Ep. 72 — #OscarsSoWhoops

director he does like all our videos and stuff. He was like, I'm going to Disney World. Om are you guys wanna come? And I was like, the happiest place in the world on Earth. Yeah, and it was indeed the happiest place on that I had such a fun time.

three of us. And I was like under the age of five, and I look at photos and every photo I'm like, I look sad, I'm crying, I'm like pitching a fit, and I'm like, man, maybe they should have waited until I was old enough to appreciate the experience and not just whining because you know, I had to walk around Disney year old. But the like the good parts, like the one of the best things that I have from that time. It's like all the little videos, home videos,

old school videos of my family at Disney World. They were it wasn't all like dramatic mandy moments, but yeah, did you know that you could. One of the things I did recently was I found all my dad's and my mom's old VHS tapes and I it wasn't cheap, but I went and got them like converted into digital files and DVDs because they were like falling apart. I mean, the tape was coming out and I wanted a way

to preserve those memories, and I went to Walgreens. I wonder if anyone out there has been to a better like has an idea of a better service. But we just picked Walgreens randomly and it took a couple of weeks. But now it's really cool because now we have them like online.

Columbia or something like that. My coo Sierra was flying from Philly, and I was actually flying in from Boston because I was in Boston to do a speaking event. So we were literally all flying in from like all around the world. And then we just got a really dope airbnb. So it was like four bedroom, three bathroom, and we were there for I think like four days, and so the first two and a half three days were really just like ten to twelve our work days. So like a lot of folks were like, oh my god,

I wish I was there. I'm like, no, you don't. It was brutal because we'd.

no distractions. It was like either you're working or you're sleeping or eating. That's it. And then the last day we were like, you know what, almost everything's done. We did a little work in the morning, and you know, when JP Or and you know, our director said let's go to Disney, I was like, yeah, let's say it. I bought my Mickey Mouse or Minie Mouse ears yo, me and Sierra, my CEO. We were like giddy the whole time, like, oh my god, I'm like we're here.

didn't go to bad ang. I didn't go to bed angry, but I woke up at like six and I was scrolling through in like Twitter and Facebook, and I was so confused. I was like, what is all this moonlight and like and then I saw the video that is crazy?

whichever side the presenters come out. So if you come from the left, you get an envelope from that person. If you come from the right, then the other person hands you their envelope. And everything went fine the whole night, and then when they got to best Picture, the guy who was handing the envelope to the presenter who was who were fade unaway and Warren Batty handed them the wrong envelope, handed them his copy of the Best Actress

winner who the other person? You had the car? The other his counterpart on the other side, had already handed out her Best Actress envelope to the other presenter, so he had one left because that presenter hadn't come from his side, and instead of handing the Best Picture envelope, he handed the Best Actress. But what boggles the mind is that Warren Batty, if you watch it, like if you were watching live like I was, I was like, why is he trying to make this drag out and

be funny about it? Because he opened it and looked and he smart and then he showed it to Fay and he's like, you know, like it felt like he was screwing with everyone, and I was like, just say it. And then Fay is like, oh, it's La La Land. And it turns out what he had why he was so confused is because it said best Actress from La La Land. But they read it anyway, which is like if I don't know, I mean, I guess you can

say what they do in their shoes. But like someone should have been like, wait a second, and let's figure out what is happening before. And then it took over two minutes like la Land, and then was up there like three people had given speeches. Three and then you see you see a guy with like a headset kind of milling, and you see some confused faces in the crowd behind the people giving speeches, and all of a sudden, the guy who's giving a speech cuts himself off and

he's like, actually, guys, we lost. And then the I forget I don't know who exactly it was. One of the producers held up the correct envelope and said, Moonlight, there's been a mistake. You guys won. Yeah, and the entire holy crazy crazy, and then the Moonlight cast is like and he had to keep saying, it's not a joke, it's not a joke. You guys won, And he held up the envelope and the camera got it and you

can see Moonlight best picture. And then of course everyone in the like there's a great meme of like Taraji and Octavia Taragi's face just like the whole night. They should have had a camera on her face for every moment. She is the best. Everyone just like lost their minds. That's like, gee, never happened ever. I mean there was one time I read, like in the sixties when Sammy Davis Junior messed up the the music like the Best Song Winner or something like that. But nothing never best picture.

or Chyne who's the boy in the film. But anyway, so like you you could you understand why people were like it was already going to be historic for them to win, but the fact that they won like in that way, some people were upset that they felt like the beauty and like the purity of that win was lost.

But then I kind of, I don't know, it almost became like a The way that they handled it, the way that La La Land handled it, and the way that Barry Jenkins handled it, I thought was really beautiful because as soon as Barry got up there, he was thanking the La La Land producer. He's like that was that was so gracious. I don't know what I would have done in that position. I mean to find out that you won and then you lost, Like that's freaking embarrassing and like.

she was like, honestly, is it disappointing? Yeah, of course, but honestly I love Moonlight and she just was gushing about it, and I thought, you know that despite all of that that and even like you said, I mean, you don't know what you did if you're up there, I know, the warm babies, like, what the entire hell is going on?

But Moonlight, like, there's never like in terms of like originality the subject matter, there was not another There's never been a film like it. But you should go see it.

So she was like back in the day when they used to have like rap crewise they still have somewhat, but like how Young Money which is Drake and like you know, or cash Money Drake and and and Little Wayne and all of them. So back then Terror Squad was like a crew which was Fat Joe, Remy Ma. Oh what is the other guy's name? That big pun. So they were like all Hispanic for the most part, I'm thinking, is remy Hispanic? I think so. So anyway,

she was like the girl of that crew. How like Little Kim was like the girl crew with like Junior Mafia and Big you know. So anyway, so Remy Ma she got into trouble for beating up and allegedly shooting one of her friends over money, I think whatever. She went to jail for a long time, like nine years, and then she came out. So she was she went to jail really at the height of her she was

just starting to really build her her career. She went to jail for doing that, came back and then landed a spot on Love and Hip Hop, where, oddly enough, she wasn't really the drama one like you know, like everybody else on those Love and Hip hop kind of shows, it's all about dramatics, but her her storyline on there is really about her and her husband, who like waited for her. They got married right before she she one away or she I think day actually got married while

she was in prison, and I don't know. It's it's oddly beautiful their love story and how much he loves her.

I'm not gonna totally disagree, so but you know, but no one has really been able to when they've kind of come at Nikki really make a DBT and then enter in remim aka Gangsta Boo and so she. I guess Remy has been putting out music and actually surprisingly because you know, you don't often get a chance to come back, her music has been doing well. She just

got nominated for a Grammy. She had a song out where people were like, ooh, are you talking about Nicki, and she specifically addressed and said no, Like in an interurview, she said, I'm not talking about Nicki stopped trying to make beef between rap women. But I guess Nicki felt like she was talking about her. So Nicki went on to do I think two cameos where she clearly was dissing remiwand so Remi wand came out with a song

called Sheather, which is the play on ether. I don't know if you remember the I don't know how you cannot remember the jay z Nos beef, which was put to bed by Naz's epic most epic diss record of all time, Fight Me if you want, called Ether where he kills jay Z on this record, and so she did like a play on it called Sheather with the

same beat. And although I was not like super impressed with the flow and stuff, just the things that she was saying were like, well, the part that really struck me wasn't really anything else other than the financial I was like, wow, because you know, me financed. So here's the part that struck me. For those of you're like,

where's all this going? The financial piece, I was like, So rebby Las says in this rap, Nikki, you have a three sixty deal, which is supposed to be like the worst deal in the in the in the record industry. And what that deal is is like a major record label gets on like a major artist. So let's just say Lil Wayne, and then Lil Wayne is under or or signed somebody like a Drake, So Lil Wayne now has its own record label under that label, and then

Drake has his own record label under Little Wayne. So basically it's like major record label, major artists record label under them, then major artists under them's recular so like three record labels, and then they signed Nikki, so like, that's like, I mean, that's not exactly what happened, but I think she said first it's like Republic, then cash money,

then young money or something like that. And she says in the rap that five people touch your money before you do, because it's one of the worst deals because one you're not directly signed, so you're not It's bad enough that a label gets a cut, but it's like main label gets a cut, secondary label gets a cut, third label gets a cut before you get a cut.

And then on top of that, with this three sixty deal, apparently you are responsible for paying for everything, so you're you have to pay for your tour, you have to pay for your for your videos, you have to pay for everything before you get any money. So it's very difficult. Although Nikki is very successful remy Mansea, you know, you can say what you want, but I own all my publishing, I own the rights and the masters to all my music.

So she was like, for every one record I sell for you to make the same amount of money, you have to sell ten. And I just thought that was really interesting, like wow, that people are still signing deals

that put them in a financial space. Like that, where like you we've all like you know, seem like you know, you hear about a new edition all of these kind of like old skilled musical acts that like TLC that got one dollar for going on tour that basically the label charges them to be an artist and owns all of their rights. And I just thought, wow, NICKI has a deal like that. So that's the part that kind of interests me, Like, wow.

But at the same time, I feel like, you know, we should a lot of cases or maybe not as like, but doesn't get publicized is when women actually help women and don't use each other to get into the limelight. And yeah, it's just mean. And like NICKI was young when she signed that contract. I bet I know. I bet she knows it's a shitty deal.

look back on and they're cool now. So I don't mind hip hop beef because it's part of hip hop. So I don't mind you know that. I guess I was just like, wow, it's just interesting because one of my cousins works in the music industry. He's actually like the the A and R Global an R for one of these major labels. He's really young too, but he's worked for almost all of the labels you can think of what all the labels that cater to hip hop,

and he's actually signed Katy Perry. His name is Chris Annakute and he used to tell me all the time that he once came to speak at a at a boys and girls club and they were asking him he's he was one of the people that helped to break Riyana. Upon the replay, he signed the guy that wrote that song for Rihanna, And so he would say all the time that you know, oftentimes the musicians on the road

are making more than the artists. So he was like, like, for example, if you're on the road and you have like say like a piano player, they are guaranteed a salary of like, okay, they're making sixty eighty thousand dollars a year. The musician is not because their money comes after everyone else is paid. And I just thought that was so fascinating back then. And he was like, you know, if you're in the music industry to grow wealth, that being in front of the camera is not the place

to do it. So that was kind of like his role to kind of teach the kids of all the ways you could be part of the music industry that actually makes money without having to pick up a microphone, because these other ways make way more And I thought, wow, he was kind of listing artists that well, I won't list them, but like artists back then that he was like nope, no money, no money. Oh yeah, money, no money, no money. And I was like wow, So sometimes people look.

I remember there was a there was a case where I forget who it was. It was a singer who had finally left the record label and they owned that singer's I guess material, and he went on to do another album and they sued him for a copyright infringement and they went to course for it. They're like, yeah, your album sounds like this other album. He's like it's me, what do you mean? So basically they're like, you can't sound like yourself on your new album not that Wow,

how terrible. So it's just a lesson to anyone starting a business, anyone.

you know, I was with Yahoo at the time. But the idea of like, you know, you know how things work when you're attached to a huge company like that, and it's you become sort of like another another project and you have to meet metrics and you have to sort of like fight for your fight, you know, get input from outside voices and like it sort of Yeah, becomes less about you, and and I was like, I want to something that can stand on its own two feet and that if I leave, it's not like it's

tied to this. It's sort of like like like diversifying. And you do the same thing with you you write your ebooks and you don't go through a publisher, and then you get what like seventy percent of the profits versus like eleven percent if you were to use.

books that actually make her money. And I've had a book agent come up to me just last year, you know, after selling like so many of like because by then I had three best selling books on Amazon, and agent approached me. It was like, you know, we really like to talk to you about maybe traditional publishing. And I

said okay. So we had a meeting and when we broke down the numbers and I was telling her, you know, like how much I was making in my audience size, and she kind of was like, so, I'm gonna be honest, there's no reason for you to sign with me. And I was like really, She was like yeah. She was like, I mean, we're not going to get seventy percent. She was like, you know, typically I could tell you, oh, we could expose you to a larger audience. You've already

built your audience. She said. The only thing I could say is that if you sign with a larger publisher, you know, oftentimes we're able to get you on more national television more regularly. Because we pitched in a group, so you know, a larger publisher has like really great contacts at Good Morning America or Today's show and says, hey, we've got like five different authors with books. I'll pick one that you want to have on. But she was like, even that, it looks like your publicist is doing a

pretty good job. So she was like, I'm not gonna lie, like that's what we're We're here for one larger audience and two media. She was like, but you have those things, so I'm not saying you shouldn't sign, but I don't know that we're going to better for you than you're doing it for yourself. So that was a really powerful affirmation and like, Okay, you can do it yourself. Is it longer, Yeah, but to me it's worth it because

when that book money comes in. I know people who when they go in an event, they can't even sell their own book. It's not theirs. Like if you go to an event and you're speaking in the front of the room as a keynote speaker and you're like, ooh, let me sell some books in the back, they have

to call the publisher. The publisher brings the books someone to sell it and takes the money and the books back with them, and you're like, okay, I guess i'll see my my eleven percent later on in my check this week, not me as soon as you give me cash. That is all mine, minus like one the cost of.

I was like, oh, I get it. This is this is perfect because my so my in laws, who are Dominican live in you know, Inwood, have never met my friends, have never met my bridesmaids, and my mother obviously had never met anybody. And my friends had never met my other you know, my mother or my my future in laws and my future aunts in law, my my mother in law sisters, and like it was it was like clashing of the world in the in the best way possible.

I mean, we had to translate everything from Spanish from English to Spanish, and like, while that seems like it would be a headache, it was actually really fun to like we were playing all these games and it was funny like at one point we were playing Bingo and my bridesmans didn't know this, but like my mother in law stays at Bingo every day for like the last two decades. She has been going to bingo every night.

Like a on the way to the shower, she was bragging because she had just won two hundred bucks and like she's just obsessed. She's obsessed with bingo and so like that was the great universal thing at the shower and like once the bingo and I was like, it

was just a stupid bingo game. It was like we're gonna pull names of utense, like names of cooking supplies out of a bowl, and then you know, it felt like it would have been like a really lame game, but it brought everyone together and it was I don't know, it was just really beautiful and I had a really great time. And I gotta think my girls because they did. They did me proud, and they you know, I'm like a control freak, so that I was really trying to like get in there and like what can I do

and what do you need? And like, but they kept me at bay and I'm glad they did because they did a good job. I learned to trust. I like learned to trust.

do as the budget needs to. Like, it's a girl who with the business for brown girls, so I would go, I'm gonna totally geek out. I'm not gonna lie.

But Google Drive is literally the only thing that keeps me sane, and it's the only thing that I use. And I have trained everyone at Magnified Money on Google Drive, you know, sometimes kicking and screaming. But if you don't use Google Drive, and you like, you use different documents and you're constantly switching from like well, especially if you're editing or you're changing a document, or you're collaborating on projects together and your workplace, Google Drive is where it's at.

It is like the one thing Google, not the one thing. But you know, Googles came out with some duds, right yeah, buzz Google. I forget what the other things were, the bad chat thing like the Google Hangouts or like Google Plus, like all that crap. They should have just stopped the drive because it's perfect and it's amazing, and it's everything in the cloud, and it's where I keep you know, maybe I won't say it's where I keep all my passwords. Yeah,

it's probably about idea. Anyway, Google drives awesome, and it replaced it's free if you have Gmail, and it replaces for me, it replaces word. It replaces Excel, it replaces power Point, It replaces all that crap that you pay for like in Microsoft Suite, which is why I've always loved it. I never had to pay for any of that stuff anymore. And it's in the cloud, so everything that I do, my collaborators can see and it's easy to share. And this is not a paid endorsement. I promise.

long flight. No, not over three hours. I'm just like ugh. So, I mean, I've thrown first class before, but usually it's because like maybe a company has paid for it or I got like a great boost or whatever, but I never paid for it. And so I was looking at prices, and the price of the ticket for Boston to Orlando was like like three something like the high three hundreds if I just flew like in the afternoon or whatever.

But if I flew earlier in the morning, it was four hundred and if I wanted to fly first class. So I was like, ooh, for an extra like thirty dollars more in flying earlier, I can fly first class in the morning. So that's what I chose. And that's why I kind of reason because normally first class tickets are like the difference is too great to make, you know, it's just too much more money. But I was like, thirty bucks, wake up a little earlier, I'll do it.

Oh OK. So I did, yes, And you know what it taught me, because I mean sometimes I'm like cheap to a default, because my default reaction when it's time to spend money on like things like that, it's like no, no. And so I was like, well, look at the number, Tiffany, thirty dollars, it's worth it totally. And even flying home, they were only middle seats available, and I said, what

I won't do is middle c I can't. And so it was like you could play for priority seating, which was like a little bit more seating for twenty two dollars the upgrade, and I paid it.

if you can? And she said, sometimes if a client flies her out, you know typically they they pay for your flight, that she will pay the additional difference, like which is maybe like one hundred bucks fifty to one hundred bucks for first class, because it's not the whole ticket. That for her, it's like, look, I'm paying fifty bucks so I can fly super comfortably. And I thought, you know what, so that kind of like opened my mind up to like Tiffany, you know, isn't like twenty or

fifty bucks worth it if you can afford it. Plus you can write it off because this is a business trip. And so just opening my mind up to upgrade. So that's my brown boost is that, like you know that if you can afford it. And I'm you know, I save, I pay our bills on time, I have retirement, I do all that stuff, and sometimes I still forget to treat myself. And so expect see me in more first class seats as long as it makes financial sense.

had to put you on blizz ass. Yes, brown girl wear her locks all up in disarray, sitting next to you in first class, get into this shoulder. Shouldn't be.

time my husband sabotages us. His latest is that we need a bigger house and we can rent out the one we live in currently, which admittedly is too small, as a way to help pay for us soon to be college student. I agree, we do, However, we do not have the down payment, and we have this debt. He gets his yearly bonus next week and wants to save it to buy the other house. I want to use it to pay down debt. I've insisted on us slowly.

I've insisted on us living solely on cash, and I plan to get a job once the kids are out of school this summer. I want to use my earnings for debt repayment in my retirement. He just complains about the budget and says that debt is normal. I don't believe that. Am I doing the wrong thing? Please help?

not a big deal. Everybody's out adista. Who cares if my car notice the same amount as somebody's mortgage. Nobody cares. I've got the car, won. I was like, oh my god, I'm dying on the inside. So then after like trying different things, I recognized, oh, he loves his daughter so much. Let me use that as an angle, and so I used it as are you saving for her future? And at first he was like, no, you know, she's smart,

she'll get a scholarship. And I'm like, well, you know this is probably true, but let's also have like a plan in conjunction to that. So it started off with him just going to his job and saying, hey, instead of giving me all my money in my checking account, divert some of that to the savings. And I said, well, while you're there. Another common denominator was we wanted to go on vacation. I said, while you're there, divert some to a savings account for yourself, a joint savings account

for vacations for us and your daughter saving. So that was like the end, and then I left it, and then he lived his life. He did well. He still had his car, you know, but now he's saving three different ways and paying his bills. And then after like six months of kind of him in that space, I

broached another stop, you see what I mean? So it was like, you know, vacation might not seem like a fun thing or might not seem as responsible as like, you know, saving the payoff debt, but that might be a common denominator, like let's do this for quote unquote vacation, and that vacation account than when we originally started like three years ago, has morphed into our house account, and this is why now he's able to buy a house. And you know, I've helped him get his credit score together,

so you know, we started off in one place. But I knew in my mind, I'm not gonna lie that vacation a cat was always a house account, he just didn't know it.

get qualified for a mortgage. They have nearly ninety thousand dollars in credit card and a student loan debt, Like I feel like to get to his goal, she could say, you know, in order for us to be in the best position to qualify for a loan for a bigger house, which I'm guessing is probably going to cost more money, you know, we should be working on paying down our debt because like, isn't that one of the biggest that's the biggest thing that a mortgage a loan officer is going to look at.

be able to afford this much house. But if you did X y Z, pay down deb get your credit to where it's supposed to be, you'd be able to afford more house. So maybe let someone else, say it a professional financial person, someone that he's gonna want to hear from. Because it's a mortgage person. The mortgage person will tell you flat out. So I think that's probably the best, the best bet, that your common denominator is your mortgage and let the mortgage person be the bearer of bad news.

numbers and have let's get her opinion. And we did just that, and not to brag, but she gave us three different scenarios and she was like, here's what your money would look like if you bought a house, Here's what it would look like if you continue to rent, and here's what it would look like if you bought an investment property and had some rental income and the worst scenario for our money was to buy a house.

And that was sort of like, yeah, that was like a wake up call for him, and it wasn't like me and my nagginess like you know, telling and we can't afford it. We can't afford it or it's not good for us, you know. And that at least saved me, It bought me some time. I'm not gonna lie and say that it's like completely stop being a point of contention his desire to buy a house and my desire

to not. But it definitely helped having a professional And now it's sort of like you can blame someone else, yes, and you can. You can preserve your own, you know, relationship, but then have someone else be the bad guy.

Are there any consequences for switching and does it really matter how long you've been with one bank?

a year. So anything past that you're fine. Or sometimes being with the bank is because you've built relationships with the people at that bank, meaning like you in the bank branch man are super cute, super closed, and like when you're like looking for a loan, they look at you more as a person than a number because you're you've been really cool with that bank. But no, like those days are done. People don't really are not don't really get to know the people at the bank like that.

And yeah, so if you want to go, girl, go and it's.

they didn't really need just to get the commission. Yeah, and they're they're facing like a multi billion dollar fine for that, and they had to do just they just like let go half their executive team because of that, soul. I don't blame you for wanting to leave Wells Fargo, And honestly, there's so many banks out there that don't. I mean, Wells Fargo has high fees, They require a

minimum balance for some of their checking accounts. I mean, like a lot of big banks, they have so much high overhead costs that they pass those costs in now to you to you in the form of fees. So if you can find a better deal, I feel like you shouldn't have. You shouldn't feel loyalty to a big bank.

I agree, Like, if it's your court, if you're like your community bank or your credit maybe, although like contrary to what people think, We've taken a look at credit card credit union fees and they're not always that much better than big banks. Even so, at the end of the day, you just don't have don't feel a sense of loyalty.

of these banks is offering. I remember when I was looking to open up business account for my second business, you know, Magnified money was clutch because I was able to put in like on my zip code and like I didn't want to pay fees and see all in one place. They were like banks I didn't even hear from, like what's investors bank? Oh, and you know, and so it just was really helpful. So you're in the right place, and definitely choose what's best for you, not what's best for the bank.

not see me wrong. You have gotten my skin popping with that, I always say the name wrong. The oil would talk to the a Argan oil. Yes, you have helped me with my hair. You guys have helped me with so many things. And now I am asking for help because.

every time I would leave or go somewhere. So I have to figure out something because honestly, like my whole life, I've been pretty slim and I'm you know, I'm definitely not fat, and I have to be honestly thing I could honestly say, like, I'm one of those people that I look in the mirror and although it's not perfect, I've always liked my body. I'm like, you know, I got that nice little shape, little booty, little thigh action. I like that, you know, and you know, Superman definitely

is not gonna play and he's like yeah. I'm like, but I really don't want to buy new clothes. And it's getting to the point where I'm like, yo, because I don't buy clothes tight anyway. That's just like like I don't really like to wear my clothes tight. But when my like non tight clothes are starting to fit, like club clothes, I'm like, yeah, this is a church dress, so why do I look like I'm going to the

going to the club. So I don't know if you guys have any suggestions for I know it starts with diet if there's like some sort of program and not diet as in being on a diet, but meaning like some sort of like here's some healthy meals day one, day two, day three, so I can just integrate them into my life, and then also some sort of exercise

routine something that I can integrate into my life. The fact that my life does you know, I'm not in one place for too long something like that, because I'm just not really appreciating my clothes don't fit that if my win. I'm just asking what are some all alternatives too, because probably sweets are my biggest thing. Alternatives to sweets meaning like I'm a cookie cake candy like chocolate girl.

What are some things where I can get that, like I can fulfill that need without having to like you know, take in all of those calories. Like for example, one thing I do because I used to have like a

soda addiction, like to like ginger rale. So instead of soda, what I'll do now is I will I have like you know, salttera water, and sometimes I'll have like one hundred percent juice, like and I won't put much juice, but it'll just give it just enough, like in my celter to be like, Okay, this is fizzy, it has some flavor. You don't need soda, you know, so stuff

like that. So if you guys have some suggestions, just just tweet me at the Budgetista or instagram me at the Budgetista, and I'd love your suggestions for sweet substitutes that the things I can make at home, because like I said, I like cooking, but I'm just like, what is happening? Like I want to I'm thirty seven, and I want to go into like, you know, my forties snatched and not looking like what happened. I used to be so right in sight.