Ep. 166 — How Car Debt is Killing Us

which she wasn't a fan of. Little Molly is an introvert like her mommy.

like she has. Yes, there's sort of the maintenance of having an animal or whatever that you know, you have to like plan your life around them a little bit, but I think that's good practice for having a kid for one, and then two just the mental health benefit. I mean, I'm just so much happier. And she's also forcing me to get out of the house, Like I get up at seven am and go on a one and a half mile walk that I never would have taken,

you know before. And I think that she's just had so many benefits just even just being in my life for a few weeks that I'm not going back. I'm always gonna have a dog.

take care because they're so independent. Honestly though, but it made my day. It also made me so responsible because like I was responsible for her vet bill, you know, I was responsible for feeding her and making sure that she had like you know, wherever she was going to go to the bathroom. But it was just like nice to have. I mean, although cats will give you the same kind of love, it was nice to have like this living, you know, living cute little creature just kind

of like I love you too. I mean, although cats are like I love you too, I get.

be like, hey girl with her new collar on. I was like, so, this is where you lived now, and you're just letting me know. I'm good. Don't worry. I get fed here. I was like, you know what, it's fine, sit there. I wanted to even call her.

she was got white people. Yeah, guests were like animals do not belong to No, no animals is I was like, Daddy, it's cold, So if you weren't here, what would she do?

April and see my mom in April. So I'm I am, you know, putting my family first.

always there and back. He's like, scity, babe, I'll just stay awake. Here's the thing about me. If you're driving and I'm the passenger, I'm not staying awake.

any week now we'll be finally done. So I'll just spend time bugging the contractors in there, like to the left, to the right, ordering.

was from my business partner, Jabro. He said, Tiffany, when I first started, like, you know, doing the renovations, he said, do not budget needs to the house. And I was like, and I know what he meant. He was like, basically, I'm someone who does I take the layed gratification too far and I'm always like the next time, the next one, the next one. And so he was like, you know,

you work really hard. You deserve to have a beautiful place to live and stay, and you know, like and you spend a lot of time at home because you work from home. So just like, get the things that you want. I mean obviously you know, don't put yourself in financial harms way, but get the things that you want. And so I listen to that, and I'm so happy because I really don't think we're going to be moving anytime soon.

that you want to come home to. And at a certain point forgetting about like a little bit about the resale value and will you recoup the investment. No, you're not going to recoup everything, but yeah, you know, the the investment in your mental health and like your space for your family.

Like you know, we won't have all of our furniture stuff becuse we're still ordering because most of the stuff, most of the furniture that we live with now is like my husband's like bachelor furniture, and he's like, what about this. I'm like, babe, what part of almost everything is staying? Don't you understand? I don't want your bachelor furniture and anything that you want to take with us. That's what the man cave is for. He's so sick of me saying. He's like the man cave, right, I'm like.

I'm like, remember the rule. So he does get one veto one like absolutely not. I don't want, you know whatever. But for the most part, I mean, you know, because my husband's like he likes really bold, loud colors in the house and I don't. I'm more of a neutral and maybe like the furniture or like the pillows be a little bit bold, not the wall color, like like little we have a burgundy wall in our house, an orange wall, a green wall. Let me see what other

colors we have. Those colors don't go together in our in our current apartment, in our oh no, there was that that was not happening in the house. I was like, absolutely not so like burgundy, orange, green, I mean, when I tell you we have so many colors, we have some trim that's chocolate brown. Who why? Why? Why? Why is there chocolate brown trimp? Why is that even a thing? So I told him he's not allowed to crack his lips to make any color choices except for in the basement.

You can go crazy, sun, you can make this place as wildly colorful as you like, because no one's coming down here. This belongs to you.

crisis status with auto loans debt in America? Is it as bad as the subprime mortgage crisis, you know that precipitated the recession. Is it as bad as a student loan debt crisis? And the answer has always been no, you know, because delinquency rates for auto loans haven't always been that bad. And the reason is, and the reason people's experts will say, is because people need their cars, like they're always going to pay their car note, because they needed to get to and from their actual job.

So it's one of these things that while debt has been increasing, people haven't been as worried because it hasn't

become this whole source of delinquency. But I find auto loan debt in America, the numbers that we have in our most recent Lending Tree analysis of auto loan debt just really just caught me off guard, and I wanted to spend some time talking about auto loan debt and about the car culture that we have in this country, and how I genuinely feel like if people treated, if people were less willing to take on so much debt for their cars, they could so much easier achieve other

financial goals that they have in life, Like how you read those studies all the time that say that Americans can't scrounge up four hundred dollars for an emergency, Well, the average auto loan in America, the average car note in America, it's over five hundred dollars.

on my car because I'm not paying rent. And I was like, so what happens one day if they're like psych, you know, we're going to eliminate the own call pard and asked you to pay rent. And he was like well, and I was like really adamant about it. And so he actually had to surrender his car back because I'm like, it's just too high. It doesn't make sense. It's too high.

He had a denialatege one of those big trucks, you know, or whatever the current year was, and so he did, and sure enough, two months later after he did that he they took away that part of his position and he had to pay rent. And he was like, and you know, I didn't want to say I told you so, but I said, I told you, But I just remember, I'm not gonna lie, you know, Mandy. Up until that, I didn't even know car loans could get as high as nine hundred dollars and I couldn't.

they can have it. And the dealer is more than happy to pull strings behind the scenes, getting you all kinds of financing from their lender partners to make that happen. Because of course, dealers get a kickback from the lenders in their network in the financing office for selling you the biggest loan possible. They get a percentage of that, so of course they're going to want to get you approved. But let's let's talk a little bit about like the crisis itself, which I'm going to call it a crisis.

Maybe you know, economists don't agree with me, but I these numbers are really outstanding to me. So let's start with the big picture. Right now, Americans have over one point one four trillion dollars worth of auto loan debt let that sink in. That's up twenty three percent than twenty three the year twenty thirteen. Right now, auto loans count for about eight percent of outstanding consumer debt. Generation x if we can get down to like age level

gen xers. I'm talking to you, not utif, because your exception. Gen Xers out of any generation, carry the highest auto loan balances with the mean of eighteen thousand, seven hundred dollars. But the average list let's focus on this for a second. The average amount that people are borrowing for a new car in the US is nearly thirty thousand dollars, which is five thousand dollars more than we were borrowing as a country for new cars just a decade ago.

one thirty thirty thousand, and thirty one thousand dollars. If you have a good credit score excellent credit score, you're taking out nearly thirty three thousand dollars for a new car and nearly twenty two thousand dollars for a used car.

Now that's true. However, the problem is that the length of terms that people are getting, so the amount of time they sign up to pay back their auto loans is only getting longer. So even just in the last quarter of twenty eighteen, the length of auto loan term increased by half a month. So right now people are taking out loans for an average sixty eight and a half months, which is what is that over six years

or nearly six years. And what happens is, Yeah, that seven percent APR doesn't seem that bad, but you add that up over a six year period, and you're adding thousands and thousands of dollars to the original cost of your car, which is a depreciating asset in the first place, so the value is going down but your loan bill is going up because of this interest that's accruing. And for me, I just don't see the and I'm judging.

Wedgie was a bear. I know I sound very like judging and creachy, but I you know, even if you have to, like you have to look at a car note, for me, it was always an extra expense that I that in my mind, was taking away from something else that I could do with that, you know, three hundred four hundred dollars a month. And when my husband and I we live in New York City, we didn't necessarily need a car for a long time, but finally we needed one when we were moving out of the city.

And when we were looking at cars, we would fight about this, you know, what kind of car to gain, how much to borrow? And for me, it was about getting a reliable car. Of course, you want a reliable car, but I was at a minimum wanting like a pre sorry, certified, pre owned car. So at least you're walking with with a car that's already had its depreciation. You know, it's been driven off the lot, someone else paid for it, and now you're getting at a lower price, but it's

still you know, reliable because it's not that old. And then I wanted to aggressively paid off as quickly as I could because I just didn't want this to be a line item on my budget that was taking away

from other goals that I had. So I'm speaking from experience, and I just want wanted to open up the conversation just to talk about it and also challenge our listeners to look at how much they're spending on their car, like go to and I'll share a link to this interest loan calculator in the show notes, so you can actually punch in how much your auto loan note is how many months you have left and your interest rate, and see in black and white how much money you're

going to spend in interest over the years. And you might think differently about that car itself. And made me think about taking to the extreme. Like with Superman, he surrendered his car, you said, or he sold it? What did he do with his car?

I can't remember. Let's just say the car was like forty thousand dollars and they bought it back for like thirty thousand or thirty five thousand or whatever, and he had already made whatever amount of payments, so there might have been I think there was probably like a four thousand dollar difference or a three or four thousand dollars difference, and so he he actually took out like a low or no interest loan from his credit union and you know,

and then paid that, paid the dealership, and then paid his credit union back. I think it took about six months to pay the credit union back, and then we had no car, but we also had no car debt. So that's a.

if you have excellent credit. But that means you're just taking on more loan debt, and that means that if you get in a situation where you want to sell that car or you can't afford the payments, anymore and you try and sell it or surrender it, you know, to the lender, then you may be underwater, which means that you go like your loan is worth more than the car actually is anymore. So that's what happens when you don't put down a sufficient down payment on a car,

which is I think recommended to it. Well, the classic twenty percent rule. Put down a healthy down payment to at least cover whatever that first year's depreciation is to put you in a position where you're not like underwater.

our savings or vacation the house. You know, people want to say, how did you get a house? Yes, there's other you know, I've obviously been saving for a long time. But I think being so hell bent on not accruing a lot of unnecessary debt also helped.

I'm not judging, I mean, because I've been here. You know, you'll sign up for a couch bill, a TV bill, a blender bill, and so that's anytime you swipe your card for like, oh I'm gonna buy this, I'm gonna buy that, and without the intention of paying it off in full. When the bill comes you have like you have a now you have a dress bill and a comforter bill, and and so accruing all of this debt. And I mean it was one of the things like

when I don't you know, I don't. I guess it's because, like you know, just from my dad and growing up and just being like really preached to about the dangers of debt. That one of the things I did when I moved out was really to be mindful of is this going to add an additional debt to my monthly you know, my monthly payments, and just being like, well, how can I how can I get the thing? So I always think this, how can I get the thing without the monthly payment? You know? Does that mean waiting?

Does that mean saving? I mean the car that I have now, you know, like it's much nicer. But every car I've ever I've never had a car. Note first car I think I bought for like under five thousand dollars. Moved home right after college. I saved, save, save, and I bought that car from like a used car lot or the auction and it was a you know, good condition. It was maybe like three or four years old. It was a ninety nine Nissan Ultima, and I rolled that car.

It had two hundred and sixteen thousand miles on it, damn and then and it was still going strong because you know, also last forever. And then someone actually I had that car parked outside of my parents' house, and someone crashed into it and destroyed it. And then the insurance company, Shocker, which I was actually shocked, that gave me four thousand dollars for it because it was And so with that four thousand, you know what I did, I went back to the I went to my mechanic

had a used car. He had at the time a ninety nine camera, which by then there was like a ten year old car, and so cause it was like two thousand and nine by then, so I bought the Camri and I rolled that camera up until two years ago, and that camera had almost two hundred thousand miles on it. And then I had saved enough because I knew the CA memory was like the camera didn't last as long as the Ultimo, and I knew it was like on

this last leg. So I had been saving, saving savings, and now now I've got a I don't know like a twenty seventeen a Lincoln MKZ, And so when I bought the Lincoln, it was like a year and a half old to two years old, so that was significantly more. The first car was five thousand, and second cars four. The Lincoln. I think they wanted like twenty six or twenty seven thousand, but I had cash, so I paid twenty two thousand. But it was, like you said, Mandy,

to your point, it was certified pre owned. And thank god, because there were some issues with the Lincoln that like you know, I guess came before I knew and so, but and I've gotten that car fixed a couple of times. They finally they actually had to like almost like rebuild my engine because something happened to it. And I was like, that's not my problem. I bought a certified pri O onn y'all should have checked it. So they basically gave me a brand new engine and it cost me nothing

because it was certified pre owned. And so, like you know, for the first time and like a long time, I have like a decent looking car, because the other cars were not cute. But I have a decent look at car. But I also don't have a car note in the same way we bought our houses. I know everyone can't buy a house in a car in cash, but you know, one of the things I think about when it comes to money is is this going to add an additional payment to my life? And can it be avoided? Can

it be avoided through patients? Can it be avoided through savings? Can it be avoided through strategic like, you know, strategically managing my money? And sometimes it can't be Like I went to school and I had my my you know,

suit of loans, I couldn't avoid it. But there are areas in your life that you can avoid adding another payment to your list because it eats away at your day to day And like, I don't know, I don't you know, like I'm despite like Superman and I being like grown I think I want to say Mandy that our collective bills for every this doesn't include like what

we do to help family members. Last time I checked people, it's like twenty five hundred dollars is how much our life costs us with groceries, with bills, with everything for two adults in a Supergirl twenty five hundred dollars And that's it. Because I'm mindful of like collecting bills and so I encourage that of you. Yes, as the budget's got make way more money, But I was doing that when I was a preschool teacher making next to nothing.

So it's possible at different levels of life. But you have to be mindful and you have to be willing not to have you know, what everyone else seems to have upfront and being okay with that. Like I had to learn not to put so much stock in like not to put so much stock and stuff, you know.

how successful her son is in the car. And uh, you know, that's just like a toxic it's a it's that pressure to get what you can't afford, you know, But come on, we're all grown ups or anyway, and you should be able to resist the temptation and just think about don't think about what you can't have, think about what you can can do, can save if you were you know, less, I don't know, just more willing to buy a car that's not as expensive, or maybe even a car that you can pay you know, fifty

percent down and then have a lower car. Note, people need cars, like I'm not I'm not an idiot. You know, my mom raised four kids. She needed a car to get around, but she drove that beat up Windstar BENI Van for like a long ass time, you know. And I understand that people need cars, but you don't need to take out thirty thousand dollars worth of debt to

get one. And let's switch for a second, because people are borrowing money for cars at an increasing rate, but they're also getting financing from the dealer at an alarming rate too, which is like, ah, I wish I could just stand outside of every car dealership and just say no or just like come here, don't come until you

got your own financing. But here are some numbers. So for new cars, nearly or over fifty percent of people buying new cars or getting their financing at the dealership, and this is the new car financing again, is that's thirty one thousand dollars for a new car you're financing at the dealer. For used cars, most people are actually getting their financing from a bank, which is good. I wonder if that's because people who buy used cars are already thinking of how to save money and are more

likely to go to the bank to do so. Yeah, So let's talk about like what happens when you go to the dealership. If you have not already shopped around and gotten financing offers from whatever bank you have your local credit union near you, and you're walking into that dealership, it's going to be difficult for you to walk out without getting the financing because you're going to fall in love with that car. They're going to try and sell you on all these you know, bells and whistles. Maybe

they'll say no down payment. Maybe they'll say, oh, we'll throw in extended warranty or whatever or maintenance for a year, and then they're going to get you a dealership or sorry,

I find deal with one of their lender partners. It's almost always going to be worse than what you could have gotten through a credit union or even just any bank outside of the dealership, So before you go, before you go shop and compare financing deals, I will shout out lending Tree where you can shop and compare auto loans. Also you can do it at Magnify Money, or you can just do it your darn self by like going online.

My husband and I just did went to lightstream dot com, which is a great you know, online only lender that offers good rates if you got good credit. We went in with that light Stream financing offer. I also went to a credit Union USAA got a financing offer from then to compared them, light Streams was better, and we took our pretty butts down to the used car lot.

And this is the thing, like, when the dealer saw that we had our own financing, they spent like maybe twenty minutes in the office trying to get their lender, who happened I think to be capital one to match our rate. I think it was something crazy low. This was a few years ago when rates were a little bit lower. I think it was like three percent or something around there, and they managed to get it like a teeny tiny bit less than what our lender had.

But I don't think they would have done that. They definitely wouldn't have had an incentive to How do we not shown up with our financing? So bring your own financing, even if you can't pay it off.

to their credit union. So people buying used cars clearly have done their research, are buying used cars because they probably know it's not worth it to buy new, and also to bring their own financing to the table. Only what is this? Only about nine percent of people are getting dealer financing when they're buying used cars. So snaps for.

And then I remember telling her because she was like, I told her, bringing your own financing and I send her to you know, lending Tree, and she was like it was just such a great tool to find different places where she could qualify based upon her credit score. I had given her a bunch of questions ask based upon her credit score to really find the best lender for her, and she felt really confident going in like Okay,

this is the best rate that I'm gonna get. I know exactly how much I'm gonna borrow, and it just made her feel more confident. I mean, it wasn't ideal. She would have loved to you know, buy a car and cash, which she was like, I can't get a five six year old car. I'm driving too many miles a day. The car needs to be in like really tip top, great condition. And so I was proud of her.

on aggressively paying down that debt first. So if you got your auto loan and you've got credit cards that are like fifteen percent but your auto loan is six percent, yeah, it makes sense to throw what you can at your credit card debt first. But don't sleep on the auto alone either.

You can even refinance it to a shorter term if you can afford the higher payments, and that way you're not paying so much over the life of the loan, or just you know, make it one of your challenges to aggressively pay off your auto loan debt in twenty nineteen or in the next couple of years. If you have friends who are just drowning an auto loan debt, you know, talk to them too and see if there's anything they can do, maybe refinance or trade it in.

Be careful about trading in. Sometimes it's you don't usually get the best value for the car that you're trading in.

made that possible. Then he stopped because literally, I mean I would like, you know how like you know, you might look at your man's like phone and you're like, oh, you already know, like the search history might be porn. His search history was truck's, truck's, trucks, truckt truck. I mean, it was crazy. I'm like, you're obsessed. He's like, no, I just I just feel like I just and I would literally be like, he's gonna he's gonna buy a truck.

I can't do anything about it. He's gonna randomly buy a truck and put its back, you know, in the dark ages where we were just left from. And like I said, it wasn't until he started going house shopping that he was like, ah, got it because at the time we thought we're gonna get a mortgage. And you know, if he would have had a car note, we would have been approved for way less and it just it

opened up his to like, got it. It's not deprivation of you're not getting a truck, it's you open yourself up to opportunities to be able to get things that you that mean even more to you than that car. And so now actually just like now, I was like, okay, babe, you know, we bought two properties. You know, everybody in our family is good, like you know, you should, you know, go ahead and get whatever you know, truck or car you want. And you know, we like went through our

budget and like how much the payment should be. And honestly, it's like pulling teeth. He's like, nah's let's get one more place. Let's get one more And I'm like, cause, I mean he he my my husband is driving because I was going to give away my my my camera, you know that that four thousand dollars camera that I bought. No, he like he likes fixing things up, and so he fixed it up and that's what he's driving. I'm like, babe, you can, you can, you know, go ahead, we have

you know, we're okay. Now we've we've reached our goals. You don't have to drive this car. And he's like, honestly, I really want for us to get a small apartment building, like anywhere from four to eight units. I want to focus on that. And I'm like, ah, who are you? Because that was not the man that I met who

was going to get a truck every other week. And so I love that that, you know that, you know, it's it's when you focus on goals about what you want to achieve versus just like kind of like the stuff that you want to have, the conversation shifts, you know.

for yourself because you don't have that. You don't have to turn to debt and you don't have to, you know, stay the job you hate if you have savings saved up. So take a look at your car stavement. I'll put a link to a calculator. Everyone can use to to kind of calculate how much they're paying on their auto loan. And you know, feel free to sendence your question if you have questions about anything we talked about on the show.

Maybe we should talk about credit card debt later or next, because let me tell you, credit card debt is also on the rise in a major way. In a major, major way. People are feeling very confident in themselves in twenty nineteen.

charge to retrieve or send money. So instead, what you could just do is go to the bank that doesn't charge, like typically the online only bank doesn't charge. But you definitely want to check. So whenever I'm trying to transfer money, I actually go to Ally does the transfering for me. So Ally will will go to Mark Bank and take money, or Ally will transfer money into Mark Bank, and then Mark Bank doesn't have to have a say because the Ally Bank doing the work and they don't charge for that work.

and pretty easy to do through the app. But then a lot of these big banks all are in the Zell network where which allows you to send money like to So let's say Tiffany has Bank ABC and I have Bank x Y Z if they're both using Zel, I can instantly transfer money to Tiffany through Zel without

incourring any fees, and Zell is free. The only you know, with any of these payment things or even you know things like Chase Quick Pay, you just have to read very carefully the protection and make sure that you're sending the protection terms and make sure that you're sending money to someone that you know, because some of these services may not cover you in case of fraud if you've initiated the transfer yourself. That's what we found in our research.

So if you're the one sending the money and you're like, oh, yeah, I know this is Tiffany's email address, and I've got it correct and you send it her a way and it ends up not being her, ends up being a scammer who you know gave you her email with one letter different. Then you may be on the hook or never get back those fun so just be careful. There's all kinds of different apps theres I can send a list of a roundup. There's things like pop Money that

was around I think it's still around today. There's a circle Circle app. There's a zillion different ways. There's good old Venmo. So if you're just trying to split the bill with a friend and you want to transfer money from your bank account to their pocket, you both have a Venmo account and then you just send the money through your account. It debits your checking account that's linked

and goes to their bank. And I use Venmo to pay to even just give tips when I've gone to the hair salon or something and they I don't have cash on me, I'll like Venmo tema tip. So it makes it super easy.

I've been told that I look exotic, which just makes me feel gross, so I've always checked Caucasian for race. I'm embarrassed by that because I feel like I should be proud of who I am. My question is actually about my finances. Oh, but let's address this first part. Yeah, honey, you don't have to like you're not brown enough, because you know, society has made it easier for you to move through circles by just, you know, checking that Caucasian box.

But I feel you on that one hundred percent. I think you're only twenty six, like, I think it's time for you to figure out who you are and if learning more about your Mexican roots is important to you. There's so much you can do do you? And I mentioned the Queer Eye earlier. If anyone's watched this recent season, there's actually a really good episode. Oh you should watch this, Kendall. Go to the episode with Jess. They give this the

young girl in Missouri named Jess a makeover. She's an African American woman who was adopted by an African American family, but always liked things that black people in her life told her weren't black enough.

Now the show, it's really beautiful because there's a moment where where one of the one of the makeover people, Caramo, takes her to Alvin Eagley Dance Center in her neighborhood, in a in a part of town that celebrates black culture and just shows her that all she has to do is start researching, start you know, investing, not investigating, but start exploring things in her in her neighborhood, you know, black owned businesses, black owned theater and arts events and

things like that, to really start tapping into that part of her identity. And I'm on a lunch bill right now. But you don't have to wait for permission to explore your Latina side at all, exactly.

So try that and see how it works. And you've already had the experience, more experience than we have because we don't have a well you have a stepdaughter, but anyway, don't have first baby yet. But you maybe know what your monthly expenses have been to raise your first childs.

Maybe you could take a look at how much you were spending on average and your first child's you know, first six to twelve months of life, and then start getting used to setting that money aside, so you have a bit of a cushion in place already before number two comes along.

And Also, two of what I've heard from parents, because I'm one of five, is that like there's like, and I'm sure you know because you have your first one, it's like some magical door opens up and you figure it out, you know where, like you're like, oh my gosh, money's so tight. How could I say? I've got you know, this one? And then two comes and somehow you're managing

to feed the two. And so you know, lean into the fact that you know that parents typically figure out a way, and you know you don't have to wait for the baby to get here to open up that magic and say, Okay, what are some things that we really don't necessarily need? Parents sometimes, especially with the first one, are typically overspending on things that the kids really don't care about as much as you think you know, like

I remember when my sister. My sister has two little ones cut off her cable and at first she was like, oh my gosh, you know the kids are going. I'm like, first of all, the baby is like one and a half and your oldest oldest child is like three. He doesn't know what cable is, YouTube what? And like when I tell you, those kids are like, there's this little channel called Little Baby Bomb, which is a weird name, but whatever, but they love that Little Baby Bomb and

then Netflix. I gave her my Netflix password. Those kids don't know nothing about cable. So there's a lot of things. Sometimes I feel like that parents kind of like impose financially on their kids, like oh, my kid needs this, and it's like, yeah, Honestly, here's the thing about kids. There's no such thing as normal. Whatever life they're living is normal. If everything your house was pink, your kids

would think pink was the way everybody lived. If you only ate broccoli all day, your kids would think everybody only eats broccoli. Like, you get to normalize what's normal. So you know, if you normalize frugality, your kids won't know any different until they get like to middle school and the rest of the kids are like, what girl, you need to see a five chicken on Fridays. That's what I found out that people had fried chicken because my mother was like super healthy and I was like, ugh,

what their skin on chicken? And it's delicious, That's what. But I say all that to say is that, like, you know, like create an environment where frugal and fun is normal and save as much as you can.

shall we say. And I knew I was like going to be throwing away at least three poop bags a day, Okay, I didn't realize it would be like six because Molly, I don't know what that girl eats, but she anyway, she goes a lot, but these poop bags. So I decided I was going to invest in like biodegradable bags that aren't that expensive, so I got them on Amazon. But that would actually, I don't know, not hurt the environment.

Just plastic. I don't know. If you read about plastic and how bad it is for any winding up in oceans and it's getting stuck up turtle's nose and all

kinds of stuff. Plastic is bad. I thought I was doing a good job, but then of course you read I start reading on the internets about how first of all, some companies if they're selling biodegradable and this goes beyond just doggy poop bags, but like biodegradable utensils and plastic or not plastic, but biodegradable plates and things like that, disposable things, they're not always actually just you know, actually composting and landfills and there actually can be hurting landfills

and being bad for the environment. On top of that, I'm reading also research that's shown that like not research that's shown, but did you realize in America most of our recycling we sell it to China, Like a ton of recycling, We just sell it to China or or countries overseas. And what's happening is China recently said no, no, no, ma'am, we don't have any space for America's trash anymore, so we're not buying it anymore. So where is our recycling going?

You know, when we reparate, when we separate things in our day to day lives, is it really going where it's meant to be going. Is it actually being recycled or is it ending up back in landfills? I want

to know. And my ten year old self who watched that episode of Arthur when Francine's dad took them to the you know where he worked as a garbage man and showed them making playgrounds out of their trash, Like I want to know where these playgrounds are, and I want to know that that we're not just contributing to this. I don't know. This is like environmental crisis, and that is my my break. I have no answers. I only have I'm just now getting woke about trash and where it actually goes.

they're both fun one Bet Black Entertainment Television. If you're not following them on IG, you should because they're doing this fun series called I was a Soul Trained dancer. And it's not like you I never thought about it. I mean I watched Soul Trained as a kid, I guess, I mean I vaguely remember. But it's just this like like a series of short documentaries on I guess like iconic soul trained dancers, And honestly, it's really nice to learn about how do they get on soul Train? What

are they doing now? And it's nice because you know, sometimes BT is not the best programming and so what I love is like in the comments, people are reminiscing, people are like, oh, I remember that guy. It's just so if you need a little boost, a little a little brown boost. Actually, you know, head over to BET's IG page. It's just b ET and you know, watch some of those videos. They've been really nice to watch.

But my big brown boost goes to Jessica Nabongo. Hey, jess her IG is the catch me if you can and Jessica is on her way. She just was like highlighted by Good Morning America. She is the very first black woman to she's gonna be the very first black woman to visit every single country. I guess she's right on the cusp right now. Yeah, it's't not crazy. Every single country. There's a hundred to one hundred and ninety five yep. I was about to say one hundred and

ninety five countries. And I just think that that's really cool. I've been following her on I've been following her on IG and I honestly her pictures are obviously, you know, just gorgeous, and yeah, I'm just it's just really cool to see someone who has taken travel kind of like to the next level, and that she'll be the first black woman to do this.

probably already visit every country. I mean, I mean sometimes people are really looking for like, oh my gosh, I'm just accurate. I mean like, it's like, girl, because someone already did it who was not black.

ig and on your network. We don't need to watch baby Boy one more time, even though I don't even watch BET like that because of the programming, but it would be nice to see things like that, because I'm telling these have been really nice, like fun videos to kind of like look back with nostalgia on what was? You know?

about negotiating and asking for more at work. So Lynette's going to be joining us, and also we'll have for the first time Sandy Smith, who's the founder of Yes I Am Cheap, which is a personal finance blog. Sandy is like the ultimate hustle queen. I feel like, holds down a nine to five job but has all these side hustles and has been We've been trying to have her on the show forever. I feel like, so yeah, I'm very I think you guys are gonna love you some, Sandy. If you're not always.