Ep 230 - OK, Why is Everyone Obsessed with Forex Trading?

five years have been amazing and it's all things to you. Hey, hey, hey, we're back. We're black, We're bred abishan shout out to Mandy's Mama. I saw the video sent me.

phone calls like are you okay? What's going on? Are you having a bad day? Oh? But uh it's I hope I'm not. Anyway, it's a it's a it's a good app ultimately. But yeah, so anyway, my mom had sent me she does listen to the show, and now she's proving it because this is why I can't talk smack about her anymore. On the show, she was like she started one of her messages with hey, hey, hey, oh no, that's a differy things like yeah, mom, I love it.

She was just she just I mean, there's so many I used to just go to her page and just soak up and be like I never thought about it that way. She literally had like she would post things like how to make money selling classes online, and if you want to make this amount of money, here's how you'd break that down. She was so transparent and open and just gave so much value you really, I have never seen someone give that much value in that space before.

And she was specifically for black and brown women, and so she just will be sorely missed. But you know, seeing so CC had cancer, I think she was in remission, but she had been to cancer and be there I think three times over the last like ten years, you know, or the last five years, I think. But what she passed away from was pneumonia. I'm not sure like where it stemmed from. I don't believe it's stemmed from COVID

or anything like that. But but what was so telling about her, the type of person that she was, is that literally the day before CEC had posted like a resource and this is a woman who was at the time in the hospital. And it just goes to show you that her real passion and true passion was being of service to women like her who wanted to seek ways to make money with integrity and helping other women. And so I just wanted to just like send Ceci a faraway hug and thank you for all that you've

done for us in this space. But also too, it was a wake up call. Honestly, all the black and brown women that I know that are like you know, that started their own business and who sell things online and things, we're all just kind of like it just kind of a wake up call to like, are you doing what you want to do how you want to do it? Because clearly CC was, and it just was a reminder like to realign like our rich journey, I don't know, I remember, I know like it shook me

to the core. I've been watching them. I saw they just bought a house in Portugal. Shout out to your mom and Christina, and so that was another episode or people who just had me look at my life and say I want to realign. And CC was one of those people too. But yeah, I've just been thinking a lot about realignment, realignment, realignment, and so that definitely shook me to the core. So yeah, I just want to shock her out.

It's an old enough space now. I think the online revolution and like the creation of personal financial help and education and services online really boomed after the you know, Great Recession, and you know it's been over ten years now, and there's people who have been rocking with it since the beginning and really paving the way. And it feels like CEC was one of those pioneers.

Like I said, she was the mostansparent businesswoman I've ever seen. I mean, you knew exactly how much she made, how she made it in which way. Yeah, CC was amazing.

but it seems so there's a lot happening. Obviously, he who must not be named our commander in whatever whining apparently so he, I think, And this is just me, like Mandy, like, just what kind of what I've been reading through the lines as I've been trying to read and not read and watch and not watch the news for my own mental health. But it seems like he's scurred. Y'all,

the polls are not looking hot. He has really effed up the whole response to this pandemic right now, and the election is what eighty days away, maybe like a little bit less than eighty days away. Kamala being named to the as a nominee as the why can't I find words? As a vice presidential nominee alongside Biden on the ticket for twenty twenty. I think that has Republicans shook us because it's become very apparent that they don't exactly know how to attack her because there's a lot

of things. There's just not very much there. There's not neat on the bone like there was for Hillary, when you could really just tap into people's loathing of the Clintons and all that. Anyway, so Trump seems to be coming for not just the right to vote, but the

ability to vote by mail. And the way that he's doing that is like he has a point to some guide to the Postal Service, who is now pulling, like defunding in some way some of the crucial services, and the post Service is struggling like financially because people are

not using their services. So much in the time of COVID, but then it seems like all of this has like kicked up in the last week and all over social and I personally haven't looked to see if these images are like have been corroborated, and I probably should have, and I, like y'all, have just been seeing them on Twitter, people sharing them on instant and all that of like actual mailboxes being put on the back of trucks and

then carded away. So the message, and this is what's really terrifying, is the message is getting out there that it's going to be hard to vote by mail this election. And I kind of wanted to just talk about that and talk about some facts around what you can do and how you can as much as you can try to be sure that your vote counts this year, because I'm worried that people are gonna like these images. They're terrifying, and we need to be doing things to support the

post office. Like one of the most simple things you can do is go on to go online and buy a roll of stamps by the fevers. In fact, I think that they're about to increase the price, so it's not a bad time to get a role forever stamps anyway, because you know, you buy it at the current price and then you have those stamps forever. You don't have to, you know, buy additional stamps if the price goes up.

But yeah, let's let's like what's your perception, benif Like, what have you seen and and you know, what are your thoughts on everything going on?

like too much. You're just like, how is this allowed? How are you allowed to openly try to cheat and steal the election with impunity?

you know, Republican. I mean you think about black voters, lets you know, voters, immigrant voters, I mean, there are there are whole like there are whole vehicles in motion meant to suppress their ability and their right to vote.

And it's it's happening now. I mean, and you know, y'all know, I'm from Georgia, and I talk about Stacy Abrams a lot and what she has done since she quote unquote lost the gubernatorial race in Georgia a couple of years ago, you know, and she has been fighting to raise awareness about you know, suppression of voter rights in Georgia. But it's not just Georgia. It's all over

and you know, I just want people to understand. So the fear here and this is what Trump is kind of like trying to get away with saying, oh, if people vote by mail, there's going to be a lot of fraud. So we have to prevent people from vote

voting by mail because there's going to be fraud. Just this very scary kind of like buzzword that his base just loves voter fraud, which has no basis in fact, like many things that he has said, but whatever the thing is, Like he's trying like absentee voting is male in voting, like people have been doing it for a

long There's whole states where everyone votes by mail. This is not like a new concept, but he's making it kind of seem like it's this foreign way of voting and oh my goodness, it's just not reliable and all that. But here's what you guys can do. And I really want, like tele a friend to tell a friend because I feel like, you know, I ever really know where people are coming from or what they're reading, where they're getting their news, and you know what perceptions they may have.

But there are many states where you can actually vote early. So if you're if you are, you know at this point, I know family of mine in Georgia is even just like doesn't trust the post office, like they're worried if they put their vote in the mail. You know it'll get lost, but they're also worried that they're going to stand in line at a polling place and catch COVID and potentially die because you know who's COVID killing at a higher rate Black Americans, So it's like a catch

twenty two. So they feel insecure about their vote counting if they vote by mail, but they also are worried about risking their health by showing up to the polls. So if you are determined to vote in person, see if you can vote early in your state. I was just checking New York. We can definitely vote early, So I'm figuring out how to do that, and this happened

to me. I talked about like the primary this summer, if you guys were caught in like hours long lines, like I was in my county because voter turnout was high and they had low so many polling places because there's like there's like such low numbers of volunteers for polls because of the COVID situation. There were really long lines during the primary and I and I actually had to step out of line because they didn't have childcare.

So I went home and Thenrika had to go out and he voted that night, but I didn't, and I was like, there's no way in hell this is happening to me during the presidential election. So we're going to try to go out and vote early. That's one way to make sure your vote counts, and that you're kind of limiting your risk by trying to avoid those crowds. See and request. The thing is like mail in voting.

Like if the government were to say, yes, let's make mail in voting available for every American, We're going to send everyone in ballot, that would be the ideal solution, right but right now that's not what's happening because Trump and his cronies are really trying hard to not let that happen. That being said, you can still request an absentee ballot. And I don't know exactly what the like, what the reasons you have to put on the absentee ballot, like what you can select to say why you have

to vote absentee, but it's worth a try. And that's another way to you know, mailing your vote and have it counted. Because absentee ballots they are counted not as quickly, but they do get counted. I just really, I just hate the idea of people being I mean, I know it's it could be so much easier, but I just I it pisses me off that where that he could possibly be discouraging people from getting out there and voting.

And this is not the time to sit down, like we need everybody, We need everybody and we have I don't just want him to lose, like I want him to be obliterated, like we need to send a message. I feel desperate in this and I haven't even been like, you know, I assume a lot of our listeners you know, aren't aren't aren't really Trump supporters. I mean, I'm just gonna make an educated guest. Maybe that's true, but I don't want to make anyone feel, you know, uncomfortable about

their political leanings. But I know lots of Republicans who don't support this, Like, I mean, what he stands for are not values. I mean, they're conservative, but they're not they're there. You can't you can't. What I don't. What I don't think people can get away with this time around is you had a lot of Republicans last election saying and I'll shut up with this in I mean, I know I've been talking a lot. Sorry, I have a lot of Republicans say, you know, oh, well I don't.

I don't believe in his you know, his social policies or his you know, his his obviously you know, racist and xenophobic beliefs. But you know, I'm I'm a Republican and I believe in smaller government and less taxes, and I just got to vote for this guy. Like I think at this point, you can't. Like maybe in twenty sixteen, maybe you could say that, you know, you can get away with saying, well, he won't do what all he

says about these social issues. He's just going to go in and you know, and and push, you know, toward a more conservatives fiscal policy and all that. But he has shown you who he is now, so when you cast your vote for him, it's going to show us who you are, and it's going to it's just going to be unacceptable. I just can't. I just don't know how anyone could, you know, cast a vote for him, And I I think it'll be even more devastating than it was in twenty sixteen if he wins. And I'm

truly scared that that's what will happen. If people you know aren't out there voting, and Tiffany, you may now don't mean to be quiet, but no.

We definitely, definitely, definitely do also fill out your US Census. Okay, this completes your US government APEUS government class.

into policies. So the legislation that's happening, the rules that are being implemented that you don't agree with, like part of that happens because of the census. And it's incredibly important, so important that like Cardi b even did an ad for New York, like a viral ad for New York to fill out New Yorkers to fill out the census. But you got to do it, and they're giving you even less time than usual. Of course why because the people in power it doesn't behoove them if brown and

black people show up in the census. And there's all kinds of really terrible like misinformation out there being shared on social media, like if you fill out a census and you're an illegal immigrant, that you can be deported and things like that, which is not true. Yeah, it's another it's another way that you know, uh, people are trying to suppress the vote of or sorry, suppress the voice of black and brown Americans. And we've got to get out there. Please fill out your senses. You can

do it online, just google Census. You can do it online. You don't have to wait for someone to knock on your door.

married living get living separately with your partner? I'm like, wow, I never heard of that before. But I mean I've heard of I've definitely heard of not necessarily married people, but people like a Steedman and an Oprah or Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, like folks who are like in long term like you know, partnerships that they have their own houses and things like that, but they're not married, but then you know they together. Yeah, but well, I don't know. I don't well, honestly, I don't mean.

I can see, you know, But there's no judgment. I'm just curious, like some of y'all young'ins, would you be open to let living?

I will say, homeboy Rio started to crawl last week, y'all, and I like, like really crawl, and I always knew he was going to be very good at it as soon as he you know, he really wants to walk. He's he's not down with this whole crawling life. He would prefer if he could walk like a grown adult, but he he'll deal with crawling because it's a good way to get into Molly's dog dishes. But it's next level uh quarantining with working from home with the with

the U with a crawler. I have to say it's I'm not sure if I don't know how much longer I could do this, But so far, so good. And shout out to y'all again for for hanging in there.

before we get into your questions. I really want to Sometimes you guys send us just really thoughtful messages and they mean so much to me in Tiffany when we get them. So I wanted to share one that we got from someone who wants to remain anonymous. She's someone who recently saw Tiffany on Queerie and she's in a same sex relationship, and she had this to say. I saw Tiffany on Queerie and my wife said, wait, what

did she say? Rewind it. Ever since then, I have been listening to y'all's podcast, and we signed up for the liverach Or Academy. My wife used to literally stay awake at night thinking about money moves. The podcast and the literature Academy have been a blessing. I am black and my wife is white. We face discrimination at work in various forms due to our quote unquote lifestyle. These challenges have led us to seek other career paths. We decided to focus on what makes us happy as a

couple and as moms, feeling fulfilled and at peace. We have to say that this podcast in its messages have been a welcome relief to us. I don't have black friends and have been longing to have positive black voices in my ear. Our son, who are our world, is also Caucasian. I am outnumbered at home and at work. We took so many boxes and diversity that we are very isolated. Our goal is to move to France because we feel comfortable and welcome there as a lesbian interracial couple.

We're all taking French classes and moving towards those goals daily. We loved the Our Rich Journey episode. The grace and serenity they have is something to aspire to obtain. Not to give my entire life story. I just wanted to say that I really appreciate you both.

like so LGBTQ. I think I'm saying it right. I'm sorry, I'm not, but also black and brown and Asian and and you know, because they're just even despite all the movement that's been made in this space, largely the voice of you know, what's heard in the personal finance spaces is white and male, and you know, and that is one perspective. It's not invalid, but it's not the only perspective,

and neither is mine. I don't speak for all black or brown women, and nor should I. I just think that there's so much room and necessity for so many different voices. And I'm just so happy to see that that's happening and that you found us, and yay, and yes, our rich journey is also a great resource. I've been like, like you said, the grace and serenity chap me and Maddy have been swirling ever since.

open to that. And I love that y'all are thinking about France because I think stories like Christina and a Mon's are really powerful because they show you a different way of life, like why not Portugal? It makes you, it forced you to ask that question, well, why don't I move to France where I would feel more comfortable, especially in the time of COVID, when it makes even less sense that I live where I do now with these high ass taxes. There's no school and like it's very expensive, and I'm.

Aman's and but I get it. I know, I can kind of understand what it's like to be you know, you're so many layers of other that people sometimes don't know what to do with you, Like, oh, which box I put you in? Like, oh, seven five different boxes? I cannot compute error error and it's not fair, but it's good for y'all to, you know, speak out and

remind folks that you know, not everyone is. You know, there are these others, you know types out there, and y'all are just as valid and your concerns are just as valid as everyone else.

the background. All right, Raven says, hey ladies, I am here repping the dream Catchers. I desperately need advice because I want to make the right steps in securing my future. And it's my first week back to work after being furlowed. Okay, so she's been furlowed for several months. She's been able to save a lot because she cut out a lot of unnecessary bills and no longer has a car payment. I'm living on my noodle noodle budget, she says. Show

it's tiffany. My main bills are my rent, insurance, and internet, so about fourteen hundred dollars. During my time off from work, I've started working on my own business. Okay. So while she was furloughed, she started to think about ways to invest in her own business, and she's wanting to invest about three thousand dollars into herself, which she says, I feel I can save up for as I usually can

save about five hundred dollars every other paycheck. However, my biggest concern, she says, is about the last of my credit card debt, which is sixty six hundred dollars right now. This card she's using has a zero percent interest rate, but the promotion will be ending in September, and the credit card issuer said that the interest rate could go as high as thirty percent. My credit score is seven eighty, Okay,

she says. What should I do? Should I take the money out of my savings and just pay the card off? But that concerns me since I'm more than likely going to be placed on furlough again in November until January. Okay, so let's unpack this. So she's got this sixty six hundred dollars of credit card debt on a zero percent interest card. So it sounds like she got a great promotional credit card offer. That's nice. She's been saving on the side. She got like sixteen K in the bank.

She's probably whittled that down a little bit since she was furloughed, but she's got some savings. September is coming, right, it's very as soon upon us. Her interest rate promotion is going to be ending. It could go up to thirty percent. But she's got pretty decent credit. What are you thinking, Tiffity.

a great position, Raven, because you have excellent credit. I can't promise that whatever your balanced transfer card is going to be, it's gonna take the full sixty six hundred, but see how much you're able to get, and because I quite honestly might go for two of them because up to thirty percent, and that's compounding. So for those of you, what I mean is this is that, let's just say, for the sake of argument, Raven owed a dollar and they were like, oh, you didn't pay off

this dollar. Your promotion ends. You're going to have to pay thirty thirty cents on that dollar and fees. That's a dollar thirty. And then what compounding means is that if she doesn't pay off that dollar thirty by the next month, she's paying an additional thirty percent on not

just the dollar again, but the full dollar thirty. Yeah, and so every month it's just I mean, I'm making it really simple obviously, but every month it's going to you're going to be paying not just interest on the on the principle the original dollar, but interest on the interest, and interest on the interest interest, and interest on the interest interest, Like do you see, Like, yeah, so it's not five percent, it's not six percent, potentially thirty percent.

That's egregious. So I would literally fly up to magnify mag ni f y magnify money dot com. And we're not just shouting it out because that's where many works. Well kind of because back they're about by London try, but still it's still one of my favorite go to sites,

magnify money dot com. Look for a balanced transfer card, maybe two if the first one doesn't fully take on the sixty six hundred, Because normally, if if you weren't to me, if raven, you weren't subject to furlough in a month or so, I might just say, girl, take that six thousand off from your sixty one hundred and paid off. Normally, that's not what I would say, but because of the potential high interest, that's what you know I would.

credit scores a lot. People are obsessed with their credit score, and I think you it's the kind of asset you kind of want to have in your back pocket when times can be tough like this, because it gives you access to affordable debt and in your case, with a seven to eighty credit score, it's likely, you know, we can't say for sure, but it's likely you could qualify for another credit card offer that's as good as this one zero percent for promotional period. So yeah, you can

start there. I was wondering though, So, you know, because she's she's good at saving, obviously, she's got really good financial habits. She's trying to go in the next year because she's obviously in this career, this career path where she's being furloughed. She says again, she'll be furlowed this fall. She's already been furloughed once through the pandemic, and she's wanting to pivot away from this career and start her

own business. Like what if she ends up in the same predicament again, So like, let's say she gets another twelve month APR, you know, for zero percent interest, and it's next year and things have been a little bit rocky, she's been furloughed, and like, I'm just I almost wonder, like, what's the case for talking about like a debt consolidation loan through a credit union at a super low rate, because and this is just me presenting another option. I'm

not saying it's a better option. I mean, you do it ultimately what you want to do, Raven, I forgot your your code name, Raven. But like with a debt consolidation loan, with your excellent credit, you know you can probably get you know, rates are p really really low right now, and go to a credit union see if they can give you a a personal loan for the amount that you want to pay off your credit card. And that gives you that's that's a one time loan.

It's a fixed payment. You know how much you're going to pay each month, and you know when the loan's going to be paid off. And yes, you pay a little bit of interest, but you don't have to worry about it ever expiring and getting hit with Like the thing about these zero percent EPR offers is sometimes they even have a deferred interest clause, which isn't just like, oh, your interest rate's going to go up, you know when

this promo period's over. It's also, oh, we're going to go back to the very beginning and pretend like you were paying interests the entire time and just smack all that interest onto your balance and then, like Tiffany was saying, then compounding interest takes over and then you're just like seriously screwed. Yes, So I would consider as a second option. You know, you know your financial picture better than anyone. You know about your job and your ability to get

this business off the ground. But that's another option you might want to look into.

You might do like, hey, let me see, because they don't like, they don't tell you the balance cornsfer card people that you choose, like I said, if you go to Magnify money, they won't tell you how much until it kind of goes through. So let's just say of the sixty six hundred they say, hey, you know, you're approved for four thousand, and then you might get as many mentioned You might go to a credit union and get the rest. So you can mix and match. You

can do one or the other. But because of your of your good credit, you have options, which is really.

Everyone with all their free time right now is trying to get into stock investing, which is like good and bad. Yeah, good because it's exciting to grow your wealth and you know, I am all we're all about that. But yeah, these are these are very common apps to Tiffany, you're a fan of acorns. I think you also use robin Hood. I've used I've used robin Hood. I've never used acorns or stash, But yeah, what what what do you? What are your opinions? Because all we can share is our opinions.

Really what we I mean.

robbin hood. So even though I have a financial planner, whenever I hear about a stock where I'm interested or whatever, I you know, I kind of give myself like a few hundred dollars to purchase things when if it seems to make sense for me. So, I mean, I'm probably not the best persons because I'm not super heavy into stock investing, but I do like robinhood at least to start.

investing in hundreds of stocks. But it doesn't feel like there's this idea of like trading stocks and investing that kind of intimidates people because they think they need to understand company financials and they need to watch CNBC and you know, and readers and all this kind of thing to invest. I think if you ask yourself first and foremost, you know, what are your goals when you're talking about

you want to start investing in stocks? Is it like Tiffany said, you know, you want to just see what can happen with a few extra hundred dollars, you know, if you invest in a little bit here, a little bit there. You just want to like test things out. I would say Robinhood's a great tool because it's a really easy to use interface. I'm a fan of robin Hood. It's commission free, so you don't get charged. A lot of places because of Robinhood now offer commission free trades

because it's just fairly competitive and how can you beat it? Right, So that's what makes it an attractive kind of app for beginners. It's an easy interface. You transfer money and then you can, you know, buy your stocks right then

and there. I think they even offer not just they used to just do individual stocks, but I think now you can actually buy mutual funds and ETFs through the Robinhood app as well, which makes it even more attractive because those types of investments are different than individual stocks.

With an ETF or a mutual fund, the beauty in those is that you get exposure to all kinds of stocks all in one little pretty package, and you don't need to you know, it's more diversified, there's less you know, it's a little bit less risky because all your eggs aren't in one basket. Robinhood offers that I too use

robin Hood just to kind of mess around. But as far as my goals, I mean, my goals are to retire suon ish like in the next couple of decades, which actually doesn't sound that long, like kind of freaks me out. What in twenty years, I'll be done, like what anyway, So that's my goal. So I've got like twenty to thirty years that I'm trying to save towards. So i have all of my investments outside of my four one K in Vanguard in index funds, and and I really I'm a Vanguard girl. I always have been.

And it's not the most it's not the sexiest interface, it's not it's very blah. It kind of feels fuddy duddy. But Vanguard is like the og of the everyday investors. How I kind of feel like, you know, Jack bow Will invented the index fund and everyone hated him back, you know, back then. There's a lot of beauty I think in the simplicity of the Vanguard experience and for my goals, And you need to ask yourself what your goals are too for long term investing. I'd choose Vanguard.

I used to have a target date fund through them, but I recently ditched it and I selected index funds on my own because I knew a little bit more. Target date funds are really great for a beginning investor because they take all the guesswork out of it. You just decide, okay, what around what year do I want to invest, and then you select the target date fund that matches that year, and they automatically rebalance your portfolio for you. The older you get, it gets more conservative,

so you're not exposing yourself to so much risk. It's all very cool, but they, you know, the cost of the target date fund is is super low too, which makes it attractive. But once I learned more about which index funds to choose, I could save even more and get an even lower cost by picking them myself. But for the first like I don't know how old was I want to open my first four one K twenty four, twenty three, so like maybe the first six years I was rocking with the target date fund and listen, I

killed it. I was so lucky to get to invest during the last recession when the market was so bad because everything was basically on sale, and the money that I put in there has just grown and grown and grown for the last you know, decade really and a target date fund served me very well. But when I was ready to do more, Vanguard was pretty easy. So I'm that's that's what I use. And you know, E Trade also is there. I think e Trade they they

offer some commission free trading as well. I've heard good things about Stash too, Yes, I have to. I think what's beautiful is that there's all these options now, so you know, do your homework, do your googles, and you know, pick the one that that you think is great. But pay attention to fees, like what are they gonna if you are thinking about trading a lot, what are the

fees to trade? You really want to find a place that's commissioned free because every time, if you're trying to trade stocks regularly, that's going to eat into your return and you know it's not not good for what you want.

So you want really low cost. You know, make sure that the interface is easy for you to understand, and make sure that they offer what it is that you want to invest in, because they don't all offer, you know, exposure to the right you know, maybe the index fund that you want or the company that you're looking to invest in, or the ETF or whatever. So you know, that's all I can say there.

like get ducks in a row. But she doesn't manage any investments for us, and she's a fee only planner, which is why I love Helen. It means it's kind of like going for you your annual checkup. I can book an appointment with her and I pay a flat fee, and you know, and then I and Helen continues to kind of check in on us, but there's no pressure to continue working with her and all that. But yeah, we still work with Helen.

interviewed when I was looking for a planner. I remember I interviewed like twenty planners, right, and so I told her that I was going to, you know that should always interview more than one, that I was going to send her those three women. So I just was wondering. I couldn't remember if Helen was, you know, in what capacity you could work with her. So that's good to know. So I'm going to just send her over because I was like, girl, run, you know, like run.

I maybe called three different planners and interviewed them before I settled on the one that I, you know, thought was the best fit for me and I really recommend that and I.

kind of planner. I suggest Angelie. And when I said three planners suggested her randomly, I was like, that's OK. It is a very good sign. And so because you know, you guys know I've got like five businesses and then you know, my husband works, and it just was I have some real estate, so it was more than just it wasn't as cut and dry as maybe my life like ten years ago. And so as a result of that, you know, you know, they suggested Angeline. And honestly, she's

been wonderfully amazing. Would she when I say she has un like just disentangled all of my stuff and has created a helpful your plan to our goals? It just feels amazing. I used to be really afraid of my finances. Despite making good money. I didn't feel secure because I knew that's all I was doing well was making good money. That I wasn't making you know, I didn't have like a plan in place, and how do I get from

here to here? You know, Like I mean, you know, Maddie and I always share how we're so adverse to like debt, but in some ways it was like to my detriment, I was I just I was hoarding too much cash and I knew that, and so yeah, so finding a fight the right financial plan for you is just if you need one, because not everyone needs a financial planner, but if you need one, finding the right one for you can really just be a godsend. So

shout out to our financial planner. So it's good to know about Helen, because I'm gonna I'm gonna suggest that to my mentiks I told her like Angelie is not cheap, but because she typically works with people who are like me that have a lot going on, So you don't want to you don't want to overdo it unnecessarily with someone maybe like Angelie.

There's a lot of free information that can help you, you know, reach some basic milestones, become debt free, you know, learn how to tackle your four one k uh, you know, learn how to save for a goal. I don't know that those are necessarily the types of things that makes sense to hire a financial planner to help with unless you're truly, truly, you know, just cannot handle it and

you really need that coach. But even then, I would say a financial planner isn't just someone you come to and they're entirely hands off, like you should come to the table with your own, you know, your own knowledge of some aspects of you know, financial success yourself, so that you can ask good questions and you can also call them out on their bs when you need to.

or something like that. Like if we if there's like a phrase that we really love, I mean, aside from the obvious, which we've just said, but a phrase we really love, maybe we'll send you some free merch when it comes out.

But Sandy started this conference. So you guys kind of know the debacle for those of you who have been listening for a while with the financial conference that we shall not name, but it was not exactly super friendly to other so brown LGBTQ, like just you know, it just wasn't at least maybe on the on the surface it looked to be, but when you dove deeper, not so much. So there was a lot of shake up

with that other conference this year as a result. And Sandy last year, I think it was the last year. Year before last, she had her first conference called the Elevate Conference, which is inclusive, but like deeply inclusive of other but it's especially for black and brown folks. And so I did a keynote at Elevate last year. We actually have an e Facebook group. Whenever I'm looking for

resources and things for my dream catchers, I go. I literally call them the Browns, even though everyone in there is not like traditionally browns, because we've got like Asian folks in there, and you know, basically it's just a safe haven for anyone who is other in personal finance and just an amazing resource, just an awesome community. And so Sandy had her first in person conference last year.

She was supposed to have them this year, and I remember in the beginning of the year because of COVID, she was freaked out because she had already planned the conference and now it was supposed to be I think in March, and it couldn't happen. It was all this money on the line, and it just seemed like it wasn't looking good. She wasn't able to get all her deposits and things back. But Sandy pivoted. I mean she put the p and pivot and took her conference online.

And after the other conference kind of like imploded, at least temporarily, so I'm sure they'll be back imploded. People started to look for where are safe spaces for others to congregate, and so all of a sudden she got sponsorship she wasn't getting before. All the support, I mean, us Brown's we've been new, We've been new, Sandy. But I just want to congratulate her because the Elevant conference just went, was just last week, and it was amazing. When I tell you, she did such a good job.

I helped to do the opening chat, the opening talk for the conference of why a conference like this was so important, and I just basically said that, you know what I said earlier, then there has to be other voices because there are different types of people who need to see themselves in the resources being presented and everything is not black or white, that most of us live somewhere in the gray. And just so I'm just so proud of Sandy because it's been when I tell you,

she did so much of it by herself. I was like, Sandy who edited these videos? She's like I did. I'm like Sandy who did it?

I know, so black Wall Street do your googles. That's hugely historic to be able to do it there, and so yeah, that was it. I just wanted to just give her a huge, huge virtual hug and then shout out. And she's just doing the amazing work of providing platforms for people like me and Mandy and other folks to be seen, heard and understood and shared.

do this week. I have so much to do, so much to say, but I would really like to make this week's break. Sorry to be a little negative, It's gonna be good. I am ready to take a break from for X trading. Okay, this has been one of the most popular questions we have gotten, and I feel like anyone in the personal finance education space has probably gotten from folks through their email or DMS or whatever. It's what is for X trading? Do you have any tips? Is it legitimate? And I just think we need to

talk about it. You know. For X trading is not something that I personally participate in, nor does Tiffany. But I think since so many of you guys are curious about it, and you very well are probably seeing the same ads and the same you know YouTubers and the same folks on your social media or your uncle, you know, texting you like mine, has you know, talking about four X trading, and it's time for us to talk about it.

in fact a huge, huge market. I mean, trillions of dollars pass daily through the four X trading market. So as you guys are probably familiar with. There is, for example, the New York Stock Exchange, and that is where you trade stocks, you trade shares in companies. So you might buy ten shares of Apple today, and your hope is that when you sell those ten shares of Apple that it was worth more when you sold it than it

was when you bought it. Right. So, the four X market or foreign exchange trading, this is where you're trading something different. You're actually trading national currencies, so you're trading a US dollar for a British pound, or you're trading a British pound for a Japanese yen or whatnot, and it's it's very similar. You hope that when you buy the other currency, the foreign currency, that when you exchange it for a different currency, that that will actually be

worth more than what you paid for initially. And that is how you make money in for X trading. That's a super duper simplified. Here's the thing for X trading. Sometimes there's just like this huge surgeon interest for it. Actually went to Google search trends and I was like, let me see have people been searching more for four X trading? Let me see what the trends have been, Like, guess when there was an uptick in search volume around four X trading around April twenty twenty. I wonder why

it was right when the pandemic truly hit. Most states were shut down, if not shut down entirely, shut down partially, and millions of people, tens of millions of people were furloughed or lost their jobs. Okay, I decided to go back a little bit further, and I was like, when was the last big surge in interest in four X trading? What do y'all think?

I don't want to call a scheme because, as I've said, it's a legitimate form of trading, but it's created that people have taken advantage of the interest in this type of trading and the fact that you can, you know, you can trade twenty four hours a day depending on which market you use, because they're all over the world, right, you could be trading on London hours or you know Japan our Tokyo hours or you know Sydney hours whatever.

So yes, there's a lot of opportunity to make money, but it's a very complex form of trading and you know, you really have to get educated and understand it. And this is where opportunistic people have taken advantage of the mystique about for X trading because they sell courses and how to do it, and they sell this information and honestly, yes, maybe the information's useful, maybe they do an okay job of explaining what for X trading is and how it works.

But if you think that you can immediately become an expert in this form of very risky investing, and it's risky because you know, it's as risky as you want it to be. It's depending on how much money you're willing to put into it. But if you just lost your job, or you're financially insecure, you've got debt or whatnot, this probably is not the best place for you to you know, get your financial you know, get your financial safety net put back together. This is my personal opinion.

I'm sure there very well are people who are you know, making tons of money in the for X trading you know market and all that, and that's very great for them, But I mean you should look at it with like several hundred grains of salt and definitely think twice before you pay someone money to teach you about four X trading and ask yourself, you know, what are you expecting

to get out of it? Because you know, I could offer a course myself in stock trading today, but you're your own person, and there's so much more than just understanding how it works that goes into it. You also need the time, like do you have the time to sit at your terminal at your computer all day? You know, look at the price graphs and you know, really understand what they mean and when the opportunities are to strike

and all that. I mean, it takes a lot of untal bandwidth and I and it makes me sad because I think a lot of people who are being drawn toward this form of investing, you know, are more vulnerable, like you have more to lose. So that's I just wanted to, you know, look at the elephant in the room,

because everyone's talking about it. So let's just recap. Yeah, for X trading is legit, it's not probably the best way to invest, especially dollars that you are very afraid to lose because they're all you have left if you've fully been struggling, you know, in this current COVID crisis. So just think about it, and if you guys have more specific questions, you know, let me know. There's some really, you know, there is some good helpful information out there.

If you want to learn more about four X trading, well, we'll share some links to investipedia, Investipedia's explainer, you know, in our show notes. They're a trusted source, and just you can start to educate yourself, but always do your own due diligence and really try to avoid any kind of investing strategy or investing you know, hot new trend because that usually it usually doesn't bode very well.

scams surrounding. It's just like with anything, and so yeah, just being mindful and doing your homework and doing your due diligence and that quite honestly, I know it sounds like so cliche, but if something seems to be too good to be true, especially when it comes to your money, it is like not when it comes to cake necessarily, or cookies or like you know, your favorite dish, like ooh, this looks too good to be true, no eat it.

But when it comes to money, if it seems too good to be true, ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine percent of the time, it's always because if it was that easy, wouldn't we all be rich? Like ask yourself that, how is it that this person that you're meeting has cracked the code on how to become rich in two weeks? And no one knows? I mean, yeah, they haven't. They've just cracked the code and taking money. So who this has been an episode, Joe, Thanks as usual, Mandra.

my start as a personal finance editor and reporter. I launched there. I was one of the first I call myself a founding editor of their personal finance section. So it's crazy only ten years later.

I feel like we have such a bigger audience even now than we did pre COVID. And that's, you know, just a testament to to really you guys for spreading the words. So thank you, yes, thank you, thank you so much. And maybe next week I will finally talk about my mortgage refinance which just finished finally and how I have banned meetings from my life.