Hey, hey, ba fan, what's up? It's your girl Mandy Money and it's time for the b a qa a the b a qa What you say the b a q and Manda the ba qa the b a qa A.
What's up?
Sis? How are you doing? I just want to talk to you right now. It's Friday, It's the end of another long week. I hope that you have something nice planned for this weekend. I hope you know what I hope for you. I hope that you don't have any like plans where you have to leave the house. I hope that you have time and space for curling up on the couch or in your bed. Although I prefer couch naps to naps, I just don't know. I just
nat better on the couch. Don't ask me why, with a nice cozy blanket that's just for you, that doesn't have like dog fur and little honey nut cheerios stuck in it like all of my nice ones do. And I just hope for you that maybe it's a little bit like cloudy outside, you can like crill up with a nice book or podcast or nothing at all, and just a cup of tea or whatever you want and just do absolutely nothing. That's what I hope you have coming for you this weekend is actually building in some rest.
And I think I read recently something about or I heard something about how hibernation is a actual It's like a natural thing in nature. Animals do it. And you know, oh, I know where it was. I follow this girl on TikTok who lives in what is it's Fallsburg Fallsborg, which is basically the North Pole, and they have these polar nights where it is just dark for days, weeks, months on end in the winter, and I'm thinking, how depressing would it be to live in that type of environment.
But then I also think, like you just kind of see people set up their lives for this time of rest and unplugging. So I know that if you live in the world that I like the world that I live in, there's no months and weeks and there's no time for that much rest and recoperation, but any like small pockets of time where we can just pour back
into ourselves. I hope that for you sis. Okay, all right, So getting into our questions this week, we have some doozse Just as a reminder, police send us your questions. You can hit us up at Brand Ambition Podcast on ig You can email me Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. You can remain anonymous. We are in the middle of literally I'm about to hit delete on this tab on my spreadsheet fold of questions from twenty twenty four because if they haven't been answered by now, they
ain't gonna be answered. So hundreds of questions about to get deleted. So I'm starting a fresh chop for twenty twenty five. So whatever questions you have, be they related to money, to career, to finance, to relationships, to arguing with your neighbor. I don't know, whatever you like, it was the was the you know, I don't know, why is this sky blue? Whatever the questions are, send them our way. We are happy to answer them for you. Yeah, you can say anonymous. It's always fun if you come
up with your own pseudonym little alias. Why not and go ahead and send your questions in and we can start the new year with a fresh batch. But for now, let's dive in to we go with triple X first. That's their anonymous name. Listen, I don't judge. You want to be called triple X. That's fine by me. Okay, Well,
let me get to this question first. So Triple X is dealing with some big financial challenges, and I'm going to keep answering these types of questions because I just feel like that is what so many of us are going through right now. Is like overwhelm but overwhelmed by financial obligations. There doesn't seem to be enough money coming in to actually meet all of these bills, and all these people put their hands out wanting money from us,
and I just get that really deeply. So let me start with this anonymous listener Triplex and dive on in. All right, She says, I am a black woman from NYC who just turned thirty a few weeks ago, and my financial life is a bit in shambles, but I'm trying to take back control. I grew up in a Haitian household and was taught your name and credit are extremely important in this country. In other words, pay the
man and stay out of prison. My entire twenties after college, I worked hard to do everything right until I got laid off in June twenty twenty three, and I couldn't find a new position or pay my bills consistently for an entire year. My credit score that I worked very hard for dropped one hundred and fifty points and sent
me into depression. Fast forward to the end of twenty twenty four, and I am still crippled by debt that I had before, and even more now from using credit cards to pay for last minute emergencies because my savings are blown. I'm working at sales position now, so things
are slightly better, but not really. I'm thinking about taking out a personal loan to pay off the debt, but the APR is so high due to my low score, and my car broke down, and I need to pay down debt in order to raise my score to get another one. Or do I should I take out the loan to pay off my credit card debt even with the high APR? Are there other options? I believe I can refinance once my score gets higher, but I'm nervous. I'm in dire need of your advice and tutelage.
Thank you.
Oh this is stressful. What is it about vehicles, y'all? Like, what is it about your car that it can just smell? Well, first of all, it can smell if you have any money in the bank, and it's just like, m, what are we going to do. Is it going to be the check engine light? Are the brakes gonna start squeaking? Are we going to pop a tire on the blow a tire on the freeway?
Like?
What are we going to do? Because it doesn't seem like there's enough stress here. But even then, when you're in financial strife, it doesn't matter. Even then, that car will go out on you, It will turn on you. It should be studied by science. But I just want to say I can understand financial depression a thousand percent. You feel so isolated, so alone, And it's.
One thing I think we all kind of know.
Social media is not real and everyone's just showing their best self. But at the same time, we all are hiding the shadowy parts of ourselves, the parts that make it hard to get out of bed, the parts that make us say horrible things to ourselves and judge ourselves so harshly. You know, we don't mention how we are getting phone calls from eight hundred numbers that we know belong to credit card companies, or phone bill companies or
light bill companies that are asking for their money. We don't mention how we are going to the grocery store and stocking up on essentials and running our credit card because what other choice do we have. We got to eat, the kids, got to have diapers, you know, got to have what you need, dogs, got to have food. Like, we don't really share that. And yet I know because I see y'all's and I see your questions, and you're
so not alone. I also am living in this world too, And I mean, I'm questioning whether or not to show y'all a screenshot of our podcast revenue for the past year, because I'll tell you, for real, it's not cute, not at.
All, not even a little bit. It is down so.
Bad that I'm like, wait a minute, I thought I was a successful solopreneur. Well not all the time, right, So we all have these human moments and listen, especially when you're someone who's worked hard to get a good credit score, and I'm someone who's done that too, when you see those points getting knocked off and knocked off and you're so good at, you know, maintaining your high credit score that you know exactly why the points are getting knocked off. And I talked about this on a
recent episode of the QA. But it's that utilization rate. It's because we're turning more to credit cards, and the more credit that we use and the less that we pay it off, the lower our score is. It's just that's how the credit scoring system is set up. Now. I do think that you can give yourself some grace on the credit score front. It is it is a tool, but it is not who you are, okay. It is
a tool to get access to loans and credit. And yes, having a higher score does make it so that you can get act sss to those lines of credit at a lower price, right at a lower APR. If you have high credit. Just because you're dealing with a difficult time right now and you do have a low credit score, it doesn't mean that you're bad, doesn't mean that you're terrible,
Like you have a very logical set of reasons. And I'm ready to just acknowledge the fact that one year of unemployment or one year of underemployment after getting laid off, that's not uncommon. It's not like I'm I'm not here saying, wow, a whole year, what's taken her so long? Like that is reality, Like, especially when you factor in if that layoff triggered you know, some mental health challenges, and then it's like, well.
How do you get back out there?
And then you start doubting yourself and you know, one last thing, this is like the last thing you need to add to that list of things to be upset with yourself about, is your credit score. Now let's get into like the nitty gritty of yes, but I still
have this mountain of debt. So at this point, I actually think that a taking on more debt, like taking on taking on a more credit cards, trying to open up to get more access to credit, is only going to make your situation more perilous and more stressful for you. I like the idea of you taking out a personal loan to consolidate your credit card debt, but at that point, and I know that you're saying that the aprs for the loans that you're seeing have been on the higher side,
and that definitely is due to your credit score. And that's concerning because when it comes to a personal loan, one of the benefits is that it's a fixed rate and a fixed monthly payment and a fixed timeline to pay it down. But if your credit score improves, that fixed rate means that, okay, we're not going to lower your rate down the line if your credit score goes down, so you're locking in this rate at whatever it is
right now. Now, That is why I think it could be smart to take a pause and look for an alternative to whatever. I don't know what types of loans you've been looking at. I'll always go back to community and credit unions, like if community banks and credit unions when it comes to looking for alternative financing options. Also call your creditors and tell them about what you're going through.
They may offer to reduce your rate. And I can say that from having read a listener's question just last week where she was able to contact her creditor and get her APR dropped to I think nine point nine percent. And in that case, they did freeze the card, which means that you wouldn't have that as a safety net.
You wouldn't have access to that credit. But I think at this point it's a wake up call in terms of continuing to, you know, look for more access to credit so that you can continue to overly on those cards. It just isn't a good long term solution. And we've got to stop the bleeding. Staunch the bleeding, and I think potentially like calling your creditors seeing if you can reduce your APR, get them a payment plan, you know, something like that could It couldn't hurt to ask and
to try. And you know what, I'm going to try this myself because I just want to be able to tell you guys what I've experienced. But if y'all yourselves have ever gone through this and you've called a creditor and negotiated a lower rate, you know, I'm happy to take y'all's tips, take your experiences and be able to share because I know that the rules and the like, the tolerance that banks have for that type of you know, that type of flexibility, it can change, it can be cyclical.
So if that's if it feels like banks are being more flexible these days, I think we should know we should be jumping on that as an option. Okay. Other options to take care of your credit debt is to work with a debt relief organization. So there are The National Foundation for Credit Counseling is nonprofit that you can go to and I think you can set up like a free consultation and they can see if you're a good fit for their services. It's not a direct line
into filing personal bankruptcy. Although personal bankruptcy is also a tool, it's a tool that can be used. It can have repercussions, big ones on your you know, your financial reputation for years to come. But it is a tool, you know, that is out there, and starting with an organization like the NFCC can at least help you weigh your options of debt settlement, debt relief, yes, personal bankruptcy, all the options and just see what works for you when it
comes to like a debt relief organization. You know, we're having a guest on from the National Debt Relief National Debt Relief? Is that what it's called, Yeah, something like that in January. And you know, one of the one of the sort of cons or I think one of the suspicions or fears about an organization like that is that your credit score is going to take a huge hit because they're going to make you stop making payments
on your credit. But if you're in a deep you know, if you're in a deep hole like it sounds like you are, your credit score has already taken a big hit. And if these organizations it can actually get in touch with lenders and negotiate better terms for you, or negotiate a settlement amount or a payoff amount like that actually could be something, especially in your situation, that could make some sense. So I would say some debt relief organizations
like that may be a good place. But NFCC is also it's sort of like I don't know an objective party who can get on the phone with you. You can talk to a credit counselor and just start to weigh all of your options and then you can choose the path forward from there. Now, when it comes to your car, okay, so you say your car broke down and you feel like you need to pay down debts, you can raise your score and get another one. So
I get it. I'm having a better credit score means you can get better terms on a loan for a car, if at all possible. Can you do without a car for a time being, because these car payments these days, especially with bad credit, are outrageous, Like American car owners are spending over seven hundred dollars a month on their car payments for a new car. And I and I know that that doesn't mean that you would go out and buy like an amazing brand new car and drive
it off the lot and all of that. But if you can save you know, the five hundred to seven hundred dollars you may be putting into a car payment each month, especially with a high you know APR that you may have to have because of your credit. I think that's a better option that may seem that maybe impossible. I don't know how far your job is or how you would get there, but I would be looking for how to you know, shave expenses from your balance sheet
until you can start to build it up. But yeah, I will leave it there triple X. And I hope that this was helpful. I hope that you feel less alone, that you feel seen. I'm really grateful that you've, you know, been so vulnerable to send in a question like this, because I know that it is. It can be, yeah, mentally debilitating to have that amount of debt and to see your credit score go down. But you can overcome this,
and this it can just be a temporary blip. Give yourself time and grace as much as possible, and tell a friend, tell a family member, someone who maybe even can like sit side by side while you have these conversations with the credit counseling organization or with a debt relief company or with a credit union about a debt consolidation loan. And just remember that, you know, taking care of the credit issue is it's a symptom of the bigger problem, which is, you know, you're not earning enough
to meet your expenses. So as you're getting a plan put together with a debt, hopefully that builds your confidence and you can, you know, reapproach your career path and find some opportunities to bring in more money so that you can chip away, not just trip away at debt, but actually rebuild your emergency savings so that they're ready for you the next time your damn car decides it wants to end its life at the worst possible moment.
All right, thank you so much for your question. We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more. Baqa okay, b a fam We are back, and I am here to answer a question from listener Livronia from Los Angeles.
Hey Livnia, thank.
You for sending in this question. Thanks for listening to the podcast. All right, let's dive on in. You say, I am thirty one years young, child free and living in Los Angeles. I'm ready to be better with my money. I make sixty nine thousand dollars a year and I have very few expenses. My monthly expenses are about sixteen hundred dollars with rent included. I'm currently saving with my four to one K and I have a life insurance
policy that has a cash value component. I currently don't have a personal savings account, and I want to change that, but I'm not sure how. I tend to have a few hundred dollars left after I paid my bills and taking care of necessities, but I always find myself broke slash living paycheck to paycheck because I blow all my extra money. My credit limit is two thousand dollars and it's currently maxed out because of revert to using it when I'm broke. I'm ready to get out of this
cycle because it feels like I'm broke by choice. I guess my question is how do I start to save and how do I work the extra money without How do I work the extra money without spending it all on food and miscellaneous random items?
Thank you again? All right, Larnia.
Wow, this was exactly the situation I was in when I first moved to New York. I was, I mean, I don't think you're broke.
I think that you're well.
First of all, you're young, and that's kind of like how it is in the beginning. You don't have a high credit limit. And I remember my first credit card coming out of college and moving to New York. It was like, I think seven hundred dollars, and I kept maxing it out because it was like a barely nothing credit limit, and then they would increase it and it became a twelve hundred dollars and then it became two thousand dollars, and every time it went up, I would spend.
I would spend on it, and I would max it out, and I ended up exactly where you're at. You know, I'm earning decent money, I have some money left over, but I'm constantly like, what is like chasing bad after good or chasing good after bad spending habits, and so you end up taking the extra money in your account and using it to pay off or pace down some
of that credit card debt that you're accruing. And I think you're at a pivotal like juncture right now because you're recognizing this cycle is not sustained, Like you can't sustain this for much longer, and it's not a good long term strategy. I mean, I'm glad that you're saving with your four one K. You know, you're thirty one years old, you have a life insurance policy. I mean, I can kind of touch on that a little bit too.
But you are making some financially responsible decisions with your money. So it's not like you're out there, like I know, you're not at the club, you know, getting bottle service all the time. You can easily blow through a few hundred dollars in la I'm sure going out to you know, drinks, or going out for food or just going.
Grocery shopping or just like living life is expensive outside is so expensive, right, But in terms of like how to save, you're going to need to find more money in your budget to put toward that savings.
And you're not going to find that money in your budget until you can pay off that credit card and then try to keep your credit debt as low or nonexistent as possible. Now, two thousand dollars is not a small amount of money, but it's also not that bad. And it sounds like with the amount of money you're making now, if you just dedicated yourself to paying down this credit card and getting it out of the way for the next year.
Honestly, even if.
You pull back a little bit from investing in your four to one K, I mean, I don't know how much you're putting away. Actually, let me run that back, because if you're making sixty nine thousand, even if you're saving like what ten percent of your your your gross pay and putting that into your four to one K,
it's still not a ton of money. So like, keep saving in your four one K, but do what you can to bring in either bring in some extra money, but definitely use whatever leftover money you have in your budget to start tackling that credit card. And you're gonna have to get comfortable with the word no, especially in
the next year. It'll probably take like six to I don't know, six months to a year to pay it down if you're just you know, chipping away at that credit card debt with a few hundred dollars at a time. But either you're gonna have to look for a job that can pay you more than what you're earning now or look for a source of additional incomes, maybe like taking on some contract work or if you have a skill or something you can use as a side hustle to bring in some extra money and just make sure
that extra money actually has a job. And right now, the job is to pay down that credit card so that you can become free to then put that money away into a savings account. And if anything, for my last listener's letter should tell you, it's that right when you think you're doing okay or you just got back in a decent space, or even then, like right when things are really difficult, that's when you're going to have
another crisis come up. Doesn't sound like you have a car that maybe will go out on you, but there could be another you know, sort of financial emergency that makes things go from bad to even worse. And I just think that you've got an opportunity here to catch up and to close this gap right now. It's why I said it was a really important juncture, so that you can start saving and setting aside funds so that you're just in a better financial a better position for
making a decision down the line. You can you know, listen to this, to these tips and actually put them into action. I think you'll be in great shape, especially investing with your four oh one K. Yeah, your life insurance having a cash value component. So so that I understand is when you have a life insurance policy, it's a permanent life insurance policy. I'm not personally a huge fan of permanent life insurance, but hey, you already got it,
so as whatever. But with a cash value component is basically like they it functions a little bit like a four oh one K and that you can take some money out over the years. It kind of becomes a bit of a piggy bank or emergency savings for you. But of course when you do that, you are decreasing the amount of money that you could potentially get or your your beneficiaries could get in from a payout if
they ever had to actually use that policy. So just something if you're listening and curious about permanent life insurance that you need to consider. But it sounds like your monthly expenses are like very reasonable, keep them reasonable even and as you keep earning more, do what you can
to keep those expenses. You don't have to go like where you're not doing life or doing anything you know, free and fun and all of that and not like having self care, but at the same time, like lifestyle inflation is the great killer of budgets and the great feeder of debts. And as much as you can while you're young, single child free, living your life in LA
don't let lifestyle inflation eat away at your savings. And I talk a lot about the decisions that I made in my mid twenties and early thirties and how I'm so grateful from some of the decisions that I made because she is who prepared me to accomplish some really big goals that I had in my late thirties mid thirties, which were, you know, buying a house, doing renovation, being able to like actually say goodbye to corporate and invest
in myself and my business. You know, those were choices that I could not have made that I not done some really you know smart things with my money when I was in my mid twenties and early thirties, Like smart things and difficult things, which means saying no to vacations, or saying no to big expensive, you know, material things, or even saying no to a job in pursuit of higher earning somewhere else, like learning to say no and keep your eyes on what you actually value and what
your personal goals are. It's a great skill to really like home hon in your early thirties like you are now. So I'm excited for you. I know it seems tough right now, but I do think you're really, like I said, a really important crossroads right now. It's just about what decisions are you going to make about tackling that two thousand dollars debt before it gets out of control? Could
you still have time? And I think you're able to tackle that, And then when you have some extra room in the budget, then you can start building up that savings. And the simplest thing to do is to pay yourself like your son Bill, you know, put it on an automated schedule. When I get paid, this amount of money is going into my savings account. You don't have to think about it. It's already done. And that's how you
stop your money from disappearing into Uber eats. That's just me, door Dash, instacar, anybody me, it's me, But hopefully that helps you. Thank you again, Livronia for sending in your question, and to Uba fan, thank you so much for listening and supporting the show. I hope you're having a happy holiday season and getting in those cozy vibes and re you know, taking your little mini hibernation break this coming weekend and until next week. It's me, Mandy Money. I'll see you then. Bye.