Hey, hey, hey, I feel super awesome right now. We're back, We're black, we're brown, and ambition. Have you on the ambition?
Hey man, hey, I'm here. Another show, another week. We're doing it.
Yes, we're doing it.
Thank you guys so much for all your first and foremost. Thank you guys so much. I got a flood of messages and well wishes and so many like I really enjoyed. One woman even sent me a voice message. I didn't know you could do that on Instagram. It freaked me out. I was like, do I press play? And then what happens? She's talking to me. It's like an Instagram voicemail, like
just just sharing. It was so all these heartfelt messages and just people pouring out their hearts and telling me their personal stories of struggling with those early weeks of motherhood. So I really really appreciate it. Thank you guys for hearing me. I had a little bit of a vulnerability hangover. Do you know that expression? Do you follow Berne Brown? Yeah, that's her her. She writes about vulnerability and I was like, being vulnerable as a leader and stuff, and I'm like, oh,
this is what a vulnerability hangover feels. Like you cry in your national podcast and just live with that for a week. And y'all know I edit the show, so I was my finger was itching delete, but no, I mean I had to stand in my truth and thank y'all for hearing me. And I was just talking to Tiff because right now I'm getting that itch to go back to work or just you know, it's it's hard when you are at a level of productivity and like
with your career. You know, Tiff, you're thinking about having a family too, so it's like, how will you juggle the person you were?
Who? Really?
Just I mean, I love my calendar was my favorite thing. I love a packed calendar. I love to know every half hour chunk of my day and what was what I was gonna do. And this life of eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop, cry, eat, you know, eat, sleep, poop, like that monotony is just I guess I'm at that point in the attorney leave where it's just like, oh, I my brain can do more than this, Like where are my tasks? And my therapist was telling me, like I see this woman like
you all the time. You look for things that you can do on top of keeping the baby, alive every day just to like reach your productivity, just so you can feel like you're productive. And she's like, you got to stop, like keeping the baby alive. That takes all the mental energy, and you're just setting yourself up for disappointment when you feel like you didn't accomplish anything from day to day. And that's when I'm like trying to make peace with that, trying to like, Okay, no, I
didn't unload the dishwasher. Yes, the laundry is still like not even in a basket, just sprawl across the floor. I mean, my closet is just like a landmine of just nursing pad and nursing tops and like just crap onesies and whatever else on the floor. And I've had to kind of just okay, not everything got done, but the baby is sleeping and fed and happy, and you know what, that's the stamp of approval. Day to day.
I sound like I've made I've worked it out, but I'm still struggling with the whole you know, that's feeling I'm not productive.
Watching you because i I'm to be fully transparent, so I took you know, it's been two years. Have you been listening to brown and vision, which I'm sure you have. It's been two years of like back to back IVF, like I stopped traveling, I stopped speaking as much. I said no to a lot of things so I could be home and still no baby. So that part it's been kind of stressful. And then in December I had it was a December, I think it was December. I
had another scar removal surgery. Because some people like keloid on the outside, Apparently I scar easily on the inside. So I found out two years ago I had fibroids because I had a miss carriage and so I knew when I was pregnant. I was like, yeah, yeah, I did not know I had fiveboids until like, I was like, I'm spotting. So I went to the emergency room and they were like, we don't see anything but the fibroids. They couldn't even see the baby. That's how many fibrids
I had. And so that's when I had my fiber removal surgery. And when I did, my gynecologists was like, you know, you're thirty eight, and if you're wanted to have a baby, I would stack the odds in your favor and not just try naturally, I would, you know, use the help of a fertility doctor. And I said okay, And that's when I found out like all these other things that are like one, I guess I don't know if it's hereditary or whatever, but my eggs I don't have the level and quality of eggs that I that
the average woman of my age has. So I guess to make it like, you know, I don't know what age you could say, but I'm forty, but maybe my eggs would would skew like more true for forty five year old as you know, as women your eggs, you know, so as a result, I'm not as fertile as you would think. Like at thirty eight, it was like, you know, I should still be relatively fertile, but I had a low I think it was called HG HSG. HG, don't get me to it's something with h Basically my levels
were low. And it was like, so, then, no, I think it's HSG. I want to say something.
Like HSGA hormone. I should know these things something.
Yeah, So it's basically like my hormone level is low for my age range. So then it was especially like you need to use a fertility clinic because not that I can't get pregnant naturally, but it's going to be much much, much harder. And if I was twenty one, then it would be fine. You have all these years, but at thirty eight, it's like, you know, you're it's ticking,
and so like stacked the odds in your favor. So we did you know, I've gone through the process of removing the fibroids, and then once you removed the fibroids, my uterus like I had too much scar tissue as a result because I had a lot of fibroids, So we removed the scar tissue. Scar tissued again. The scar tissue propped open the universe with an iu iud Like you know, it looks like a little umbrella, kind of like the inside of an umbrella that if you were
to take off. Yeah, so the prop me open so that way it can heal without the without scarring together, because your skin wants to fuse together, like whenever skin is raw and open. So that's what my units was doing. And but in the meantime I was doing cycles and cycles or when they basically pump me with a bunch of hormones. So when you're after your period comes and your normal ovulation cycle happens. Instead of producing one egg,
you produce multiple eggs. Now, someone a woman of my age, when I was thirty eight, I would have on average, like eight follicles, and you produce eight eggs. I had four, and so I was producing four follicles, and I was producing three to four eggs every cycle. But then I got pregnant again from but this time with IVF, and then I had another miscarriage, and they're like, okay, let's test this embryo. An embryo is just a mixer, like
it's like a pre baby almost. It's like, you know, the sperm and the and the egg before it's like fully coming to baby. And it turned out that that baby had UH chromosomal issues, which is not uncommon for an older woman, you know what I mean, Like if I was into my late for so so this it was really like evidence then like okay, your eggs are not as healthy as they as they could be. And so every single psycho since then I have paid an additional amount of money to test the embryo because usually
you don't have to test it. What happens is they put an embryo inside you. Your body does the rest. Your body says good, bad, let it go whatever. But for me, because I know that, you know, my equality is not so great, I don't want to waste like the time and putting in an embryo that is not healthy, because what my body is going to do is I'm going to carry. And what happened with my last miscarriage, it caused scar tissue. So then I had another two
scar tissue. So it's like it took me almost a year to recover from the physically inside recover from the last miscarriage because of the scar tissue. So I'm like, I don't have a year if you put in an embryo that is not going to be healthy and my body's going to reject anyway. So we need to know ahead of time. So I've done like four or five different cycles, honestly, and like at like out of maybe
ten to twelve embryos, I have one healthy embryo. The last cycle we did, none of them were healthy and then they found more scar tissue. I'm like, oh my god, honestly, and so in January I was like I step away, like it's too much.
It's a lot that's at just take up. I mean, I just wanted a moment to acknowledge the work you are putting in, Like that's a lot of silent work and a lot of silent I mean, I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine even doing all this for so long, and.
It's just been like so like of course frustrating. So I was like in January, I was like, okay, I So I called my doctor and I was like, honestly, I need a break because it's been two years. She's like, and I's like, my joice, do I need to lose weight? Try? Because you remember that's why I had gone vegan. Like I was like, whatever it takes, Like I don't want to look back twenty years from now and say, dank, Tiffany.
You really could have went on one less vacation or said no to that speaking engagement and really put the energy into having a family. And so I didn't want that, you know. Like, so I was like, I'm going to do all that I'm supposed to do. And she's like, tify, you've been my doctor was telling my fertility doctor, you have been a model patient. You've come to every you know, you haven't missed any shots. And you know you've come to every appointment. You know, you you you have, you know,
you've been a model patient. If there was something I could say, do this better so to make it, She's like, but I can't, and so she's like, I think it is a good idea for you to take a break. So I took January kind of like off, just to because the what what a cycle looks like is that you're giving yourself a shot every morning, every evening. Then
every other day you're at the doctor. Well for my doctor, they do they do something called like pre appointments at six thirty am, and so women who are doing the cycle, it's like you have to get blood drawn and you have to do basically when do you go to the guy? Now, what is it when they're basically like looking in the side of your regina? Yes, basically can you imagine that every other day blood like the blood drawn. I'm like, yo,
I take my blood. It's nothing in comparison to like every other morning at six am, crawling out of bed, waiting on the cold steps with like all these other women. You just kind of looking at each other like hi, Maria, Hi, and you're waiting for them to open the doors, turn on the lights before the office even opens so they could draw your blood, which, like I said to me,
that's the easy part. But then for me to lay legs cocked open, for you to put metal inside me, for you to look again, and it's just like it's just so I just like I I just need it. I just need a break. So I was good at like I said, at first January. Then I was like, you know, I'm not gonna start back again until April. You know I'm gonna And then I was like, you
know what, maybe I won't even have a baby. Maybe I'll just But then I see Roman and Amelia, my niece and my nephew, and I'm like, I really like I want that, you know, like and but then there's also this fear that like I am super driven, so I'm scared like, well, like, you know, I see the struggle you're going through, Manny, and I feel like as it relates to like our careers and how much we love the work, like I'm scared, like what if what
does that look like? On the other side, Like am I gonna be able to adjust because of how much I really enjoy doing and being the budget the still so that part is also scary too. So I've been vacillating. Yeah, back and forth.
We have to I'm not back in the work. I'm not back at work yet, but yes I will address because if I don't, I will go insane, and I think you will too. The survival is that is figuring out how do you stay true? How do you And
this is just me speaking to my future self. I know that I've obviously life has changed, priorities have change, but you still have to You still have to do what drives you and what speaks to your soul and what makes you who you are at your core, the important things, you know, not the extra stuff you can say no to this or that, but like the core
of what you do. And I just feel like and especially for you as an entrepreneur, I've heard time and again I know people with similar you know, structured like businesses like yours sometimes say children make you work more efficiently, can make more, can make you more uh, can make you more driven and and and make you request more for what you do so that you earn more than you used to. I just and maybe this has comfort, maybe it's not comforting, but I feel like we have to.
We have to find a way to do the work and do the mothering thing, or else we just won't be happy. And you know who wants to have an unhappy an unhappy wife and an unhappy mom. It's not just it's just gonna drag the whole household. So I mean, drag the whole household down.
So I just like so, I honestly I decided because I was just like, I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna wait to push you back, push it back, and push it back. And then really this weekend I was just really thinking about it. My niece and my nephew came over it, and it was just like they're just so awesome, you know, like the two and two and four, such great agents.
They're fun, they talk, they they joke like, you know, yes, even though like a million to wipe my butt, and she calls me Auntie Poopy to be funny, like Auntie Poopy, and I'm just like, it's just it's just everything. They are everything. And I thought like, I, yes, Tiffany, you do want this. I get the frustration, but I'm not we haven't come this far to give up. And so yeah, so I actually have to call my fertility doctor again. Uh. I was supposed to call today but I didn't. I'm
gonna call tomorrow to say, Okay, what's next. I'm praying that this last scar tissue has really move the last scars that were inside my uterus, because what happens with when you think about scars too, you should think about it as like almost like a scab that's holding part of your uterus together, and so you want an open, clear uterus so that way the baby has full space
to grow. But you've got like it's not like a scab on the roof on the side, it's the scab, it's holding one it's connecting one side of your unius to the other. So almost like like so it's like a balloon that you squeezed in the middle, so there's no space for a baby to grow on one side of the bubble of the balloon or the other side of the bubble of the boom. So they have to remove that. And so I'm hoping that you know, when they go to look that they're like, yeah, it's all clear,
which is great. So I've already told myself, like I have three options. I'm gonna do one more cycle because if I you know, by now, if I do a cycle and that we don't have any healthy embryos, and it just means that my body's been basically like you know, I don't know that the medicine is just not working. And then if that cycle doesn't yield any good embryos, I I still I do have one good embryo from like a year ago that we froze, and so I'm then after that, I'll just have them put that embryo in.
If this cycle doesn't yield any fresh embryos, they'll put that embryo in and then prayerfully that embryo takes if the cycle, the next cycle doesn't yield anything, and then if that doesn't happen, I just told myself honestly, I think I'm just gonna try my hand at just us trying naturally with a clear fiboard free scar tissue free uterus.
So that's like the third because you can't try naturally while you're doing IVF because they do test things sometimes that could hurt a child if you don't even know you're pregnant. So let's just say me and Jerella trying like naturally, and I happen to be pregnant and in
three days and I don't even know. But then I go to the doctor and sometimes they do this thing where it's called the high hydro something where they literally fill your unius with water so they can see it fully, so you don't want to drown your potential baby, you know.
So you can't realize all that.
Man, Oh my gosh, like this. There's one where they literally put ink inside you so and it like burns so they can see they can get a picture, like a clear picture of what your unus is looking like, so they can see all the scar tissues. When I tell you, whoo, if it wasn't for the budgetista, like I put it like in a section of my head of like like like on to do list, go to the doctor in the morning, let them look in your
vagina for the thousand times. Then I come home. Then I you know, like I because if not, it just will make you crazy. Like even hearing it coming from my mouth, I'm like, yo, this sounds crazy. But you can't look at it like that or you won't do it. And so but not everyone. So here's the thing. A friend of mine she did one cycle got pregnant, boom. So IVF doesn't look like this for everyone, Like I'm just having a harder time than most. Quite honestly, it's
it's they say, IVF is typically sixty percent successful. So yeah, and not everyone sticks with it, honestly, because I'm really fortunate, which I'm grateful of is that a superman might my husband, his his benefits cover everything. I pay a ten dollars copay. Sometimes when I go to see the doctor, I don't know if I've even spent two hundred dollars extraordinary, I mean, honestly,
the blessing I'm blessed Mary, yeah m hm. So whenever I'm feeling super overwhelmed, I remind myself, like Tiffany, like you have probably spent over two hundred thousand not probably, but this process would have cost me out of pocket over two hundred thousand dollars already already if if like you know, because I'll see the medicine. Sometimes the medicine list will come up and it'll say, all of these shots and everything, we're sending you eighty thousand dollars, but
your your call pay for the medicine zero dollars. I don't even pay for the medicine. Yeah, so as much like you know, you don't have to cry for me, Argentina, because I know it's hard, but I live a really blessed fortunate life because so many women don't have access to healthcare that would take care of this for them. So I don't know, pray for me. I feel hopeful because I'm just like, I do have one good embryo. My body has shown twice that it can indeed be pregnant.
It's just like, I'm just creating the ideal environment and we already we have a healthy embryo. So even if this cycle doesn't yield a healthy embryo, that we do have one that we can implant and pray, pray, pray, pray, pray over it and not go anywhere and stay home and relax and utsa and yeah.
But I just think they are goddamn superhero because that it just I mean. And you know, and I've been following Amy Schumer and I know she's going through She's like sharing her IVF journey right now, and she's like, first of all, her Instagram page is hilarious. She's like the raw real motherhood anyway. But like the work that you're doing and so many women are doing too to have children, Like it's it's extraordinary and I want it for.
You so bad and also you're going through it like you know, I know sometimes like the secret shame and sometimes you just I share because and what I love honestly, ib our listens are so awesome because nobody hits me in the DMS and says, so it's got all the baby, So it's gonna because you guys have been so awesome in like letting me share when I want to share, and then when I don't, leaving it alone because sometimes
it's too overwhelming. So so honestly, like our listeners been have been so so amazing that when I share, they reach out, you know, they you know, they ask me questions and then when I don't like I said, they leave it.
And so that's been really great because sometimes it can be really like overwhelming, like when someone's asking you know, when you're like, especially if you had a really bad doubt or you have you got the news, oh you need another scar movers surgery, and you're Likejesus, suck how many times you have to go down under Naesi? Because when you have to go under anesthesia, like put you to sleep, and you know that's a risk. Every time you get put to sleep, there is a chance you
will not wake up. And so like it's just you know, so some days you have those days and you're like, I don't want to freak of talk about it, and other days I'm like, I don't mind talking about it because I know that somebody out there might need to hear it. But yeah, so when when we all have this baby, because this is our baby now, when she comes or he comes into existence, I swear I'm gonna be telling this story to them. They're eighty.
I let them talk back to you once. That's how I feel the first time they give you attitude. Look here, you old.
I know you don't even understand, but let me tell you, I worked for two years, longer than your life is as existed, to make sure that you were here now. But I think about it, but then I still feel hope because I found out for my mom that she struggled like with having because I'm one of five kids, and like they told her before my first sister was born, it's not gonna happen for you. Like you you know, these are the issues that you're having and she has
five kids. I'm not trying to have nobody's five kids. But I just thought about that. She just reminded me of that I didn't know that. I didn't know that she had fertility issues and stuff and they told her it wasn't gonna happen and her hips were wide enough, this other stuff they told her, and like, you know, like I'm I'm baby number two or five, So you know that at the end of the day, you know, doctors don't always have the final say at the end
of the day. You know, you know your body and whatever higher source you believe in that has the final say. So I know that's been pretty heavy, but like, actually I feel good. I feel I've been wanting to share, like kind of like where I was in the journey, especially now that I feel like rejuvenated to go back to it. I feel in a good space with it, Like I didn't want to go back begrudgingly, and I'm not so thank you for letting me, Samandra.
How could I not thank you for sharing? Thank you.
Now that we baby y'all out, you can ask us any question that you may have about career, personal finance, family. Actually, a friend of mine asked me a really good question about and we should maybe do a show on this, Amandy, about how to navigate marriage and money. So a friend who's recently got married asked how I was doing it with Superman. So I just gave her kind of like what we do and you know, but there's no wrong
or right way. But I think that would just be an awesome like marriage and money kind of like.
A So that's a very broad question.
M I think we should have that, And if you guys have marriage and money questions, to send them in.
But while you explained, because you know what I thought I knew, and.
No, Mandy, you have to insight.
Nope, no I don't, No, I don't.
That's because you have a kid.
Now, talk about how husband decided that having a baby was a good time to get all of his dental work done, all of it every other day, gotta get another crown. I'm like, how much are these crowns on?
What's out of your mouth?
Why don't you brush your teeth for I've been telling you for eight years?
All right?
Anyway, Yeah, that's a great idea for a show, pro show. Let's not tackle it today.
Because today. So yeah, no, I would love yes. Send your questions, send your comments, your concerns to us, and Mandy's going to drop them.
Uh yeah, I'll tell you how to do that. You may go to Brannanbision podcast dot com ask us anything there, or you can hit us up on Instagram. We are at the b Wait No, oh crap, what am I Tiffany today? Mommy brain? We are at brann and Vision podcast on Instagram and also our email address is Brandnavision Podcast at gmail dot com. I had to really work hard for that. Wow, it's just not roll off the
tongue I've you used to. All Right. I do have a couple of love like questions thinking one from the email, one from the Graham Today. Let's see this one comes from Okay. She wants to be called Mispace. Okay, miss Pace, She says, love your show. You guys are both my besties in my head. I got married in twenty sixteen, the year before you guys did, and I'm a few weeks from delivering my first baby. Who is she delivered herself? That's exciting you all say what I'm thinking and have
awesome solutions. My question is this I'm a budding entrepreneur, which, as you know, means I don't have maternity leave. I've been paying into a short term disability coverage policy since a year ago under the impression that it covered maternity leave. However, I've now found out that I'd only be covered if there was a complication in my pregnancy, which means I've
wasted a year of paying into this policy. After all this drama going back and forth, I no longer want a policy, and I was thinking if there are other ways I can say for future baby number two in two years and one questions and suggestion and one of suggestions on whether I should do a mutual fund or a CD what would be best that would give me some decent interest for my money. That's a good So
the entrepreneur is saving to have a baby. That's an interesting comp because you don't have maternity leaves, you have to like, yeah, I'm sure you can talk about that. But essentially the question is, so, she's about to have a baby soon, but she's looking at creating kind of some kind of savings fund. I guess that she plans to tap into in a couple of years. M h, yeah, So the best way to save for that for something
that would be kind of short term like that. But yeah, do you want to talk about what you how you've sort of approached it since you've got your own business and you're also planning to have a baby.
Well, what I did was I actually created a fund called I call it super Baby because you know I call Superman Superman and our bonus daughter, well his daughter, my bonest daughter, Supergirl, a Lissa Supergirl. And so I like, I started off with jess an online only savings account and I named it super Baby, and I just started
putting money into that online only savings account. And then you know, I met with Angelie, my financial planner, and she was like, well, let's put this into a mutual fund so, you know, so that way it can grow.
And what I would suggested if you can't know for sure obviously when you're gonna get pregnant, but if you wanted to create like a like to get a target date fund, so let's just say you know you're gonna want to start again in two years or two years is when you're anticipating the next baby, So picking kind of like that year as your target date, and you know, putting your money in a mutual fund that's also a target date fund, So as you get closer and closer
to that baby coming to fruition, your money is is being preserved, your capital is being preserved because the way a target date fund works, I think we mentioned this last episode, is that the closer you get to the target date, the more conservative your investments automatically rebalance themselves to be so that way, when you're ready to take the money, you're not in some sort of like riskier investment that does yield a risk potential bigger return, but
at least you know you'll be able to actually take the money that's currently they're out fairly safely. So that's what I would look for. That's what I've done with super Baby is a target Well I haven't done a target date fund, but I've done a mutual fund because I don't have a target date because I'm not you know, who knows where, like what's going to happen for me.
But that's what I would suggest. And then this current when I'm like, uh, how frustrating to have paid into something thinking it's one thing and it's like, nah's not, which is so crazy. I'm assuming she's with, Yeah.
I didn't I even know that some policies. I didn't even know that short term disability, because you're right, I mean, when I went on maternity leave, it's considered a short term disability leave, like it's a I'm a disabled person and that's kind of what I have to file for whatever. So I guess that would make sense. But I didn't realize, like if you were buying your own policy, that it might cover, like it might pay out for a maternity leave. I hadn't heard of that before. Maybe there are some
policies like that. I don't know, have you heard about anything like that?
No? Actually I had it, Like I mean, I've heard of course of short term disability, and I have disability like that I pay out of pocket for myself that I got like you know, like in my twenties or thirties or whatever. But I did I didn't even know that disability cover quite honestly, maternity leave or you could get disability for maternity leave. So now the question is to ask yourself, is is there a policy that definitively
does cover maternity leave? And to get that, you know, to research and find that policy for this for this upcoming baby after this first one.
Even does though you think if she's having the baby soon, like would she be able to pay into it for such a short amount of time and then be able to cash into it. That seems a little like well.
I was thinking more so like that that that that would be for baby too.
Oh she could say, Oh, you're right. You weren't even reading her question, but you woulder stood it.
There that I did. I'm like two years from now.
But do you know how the gestation period for one? You're right, she's talking about for the next one. Oh ya, girl, how do you listen? Take it from me, have the first one first, and then because number I have removed the number two out of my dictionary, out of my vocabulary, I don't even talk about anything that has to do with number two anymore. Thanks, So I totally woo okay, I'm back on track. Continue, Tiffany, you can run the show for the rest.
Of the show. So that's what I meant about the mutual fund, So that would be for baby number two. But I would also I would probably do like I said, like a target date fund for baby number two, just to be ready for baby number two, but for baby number one. I would also open up just a mutual fund for that baby, just like for future things like college. So you can do a target date fund for a baby that's coming now baby number one and I have the target date be eighteen years from now, seventeen years
from now, so for college. So both of the baby's the one that's currently here basically almost and the baby in the future, you can do that for both. But now I wanted to just tackle the current disability policy. So I don't know for sure what you should do with that current disability policy, because one, it might be good for other things outside of the baby stuff, which
is what I know you got it for. At the very least, I likely would keep it until after the baby comes, because God forbid that there are complications which were there's not going to be reclaiming that now, but God forbid that something like that that does happen. This policy would actually cover that, So I wouldn't want you to cancel it before knowing for sure, So that's what
I would do. I would wait until after baby comes and you're healthy and at home and everything's fine, then consider cancering that policy and then getting one that's more in alignment with what you need, but not before the baby comes. So I hope that helps. And congratulations pre.
Mommy, that's no, that's great. We like and we love insurance on this show. We love insurance baby number two. Do you hear the background right now? Because it's excellent birth control. All right, let's move on to brown Boost, Brown Break. We're gonna take a quick break and be right.
So it's Brad break, Brown booths, brown break, brown boo to break. Are you gonna break? Are you gonna not booths?
I'm gonna do well, I'm gonna do an informational break from some kind of like some not great news in the credit score world. So last week shock waves went through the world. Anytime FIKO changes its credit credit score formula, you know, nerds like us get at all in a titter about this. But basically what's happening is every once in a while, FIKO will look at the way that it calculates credit scores and it's been This is not
the first time it's made changes. I believe a couple of years ago it changed the way it treated medical debt that actually benefited a lot of people. Before the change, if you had medical debt, your score could basically be lower, but they treated medical debt a little bit more graciously, considering it's medical debt, not something like a credit card, you know, which you've racked up yourself. A lot of people can't control when they get into medical debt, you know.
So the most recent change has to do with personal loans, which may impact a lot of our listeners because personal loans, I know from you know, just working where I work, we help people find and compare personal loans. They are a hugely popular way to borrow money these days, with
a personal loan. We talk about them all long time on the show, right when we recommend, you know, taking out a small personal loan from a credit union or from an onlinand or wherever to say, consolidate credit card debt if you can get a lower credit, if you can get a lower interest rate on a personal loan, you know, you can use that loan to pay off
higher interest debt and then you have one loan. Personal loans are great because they're fixed, you know, fixed monthly payments, and they're fixed aprs, they don't go up and down, and you have a fixed repayment term, so you know when the end is coming. But what's happened now is
with the with the new FICO changes. Apparently, if you use personal loans in that way to pay off all your credit card, all your credit cards in the past, that would immediately probably impact your score beneficially because you've gotten rid of a bunch of high interest debt and you've now got a fixed Damn it. I knew I was going to get this wrong because the momy brain. Oh,
installment loan. Yes, you've got installment debt versus high interest revolving debt like a credit Yes, that's why your credit score can get boosted by consolidating with a personal loan.
Under the new formula, FIKO will look back. This is according to NPR, FYCO will look back over a period of time as far as two years to see whether you've used the loan to reduce your high interest credit card debt or whether you're using credit cards as much as you were before, running up new revolving balances and falling deeper into debt. So this is really important because we find again you know, lending Tree my company, we look at, you know, how do people use personal loans?
And often you do find people because they have that sense of oh, I've gotten this personal loan, I've paid off my credit cards. They feel like they're debt free all of a sudden, like the pressure is off, but you're not. You still have the debt. It's just costing you less. It's in a different form.
Yeah, And because.
You have that sense of like, oh, I'm getting on top of my finances, you're like, oh, I'm gonna treat myself to this at them all or I'm gonna why not take out that new credit card when I you know, check out at the Gap or at Kohl's or whatever, And before you know it, you haven't fixed the bad habits and you have additional credit card debts. So this
is what that seems like. The FYCO formulas trying to get smarter, which makes sense, to not get to look at how people and what they're doing after they consolidate their with their credit card debt with they personal loan, and you can potentially get dinged if you continue racking up debt.
So it's like good for like the medical debt stuff, but then maybe not so good with the consolidating personal loan debt.
It's good if you I mean honestly it's still a great tool to use to consolidate debt. You know, I'd still recommend it as you can get a if you can get a lower interest rate than what your credit cards have, it totally makes sense. The only thing is just be mindful that if you continue racking up credit card debt after you've used that personal loan to consolidate, FICO will take note of that looking back as far as two years, and the boost you may get from
and from consolidating that debt with a personal loan. Maybe count your race. Yeah, I don't know about a race. It doesn't say like how we're you know, it's really difficult to judge how and what how much of a score will go up or down, but it will definitely ding you if you go back and start racking up credit card debt after you've you set loan to consolidate.
So to know, yeah, so this is good. So you're right. This is like some someplace in between brom boosts and broad break. So it's like, you know, I know, no, no, it's good though. We have to know because I mean that the way you navigate with your credit is, you know, it's critical you need credit in this country. You know, it can prevent you from getting a home, it can prevent you from getting a job, it can prevent you
from getting utilities turned on. So it's important that you know, you know all these things, like you know, I know, there's like this brigade of like we don't need credit. I'm like, sis, do you live in the usbay because
you indeed do. You don't have to have like, you know, like a ton of credit, but you have to have some credit history as an adult unless you're not you're purchasing everything with cash, which is definitely possible, but the average person is not able to purchase everything with cash. And and even then you might have a job that's like Okay, you proaches your house, your car, your close everything with cash, and your job's like that's cute, but we need to see your credit score to see if this is a
position that we could trust you with. And so there's nothing that you can do to side step that. So yeah, so credit is still an important component of adulting financially, So just keeping that in mind. Oh that was good. So I'm actually going to brown Boost. So have you heard of Unique? Her name is Unique Jones. She is Well, I'm sure you've heard of because of them we can?
Yes, yes, I love the Instagram account.
Yes, right, so positive, so amazing, so delightful. If you don't follow literally at because of them you can. And so what's so great about because of them you can? Is that Unique? I mean especially it's Black History Months, so she really celebrates like black excellence and all its amazing forms. But Unique recently launched something called culture Tags.
And the way culture tax works is that it's a it's a game, you know how like you ever see like people be like T B A to be honest or like, you know, it's like get the f out of here, G F O T, you know what I mean. So she literally created this really fun game where s O T. Sorry, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get the wait g T G T because you.
Don't because you don't curse, you're a little rusty. Where is the F go? I know where it goes, but.
I gotta call you know, he's a potty mouth and so I.
Respect that and so so but it's a fun game where the purpose of the game is that you have a timer and then you hold up the like you know, the acronym is that that's an acronym, right, is that right?
Yeah?
I don't know what you call them in the you know, for text messaging beyond acronym.
Sure, So baby, it's basically what's she calls them? Just a hashtag and so you hold up the hashtag and you have a certain amount of time to guess what it is. And what I really love is that she has categories. So she's like categories Church, categories black Mama, because they have one where it's like do you have McDonald's money, which is hilarious. So I love that she breaks it down into culturally relevant things for black culture. And then you have to guess what the hashtag is.
And if you go to culture tags at culture tags on Instagram, you can see like videos and people playing and it's so it looks so fun. And I share this because Unique just launched a Kickstarter to bring this game to life. I think she was asking for fifteen thousand. As of right now, she already has twenty two thousand dollars, and if she reaches like thirty five thousand, she gives like additional gifts to people who've donated, so I think she still has another like twenty days or something to go.
She got fully funded day one, but she's like, look if they get even more funding and mean even more goodies for people who have back it, I highly suggest. Like I love games, and so I have like taboo at the house. We have uno, we play cards, so I literally have like a game closet because as a kid, we always play games as when I was a kid. So I love having games in the house so when friends come over, we can have fun. So I backed the project so I can get like the game in
my house. But honestly, what I tell you, like looking at the videos of live people playing it, it looks so much fun. I cannot wait to play. So it's called.
Culture tags culture Okay, So.
What you can do is you can go to kickstarter dot com and just like typing culture tags and it should come up. Or you can just go to culture tags on ig and like and in the culture tag like a you could pre order the game be a Kickstarter, like the link is in her ig bio in the culture tag ig bio. But yeah, honestly, it just looks like so much fun and like like like.
Got McDonald's money. It kind of reminds me of like I'm kind of like getting a sense of like black Jeopardy from the category is we got food at home?
Literally like that right, Like how fun is that? And so like, like I said, I love the fact that she breaks down the categories like you know, like things black moms say, black church, and so like, you know, it's just she just said that because I spoke to like we were like messaging back and forth, and she said she created it because she was inspired by black Twitter, because you know, black Twitter is hilarious and they have just created such an amazing like, well we have this
amazing black culture that black Twitter really just displays just how funny, how sharp, how witty we are, whitty we are. And she noticed that like we were using like these hashtags in such a way that it was just hilarious that like, especially if you're black, they especially mean something to you because it's just certain ways that we talk and that we are. And she was like, like one of my favorites in the video. So it's like, uh,
I think it's like I forget the category. I think the category is like black man or something like that, and it's like you know what men say when they see each other, and I forget the acronym don't get me to asking, but it's like, oh, this is I've seen Jerrelle do this with like with like his friends, Like you know, his friends will say like, how you doing.
He's like, man, just trying to get like you. So it's like just j T G. You know, I would never think of that because I'm like, I'm not a dude, but I like all the men in the audience when they played were like Rory and they all knew what it was. And man, it just looks like a fun game. Unique is like a rock star. I don't know how she developed this, created it. It looks the game itself looks like you could buy this game at Target from
Milton Bradley, Like it already looks so well polished. So yeah, so I'm just sharing that because I think we you know, we we love black and Brown excellenteer at Brown Ambition, and you know Unique has already displayed that with because of them, we can. But now with culture tags, you can bring a little more culture and fun into your home. Kickstarter. Just go to culture tag and like I said, I read across it and I was like, oh and I
ordered it, and yeah, I'm just excited. So I figured I share because I have my own kickstarted coming up, so I'm extra hyper sensitive to supporting other people in their kickstarter journey.
Yes, gets like a kickstarter a juju out there? Good energy. Now that sounds so much fun. Awesome. All right, I'm gonna go play a game of Catch the Screaming Baby. Yeah, let see who wins. Usually nobody but the baby. Ah, melatonin or two so I can get some shut eye. It's gonna be a good night.
Like girl that meltone. I told Carol about it. She's a girl. Thank you. These gummies are everything.
Oh they had gummies. I'm using like an expired bottle that I forgot. I had my friend because I was complaining about my friends like use of melatonin.
I'm like, oh, yeah, like because I honestly, I'm not really good with pills. So whenever possible, I try to take a gummy of any pill that I need to take, if possible orchewable.
Yeah, can consult your medical professional. I'm not endorsing any you know, but for me, melatonin expired from May twenty nineteen. Does a truck make I refuse to buy a new bottles cheap? How many I've been you should see my search history. How many melatonin do you need to take? If it's expound like that.
Here?
So I should be okay. Oh but honestly, look like looking at you give me like you know from Afar, Like you know, I'm not even a hugger, but I've been hugging you a.
Lot from Afar And yeah, thank you. I need it, Yeah I need it. But this has been you know. It's like I said, this show actually helps. It helps me force my husband to take care of the baby once in a while so I can do something for me. And it is work, but it's work that feeds me. It makes me feel like myself, so I don't mind it. I don't want people to worry that I'm like over exerting myself or you know whatever, being unhealthy by pushing
myself to do the show. It actually it actually makes me feel good to do the show, and I wouldn't be doing it if it didn't. And if it starts to not feel good, I won't do it. So thank you guys for for a period of time. So thank you guys for giving me that space. No, but this is it's good. But do let me go because I just got you gotta check your text tip, but I texted you was strange, shot him what I just got for my husband. So SOS, we need you. Okay, bye,