Hey, hey, hey, we're back. We're black. We're black. Ambition ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition, Shit my neck, man just in here with this yellow one, give me. That's what I said. So y'all didn't hear. But as soon as many came on, I said, okay, yellow you know that's that's black speak for like we see you look fabulous, you know.
Or be like okay, Carls Yes, okay.
So sidebar before I forget, because you know how my memory is. So I was in Washington, d C. This weekend to launch the new book Made Whole, and so it was awesome, and I'll talk a little bit about, like, you know, like the event, but I was at the monument. I took the kids, woman and familiar with with me. My two sisters, Tracy and Carol came and we took them to this monument and this woman looked at me and was like, oh my god, Oh my god. I was like, okay, she was like oh my god. And
then her boyfriend was you could tell. He said, who is it? He was like, She's like, you know that podcast that I'm always listening to. Yes, yes, And she was right wild, yes, she was like this is her well one of her, you know, she was so excited love and the way he looked like oh yeah, like almost like that dag All podcast. But I just loved that. I was like, wait out tell Mandy. And even at the event, so I partnered with Mahogany Books, which is
this black On bookstore all my husband and wife. They have three locations. Amazing. Romanda and her husband are totally amazing. And it was like over one hundred and fifty people came standing room only. At one point they had a DJ. It was just a good black time. Yes, And so what I love is everyone who stood up, you know, they'd be like, you know, like to ask a question. I would say a good eighty percent of them were like, Tiffany, I love all that you do. You know, I love
the you know, I love the Budgetista. We all love Brown Ambition. And to see over my head's like, I.
Was like, oh my god.
Literally it was like and I want to say it because we took on in like five or six questions, four people were just like and we love Brown Ambition
and like say hi to Mandy. I know you don't hug, but it just yeah, it just felt really really really like great because sometimes, like you know, me and Mandy always say it like I always forget sometimes I'm just like, I'm just here talking to my friend Mandy, and so I forget that you guys are also listening and participating, you know, and this like you know, So it's just I love to see it like out in the wild
because you know, Mandy and I will talk. I'm like, all right, Garlait, did we see our air right?
We were just talking like like we talked for an hour twice this weekend. Yes, they exactly could have had two shows.
In the can for real and it was really and even before we were myself, Mandy and our producer Imani were just talking about how this season is really hard, like everyone is so stressed out.
We're all having the exact same thought, which is, yes, where's mom, where's the grown up? And I hate to proliferate the pressure on moms, but the way we carry women in general the holiday season and you don't realize that as a kid, Yeah, I didn't know what was coming for me as a woman.
I just was excited about, like girl, Thanksgiving, however, that didn't get to the table, not my problem. And Christmas, however, all my toys, get under the tree again.
I tried my little list and leave it and then.
Get I mean, that's it. I mean. So, I was just talking with Evanni and Man and Mandy just about how like right now this morning, I was just felt really overwhelmed today. You know, the well while you're listening to this ba fan, it will be the day after the book came out officially, but that I feel a little overwhelmed that I want to make sure I'm real consciously doing more being versus doing, Like that's the life
that I'm working toward. It is like I don't want to have to always be in motion or you know, like sometimes I just want to be like in one spot and listening to a book or taking a walk or when I feel like this last quarter has been very very very busy.
And single tasking.
Yeah, not just all the things and so and I was telling Emiani in particular, I was like, you start to realize as you get older that like when you were in school, they created breaks for you. There was summer break, winter break, howiday break, you know, springs break, there were weekends, you know, and as an adult, if you're not careful, you'll you will forget that those breaks were created externally and that you have to on purpose create breaks for yourself now. If not, you will just
work all the way through. And I've done that, like no stop, work all the way through, all.
The way through the summertime, always since the month where I'm just like, but why are we hear?
Child?
Doesn't I'm like thinking about friends, you know, it's also December.
Intentionally taking breaks is something that like, as an adult, you're like, wait, I have to do it. If not, I will just keep going until, like my body says, lay down, you know.
And take a break for yourself too. It doesn't have to be for a big family vacation, you know. The other day and I was, I was really in a spot of overwhelm and I called my mommy because as you do. And I'm so grateful that I can. I know some of us, a lot of people out there don't have. Whether you're not, you don't And this is the holiday, so it's like whether or not you have a good relationship with your family, it all comes up and if they're not no longer here, like how do
you move on without them? And so I just want to hold space for everyone who's dealing with that, but I did. I'm fortunate to have my mommy still here, so I called her and we were both just trying to figure out what I could do to like chill out. And it was like eleven am on a Tuesday, and she said, you know what, take a bubble bath, right now, go take a bath. And I was like, I can't.
Oh well, that's a great idea. And I took a bath in the middle of the day and I did a little meditation, like a five minute calm me meditation, and just floated and it was I mean, I had to clean the bathtub first because my son bathes in there and I know where he's been, so it goes a little bit of work to start. But yeah, even just that like little half hour, you know, it really reset me. So to anyone who's feeling that sense of overwhelm, what's like, what's the one thing.
You can do just to like reset? Where's your saving base walk? For me? I love a long hot shower. I have like a bench of my shower since I'll just sit there and be like, rain down, calm me. I mean, I thought, I'm sorry, but I need it.
Water. It is, it truly is even the sound of it. So sitting in a nice, steamy shower, you know. I had my sister. I told she's we're the same, and she was like, I'm really overwhelmed too. And I was like, well, I took a bath. She's like, do you know how much work it is to take a bath. You got a shower first because you don't want to set in your own funk, which I had to do too. And I'm like, hey, yeah, I did all that, and then I had it like, you know, it's sometimes if it's
work to do the thing, maybe don't do that thing. Yeah, but something even sitting in my car and just driving to a pretty place, Yes, I love.
That's one of my favorite things too, is that because I live by a park and I thought about that today. I was like, maybe I should just drive to the park or walk to the park and sit on the bench and just like cause the trees are still you know, largely they've lost a lot of their you know, pretty leaves. They have changed colors, but there are still some trees that are just magnificent. And you know, I love to
listen to like a book or like music. There's a song that I I saw it on this guy's YouTube. He's a is the a neurologist, what's another brain doctor?
Neurologists is a brain doctor?
No neuro certain Yeah, he's a neurologist. I'm not gonna say nourose surgeon. But he's not a north He's not a uh. But so he's a neurologist. And he shared this a specific song that they had done this research and study about that helped to bring helps to bring down anxiety. It's called and I'm not gonna lie, it's been working so when I wake up in the morning. So after Darrell passed away, doctor Green, my therapist, I
was like, I woke up. I used to wake up with so much anxiety, and she suggested me listening to Beethoven. There was like some music like no no words, just like classical music, and that really helped a lot first thing in the morning to not start with so much jarring energy. And so I saw this neual, this neurologist say that there's a specific song that they've done research on and that it creates a similar kind of like slowing down, you know. And so let me tell you
the name of it. It's called Weightless. But I want I want to tell you who it's by. My library playlist songs waitless, bye, wait okay bye Marconi Union. So it's called wait list by Marconi Union. So literally I put it on, I put it on repeat. And so I have certain things that I do in the morning, you know, like get up, I make my bed, I brush my teeth, so all what I'm doing these things in the morning. I used to sometimes let me just check my email real quick and then the wrap it
down the wrapper hole you go. And so I will play this because I would say eighty percent of the time I start my day with a walk. So I will play this until I get outside walking. So it's like it helps me to focus on no, no, no, we're opening the windows, we're getting up, we're brushing teeth, we're making bed, we're not doing any work things until you get outside. Because once I get outside for the walk, then the walk and the nature takes over and then I can like you know, and so like, you know,
that's just something to think about. Like, but yeah, wait Lists by Marconi Union. You know it's I mean, it's you know, you're not going to jam it to it.
Yeah, it's just like that this this morning we're having like parallel moments, I think because this morning I was That's when we talked on Friday, when I was doing a milk drop yes Yes, on the way to I was like, I'm super woman, I'm gonna my I'm dropping remming off with mother in law who lives thirty minutes away, and I do the back and forth commute after a drop off Rio and it is very helpful, but it's also very challenging because she lives in a very congested
area in Manhattan called Inwood, and my god, the exit exit nine, if you know what I'm talking about, on eighty seven is just a cluster, you know what. And most days I can go to the sunken place where I live. Sometimes when the kids are crying and when I'm on that particular exit on the highway and I just need to breathe. But yeah, today was super stressful and I was taking again taking my son taking me to a Boila's, but this time because of what happened Friday,
so I had to get up. He spent the night for the first time ever. That was the first little piece of stress. I had to get chapter one of my book done. The second chapter one, Yeah, I did it over again and anyway, so he stayed over, but she ran out of milk at three am. And I've been exclusively breastfeeding, which I did for Rio. But I realized like it was the pandemic. We were never not with each other, so it wasn't that it was nothing.
You know, this is very something. And so today I brought formula with him, and I was like, you know, I was gonna. I knew I was walking into like having to explain to a boila, like here's the formula, here's why. Luckily she was supportive. Sometimes you know, now it's like flipped. Now you get shamed for not breastfeeding. But just I can't. I can't. I can't be driving, you know, thirty minutes each way just to drop off a baggie of milk.
But on the way.
Home, I just I could. I on my little hands free thing. I was like, play calming music, please, just something, and it was, you know, it sounded like the background music if you were to do like a meditation app.
It was it sounds like that.
Now you don't want to fall asleep. So I don't recommend it on the highway. But I drive a car. I drive a Tezzi and fuck, I love this car.
I know we don't like you.
Know who, but I love this car all my god. Okay, so there's an auto driving feature, I literally and it's and I turned on the rainbow Road feature, so I just like tapped the little the little gearshift for thinkingmajigger twice and then the rainbow Road comes on and the car is driving for me, and I just have my hands right here and yes I'm paying attention and ten and two and all that, and I'm holding on, but a little piece of my brain can kind of float
because the car is sort of taking over for me in that small way. So I the best I could do today to get to get back to centered.
It's good to talk about these things because sometimes we think that we're like alone and the overwhelmed with the over the work or the whatever, and it's just nice to know that you're not and that we are all living kind of like these parallel lives. And then here's some solutions. You know that if you found a thing, so you.
Know what I realized too. If you're listening to broad Ambition, I hope that you're doing something because usually people listen, like in the car oh, maybe while you're taking a walk. I hope that right now, like I hope broad ambition can be you know, if that helps you can be a companion to your Yes, we'd love to be your companion saw moment, because tis the season for all the the things. Yes, absolutely. My therapist told me I need
to start a and I actually did. I started a Trello board for my ideas because when I'm telling you, I am my own worst enemy. It's my creativity because I'll be like, what if I totally could Yeah, I could do a lot of things. Like I'm in the middle of one of my wild ideas, which does to redo the basement for You's birthday, which is six days, and I have all the things kind of laying here, and I'm just like you think I can get a task crabit on Thanksgiving?
Yeah, probably not Thanksgiving, but weak.
Like I don't know, but it's, you know, one of anyway. So I'm trying to find a safe space, like a not a safe space, a place to put my ideas before they become a thing that destroys me. And I back myself into corners with all my ideas, Tiffany, And that's actually been nice I started it, and I have like a little I won't tell you all my crazy ideas. Well. One of them was to run a ten k and have my my sister friend neighbor train me, which I started to do and before I realized I can't commit.
To drink for you're also do you just had the baby? You are working on the book, and so even just saying like, you know you're gonna move your body and walk, and but I not to not to jump shark, but I would love for you to put on your journalist's hat. Okay, you know because today it.
Never comes off.
Oh, today is made whole, like launch day. So I would love like, so we're gonna name this episode actually made whole. Let's be let's let's let's name it that. And so I would love for you if I was a guest on the show, hi, you know, just to interview me so the girls can learn more about the book that's coming out and where they can get it. Let me get my book?
And she notice she didn't tell me I was working today, you guys, I don't usually work during brown ambition.
But okay, now today's book episode, that's what I said it.
Where's my where's my free press copy? I know, you know what, I totally for reader. I was like, what did I say? I got your damn first book right behind me free promo? Anyway, who my hair is blocking in? That's my Now It's fine because I know a little bit about Maidhole. Well, the first thing I want to ask you, well, first, congratulations, because to get immediately, like the only person I know who got a workbook after the book was Michelle Obama. They were like, do a workbook?
So and I know that workbooks were becoming more popular, but it's like a companion to a book that resonates.
And so first, congrats, thank you.
And second, what did they tell you? Did they what is the workbook? Like? What is it? And then what was your approach to creating it and making it your own? To go with Get Good with Money?
So almost immediately they wanted me to do like a workbook, you know. But you know, Jera had passed away, and I was just like, I'm not doing anything, leave me alone.
But I realized that there were people who might have read Get Good Money who might have felt a little overwhelmed because it's really like a textbook, you know, Like I like to think of Gigo money like kind of like yeah, just like kind of like if I'm dating myself, this encyclopedia for like the core components of your financial life budgeting, savings, that credit, earning, investing, insurance, financial team, networth, estate planning. Those are the ten steps to financial wholeness.
But then I knew that there were people who were like, I wanted something that feels lighter, or I can kind of get to the work more quickly, and so that to me is the purpose of a workbook, you know, Like I read like one of my favorite books is called like the Twelve the twelve Week Year, So it's this great book, and I was like, basically it was a book that helped to reset the way I thought about getting things done, helped to get me excited about like, oh,
what I could normally get done in a year, I can get done in twelve weeks. But then I got the work book because I'm like, now I'm ready to do the work, Like walk me through the actual steps although and get your money. I was pretty good at doing that, but with made whole, I was like, here are the steps to do the work that I'm talking about,
not just here are the steps in word form. Here's what it looks like visually, Like say, if it was a budgeting step, I show you someone's actual budget, you know, like, here's what it looks like when properly done. And then immediately, which is important, here's a blank space for you to do the work right after learning about it, so you.
Can write in this thing.
Yes, it's a hard cover workbook. Yes, so that was important to me. Yeah, and also it's important to me that it was a hardcover workbook and that it was wider because I wanted to have like so if you're watching it, we could see it. So here it is like, so here, I'll show you the difference. So this is because like I don't.
I don't have a copy yet, just to reiterate that I forgot it. But yeah, that looks nice for people who have one.
Body. And then this is madeholds. He made wholes a little wider, and because it's meant to like in a little bit thinner, a little skinnier, she a little slim. This is fix here. But also too, I wanted it that wider because I wanted when you opened it, like you could you know, because I'm like I would use workbooks so you should be able to open it, lay it flat and do the work.
Oh yeah, and it just relaxes, and so it was important to me.
Then, you know, it was like, read the step, and the steps are a little bit more, you know, more concise than a get er with money, but then look at it visually and then here's a chance to do the step. So that was really important. So that's one of the ways that it's different. Something else too that I integrated into made holes that I know that as an educator, I know that sometimes people get really overwhelmed. You know, it's like, oh, this is you know, maybe
this chapter is ten fifteen pages. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm not doing all this. So and some of the chapters where it made sense, I added something called a quick start, which is if you don't do any of these. So, for example, with the budgeting chapter, I have a whole budgeting system and you might not feel ready to quite
do it. So I'm like, even if you don't do the whole budgeting system, here is a split it before you get it step where if you don't do your budget, if you just go to HR them to split your money into these four bank accounts, your bill's account, your spending accounts. These are two checking accounts, and the other two are savings accounts, your short term savings or emergency savings and long term savings account or goal savings account. Right,
so bills, spending, emergencies, goals. Right. If you split your money there, then even if you don't do a budget, it will help you to budget without budgeting, because ideally you can have your bills paid automatically, or you can pay them every two weeks or whatever yourself. You don't have a debit card attached to that checking account, you
can literally call and get it detached. So when you're out spending with the money that's left in your checking account for spending, you know, you're not spending bill money,
you're not spending any of your savings. It's just money set aside for groceries, going out, grooming, toiletries, whatever it is that you're setting aside that money for and your savings is that a totally different bank, so that way you don't have these easy transfers, you know, and also to you in a high yield savings account, which is typically found with an online only bank anyway, and that money is set aside in a way, and you know
that automatically you're setting aside of money for savings for emergencies and savings for whatever goal you have a house or car or whatever. And so that is a way that's like a simple sample of a quick start.
It's like my bare minimum budgeting, which I mean, yeah, bare.
Minimum, Yes, I love that budget. Here's a quick start that you can do by making a phone call to HR. So there are quick starts throughout made whole that, which is different from get going money.
If they're like a you know, we love a checklist, they're just feeling like you've like done something. Does is there any sort of feeling of okay, I've ticked off this box?
You know, absolutely. So another thing that we had that because every so there are ten steps in this book, and at the end of each of the steps, you I let you know visually and also just like congratulate you that you're now twenty percent hole, You're now thirty percent whole. You now, So it's like each step you get to accumulate until you get to the last step of state planning and you're one hundred percent hole. So people are like, well, who, so you get that feeling
of like I am making movement forward. But there are checklists in here for you too. There are things for you to fill out. I have duplicates for free on the website Mad Whole Workbook dot com. So if you fill it out here and you're like, I want to do that again, you can get a duplicate of anything that's found in the book for free. Nice yeah, like whether you yeah, whether you pay for it or not. So let's just say you go to Maid Whole Workbook.
You can still download the toolkit and get all of like the you know, the tools and things for free. So cause I know people, you know you write in the book and you're like, wait, I want to do it again. You don't have to buy a whole new book. You could just get those components. And lastly, something that I'm really proud of too is that after people read Geka with Money, I thought to myself, I want you
to be encouraged by other people's success. So I asked, folks, with these ten steps of financial holeness, I put like an ask out to my community, can you tell me some really like heartwarming stories about what are these steps and how you were able to complete it? And so we put those in real life stories IRL stories inside the chapter. For each chapter there's one or two of them. So you get to read about Wendy who was actually
able to pay down debt for the first time. You get to read about to meet them who was able to buy something. You get to you know, like, so as you're working Twitter, you don't feel like these are like steps that can't happen. These are real people who were helped by by these ten steps, and so you can be too. So I'm just proud of made whole And yeah, I just think it's going to help a lot of people, just like get go with money.
And if you're the kind of person who've read the book and you're like, I did it, and then you put it down and it maybe felt like, you know, to go back and read hundreds of words or hundreds of pages again feels like a lot. But this feels like, Okay, now you've sort of understood the methods. Now, let's it's like a personal trainer alongside you, kind of like helping you through and getting you there. Okay, what's your favorite wholeness step? Has it changed since we broke about to now?
I mean, you know, I love me a good budget. I'm trying to think it's.
Always the hardest one for me because you know what the budget is confronting facts and math and numbers, and I think and also if you're in a relationship, if you're with a partner, it's not that you can't do it alone, so it you know, it sounds so simple and it is like the first and I think, obviously you're the budget, so you know about teaching people budgets.
But for me, it's always been the more challenging thing to sit down and get on the same page and put everything out in places a struggle.
But what I like about a budget, I guess, is that it tells me the truth about where I am and gives me like it gives me clarity about what I need to get to where I want to go to. That makes sense, I would say. I don't know if I have a favorite, but certainly the most impactful for me when I wrote this book is the leaving a legacy, that last part, because if I'm being always transparent, when Geka with Money came out, I was ninety percent financially holed.
I had done all the steps, but I had not finished my will you know, Jirell was here that the year that this came out as a year that he passed away on geg Go with money, and so we had not finished our will, and a week before he passed away, we were like starting to work on it again. And then he passed and I was like, I need to get my legacy and then my estate planning in place, and so I did. So I have my will, my trust is complete as well, and my beneficiaryes are updated
because really estate planning, those are the three things. Beneficiaries like whose name are on the accounts. Beneficiaries trump everything. I don't care what you have in your will or what you say in your trust, Like if the beneficiary is not that same name, it's going to go to the beneficiary lined up like you know on your bank account or your life insurance policies or anything else. My will beneficiaries are like the easiest thing to update. Sometimes
you could just update online. Sometimes they'll send you some paperwork that you could sign digitally, and sometimes they do want like what they call a wet signature, which is just you signing it and then nailing it back.
Of course, sorry, but a will, if it's a trust, is it easy to just add that online too. Do you just put the name in the trust?
So beneficiars are the easiest thing to do, like p then what names? Yes, Just like like when I was like if you you might be like, well, I don't have no stuff. No, if you're twenty one years old, you have a bank account, your bank account likely will have like a beneficiaries component to it, and so you just like, for me, it's always my mom my, mom my mom until like I got a little older, you know, but you want to make sure that's updated. You know,
it's it's like morbidly funny. But me and Jorell started working with Angeli or our financial advisor, the benefic sharies, and all of his stuff was Shante Alyssa's mom because that's the last time he looked at it because they were together and so and I remember telling him. I was like, oh, babe, you're so glad that. I'm so glad we updated it now because if you would have passed away and she was on, I would have to
wake you up and kill you. And I'm like, it's like it's like morbidly but I'm like that would have been a nightmare. I mean, I would have been okay financially either way, but it would have been really awkward, you know, to deal with that on top of everything. I mean, yeah, and so like, and I wouldn't have found out until then. So I just so so the beneficiary is like, easiest, do that, then your will is not.
I wish I would have known that the will wasn't as hard as we thought, because the will really is like a template that you could just edit. And so when I did my will, it was in less than a day. It was done. I'm like, I didn't know. I wish I hadn't waited so long because he and I thought we'd have to start from scratch. No, like your attorney would likely have a template and then you just add things on verbally, they put it in the will, then you sign it the next day. So it was
like literally like a twenty four hour process. A will. The difference between a will and a trust is that a will tells your family like what's going to happen to your stuff immediately after you pass away in about six months out. That's what a will kind of dictates.
And then lastly, a trust does take time. A trust might take up to a year or So because there are these all these different components, and a trust is really for people who have a net worth of five hundred thousand dollars or more typically around that that it range because typically or maybe you have a complicated financial life, because a trust will help you to circumvent maybe some some taxes the people who are inheriting your things, because
essentially a trust is like creating a company, a family company now that owns all the stuff. So when I'm no longer here, my family is actually not going to inherit my stuff because we're already owned owning all of that stuff via the trust. That that makes sense. So inheritance taxes what I mean, and I think California is like up to fifty percent, which is crazy. So you find somebody grandma bought her house for fifty thousand dollars, it's now worth four hundred, five hundred and six hundred
a million dollars. She passes it on to grand baby, and the government says, well, you have to pay thirty forty percent tax on this. You don't have three hundred thousand dollars cash, So what do you have to do? You got to sell grandma's house to get the money, which sucks. But if that, if that house isn't a trust, Grandma owns, the trust owns the house, and you guys are all beneficiaries of this trust already, so you're not
going to be inheriting that house. It's just staying in the trust where it already was, if that makes sense. And so a trust helps that way. And also a trust helps to dictate years into the future what you want to happen with your stuff. So, for example, something happens to me, like for all the miners in my family and listen, including and like Roman, Amelia, Lily and any new baby that my sisters have, I will if something happens to me, they will get money at age
eighteen if they're going to college. If not, they'll get a pay at twenty one, then twenty five and then thirty you know, like whatever that is that I've set aside for them, you know. And so that way, so a trust will doesn't allow you to do that. A trust allows you to reach into the future, years into the future. So that chapter, I truthfully I didn't realize how much I didn't know even after writing the book, because that part of the chapter. I work with my
financial my attorney, Tony. She helped me with that chapter, Like I researched all the chapters that were my expertise. But even still, hearing her say the words is different than living it, you know, and so having to live it post Drell passing away, I was like, so with made whole, I was able to be like, no, like this is what that means, you know, Like I did not know until Dreell passed away that you could put more than one person as a primary to a specific thing.
So if you have a bank account and you've got four sisters, it's not that you have to say this one sister is a primary, everybody else's secondary, because primary means that this person will inherit the money, and then and that person's not there, then it goes to the
to the secondary. And I think that a lot of people might think that, but you can actually say, here are the four primaries split like, and you can either split it directly in like you know, twenty five twenty five, five twenty five, or you can say ten percent here, ninety percent here, so you can literally split up. And
I didn't realize that. I think a lot of people don't realize that, and they are also too considering that if you have a minor child, how you want to leave them the money, Because to be candid, Alyssa is when she turns eighteen, she's going to come into a
lot of money. So because when you're eighteen, when you're a minor and you're left money via life insurance, oftentimes the state will hold it for them and trust for them because they're like, they won't give it to the living parent because they know sometimes oftentimes that money get tricked up, so they're but when they turn eighteen or twenty one, depending on the state, all that money now
goes to that child. That's a lot actually. So but if we would have known, like jeronala I didn't fully get it, we would have known, we would have instead of having the life insurance policy been sent to myself or a list or whoever, it would have gone to the trust instead, and the trust would have said the life the trust is the beneficiary of the life insurance policy. And so when the money comes out, it will go into the trust and it will pay for school for Alyssa.
Then she'll get her first pay like money for maybe her first house or a wedding or you know when she turns twenty five and again at thirty five, and then you see what I mean, like knowing that versus here you are eighteen years old. Here you go, you know what I mean? And so like these are things
that I didn't really understand. So I would say that's why that chapter is so critically important because I think so few people really talk about a state planning in a way they're like, oh, so I really beefed up that chapter with my lived experience and and so I'm really proud of it, even like you know, when I was reading the chapters that like, I'm the in real life story of the Yeah.
Yeah, because you're right, because you wrote the first book before he passed away. Yeah, and you're in this.
Yeah.
I mean I didn't put two and two together because I'm a little slow.
So it's just like all.
You were speaking though. I went to mad Whole Workbook dot com and I was looking at the toolkit and like the resources, and I think everyone listening just go because if anything, it's a great list of you know, y'all are always asking for where are gonna get to find out financial planner? And where do you guys like to invest? And all in all Coindor says, we can call the Brown Ambition list too. Tiffy did all the research, y'all. It's right here, and there's even a place trust and
will dot Org. I hadn't heard of that to start with. Okay, but Mike, I I caught learned to Earn, which is, you know, one of my favorite things because to avoid all the budgeting. I just like you to make more money. But can you talk a little bit about that and what people can expect from that part of the workbook.
So, yeah, because you can't save your way to wealth. Like the thing is, so the first half the book are the first five steps to financial hollness budgeting, savings, debt, credit, learn to earn. That's a critical foundational component to financial hollness because you have to make more money. So and then I actually lean into our girl, Mandra I shound to you because.
I would know that if I had one of those books there you.
See, man, it's gonna save you the whole time, right, And so anyway, I talked about ways to one make more money at work and also to how to negotiate. Like, so one of the ways is to how to negotiate. So I was like, oh, Mandy, I want to I'm gonna quote you in the book like here, there's like a whole like Mandy sent me like a bunch of steps of like of steps to negotiating, and I was like, oh great. I was like from Mandy Brown Ambition and
Mandy money Makers, here are some steps negotiating. And that's how like I put that part in the book to really walk you through, how do you negotiate for more money for yourself at your current job? And if not that, then how do you then look for another job that might pay more. That's one of the ways, because one of the best ways to make more money is where you currently are, if it's available to you. You know,
so many people have not tapped into that. And then I also talk about how to make more money outside of your job, if you're wanting to create income through like a side hustle or whatever that might look like a side business. And so those are the two components that I really lean into of making additional money because the truth of the matter is, especially when you're young,
these are really your income earning years. So how can you be really smart about beefing that up so that way you can get to a part or you might be like, I'm not young, and I'm like, if you're listening, you are. Even if you're seventy, you're still seventy years young because you're here, you know. And so if you're wanting to make more money, you know, it's not just
for making more money. I hope you understand that one of the purposes of making more money is to short enjoy some now, but to set aside some so you don't have to continue.
To work, you know, yeah, and go in hoard those early years. I'll never work as hard as I did at twenty.
Yes, I think about that.
It's all the free time and the mental capacity. H my goodness.
And don't think to yourself if you're like forties or fifties or sixties, like, oh, is it too late? No, it's not now. It might you might have to put in that work for the next five six years. You know. It's a kind of offset. I know I did. I didn't really start really cooking with grease until my like mid thirties. But if you are younger and now is the time. A young woman asked me that, like I am. I had the book launch at with Mahogany books that
I mentioned earlier, awesome black on bookstore. Certainly you can purchase copies of Made Whole directly for Mahogany Books. It's literally Mahogany books dot com. They were amazing the owners there. And so what are the women? Asked one young woman after she was twenty seven years old, and she was like,
what should I be thinking about now? I was like, besides the basics of like keeping your credit, good keeping your debt, loan learning, how to you know budget and save, I said, you need to be working to like to earn more and not earn more so you can buy more stuff so you can set aside you know, to certainly enjoy, but set aside enough so that way as you start to wind down, the energy winds down, your capacity, your time that you the money is working for you.
You know, so absolutely times on your side. Oh the tender age of twenty seven. Oh okay, Well, since we're in the holiday season, we talked about that Maidhole is out now. Yes, I am a mom. Did you know that I hire? Maybe I have a couple of kids. Whatever, And I gotta say I'm usually not that bad about holiday shop. Like my sisters and my siblings, like we do White Elephant or Secret Santa. This year we're going
back to just buying each other gifts or whatever. But I'm usually not that caught up in Black Friday and caught up and I haven't ever been, But now I got the cheering. And when I tell you I saved, I caught myself. I was saving the Target catalog because they send you stuff in the mail now, and I'm like, oh, they It's like the mail is the original algorithm, you know, like I serve you the content. How did you guys know? I was just thinking about Lake Shore Learning and what
I send you, like the Melissa and Doug collection. There, Melissa and Doug is sending me flyers. Gotta have it. It's like everything is so cute. Plus Rio's birthday is coming up. Oh my goodness, it feels like I'm about to blow up my budget that I don't even have, Like, how stop me? How do I? How do you stop us.
From going out of control?
Because it feels good. The endorphins are endorphining when I buy.
Well, my children one of the things that really is helpful whenever I'm doing something that I know is going to require like you know, more money than what's normally for my budget. I like to set it aside in a bank account. So like if you have a savings account sometimes, you know, like some safe accounts have like the little it's the same account, but they'll let you like put it into like a little bucket within the savings account, you know, or you could just go ahead
and open another savings account. It's free, you know, you know, or you know. I like to place it somewhere because I like to see the money go down, you know what I mean. So what I'll do is, so for example, I am renovating. I had a specific budget in mine to renovate, and I put it in a I had a specific savings account that really didn't have much money in it. So I was like, okay, you are now renovation bucket. And so I put the money in there that I was going to do for renovating and this
high yield savings account. And I even if I buy things, so for example, I'm purchasing a lot of the things for the new condo on my AMX car so I can get the points. So but when I'm when I go to pay the AMEX card, I use the money for the savings bucket for that you know form because I'm only currently using the MX card for renovations, you know, But I like to put it there so I can see, like, you're getting dangerously close. You sure you want to buy that?
You know, that scance for four hundred dollars. Girl, you tried it, Go ahead and get you that, you know, because you want to, Because in my mind, I'm like, I still got to get my cash, so I'm it gives me a visual reminder of where am I in the scope of how close I am to reaching budget.
So what I would say is like, if you're a cash person, which I know like nobody is now, certainly you could put it out in cash and be very old school and an envelope or putting it in a specific bucket like a savings bucket, so as you're spending, you can see the money go down and if you're responsible enough, you can still use whatever card that you want, but then paying it literally that day, so that way you're like, I'm setting aside this amount of money to
pay for things for the kids, and as the money goes down, I know I'm almost done. Like did I get everything I needed? Did I overdo it am I here. So that's one of the ways that I like to set aside. Another way too, is that like literally being like Santa, you make it look listed, check it twice.
You know.
I'm a spreadsheet girl, so I like to list everyone in buying gifts for I'll look online and I'm just like, who what what am I thinking? How much it's costs? And I have what the amount of money that I want to spend in total for the holiday season, And I create the spreadsheet so it can literally do the math of like subtracting from what's left over. So now I'm juggling like, well, I'm not going to get lista this.
I'll get her that because I want to get the kids this, but not that, so I can look at the math. So let's just say I'm sitting aside, I don't know two thousand dollars to spend for the holiday season, so I'm not you know, I'm not going to get my sister some five hundred dollars boots because that's going
to take up too much of the budget. And so I like to put it in a spreadsheet so I can see and then I go online and it allows me to to not be in store where I'm going to be hyper stimulated to buy all the things I can look to see what things I can buy within that budget, you know, And I put the link in the spreadsheet too, so when I'm ready to be like, all right, let's sit down and buy these, the link is there. I know how much it's everything is all
right here for me to make decisions. And lastly, you know whoever you like to buy things from, follow them on social media sometimes and often not even sometimes almost everyone who will give, especially during the holiday season, sometimes they'll do like a a social media only coupon code or savings link or whatever. And so once I kind of get clear of who I'm buying for, I'm the queen. When I'm like, all right, I know what I'm getting,
I know who I'm buying for. Now, I'm like, but we're not paying I'm my mother's shop were paying a price. So I mean, I call it like it's racketing, but always did love but it used to be ebates right now go backwards, but it's so amazing it is. Racoon is your best friend. Also Capital one I think has one, so like I look at racketin to get cash back, and also they have coupons, like I think Honey sometimes will still have coupons. I think it's one called Peggy Bag.
But Rakuton doesn't. Even it's not the coupons that I like, it's the cash back. It's the cash back, yes, but it's also they will alert me because for example, I have been furnishing this play area with like shelves and stuff, and they found me the shelves for like forty bucks less from a site that I normally wouldn't have shoppedj at what was it? I forget? Anyway, I love my little recute you.
Say sputations, so doing those things. And then lastly, there are people on social media. I've never used coupons on Amazon before, but there's a lady on social media that I follow that like maybe like like look of hashtag Amazon coupons where she will show so like for example,
I love like my dyce in like vacuum cleaner. She had a coupon for the one that I bought full price or maybe I get I got it on a Black you know, Black Friday, I think, but so not fully full price, but still she had a coupon for like fifty percent off and I was like, this can't be real. So I went to Amazon, I put it in. I was like, wait, what witchcraft is this? So yeah, so there are these I don't know how they find the coupon's girl, I don't know, but she is sharing it freely. So there are a.
Bunch of people.
So what I would suggest is myself the back of the internet. Not but they're real, you know, you put them into it rhy, you know, So I would just say that, like, especially during this time of year, look for creators if this is what they do. You know, like she's really awesome. She will just literally share a bunch of coupon codes for specific things, and I love it.
I'm like, oh, this is so awesome. And so like, you know, I like to look for creators based upon hashtags, you know, like they still work like hashtag Amazon coupon, hashtag whatever. So yeah, creators that share, especially creators that share coupons who are in a similar space. So she if she's you want to like, if you're a mom a mommy coupon er, if you're renovating a renovating kind of coupon, you know what I mean, because going to share things that are going to be developing to you.
So those are the ways that I would say say this, uh this holiday season, like lean into those couponts, make your list pre pre you have the pre game like Klee is gonna go.
You really do which when you don't, it becomes really easy. I mean I had like four cards going yesterday and different I forgot which browser they were in because like I'm like, oh, I like that brand and they have cute stuff there, and it almost when you have kids, it almost feels like it's for the kids, you know what I mean?
Look like this one was time you could you could, you could give me a box that I'd be out here playing with it.
Oh no, no, rio no, he has expensive tastes.
Excuse me, one of these kings.
Turning forward, Tiff. He's got opinions and he knows which toys are cheap and which ones are quality.
There runs okay, no more. I remember the days the kids that Romana Milion.
Was like, we don't want to go. You want to go to Target? Yes, and not just Target. Now it's CBS because they have toy cars. Yeah, husband is trying to heal his and her child by only getting them. But the cremetella. Come oh my love cars and shit anyway. Yeah, but I will say my one thing that I am glad I did is I started a I did a registry because that's the only name for it. I did a target registry for the boys so that I could choose what went on it because my family tries it every year.
I love that, you know, that's really smart. My sister usually does do like Carol will do like a thing because I'm like, I don't want to guess because she has the kids pick out whatever, and it's hilarious because it'll be like, you know, like toys, and it'll also be like socks, lunchbox. I'm like, I feel like this is a mommy register.
She's like, whatever, girl, just get and people avoid the nice practical things. It's really annoying because it would.
Be like socks, I didn't add that on here. She's like, don't worry, I'm trying to get something done. But you know you could also do too. This is that's actually has been really helpful for purchasing furniture for the new place. Is that my designer. She will screenshot the furniture and then do a Google image to look up because all these places, all my classes, what many like. I bought a back from Vanity and it was originally I really
loved it. Originally it was twenty three hundred dollars. No, no, it was more than that. It was like over three thousand dollars. I'm like, I'm not paying that. And so we did a Google look up and found in someplace else, like I don't know, bed back, some place I didn't even know they.
Sold Vanity allmodern dot com yeah or whatever.
We found it for fifteen hundred dollars half off, so the same Vanity really beautiful, and I was like and so like, so it's just even searching for certain things, don't be afraid to do a Google look up to see because they're all ordering from the same like manufacturer, and then they're putting based upon whatever their brand equity is, whatever their brand name is, putting like slapping, you know, they're like, well it's from here, so it's more money.
So that Google photo lookup is everything. Honestly, I love Google lens.
Nothing is safe. Now, I'll we'll figure out where you got everything. Oh well, you guys can check out made Whole get the book. It's on sale. Yesterday, so you're late if you haven't gotten me yet. Maid Whole workbook dot Com, congratulations to thank you. Another bestseller in the making.
Well, workbooks don't make the New York Times Bestsellers list.
But still there's other bestsellers.
Yeah, we're please. Came about all that. Now, just go ahead and get your get your work. Like you know, we don't get you on a New York Times bestseller, but I already got mine, Chop, I never get another one. They still have to call.
Me chapter one one stuff at a time. Manitor said she liked it, and I cried, do that talk more times?
Guys. I can't wait to read it.
All right, let's take a quick break and we'll come right back for a little Thanksgiving booster break.
Yes, and we're back, and we're black to boost or break and now it's time to boost up, break up, boost up, break up, boost up, break up? Boo boo? Is you gonna break? What you're gonna do, what you're gonna take? Sidebar. The girl said, we love when you sing on the show. I was like, I sing on the show, and I'm like, oh, that's would too.
My nightmare is when you're gone and I have to sing like you guys don't really want this for me? Do like like it is time to boost to break, ladies and gentlemen, do.
You want to go first? So do you want to boot?
I'll do first. So I wanted to boost. I actually thought of this because I'm trying to We just talked about the holidays and how I'm finding myself very tempted to buy a lot for the kids. But one of my neighbors put me on to this Facebook group called the buy Nothing Uh and insert your town's name or your city's name. They're very specific to your city, and
it's such a treasure trove. It's like, you know, hundreds of people are in are in our buy nothing group on Facebook, and you can post things like I just I'm in the basement. So I posted some flooring that we never used. Someone's already scooped it up. And then the thing that I was looking for for for remy I put an in search of and someone's like, yes, let me go at the basement.
I'm gonna look one up.
So if you're especially if you're someone with kids, or you're you know, even if you're like renovating or flipping something, the buy nothing groups on Facebook are clutch because it's all about like the recycle economy and not having to buy brand new things. Even if you can afford nice things, why not just like you know, give give something to a new home, give it a new lease on life. So buy nothing on Facebook. Go check them out.
I'm like looking up. Now, is it bad if you try to, like, you know, buy nothing from a from a neighboring wealthy down?
Wow, this is the thing. They when I went to sign up because I wasn't a buy nothing for my city. But then I went to check it and it was like, oh, we've just we've closed this group. Now there's a buy nothing for your town. And when I when I, they ask you questions like what's your cross street? And can you promise that you're not you don't You're in no other buy nothing groups. We want to keep it all in this group, so they don't want to see that
you're in other buy nothing groups in different places. To your point about like where the rich area codes are and stuff.
Yeah, no, I don't know if I'm able to see what town you live in. Let me just go ahead and on cancel that request. Yeah, because the town that I haven't. You know, I'm not the racist. No, it's not racist.
I didn't say I can see what town you live in.
Yeah, I was like. I was like, it's like we have to cancel requests because we're able to if I'm not able to see what town you live in and you know my town is on my thing, and I'm like, yeah, I mean I can understand now because you can't be over here, like.
I haven't even given a new work a chance yet to go on. Now stop.
I love my city, but I don't know.
Yeah, what do you think I'm gonna find? Now? I want to know what is on the buy nothing in Newark?
Go yeah, buy nothing? I mean I don't even know. You never know, You're right. I feel like, does even Newark, New Jersey have a buy nothing? Yell buy nothing Newark? Okay? I mean it's just, oh, here's the thing, though there's multiple there's newer Work, Delaware, responsible Newark buy nothing. Let me see. I wonder if this is the right to Newark. I don't know, buy nothing Newark? Okay? Well, I have the.
Jersey City buy nothing downtown Jersey City.
Yeah, but I'm not you know, I don't I don't know if they're gonna accept me, but anyway, I'm gonna se because I like that idea, you know. So my boost is super easy, breezy because I'm like, I'm not gonna do a break child. It's right before the thanks of the Giving, and so my boost is I'm just so glad that I have been able to convince my very traditional African mama that it is okay to order all the Thanksgiving food so she doesn't have to be stressed out, you know, like I love that for her.
My mom is in my hey, Sylvia, I know you don't listen because girl, you wouldn't even know how, but she is in her soft g era and I love that for her, Like she worked so hard for so long as a nurse, which was really like a lot on your body, you're always on your feet, and then raising five girls doing our handmade so we were cute taking us to church, you know, not that my dad didn't participate, but you know, moms end up being typically the primary, you know, of child rear, although my dad
was really active too, but you know, a lot of it fell on her, especially were all girls, and she did a lot of sacrificing I mean she literally didn't stop working nights until Lisa was in college because she wanted to be home during the day in case we needed her, and then totally messed up her sleep pattern. You know, to this day, she has a hard time sleeping through the night because her body is like, no, girl, that's when we work, you know. And so I just
think about all that. So when I was able to pay off the house for them, maybe like five six years ago, I was able to do so, you know, and being able to send them money every month, I send my dad a mom like separate checks as per their request. Really, I was like, why don't I just do My mom was like, no, I want my send me a check separately. I'm like a check, you know what,
I forget? So I send them. I mean, you know, but I love the fact that like that money is like, you know, the bills already paid, So that money is just money for her to just enjoy and my dad to do whatever he wants to do with it. And so it took her years of me sending her that money before she realized she could kind of spend it, because you know, you know, as a as a mom, manny, how much you just like innately, you know, you're sacrificing.
So she didn't even know when there was nobody to sacrifice for how not to squirrel it away because she'd be like, I'm saving it. I'm like for what Since we're here now, She's.
Like, maybe you'll need it one day. I'll save it for you. She was saying, literally believe it.
And I was like, oh, mommy, no ho. She was like yeah, but what if Lisa, And I'm like, well, then I will will take care of that when it comes. Like this is supposed to be for you to just say, oh I like that dress, or you know what, I do want to get my nails done. It took her almost two years to give herself something nice. And now I don't unleash the beast because I turned around. You know how much this dress cost. It was his fancy, you know, and I just love that. I was like,
look at Mommy, her soft girl. Error. She's just like, you know, I get my hair done, I buy my dresses. Everything is okay, she said. I just I'm enjoying life, you know. And and finally the last frontier was Thanksgiving, because you know that's stressful for the mamas. You know for those who cook, and so I remember it was maybe like the first time we got something made for Thanksgiving was maybe like three or four years ago. It was like she was like, I really don't want to
make the turkey this year. And so Vonda was doing her famous fried turkey. And so my friend Vonda, who did my she did my all, my wedding anniversary, she did my wedding, she did my fortieth birthdays. And Vonda is a good friend who makes amazing food. And so I was like, okay, I'll see if someone makes turkeys, and Vonda did. So I picked up a turkey. And then the next year it was like, okay, turkey and maybe some sides, but she's still largely cooked my mom.
And then like last year, it was all Vonda. And so this year my mom was like, so is that Vonda going to be Mickey. I'm like, oh, look at mommy, she is ready. And so I love that. So I called Vonda. She's making all the fixed things. I also added in Nisha, who's to cook for me and Jarell, because Nisia makes amazing turkey chops, which I don't really eat turkey, but like I think about pork chops. But I don't eat work and so, but like so made in a pork chop fashion. But turkey, they interests want
to tell you made it so good because turkey. Usually I don't really like turkey, even on Thanksgiving. I find it to be kind of dry, even when it's done.
Well, really advertizing word.
No but turkey. Nissa's turkey chops gravy, the ooh salamon, and her corn bread. NIS's corn bread is top. Her corn bread is almost like buttercake. It is so delicious. So I asked you she can make corn bread and turkey chops, and then Vonda is going to make the rest of the thing. So literally, it was texting today it was like, what are we doing for Thanksgiving? I'm like, it's already done, just come. So I always have plates
and cups and napkins. I just ordered those like food burners, sternal things that you put underneath the you know, the pants, make it keep it warm. So I love the fact that everyone's just gonna be able to come in enjoy. There's no stress for me either, because everything's here already. It's the house is already very kid friendly, so the kids can play. They're very comfortable, so it'd be a
really nice, family, laid back Thanksgiving. So I that is my boost that you know that we are all kind of like in this soft girl error and that family traditions change and that can be positive too. And so you know, we wish that you you listen to this on Wednesday, So we hope that you have how whatever you celebrate, even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, we can
understand why some people might not. Certainly I'm not celebrated celebrating the colonization of this country, but I am celebrating the fact that I get to spend time with my family.
And yeah, for you brings home up color your own pilgrim, I'm gonna have to sit him down and have a talk. I'll start them early, I know, like, oh, my goodness, my little colonizer. He has a robot for a face. Oh let's talk.
About my gosh. But yeah, so we just hope that you have an awesome time with your family. And if you can't have awes time with your family for whatever reason, we hope that you find somebody or somebody's to like spend time with. And you know that if you so wish.
Yeah, well I'm thankful for you, NBA fan as ever, Thank y'all so much for all the support, all the love, and for I was always holding us down.
Always another Turkey day in the books. I know. Well, we'll see you on Friday, though, Please don't play yourself after Thanksgiving. You gotta be bored.
Listen to that Friday, I give it. Thank you, Okay, bye y'all.
Bye,