Hey, hey, hey, Hi, we're back. We're black, We're brown. This is Tiffany.
What's up, girls, Mandy? Did you miss us?
I know we saw some of your tweets and this is brown ambition if you got stumbled here by mistake and don't realize where you are. But I saw some tweets, like someone said, what I thought was so cute that I'm just over here refresh on the screen even though I know no new podcast is coming today, but you never know, just refreshing my screen.
One week, one week, y'all, one week. We've never taken a long hiatus.
Yes, we know how you guys. You know how you guys love to listen and we love that you listen.
And so we are back barely.
So I've been in the delightful Charlotte, North Carolina all week. Barely made it back. All these flight delays and stuff. Yeah, these like we had a company kind of offsite where we had we have workers all over the country, so we brought them all together for an off site. We just acquired this website called student loan Hero. So some of you guys, if a student loan debt, may be aware of student loan Hero. They're Actually, they're really cool.
They created a platform where you could load all your student loans into one place and like, you know, keep tabs on them, because I don't know if kids who graduate today graduate with like sixteen different loans, with four different loan services and all that. So they've done a lot of great work helping people pay off their student loan debt and we're so excited to work with them.
Blah blah blah. But here's what happened, So Mandy Woodruff, I think about like who I used to be when I was a kid, and like how deeply shy and deeply introverted I was. And for me to have survived a week like this, I just feel like, man, you really can grow and all it can happen for anybody
can get through this week. Anybody can do anything. But by the time we we wrap things up on Friday after like constant presentations and sessions and talking and dinners and talking and people and uh, I had to book myself a self care massage. Like I scooted it on it. I like slid out of the the last thing of the day. I was like and goodbye, and I took a lift to get a massage and just be in a dark room for an hour and a half was much needed.
Sometimes it's just it's just it's just overwhelmed depending on I mean, I know everyone says they're an introvert now, but it could be really overwhelming depending on like the I think for anybody, even if you are, I guess extroverts love all that, but yeah, I can just see.
You being like this, this too much. It's like me being hugged all day long.
It's like, okay, okay, it's I mean, it's not like introvert. I mean, some people think introvert just means you're really shy and like you don't like people, and that's not what it means. It just it's about where you get your energy from. And for introverts, you can get you can enjoy talking to people, but it actually drains your energy and you need to to re energize. You need to be alone and to be like thoughtful and quiet, Whereas an extrovert they get their energy from those human
interactions and like charges them up. So it's just it's just a different way. But but the what I've learned, especially because I've done a couple of like management trainings and personality tests and stuff. Is that it does? That does? That's not your only story. It's not like because I at my natural core get really exhausted by talking to a lot of people and like giving presentations and being out there out there. It doesn't mean that I'm bad at what I do. It just me like I can
learn to work with it. I can learn to push myself, and I push myself all that. I mean, just to be a manager in generally, you have to push yourself to to to to break out of my natural state of being, which is like me in a dark corner of a room, you know, being alone, Like that's not going to help me succeed, But it's it's like recognizing and being self aware of where your weaknesses are and then working really hard to be self aware and to correct yourself so that you can be the person you
need to be for the job that you have. And that it's what I've had to.
Learn basically, be best, Be best.
But those of you who don't know me and man, we're having like a little slide conversation. I mean, not to laugh the first lady, but to laugh the first lady. Her platform is anti bullying, which I guess is the opposite of what we're doing right now, but she.
Can take it, yes, and she so if you guys, it was like literally months and months and months ago, where like I guess, she addressed like this is gonna be my platform, which is like cyber bullying or whatever, and she encouraged.
Children to be best, not be the best, not be your best, but be best, be.
Best, and so you know, we just think that.
So you don't know what it means.
I think you're gonna hear us randomly just like spit out be best and just because it's hilarious.
It's only been May, I mean months and months and it's only a couple of months ago.
The best.
You know, Manny, you want to have you you been to Sojo Spot, right, could you? When you said spot go.
Yes, I like Sojo Spawn in Edgewater, New Jersey place.
Oh my god.
So I took Superman there for his birthday and it was it was so nice honestly because he was like, oh, you know, I asked him what did you want and he was like, honestly, I just want a massage and I said okay, So, like you know, he said, we could just go to a massage and be I'm like, no, it's your birthday.
Let's do something special.
And so I surprised him and he was like, WHOA, I had never been and I was like, whoa.
That place is gorgeous.
It's beautiful and clean, so many different levels and rooms and steam rooms and salt rooms. It's great.
It was everything.
And then I splurged on a couple's massage and not even a couple, which basically was like, oh, you can buy.
A massage too, nice YEA, I know.
Let me see how I did that right.
I was like, for your birthday, we shall get a massage. The massage was so good? Why do we both fall asleep? And I woke up for sleep and I hear him snoring and I'm giggling. He said, what you laughing at? You were storing to I'm like, no, I wasn't, y'all.
How can you fall asleep? I'm like, I'm like five percent very alert because someone's literally rubbing near your butt the whole time, Like I don't know, I can't. I'm just like I'm ninety five percent relaxed, and five percent of me is like, you're very awfully close to my butt crack right now.
You know what it is.
I was so exhausted and tired, and so it just I didn't realize like how like how like the last week, a couple of weeks have been just like you know, just being like a lot of work and so because I've gotten massage before and I've never fallen asleep, but I and honestly, I didn't even think. I felt like I remember thinking in my head, probably in my dream, like you know, like this is really nice, but I wonder if I'm want to go to sleep. Meanwhile I
was asleep thinking that. But yeah, it was everything. It was like you said, beautiful, clean night. I mean it's a grip, you know, it's not like for the massages. The day passes not too too bad if you really use it, but like to get a massage, I was like, oh am, I making a down payment on the house. But no, but it was honestly, it was a really good time. He had a great birthday, and he got promoted.
What he did awesome.
On his day off. You know people get fired on the day off. He got promoted. He took the day off, he.
Got promoted on his day off. He's gonna be running a whole site to himself. He's a super now, And I'm like, oh, look at Superman.
Is a super make it moves.
I know.
I'm so proud of him because he's been wanting to do that for a while and you know, I mean and honestly, he was already excellent in what he did and now they're like, well, now you'll have a team of like so he's like all like freaked out because he's going from like you know, kind of just managing himself and maybe like one or two people to like having a full sight of like hundreds of units to manage and having it to staff of like fifteen.
Oh.
So I feel him on that. If he needs he needs any commiseration, any links to any management trainings, I'm with him, but just trying to tell him trust his instincts.
He knows what he's doing, yes, And so I just saw I was like, you know, the good thing is like you literally came from the other side. So one of the things we're gonna do tonight is just kind of like make a list of like managers he's had before that he thought were like all of them and then talk about like what traits really were great and what traits weren't so great, so he could, you know, like kind of figure out, like, you know, what is
his management Styd And that's it. Honestly, you learned best with time. But you want to start well because you don't want to start too Oh I'm a homeboy, and then everybody wants all over you, and you don't want to start as like everybody must do what I say and everybody hates you and says, no, we're not you know.
So yeah, there's a there's a balance to strike. Yep.
Yeah. So yeah, it's been it's been good.
But I know your birthday's coming up. It's your birth Well, it will have passed by the time folks listen to this.
I mean, yeah it maybe it may be coming up in a couple of days. I'm at peace with it.
What you're gonna do, I don't know.
I feel like my thirtieth birthday, I just really did. I did this this huge dinner with my family and friends, and I feel like that could last me for the next five birthdays. I just want to get the permit so we can start our renovation. Work has never been crazier like this next week. Honestly, I think I don't even know if we're doing anything. I'm leaving it up to Husbany to do something. And even if we don't,
it's not a big deal. But I feel like my my birthday reward is going to be doing a good job at work this week because it's a really important week for us, bringing two teams together who've never worked together. And yeah, it's a lot of challenges. I feel good in my thirties. Yeah, okay, I'm telling you thirty six, it's you know, be best.
This is what it is.
So now I'm going on a vak though I much need a vaka I have. I've never need a vacation like I've needed this vacation.
And I'm going to Santorini, Greece, which is like the most I've been before I.
Went, I want to say, like three years ago.
My sister and I we went to Istanbul, we went to Athens, and we went to Santorini. And this is great website, honestly called European Destinations dot com. Okay, and I love it because you can you can like kind of like book your itinerary, like I think we paid at the time, we paid like twelve hundred dollars for three different cities, including flight and hotel, and I made sure to pick hotels that had food included, and so
it's just a great But that's not where. I didn't book that this time because it was just too close. I literally booked the day before and I used my That Chase card is like the gift that keeps on giving. That we that we got that you the Chase Is it the Venture card that we have? What's the sound?
I don't know.
It was so funny when you were telling me before. You're like, it's my Chase Adventure Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve card and you booked it through the Ultimate Rewards Portal.
Yeah, I was like, you buy a venture cardy. Honestly, more and more I turned into my dad every day.
You just give things titles like oh, you know, I feel like that's not what it's called that.
He's like, but you got the hit, that's my Chase Good Time card, right, yes?
And so I the flight.
You know, I didn't have to pay for it all, thank goodness, because it was not cheap and I had not Honestly, I had not used my flight points from my card in a while, like I've been using the flight points for my like I usual United, so like I racked up points with them, so I'm glad I saved them because it cost me every single point, which is fine. And then the whole we found an airbnb
because myself and two of my friends are going. We found an airbnb, like and it's basically like a hundred bucks a night, not equal, well not altogether, but each I think it was like three hundred bucks a night, but that was the cheapest one. And honestly it's a
villa and it's beautiful. Because I didn't realize this is I guess peak travel time right now, and I'm in Greece, and so we were looking at things that were like eight hundred one thousand dollars on nights, and I was like, I'll be home and so this this I think she had a last minute cancelation, this woman's villa, and so we got it really inexpensive, so I was like, yay, flight paid for hotel, not too bad.
One hundred bucks a night.
I'll be there five nights, so that's five hundred bucks, so not too bad. And then the food I found when I went last time, the restaurants really weren't that expensive. So I feel like like the trip all together will definitely be under a thousand dollars out of pocket, and I'm gonna be out there head being my best, living my best life.
Oh joh, you mentioned social media earlier, and I just I just saw the most passive aggressive tweet from one of our listeners. Should we do some shout outs real quick?
Yeah? Shadows?
So first, this is from at Wait a second, what's her name? At gold Digger twenty eighteen. Okay, she said, what podcast do you recommend? I need to listen to some while waiting for the next episode of your shows at the podcast at Lovey We get it. It was one week. We're sorry, don't be leaving us for other shows right now.
Yeah, it's just like because clearly y'all, y'all not trying to be like we are. It's just that, you know, sometimes things happen. We literally like never miss a show, you know. So what was I saw a cute one?
Let me see, let's see this was a little from a little while ago. All this is cute toy toy. She she's her Twitter handle is toy toy r N. She said, Now, listening to every episode of Brown ambishon after listening to the bunche Ofsta. I was on this podcast called the friend Zone, and I mentioned that, oh he listened to every episode and then someone else, sim Sim forty sim says Brown and Bishion, you guys using the hashtag Brown and Bision podcast had so much info.
Take a peak, people and get the good good Yes, hashtag great tips, hashtag the real deal.
Okay, Simsim. She said, get that good good.
I don't know if good good means, but I think it means. But okay, whatever you need we provided over here. On the Instagram, I posted I was so excited by this news sid Octavia Spencer she won an oscar. Yeah, she won for the help right. Oscar winning actress Octavia Spencer is going to star and she's gonna be Madam c J. Walker like a biopic yeah, which is being produced somehow by Lebron James. I don't know. It sounds
like a lot of magic happening. So I posted that news and at Neslei and Stage said this is the kind of news that fills my heart with joy, and at Buzzy Beacam says, yuah, so is that good? I don't know, it's kind of like caveman.
Yeah, yeah, no, you guys are awesome. Remember, we love, love, love to hear from you. So if you're gonna tweet us, definitely use the hashtag bron ambition. And we are at the BA podcast on Twitter and on Instagram.
We are what are we on Instagram.
At Brandon Bishion podcast.
Yeah, so you know, head over to that.
Follow us on Instagram, lease some comments under her pictures so we can shout you out, and definitely tweet us so we can shot you out that way too.
A lot of folks have also been tagging us in posts of that they think we'll like, and that's really fun too. Woll have this girl on your podcast? She paid off a lot of debts, so those are nice too. So tag us and stuff, get us our attention, get get our attention. We check, we read, we.
Do, and honestly, what have you been getting this? People have been sending us like brown boost, brown break suggestion.
I love that.
That's cute.
Ah, well mine is easy and quick, so I'll go first because I'm not sure where your boost is going to be and I don't want it to be mine, So I want to have my first Okay, So my boost is you spoke.
Of Lebron and I just want to say, Lebron James, we love you.
So Lebron, if you've been living under rock, is a very famous and well known basketball player. Some say top top three of our time, which I would tend to agree, although I do not do the sports. He started a school in Akron, Ohio, where he grew up, called the I Promise School, and it is amazing. Here's some of the highlights. It focuses on accelerated learning, provides job placement for a job placement assistance for parents. Has on has an on site food bank, supports students with stress from
economic causes. Gives every student a bike to escape dangerous parts of the city. Guarantee free college tuition to the University of Akron to all graduates starting in twenty twenty one. So I believe like most schools starting off like well, many new schools start off with like one or two grades. I think this is third and fourth grade, and then
every year they add on a new grade level. But like there's even more to this, Like they have like just what I love And this is what I've always said, Like me as a teacher, I said, like, if I was going to create something for students, you have to include the parents because I don't.
Care how much you teach.
It's one of the reasons why I started at the Budget, Lisa, because I was teaching the kids at school and the parents would come and struggling, and then they would ask me to borrow mone whatever. And I would say, you know what, during naptime when your kids are a sleep, come in and I'll help you budget. I'll show you how to save because I recognize that, like, it's not just if you're wanting to change a student's life. It can't just happen in the classrooms. They have a bigger
life beyond that. And I just love that Lebron and whoever has been helping him understands that in order to really help the child, you have to help the whole family. And I just love that they have all of this stuff for like kids and the family. I think this is amazing, you know, I.
Mean, is it a public school or a private? Like, how do you get into it?
It said it's an Agri based nonprofit school, So I don't know what that means.
I've heard different projects apply.
Yes, and it's the thing is he's partnered with public schools, So I don't know exactly what kind of school it is, you know what I mean, Like, I don't know, yeah, but yeah, I believe. So what he's specifically looking to do is boosting achievement for younger students from disadvantaged background. So this is not one of those school who they're trying to skim the cream of the crop, like the kids that they are already killing it.
They're literally looking for kids that are struggling and saying, you come here, maybe I'll move my kids to What about you?
Oh you know, I'm fine, what about me? So I have to do a boost for I don't think i've done this boost before of this specific So one of the things I've learned, Like I was talking a little bit about my personality and how that's influenced my work environment, and maybe I kind of buy into the squishiness of like different work personalities a little too much, but I don't care because I feel like this really is important
to understand. So if you ever work with people and you just like don't feel like you speak their language, or you're always having conflict, or you're on a conference call and you just don't know why they won't shut up and get to the point, or you're like, man, why is this person talking to me? This could be an email instead of a meeting, Like all those little micro aggressions that happen, like not microaggression, but those little small things at work that drive you absolutely bananas and
make you hate your job. I feel like if we understood, if everyone had to do this disc training that we have been doing that we do at my company and I've done twice with my team, if everyone had to do this disc training and learn exactly what kind of personality profile the other people in their work organization have, I feel like it would totally change the way we work with each other. And I'll give you a quick example.
And I know that my managing editor listens to my podcast and she's probably like, oh god, you're telling the story to your podcast listeners. So my managing editor is we're both like very goal oriented, very task driven, like we just get shit done. I love that about her, But I'm like, I get shited done in a quiet way kind of person like I just want to be turned around. Like just like at my computer, working really hard,
everything's in my I'm all in my head. You know, I have my to do list and my task list, and she's the kind of person who wants to get shit done, but like talk about it. And when when we first hired her about a year ago, you know, in the morning, she would come in and she'd and we kind of sit back to back and you know we talk, you know, how to say hi, good morning, whatever. And then throughout the day it would be like, oh, tell, hey, you know doing this, but do you think da da
da da? And it had to be a whole conversation. I would just be like, yes, mm hmmm, uh huh, why are you like, you know what you you know what you need to do? Just like do it? Why do we have a conversation about it? And it was I mean, it wasn't like this huge conflict, but it it. We didn't we weren't like communicating properly. And then we did this thing called the Disk Assessment d I s C. And this I just was reading up on it. Actually it's based on the work of the guy who invented
Wonder Woman. Isn't that And yeah, isn't that random? Some William Marston I think his name was, So he was actually He also developed the first polygraph test. So he used to and you know how Wonder Woman has her little like chain that she throws on people and if it hits you, you tell the truth. Yeah, So that's so he invented the Wonder Wonder Woman. And also his psychology works were the foundation of DISC training, and DISC is all about these four different characteristics of human behavior
and emotions. So the dcand for dominance, the I stands for inducement, so how you get what you want? S stands for submission, and C stands for compliance, and the DISC training kind of you answer. It's very short. I like it a lot better than like, I don't know if you ever done Myers Briggs.
Yeah, and I haven't, but I heard how long that takes.
Yeah, that's like the one that's the personality test people I've been doing for decades. It feels like so it's a million questions, it's kind of convoluted. DISC is like something maybe twenty something questions. It's super short, and you basically get you learn where you're at on a spectrum for each of these letters. So I'm super super high D and D is like you have a you dominate, you control your task driven, you're a risk taker, you know,
you get shit done. And on the other side, that's a C. I'm super high on the C side, and that is conscientiousness. So it means that I'm very like processed driven. I want to think things through, I want to get things right. I want to do my research, do my homework, and that's what I use to execute
my the D side of myself. So where I lack and where it's funny, the eye in the C, the I in the S. In the middle I is basically like my interacting with other people, my social aspect, you know, uh, being the first one to talk to people in the morning, like forming human relationships. So I am like rock bottom on that level. And then the the S is the service driven. So that's like wanting to help people, wanting to be supportive, you know, kind of being I don't
know if selfless is the right word. And I'm obviously not trained to do disc training, so people who were trained to do a way better job of explaining it. But I'm I'm a I'm a get shit done in a quiet way kind of person and like I'm really low on the I in the S. And what I found is that my managing editor is high also in the d like they get shit done level, but really high on I. So she's like chatty, she.
Wants to talk things through, okay.
And that was when we when we got our trainings, we were like, oh, so that's how we're different. And it's not like either one of us is wrong, but we were not community. Like we needed like I needed to come down to her level a little bit, not down to her level that sounds bad, but meet her in the middle, and she needed to like meet me in the middle. And it's something that I think we've both we both walked away from, like learning how to
communicate a little bit better with each other. You know. Now, I know you know my my managing editor, and I just keep calling her out, and I'm sure she's like rolling her eyes right now, but I know my you know, I have even though it takes effort, and I don't like to be fake. I don't like to I like
to be genuine. And even though I have to like physically remind myself, okay, if we need to have a five minute conversation about you know whatever before we get to the real point of this conversation, it's Okay, it's a small thing. It's a small price to pay for me not making her feel like shit, you know, to make her feel good about that interaction. So I'm just right. Yeah.
And it's funny when you meet somebody who's like so, cause I'm thinking of like my CFO Rachel, Yo. She and I are both like chatterboxes, so we do a lot of like yeah, girl, And so when I to, like, let Logan, I'm not sure if you listen, but I speak to Logan, I can tell Logan being like what is Tiffy talking about?
Because like I'm the type then like, so, how was your weekend? And it and look it's like okay, everything's good.
So we need and I realizing, like but Rachel and I might spend a good twenty thirty minutes.
Oh I know you're an is I can just already tell yeah.
But it's so I mean, but it's such a pleasure.
I mean, not that it's not a pleasure to speak to like anyone else on our team, it is, but it's like it's I could tell that we are so much alike in that way, but literally, like you know, Rachel wants all of our financial thing and she kills it.
But one of the.
Reasons why to me it works so well is because she's so in alignment with the way I like to communicate. So even as we're having like normal conversation, she's pulling what she needs for the financial team, you know, And so yeah, I just think that that, Yeah, oh I can't wait to take it.
That's excited. I actually sent myself a little note to remember.
I love it. I'm a fan. And you know what's really cool is and this is the last thing I'll say about it, because I keep going on on and they're not paying me. Don't worry that. My my HR coordinator because like we had three new or three or four new hires like this time in February, like six months ago or eight months ago. God, it's already August. And they took the disc assessment soon after they started, and they were all kind of like, I don't know if I really agree with my results. It feels kind
of weird. And disc is really meant to like judge your your personality, but also like how you interact in your work environment. And our HR person said that it's important like if you let yourself settle into a job, So if you're brand new, your personality may change because in the beginning, you're like not really sure of yourself, you don't know what you're doing. You're getting to know
your colleagues. Your personality maybe a little bit different then at the beginning than it would be like six months later or twelve months later. So keep that in mind. Definitely. Okay, thank you. Then this is your benefits lesson.
From now.
It time for questions.
I love the questions because you guys thought with that's really great questions. I have my mind like wait, okay, wait, okay, wait, so what okay, wait, questions do we have this week?
I was just giving that we have, like we have at least a dozen, but we'll just do a few. But I was it was funny because we've got so many anonymous ones this time, and I was like, ooh, we're.
Getting to the right Ooh, y'all want to know.
Okay, yeah, okay, so let's see which one do I want to read first? Let me let me read this. So this person wants to remain anonymous. She says, I have not checked my credit in three years. I know, I know, I know, it's just I'm always concerned about entering my Social Security number and other identifying information on the internet, especially with all the data breaches that have occurred. Can you please recommend a good way and or company that I can trust to check my credit and get
an accurate report. Also, I've heard I should check my credit every year, but it's that just a myth or completely true. Thank you for your help. I've got my mother hooks on your podcast as well.
Let's right, let's call her Betty because I like for Betty.
Okay, So one of my suggestions would be I actually like, like, if you're wanting like your true, true, true, true credit score, you can and you're nervous, you can literally go to your bank and be like, hey, like you know they could, they could do a credit pull for you. But know that if they do it, then it's going to be a hard inquiry because I've done that before, like when I was looking for like a mortgage whatever. I've just gone to the bank to get like my like full
out credit score. But you know, I don't know, Like there's a bunch of like credit reporting agencies, but my favorite, like we'll not credit reporting agencies, but my favorite free one that I have found to be the most accurate that that's actually your Francal score is Discover has one. You don't have to have Discover Card because I don't have a Discover card. I know they're not paying me,
not yet though. But if you go to a credit scorecard dot Com and you don't have to put in your full social I think just the last four day just because they have to identify it to you obviously. But credit scorecard dot Com, I actually like them, and when I got my I use all of them. I try them all. And when I went to the bank to get with the bank pulled Credit scorecard dot Com from Discover was the exact same one that the bank gave me, So I was like, whoa, And that's never
happened before with the other one. So that's that's the one that I Those are my two suggestions.
I'm glad that you said that I love Discover Scorecard. We actually point people to Discover Scorecard all the time at Magnify Money. It's a great tool and there's a lot of way I mean, I know you're scared about data breaches. Now I'm not going to pretend like they're never going to happen, but by not checking your credit report.
How are you going to know that you've been breached? Like, how are you going to even be aware that something's happen there's errors on your report or someone stolen your credit if you're not actually staying on top of it. So I really recommend you start checking your credit and you don't have to do you know, back in the day, you used to have to go to all three credit rebureaus or go to Annual Credit Report dot com and
download your report for free once a year. But now you don't even have to do you know, those extra steps you can sign up for. You know, my company, lending Tree has a platform called my lending Tree. They actually pull in all your credit accounts in one place so you can look at it. There's credit Karma, there's
credit dot Com. There's all these different tools out there that make it very simple for you to monitor your credit in a free, simple way, and they can alert you, for example, if a new credit card was opened on your account, and you can be like, oh, yeah, that's that. You know, that's the personal loan that I took out last month, or oh shit, someone opened to Macy's card. I need to immediately report this dispute this era error
to the credit bureaus. I know, through the my lending Tree app, you can like immediately dispute an error with TransUnion right through the app and there just go to the website and do it. So there's so many new it's a whole new world. There's all these really easy tools. But just be clear on like what's a credit report and what's a credit score, because I think you're going
back and forth. So like the I think Tiffany does my favorite description of what a credit score report is you do like the GP A thing?
Yeah, okay, okay, oh got it?
We are too much.
So your credit score. What I say that your credit score is that it's your financial GPA, and it basically if look at you, like, yo.
What how do I say, I'm like, sorry, you got this?
Yeah, So it's like your it's basically it's your financial GPA, so all of your your choices that you've made over time, but especially the emphasis is really on the last two years of your financial choices, of your financial.
Choices as it relates to borrowing and paying back money. So that's what you're you're really going to see.
Your score is going to report that and your credit report, it's like your transcript and that.
It really goes deep into like well.
On this you were thirty days late here, ninety days late here on time here, So it really breaks it down. So just remember how it was in school. So people ask all the time. They ask me and Mandy, you know, like if I were to do this one thing, will my credit score jump ten points one hundred points? And there's no way for Mandy and I to know because if your GPA, that's like asking, you know, if I get an A in Spanish senior year, will my overall GPA go up?
And it might be depending on the.
Other grades you previously got, because really your credit score, like a GPA is, is an it has to take into account all of your grades. Like I said, with your credit score is really the last two years that they have the most focus on. So there's no way to know what one thing is going to do. The more grades you have, meaning the more good or bad marks you have in your credit score credit report, the less one thing is going to make a difference. So like my husband, when I met him, his credit score
wasn't the gradest. It was like a five thirty or something like that or six something, and but he only had just a handful of things on his credit report.
So he did like two or three really good things.
And it immediately raised his credit score over one hundred points because he didn't have many grades to factor into his GPA. Now, if you've got thirty different grades, then one good thing is not going.
To offset all of the other grades.
You're gonna have to do multiple good things by paying down your credit card every month, paying it off in full, making good choices, being on time with your with your with your the people that you owe.
You're gonna have to do multiple things in order to make an effect.
So and cleaning up your credit by paying attention to your credit report will it will help. So if you spot errors, I had no idea when I moved to New York City that there was a fraudulent credit card opened under my name and I got denied for an apartment and I never knew because I never checked my credit and it was dragging my score, it was dragging everything down. So check it, check it. Check It is
so easy. And I'll post links to all the tools we talked about on our site and in the in the show notes for this episode, so thank you for that question. Don't be afraid, I mean, data breaches happen, and I'll send a link to about some ways that you can react if your credit score is stolen. At this point, I'm kind of operating in a world where it's going to happen. Just be prepared to act, you know,
if your data is stolen. So okay, thank you. So another anonymous question, This person says, I have a thousand questions about getting my money together, but here's one. I've finally all caps paid off my secured Capital one credit card, which had a very high APR. It's the only credit card I've had since I filed bankruptcy back in twenty twelve. This is not a card that has any benefits at all,
no balance transfers or anything. And I still don't qualify for a traditional credit card because my credit score is not strong enough currently it's a five sixty eight. Now that I pay this card off, I'm sure my card my credit score will start to increase. Should I close the card down or keep it open so I have revolving credit available. She says, I've finally been approved for a personal loan from one main financial to consolidate some debt. The loan is worth six thousand dollars at a very
high APR. So this is kind of like two questions. So she has a secured credit card, and now she's come back and said that she must have other debt that she's trying to consolidate. So she says, I've finally been approved for a personal loan from one main financial to consolidate debt. The loan is six thousand dollars at a very high twenty nine percent EPR with monthly payments of one hundred and sixty dollars for thirty six months.
The loan would be used to pay down a few accounts and collections and helps to increase my credit score by paying down some outstanding debt. What are your thoughts on this? Would you accept this offer? So this is a lot to unpack. She has filed bankruptcy, she took out a secured card, but it sounds like she still has some accounts and collections. I mean, that was six years ago, so it's not unheard of that people who
file bankruptcy fall back into debt. It's very easy. But now she has this personal loan through So have you heard of One Main Financial.
No, I was gonna say, have you heard of it before?
I have. Yeah, We've done a review of One Main Financial and Magnified Money. It's actually they have a lot of storefronts across the country. They're actually a bank you can walk into and personally get a person. You actually have to walk into the bank, I'm pretty sure in one of their branches to get a personal loan, and they typically work with people in the subprime credit category. So I mean, she says she has a five to
sixty eight credit score. It's very difficult to get qualified for a personal loan when your score is under even six p't eighty and One Main Financial while that APR is high twenty nine percent, and they do charge in a lot of cases some origination fees. It could be so much worse. There are so many worse banks you
could work with. I feel, you know, One Main Financial and of course I'm not a financial planner, not a financial advisor, but you know, among the lenders that we've reviewed who work with people with poor credit, there, I
would say one of the better ones. And at an APR twenty nine percent, I've seen ones that have trip digit aprs easily or they yes, or their origination fees are so high that it kind of or they charge these really high upfront fees that mirror that kind of hide that they make up for, you know, they use it to make up for maybe advertising a lower rate. So it's good that you're looking at the rate your
monthly payments at one sixty for thirty six months. The benefit there is that, Okay, you know exactly how much you owe. It's never going to change because it's a fixed loan. That's how personal loans work, and everything is kind of upfront. What I would say is you're only going to know if one main Financial is a good deal if you also shop at a couple of other
lenders and see what they offer you. And if you do, if you do your homework and you try to see what other approvals you can get from other lenders, and then you realize, Okay, this one main Financial offer actually is the best I'm getting, or oh hey, this lender's actually offering me with a much lower APR. Then you that'll help you determine what the best option is for you. One main Financial at twenty nine percent, I mean I
think they go up to like thirty six percent. Okay APR, so it seems like that's a and especially for a five sixty eight credit score. Okay, decent, But you have to I would say, compare your options to other lenders. Can you can go to lending tree dot com or magnify money dot com. We each have tools where you can possibly review offers from different lenders and do some shopping. It takes some extra homework, but you know, there's only
one way to find out. It's not like I can tell you, oh, you can go to this bank or that bank, because I don't. You know, each bank has her own criteria and you need to actually apply to see what you're going to get.
You know.
And as far as the other card, honestly, I probably wouldn't close.
I think she asked the question about she keep it or close it. I probably wouldn't.
Yeah, close it. This is a secured card, yeah.
Yeah, so because you want to keep that. Your utilization, So utilization is basically the difference between how much money you could borrow from your credit cards by swiping and using it versus how much you actually do borrow. So if you're if you're maxed out, your utilization is one hundred percent, which is really bad. You want utilization to be at maximum, really thirty percent, meaning if you have one hundred dollars limit, your balance is no more than
thirty dollars at a time. So I probably because I've had cards like that where the interest rate is not so great, but I've kept them.
Like I have a Bank of America card.
The interest rate is not in comparison to my other cards, it's not so great, but it's a card that I've had since like literally like my thirty year in college, and the the limit is super high because I've had it for so long, so I keep it to offset any other card that I might use, So like it keeps because utilization is the average of your cards, So I would just keep it and kind of like hold on to it.
And even what you could do, which actually has helped me.
Raise my credit card, is that one card you can like I put Netflix on that card, that Bank of America card, So every month next charges that car for like eight bucks a month or whatever, and then I have what my bank account paid off automatically every month. So I have like this like loop that I don't have to do anything with like charge the car paid off automatically, So that way the card is used every month and paid off every month in full, and then I leave my card home.
That's what I would do.
That's smart. Yeah, and she's had it since twenty twelve, well apparently, I don't know when she's high long she's had it for. But if it's her only credit card, yeah, I mean, if you get rid of that, then your your average age of credit history is really gonna plumb, which can impact her score.
Yeah.
I realized these questions were sent back to back on the same day, so it's almost like when she really said she had a thousand questions, she meant it and real quick. Just another thought on the personal loan thing. As you're comparing offers from lender, she's talking about consolidating her debt, so also consider, Yes, the APR with this loan, twenty nine percent sounds high. You know, there's actually store credit cards that have aprs at high, so it's not outrageous,
but that's true. Yeah, But like, also can look at the loans that you're going to be consolidating and if they're if they have aprs that high or higher, think about how much money you'll save by going with this deck consolidation loan. I mean, hopefully it's something, and especially if it can help you take those accounts out of collections and you know, you know, consolidate, make your payments easier.
You know, maybe maybe it's maybe it's worth it. Just just consider everything, not just the APR and the monthly payment and all that jazz.
Yeah, So hope we answer two of your a thousand questions.
Good questions. Somebody lay us. You've got like three questions in one there.
So you got that off. You got that off, all.
Right, Thank you so much, and everybody, you can email us your questions at Brown Ambition Wait yeah, Brown Ambition Podcasts at gmail dot com, or or hit us up at brown Ambition podcast dot com. Ask us anything at the top of the site.