Hey, hey, Hey, we're back where black book book bread and ambition, ambition, ambition. Hey, Andrea, how you a little girl?
I thought you were going to put like a little Elvis flavor on it by coming Vegas like my little transition. Yes, I do. What even are you there for?
So if I haven't budget means to the Vegas I you know, I know right, I'm in Vegas for my besties fiftieth birthday. Happy birthday to you, Cabrown. Yeah, I know it's brother doesn't get fifty, but I mean, we're here. I always heard that black one crack unless you do it, and he doesn't. So he looks great. Good for him, and so you know, like some people, this is not me,
but some people are really good like friend people. I'm not like a bad friend, but literally, he has like fifteen twenty people here who flew from all around the country to come to Vegas for him for like four days. And there are people here, Oh, this is my friend group from high school. I'm like, I don't I think I know two people from high school for all walks of life. Cabrel is somebody who I don't even know
how he keeps up with people. He's such a good friend that we all just dropped our busy lives and came to Vegas to get down.
Well, he's probably done that for y'all, right, Yeah, absolutely. I mean I remember remember we went to go see Usher. I remember that time my sisters and I went to Vegas to go see Usher. Cabral was like, oh, because his grandmother lives here at the time, and he goes he likes a little gamble gamble that he had some cops rooms and so he's like, oh, you don't have to pay for a hotel, my comp rooms.
And I said, oh, So I'm thinking, like, you know, we'll just go and say hey, Cabrel, but no, he had to come and check us in. And I remember he came and I was like, oh, do you want to come to the concert with us? Where you're gonna you know how long gonn be Here're gonna visit your grandmother. He's like, oh, no, I'm just going home. I was like, I don't understand. You flew from Jersey to Vegas to check us in to go home. That's Cabra.
When he says he's one of those points people in he I mean, but.
What he says, I'm having a birthday party. You show up and so it's been great. You went to the sphere. Have you heard of the spear Like it's like this global Yeah it wasn't.
Yes, I have like YouTube performed there. Yes, sometime in was it New Year's Eve or the Grammys or somethings, But what is it?
So it's like, I guess it's like you could say it's a stadium if you will, but it's literally the shape of a spear circle and you're in it. And so the the it's a multi media experience. The chair moves, there's there's scent, there's wind, there is all around you. So it's not just visually in front of you the ceiling. Besides everything, you are immersed in the experience. And so I'm not a big Youtwo fan. I mean I think they're great or whatever, but maybe I can know one
song I don't know. So instead we did something called Postcard from Earth, which is kind of like it's like this love letter to Earth. So you go through the African savannah like this, like I remember, like an elephant walked over us and you could feel the ground moving as the elephant approached you, and you see its lego over your head and you're like, oh my.
God, it's like a four D or like five experience.
So they like took us into a church and I was like, bro, did you get sick? Did you feel like carsick? Some people said it, but I took a drama beforeand because I don't play with my most sickness, and I said, Nami, So I took a drama in and I was like weird, Like they took us into a church and you're like you feel like you're in it. And I smelled incense and I was like, in my bugget or do I smell incense? Like it'sid I do? And so it was just like it was really amazing.
And so I mean the tickets are not to I think they started like, you know, ninety nine dollars and go up to like I don't even know. Yeah, So but it was, you know, to me, it's a thing to see. And so yeah, I mean, I'm glad to be here. My sister Tracy's here with me, and you know, I come back before our big lab.
Speaking of like show Girls Live, should we prepare a little like should we do like a little choreo, like a little.
We should we already do what be doing a snake?
Should I bring my like that belly dancing skirt that I bought in Turkey eleven years ago and I still haven't worn, but I carry it from house to house town one year.
I don't really have good rhythm. I feel like you have better for me. I'd be like, oh lord, it's fine.
We would choreo to your It would be like when I choreographed when we had our wedding dance done for me and Enrique. It was choreographed at his skill level, not to his skill got rid of me, you know, when he was okay, we were all okay, Yeah, I'm really excited. It's sold out, we got the wait list is also packed for the so I'm excited. We need to squeeze. I might try to trick you into doing one bow gain one more live event before.
It's so fun.
I mean, I'm just like people are coming. No, I'm very, very excited for our live show. You guys will be able to You'll be able to tune in even if you can't make the show live. We will be posting it as an episode at some point in the near future.
But first we have to get through it, I'm nervous and speaking of friends who are traveling cross country for you, my friend Chris from Popcorn Finance, he is literally coming from California to New York because he is such a tech nerd, and I took advantage of his like obsession and I was like, wouldn't it be fun if you figured out how to help us record a live episode? And of course you know these techie guys like my
husband and him, I just knew. I was like, before this is all done, he's going to upgrade his entire kit. He's going to get like a new lens all and yes he has, but Chris is, yes, so generous to be doing that for us, And I'm just I'm so excited to get to Squeeze and ba fam in person and they can give me their hugs, you know, for you. Yeah, take pictures, Come get these cool stickers that I ordered I saw. Yes, No, It's going to be a great time.
And I think it's very apt that you're in Vegas right now because I feel like our conversation, especially from last week's show, the response to last week's show, I'm like, I feel a little bit of a vulnerability hangover or I'll talk about we viral, But if y'all have been listening to the show, I haven't not said that it's been a difficult time. I've been saying it without saying it. But last week, just for some reason, I was like,
I think this is going to strike a chord. So I I shared that clip of me talking about my property taxes and whoa, whoa whoa on TikTok and ig, and I don't know, I guess it's you know, it's one of those times where you when you're vulnerable, you talk about your finances, but you're not necessarily someone who fits the description of someone who's you know, like I'm never going to qualify for any sort of income assistance or housing, you know, all that kind of thing, and
I have beautiful children in a home, and like, I'm so privileged in many ways. Sometimes people don't give you any kind of grace to struggle, and so I was really like, yeah, I was really warmly surprised by the response and also sadly just also terrified by the response, because it is it is rampant, like the number of homeowners especially and people who are earning two income households who are just struggling to make and can you.
Can you recap for people who are like, what's you talking about?
Yeah, So last week on the show, we how do we even get off on that? So we were talking about credit card debt? Right, there was like some kind of statistic that came out talking about how American homeowners are on the edge and you can tell because they're putting groceries and other household essentials on credit cards. And I was like, people, I'm people, I'm me.
And not.
And one of the biggest drivers of that is that our the cost of housing even for us as you think as a homeowner, you purchase a house and you get it within your budget, right, you get approved for the mortgage and all of that, but you don't think about, Okay, what happens when the property assessment, like the value of your home goes up in your town's eyes or whatever,
like whoever's in charge of determining your property value. And that is directly tied to taxes and homeowners insurance, and it has dramatically increased our cost of housing, especially in the last couple of years. So I posted that clip on social and there's a lot of people out there doing like struggling in the exact same way as an accent.
And people were shocked. So one of the things that shocked me because I'm so used to living in the expensive behind East Coast that I wasn't shocked by because my property taxes when I got my house in Yirk was seventy five thousand, and I want to say, seventy five thousand. Job I would built that.
Oh no, we're Mary J.
Blige, Chris, We're seventy five hundred, right, seven thousand, five hundred for the year. And now I want to say, I'm pushing eleven thousand. I bought the house five years ago. I'm pushing like eleven thousand, maybe even eleven thousand, five hundred. That's significant. So when you share that your property taxes you know were because how much were they when you first moved in? Do you remember how much it was monthly or annual?
Life? You know, I was trying to find our very first mortgage statement and I forgot to finish that project. But I know our mortgage was twenty five. It was twenty five. I have one hundred. I feel like total, not the mortgage, but like the total house payment, which included property taxes. So I remember the time, I think they were around eleven or twelve thousand dollars. Now they are certainly above that now it is I haven't figured out.
So a couple of questions that commenters had about my property tax stories, I said, my housing costs is right. Costs right now are up to nearly four thousand dollars from so when I met hundred a month from twenty five hundred. Yeah. So, and what I meant by that was my total housing my total mortgage payment, which includes
my property tax. So a lot of us homeowners we do pay like like I pay a monthly property tax payment, but it goes and escrow and then my mortgage lender holds that money and then they pay the town once a year or whenever it is. So I'm always paying toward that, my husband and I so, and that also includes homeowners insurance, Okay, I know for sure, up, yes, and it doesn't include things like my elect bill and
heating and all that jazz. But yeah, so that's about four thousand a month, and then of that about twenty five hundred or so is that additional cost on top of my mortgage payment. And it's just wild because I purchased a house that was well under five hundred thousand dollars at the time, and yes, we did put about
one hundred thousand dollars of work into it. But the property value has just like I said in that last week, I think it's gone up like fifty or sixty percent, and that is out of our control because the town or whoever assesses the properties is like, hmm, you know, there's such a shortage of homes right now in my area,
and with the pandemic rates were really low. People were like, you know, moving out of the city, moving in up here, trying to create rental properties, like take advantage of this short housing market this week out or this really like tight housing market. And because of that, not because we've added anything to the hop was like the price of our house has just gone up. So I couldn't even afford this house now if I tried to buy it.
But I'm paying taxes on it, you know, Like why am I paying taxes on a house that's seven hundred thousand when I bought it for less than five hundred, And like it's very frustrating.
It's crazy because in general, like on paper, it would say Mandy it's wealthier because your house is worth more. Her asset have appreciated, which means it's kind of in value. But it's like girl Wealthi're weird.
Yeah, I mean, and do you And to take advantage of that equity, you can take a home equity loan, like we talked about, which we might do just to like get get rid of some credit card debt.
But like, yeah, that is an asset. It definitely is an asset. You know.
I could end up borrowing up to like seventy percent of my equity if I wanted to, But like that's another loan. And I guess you could say you could take a home you can do a cash out REFI we or not a cash out refy. We could do a home equity loan and then use that money to for as a down payment for another house. But I'm just gonna end up in the same situation, being in more house than I can afford. You know, it's crazy to.
Be richer, but broker at the same time, it's a wild and I'm talking like cash poor, you know.
And I don't want people shout out to my friend Baron, who's who's living a little some something in my Venmo.
I was like, Baron, if you don't start, and he did you the grandmother fold into your hand, like when you go to yourriba's house, give you a little ten.
Yes, yes, And I the way I kept it though, and Rikae's like, maybe give that money back, like he doesn't need it. I always joke, Baron's my cabro. He's he's like single, living his best life. He's the only he is the only community of America. Like the only people of America that are thriving right now are single, uh single, like higher hours right now, childless. He is living the dream, you know. And he's gay, so like you know, they just like then, I don't know, just
like they split everything. Even when he goes on, you know, it's just better. It's just better if only I could have been.
But you know, this was life as a gay black man. I'm not gonna lie. It's like a couple of house friends are fabby, let's get bro open my I mean, oh you also see what I mean, doctor lawyer. Yesterday, I said, is it a prerequisite? All y'all gotta be fine and successful and money go in the gym? I mean the way I was like, I don't even drink. But if I did, girl wouldn't have to touch a bill.
Yes, so yeah, I'm keeping your money apparently should I'll use it on your birthday dinner and then I still.
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I'm curious, what are your property taxes are in Middle America?
In Missouri. I was shocked at how many people were so shocked by how much your you know, taxes cost you monthly because I didn't. I remember distinctly because I'm nosy. One of my friends, Rachel, Hey, Rachel, Rachel Wages. She purchased like it was like all over black enterprise and essence whatever. She had purchased its beautiful ranch and it was one of the Carolinas.
Right North Carolina.
Yeah, so she purchased its beautiful ranch. And I remember it was multiple, multiple acres. It wasn't like two or three from what I remember, it was at least ten, maybe twenty, I don't even know, but it was it was land, I mean money. It was her forty acres and a mule okay, and so I just remember because I was nosy, I want to learn more about the property. It looked so beautiful. And I remember vaguely like I can't remember how the property cost, maybe in the realm
of like two million dollars something like that. And I remember looking at the property taxes Mandy and being like, no, month at the way they were it was well unt to ten thousand. I remember, I was like, it was wait a minute, under ten thousand. Yes, I couldn't. I said, this can't be this can't be true. How does this stuff get figured out? I don't know.
You know someone who's I need The person who commented and said I work for a property assessment office somewhere. I was like, I need to understand the mess, yes, and to see some people. They asked me like, oh yeah, that question I got. Or the advice is you should appeal it. Well. On the show, I have talked about how we have appealed it and been denied twice. Yes, And I'm I would love like if y'all could explain how the math works it is left up and also
where's it going? Because my roads have potholes all over the place, and you know, we I'm sure it goes into all kinds of services and all of that, but it's really tough out here. And to the point back to how I originally segued into this, you're in Vegas. I thought that was very apt given the whole like Roaring twenties element at all, because you should this report that's come out, right, so talk about talk about that a little bit, so and get my flopper heels ready.
So first of all, I don't I'm not really familiar with UBS. What is UBS Camford?
So it's a huge investment bank, Okay, And these investment banks put out you know, they put out reports sometimes monthly, quarterly, annually, but Wall Street watches them. So they have economists who are like trying to predict the future all the time. Yes, sometimes these reports make headlines like this one has.
So it basically says that they believe that the US economy is heading into what's called the Roaring twenties. So the Roaring twenties were like this booming economic time in the United States, and they were swiftly and quickly followed by the Great Depression. So I don't know, they try to say we up and we down, but basically that it looks like we're entering into this booming economic time.
And what I told Mandy was like, I hear you, and I've been hearing about the economy is doing so great, but everyday people I've never had my inbox more full with people who are literally like the first opening line, I'm desperate, Hi, Tiffany, I'm desperate. I'm so scared and afraid. I'm a nurse, my husband's mechanic. I'm working, but I am not making ends meet. I think we're going to lose our house. I don't know where we're going to stay.
And it's so I mean, I've never seen it like this before, this, even during the pandemic, this visceral kind of reaction. And I was like on YouTube the other day and I was flooded with all these like a collection.
Apparently there's like loud majority of TikTokers who are making they're calling it broken tire, this trend where they are talking about how they are working, they're not buying excessive things, and they are broke and they are tired, and they are working two and three and four jobs and still can't make ends meet. So I'm like, what, Remember we
talked about this months and months ago. Remember I was like, Mandy, isn't me or doesn't seem to be like a disconnect between the economy saying it's so strong and the market is up and yet every day people never sounded broken.
Do you know why the economy is up and up and all that kind of shit? It's because corporations are doing great because for whatever reason you can blame. I've read things. I think that it's easy for us to say that companies are being greedy and raising prices because they can all of that that was somewhat going on, But it's actually just like a bunch of different factors. Everything is more expensive and there are there is a lot of money to be made off the back of
consumers right now. But these reports often don't consider the like the average consumer. I think they only consider they only care about what happens to American dollars in terms of like are we going to be spending and where are we going to be spending? And if we're not spending, like they love that we're relying on credit cards because
we're still spending. You know, let's not think about the thirty percent interest rate that we're paying on that credit card debt, or the fact that you know it's going to take us years, if not never, going to be able to pay that debt down because we'll have to go file bankruptcy and.
All of that.
Like the point is that Americans are still feeling what like confident enough that we'll be able to pay off our debt that we're using credit cards. And that's where I start to get kind of pissed off because one of the things I shared last week was that my own family has benefited off the backs of this housing shortage and they have gotten into this very lucrative business as property managers and just like had this huge tail for the last decade and are like wealthier than they've
ever been. And these companies that have bought up these homes and are flipping them and renting them to people and raising the rent like there's a lot of money to be made, but like it's it's only gonna I feel like the bows will break when the American consumer finally stops, like we have to say no more. And I'm worried about that because I'm also like I went to the grocery store twice this week, each time, it
was three hundred dollars one trip to Trader Joe's. I didn't even know you could spend three hundred dollars in Trader Joe's. Oh my god. And then I went to BJ's because there's some stuff you can't get. Another three hundred dollars. Okay, fine. One of those was a fifty dollars spider that I had to have for my front yard. But the point is, like, this credit card spending is still happening, and I wonder almost like are we are we just just is this Roaring twenties thing?
Is it willful?
Is it like optimism? But is it like delusional optimism?
I don't.
I don't.
I feel the least optimistic because I'm looking like, for example, so the Roaring twenties is I'm on Britannica. Remember the Encyclopedias you might be to you, yeah, oh yeah, this girl we had the book Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia used to come to the house and you would literally they would tell you a set child. That's what forty five looked like.
But we we based mind, We had compidence, and Britannica was like if you was gotten a little bit of money, with a little fancy then we had to go or something. So apparently they're online now because don't nobody buy books. So the Roaring twenties is a term for the nineteen twenties, especially within the United States and other Western countries, where the deck that was characterized by economic prosperity, rapid social
and cultural change, and the mood of exuberant optimism. The thing is, maybe there's economic prosperity to your point, not for the average person but for the for these corporations, but there is not a mood of exuberant optimism. That part is largely gone. And it's like so the question I also asked this like this is also from Britannical, like, so, how did the Roaring twenties kind of like lead to
the Great Depression? And so one of the things is that there was the stock market crash, of that huge stock market crash where you hear about people jumping from the windows killing themselves in nineteen twenty nine. So that was like literally the Roaring twenties was one decade and that I guess what worries me is that were one where.
The triggered that crash?
Was it the fact that American consumers couldn't afford anything anymore.
Let me see it said. Uh So, from nineteen twenty nine to nineteen thirty nine, the United States experienced one of the harshest economic downturns in the history of the country, initiated by the stock market craft, a decade that was marked by high unemployment rates, bank failures. Workers lost jobs along with their homes and possessions. It was honestly, the value of currency declined, the agricultural market declined. I don't
I'm not really sure. And I remember so this is when Franklin the down Nor Roosevelt was president, and if you ever ever heard of the New Deal, it was this legislation, this large use piece of legislation that he passed to promote recovery and relief. So I'm like, what was the stock market that.
Was the beginning of like social security and welfare?
Right?
Yeah, So there was also like this stock market, like a lot of people doing like risky stock trades, okay, buying stocks on margin, not being able to afford it, not being able to afford but they had purchased and having so much debt.
I'm interested, I was spending a lot. It looks like consumer spending in the twenties had reached an all time high in the United States. American companies were mass producing goods and consumers were buying technology. Like so it was like this and we've seen this, like I think the pandemic. You know, everybody had all this money because we were flushed with money people like literally the government gave us money.
And then we didn't have to spend as much because we're not driving, you not have to get your hair done. And so people were and I don't know if you saw, there was this big, huge time of like everybody was doing these halls, like you know, all the influencer Like I don't see it merely as much like look at all the stuff I've bought. Honestly, the luxury markets skyrocketed. You know. I'm like obsessed with watching like people buy or mis bag for like thirty thousand dollars and be
like I did not know that. Yeah, I had this weird obsession on YouTube. My sister's like why, I like, you can watch them buy them? No, No, I like to watch I guess, like these many documentaries on luxury. So because I'm trying to wrap my mind around what gets someone to buy a bag for ten twenty thirty forty one hundred thousand dollars, and there was this huge
uptick of regular average people. I'm talking about nurses, not the woman who's making a million dollars a year, you know, buying her mess bag, but like a nurse, a teacher with a ten twenty thirty thousand dollars bag. And so I just like to watch these many documentaries. I'm like,
what was that mental shift? And people were flushed with money during the pandemic, they had the excess, and then we're online and then you're seeing all the influence showing off their luxury goods, and even the luxury market is is really in a steep decline because people don't have it. So there was this over consumption post pandemic that we're seeing a steep decline. Remember the girls were quitting and they could we couldn't figure out where they were working.
You know.
It was like, remember there was like that quid economy at one point wherever we were sitting there, Yeah, but it was like, but where are they're going to work? Because don't they have to work? And now everyone's kind of back like.
Hey, hey, well you had the stimulus truck. You had, the stimulus trucks, you had, you there was just there was this. I think, well, yeah, for sure, I'm sure that the data will show that like the little cash reserves, the cash reserves we were able to build up during the pandemic years have dwindled and gone. And I'm at the point where I'm like, Okay, I don't want to be tamped into my investments. Cash money is what we need, honey.
But this whole Roaring twenties, I just find it very chilling because I mean, from what I'm reading, like deflation was another cause of that, which is when prices go down, which is like, aren't we trying to actively create deflation right now by the Fed lowering rates? I saw, you know one thing that we need to talk about really quick, which is my biggest pet peeve. In addition to property
tax inflation, shrink flation. I know we've talked about it before because when I two, you or shrink flanc stion. So shrink flation is I literally a trader Joe's Remember I told you about my three hundred dollars bill. I was just gobsmacked. I bought these like little apple sauce pouches for the and there used to be I swear to god, they were five in a box before for like three bucks. Now there's four, and I'm like, this
is way more expense. I mean that makes a big difference. Yes, Actually, at the rate these kids are eating apple sauce, I'm like, I need to fucking plant an apple tree. And like certain matching this up myself. But like the you know, everything is smaller and smaller packaging, but the price is gone up. And this is not a new phenomenon. But something that I saw is that Senator A Lizzie Warren, who we love, the godmother of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
I would say conservatives like biggest enemy, maybe after AOC and the other queens, but Elizabeth Warren, uh, she is right now creating legislation that is gonna hopefully stop the biggest food and beverage companies from engaging in shrink flation. So they have accused General Mills, Coca Cola, Pepsi Coo
of profiteering through shrinkflation and by dodging taxes. So General Mills and didn't get their ship because they were reducing the size of cereal boxes, you know, but still charging the same price, and co has do on the same thing, all of them.
You opened up a bag of chips. I remember when I did the when I went to the State of the Union. That was something that the President Biden mentioned about strengthfulation. Because you opened up a bag of chips, you're like, I don't remember being I remember being ten chips. Now it's five. But also a lot of these corporations there's a level of corporate greed that is unimaginable. So I just saw, uh, there was a financial infos for that.
I really like. I forget her name, but she shared how there's now a class action suit that you can like apply to get money for if in the last seventeen years you have been charged atm fees by like let's just say, you know, you banked with I don't know Wells Fargo and you went to Bank of America or whatever because there was not one nearby, and you got you know, you got charged the fees, but you
know you get double feed. Basically America says, we don't know your girl, here's your three dollar fee, and then Wells Fargo said, you went to somebody else, here's your other fee. And basically they they found that banks were colluding to keep those fees high, which is it breaks those antitrust laws that you're not allowed to do that. And so as a result, you know, they basically saying they owe you these fees back and you can, you know, join this class action to do your googles to find
out like where to apply. But I thought the level of corporate greed it's just unmatched. And what's happening, which I'm like, I'm guessing, I wonder, is the collapse of civilization?
Is that your aim?
Because so what happened, I don't think.
That far ahead to quarter? That's that's what they care about, from what can we do to maximize profits in this quarter so that Wall Street will still love us, our stock price will stay high, and our CEOs can get multimillion dollar windfalls.
And then some people are literally out on the street like that is that we have seen civilizations collapse again and again and again, because it's like you don't, I mean, I understand the making of money, but unfettered greed is pushing everyday people to the very edge and there would be nobody left to buy your bullshit? Then what then? What it's just really it's a scary time that we're living in. Because I am hearing the chorus in a
way that I've not heard before. I was just like, it started with my friends, you know, just regular every day friends who have good jobs, like just saying things like oh girl, that's a little tough, and you're like, oh, she never said that before. Then a friend who never asked me to borrow money and I've known since middle school not a quarter at lunchtime asked for like rent money, and I was like, that's odd. She doesn't like you know.
Of course I gave it to her because this is not someone She's not financially responsible, and I thought, huh, that's odd. And then you share and I'm like, hm, hm, that's odd. And then all of a sudden, my inbox every day, I'm like, there's there is mark my words. We are and less and I mean they're not gonna shift it, but we are reading toward a very dangerous path of yes, that there is more money now than ever.
And on paper, it might look like you have more money because maybe the things you own are worth more, but they're all still costing you more.
We're going to do a brand ambition survey forget the investment banks. I want to know what BA fam is going through and the comments on IG I just it just won't do. So when this episode airs, there's going to be a survey up at Brandambisson podcast dot com.
It'll be like three to five questions, and we want to know what's happening because I don't think that I don't think for a second that Wall Street really cares what's happening for people of color in general, even though we make such a huge component of the you know, of the economy, and we contribute so much spending to all these different industries. But like, I want to know what BA fam is going through and what you guys want. I'm really excited to have later this month, we're going
to have on two incredible guests. So one of them is Dasha Broke, Black Girl, Dasha Kennedy, and she's working with what is a Debt dot org on exactly this issue.
So I feel like I.
Can't wait to ask. I'm like, what advice do y'all have? Like what instead of like, I think the best things that we need right now are just like, how can we help people, you know, like get through their debt sooner? Rather than later, and like tackle it. I'm not just I'm not saying I want to be y'all's guinea pig quite yet. I don't know about all of that, but I do feel like some more transparency, Like let's start saying it out loud, Like we are in a lot
of debt. It is very stressful. We are also, you know, trying to create families, businesses, have a you know, still be good citizens and like vote and be good daughters and husbands and wives and sisters and friends and neighbors. And it's like, oh my god, tell me why I became the class parent of my son's class.
I'm thinking so much. I just sound like, is this the struggle? I don't even have like these all five babies? Yeah, I just got one one grown baby.
Okay, so I'm checking now. So we have we have Dasha's schedule to come on on November fourth, which is election week. Okay, so election week, come to the podcast that Wednesday. We're gonna air that episode with Dasha on like what is happening in the United States of debt and how we can start getting out of it before before like the ship hits a fan like you said, kareening toward whatever great expression you use. That was very colorful.
We're kreening somewhere. Kareening is never good. I've never heard the word kreening used in a positive light.
No, we're not. I can feel there's an underswell of we are not. The number one thing that I saw, like under the you know, our viral post of Mandy's being so vulnerable, is that people were saying, we are not okay, and maybe that's the name of the podcast. We are not okay.
Yeah, and let's stop pretending like we are, because pretending like I mean, it's just a classic thing. If we put our head in the sand and we ignore what's happening to get by, like in a way, we're just burying ourselves even deeper. And there's no way we're going to get out of this pickle unless we start talking about it. So stay tuned. I might be sharing my home equity loan line of credit journey because I think we've reached that point. I think we're pretty okay with
this home equity lineup credit. I'm nervous about it, but also I'm happy to have the option and I will be Yeah, we'll see, I'll see if husband's down for me.
Just listen. If you wanted to stop me, maybe he.
Should listen to the Shaws. But well he'd just if y'all don't tell him what I'm talking about, maybe he won't and it'll be fine, and I'll share my cash app just in case.
You guys.
You know, I never will do that. I will never do that. Okay, should we take a break, Yes, we should take a break. I pay some damn bill suit a minute, and now it's time to boost and break and boost up and break, boost up? Break? Is you go on?
Boost?
Is you going break? What you're gonna do, what you're gonna say? La, I'm gonna actually break. So I don't know if you have something cute, So if you want to get last, you're gonna boost, so maybe you should go last. Like sometimes I don't like to end on a break because I'm like, look, sorry saying you out into the world with darkness by so whatever, I'm going to the slots. BI, No, I don't even place.
You know me?
If anybody knows me, you know, I'm not giving not one red set to these people downstairs. So I am going to do a brown break, which I haven't done in a while. So yesterday I told myself, you know whatself, you haven't taken like a deep walk in a while, go ahead and take a walk. And so we're right on the strip. I'm staying at I'll be gone by the time. You know, guys, I'm saying, like La Fountain Blue, it's a new it's only one year old hotel. Yeah, so I don't know, I've.
Heard Yeah, maybe that location is new.
Yeah. I feel like it's in Miami too. I feel like I've heard about it on my knee. And so I said, I'm gonna take a walk on the Strip and I turned right instead of left. Left is like the you know, like the part of the strip that I guess you would know and like Las Vegas is known for its homeless and unhoused population. And it took me a minute for my new works Bidy sentence to pick up. I was like, Molly, you and danger girl.
So I'm walking with my headphones and then I had to tack down the headphone and then I you know, so before I left the house, I'm pretty I would have to say I have pretty strong intuition. Before I left the the the hotel, some things said bring cash with you. And I was like why, and it was like, just bring cash, and I said okay. So I brought my room key, I put cash in one pocket, zipped it up because I have like these sorts of haad
zips on them are zippers. And so I went for a walk and I started walking, walk and walking, and then like my spoty sensus, you know, be like, I don't know, half a mile a mile in I was like, I feel like you should turn back. And I knew I should because there was a black woman rumen behind me, but I didn't hear her. And when she got close, I jumped and she's a girl. It's gonna be okay.
You might want to spin it around. And I was like thanks this and so I okay, yes, And I saw a number of you know, unhoused folks that also didn't look well. They looked like mentally unwell as well. Oh she was telling you like, this is not where you want to be going back it up and so I just said okay, and I just you know, like, so I took my headphones off altogether. Not I mean not. I live in New York, so unhoused people it's not new but I don't know. For some reason, it just
really struck me. There was an older woman in particular, she looked maybe sixties, early seventies, and she was tacking through the trash in a way that broke my heart because she was taking like leftover drinks and making a combined drink. And I just thought to myself, what it seem?
So literally I brought tears to my eyes because I thought, this woman is drinking god knows what, you know, like and she was digging through the trees, and I didn't want to like scare her, so I just, you know, I walked up to her gingerly, and I realized why the intuition said bring money, and I said excuse me, and she kind of jumped and I said, I'm so sorry, but can I give you something? And she said sure. And so it was like, I have a fifty dollar
bill with me and I gave a tour. She didn't really look at it at first, and she just said thank you, kind of not looking at me in the eye. And I think as I started to walk away, I think I guess she looked down and she said, oh my goodness, and she kind of came up to me and said thank you so much, thank you so much, And I said, no problem, girl, because everyone knows I'm
a baby. It was a five steps in and I'm burst into tears because I felt so and I literally so, I don't know, like whatever higher power y'all believe in, but formally I call it God. Informally I call it love. Right. That's why if I think of like what higher power means to me, it's just this feeling of love. Right. And so I was like talking to the internal external higher power, was like, literally, I said, why would you allow her to have so little when someone like me
has so much? This is what I asked of the higher power. And you know what the higher power said back to me, because God be talking back to me. It said, why would you? And I said, oh, not reading me for filth, because the sense was, girl, I have given enough, y'all hoarding it, because why does that lady not have enough? You know? And I thought it's true, like I certainly like I'm you know, I would call
myself a generous person, I guess. But I thought there's more that I could do because how many unhoused people live right in Newark where I live? And am I doing anything like systematically to help. You know, there are other organizations I give to and I don'nate here and did like you know, I'm always clearing like teachers be
hitting me in my inbox. They have their Amazon lists for the classroom or I'm the queen the clearing all account so that I'm not new to the you know, I like, but I was just like Tiffany, what would a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars do a month in your city? If you I mean, I know three restaurant tours personally that I can say, hey, girl, if I gave you fifteen hundred dollars once a month, how many people could you feed? You know, when you're closed, you know,
like how much food could I buy at cost? And you you know, we it's like, oh, every first Tuesday, people know they can come here, like I know one restaurant tour in particular. Her name is Adena. She is a child of like War. She came to the United States. She owns the ie Hop, which is I think it's like the number one most successful I hop in the Eastern Seaboard. She also owns this place called like Beijon
or Vegan Newark or whatever. She owns like that. I think two ie hops anyway, very successful young and I know for a fact that Adida does like free food for kids. I know that she has like times where she feeds on house. What would it take if I said, girl, here's an extra fifteen hundred two thousand dollars from me to like how many additional people? And what if I
went through? So I just started thinking about it. What if I went through the United Way and said if I gave it through you and then allow you know, and asking that My only ask is that at least ninety percent of it went directly to the restaurant to do the good work, because then it will allow maybe corporate entities because credentials in Newark, Panasonic is in Newark, to then also give in a way that like you know that they're gonna want to give, which is through
like a nonprofit entity but like you know, and making it a thing. And I call my friend Denise, and Denise's like, oh, if it's if it's like you know, every first Sunday, I can bring clothes that day. And you know, women in shelters often don't have sanitary for their mental cycles. Like so even if you don't have money to give, You're like I can drop off pads, I can drop off socks, I can things that people
don't normally have access to. And so I just thought, because if I'm being honest, the place where I am now fifteen hundred dollars a month, would it's not going to break anything that's happening here, you know. And so it's like instead of saying like why would you allow this thing to happen, it's like tivity, why would you? And so I just committed to that that, Like I was like, I'm going to start off at like fifteen hundred dollars a month, and I'm just simple and soon
I'm trying not to overthink it. You know, certainly get great.
The food bank, the there's like food banks are great because I think there's also been a rise in people just going to food banks, and there's a there's We have an organization is called Feeding Westchester that I do my monthly tithe contribution to. Okay, and you'll see them set up and the lines are always wrapped around the block. Okay. So that's yeah, I think that's wonderful and I think that's all we really that's one of the things that
you can do. I think that there's there's so many different levels of attack when it comes to these like systemic chronic issues, yeah, poverty, hunger, you know, you could also tie in the opioid crisis with that to the
rising cost of housing. It's like all of these issues are interconnected and they require such a multi pronged approach to and it's like taking off the pressure from yourself to be the one to fix it and just standing yeah, just understanding that we all have a role to play, voting like the officials legislations saying, you know.
Just be like, you know what, I'm going to carry
pats with me. And then because sometimes you know, you feel so overwhelmedcause you're like what about and then and then it's like, okay, okay, I cannot fix all the world's ills, but I could, to your point, I could donate fifteen hundred dollars to the food bank, you know, and then I could make it something where I'm just like, cause one of the things I used to do stuff like this all the time that I would like, you know, if somebody needed help or if there was an organization forgiving,
I would post about it regularly. Because what I found is that people actually want to do good works. They just don't want to do the work to find the good works because they're like, I don't have time to figure out what's legitimate. And so if there's good works that I know where it actually helps people, I can say, hey, so you know, I'm doing my monthly donation, and I see for myself because I go there physically that this is the benefit of that. If you're looking for a place,
here's a legitimate one. Sometimes just even sharing that. So I just because when I tell you it took everything, I was like, timany, why are you crying? You had to get do the grass. I'm just but I was just like I had to really like get yourself together because it just felt sough. It just nobody should live like that. You know, we're not animals. I mean we are, but you know what I mean, like you know that, like this is someone's daughter at the end of the day.
You know, she might even be somebody's mother, she might be somebody's aunt. I think about it. I used to think about it all the time when I used to walk my babies when I taught preschool, because they lived in a neighborhood where that was quite common to see afflicted, drug addicted unhoused. And I used to think to myself as I was walking my babies, like I pray this, this is never going to be their future because at some point they were somebody's babies, you know, they were
somebody's three year old, maybe in preschool. How does it turn into this? I don't know, As I used to just it just may used to make me want to love them, on them as much as possible, to hopefully see them through, you know, like whatever life might bring.
And so I just said, Okay, you can't fix everything, but this is what you can do, you know, I don't want to get analysis paralysis and so yeah, but if you are listening to this and you're like, oh, actually, Tiffany, you know, here's a you know, maybe here's someone who works for food bank or somebody who I just want to make sure that at least ninety percent of like what I give goes directly to be of service. So
I've just wanted to make sure. And to me, the thing that's pushing me is like helping people have access to food. So I don't know, so if there's like an even better way. I'm open to it, So I don't you know, I'm not stuck in one particular way. This is just what came to mind. But you know, I just want to make sure that I don't want to give fifteen hundred and five hundred goals. It's like no, no, no, no, no,
I want to give fifteen hundred. I get sometimes there's an administrative things or maybe you have to buy containers or play to nat in on them.
I like that in that website Charity Navigator, because it'll it crades charities based on how much overhead, like how much money contributions go toward, yeah, the cause and how much towards overhead costs and stuff. But okay, oh yeah, I mean I guess it's my break, but just for the sadness of it all. But also sometimes I guess we need to be shaken up and shaken out of our comfort zone.
We need to look.
We have to be confronted sometimes. Yeah, and it's it could be really easy for you to go left instead of right, you know what I mean? Yeah, I know, so.
This is abody want to end on this. I was like, left that and not the break. Let's something a.
Little more let me just haul this eighteen wheeler of sadness.
The other.
We're creating.
Not as having matching hairstyles today.
All the pineapple. Yeah it looks so rangedy.
But always poping.
Okay, YM's like, I'm not really popping today. I'm just so tired of the age we have to see ourselves all the time and room we had our and there was no video.
Girl, I be on here looking you want to use to do video? And I was like, but Mandy, was that my idea? Yeah? I was so like, but do you understand how I show up, girl, I'd be having one sock one I'll be having like no, just but no, I mean I'm over here now, and then added it. But at the time, I was like, this is my place to look crazy.
Yeah, no longer that it's okay. Anyway, I want to do a shout out to the New York Liberty because they're going to the playoffs. And I know that because my friend texts me and she's a very good sports fan, and I am not a very good sports fan because I already use a lot of my executive I don't know how this woman has time to like pay attention to game times and buy tickets in advance. I really do want to be a sports fan. I want to be a fan of the New York Liberty. I want
to go to games and stuff like that. I told her next year's going to be the year, even though last year I said I was really going to devote myself to the Georgia Bulldogs and SEC and I just like lost, I lost track. But shout out to them, because it's all it's a woman, it's a w n B A and they are killing it.
And is that Ellie?
Is that that they have that elephant? Nice? And I know I was looking at ticket prices. I just can't do it. But yeah, I can't do it this year. I'm trying to make better decisions on the money, as I have stated previously. Not y'all see, everyone's gonna be judging me now, didn't you say? I was thinking that, like not, Yeah, it's accountability. It's accountability. You're right. I don't need to be spending money. We got food, we
have sports out sports home. But yeah, shout out to them and to w NBA fans, and I just love how exciting this is. And I can't wait to make my boys w NBA fans and all of that. And I don't think Caitlin Clark is on that team, but like shout out to her. And I almost said, Shakari Richardson, that is not a folk about. Let me stop all in my head.
Just like sports sports and sports sports, all the sport girlies. I'm like sports. I want to be I want to know.
But like the thing is, I'm either like one hundred percent in or I'm like not even like when I get invested, I will know I want to be invested, you know, but we'll see next year. There's always next year. But good lick, good luck in the playoffs. I hope we win. And Ellie the Elephant, I'll be looking at your clips online because you are that girl whoever's inside.
And that's all.
Thanks for listening to the show.
Wait, do real quick, do you have any new you know? It's always nice to you.
Do you have any new new reviews? You know?
While man is looking. You know, we love a review, especially on the Apple, because it allows people to find us to Yes, it amplifies our voices even further, especially if they're fivet.
I no pressure, A little bit of pressure is fine. So and we might weave review on the show, So do it all right?
Listener Moi Ray says, I literally just shared your show with my friend. I'm a first time listener and I just love your energy. You're so fun to listen to. Looking forward to many more listens, Yes, Moi, or maybe it's Moi Ray, I don't know. Are you ongoing? Moy
You can gets very wrong. Think you will be a fam alright, stay tuned because we're gonna come to you Friday with the b A q u A and don't miss a how holaback episodes which air on Monday, where we dive into our archives and dig up an oldie but a goodie, especially for the new listeners who haven't had time to listen to I don't know, six hundred episodes over nine years, how dare you? But we're going to find the best of the best and bring them to you Monday. So until then, ya, bye bye bye