosting.
That because I want to say.
No, no, it's always July fourth weekend.
Oh, coming up a month, I know, So.
I'm excited to go because I just know that I'm going to get to see I think I read somewhere that Essence Festival is the largest music festival in the nation with like last time they had over five hundred, six hundred thousand people come to New Orleans for I know that's crazy, right.
Is it outdoors?
I don't know. I've never been, but I'm assuming there's like a convention hall that they have. I'm sure they have some outdoor things and some indoor things. I don't know. I am nervous about the New Orleans heat because you know, oh my god, I know, like whoo child. Last time I went to New Orleans. I've been to New Orleans twice. I didn't even know that. I was what is that thing when you not heat deprivation? What is it like when you're heat stroke?
No, like you're like allergic. No, there's heat allergies.
That's the right, bro Black Because we were like playing like the like I'm playing like the game that I played with my dad when he doesn't never remember something and I'm naming all these ritts and I'm like toilet paper, tissue curtain. He's like, no, Anyway, I had like nearly like a heat stroke. I didn't even realize that I was dehydrated. Yeah, and I was like stumbling in the street, like somebody pulled me to the side. I guess they know that a lot of tourists don't realize when they
get dehydrated. And she was like, you're dehydrated, and she pulled me into this bar and they gave me like water and had me sit down. And I was like, Wow, this New Orleans heat is no joke. So yeah, so tell me what I need to like, bring what I need to do to prepare, and I cannot wait to see y'all.
You know, at conferences, it's really hard to stay hydrated. I found you need to bring in like a water bottle around because not every like session has water. And then the lunchtimes. I drink so much water when I'm at my desk at work, just because I'm like in control of everything. But I mean, I'm just gonna do a PSA. Bring your own water bottle when you go to these conferences, bring a camel pack whatever you gotta
do those. Yeah, the backpack is that has a straw attached, and you just, you know.
I'm just realizing Nola's like when we really became friends.
Remember it has a special place in our it does relationship.
But we were like, so there's a conference going on, but we don't want to go in any classes. Want to pick a walk.
I love skipping classes during a conference.
It's my first thing. It is my favorite thing. And it was so nice. Oh my goodness, Yeah, it was so nice.
Well, while you are essence festing and being fabulous, I'm going to be in the woods in the Poconos with some friends. We are we aren't even We've started out originally as like doing an annual Fourth of July camping trip, and we've you know how hard it is to keep traditions up when you're getting older and your friends are getting married and stuff's happening. Like, I'm really proud that we you've kept up this tradition. But this year it's it's become so far from camping, Like this year we're
going to be in a house has five bedrooms. It's gorgeous. It's like a little mansion in the woods. And I but our very first camping trip, we did it in New Jersey and it was like the hottest record, hottest week on history or something. We were on this hard, unforgiving asphalt, like there was nothing to do. There was one little lake, but there were so many babies in it, and you just knew it was full of feces by time.
It's just like, oh my god, it was. It was such like it was like a five seven day, like a sixties of it. It was too long. And yeah, just progressively we've gotten older and we've the point of glamping.
Yeah, like I'd liked, you're gonna be visiting a house so like, but how's that camping? We're gonna go outside every once in a while on barbecue.
We're gonna have this.
No, that sounds awesome though, yes, ma'am. So what about you? Are you boosting or breaking?
I'm gonna take a break this week. And that's been a slow it's been a slow building rage inside of me directed toward Uber. I feel like every time I go to take an uber that I have been taking an uber in the past few months, it's been surge pricing. Oh it's two pm surge pricing. Oh, it's five am in the morning, surge pricing. I woke up on a Sunday at I slipped over a friend's house in Brooklyn, woke up at Sunday at seven am. Surge pricing seven am on a Sunday.
Yeah, that's just it's too much.
And it can be like three four times the average or the going rate. And that's when you're talking about a twenty dollars cab R you can easily spend like over one hundred bucks.
That's which is crazy. So that's why because you're in New York. So but you're right though, whenever I go to New your what I don't like is a lot of Uber drivers will do this. It won't be Serge and then they'll drop you and then you'll have to like recall them and you're like, oh, it's Surge now, so I'll just take a cab. Have you tried Lyft?
Well I haven't tried Lyft, but here's what I discovered in my rage. So when I was in Brooklyn, one of my best friends told me, why don't you just use this app Call to Ride And it's way too with the number two ride and I don't know if it's in any cities outside of New York, but it's literally like an Uber for yellow cabs. It works the exact same way. Because when I was like a way out in like nowhere Brooklyn. I wasn't gonna find a cab if I went out and haled it, you know,
but it caused a cab. It shows cabs in your area, and you can hail a cab and you link your credit card to it and you just pay through the app and it works just like uberb but without any search pricing. Ooh, I'm done. I don't use Uber anymore. I'm done. I'm all that way to ride.
Oh, Ub, we're going to be careful. See I've been hearing a lot of pushback with Uber, so you're not the first person. And if they're not careful, I think Uber, thanks for the only game in town. But it's like, look, cis you know it's not going to be difficult to replicate what you're doing or for places like I read this article that Austin, Texas had basically kicked Uber out or made it so difficult for them to be successful there. They're no longer theyred. People were annoyed with Uber, Like
in Newark, did you see that. I'm the mayor was like, no, Uber, you can't go to the airport and you can't go to our main like we have a Penn station here in Newark, which is our main train station. And Uber sent out all these flyers and messages and emails and radio spots basically asking us to pressure the mayor to like let Uber stay. And I'm like, you got the wrong city. Newark does not care. People are like if I get one more damn flyer, they do not care.
They were like, girl, well, what's funny is like taxi drivers warning exactly the heroes of metropolitan life before Uber came around. But they've almost made it like they are the heroes, Like I want to support the yellow cap. Let me screw Uber, like Uber's become the big corporate giant, like stealing business from the little man, and uh, it's kind of I think, yeah, it's backfiring on them.
Yeah. And the thing is, though, when you start, you started a company to help people who otherwise might not have gotten help. And now you've lost You've lost the core purpose of your mission. Once you lose that, it's like, wait, I thought this was supposed to be so I can afford to get around and I have to worry. Now you're you're literally the opposite. It's like you remember you ever read that book Animal farm.
I oh god, not a year with the like the allegory about the animals.
Yes, yes, like the animals were like the farmers are so mean. And then eventually the animals started moving into the farmhouse and started treating other animals like like they were with them.
They became the farmers.
Yes, so Uber, you are animal farm.
That was on mine. I was like, that was like taking me back to like sixth grade literature cannons.
Yeah, that was a good book though, but yeah, so yes, Uber is like the new animal farm.
You can have the uber boo. How should I boo? Uber fight the man fight the startup? All right, I'm done, I'm off my.
All right to please gonna call by an ambition.
No, that's Beverly Hills cop.
But you know we can make it. It's fine.
So this is our p s A. You guys. We want your questions. We want to know what your questions are about your money, your career, your relationships, you're going on vacation, you want tips, anything you want to know. Send us a question at Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
Do not be shy. So now it's time for wins.
Wins, y'all. I'm looking Mandy. Go ahead, Mandy. See I see you warmed up with a rap earlier, so you know you're feeling yourself. Go ahead, you're feeling yourself. I'm feeling myself.
I think I might be good at it. Like spoken word, I'm going to see Hamilton. Oh my god, oh my god, I'm jelly when I tell you, I bought these tickets in September. I'm not kidding. In September, that's how far in advance. I bought these tickets and I bought them for my fiance for his birthday, which is June twenty eight. And I was like, I can hold a secret. By February. I just like, I blew it. I told him, and you're like, I can't hold it is anore.
You know what sidebar where I'm going to go see, which I'm super excited about. I wasn't going to go, but then I saw the clips. I'm totally going to the Bad Boy Reunion consent when they come to Newark.
So you say all that again, I think maybe when it's taught, you talk loud, you turn to Darth Vader. Okay, your mic doesn't like it.
So I'm super excited and I didn't think I was going to go, but then I saw all the video clips on social media and I'm going to the Bad Boy reunion concert when they come to Newark, and the clips just brought me back to like college. I was like, Oh my gosh, like this, I'm going to get my entire life. I'm going to do all my old dances from the two thousands and like, oh my god, I
just you have no idea how excited I am? And I asked Superman if he wanted to go, and I was showing him the clips and I could just we both just started dancing, like what what what id So that's a yes, right, So we're gonna go, and I'm super super duper duper.
It's all going one twelve.
What is this? Total is a total? No? Yeah, total one twelve? Diddy. I don't know if Mace is there, but Louke just.
Mace on GMA. He must be doing it.
Oh my god, I have no you have no idea? Like that is like that's like literally the peak of my like my young adulthood, where like all like when Diddy rained, it was like to be able to relive that and know every song and just like dance and by that's when back when people used to dance and not like be so self conscious about it. I just well, cha, I'm gonna get my life, honey. I'm wearing comfortable shoes, I'm dancing.
Makes it brings me back to like I might. I used to actually watch MTV spring Break, Yes, and they would be like one twelve would perform it like every single day. Well maybe it was just a rerun. I don't know. It's like Peaches and Cream. And I was like, I want to be there on the beach with Panama City, which is like the worst place on the planet.
Twelve year old, You're right, like, oh, I want to be there so I could take my life. It's no, that's just I cannot wait. Like, but it's not until September, but I think a friend of mine is actually getting a box and she was like, if you want to go, everbody could chip in. I'm like, yes, I'm going to
have the full on like experience with Swank. Yeah, I know because you know, usually me because me and Superman were talking about it and we like, don't we're always we're pretty frugal, and I was like, you know what, let's do this. Let's do this little spoil for ourselves.
That it's fun. Good for you guys. Yeah, well my win this week one I had. Guess I'm gonna try and do two ones. Speaking at musicals, I saw on Wednesday The Color Purple for the second time. Well the second time I saw that was the very first Broadway show I ever saw when I when I came to New York when I was nineteen, was The Color Purple with Fantasia, and it was amazing. I I don't remember everything about the play, but I remember crying and like
having a real moment. And because I've had some time off in between jobs, my favorite thing to do is go see movies and plays by myself. So I in like at random times, like two pm or whatever. So I got ticket to the two pm Wednesday Matt and A show, and I had heard good things about it.
You know, Jennifer Hudson isn't in it anymore, but the actress who replaced her, Heather Heaty, she like originated the role of Nalla, the Lion King, and everyone was so excited about her playing Sugar Avery, you know, the like the jazz singer and the lounge singer in the play. I had like as close to a like spiritual awakening as I've ever had in this play. Like I almost went directly from the theater to the nearest church. And yeah, it was so good. I was and I was already
sort of going through some stuff. And I was kind of emotional when I the last half hour because of the actress who plays Seely, Cynthia Ervio, who's, like I found out later was British. She gives such an amazing performance. You I just like was almost if I had had room, I would have been on my knees, like doing the Holy Spirit wave like and I've never i've like never felt compelled to do that before, but it was so
she just had these moments in the play. You know when Ceely and Celia's character she starts off as being abused by first her father and then her husband and being told she's ugly and worthless and stupid and slow and her kids are taken away from a really she there's no character I don't think in literature that's been beaten down more than Cely. Yeah, and then at the end when she finally comes into her own and I
don't know if you haven't seen it, No, spoilers. But she comes into her own she's running a successful business and she has this momore. She stands on the stage and she just says I'm beautiful, but she screams it, and everybody in the theater got up and like cheered. Every at like three pm on a Wednesday. It was amazing, And yeah, I just had to give a little shout out. So that cast extraordinary. If you have money, spend it on this. I think my ticket. I got orchestra seat
for one hundred bucks. Okay, so they're not that well.
I wanted to share that young boy. Oh go ahead, Kavante. I know we're saying his name wrong, Kvante King. I'm like leaning on you, Mandy. Mandy's like silent, like were you on your own? Oh?
Sorry, I had it up before. I think it was. It was like.
Covante Cavantes anyway, Covntes Kings just this young boy raised by a single mother. He started selling newspapers when he was twelve years old, and he was making approximately about two hundred dollars a week, and for the last five
years he's been stashing that money for college. I just thought that was really admirable, and so I just wanted to say, you know, brown ambition wyn to mister King and his mama who raised him, and the fact that, you know, while so many kids are saving money for you know, fun things or whatever, and there's nothing wrong with that, but Covantes was really thinking about his future as early as twelve and putting money toward college, and so I think that's awesome.
You know, I recent how much did he earn? Like ten thousand dollars a year?
Yeah?
Doing that, you know, you can go on the Social Securities website. It's like MYSSA dot gov or something like that, and you can put in your information and they will give you your Social Security Benefits statement, which if you're over a certain age you already get it once every couple of years or so, but you can go online and get it for free downloaded. It gives you like a whole history of your earning since when you first started taking earning a paycheck or getting a W two.
And I realized by doing this, like I don't know, like a year ago or so, that I made like fifteen thousand dollars at my little dinky high school job at the Gap in the one and a half years I was working there. I don't know where any of that money went. Oh actually I do know where when it went directly into my closet because it gave us fifty percent off.
Yeah, that's the trick you work at these places because you're like I want to say, and the end of buying clothes, and they're like, thank you for giving your paycheck right back to us.
And I totally could have I graduated with. I graduated from college with only about eight thousand dollars a student loan debt. I definitely could have saved up and had enough for college. I don't know if that's true now because college is getting more and more expensive for sure. But my little brother went to the same school I went to, and what granted he was he was a fifth year senior, but he graduated with four times as much debt ye years later.
When you think about it, just like how college, Like, what is it going to be by the time, Like if we have kids when they get older, it's going to be a million dollars a year.
Seriously, I hope not well, hopefully when you know with the election, vote with your feet people, or no, vote with your ballots people, whatever, Yeah, listen to what the candidates say about their plans for college education in the cost of college, I don't believe mister Trump or he who must not be named y who's currently being sued
for his bogus school university. Yeah, I don't think he even has so much as an iota of a college debt plan, whereas Hillary Clinton, months and months and months and months ago released her College Compact plan, which has I think a pretty smart khan what's the word, comprehensive plan to reduce acost to college and Bernie Sanders too. So anyway, I'm just saying, if you're woke about college, get woke.
Yes they woke, stay woke.
But this is that's a that's a really cool story, paperboy.
Yeah, that's the king. Oh and rest in peace, Rest and power to Muhammad Ali.
Oh we didn't even you know how I found out he passed away. I was we got up early yesterday to go into Queens and we took the bus and we passed by the Apollo Theater and I saw, like, the Apollo Theater in Harlem has you know, in dedication and memory of Muhammad Ali. And I was like, wait, this is a mistake. He's not dead. And everyone's like, yeah, he died this morning, and get with it.
Woman, Oh that's so sad. You know what what Muhammad Ali? What what I truly took away from him because he was just so outspoken and so unapologized sure of himself. And I just I like that that in business because you know, and people always want to tell you, like let your work speak for stuff. You don't have to tell nobody. But and which is cool for some brands, but you know, Muhammad Ali just made it that like, no, if you think you're dope, say you're dope. If that's
what you want. You know, like that's not for everybody, but I like the fact that he was like, I'm the greatest of all, Like people started calling him that because he called himself that, and you know, and I just I like like, even though like before Kanye went away too munch off the grid, I like that Kanye was kind of like, I think I'm dope because you know, so many people are out there will tell you otherwise.
So it's just like, Okay, if that's how you feel about yourself, didn't tell the world, There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, you know, like Kanye has definitely taken into a place where you're just like he needs medication. But yeah, I think that Muhammad Ali was one of the one of the first people that I've seen if that was just so outspoken about about how he felt that himself and daring other people to say otherwise.
I read a good I read a pretty cool story about how in the eighties apparently he was he had just it was like towards the end of his career, he'd just lost a few months before, and he heard that there was a man about to throw himself off the ledge at some like corporate building or office building or something, and he like turned his car around and drove all the way there and got into the building and like talk this guy off the ledge. Wow, isn't that cool? And like you never yeah, I'll never hear
about that kind of stuff. So rest in peace, Mohammed. Another great loss.
Yeah, great loss indeed. All right, well, it's been fun be aing with you.
Go enjoy your breakfast.
Yes now that it's killed. Although I was nibbling between chats.
Oh really, yeah, my toast is called Mama Santo's. Oh man. All right, well, we will see you guys next week. I will talk to you next week, Miss Tip.
Tip I'll talk to you too, Miss man.
Man Wait what man Man?
I now sorry, Then you can talk. We have so much that out