Hey, hey, Hey, happy Brown Ambition. Wednesday, We are back with another show for you. This is Tiffany's last week of vacation, which means she will be back this week. But once again I am here with one of my favorite guests returning to the show. Why don't you go ahead and say, hey, the.
Listeners, how you doing? This? Is Marcus Garrett of Paychecks and Balances?
What you sound nothing like Sandy Smith?
I should say, one half of Paychecks and Balances.
One half very humble. Well, Marcus obviously is not Sandy Smith, founder of Yes I Am Cheap, who we teased in last week's show as being this week's co host. Unfortunately, Sandy had a medical emergency and she's really taken ill, and we just wanted to wish Sandy first and foremost a speedy recovery of Sandy. Marcus and I both have known her for a while and really respect and admire all that she's done and just wish her, you know, a safe recovery.
Same.
Sandy just put me up on game recently and helped me out personally behind the streets in the DM, so I appreciate her and wish her well.
Thanks to you, Marcus, for jumping in. I know it was last minute. I emailed you in a frantic you know, Hayes this morning like please be on the show. So thank you so much for taking the time.
So good Black actors got to stick together, right.
So you guys have been in the game, the podcast game about as long as we have. We had both you and your co host co host Rich on the show a few months ago, Battle of the Sexes dun Dune done. It was a fun show, it was.
It was a good time.
But I'm excited to get to know you a little bit better. So first of all, to remind you, guys, Marcus Scarett, on top of being one of the co hosts of Paychecks and Balances, which is forever in the roundups of best personal finance podcasts, is also an author author of the book called Debt Free or Die Trying. Debt is something that Marcus knows a little bit about, having paid off thirty thousand dollars worth of was it just credit card debt.
Mostly credit card dead but broadly consumer did There was a car Loan in there with rims of course, because I have my taste of flat screen TV. For three thousand dollars and then just generally having a good time.
There's always rooms involved when talking about debt. Exactly, well, thirty thousand debt by thirty thousand dollars in debt paid off by age thirty, right, that's correct, So pretty impressive, And he writes all about it in the book Debt Free or Die Trying. And let's just jump right in and talk about some of the headlines that are happening today. Cool first and foremost. Now, I just read that T Mobile, which is a phone company, all of a sudden, wants
to be a bank. T Mobiles launching a four percent yield checking account. Have you heard of us?
I haven't heard of this, but I have noticed everyone's rolling out the banks. Like I think Uber's getting in the game. I think they try to sell me a credit card. Chase just came out with like Chase Freedom Unlimited, but it ain't unlimited, it's just higher APR. Like the game is getting a little bit weird out there.
Yeah, so like Uber, Yeah, Uber has a credit card. And it feels like a lot of companies are wanting to launch these like hybrid checking slash savings accounts where usually you expect to get a high yield on a savings account like an ally or Capital one three sixty, like these online banks have these really high yields on savings. But now there are these, you know, what they call cash management accounts where they want you to put all your money in one pot and they give you that
higher yield. And that seems to be what T Mobile is launching with its new T Mobile Money account. But like your phone company and your bank, it's kind of net to me.
Can you run that by me? A git? Did you say four percent?
Four percent? Doesn't that get you excited?
I mean, yeah, that does have mob with the beard strokes, because and I do not get paid by this company's city was trying to lure me with two point four six percent, So I mean they might need to go back and revisit. So I don't have T Mobile. I'm not gonna drop who I have because I'm not really happy with them right now. So but yeah, I'm stroking a beard right now. I'm stroking a beard.
Well, don't stroke your beard for very long, like you know, your beard deserves better. Because here's the thing. When I hear four percent, the first thing I ask is, what do you have to do to get that four percent, because there is gonna be some fine print, So I checked it out for you guys. Is this offer as sexy as it sounds? You know, the average apy on savings accounts is something like zero point two percent right now, you know, so four percent is huge. So the actual
fine print is this? Okay, it's not, first of all, as exciting as it sounds. One, you have to be in a qualifying T Mobile wireless plan, which means you got to like ditch your wile wireless service and switch to T Mobile. Right number One, he's just like they've lost a bunch of people, including me. Two, you've got to register for something they call vaguely perks with your T Mobile ID. I have no idea what those perks are.
But here's the real kicker. You have to have at least two hundred dollars in qualifying deposits and you're checking it count each month. And the four percent is only applicable to the first three thousand dollars you save once you've hit those first three requirements.
Right, So then what happens after the three thousand is it go down to the point two percent that we're all used to or what's the These perks sound like scams.
That's why I'm asking. I'm just kind of.
Scam because you know, they got the fighting print, they covered their bases. It's actually not that bad. It's still one percent apy, but you can get that from any old bank, Like you don't need to go to T Mobiles bank to get that. You can go to ally Capital one, three sixty, Synchrony. I mean, there's a lot that we talk all the time about online banks that offer really competitive ap Wise's stay. So my vote, my personal vote, is it's a no for me.
Dog.
Yeah, I feel like that average is out. If you do hit that three thousand, then that's what within a one percent return from there, if you did that for the next what I don't know how many months that would take the average person, but I just feel like the average of that is going to get you down to two percent. So then you're back to just sticking with your bank and your phone company, assuming you're happy with both exactly, because.
I mean, at the end of the day, like why would what's in it for this company to be? You know, when banks compete on rates, they usually compete by like a fraction of a percent, So it's like, ooh, I'm going to raise mine one basis point. Well, I'm going to raise mine another half basis point. You know, they don't compete like to a factor of two, like you know, double what other people are offering, unless there's a bunch
of quid pro quos. So you're totally right when you actually look at the average rate over the you know, over a year, you're right on tracks to what you could be earning at like a regular you know, high yield savings account from an online bank or something like that.
Yeah, it's a it's a pass for me too.
Dug do you have are you one of those? Be cause Tiffany is always like on the down low, has some big banks in her you know what I mean, She's not all at the high yield account. It's hard to quit your big bank sometimes. So I'm wondering, like, when you choose banks, are you up on like the new online savings you know, online brokerage, you know, robo everything, or do you still stick with the old guys that have the brand names in the history.
So the other half of the show, Rich Jones is better at this and that's his real name. I'm not making that up nor name dropping. That's actually his government name.
He's better at this. I think he has like eight accounts or something to that effect. I have. I don't know. I think it does.
More better managing his money. So I have two. I'm a simple man. I'll go ahead and name drop. So I bank with Chase for the day to day direct depositive, and like you said, I'm probably getting like point two percent return. The thing is, I'm not using it, and it's gotten better, you know, the two percent. It used to be like you couldn't get a high return anywhere. So because interest rates are going up, you can get
better returns. And so I have, because of that, started looking with more interest, uh not no pun, Like I'm literally interested. And so I have been looking around ally things like that, Like I said that before you told me about T mobile, and then I stroked my beard and then I stopped stroking. I was looking at city cards,
and so I am becoming more interested in it. But I've been putting all my money either in the stock market, and I got in trouble with a financial planner that we actually on her show because I don't have an emergency fund, and that makes me like a black sheep of a literal black sheep, I guess of the personal finance community, but it just hasn't been a priority for me. I got a fairly secure job. I got fairly secure. I've never been laid off pay. I got a significant
amount in savings. And I'm saying some of this to make myself feel better, so I have not gone out and explored. And then the other one is a credit union, which I have through my car loan at a one point nine percent interest rate, and I went to them specifically to get that low interest rate.
Gotta love I love credit unions.
Yeah, those are my two accounts right.
Now, except for we all know who's listening to the show that Georgia Telco credit Union still has my fifty dollars that I had to posit it in college and I forgot my password ten years ago and they're just holding my money but still study sending me statements like on the down low, just sending me statements. The shade is real, anyway, So talk to me about this no emergency fund thing. I think this is actually a dude thing. Because my little brother, I call him little he's twenty
seven years old. He came to you know. He he likes because he knows. He knows I'm in personal finance, and so he likes to pretend that he comes to me for advice. What he really comes to me for is to get my advice and then question it. Like when I telled him, you know, oh, you know, save your ten percent for retirement, but first, you know, contribute to emergency funds. He was like, why why would I do that? And he had the same reason as you. My job is stable. You know, he's in a sales,
high commission paying job. He gets these big cash bonuses once a quarter, so why, you know, save his little five percent for emergency fund when he knows he's going to get these windfalls down the line. And I was like, what, you don't have to, and I just hung up the phone. But I'm curious because for me, on the other hand, like I'm a much more, I'm just a saverer. I get really nervous if I don't if my emergency fund gets low, I like to look at the numbers there
and feel comfort. I was laid off from my first job, so I feel like that had a big impact on me too, of that sense of nothing is really in your control. When you're working from somewhere else. So tell me more.
Well, I guess it's a three part and I'll try to hit it quick, and if we need to go in depth in any of them, just let me know. So the first part is I think you should save as much as you need to feel secure. And I have always felt secure, So savings hasn't really been a big priority to me lately later in my life. And I'll be writing about this on the site I write every week, typically on Thursdays, about you know, that's a privilege. I think what you're speaking to is a privilege that
I have right now that I worked towards. So when I first came out of college, I made twenty thousand dollars a year. I thought I was gonna make six figures, but the industry on its ear didn't quite work out that way.
And when I finally.
Did get more security and I was like, okay, a savings account, typically where I would put my emergency fund, wasn't a priority for me. However, my I guess there's a bucket number two. My priority was investing, and so I started putting more of my money at originally ten percent. It got as high as eighteen percent, I'm back around ten percent.
For some other things.
I'm interested right now the stock market, which I funded through a four to one K provided by two different employers, but at one current employer. And I don't regret that because I was able to take advantage of all the growth it's been in the stock lately. You know is having eighteen twenty percent returns, apparently all these returns that millennials will never see again. So I benefited from that, and I have a secure amount of money there.
Now.
Mind you, it's difficult access. There's all kind of penalties to get to it and things like that. I'm aware of that, but I kind of look at it. And I talked about this on another show, and I won't name Joub because I don't know how that works a year. Some people don't like that, But basically what I said was, you shul should just be conscious about your spending. A lot of people are kind of like zombies, going through life unconsciously spending on whatever feels good, instant gratification. I
want this, I want that. I want to live paycheck to paycheck, or I will just get it my next commission check. Like it sounds like your brother. That's cool. As long as it's a consciousness. It sounds like that's a choice that he's made. Bucket number three would be you can also do as I say it, not as I do. And I typically tell people so, the average American right now, and I'm sure you've brought quote these
stats cannot afford a four hundred dollars emergency. So clearly it's about seventy percent can't afford a four hundred dollars emurgency without using a credit card or borrowing it from a friend, peer payday loan, which I would definitely never do. So to me, I hear that, and I say, well, you need to start at five hundred dollars. The recommendation is typically one thousand dollars or three to six months.
But when I say that to people who have zero dollars, I might as well tell them to go out and catch a leprechaun in the streets, because I try to make my advice practical, So conscious decision. Bucket number one. If you have a secure job and you have secure pay and you are doing something responsible with your money, typically I recommend ten to twenty percent something responsible. I automate everything because I am not naturally responsible with money.
It's kind of humorous to me that I'm in this space. I am not good with money. I'm good with process. I'm an auditor by day. I do that for a dollar and doing it for fifteen years. I put processes in place that make me successful with money.
I see and you know, like, oh, sorry to interrupt.
You, No, I would say, then the other two is and if that doesn't work for you, are you like you said, I think you're more comfortable having that money available. So to a person like that, I would say, yeah, start with five hundred dollars because that'll cover most emergency expenses.
Just by that that statistic and study is shown, and then work your way up to three to six months and then do either what I'm doing, or then start looking at greater investment in returns because as we open with four percent returns at Team Mobe, especially on three thousand dollars, isn't going to get you there. I mean
typically inflations is between one or two percent. So every year you need to find something to either if you want to break even, you need to be making two percent returns, but if you want to make a profit, that's why people start investing in stocks, bonds and other secure investments, and then you just got to find what's your risk appetite.
Right and pushing yourself because I feel like what you're saying right now is the reason why you know, I'm a recession graduate baby, and I feel like that had a profound impact on a lot of the people. You're not that much older than I were both kind of
recession era. You know, came up started building wealth in our twenties around the time the recession was going on, and I think they had a profound impact on me and a lot of our peers to the point where, you know, you read these studies about millennials being afraid to invest in the market because they saw what their families went through and what their parents went through losing their homes and their four to one K investments and
all that. But it's really to our detriment, like if you're not getting in the market, because look at people who left the market after the recession, took their money and ran, they actually would the people who who hung in there and stayed in the market have made back what they've lost and then some and actually came out ahead of people who left the market, and you know, the market is not It's not just what happens in one year. It's what happens over a decade or decades.
And that's the kind of like I'm a logical person. Yes, I'm like a risk averse in the sense that like, yes, I want to have my little cash fund so I can see it and touch it. But I also listened to logic, which is the logic of investing in the market and looking at how people who have invested have done over the years to build wealth and how that really is in this country at this time, the best way to build wealth, you know, for regular people is to get into the market. Somehow, that logic is what
drives me to stay invested. So I have it just takes me more. It's just we both get to the same place. But I have to, like, you know, really force my brain to get over what my gut in my heart is saying, like no, like we don't want you know, we're scared. You know, I got to like talk myself out of it.
Yeah, And it's interesting to say that. So for context for people listening, I'm thirty six and I got a job twice during the recession, so I kind of had a different takeaway from that, and I was saving the whole time that proof well, I mean, I kind of go through that, and I'm like, my greater fear. I took a different takeaway from the recession. My greater fear
would be running out of money. So I'd rather take chances now while I'm thirty, thirty five, thirty six, and I can just work more jobs, because there was a point where I was working three jobs to talk about that the book, So I'm more geared towards I'll just work harder, I'll find something. I'll work six jobs if that's what's necessary. But I'd rather be financially secure at sixty seven when I want to chill, kick back with my cigars and whiskey.
I'm a maker's mark man.
I'd rather that sixty seven year old Marcus be secure for the sacrifice of thirty six year old Marcus. And so if that means thirty six year old Markets, that's to go a few years without an emergency fund, So sixty seven year old Markets can chill that.
I'm more comfortable with that reality.
And it's not like you're out there racking up debt to the point where you know, for people who are living paycheck to paycheck and then they have credit cards that they're just making the minimum payments on, but the debt is you know, astronomical, and then like in that situation, losing a job really does mean financial ruin because you have no way of keeping up with that, you know, those debt payments any longer. And that's where people get stuck.
So as long as you like you talk about budgeting and again like being really conscious about your spending so that if something were to happen, it wouldn't be like catastrophic, you know for your finance, and you have time to get another job.
Yes, And I tell people, not everybody, And you know, this is where it starts to get You know, you can't make this one size fits all planned for everyone, and I don't. That's actually I think what makes the show popular is like, this is our experience, this is our recommendation, here's our takeaway.
Apply where it fits, walk if it doesn't. And that is that.
It's not going to work for everyone. But I do believe that you can do it all. Now, mind you, some of that is my experience, but I did it at twenty thousand dollars, and I do it differently at where I am in my stage of my life. But I just had to automate it. I had to literally cut myself out of the process. So I set up the credit card payments and I will drop this because I still use them. It's bank rad dot com backslash.
I always get this confused slash backslash. It's the slash on the bottom row of the keyboard calculators and I use their tools to figure out the exact amount of money I had to page month to reach my goal. So, for example, at that time, obviously I had a goal of paying off thirty thousand dollars in debt. My current goal right now is to fund my four to one K and then figure out what I'm gonna do next to one hundred thousand. And I've written about this as well.
And the reason I want to do that is because I did the analysis. I used investor dot gov for this to see if that one hundred thousand, let's say I never contributed to it again, I want to get there by forty what would happen? And if it had an average return about five to seven, but I used seven percent, it would grow to six hundred thousand on
its own, me doing nothing. And so I was like, okay, Marcus, thirty six year old, you need to race rally relay marathon to one hundred thousand, because then you can kind of take your foot off the pedal.
And to me, to have one hundred thousand saved in your four to one k, yeah, I see, gotcha. Not like one hundred thousand dollars saved starting from scratch.
Oh no, no, no, that's my place of security. I'm much more secure. And because I look at that, like my four one k. Now, mind you, this is my current employer. I can take a loan against it at a fairly low interest rate. I think last time I looked at was like three to four percent. And so to me having that six figures growing in the market, and I use a target date retirement fund, that gives me security, and then I will start to explore other
things I can do with money my money. But I think most people, as I said, I feel like in the questions we get, they're just kind of unconscious what they're spending. They're intimidated by it, so they're not making any decisions. So to your point, they're not making anything in a good checking account. They're not making anything at a credit union, you're not making anything in the stock market, and then they're possibly also spending it all month to month. Now,
I'm just like that. The no plan is also a plan. It's just the worst one to have.
It's like the self fulfilling prophecy. You know, I don't have any money, I don't have enough, I don't know enough to save and invest. Well, then you're never going to build that wealth that way. I'm one hundred percent behind. I started automating my retirement fund before even you really what it was when I was twenty four at my not my first job, my second job post getting laid off. But I finally got it together and it's almost been
ten years and I have this this now. I like you mentioned because I've worked at three different places where I've had a four to one k and at at a certain point I have one of them separate like in a Vanguard now or my first two job four to one k's, I combine there and just kind of left it. And I'm just like, I have twenty thousand dollars extra because I didn't do anything. And when I
was twenty four, I did a small thing. So if you're but even if you're thirty four or forty four, like, just start, you know, just start and give yourself the time because sixty seven year old starting to save in your retirement fund, you don't have as much time as you did, you know, in your twenties and thirties to bounce back if there are any you know, downturns and stuff.
Yeah, you said.
Their recipes to success for most people that I've seen is get started and start young, remain sistant, and get.
Out of your own way one hundred percent. Keep it simple, keep it.
I literally have that on my cubicle at work, is keep it simple, stupid, like, just get out of your own way. But I gotta, you know, and I find that the you know, I'm planning for a family now where just bought a house, my risk averseness has gotten more acute. It's a lot easier to say I can take more risks with my money and be like ninety five percent in the stock market with my four to one K when I'm like twenty five and now in my thirties, I'm wondering is it time to be more conservative?
And I'm you know, I'm having different conversations now, so you know it changes with every decade. I feel like ta change. We're going to take a quick break, be right back with Marcus Garrett from Pigchecks and Balances. He's going to help me answer some of your questions and our read your mailbag. All right, we're back with my guests, Marcus Garrett of Paychecks and Balances, and I am combing
the mailbox again. You guys can send us your questions at Brandambision Podcast at gmail dot com or hit up Brandnambition podcast dot com and click to ask us anything tab if you want to send your questions as well. Love hearing from our listeners. Let's see what we got. I love when you guys have some fun aliases and you don't want your real names out there. That's very safe. So first question from listeners, Simone, I have some thoughts
on this. Simone wants to know is it okay to date in the corporate office or should we ask women focus on climbing the corporate ladder with tunnel vision? Good question, Simone. When it comes to dating and the corporate environment, honestly, keep it on the down low until you are like legit. Sure if there's a commitment there, because it's not worth the drama to have the rumors swirling at the office. I have seen a lot of people's reputations be tarnished
by rumors about relationships happening at the office place. And you also want to like protect yourself, right. I don't know if you also work in corporate America, Marcus, so going to HR when you're you know, in a committed relationship to tell them about it is important too, so you can protect yourself. You know, let's say this person is your superior or could potentially be your superior one day. You want to have it on the record that there was a relationship in case anything ever goes south.
I agree.
I think it's different for each environment, which you know, I'm sure she would know better than us. Typically, you're right that you do have to report it to HR once you are in a relationships. I guess my only takeaway would be, I don't think you can limit it because we're at work too much. I read some crazy study it's like eighty percent of your total life is actually spent with your coworkers, not your friends and family.
Like everyone else tips off like it's like a bell curve, except for work where it like plateaus, which makes sense because you're there for forty hours after college. And so what I would look at it more is, okay, is this somebody in a chain of command? So I'm definitely kind of finger wag or no, I guess a firm note to anybody like either in my chain of command
above or below me. But you know, if you're on another floor, if you're in another building, you're in another division, you're on another campus, shout out to my technology workers.
I mean, hey, you know, hey, it is what it is. We're we're all adults.
But I just think it gets messy when it's like you're in the next cubicle.
Oh no, one hundred percent, and especially if they're like the chain of command's important. So if there, if they're what do you call it? If they're not your superior, your direct report or something, or you know, could one but date could one day potentially be reporting to you or vice versa, like you report to them. It can get really messy, and some companies forbid it. I believe there's some rules around, you know, not being able to
date someone who's your subordinate or you're superior. So you want to definitely check the fine print of your employee contract. I think, honestly I agree that in the fact that like, if you're you know, if you're in marketing and you're and you really are interested in this person who's you know, uh in it or something like that, that probably isn't a big deal. And a lot of people do meet
their significant others in the workplace. But if you're just trying to casually date and there's someone in your immediate you know, one arm away or in the same floor as you, I think it's just a recipe for awkwardness at the very least and at the very worst opportunity for the rumor mill to get going, and for you to be even potentially treated differently by your colleagues. Yeah, I agree, so date with caution. I have you ever, I actually have never dated any one at the office.
I've just seen what happened when I was in my early twenties and one of my first jobs, all the intro office dating. It was too messy for me. I was like, no, thank you, ma'am.
So first of all, work in a weird industry. So I've never dated anyone at my nine to five If you will since like age sixteen and maybe that was the last time I had to learn my lesson. But I will say it's a weird industry because for us, and I think a lot of people can relate, it's the conferences. So the work is pretty purified and sanctified, but like these conferences are like you just got to trade carefully, you.
Know, that's where shit goes down.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's like the conference getaways is And like I said, that's why it's interesting how each industry has its own culture. But you know, most like there's some rumors that are accurate about auditors, mostly introverts, mostly keep to ourselves, So that's not socializing. Is it really one of our strong suits? So it's really not had something I've had to do with Fortunately.
That's funny. Yeah, an auditor's conference is not where I would think there'd be like a lot of romantic entanglements and like excitement. So you're safe there.
You gotta let your hair down some.
Point, all right, simone. I mean hopefully that was a good answer. Again, just just think things through and you know, focus on your career. But as far as like I think finding a partner who helps you elevate your professional and personal life. That's the ouldimate goal. Like finding someone who lifts you up in your career and in your personal life. That is a recipe for success. So good luck. Let's see next question. Oh, I saw a good one. Where did it go?
Where did it go?
Ah? Here we go from listener Brianna. Brianna says, first, I love the podcast. Second, I am a recent graduate with a bachelor's of science and psychology. I have plans to continue my education within the next one to two years, buying a new car along with moving out of my parents' house. What advice would you get someone like me making about thirty five thousand dollars a year with about twenty five thousand dollars a student loan debt? Should I get a
financial advisor? Or am I just being extra because I don't make that much? That's the question from Brianna. Good question.
I mean my first response is to pump the brakes. I heard three pre break pumps in there, so because I made those mistakes. So this is one of those you know, do as I say, not as I did.
Type of thing. Is the new car?
Nope, thirty five thousand, especially with new cars, So I mean the average APR if it's new, it's like thirty eight thousand right now. I saw recently because I was putting a course together, that's twenty eight thousand dollars for a car Loans. So that's probably going to eat up all your budget right there. So maybe the first takeaway is to put a budget together with your thirty five thousand dollars and you'll probably have the takeaway that you
can't afford a car. I just did a write up on this, so I know that if you search Google car calculator, Google actually now has a car calculator which is both weird and cool, and they'll tell you your exact monthly payments based on your estimated APR, and so you can figure out if that would fit in your budget. And then the other two is I moved out, so at age twenty two, I.
Was like, I got to get out of here.
I need to be free, let a bird fly, And then immediately went into additionally and more debt, just because in hindsight, I was moderately annoyed with my parents.
And thus that takes me to number three.
If I had probably stayed home for like six to eight more months put a financial plan together. So I'll defer to you if you think she needs a financial planner, she can get a cheap one. On my ANSWER's going
to be yes or a free one. But if I just stayed home for like six to eight months instead of that seven year journey to get out of debt, I probably could have had a really focused plan to get out of debt because seventy percent of your expenses are going to be food, transportation, and housing, with housing being the largest cost. So I guess to wrap all that up, Pumpy Brakes three times and Tree, I would take some time to.
Reflect over those things.
Is it worth going in the further deb especially with that student loan birding that you're coming out with, or like, is there six months where you can at least knock one of those things out?
Listen? I agree with literally literally every single word that just came out of your face just now, because first of all, Brianna, you have to go back two episodes ago and listen to the entire We dedicate an entire show to auto loan debt, because that is how infuriating I find it that people really put their financial security at jeopardy with these crazy expensive cars, and it's new cars, you know, thirty thousand dollars cars with you know, double digit,
double digit interest rates even because people still don't shop around for auto loans. So I'm not going to go on and on about that. Go check out that episode. But no, I totally agree, you know, pump the brakes. Why not stay home for the next one to two years.
You said you were looking to continue your education, you know, why not spend those next to you know, next couple of years living at home, rent free, hopefully and honestly, twenty five thousand dollars a student loan debt is not a lot of debt relative to like what the average is and what a lot of people are dealing with.
I feel like, even on thirty five thousand dollars year, if you take the money you'd be saving on the new car note and you know, the rent for an apartment in your area, and just take that out of your paycheck and put it toward your debt, I bet you could pay that off in a few years one hundred percent if you wanted to be aggressive about it, and at the very least, you know, save it in a savings account if you want to give a really good head start for yourself, you know, emergency fund wise,
or just saving for a down payment on a house or something. You know, think about the type of investments you can make in your future by taking that time to save.
Yeah, I agree, And I'm gonna hit this one more time, just in case I didn't say it right the first time. If you Google car loan calculator, that'll bring up Google's calculator. And then if you want to run some of those analysis for the credit card, and you can just put this all and just see most people don't even know if they can afford it. What I noticed is people go out by the car. They get a few months in,
they're like, oh, I can't afford this. And so the other one that you could use is banker rate, dot com slash calculators. So between those two you can literally put your entire budget together. And I mean, maybe I'm wrong, maybe you can ball out get you the home, maybe you live in a casts to live, get you to home, to the car, and the student loans. But I'm pretty confident that these numbers might shock you when you crunch them.
So i'd recommend recommend you at least hit those two tools one hundred percent.
But thank you for the question. On the financial advisor front, I do feel like you're being a little bit extra like. I don't think you need to worry about that level of advice just yet. The advice for you is simple is keep your expenses low. See if you can stay home another one to two years, even if you need to leave, you know, get an apartment near near mass transit so that you can, you know, stay away from buying that new car, or at least, you know, buy
a used car. Don't buy a new car, you know, save money wherever you can. You can get a nice little used car for you know, fifteen k maybe less, that can be reliable and financial advisor somewhere down the line for sure. One of the things that we recommend sometime on the show is the xy Planning Network. That's actually how I found my financial planner and she was helpful to me. But you know, if you're just graduating college, the basics is all you need. And if you get stuck,
literally google it. There's so much good content out there that can help you with the first stage is post college and it's free.
Yeah, I say, best of luck, and I hope that wasn't too negative. I'm just trying to, you know, give some advice and some insights from the things I've learned and the mistakes that I've made.
Don't say sorry. I think it's real talk. I mean, this is the advice. The problem is the reason we're so passionate about it is because you and I probably made the same mistakes or similar mistakes, and you just want to help people from doing the same dumb shit that you did.
Right, Well, I don't want to prevent the millennials or I guess actually she be zenial.
I actually don't know what's after me.
But you know, I also want to you know, the balance of fomo and yolo and all the things which I'm sure kids don't say anymore, but I don't want them to completely miss out. Just maybe go back hash those three things out and see if that's really something you afford. I don't think you can, but you know, if you can prove me wrong, more power to you.
Listen, used car, Just take it a step back the used car. Maybe don't move all the way out of the house. Maybe just rent something nearby, like just baby steps, and you'll be fine.
Conscious money decisions all.
Right, that was fun. Thank you guys for your questions.
Again.
Hit us up Brandabisionpodcast at gmail dot com or go to brannibisionpodcast dot com and select ask us anything. All right, are you ready to close the show with a boost or break?
Cool?
I'm gonna make you go first as my guest of honor. Just put you on the spot with the first booster break.
So my boost is also a hashtag plug, and I realized I could drop two, so I'd like to be respectful the show and can hold my plugs for the end. I no longer yeah, I no longer work for this organization, but I did have a good time with them. So I freelance write for go Banking Rates and actually I answered a few of these questions. Y'all can find that at Paychecks and Balances dot com slash GBR.
Now you might be wondering.
Where the heck that's gonna take you, It's gonna route you to my article, so feel free to visit that. That's my boost, But my other one is I'm actually putting a course together that talks about this. And so I'm six years removed from the thirty and now I'm kind of I read fifteen personal finance and investment books which I read and reviewed, and I'm kind of putting that in a course that I'm putting together. So it's a four week debt free starter course that will be
out in a national financial literacy month. Our goal is a date to be determined, but we have promised that it'll come out sometime this month, in April twenty nineteen. But y'all can follow any updates that are be available at Paychecks and Balances dot com slash Debt.
Free and my break.
I was thinking about this and I find myself in the existential place lately for several reasons, just being in my mid thirties, a lot of things going on with work, and the post that I'll be writing this week for those of you make it way over to the website, is just kind of reflecting back on Actually all the money I've made in my cutoff was from college to thirty six, and so I tried to go out.
You can get this from the Social Security SSA dot go.
Yeah.
I love this little pdf they give you with your Social Security benefits statement.
Well, funny you say that, because I ran into a whole bunch of technical difficulties and basically they're like, I don't think this is just security number. You know, they gave me to fade, they gave me the curve. So it took a whole bunch of work. I was a little bit I got frustrated. I'm easily frustrated. No, yeah, yeah, I mean they wanted me to send in some extra documents to prove who I was. I was like, you
know what, I ain't got time for this. So I went out, got all my resumes, looked at all the money that I've made from age twenty two to thirty six, and I basically did a reflective analysis on where the money's gone, where I wish the money has went. And so y'all might find this interesting, especially the leader who just wrote in who just graduated college, Because I graduated at twenty two. I talk about that made twenty thousand
dollars that has now grown. I talk about I did a Yahoo Finance interview about how I grew my income four hundred percent. That's in there, and it's really just a reflective piece on where the money's gone, mistakes I've made. Kind of one takeaway, for example, is that because of the irresponsible choices I made in my twenties, which you know, I think twenties are wont to do. I delayed financial
independence by ten years very easily. And so if I had just made some of these decisions are different choices that I'm talking about on this particular show and several other shows, I'd probably it's like you're like, oh, hereby, I'd be balling out of control, out of bought apple stock. I'd have had a little bit of Walmart stock.
You know. Boom, boom boom.
I's already this, you know nobody, but it didn't cry out. It didn't quite work out that way. And so this piece will kind of walk you through the last fifteen years and where I foresee the next fifteen years.
And where can they find that? That's in the Paychecks and Balances website.
Yeah, that'll be the most recent post. Excuse me, that'll be the most recent post. So actually they just go to Paychecks and Balances dot com. They can see both our podcasts and our blog. But if they want to get directly to the bog, it's Paychecks and Balances dot Com slash blog.
Look at you guys. Even writing on the blog post show, you guys make me feel like a lazy podcast host, just like, here's the episode, what more do you want from me? Here's your links to stuff? Dope, I'll leave. I'll put a link obviously to the show and the show notes. You guys can check out that post. That's a lot though, Man, I've downloaded. If you guys, go to SSA dot gov and download your Social Security benefit statement, you will literally see from the year you started paying
taxes on your paycheck. It won't do under the table babysitting money money, or you know, working for your uncle's you know company in the summer and getting paid under the table, but any government check that you've gotten or government approof chech you've gotten, it'll it'll appear there and it will show you what you've earned. And it was a big wake up call, the unpacking of like where
did that money go? I don't know if I'm quite ready for that kind of soul searching yet, but that's a good no, I mean, it's it's good to reflect and to see what you would have been differently, and then at least celebrate some of the positives, which is that you have any savings at all, which puts you well ahead of the nation honestly.
Yeah, there was and I don't want a hashtag spoiler, but there was a lot of takeaways, a lot of lessons learn, and like I said, they put me in a reflective place. I did it for a National Financial Literacy Month and really a listener question. So I do presentations that you're out and I think you might have seen this picture. I think we follow each other on Instagram. But I did a presentation for Minti's and I like to talk about it. I like to, you know, set
the bar high. So I was like, the first millions the hardest, you know, that perks them up. You know, they set up in their sheets, you know, I quote Drake and everything like that, try to be relevant. And I can't to this detail if it was a genuine comment or I got trolled. This person leans on the
trolling side. They've been trolling a number of different comments and they're like, man, you ain't got no million, And so I was like, well actually, and so I went back and did this analysis and just wanted to talk about it. And you're right, it's it's pretty intimidating to see all the tax dollars ihould say government reported money that has come and gone, and then Uncle Sam has got his hands on. So I hope people like it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Yeah, I'll check that out. Okay, my boost. Because we're talking about investing and we get this question. We've actually gotten a few questions about this, which is, how do I, when I'm choosing investments, how do I pick companies that are doing good for the environment or just doing good for the world in general. So there's this movement of
socially conscious investing which is growing. So your robo advisor tools that are more you know, more modern, like Betterment Wealth Front, they tend to have portfolios where you can choose that have these types of investments, and you can choose like eco conscious, you know, portfolio that has companies that pass certain metrics or certain guidelines for being considered
an eco conscious company and all kinds of stuff. So what I thought was cool is I just read that SMP five hundred is now putting out a social social conscious index fund to kind of fall underneath the umbrella of its really popular SMP five hundred index fund, which real quick definition is index funds are think of it as taking like a buffet, like going to the buffet, but all the food is different companies, and you get to have a little piece of each company versus having
to choose just one. And an index fund lets you kind of broadly expose yourself to a bunch of different companies versus a few different companies, and that just balances out your risk. And honestly, again and again, the S and P following these index funds and investing in index funds has proven to often beat people who are like actively choosing individual stocks and stuff like that. So I
personally am an index fund investor. I always have been, and like I said, it's been working out fine for me. So I was looking at this and I thought it sounded really interesting, and I have you know, I have like an era on the side where I've invested one hundred percent in an S and P five hundred index fund, and I was just thinking, Okay, this is easy because
with this fund they have done the work. Vanguard's done the work for you and selected companies that they've deemed to fit a certain profile of like a socially conscious company. And I can feel a little bit better. And what that means is like you may not be like when you get these the downside of index funds rather is that you know, you could be investing in like gun companies, like companies that you know don't pay their workers well, companies that are maybe backed by people or politics that
you may not support yourself. And it's kind of hard to see what's actually wrapped up in this big index fund. So when you can actually, you know, choose a fund that has been vetted for you and meets these social conscious parameters, it gives you a little bit of peace of mind, at least for me to know that I'm investing in companies that are doing some good in the world.
Yeah, for what it's worth, I use a different but index fund as well, so minds of target date index fund. So yeah, I'm being a proponent as well, and I plan to keep it in there. Like I said, until I reached that one hundred thousand dollars goal and then to your point, And that's kind of what I was trying to get at earlier. I feel like once you reach whatever your security point is, you can start to make different investment choices or maybe take greater risk or
maybe more conservative risks, whatever the case may be. But I, as we said earlier, you got to get started somewhere, and these are safe for not completely risk free, but save for low risk investment strategies.
I was just double checking because of what you said about one hundred k between the two four to one case that I have. I'm finally at that one hundred K mark for my retirement savings. So you're saying I'm an ad two hundred grand any decade.
That's actually exactly what I'm saying.
Okay, I'm just going to stop. Then I'm done.
I feel like those are all the appropriate questions to ask, because in some ways you can say it's never enough, but once you've reached whatever your goal may be, which is a personal decision, like you said, is it fifty five?
Is it sixty seven? I read something and I'm a butcher this, but it's like some analysis where they were saying the difference between retiring at sixty seven and seventy two, it could be one hundreds of dollars a month on how much you need to get as a return because you're not depending on those funds for a longer period of time in retirement, Whereas if you're going to try to reach let's say, fire financial independence, retire early and most of those people are striving for thirty or forty
Those people are living on like fifty percent or forty percent of their income in the present, So they can you know, fund a retirement for sixty seventy years, whereas you just have to fund a retirement for ten twenty years. That that's a completely different math, that different analysis, different funding goal. But like I said, most people just aren't even asking those questions, let alone answering them.
I have my skepticism about those fire people. But we can get to that note show and just a quick correction, and so it's S and P dow jone indicase. I think I said Vanguard before, but that's where the new It's an environmental, social and governance version of the S and P five hundred index. So I'll put a link to that CNBC story. And again, Marcus and I are lovely people with backgrounds, you know, obviously in personal finance. But what are not we Wait, that doesn't make sense.
What are we not investment advisors or financial planners? So if you guys, you know, want to take our advice, that's fine, but just remember talking to us is like talking to your brother, your sister, You know, take it with a grain of salt, and of course consult a personal finance expert or financial planner if you want advice that's really applicable to your day to day finances.
Agreed, don't come for us.
In either words, Hi, this was so much fun. Thank you for making this happen Marcus, couldn't have done the show without.
You today, of course, thank you for having me.
Yeah, and again to Sandy feel better soon. We're thinking of you.
Please do get Willson and.
Next week Tiffany is back. Were back with a regular schedule programming with my co host with the most Tiffany, Alice. So we'll see you guys next week.