¶ Intro / Opening
Hey, ba fam, we are five years into making this podcast that we love so much called Brown Ambition, and we could not do it without you. We've gone from me and Tiffany sneaking around my old office building trying to find places to record, and thanks to you, guys, we now have one hundred thousand downloads per month for this little show called Brown Ambition. We would love to ask y'all for a small favor as fans of the show. Tiffany, what are we looking for?
Here's what we'd love from you, guys.
We already have over a thousand reviews and a five star rating on iTunes, but you know it's better than one thousand.
Reviews two thousand reviews.
If you get head on over to iTunes, go to our Brown Ambition page, scroll on down to the bottom, subscribe and leave us a five star rating and review.
So subscribe, rate review. Not too much to ask, right easyps. We love you guys, and thank you so much for making Brown Ambition what it is. The last five years have been amazing and it's all things to you.
Hey, hey, hey, we're back, We're black.
We're bread, and.
Somebody been a little jazz. Somebody watched my Rainie's black Bottom.
I was giving. I was giving Queen Latifa. I was giving a little yeah, you.
Know, she's like one of my Queen Latifa is one of my idols. You know that she's from mm hmmm, well Norky Starringiest. But also what I love about Queen Latifah, the reason why she's one of my idols is because I feel like she has maintained her authentic self and has risen to like, you know, the upper echelons of her of her career while maintaining you know, Brick City, Essex County, New Jersey.
You know, So I just love that.
Yeah, I was listening to speaking of Newark and famous people. Whitney Houston has been coming up a lot because this is her The anniversary of her death is around this time of year. I remember it was around Valentine's Day?
How many years ago was it? And there was a podcast that did a whole recap of her performance at the super Bowl, the epic, the iconic one where she's sang the national anthem and they were sort of just there, they were giving her the shine that she deserves, and just it just makes it sad that she never got to fulfill her entire you know, fulfill what she could have done if she had, you know, not gone so quickly. But yeah, I mean I feel like Queen Latifah. What else?
What else is new work have going for them? Whitney Corey Booker? Is that something that y'a by nature?
Okay?
I know you've got a new whole food.
Yeah, we do have a new foods.
Newark is the Newark Renaissance, and I was Newark Renaissance. It's exciting that you're a part of that.
Yeah, I know it is, honestly, Yeah, girl, how have you been?
You know, nothing new over here, nothing new to report?
So something. So I don't know if y'all remember, but I meet with my coach.
Remember I was looking for like a therapist, and then I found a therapist, coach, Stephanie. No, I found a therapist finder Stephanie who connected me. She's like, well, I don't know if you need a therapist more so like a coach. But my coach, doctor Green is also a therapist. She's just not my therapist anyway, say all had to say. I had a call with her on Friday and then she gave me a really good lesson. So I just
wanted to share that with the Austins. We're sharing lessons, like you know, y'all know that my new book Get It with Money, it's available for pre order and Get Good with Money dot com. And I have been nervous to share that I would like for it to you know, be a bestseller, like you know, to be on the list, like you know, there's like USA Today, Washington Post, New York Times, like I've been nervous to.
Like say it.
And she was asking me why it's on my vision board. It's been on my vision board even before I got my book deal. And there was two reasons.
One, I said, I just feel felt like it was maybe a little.
Arrogant, you know, to say like oh. And she was like, no, that's not it. And she said, do you know what arrogance is. I was like, uh, yeah, I guess and she said no. Arrogance is when you are using your quote unquote bigness to make someone else feel small, right. And so she was like, is that what you're trying to do when you say, hey, I would love to
have a New York Times bestseller? And I said no, and she's said, well, then that's not arrogance, and I was like, well, maybe this is just a lack of humility. She's like, wrong again, do you know what humility is? And I was like, hey, I guess you're gonna tell me. And she said, true humility is really filling up just the right amount of space. She was like, you know, like not no less, no more. Humility is not about shrinking.
Humility is about filling up the space a set aside for you, you know, like just doing what it is that you're created to do. She was like, we don't consider the sun any less humble. The sun is meant to shine, and so are you, Tiffany. I have to lean into I know. I was like, I'm not gonna lie every time. I'm like that tears wow, right, and and so something else like I you know, there was something else that she said to me.
That to me, the biggest lesson that I got away from it.
And I said, I guess it's like, well, what if I don't get any best sellers, what if I don't sell well, what if the books?
You know, what if nobody cares? What if people say it's terrible?
And you know, and she said, what would you feel? I was like, I would feel ashamed. And she was like, you know, shame is one of the most she said, it's really one of the most terrible emotions because shame is a liar. Because the thing about shame is that shame tells you that you're bad, not that the action that you take have taken might not have been as good as it ought to be. You know, shame, shame, Shame speaks to you as a person incorrectly, like if
I don't sell enough books, I'm bad. I'm a loser. I not just I just didn't sell a lot of books. And she was like, that's why shame is so bad, because it truly eats away and all the things that are good about you, because it'll have you believing that there's something wrong with you because of some sort of
action that was externally taken, you know. And she said, you know, there's really one, only one antidote to shame, and I'm sharing this whether you're thinking about your finances, whether you're thinking about your goals, whatever it is, especially us as women, we struggle with this. She said, the only antidote to shame is voice. And it like hit me like a ton of bricks, and she was like, in sharing whatever it is that you're afraid of, that
you're ashamed of. When you give voice to it, you literally you render shame useless.
So I'm afraid, you.
Know, I use my credit card too much and my bill is too high, you know, Oh my gosh, you know, like I think I'm going to lose my house to foreclosure because during the pandemic, you know, I was furlough and I can't I can't afford I can't afford the mortgage anymore. Tell your father, tell your sister, not that they're going to give you money, but to release the shame of it. Because shame is keeping you from solutions.
It's keeping you shamed. Like it thrives off of you hiding, It thrives off of you being alone, It thrives off of silence.
And so when she said that that.
Like, you know, shame, the antidote to shame is voice, I was just like wow, because honestly, we've sold like thousands of copies already. But the first day there was a glitch in the system and they told us that we only sold like a few hundred copies, and I was like, wait, what. I couldn't believe because it's been so we had worked so hard, and honestly, I felt
so much shame. Mandy. I was like, I mean, I was like, a superman doesn't ever really, I'm even though it's surprising, I'm I'm pretty much a cry baby, but he doesn't see me cry much.
He didn't know what to do. He was like, wait, are you gonna cry? I was like, He's like, do you want some tea?
I was like, what are you doing?
I guess I normally cry by myself. I was like, has he not seen me cry? I'm like, well, I guess I don't. Really I was thinking, I'm like, you know, I guess I do cry by myself. I guess, but I was so ashamed. It was like my worst fear confirmed that I could put in hard work and it come to nothing. And she was like, and what happened? I was like, I don't know. I just felt a shamed. She's like, but did you basically, but did you die?
And you know?
And I didn't. And then she's like again, then what happened? And I said, well, then you know, I called, like, you know, my best friend and I told her and I called my other best friend.
I told him. She said okay, and she said no, what happened?
Did they judge you? And I said no. She was like, did they comfort you? He said yes, And she's like, then what else? And I was like, well, then I started to put together a plan of what we can do to, let you know, to make the next day better. And she's like, and did you put in the plan? I said, yes, you know, I've reached out. I wasn't going to tell my team. I was afraid that they would, you know, that they would look at me differently. But they didn't. And she said, so so so thankfully that
number ended up being incorrect. But what if your worst fear does come to light? Can you not lean into those solutions telling people that you trust, think about a plan of action?
She said, one feeling it?
There's nothing wrong with feeling like disappointing, disappointed. So can't you lean into those action steps feeling the disappointment, telling people that you trust and that love you, that are going to give you the support, the emotional support that you need, thinking about solutions, and then getting the folks around you that would help in those solutions and working the plan. Can't that always be how you manage when things like this happen.
I was like, I guess, so it's really.
Good and I just felt I feel deeply. I mean, I've shame is it is so toxic? And you're yeah, And I've never heard it articulated in that way except for maybe Brene Brown. You know, she's become really ubiquitous, but she's given a Ted doc on shame. And but that particular like phrasing that the antidote to shame is voice,
It's so true. I mean in this Yes, immediately when you were talking, I started to think about the women in my life who've felt ashamed of, you know, being harassed, sexually harassed at the office or in their personal lives, and they didn't want to say anything or even listening to. I don't know if you guys did tune into AOC's ninety minute Instagram live where she recounted what happened to
her during the riot from her perspective. But part of her story was part of her was the reason she was even telling it because she wasn't you know, she wasn't hurt physically, although it was extremely you know, she thought she was going to die several times because she's aos and literally people there are people who would like to see her gone, but her sharing her story. She said,
I thought my story was too small. I thought that it didn't matter, and I thought I felt ashamed that if I said it, that maybe it would be used as a weapon against me by conservative media and all that kind of stuff. But she was like, I'm gonna tell the story anyway, because it's really to encourage other people who've been through something small large. Who knows saying it.
It is to her to release her It's yes, yes, honestly. One of the reasons why, like I don't do it as much, but one of the reason I used to I shared, like my my struggle with fertility is because of that, because I don't know any woman that wants to have a child, that is having trouble having a
child that doesn't feel shame about it. Because you're told your whole life, since you were you know, since you get your first period, better be careful, don't want to get pregnant, because the assumption is if you're a woman and you have a period, pregnancy is a is a given.
It's like dum a default for your.
Body, right, and then you know, all throughout like high school and college unless you found someone you're like every month you're like, oh, not pregnant this month, Oh thank goodness, you know, and then you try the thing that your body is supposed to do, default the thing that you've literally seen fourteen year olds do women who are you know, addicted to substance, substances that should have destroyed their inside, like like women who work in the harshest environments, I
mean every type of extreme, you know, and in between you see women getting pregnant left and right, left and right, left, right, and you're like, what's wrong with me?
So there's a shame in that.
But I the reason why I share, That's why that lady, I mean, I made a joke of it, but and I know she didn't intend it, like the woman who say I'm tired of hearing about Tifney's uterus. You know, you know I made a joke of it because, like I know, obviously she didn't say it to be I mean, she was being mean, but she didn't say it to the depth of like which I felt it.
But I shared it. And I share that because I do feel.
Shame around it, and the only way to let go of that is to share, because I know in so sharing you guys hit up my inbox like crazy, like me too, girl, this is what I did, or this is how I fell or I still don't have a kid yet. You know that, like shame, I just that's what I wanted to give that gift of. Like, if you're feeling shame around a thing, whether it's not wanting to admit that you want to be on a New York Times bestsellers list, or it's you know, somebody raped
me and I never told anyone that. Really, the only way that you're going to start to release yourself and free yourself from that shame is to give voice to it. However, voice looks like to you, voice just means speaking about it in a safe place where you're going to get the support and encouragement that you need.
I feel like I just need a paper fan to fan my face. I'm just like I'm doing that Baptist church lady like rocking back and forth like m appreac on. Yeah listen, y'all, I do deep have deep Southern Baptist roots. But anyway, uh so that's the show. I mean, I don't know what else you guys could need from us today, because I feel like we just gave you everything that.
You need, everything I happened to be.
I know. No, that's I'm really glad. And to bring it back to finance in brown ambition, women can feel ashamed of being ambitious and also the first step toward financial wealth and well being for a lot of people who don't come from a place of privilege and already had some kind of foundation, is one being vulnerable enough to say I do not know this, I need to ask, I need to ask questions and or if you've had
struggles in the past, here's where I'm at today. And I have been coaching two people in my family who who in the past couple of and I've been I've been working on these people for years to like, you know, hey, every want to talk. I don't want to be intimidating, but I'm like, I can tell that you want to say. They're the people who like they reached out and they're like, hey,
I'm going to text you or can we talk? And then they never text and never call, and it'll happen like once a year, and then finally you have the conversation and you realize you know what the and you hear it in their voice when they have, when they have shared the truth of their situation. And the first thing I usually say is You're gonna be fine. This is okay, this isn't that bad. You can fix this or it's not about always fixing. It's like, you can
get there. You know, you can get to this dream, you can get to this, you can achieve this, you can think bigger. You just need to know a few you know, a few little stepping stones. And it's it's really impactful and powerful financially just to open up and to yeah, to share with other people and you don't even know. It could be sending in a question to Brown ambition or you know, or just talking to a
girlfriend or to an actual financial planner. But I don't think if you if you choose carefully who you talk to, you know, choose people that you trust and who love you, you're never gonna be better or worse off. I think from having that kind of conversation and I and yeah, I truly do feel like that is and you've probably seen this a millionfold through your work through the budget NESTA.
But getting over that initial hump of the shame and the sense of embarrassment over what they where they It's always the shoulds right where you think you should be but you aren't. Well you think you should be doing what you can't. Well, you think you should know, but you don't know. It's all it's all tied to shame. And yeah, it's it's almost you know, as a as you know in my title chief Consumer Advocate, it's like,
what is that? Well, really, I feel like I am someone who's going to help people get over that home, you know, get over that sense of shame and to unlock potential they never knew they had, you know, because they can feel like they have someone they can talk to who relates to them and all that. And yeah, I financial shame. I'm trying to think of, like I feel like you should do it technique.
Maybe sometimes I'm so opposed to some of you know, some of y'all thieves who peddle the shame.
I mean, like we're not going.
To say any names, but you know, just because it's enough of that, Like you know, that's why you know here, you know, we talk about we try to make the financial advice. We never try to shame y'all of the choices that you've made, because honestly, We've made those choices times ten. And this is supposed to be a safe space so you can lean in and ask your questions about finance and business and career and everything adjacent, because there's enough shame out there. And honestly, we're already good
at shaming ourselves. We don't need anybody's help.
I'm saying right. And I think I saw this quote recently, just to like round this out, And you said choices. There was someone who said, you know, you didn't. You didn't make good choices. You had good choices to make. And I think that's a real definition of privilege. I need to figure out where I saw that. It must have been somewhere on Insta. Yeah, you didn't you didn't have good choice, or you didn't make good choices. Your choices were good in the first place, And that's privilege.
And I think being black women, Tiffany, we get it in the sense that and I was all always so sensitive to that when I was editing content or writing content, you know, for a general audience, not to be not to be dismissive or not to be what's the word like, condescending to people. Why did you do that choice? You never should have done that in the first place. I
get it. You know, when you are black in this country or your minority in this country, often you may not it's either the payday loan or it's taking an advance in your credit card. Okay, So okay, I don't have the emergency fund. Yeah, so skip that piece of your useless you know, top ten list of what to do to to to start saving. You know, I don't have those things. So I have these choices. They're all bad choices. So which is the least worse and how
can I better prepare for next time? And that is the perspective that and that is Yes, that is perspective, and that's why there will always be That's why I think, Tiffany, you belong on the best seller's list, you belong up there with everybody else because you know your voice and your perspective, and you're you're the way that you're tuned
into your community and your audience is needed. And that's also why I think there's that's why I more than willing to step up into this new role because it's there's space and there's need for more financial empathy.
More Yes that note, I think we should take a whosan a break. Everybody, take a deep breath.
Then we'll be back after these important messages, and.
We're back for questions. You know, this is my favorite part of the.
Show because you can ask us any kind of question you like, questions about finance, business, career, and life all around. We'll do our best to answer them. Although we are not experts.
I mean, we're not your financial planner at the end of the day, and anything that we say here right is like general you know, information that we have collected over years, decades of experience collectively. So don't take anything we say, you know to the letter. Always do what's best for you. But we do love getting all us questions,
and in fact, we're just talking about shame. If you are a shamed you should feel like when you submit a question to Brian Ambition, even if it doesn't end up on the show, I feel like even just typing it out might make you feel better just putting it down on paper. So consider us your your personal finance diary, and you can always remain anonymous. We get lots of anonymous questions. I think as people are a little bit embarrassed, and that's perfectly fine. It's like your comfort level, but
do reach out to us. No question is too silly and we love to hear from y'all, and it's also a good way for us to understand what has happening out in the world and what are people worried about and concerned about. So I'll remind y'all where you can
find us. You can go to Brandambisson podcast dot com and click ask us anything to send a question, or you can hit us up directly on our Insta media instant Media what Instagram account Brand Ambition Podcast on Insta just slide into our dms there, or send us an email directly Brand Ambisson Podcast at gmail dot com dot com. And now I'm going to take a question from a listener named Kayla. She actually hit us up through our
email Old school. Kayla's got a quick question, and actually we were just talking about online brokerages last week when we were talking about GameStop and the whole Robinhood fiasco. So go check out episode two fifty one if you haven't yet to catch up on all that. But Kyla's question is, could you all give advice on the best online broker for investing for beginners or platforms that you are using or have used for investing that you like and.
Why Okaila, you got me?
Oh my niece actually Leila. But okay, so I'm not gonna lie. I used to use but I know, I know longer, I know longer I used it. When did you stop holding robin Hood last week?
Okay, it would take the investigative journalist. I was like, turn it, Mandy. I mean, it's just a couple of questions. No, no, no, no, no, that's fine, that's fine.
No.
But I also like honestly, I also like Vanguard, but I mean that's more like for a brokerage account.
Yeah, there are there are so many out there, but just talk about like the ones you've used, and if you left Robinhood. And I personally, long before I worked with Ally, I had been using robin Hood, but I got frustrated by the time it took to transfer funds from my my bank account, which was Ally, and it took like a few days to process. And when you wanted to buy a stock, three days is I mean,
you don't know what could happen in three days. So a good deal can instantly become like crazy, you know, expensive three days later. So for me, the draw for Ally was that they had they had launched Ally invest and I finally hooked up to their online brokerage and it's great. I mean it's there's a lot of them out there, but for me as an ALLY customer, just makes sense to connect it because it's super easy to transfer money and I can see it all in one place and it's all pretty. But in the past, I
too have used I still have robin Hood. I have a bunch of Chewy shares because I love Chewi, which is where I buy all of Molly's fancy dog food. I have a bunch of shares there and I just haven't done anything with them. I guess I should. I don't know, what do you do if you got shares at robin what did Yeah? What did you do with your shares? Just leave them there? No?
So what I did was I was talking with Angelie y'all know, my my amazing financial CFP, Yeah, certified financial planner, and I was sharing with her like, Okay, I've got you know this money at ALLY, I mean at robin Hood. But then she and my husband and I we were having a conversation about I wanted to be to do more conscious giving because I give now now anyway, but like it'll kind of be like, oh, there's a cause, here's some money. Oh there's a cause, here's some money.
But I wanted to set aside actual funds to be intentional, and so she was like, well, one of the things that I forget what she called it, there's a specific type of account that I'm rolling over my you know, like those like because I you know, I don't know everybody's I feel like everybody's everybody's stocks have gone up. So I'm rolling over that's those stocks into a specific type of giving account so I can start to use
that money to give. I want to you know, I want to give, like, you know, a significant amount of money every year, and I want to fund that account. So I'm using my ally stocks to fund that account.
Okay, or your robin Hood stocks you.
Mean, yeah, that's what I mean, my robin Hood jock.
How many times can she sa.
Darn you Mandrad.
So transferred you're so you can? Did you cash them out?
Was They're like, yeah, no, I'm going to ask the name of it because she said it and I totally forgot.
But I don't actually have to do anything.
I gave her, so, yes, they're gonna roll it over and basically dissolve them. But I don't because you know, when you people don't realize you know, you're buying and selling and buying and selling, you are there's capital gains tax that you have to pay. But because I'm dissolving them and putting them into like this this like giving account, and I'll be giving it away by the end of the year, then I'm not going to have to worry about the taxes on them. I forgot the name of
the account. It was a specific type of account that she said, and I was like, oh, okay, that sounds good because I had I'm not gonna lie. I had a good amount of money and there I had about forty thousand dollars I know, which My sister is like, girl, you're supposed to Robinhood is for play money.
The heck.
I was like, hey know, because here's what happened years ago when it first came out. I didn't put that much money in there. But years ago, when it first came out, I had an affiliate link and I shared it, and so I got all this free stock, like a lot of free stock. So I would say probably like I don't know, you know, at least a third, if not half, of it was from that those that free stock. And then you know, you know, everybody like the stock market has been crazy.
But you know, at the end of the day, it's gone up.
And so like, I think my return over the last four or five years or however long you know I had that account was like sixty something percent. So damn, it just goes to show you. So I didn't put I didn't put forty thousand dollars in. It grew to forty and a lot of that was stock that I want, that I basically earned through my affiliate link, that you bought.
It's just a really good you know, because people think of robin Hood as Okay, I'm gonna go buy the hot stock today, I'm gonna make money tomorrow. But you really, like the bulk of your returns have come from stock that you were even though you didn't buy it, like you were given one of like years ago, a couple of years ago.
Yeah, and when robin Hood first opened.
And grew over time, So hey, y'all have long term investing strategy from and that's the way that I've you know, Robinhood has been my play money account. I don't really check it that often, but damn my shoe, my showy shares.
I'm a genius anyway. Uh but yeah for me online brokerages, I don't think the only thing, the only way that I think you can go wrong when it comes to investing online is just not doing it at all and just keeping your money parked in cash, way too much money parked in cash, because ultimately you need to get you want to start investing, and that's because you know, it is really one of the few proven ways to build wealth that is genuinely more accessible to you know,
mass mass americaa like most people. Then a lot of people realize. And that's whether that's three or four to one K, which a lot of people have access to through their employer, or just yes, starting a Vanguard account or yes if Robinhood is the is an easy thing for you to open, or you already have a bank account and they have an online brokerage that's commission free or whatever.
Opening some things about sash right because you can buy I think you can buy fractional state shares via stash. Yes, that's like if you don't have like the whole amount you know you can. So if you're gonna if you're here's the thing. If you are just going to practice, there's a great td Ameritrade has this thing called sink or sink or swim or is it think or swim think or swim.
Where you can actually like practice with full money. Oh that's so.
You're just I think Helen talked about that, like the simulator.
Yes, exactly, that's the word. I'm like, I swear I have words. So basically it's a stock simulator, so you know, for some months you can practice there, or if you're not trying to get all fancy like buying and trading,
buying trading, but you know, buying selling stock. Honestly, you can choose an index fund at like a Vanguard and say here's my fifteen hundred two hundred bucks a month, and i'd like to you know, the index i'd like to mirror is s and P five hundred Dow Jones NASDAC and just do that, you know, and that's super super simple, and you'll be better off than most people in sidebar Mandra my bad girl. I just looked at my thing. I opened my account, rob her account. August fifth,
twenty sixteen, girl, I'm up ninety six points sixty five percent. Yes, So like I said, and you have to think to yourself, more than half of that money was probably from the free stock, just from like me sending it out, So that's a lot. That's why it's like, yeah, my capital games would have been tremendos. So like I said, I'm rolling it over. It's now technically I put in twenty
thousand dollars. You know, that includes a free stock, so right now it's at forty thousand and so yeah, I just I want to donate.
I want to choose my husband. I want to choose like four different organizations that we like to give them at least.
Ten diary doves, an application for the Tiffany Foundation.
I think for me, if you know me, for me anyway, So twenty thousand, I'm going to decide for myself and my husband will decide twenty thousand. I think for me. Women and kids always have my you know, like in family. So one I already know is you know Angela Vie McKnight. She's the assembly woman who I did the budgetiese A law with. So she's got this amazing food pantry program where it's not what I love about it is it's
not just that you donate to the food pantry. She she's got this nonprofit called Angela Cares where she then also takes food to the elderly people, because just because you have food at the food pantry, everyone can't make it there, especially the elderly. So she has this amazing program where she you know, collects the money, buys the food, and then dispenses it by going to different households and dropping it all. So she's definitely getting you know, like
one quarter of that. And there's a there's a homeless shelter in newer called the Covenant House. Well it's not only a homo shelter, it's more like a it's a shelter for teens.
They're all over, but yeah, it's like at risk youth.
Yes that's what I'm saying. So it's not really a hombies.
So but I just like and I've spoken there before and donated like my time there before, and just they just do really great work.
So those are the two.
Places that I'm I'm wanting to put my money toward. And then Superman is going to.
Decide like what he like the two places that he'd like to. So, yeah, so no need to send me your application.
Well that's no, that's amazing. And I mean five years and very little. I mean, obviously you had the supercharge capital from the from the affiliate links. But still, I think, you know, if you have patience, you don't have to be an investing genius. You just have to start now. And you know, don't think that you've missed the boat. Just get on it, you know, but just remember when
it comes to the way that these apps work. You know, if you're really going to be picking stocks personally, Mandy Woodruff would save you know, extra money for that type of investment. And then I'm a very boring investor. And I actually read an interesting there's a there's a person who has a book coming out. I forget his name. They had him on the Bodega Boys show recently. Oh, Josh Brown. Josh Brown. He's a wealth manager. I forget what Ritz Holt's management or something like that. He's pretty
big in finance. And he was talking about how, you know,
¶ could you all give advice for the best online brokerage for beginners?
and the research for his book. He was like, I want to interview financial planners who are actually helping the billionaires invest their money about how they invest their money. And what he's found and personally for himself too, is like people who know how to invest money do it
the boring old way. Index funds, ETFs, like it is, pick an index, you know, dollar cost averaging, which is just a fancy way of saying, like Tiffany said, put some money in there every month a set amount, which is I have I have automatic payments to my one
of my brokerages accounts. I also have a Vanguard, so I have auto payments to a fund there and you know, auto to my ally invest account and that for me, it's like take myself out of the equation and just do it the old vanilla traditional way because that's really you know, that's that for me personally, that is that is the strategy and for a lot of people. Research she has has promoted or not promoted, but has shown that that is probably gonna work for most people. Yeah,
great question. And if you I feel like I need to know what are the hot new I have, Stash is new er, and then you have like your betterments, your acorns, your your wealth fronts. I mean they're all
pretty similar. But ultimately what you want to do is, you know, look at how much work is going to be needed on your part, and you know what kind of what kind of risks you're you're willing to take on with these types of apps, and and also are you ready for that step yet or do you need to back up a couple and payoff debt, save a little, or you know, start with your four one K because
you have a company match or something like that. All right, Kayla, that was probably way more than you bargained for, but good question. All right, Let's take one more. And this comes from Instagram. This is Carrie Carrie from Delaware. She says she's twenty one and currently a senior in college getting ready to graduate. This may, oh great, I know exactly how you feel because I too graduated into a
plunging economy. But you'll be all right, yes, and her next tenses, I have the beautiful privilege of entering the workforce during a print during a pandemic. I lost both of my jobs at the beginning of the pandemic, and I've had to rely on unemployment assistance during that time. It was extremely hard and I don't ever want to be in that position again. I recently discovered your podcast and I want to do several things all at once, but I want to figure out what I should focus
on first. I think I want to open a life insurance policy. I want to start saving for retirement retirement. I want to start a regular savings account, maybe invest in stocks, and pay off my student loans. But I know, being fresh out of college, that's a lot. Do you guys have any advice on which one I should tackle first, or any books I should check out to further research educate myself about obtaining financial knowledge. I can think of one book.
Yes, there is one called Get Good with Money, available at get goodmoney dot com for pre order.
I mean it's written by this girl named Tiffany the Budget Least that so, okay.
Put a bee on the capitol be on budget?
Yeah, no, no, I this is actually a really good question because it does seem like a lot. It's like, I want to do all the things, but what do you start with first. It's like when you first start cooking and you're like, what do I start cooking first? Because you want everything to kind of be done around the same time, Like, you know, do I put the turkey in the oven first? If I start making this stuff in too early, it's going to be cold by by the time the rest.
Of the food is done.
I like to start with like the basics, Like I like to start with what I call the financial fundamentals to kind of get like a baseline of where I am before I start jumping into fancy stuff like let me get my budget in order, let me get like this kind of saving plan in place. You know, how's my credit score looking. You don't need to do anything special other than if you pay your bills on time, your your credit score for the most part, will start
to raise. And you know there, you know, you can certainly take a look at your debt to see where you stand.
But a lot of people wait.
And I've seen folks wait to start putting aside and investing money for retirement.
And to me, that's a big mistake, huge mistake.
I saw me the other day, Mandy, and it was like, if you could tell your eighteen year old self just three words, like you know, you travel back in time, You're like, oh my god, okay, I just came.
It's me from the future. You know, it's me. Look at it.
We look at like I have an age one bid I have three words for you. Obviously, that's a lot more than three words. But whatever, I have three words for you, what would they be for me? They would be learn to invest. I wish I'd started earlier, because you know, just there's nothing more powerful than time when it comes to investing. And people say saved for retirement, but you're not really saving for retirement. You're really investing
for retirement. But once you get your financial foundation kind of like in place like where do I stand really leaning into setting aside investing money in retirement is where where I put most of my energy beyond the financial foundation stuff.
Yeah, I love that, and I agree in the sense that twenty one is not too young to start investing. You know, I think, I mean, there's kids, you have little custodial accounts and they're investing. I mean, I think I shared that story last week about the little boy who was ten and his mom bought him sixty shares of game stock, game stop stock or something like that, and you know, he made three thousand dollars at age ten.
That's beautiful. And imagine if he and he and he took that money and he you know, reinvested in others. So who knows where he's going to be in another ten years when he's twenty all of twenty years old. So yeah, I would say even if you have I know, you said that you've lost your job, but you're also I think, being a student, you're in a bit of a honeymoon phase. You know, even if let's say the
pandemic wasn't here. You know, you have a grace period before your student loans are going to be due, and you will find a job. I hope you will. Well, okay, I really hope you'll find a job. It's you sound super smart. I can't imagine why you wouldn't get a job.
You will. When you find your first job, you will pay attention like I did not do, where the four to one K is and how you can sign up for it, or you know, just based on the fact that you're listening to Brown Ambition, you'll know that you can open up a brokerage account, you know, through a Vanguard or you know, through any other platform and get your excuse me, get your IRA if you don't have access to a four oh one K, and you can start automatically when you get your first paycheck or when
you get your you know, start getting money from side hustles or whatnot. You can start contributing to that, and you can do it at the same time. You know you can you can invest a little maybe it's a little now, and then you're also at the same time taking a share of that and putting it into your savings fund so that you, yes, your actual savings fund.
You know the money that you're going to need if you, you know, get a flat tire on the way to work one day, or you lose a job, you need to cover rent for one month while you, you know, look for another one. You do want to have some money because you don't want to get into the debt trap too or And I fell for this, thankfully, not to an intense degree, but I did have a couple thousand dollars worth of credit card debt when I graduated college for no good reason, like literally, I had no
reason to. I just wanted to go to Boston for New Year's Eve, okay, and they upped my credit limit and I was like, cool, I will spend all of that right now. And that was not the wisest decision. But yeah, if you just focus on not taking on debt and building up your savings, you can do those two things at one time. You know, start investing and then also saving, and it's okay to be a financial multitasker.
Just don't. Yeah, And for me, it's just more about it's about what happens if you don't start, like Tiffany said, and also not not being hard on yourself. If you're not instantly, it's going to take time to season. You know, think of it like a really good long I don't know Turkey's take forever, but imagine like, yeah, you need long, long time for that money to season in the stock market and set it forget it, and in ten years you will be so happy that you did. Yeah, I'm excited.
I love that you have a fresh start.
Yes, And honestly, yeah, you're in a great place to even be asking yourself these questions because some people, you know, if they put it off, and they put it off and it happens, you know, certainly I did, And it doesn't mean you won't. It won't turn out well for you. But the sooner you can start, the better.
Amen, And definitely find someone in your friend circle who's on the same path you are, and then you guys can swap notes. I've always had a friend in my life who listens to the show, Hey Baron, and he and I have always just we had an agreement when we graduated and moved to New York. I'm going to tell you what I make. You're gonna tell me what you make. We're going to share that kind of information.
We're going to talk about our savings, goals, We're going to talk about you know, it goes to what Tiffany was saying earlier about putting voice to fear and to shame. And I don't know it just it always felt good that he and I could hop on the phone and talk through you know, a tricky negotiation or you know, whatever was happening as we as we made our plans.
And if you haven't found some want like a buddy to share those types of things with, that'll that'll go a long way too toward keeping you on track.
And that, my dear, is advice sounds.
Those are all the answers. You're welcome. You are very welcome. Sweet All right, man, one last segment before we part. Are you boosting or are you breaking?
Oh child, I I think I'm going to break.
Okay, go get it off your chest.
It's a stay and space.
It's okay, we created this.
I'm tired being home.
Okay, me someone who loves being of y'all know me. I love me some home, any home, home home. I don't like to go out, you know, I've got friends. I'm like, come here, you know, I'm all I'm miss who's all over there?
You know.
But finally I'm sick of my own self. And honestly, I kind of hit a wall. I literally put my mask on this weekend, and I on Sunday, I just went to Target just to walk, just because you know, Target.
Is my happy place. I literally went.
I took my children's book Happy Birthday Mollymore with me and I may or may not have put it on the children's book wall at Target and took pictures like you know, it belonged there.
It was like wait, and.
As kids walking, did you leave it there? I do that. I always do that, like place.
I'm like all my books I have put them on the walk because I'm like one day, you know, it's so crazy.
This is just a funny story.
But I when my first book, When week Budget, came out, I did a whole photo shoot at Barnes and Nobles. I didn't know you couldn't. So we went to the bathroom. I got dressed. My friend Lauren, who's a makeup artist, did my makeup. My friend Ricky, who's who's a budding photographer. He was like, you know, I want to you know, I've got this new camera. I want to practice. Do you have pictures? That's a no, he was. This is
literally probably like eleven years ago. And he was like, you know, well, let's take pictures at Barnes and Nobles. And I was like, okay, I'll wake my book put a bunch of them on the shelves. Literally in my Sunday Best Mandy, I am standing from the shelf in front of the personal finance sign taking pictures and then the manager comes over says you can't do that.
I was like, wait what?
And so literally I give Ricky to look like keep taking pictures.
I was like, I can't smile. Should I leave?
Smile? You don't say hand up when I tell you though, those pictures are fine. And so when my actual when my book, because like my other books have been self published, so you know they don't go in Barnes and No books. So when Geking with Money comes out and is actually on the Barnes and Noble shelf. I'm gonna do how it started, how it's going because it will actually be there legally and for real, and I won't have to just put it on the shelf anymore. So it's gonna
be like so crazy to see. Like Tiffany, I had literally baby locks. They were like these little one interlocks, and you know, like I said in my Sunday's Best Standing next to my book, and you just know, behind
¶ I'm 21, about to graduate college into our pandemic economy. I have a lot of things I want to do to get my finances in order, do you have any advice on what to do, where to start, and where to get good knowledge from?
the scenes, there's a manager there telling me that.
Get out, that's break boo.
Yeah, exactly. Well, honestly, it's just I'm just tired.
And if you feel that way too, I'm sure that it's just I'm not gonna lie. I don't I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. I don't you know, I'm not gonna go on vacation. The snow is three feet high, almost four feet high here in some places. Usually I try, I try to take a daily walk outside, and I can't do that necessarily because it's just too it's just too snowy outside. Everybody hasn't shovel, so it's been a little bit of I guess I'm a little like what is that? Cabin
fever is what I'm feeling that. Oh my gosh, I was on the treadmill today. I mean, I did you know it was. The treadmill is great, but it's just, you know, I'm barred. I needed I need a break. I need to stretch my legs, go outside. I did to see people.
Yeah, I need. I think we all need to see some sparkle. Like the word sparkle is coming to me. I'm just like I want some sparkle. Yes, So life doesn't have much sparkle these days, that's for sure. We have to or we have to work hard to create the sparkle in a different way. I feel you. I feel you. At the same time, I'm like, yeah, I don't go anywhere, just just be. You know, targets cool, but like you know, I like to go at nine thirty before they close, like an hour and a half
before they close. It's all quiet, and you know, not the many people. But I feel you. I'm gonna do I'm gonna do a boost. I can't not boost my my my cousin Anna, who moved here, left her life in Georgia, and I used to babysit Anna and she
she was my I just love her so much. She was she was one of my bridesmaids, Tiffany, if you remember, she was with a baby, and I used to babysit her when I graduated college and I did my whole traveling thing and I came home broke af and I lived in her family in my uncle's basement, and in exchange for free lodging, I would be a babysitter for
their for Anna and her sister and brother. And Anna is like in her early twenties now and feeling a little bit stuck too with kind of where she's going getting her career off to you know, a strong start and all of that. So I was like, listen, I feel like we could mutually benefit from a certain arrangement. So you're gonna come live here and it's gonna be great, and you're gonna help take care of the baby when I start this new job. And she has been just amazing.
I didn't realize how much I missed. Just it's just different when you have family, like just someone that knows me that I've known her her whole life, and it's just she's great with the baby. And I've been in this basement in my Zenden all day almost and Anna has just been holding it down up there with Rio, and I am just so grateful to her and all the mommies out there who are trying to make it happen with the human the humans we need to uh
the tiny humans to keep alive. So that's my break, I mean, my boost rather to Anna and to some childcare that I can trust.
Finally, yeay, I know there's nothing like honestly like trustworthy childcare. You know, when you can leave your kid and know that they're literally in just as good a hands as if they were with you.
You yeah, you know.
That's why I like, I know, like my sister is like with the two kids, I'm always like, girl, drop them off here, like you know on Saturday, because honestly, they're so well behave here because they have like their they're all their toys there in the corner. I have their favorite foods. They really they play with each other and they're a delight to have. And so just to give her a break to go food shopping, take a nap, you know, get some work.
Done, because I only enjoy here. It's a joy to have.
Them too, I know, And I'm just like, just drop them off and they love my My Nigerian name is otto Adochi.
They're coming. So I'll hear them say can we go to Antiaedo's house.
And I'm like bring them. You know, she doesn't feel like cooking dinner because she's just down the street. I'm just like, girl, come eat dinner over here.
You know, Roman only eats.
Yellow rice, so whatever, I just literally have a year supply of Uncle Ben's yellow once.
I'm like, I'm gonna let your mom a Fiji vegetables. Look, I'm not fighting with your babysitters.
Like, listen, that child is drinking all kinds of I don't even want to know what kind of juice he's had up there. I don't know.
I'm just like sur they're not big juice of drinkers, like you know, it's all about water. But yeah, so I just I like, I just I can totally understand because I know that literally there's times where like I'm like, well, dag, I mean she doesn't take off their coat, she just pushed it in by.
I'm like, oh, what you got this exactly.
So there's nothing like having people that care and love your kids look after them, and so yeah, if you can provide that for somebody, especially during these times like now and it's just really overwhelming, certainly reach out to you know someone and say you want to drop the kid off this weekend, you know, on Saturday or Sunday.
Make that reach out.
Yeah. So I'm so And I'm proud of her too, because she's she's I know that she's, you know, gonna get her career off to a great start. And I'm excited that she's you know, she's my little she's my little project, and she's also helping me at the same time, which is just I mean, I closed the door to the basement this morning and I just came down here Tippany and I have not been able to do that in nearly a year, So I don't know how I survived, but I'm so glad I don't have to do that
anymore by myself with no childcare. So yes, bless bless all the childcare providers, and yes, thank you to Anna Banana. Hopefully she's listening because she's also going to have Yeah, Okay, this is a feel good episode, lots of fun. Update.
Yes, we've been up, down, side to side, on and out did you ever play that.
Game Chinese Chinese jump ropes.
Chinese jump out?
Well, it's like that, like I don't know what they call it, but that's what we used to call it. I don't know if that's the right name, but it was like it's like you wear it's almost like these rubber bands that you put around your ankle and the other person puts around their ankle and you form like a rectangle with it and then you.
Go in outside to side on and out.
I don't know how to but I do know that viral v the kids in China at the school who were like, what were they doing? They're synchronized basketball, dribbling or something and it was next level.
They were no job, No, it's not somebody knows exactly what I'm talking about. We used to call it Chinese jump rope, and I'm sure that that is not the right name. But I was in second grade, so what did I know? But remember that guys, right, especially you know sisters in outside the side on and out and you would do like kneesies, jumpsies, double z girl. Somebody's like somebody at me at the budget used to be like, I know exactly what you want.
I know there's a Wikipedia.
It exists. Yeah, how do you?
Well, I don't know that like that's what it's called. I feel like that's some name that somebody probably gave it. There's an actual it's a game, but I don't know. I'm sure there's a proper name to it. But we used to call it because that's what the older girls told us. It was called Chinese jump rope. But I don't know that that's what it was. Mean, Wikipedia is accurate all the time. Chinese Jump Rope is a is a ropes game. You're right, I'm looking at there's even patterns.
Is it?
Yes?
Oh my god, please, I don't know.
It was so fun as a kid, like and you had to keep going like if you did in outside to side, Yes, yes, it's exactly what it is, yep, in outside to side, on and out, and you kept going until.
Like you missed. Oh my god, this is exactly it. Yes, aha, I'm that crazy.
Yeah, do your googles. Do your googles. All right, we'll find a reference yet again that I did not get, but I could definitely do. Cinderella lost her fellow or a dress and it was yellow double Dutch.
Now Okay, you know I never learned how to jump double dutch. Never, No, I mean like I mean I started to, and then we moved to Westfield, which is largely white, so nobody knew how that.
God did they still do that? I mean, I have yet to see girls in my neighborhood gathered together run some jump rope that I didn't. I didn't bring that back. We have a nice little flat street. I might just put two long jump ropes out there and just get a get a double dutch going. That would be a good cardio.
There's a great company, a great company called Double Dutch Aerobics. They are so fun if you follow them on on Insta. It's a husband and wife duo and they teach kids, adults, everyone to like jump double dutch and because it's such like it's such great exercise.
But they're such a fun couple.
And if you're I think you're in Atlanta, you can actually take classes. So double Dutch Aerobics on IG tell them the budget needs to sen because I love that.
Oh my god, it's so awesome, I know.
And they've got like two little kids and like literally the like the little kids who are like two and three and a half will turn rope.
I'm like, how do they know how to turn rope?
So yeah, they're just it's an adorable account to follow anyway, but but yeah, just in general, they're just you know, they're just a fun couple.
And like I said, if you're in Atlanta, Georgia, you might want to take a clay.
It's like everybody.
I know, all right, I know, I like.
I like to get something. Probably somebody needs to be fed. If like quiet over there, well I just hear the baby laughing, and I'm kind of like, I just feel like I should just we should just have a two hour show because we can't. No, you go enjoy, relax. And I want to hear soon how you're going to be celebrating your book launch because it deserves to be celebrated. Okay, okay, okay, all right, thanks Tiff, and thank you guys. See you next week. A brand Vision