It's time for the big a q a a to be a cute A would just say the big a qute a man dead, be a cute dad to be a cute a Aanda.
Hi, gorgeous.
Your curls aren't popping, but this hair is everything.
The curls are laid. Yes.
First of all, Mandy has think of Rudy Huxtable and then multiple that time is four, all right, that usually my goal as a little girl. I'm like, if I could just get Rudy Huxtable.
Hair, the hair, right, not the looks, No, I.
Think, what's Reudy hostile? It is beautiful?
Key to Napoleon, no, I know, but like do I look like Homie? No?
No, No, I'm talking about the hair, because you know, you have this big, beautiful hair, and she always has. A little girl had like this beautiful head of natural hair, and that was like jelly of all that beautiful hair. And so you're given as I was, but Keysa Napoleum is dropped dead girl. She was a cute. Rudy was
the cutest and then she's a beautiful woman. Think you you know, but yes, her her hair was always like goals for me because you know, they always tell the little black girls that, like, your hair can't grow long, and meanwhile, here was Rudy with her natural head of super long, beautiful, like textured hair, which I'm like, that's not true because Rudy's hair is to the middle of her back and she's a black girl, and.
So the middle of the back was the ultimate flex girl. My hair to the middle of my back. I don't, I can't, I never. I'm not that. It doesn't matter. I'm not that yeah yeah, yeah, but think you no.
But yeah, it just looks really cute because you don't really straighten it off.
And I was like, look, it's February, so you will see the blowouts more often because this is the one month a year when the de point is low enough for me to mess with it because it takes so much time, like energy to protect it from humidity. But I mean to say, who.
But one of my sisters has like a beautiful wig that that's the texture. And I was like, yes, lay, I'm like I.
Wouldn't get a wig honestly, girl, No, no, But they were so much when you just don't feel like it's like putting on a hat with hair on it, like come on. Now you feel.
Like your hair is going to be like, don't get this thing off me, Mayna, you have too much here. It's gonna get helmet.
Like you're hearing like micro corn corn rows to get that done.
Give it them straight backs.
All right, the grass is always green. I'll take it. So we're recording a podcast, hi anyway?
Anyway, right, So, so you know every Friday we do Brown Ambition question answers. If you have questions, we have some answers. Here's the think caveats of the caveats. We're not your financial advisor, your financial planner. We're not your your attorney, your doctor. We're just two really smart, super cute brown girls on the interwebs who know a thing that you about career, business, and money, honey. And so we can give some advice with the smallest of the
smallest grains of salt. But you're going to lean into the people that you pay to get, like, you know, to stretch that grain of salt and to make it work for you. Okay, deal z'all. So we usually do two questions, and so I think we should do a quick one first. It's a Monday week.
I'm excited.
Yeah, you want me to read Monica's question off.
Ig yes, because I can't find it well.
Also to the best place to ask questions is to slide into our dms on ig oh, which is brown, Ambish and podcast. So Momo aka Monica says, it's borrowing money from your four one k a smart move to pay off the dance.
Oh well, when you've read this question to me? Actually, I said, my response was like I would have a very different answer to this like five ten years ago, when everything was so black and white financially, and I don't know if my response probably like five ten years ago had been like, oh no, that's silly. You're robbing Peter to pay Paul and Paul is you in the future? Wait, no, Peter is you're the one getting robbed? Okay, Bible, it's great,
you in the future is who you're screwing over. But you know, like my feeling now is, yeah, if it makes sense, like if it's a four one k loan that is, you know, zero interest and you pay yourself back to your paycheck, that can be an option. I feel like it's better than a you know better than you know what other option would there be to paydown debt if not forcing more money.
Right balance stress for cards, potentially.
More credit debt if you have issues with that, I'm not Yeah, I.
Guess to your point, man, like what kind of debt are we talking about? Like an installment loan, talking about credit card debt, but if you talk about credit card debt, there are balanced trendsfer cards. I mean, but that really only works if your credit score is decent.
And then you still got to pay it down. You still have the debt. It's just that now hopefully you have a zero percent intro APR for ten, twelve months or whatever, yes, to pay it down.
There's also like a you know, loan from a financial institution, ideally like a credit union, where the interest rate is not as high as like a loan from like a Big Bangs. So that's an option. But to your point that it's still borrowing money, it's basically about where you're
going to borrow from. Now Here is the kafiat the thing before the thing for the thing that any of these options, whether it's borrowing money from credit union, borrowing money from your four one K, like doing a home mecher you line of credit out of your home if you own a home that these institutions pay people that are really smart with math, called actuaries and actuaries their job is to do math on math, on math on math to see how much money that they're likely to
get from you if you make certain choices right. So actuaries this is how they get like if you can get life insurance or like now you eighty child, you're not likely to be here long life insurance policy deny because we're not going to get our money back from you. But an actuary is going to look at, you know, the likelihood of the bank making more money than not when it comes to helping you with your debt. So no,
that basically they're betting against you. You know, like when people are like, oh, I'm going to get a balanced transfer card, I'm like that other card. You don't want to have transferred all your money to this card, and now you have two cards and you run up the old car that you've paid off in the balance transfer, and now you owe two people and so but that's honestly what financial institutions are betting on that you. It's still going to be same old you navigating your finances
in that way. And so to Mandy's point that like, it's not necessarily a terrible idea to borrow from your forward k.
We real quick, because I don't have the question in front of me. I can't find it. But is it is he asking to just take money out? Because there's a big difference we should talk about between you.
Okay, So it says borrow money from your fell one.
K okay, because taking a chunk out we don't like that now with no intended putting it back in. Plus there's taxes, early penalty withdrawals, you know, but if.
You don't pay it back, this is what I'm meaning, is that, like there is the potential for not paying it back, and then that's when you follow your that's when you fall into trouble. I used to see all the time when I worked as a preschool teacher. I would say that we didn't go by that a teacher was not telling me she was borrowing money from her four one K, And I remember my dad would be like, don't forget you have until basically at the end of
the year you have to pay it back. But they would be borring and borrowing and borring, and then it all of a sudden, is not a borrow, it's a withdrawal, and now all of a sudden you pay taxes and penalties on that. And so I just say all that to say that like that is the aim because they make money off the penalties. And so just be mindful that, like, if you're going to borrow, are you someone who has the means and the discipline to actually pay it back?
If not, there might be a better way to navigate versus taking from your four one K.
And I'll add to that just quickly. When you take a loan from your four one K and it's with through your employers for a one K and you're actively employed, you can take a loan out and just you'll pay it back on your paycheck each month and it all happens automatically and you pay yourself. Even with my husband, we took a loanout from his government version of a four one K, which is a TSP when we were doing the home right now and I think we needed something more and we just ran out of cash, so
he did a loan. It was maybe like ten K, and you actually pay interest back to yourself too, So it worked out in that sense. But the caveat there is that if you lose your job, if you're fired or you walk away, then that loan can become due very quickly and you may not have the cash to pay it back. So yeah, there's pros and cons to everything, but I'm yeah, I think that's for.
A compounding interest, you know, like you know that ten thousand, you know, I mean you guys put into the house, so you know there's this return there. But if you're using it to pay down debt, potentially it's like, oh, that that ten thousand, what could it have grown to
if it had been left there? But these are the things you have to weigh because if you owe, if the day you owe has thirty percent, like thirty percent interest rate chat, you're not making ad in the market, not likely, So it might make more sense to be like, it's better. The best I can give myself is, you know, getting rid of this debt that's costing me so much money.
And to our were We had a guest this week called Vivian too, your rich bff, and what she said about you know how you can only save what you can save, but you can always earn more money, and I think your ability to earn more money has should factor into that too. Are you someone who has more working years, are you, you know, coming up on promotions like really achieving more and looking for more in the future. And in that case, maybe it's something that you'll you'll
make up for in the future. But only you can know that. You sit with yourself, but you know it. Do it smart? Do it smart? Yes, and don't come to us crying if it doesn't work out, because where we just say whatever we want.
You want to take a break, Mandy and come on back?
I do Oh? Should I took us? Yes, let's take a quick break. I take a slip of my smoothie. Now I have like blueberry kale teeth that's special for watching on YouTube. What a treat.
And weird back and black and brother than ever. All right, it's our second question of the week. Man, you got it or you want me to do it?
Oh? I would love to wait? Right? I think it's bright flaming green. Here we go. All right, hey, ladies from Erica on IG I have received an inheritance of over two hundred thousand dollars and I can't decide. I know this is super Girl in the future, like just getting a windfall. I have received an inheritance of over two hundred K and can't decide what to do with the money. I have been debating on paying my home off I owe one hundred and fifty four thousand dollars
or purchasing an investment property. Please help, I just don't want to make the wrong choice. I feel like this is my only opportunity to build and generate wealth for my family. Thanks in advance, OW very sorry for your loss.
However, it is okay coin some one y'all know. I bought my condo cash, which was not the smartest financial choice, but it was the smartest tiffany choice because of where I was and whatever. So but to me, the smarter financial choice unless your interest rate on your home is astronomical,
which you know, the likelihood is. I'm assuming you bought your home if you owe one to fifty four, because homes are so expensive now, you probably bought it, you know, with seven interest yeah, or maybe before interest rates hit like seventy seven percent. I don't know where they are now, but maybe you got it when they were when it was two percent, three percent, even five percent. That being said, paying off your home, that's great, but that money's literally
just sitting there. It's almost like paying off your home is like the equivalent of like having your money in the savings account with like you know, a low interest bearing savings account, which okay, with.
No insurance back. Ye, maybe you have home insurance, I guess, but.
Yes, you know, but like actually putting your money to work. And so I'm saying, is that someone who didn't do that. I'm not mad about myself not doing it because I did it consciously for other reasons. Emotionally, I need to be in a place where I didn't have to worry about a mortgage. But later I am likely to pull money out and then put it to work. But at least for now, you know, like for the smarter financial choice, which is what you're asking about, like actually investing your money.
And if the second choice is to purchase an investment property, that is you're going to make more money. You're more likely to make more money with that choice, you know, looking for an investment property, multi family house, you know, even like commercial property, something that's going to generate some
income for you. I don't know where you live, but yeah, that is going to be the more income, the more likely option for generating like income, and wealth for yourself because then there's a cycle.
Right.
So, so you purchased this next property, it's a three family house. I'm just making it up. You put down, you know whatever, the two hundred thousand or one fifty or whatever, depending where you purchased the property. You know, you're starting to pay that on a mortgage with the rent that you're getting, and then the property potentially appreciates. It doesn't happen everywhere, but say you live in New Jersey, We've been appreciating over and over and over. That property
is now worth more. Now you've had four hundred thousand dollars inside that home that you can now pull out some of it to purchase the next property, and so like that is one of the ways that people start to grow a real estate portfolio by like leveraging the equity in one home, pulling it out and then purchasing the next piece of property. That was the plan for Drelling, Like before he passed away. We've gotten the house from the City of Newark, paid ten thousand dollars for it,
renovated it for about one hundred and thirty thousand. The house is then worth almost three hundred thousand. We were going to pull money out of that house, rent out that house, pull money out, and then buy the next property and do it again and again until you know, until it was time for him to retire, and hopefully would have had maybe four or five homes by then that he could then manage and that would be his
income in retirement. And so, you know, I think it's a great idea, but you know, just be mindful, like you know you want to be a landlord, because that ain't easy, you know, although there are companies that can help you manage. So I would do all my research before jumping out the window about what it looks like to manage a property and like what those costs look like.
In the meantime, put it to work, just in an investment account. I mean, I know that there's you know, I'm not a financial I'm not your financial planner, but I think first piece of advice we forgot just get a financial like an investment advisor. I think if you plan on like investing the money or putting it into a you know, an index fund or whatever way, so that it can at least be cooking and you know, creating returns for you, I mean dividends talked about that.
If we talk about like an investment property, you can like physically think of a tenant giving you a check with money each month. But stocks can do that too if you invest into dividend stocks, and then dividends are literally just money that the companies pay you for investing in their stock, like a thanks for sticking with us
type thing. And I love to look at my dividends that I've earned and be like, oh, hey, we made extra money, money that I didn't even put in, almost like an employer match, but they're not matching, but they're giving you a little something something. Anyway, I think investment property or paying off your house are two big options, but they're not the only one. So there's nothing wrong
with like tifle. If you decide like you're not ready to be a landlord, doesn't fit your lifestyle right now, just put that money to work and you can invest
it and then invest it wisely. That's why I'm saying get an advisor because they can help you make sure that you're not too risky with it if you plan on using it, or they may say, hey, if you're going to use it on an investment property, let's put into a high yield savings account that you can easily get to and put the other half in the market,
et cetera. But two hundred case sounds like so much money, but it could like if you really wanted to last, like you know, provide for your family, it's going to have to be invested in some way, form or fashion. So congratulations. With great money comes great responsibility.
So I'm so glad you're thinking about it, you know what I mean, Like like would have blown through it. You know, this would have been like girl, you know, buy a car and a you know, a little wardrobe before you know it, You're like, damn back where I was before, you know. So you know, one of the things they tell you when you when you win the lottery is don't do anything with the money for the
first six months. Do what Mandy said, right, you know, put it somewhere, you know, because it's under two fifty, it's protected in a savings account, high yield. Sit with a financial advisor, create the plan, and then be like, Okay, now I feel fairly confident that I can move forward. You know that I'm not just jumping out the window. So congratulations twice for Erica for getting that inheritance, but then also really being strategic about how you want to spend it.
So thank you being fan for your questions. Hit us up. We're at Brown Ambition Podcast on Instagram. Send us all your questions and we hope to see y'all next week for another episode of Brown Ambition Q and a yeah, and for.
This episode and the one before and then one before and then onmberfore. Okay, stop trying to keep it to.
Yourself, so forwarded okay for yeah yeah, send it to a friend, Send it to a friend, to a friend to a friend. Bye,