It's time for the b a q a A to b a q A. Would you say the b a q Mandy, it'd be a q A with tiffin A to b a q a A. Hey, Andrea gorgeous. Well, first of all, if you have questions, we might have some answers, but we are not your doctor, your attorney. You have financial advisor with just your friend. So you're gonna take what we say with the small skate of salt. You're gonna leand it to the people that you pay a ka sue your granny, not us.
Okay, So got that out of the way. We're doing money questions this week.
Or you've read read and what do people have questions? Work at as.
Oh, thank you for queuing up that for me. So you can go to brand Ambisson podcast at on Instagram. We are at Brown Ambition What what are words? We're at Brown Ambition podcast on Instagram. And then you can email us Brandon Mission Podcast at gmail dot com with your questions and if you have a follow up, what would be really amazing is if you could remind us what was your first question, because Instagram doesn't make it super easy for us to go back.
Even if you like, it would be great if you were like an episode, because we have the numbered an episode forty five.
You know, yeah, exactly tell us what episode yours question was in.
So that we could go back and be like, oh, that's right, that's right.
Okay, very smart. All right, Tiffany, our first question is from someone who wants to be called a mama trying to do it all. Okay, she spelled your name in a hilarious fashion. Hey, Andy and tif t I p h.
I've seen that you're giving me a life, tiff.
Thanks for all your wise words and always being my piece when I'm feeling stressed as a mom with a two year old. I love putting on your podcast and listening throughout the day in the background. I'm thirty four and I love my job and I've been there for over ten years. I work full time, I have work from home flexibility, and I'm debt free. I have over two hundred thousand dollars in my four to zero one K and an eight fifteen credit score. Is this a question or like your dating profile?
I do.
Also, she won't need one, because the next sentence says, my husband and I took up the site Routes in life. He went the education route and is building his career right now. He works part time, but he's a huge help with childcare. He's also debt free except for student loans. Despite him working part time, we have still managed to save around forty five thousand dollars amazing. What do we do with that savings? Do we leave it? Or do we buy our first house? Where in California and prices
are absolutely crazy. We've looked at a few homes, but realize that our mortgage would be more than double from what we currently pay in rent. I'm hesitant with my husband's income right now, but also our two year old will be starting pre K soon and although that may be an extra expense, that would allow my husband to work. Oh, although that would be an extra expense, it also allowed
my husband to work more to increase our finances. If we don't purchase a home and continue to save, should I put the money in a high yield savings account? Thanks for your suggestions.
Oh Mama, trying to do it all well far as we want to acknowledge, Girl, you're doing the damn doing the damn doing the damn thing with the money that you have for your four O one K, your credit score, the fact that you're both debt free even though your husband has student loans, and you've still been still managed with the child to save forty five thousand dollars. Girl, do you want to host abodcast?
Yeah, that's all.
We want to give you your accolades. So let's break it down. Okay. So, to me, home ownership is not always the answer for all the girls, and so purchasing a home, certainly, you know, can positively affect your finances, but it has to make financial sense, and paying double what you pay now in
rent might not. Although the likelihood is that your home is going to appreciate in value because you're in California still, you know, by you know, you're probably gonna erode whatever that was because you would pay so much more as it relates to your mortgage and taxes and things like that. So I think home ownership, if you are looking at California, might be something that you would pause for now. So
that's probably what I'd be thinking. Two, I'd be looking at this forty five I'm assuming this forty five thousand dollars is your emergency savings. How many months is this? Is it? You know? Three months? Is it six months? Is it a year of emergency savings?
Speaking from experience, that's probably like a good three or four months.
That's what I was thinking it was giving.
Which sounds insane, But in California with a familis, it's giving a month at least.
Yeah, it's giving about three or four months or which which is good. Which I mean if it was me, three or four months, it's emergency savings is like a safety belt. It's not meant to be cute, just meant to sustain. And so I probably would put that either in a CD, like a rollover CD that has no early withdrawal fees, or I would put it in a high yield savings account, as you suggested, because that money is meant to be accessible in case something does happen.
So that's my first initial piece of advice. Hey, ba fan, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back.
I was just wondering what rates are like on savings accounts these days. Once se for like an online account four point five percent apy or higher. I mean, that sounds pretty damn good these days. I'm curious you said a CD, but CDs will lock up your money for a certain period of time, like at least six months.
Right, No, not necessarily. The only reason why it's fresh in my mind is because literally for business, I had my bank. I was like, girl, we have we have six months of emergency savings for the business. And I said, it's just sitting here. What can we do? And they mentioned they had a two month CD, and I said, oh, so what I like to do? So we have six
months saved? So I said, well, what if we put four month and the two month CD leaving two months free, so if something happens, we have the two months available, and then at four months, you know by the time it like, you know it's available. If something's happened, you know we're ready to use it because we let up
two months. So some CDs are two months, three months, and so it's something to just consider sometimes because you're willing to lock your money down, even just a little bit, you can generate more than than a just a regular high yield savings account. Something to look into. So they do definitely sometimes have CDs for shorter periods of time. So if you have if there is a two month CD, that maybe gives you say, like I don't know, four point seventy five percent, you know, and you have four
months worth of emergency savings. Maybe you keep two in a high yield savings account, two in the CD and let it continue to roll over, you know, like as needed. And so that's just something to consider. So you can make a little bit more money with your money if that makes sense. That's just bank to bank. So question, do we what do we do with this? Do we buy our first house? I probably pause? And then what
do we kind of do with this money? I probably would do what you what you kind of suggested for yourself. But ultimately, I think the biggest thing is especially you know, you guys are this great age where it's like, you know, you've made these choices that are really aligned. The really important thing is to ask yourself, what's my desired outcome for our money? You know, like do we want to be homeowners? Do we want to move back home with you know and be by our parents, you know, who
live in Wisconsin. I'm just making this up, you know, do we want to be millionaires by forty that It's going to be really, really, really important for you to determine what do we want the next five ten plus years to look like, because that will dictate what you do with your money, you know, So I sit down with your husband and say, Okay, in five years, this is what i'd like. Maybe you write it down, he writes it down, and you guys look at it together. So you could tell your money what to do so
you can reach those that desired outcome. I think that's really where you are right now. Put your money, you know, in a high yield savings counter CD, sit down with your hubby and say here's where we'd like to be in the next five years and then ten years, you know, and then then make your choices based upon that.
Yeah, I would just add it sounds like because I'm in the same predicament. The more childcare I have, the more expensive it is, right, But the more capable you are then of like creating more income for yourself. And like you mentioned, you know, paying for pre K, which I think is a tragedy, Like why is universal pre k?
Do you pay for pre K in New York as it's free in New Jersey?
Up in New York City there is universal three K pre k, So like for threes en up in where I live, in our school district, we got very lucky that the year that Rio was pre K eligible, they reduced the first UPK program in our school district. We were like the last ones. And even then it's only from like nine to two, and then you pay for the extended care or the you know, pre the extended
care before school and the extended care after school. Yeah, but it's still like I think with all of that, we'd still pay about five or six hundred dollars a month, but certainly a lot less than the three thousand dollars we were selling out before. And it's just inside.
I didn't realize that it wasn't because New Jersey they started ABBOT program years and years ago when I was
a teacher, so like over fifteen years ago. And then I guess I don't know if somebody sued that was named was Abbot saying like, hey, I don't know if it's let me not say New Jersey, let me say New York, because I don't know for you all kind of fight me, like, but in Newark, I believe that there was this ABBOT lawsuit saying that like children in Newark and maybe maybe Esces County didn't have access to proper find you know, proper education at the certain age.
So anyway, they made preschool into public school basically essentially where three or four year olds are considered like going to public school. So it is the full you know, seven to three or whatever day, and then you can, of course, you know, there's sometimes just after school. But yeah, I just took it for granted that, like that's right. I forgot that many places you still pay it to your kid gets sometimes even kindergarten is half day certain places.
I mean nine to two might as well be a half day as far as I'm concerned, Like what am I supposed to do with that five hours? Oh my goodness. Yeah, So my heart just goes out to you in that regard. But you know, letting your husband, I will say, like, it is nice to have the parent there to help with the childcare and all of that, but your husband's
building his career. He needs to go fulfill his dream too, and so I think investing in that childcare, even if it means like you know, let's keep more money in the bank now, like that is still like you don't know what will happen in the future in terms of like home prices and things like that. But I feel like right in front of you, it just makes the most sense to keep that money set aside for your
you know, for your family's emergency funds. You your husband can like continue building his career and you guys can do it without a ton of pressure on that funding. And certainly wouldn't want you to like put your down put all that money into like would that even be enough for a doown payment? And some like probably not, Like, it just seems like earmarking that for emergency savings is great and then building on that for your long term savings so you can buy a house. Yeah, sounds good.
On your own time, Yes, on your own time. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back with question number two. B r B al rightba fan, we are back.
Tiff.
You want to read this one from Natasha from Instagram?
Yes? Is it? Yes? Okay? Good morning. First and foremost, I'd like to say how much I enjoy your podcast. Well, we enjoy you, Natasha. Thank you, Tasha says, can I call you Tasha? My question is how to unlock the next budget friendly step in my financial journey. I have a good foundation on various topics and would like to invest with education and purpose. But the experts I research
require at least ten thousand dollars for their program. In my world, we call that high ticket item, okay, and looking for ways to get into real estate, the coaches are charging at least fifteen thousand for their services. I do have monthly income of about five hundred dollars to put toward these products, but certainly not thousands of dollars. I've cleared all my dad. Go ahead, girl, invest about fifty dollars via robberhood. I'm also a seven year homeowner.
How can I elevate well on a budget? Okay? Okay? How do you feel mandy about like the high ticket item coaches?
Well, here's the thing. I do think that. I think that when you are looking for education on something like real estate and you just do a search online, the first thing you're going to see, I think, are a lot of these really high ticket paid courses and things like that which can make you feel like, oh, that must be what I need in order to do this. But I guarantee you, if you look at the you
know how this real estate coach got their start. It wasn't through investing fifteen k in a coach, they probably did a lot of education and you know self education, self taught first and looking at mentors and books. People forget about books. Go into the library is a wonderful, very simple thing to do in a way to educate yourself. I surely wouldn't spend that much money unless I had really good evidence that it was going to, you know,
result in the goal that I wanted. And when it comes to real estate, I don't know how you could promise someone that they would be in real estate investor and make you know, a good return on their investment afterward. Like that's really hard to promise. So I'm not saying that they wouldn't be worth it, but I would just say, like, before you get there, like do some base level education and you know, find out what kind of real estate
investor do you want to be. Are you someone who wants to be a landlord or does being a landlord seem like way too much trouble for you? So are you looking to maybe you know, invest in a property and then flip it, like to insel it? Those are completely different approaches. Do you want to have an Airbnb property where someone else manages the property for you and you don't have to do the day to day stuff.
Maybe you are more hands on, Like there's there's a lot and if you can't afford it, that's almost the first answer. It's like, if you can't afford it, you don't have to do that. Yeah, there's other lower ticket ways of educating yourself.
And so I'll say that. So one of my friends, her name is Christina Aguilera, like not the sayer Christina with the cake. Wait really yeah, I know, I think I know, so Christina with the CA. So Christina lives in Saint Louis. I don't know if she still lives there. But so, I mean she's like slaying and now when it comes to real estate and she's talked about how
a matter of fact, you should probably follow her. It's Christina with a K. I think she's on ig as Christina Aguilera with the K. So she talks about how, I want to say, she maxed out her credit cards eighty thousand dollars doing what you're trying to do.
Now.
When she first started, she was like, girl is of course yes, she said, evenly you knew how much? Like but that was many many years ago, and she was like knowing what she knows. Now. To Mandy's point, I've hed her say she would have started slower because there are there are certainly courses in people that are going
to be worth that amount of money. But for you, if you are playing Russian Roulette, that you think that you're going to pick them out right away, because what will happened is is that if you start, like to Mandy's point, with like, oh, you know they have YouTube and you know there are books, and you will start to really get through the grapevine. Who are the people that really know the thing. So one of the things that Christina did she had visited me andknew a few
years back, and what I thought was so great. She said there was these Facebook groups of like like Budding and Deeper real estate investors, and they had these Facebook groups and they would do meetups, which I thought that was so great. I've heard this, yeah, and it was totally free. She just joined the Facebook group and they'd be like, Oh, we're going to be in in Elizabeth at such and such you know restaurant, like you know,
getting some drinks. And I just love that because they're at those meetups, they were, you know, talking the type of real estate investing Christina does. Typically she purchases a property, she renovates, and then she the seals of rents it out.
So they were in New Jersey talking about you know what contractors that, oh, don't use him and this is what you So it was and that didn't cost anything, you know, I was I was able to just go and I thought it was fascinating because I told her I was kind of maybe interested investing in real estate. She was a girl before you spend any money come
to these meetups to ask these questions. So I, you know, I just share mandy sentiment that it doesn't mean that sometimes we don't have to spend money to take ourselves to the next level. But I don't believe in starting there, you know, because the likelihood that you'll actually pick the person where you're going to get a return on investment
is not very likely. It is better to exhaust all the free options and then the lower tier and then you can grow, you know, because typically if you are going to work with the coach that costs a lot of money, I need to see a direct return. So for example, the most expensive coach coach I ever used, it was expensive. I don't know if I'd ever do this again. It was thirty five thousand dollars a month,
and it wasn't for this one coach. It was for it was, yes, this one coach that coached myself and my co founder, but he also had a financial coach come coach my financial team, a marketing coach to coach my marketing team, an HR coach, So he came with a team of coaches that coach all of my teams. You know, so you got for thirty five thousand dollars a year a month, I'm sorry that's what you got.
But it was excellent because our first year working with him, we went from I don't know, maybe four or five million dollars a year to ten million dollars that year. So you know that, cause what is thirty five thousand many times twelve months.
Don't get to meet oion a lot of money.
Five thousand dollars times twelve months.
Thirty times twelve was thirty six three hundred and sixty thousand dollars or something three.
Yeah, so it was a lot. But like I said, we the investment was three hundred and sixty but.
I could at the time business one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. First of all, that is such an unfair math question to just ask someone what makes you think I know how to calculate twelve times thirty five?
For us, it was worth it.
On the spot, like I'm the calculator.
He doubled our revenue from like four or five million to like ten million. But do you see? So it's like we paid basically half a million to make five or six millions. So, but that is not the only way I could have gotten there. One. We were already a profitable company many years in business, and I vetted him, vetted and vetted him because if I was going to spend that kind of money, I wanted to know did you use it? You use it? So do you see what I mean? I could not have made that bet
early on in my career, you know. So I'm just saying all that to say that I believe in coaching. I'm not mad that if a really good coach charges a lot of money because they've been vetted. But it's not a place to start, you know, not when there's so many free resources where you can lean in and exhaust those places first.
Yeah, I will double triple endorse what Tiffany just said, because I have a couple of my in my community, maybe money makers have said that they have used like local real estate Facebook groups and local is really important, like you said, because you understand like real estate in every city, county, state has like different rules different of course,
like different markets. There's like the mini markets within the market, within the national market, and so yeah, I just love that and I feel like that's a perfect place to start. Is just like go sit at a table with other people doing what you want to do and just be a sponge and soak that up.
I put it to work because people be like they buy the thinger you don't even you ain't even start you learn the thing.
I know, it feels like you've done something. It drives me nuts if I see someone just buy my my professional branding course and then not like complete the modules, I'm just like, can I creepily email it and be like, what aren't you Dren?
You paid his money.
I made it for you to use.
Yeah, well, we hope those questions helped you. If they did, tele a friend, tele a friends share this EPI, Okay, have you have questions? Go ahead on over to Brand and Vision Podcasts. At gmail dot com, send us an email, or broad and Vision Podcast on instaff You can follow us there, slade into our DMS or brandabision podcast dot com. We have a contact me, but you can ask questions there as well.
Okay, okay, easy peasy, RBA fam. Don't forget We're on three days a week now get your episodes Monday, Wednesday and Friday until next time. Bye,