Hey, hey, hey, and we're back. It is Brown Ambition, Episode eight.
Hey, guys, what's up.
It's Mandy and it's Tiffany and we're back.
Man, hope you guys had a good weekend.
Yeah, I hope you did have.
It's October.
It's fall, Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Honestly. I love the fall for the foliage. And I don't mind a crisp kind of like slightly chilly, but I don't like cold, cold, cold.
Well, I guess I can agree with that. This is the time of year. Like our heat went on this weekend at our apartment, and I love the smell of the first heat of winter. Like yeah, I like the way the apartment you can smell it come on. It kind of smells like I don't know what it smells like, probably like chemicals and discussing, but it kind of it's cozy, except for at night it gets so hot.
We have radiators.
We have an old, old, old building, and the radiators making noises and they hiss. Yeah, and it's so freaking hot, like I'll wake up the middle the night in like a dead sweat. Like I wear less clothes in winter to bed than I do in summertime.
Like honestly, I used to. So I used to work in this building, which was a housing building aka the projects in Newark, and so I never heard of project heat before. It's a real thing. So project heat is like it's it's heat and like you know one of those high rise buildings that's controlled by like I guess some sort of main system. So you don't have any control over your heat.
Oh I don't have control over money either.
Okay, so that project you are.
I don't pay project money.
No, no, I wish I was so anyway, it is so hot, like literally in the winter time. When I used to teach preschool, so our preschool was in the the bottom of the building. We would have to like open, like in the dead of winter, our like windows and doors because literally I would get sick because the heat was so hot.
We crack our windows.
You could actually boil like the water that came out of the heater. You could actually boil the.
Egg with just straight I d clothes on it.
Yeah I do. Oh man, do you have project heat.
I'm gonna start calling it that.
Yeah, you're getting brown and browner every day.
I don't like not having control, but yay. Fall.
All that to say, it's fall, It's beautiful. So what do we want to talk about for Buzzworthy.
Buzzworthy this week? We have a lot of interesting topics. Do you want to Well, let's start. Let's start with this whole textbook controversy. So obviously, people who win history tend to write history books. Yes, which means that a lot of I'm guessing probably old white men are writing our children's history books. And there's some reaching controversy over a textbook that is in a caption of a photo describing the slave trade, describes slaves as quote unquote workers.
Can you imagine? It says something like it's like you see, they're trying to show you kind of like the route that the slaves took by I guess by ship, and the caption says something like, this is the route that they brought over the workers from Africa to America. The workers. Oh oh, did the slaves that they were workers? Did they get workers' wages?
They get benefits?
I couldn't believe. I mean, it just it's just so infuriating because it's very clear they're trying to rewrite history to make it seem like slavery wasn't that bad. I've heard that a lot from people down south that that's kind of like the notion that it wasn't that bad. And I'm like, oh, so loss of freedom and life and choice and liberty is not that bad.
What I love about it is that the chapter, this whole like this, this excerpt from the chapter was called out by one of the kids. It wasn't like the kid's mother saw it and was like, listen, honey, no. This kid so apparently his name is Kobe Burn. He's from Houston, so he was reading the textbook, saw this part and texted his mother. He said with a text message, we was real hard workers, wasn't we.
I love sarcasm.
Sarcasm obviously yea. And his mother what's her name, Ronny Rone or Ronnie So she's the one who kicked everything off. Once her son texted her, she put up this. She put up a post on Facebook and I think a video too where she calls out the textbook and now the company, yay black Power. The company is renovating revising this page in the book.
Which is like, why did we even have to say call it what it is? These were not workers, These were stolen people and they were abused beyond like I mean, even though people will say like, oh well I've actually read somewhere like oh, our slaves were happy and they wanted to be here, Like what does that even mean?
Oh, here's the thing. This is why it's really fucked up. They this this is about so the I'm looking at the page of the book. It's it's titled Patterns of Immigration. So when you immigrate to a country, that kind of insinuates that you want to be there. Yes, choice by choice. Yes, So this is Yeah, in that context, it's even crazier
that they're calling them like African workers who immigrated to America. Yeah, they weren't shackle them bound and put on slave ships and made to drown at see and die and all this stuff. And mm hmmmmm. This is why we need more diverse textbook authors. Let's make a call for if I don't know, how do you even get a job as a textbook writer?
I don't know.
That must be the widest job in America, you know what I mean.
Somebody's sitting in the audience like right now, like, oh well, yeah, I don't yeah.
I don't think until I got to college all my you know, professors have to write books. I don't think I had a textbook written by a black person to college. So yay public education.
Yes, and yay Kobe.
Oh, I wanted to talk about urban geeks. This isn't what it's called.
It's called hood hood nerds.
No, okay, yeah, I screwed up, but we'll keep going. Yeah, it's called hood nerds. Wait is that what's really called?
It's called hood something.
But I told you I didn't like the neighborhood hood Wait where is it at?
Yes, it's called hood something, and I was just like, what does it have to be called hood smart?
Goods smart? So there's this new reality TV show and listen, this is a let's okay. So this is a huge step forward away from like Kardashians and like people food dating naked and like in the wilderness naked, just stupid reality TV. There's a good just everyone's butt ass naked at all times. There's a new show called hood Smart, the Urban Stemulus Projects. Stem of course is for science, technology, engineering, and math.
Okay, got that right? Yep, yay.
And this is featuring how are how many black teenagers fifteen teenagers living in house for eight weeks and they are competing in all these STEM related competitions and they this headline says urban kids, which is kind of stupid, but.
Code for black black kids.
They're from black communities, and it's just nice to see. First of all, we all know that black black men and black women just aren't as prevalent in STEM fields, and so it's nice to it's nice to that all these kids are getting attention.
Is there's a push for which is nice. Like they're like, I live in New Jersey and nng i T, which is New Jersey Institute of Technology. They actually have a STEM program like just for girls that starts in fourth grade in the summertime and it's free. So I'm totally
going to sign up. Supergirl, who is super Superman. My boyfriend he has a nine year old daughter, so I was like, oh, yes, she just turned nine like two days ago, and I'm like, ooh, Supergirl's totally going to sign up for STEM because I want her to, like, you know, know that she can be good. She's really artistic, you know, but I want her to also know you're really smart and you can do everything, you know.
So there's that there's a group called Black Girls Who Code. Yeah, that's also supporting young black and women, women people, women and tech women, folks, women, folks. I think that's exciting, and it's it's great that it's a television show because that's where that's what kids are looking at and when they see kids like themselves exactly doing this and not just like I don't know what other reality TV show like skateboarding or like what is it sixteen and pregnant
that's a big teenage show. It's nice to see that example set. So and honestly, we say so often and you hear so many studies, read so many studies about how education is the most important tool to lift you out of poverty, and let's be on minorities are more likely to be poor. Yeah, but it's also what you study that matters, and you have to teach these lessons that like, if you want to get a good career, you have to study a certain thing, a certain thing.
And of course I'm speaking from someone who study journalism, which isn't always the most lucrative, but you should study something that's going to get you a living, a livable wage and really help you lift your I.
Didn't understand that until my dad told me, like I remember, I wanted to go into school and study psychology or sociology and he was like no, and he was like, that is like the typical brown woman. Like like, I forget what he said. He didn't say it that nice, but basically he was like every black girl does that. And I was like, no, daddy, I'm gonna do it. He was like, okay, then you paid for college. And I was like, okay, daddy, what do you want me to do? And I just remember being so mad at him.
And now that I kind of take a step back and I'm older, I see what he meant in a way. He's just basically meant that because I knew I wanted to live a life of service. And he was like, but if you choose certain majors, it puts you and so many of my friends who went to school for sociology, psychology and our social workers are not making enough to contribute exactly. Yeah, And so because I chose, I think
I chose like business and marketing something random. But through my business, it's almost like I do social work through my business, So I'm able to still do what I initially intended. But in a way that one is lucrative, and I'm also able to affect way more women than
I would have and maybe like a smaller capacity. And not to say you shouldn't go to school for social work or psychology, but that you just have to know that the major you choose really is going to help order your steps for the rest of your life.
And that's why it's important too, just real quick to have mentors because I was a first person in my family to go to college, my immediately my immediate family, and I didn't have anyone sitting me down and telling me how to pick a major, like how to plan my career. And I think if I'd had someone to give me that information, I would have been able to use it, you know, and have that knowledge. So I think mentor ship's really important.
So it's brown break, Brown Break, what you're gonna do? I like to go low, so I take the hat. I'm the soprano brown. Clearly me and Mandy did not go to school for safe but I sounded really good. Oh yeah, so what are you breaking from? Mandy?
My brown break this week is for a collective group of people who have somehow proliferated all these lies about Planned Parenthood. I don't know if you've been watching or paying attention to the news, but there was this anti abortion group which did a sting quote unquote operation and tried to catch Planned PARENTHOED workers admitting that they used
fetal tissue and sell it for research purposes. And it was this big hole controversy and it's all led to this huge Republican left sorry right wing conservative movement to defund Planned Parenthood because and this lie that they're spreading is that Planned Parented gives abortions and sells dead babies for science, and that's what they're doing, which is such a total bullshit lie on several fronts. For one thing, federal dollars that Planned Parented gets do not go toward abortions.
They cannot. The majority of Planned Parented's work is contraception, and like it says, Planned PARENTHO, a lot of women do and they don't just do abortions. The majority of the work is contraceptive. While women visit some women who can't afford to go to a fancy guy in tocologist.
Me in college. That's why I used to go because I was like, I didn't want to tell my mom, I was sexually active.
That's why I went for birth control.
I iced to go for birth control. I used to go for like just checkups and be like, all right, I'm good. Like if I had like any questions, I would go there. And I didn't come from like my family. You know, we definitely were not well off, but I probably could have afforded something different. But also too, just being young, I was like, I don't want to tell my mom I'm doing it. Wasn't I was a Vergis till I was forty.
My mom was like counting on the days?
Is it? Yeah?
Still not?
Okay?
Oh? Really is that my foreigner?
Is that like a cultural thing a thing?
I don't know. I think I was just so chronically single. I think she was just like, come on, Mandy, like get it because something.
Oh my parents were like, you should be a virgin it til you get better. That's so funny.
But so that's one of the lies. Okay, So let's just dispel that myth. Most of the work they do is not for abortions. The abortions they do do do not use federal dollars, So defunding planned parented will not actually take away from the abortion work they do. This is and so all this call to defund them had led to a congressional hearing and they had the CEO of Planned Parenthood come to Capitol Hill to sit for this hearing. And it's supposed to be a conversation and
it's supposed to be truth telling. However, Republicans use this as basically a platform to just things at her and use lies. At one point, this idiot congressman, I'm gonna find his name in a second so I can just call him out. He pulls up this chart and tells cecil Richards this chart is showing that as the rate of abortions that planned parenting goes up, the rate of contraceptions given goes down. And Cecila's this is an excellent clip.
I'm gonna put it on our website. Cecilia is saying like, I've never seen this chart before, and then she looks to her left and she's like, actually, my lawyer has just told me this chart was furnished by an anti abortion group. You should check your sources.
Wow.
And his face is like there because like, how do you and those and you know what, But so many people will have just listened to that and cut off at where he's like that gotcha moment. Yeah, and they wouldn't hear that this is a lie because people just want to hear what they want to believe.
Yeah, and that's really what it is people are gonna I had to learn that, like when the whole like Trayvon Martin, all these things were happening, like, you know, because my friends are people who basically have similar belief systems, so it was I felt like, oh, the sentiments kind of the same. And then I would have maybe like a one off friend that wasn't part of my normal social circle and they would tell me what the sentiments were going on in their timeline and I'm like what.
But then you realize, like, oh, so like people literally like your timeline and what you're experiencing, what you're seeing really is just a direct reflection of what you want to see and experience. So you curate your life basically, which you know that's just normal, you know, no judgment, but it's just being careful not to get so safe in that life that you've curated, to see that there are other opinions out there that are there are just as valid as yours.
That's why it's important to vote, and that's why so many people don't vote, because they especially people like I don't know, I don't know your beliefs, but like I'm pretty moderate and so I'm not extremely conservative. I'm not
extremely liberal. So and the people who are winning these elections are the ones, like the Trumps of the world, I mean, Jesus extremely the ones you tap into these like baser instincts, you know, xenophobia and racism, and these can really really extreme left or rightists and leftist groups, and those are the ones who go out and vote because they get so upset by happening. And we need to as moderates. If you're moderate out there, you kind
of feel complacent. You need to remember it's so important to vote because look at how Trump's doing in the polls.
Yeah. Disgusting. Yeah, don't even get me. We had a brown break on Trump and yet he brought him up. I think Mandy should be in the botry.
I can't, but I'm wearing I'm wearing pink today for Planned Parented and there's a hashtag I Stand I Stand with p P which is for planned Parented, and it's just been really great to see there was all these rallies a day of the hearing out and supportive planned parented, and I just we just have to keep spreading these truths, you know, spread the truth when for every post you see on your timeline of people spreading lives about planned parented or issues of abortion, right, you know, go to
go to any website fact check dot org and just put some facts up there just to like counter it.
Yeah, so my brand, bak is it's not quite as heavy.
Are you not gone yet? No? Okay, I feel like I just sucked all the air out of my.
Brown break is I want a brown break from blackface? So fair enough? How Halloween is coming up? Tis the season for blackface, Tis the season for this foolishness. So there's always one misinformed gentleman or a young woman.
Last year it was Juliane Huff. Yes, and oh well, Pauladine. First of all, she wasn't Halloween. Was it Halloween?
I don't know.
Did you see where she like dressed up? It wasn't even it was brown face. She dressed up as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo her son was like with dark dark brown ing up.
Whatever, Paladine and I have just so many more issues besides the whole I use butter for everything, and I think she's killing people slowly with her recipes and anyway, and her oppressive racism anyway, So black face it's not appropriate ever. People who are not brown, please do not
don black face. You don't have to, you don't. I mean, I don't know why people think like every year something comes out, like it'll be a frat house sorority house, and then they'll post a picture of like, you know, black paste on their face and big red lips, and then they get bashed and yet and still every single year some fool will say, you know what I want to do. I want to just be as racist as possible and post a picture of it. And it's gonna
be hlleious. It's not. We're gonna drag you. See. The good thing is black Twitter is a real thing. It is vicious.
They will please post a picture, yes, please do. They will drag you for days, hours, years, We dare you post a picture.
I will take a nap and wake up and black Twitter will still be dragging. Oh god.
Yeah, I'm gonna make a prediction. I think that this year's black face no Food is going to be someone dressing up as lover and Cox. Okay, I think that'll be the thing.
No, I think it's gonna be a Rachel Dolazar Someone's definitely, But isn't that.
See I feel like Rachel so I saw a costume for Rachel Dolozol. She's obviously she's the white woman from who worked for the NAACP, And yeah, was faking as if she was black. And that's like a costume this year. But I feel like, if you want to black, if you've ever thought about doing like a brown face black face costume, this is your chance because you can. Like that's the whole point is that she was like.
Listen to man, if you want to I'm telling you, many don't get you drags.
But like I mean, if you're a white woman you want to do Rachel Doles, I'll just put like some bronzer on. I think that's I think that's accurate. Okay, I don't think that's okay.
I mean, like I mean, but I always feel like people just don't know how far to take it, so it's just best to err on the side of caution. Okay, maybe, don't you know, if you look in the mirror, you think yourself. I might get dragged for this turn around and say, Mandy, no, now, I mean, like I said, you might do Rachel Dolazar without you know, going too far with it, because I mean, I think, honestly, that's a funny castule h.
So did you see SNL past SNL? They did? They did an amazing Rachel Doles Vanessa Bear. Okay, I love she's the redhead. She also does the funny Jewish kid bought Mitzvah dude whatever his name is. So, but she did not do brown face now that I remember it, But she had curly black hair. Just reference her if you want to do a tasteful Rachel Dola's just.
And honestly, remember you told me that Ellen did Nicki Minaj right, and she didn't put on black face a bron, It's possible we'll know who you are. Well no, well no, you don't have to, don you know, black lacquer on your face and think that that's funny.
Anyway, that was like a brown break slash tip.
Yeah. Ooh, speaking of tips, is it time for tips? Tips? Tips?
Are we gonna do tips first or wins? No?
I like to end with winds.
Okay, Yeah, let's start with tips. So this week, this is a topic that will never get old. Yeah, you can never you can never answer enough questions or say the same things enough times. But people always want to know how do I improve my credits for So.
We're me and many are going to give you a few tips to the pizza. We'll go back and forth.
I have I have some very just it's like logistical. You can find this. This is a pie chart that I turn to every time someone asked me about their credit score. It's on myfiico dot com. There is a pie chart it It shows you exactly what goes into your credit score. And the most important thing, which people take for granted is on time payments. That is thirty
five percent of your fight go score. So if your score is lowered if you've missed a payment, the most important thing you can do is if the payment is missed an error, like if you actually didn't make miss a payment, you have to get the taken off your credit report. So go file a dispute at all three credit bureaus. It sucks, but you have to do it at every single one. Get that taken off your report. I guarantee your score will go.
Up and don't dispute online.
Don't dispute online. I found that online, So.
You have to be careful. So I found out from a friend of mine who's like, I don't know, he does like credit stuff for a living, right, and he says that disputing online it's very tricky because sometimes it's just like you know, I like they have that little like waiver box, and sometimes there's like the wording by that little waiver box. It's basically that you cannot redispute that basically by checking this box and disputing online. It's
not for all of them. It'll say something like you know that you are agreeing to whatever the decision is made. So you want to be careful about disputing online because you don't want to wave away your rights and say because you like, let's just say they're like Mandy, you were late, and Mandy says, no, I wasn't, and she writes a letter or facts is a letter, and so
Mandy can redispute and say no, I was not. But if she clicks that box by a mistake or fails to read the fine print and it's there, then it's like, well, technically, Mandy, you've already waved away your right. So no, you were late.
Yeah, I know that.
So just one Yeah, just be careful about disputing online.
I guess, use your judgment. Yeah, I've successfully disputed stuff. I would say, just make sure that you're in the right. I mean, if it's like, if you feel like this is absolutely it's going to be hard for them to prove this is clearly an error and go ahead and dispute online. It's easier. It sucks to I mean, yeah, anyway, I'm.
Not going to So thirty percent of your score. So thirty five is like on time payments and thirty percent. So to me, this is like the hidden little secret that people don't tell you. It's like your utilization. That's like the big buzzword right now.
Yeah, so describe utilization. I feel like people don't get it.
So utilization basically is how much of the credit that it has been extended to you are you actually using, Meaning like you have a credit card, it's one hundred dollars a limit, and you're using fifty dollars of the one hundred dollars that has been extended, So your utilization is fifty percent, which is too high.
The magic number for utilization is thirty percent or less I've read, although I always say ten percent or less just to be.
Safe, ten percent is like really ideal. Thirty You should consider thirty your max. That's totally. A credit person told me. They were like, thirty is your max. So if you have one hundred dollars limit, then you should not be swiping more than thirty dollars at a time. Should be like that you should have on that card.
Well, basically, you take up all the credit cards, you have, all the available limits. Let's say it adds up to ten thousand. That means across all your cards, you should have less than three thousand dollars. That's the basic way of explaining it. I just I told my little brother, he recently got his first one of his first credit cards. I said, your limit is a fake. You need to tell yourself your limit is thirty percent of whatever the.
Actual That's actually a really good way to think about it.
That's what I do for myself, and so that's a really important thing to do. What's some more, Oh, one of my friends, this is a myth. I don't know how this myth keeps going on and on, but I hear this again and again. My friend got it. He had pretty bad credit and then he got a proved for a credit card. He's like, oh, manday, you gotta prove. It's a two thousand dollars limit. It's awesome. I've already charged sixteen hundred dollars.
Isn't that great?
I'm like, why is that a good thing? You're way almost maxed out. You're like, oh, but isn't it good to keep charging?
No, you know who's selling that live We know credit card company.
Yes, yes, well they're especially with us. I hate these offers unless you okay, so this is a good thing and a bad thing. These like bonus if you spend four thousand dollars, we'll give you one hundred dollars free. Like, but you have to spend four thousand dollars, well, I guess the more realistic example is like spend five hundred and get fifty bucks free or something like that. Unless you have that money and you can pay it off
right away, Yep, it's not worth it. Don't do it because all you're gonna end up doing is carrying a balance.
And that interest that fifty dollars you're gonna have to pay an interest anyway.
Yes, So that do not do not charge more than you can afford to pay off every month.
Every month, And honestly, that's the magic make your credit score jump. Like Jordan trick that if you can pay off your credit card every month in full, it doesn't matter if it's eight dollars. People don't realize it's not about the amount, it's the habit that they're really recording. So it can be eight thousand dollars a month, it could be eight dollars a month, but it really helps to strengthen your credit score.
If you want to strengthen your credit and this is what a lot of actually parents will do for their kids. Then your dad do this. They open up a credit card for you and just charge one small bill and then you pay it off every month. And that's a good way to And if you have a if you have a credit card that it's old, it's when of your older credit cards, and it's good to have old credit cards on your account and you want to keep it active, just you know, charge your light bill or your seamless.
I would say, like Netflix, you know right, so like and then automate it, like leave that card home. Netflix charges eight dollars a month and have your your bank account pay off eight thousand months, like an automated circle that you're not even a power of, and that card just stay home. Or like what a lot of parents do, which is smart too, is that you can add your kid on as an authorized user and not give them a card, so you can inherit the good behavior from
that card. Right, So that's another thing that a lot of parents are like, Oh, you're going off the college, no card for you, but I will definitely start to grow your credit score as you're away at school, so that way, when you finish school, you actually have you know, a decent amount of credit history and a strong enough score so you can move out.
So I'm looking at this FICO score chart, and again the FIGHTO score is the one that all of the lenders mostly use. There's these websites that are awesome where you can track your credit score and get your credit report for free, Credit Karma, credit dot Com, credit sessame Quizzle. These are great websites to monitor your credit. But your FIGHTO score is what people are really looking out. So I'm looking at it right now. And like we said,
payment history, that's your number of on time payments. That's thirty five percent of your score. The next one is how much you owe. We've talked about ut utilization, so that's thirty percent of your score. And right there that's sixty five percent of your score. If you pay on time and keep your balances below thirty percent of how much you can actually charge, you're already golden.
Yep.
After that, it's little things. It's the mix of credit you have that means not just having like having all credit cards, like especially having a bunch of like store credit cards does not look good.
Does not look good. They like to see, like it's almost like they like to see, Oh, she's got experience. She's got a mortgage and a credit card and a student loan, so like she's like someone who has experienced in different types of blending and borrowering and autoly.
Yeah, like it exactly perfectly said. Next is length of credit history. This is fifteen percent. And we just we mentioned that that's how old your credit is. I have a credit card that has a really stinking high interest rate from Bank of America that I got too, A got you too. Yes, they came to my college campus. Yes, and I fell hook line and sinker. It's like I don't know. It was a three hundred dollars limit when I first got it, and I would max that baby
out every like I don't know it was. I was constantly like paying off ten dollars and then charge in like lunch, and then just keeping it at three hundred. But so I paid it off, finally got my act together and I just charge. I charge like one thing everyone my gym membership, I think on that card, and you don't want to cancel. The only reason I tell people, yeah, it's okay to cancel an older account is if there's a crazy high annual fee annual feed.
You don't want to have to pay an annual fee. But keeping that old credit card open will really help you with length of credit history, cause basically it's like that they don't want to if you are a new bar it's like being a new driver. A new driver is a bad driver because you don't have experience, you know, and so you don't want to say, like, you know. It's the difference between saying, oh, I got my license
yesterday and I've never been an accident. It's different from saying I got my license ten years ago and I'd never been an accident exactly, So keep your keep basically your experience on the books precisely.
And last but not at least ten percent of your score is how much new credit you take out. Yes, they're called they're called hard inquiries. Whenever you go to a store, go to the Gap, and they're like, do you want to get a Gap card? And then what you're really saying.
Is you want to you want to lose some points right quick. Yeah, you know you can lose up to like thirty points.
Really, I believe it.
But it depends if you keep getting repeat like store cards, like up to third that's really once.
I mean if you can manage it. Honestly, if you shop at the Gap you have kids and you know you're gonna at the Gap or wherever Old Navy for their clothes and you need that discount and you can manage it, then okay, but don't go and get three more story, don't go to them all and like from ever get a Forever twenty one card or yeah, my sister, I'm not gonna call her out anyway whatever to keep over that. You know, she's getting married. I can't, I can't.
I can't call her out like that. But lots of people get at store credit cards and they get you with that, with that, you know, twenty percent off today, but then they're gonna charge you twenty percent interest. I mean as a minimum and a minimum minimum.
Store cards are typically like what twenty five.
Mike Cole's credit card is twenty three percent? Well, I have great credit.
That's crazy.
They won't lower it. I called them to ask them to lower it. They don't.
Love that's what store cards make their money off of it. Honestly, it just doesn't make sense. If you can't buy the shirt, now, don't get the shirt. And the good thing is they have really brought back lay away. Remember lay away. My
mother used to lay away some kids. My mom and dad had five kids, so I mean layaway was like the jam, right, and so I just remember like sometimes going with her to Bradley's that was Target before Target for you youngins out there, and we would go to Bradley's sometimes literally just to put some money down, Like, oh baby, I go to go to Bradley's real quick, put some money down on your school clothes?
Yeah, Walmart, so a Kmart, Yes, sometimes there's some fees, I feel like, so always check the fine print, but.
I believe like Kmart's layway, I don't think they there are any fees, which is awesome compair of them.
Yeah, there's always good sites you can compare layaways for. So that's the bulk of credit tips. I know you guys probably have some weird credit questions we haven't even gotten into, like balance transfers or debt consolidation. What to do if like your boyfriend's credit sucks and you guys are moving in together. We'd love to you know, if you guys have questions, email us at Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
Or tweet us at at the BA podcast.
We should have them written on cards because like always pause.
And on Facebook, Brad Ambition.
Yeah, join the Facebook group. We post way more than what we talk about on the air on the Facebook group. It's it's becoming a really fun place to share and like get involved in what we talk about.
Yeah, so that was good.
I like those tips tips done? Moving on to winds of the week. Yes, so are ending on a high note here?
Yes? So I really want to shout out my girl, my buddy.
Mine too, mine too, her ears first.
Right, Marcia Marcia Marcia Marcia Horton Barnes, You lady are amazing. You is smart, You is intelligent. No, honestly, Marshall. So, Marcia is a friend of Manny's and eyes and she started this amazing initiative called the Finance Bar, which is a mobile hub. She took a school bus and she renovated it and it's so cute and she basically drives around Charlotte and surrounding areas and brings financial education to schools. I think she has done homeless shelters and basically the
places that people would normally not get financial education. And if you've ever met Marcia, she is just like the sweetest and just the dopest and just to see her get her recognition. So she was on the front page of Yahoo Finance not too long ago thanks to Mandy.
Yeah, you guys should go che If you want to see the bus, go check out my story on Yahoo Finance. Finance at Yahoo dot com or just google it or sorry, Yahoo search it. Marcia Buns Barns up. Could you have you did a whole video interview with her and you get to see the entire interior of the bus.
It's so cute, cute, So we all for fin Con. For those of you who remember us talking about Fincann, they're like Finn again the Financial Blockers. So we all wakes ago. So we all went down to Fincann and Charlotte and Marsha's and Charlotte, so we all kind of went took pictures by the bus. It's just even better in person. And honestly, she's just such a dope, cool, chill chick. And I just want to say congratulations Marsha because remember so I met Marshall maybe like two years ago.
She reached out to me on social media. It was like, oh, I love what you're doing, dope chick. And I'm like, well you too, dope check and she's like, we should form a group. And so we formed a super group called the Frugal Fab Five. It was five brown girls who believed in teaching financial education and Marshall kind of brought us together. And although we don't like tour and stuff like we used to, I know, like Destiny's Child, but honestly no, we used to like travel all over
and teach financial education together. But still we're all super supportive and Marsha was just on NPR, I mean, learn best, I mean she has been all over I think ABC News did like this whole story on her and just to see her kind of get like the limelight shine her, because Marsha's not really like a limelight girl, but I just love to see, like, you know, that she's shining bright as she off to.
The best end we have to I have to. I think the most interesting thing for me learning more about her story when I when I covered it for y'allhoo, was that she invested all of her own money into this, all of her savings, and she really threw her life into it and took a huge gamble. And it's only been around for what this will be a year in November, So I just really want to support her. She just got her status, has five O five oh one C three nonprofit status, approof which means she can now take
donations and grants. So go check out her website, Thefinancebar dot com and donate. You can join her virtual members clubs only only ten dollars a month, and she has weekly or monthly webinars and financial education tools. There's an app. It's so it's so, it's amazing.
She's just amazing, honestly.
Yay Marcia.
I know yay. I can just see Marsha's like, oh babies think because Marcia Southern, well, she's so cute. She's gonna be like, oh, Tip, I just love you, Tip. So who's your win?
My win this week? Because I've struggled with my weight, probably my entire life. I come from a family my dad used to own a soul food restaurant. Yes, probably like half of my dad's family has suffered from some form of like diabet us or weight related.
Did you say diabetes?
Diabetes the sugar, the sugar. It's it's funny but so sad like I've had I've had family members who have died from complications with diabetes, and it's and I was very overweight as a child, and I struggle with weight my whole life. YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA. So I want to call out for my win of the week Shonda rhymes. So we already like as if I could love her anymore, like respect her anymore. She basically owns Thursday night television
with three shows. She's a badass showrunner, like one of the only black female showrunners that has all these shows on television right now and on top of all that, she managed to lose one hundred and seventeen pounds. Yeah, in the last one or two years, and it happens. I just saw her in a magazine cover, I think it was Entertainment Weekly, and I was.
Like, what is what?
How did she do that? I was convinced she had had like gastric bypass or lap band surgery or something, but she exercised and she ate right. And I just want to give her all the brown Break Brilliance points for this week and really encourage her because I know that it's this fight is not a one and done thing like those one hundred and seventeen pounds, like you work to keep them listen like I have. I've dropped forty pounds and take me six months to lose it.
It'll take me a week to lose and to gain it back. And it's like the constant struggle, especially when it's in your genes and people. Often when you see someone who's overweight, you're you tend to think, oh, well they're just lazy and fat, they just don't eat right. But there's real, like biological factors that can contribute. There was just a study out last week or this week.
That said that for millennials, we can eat the same stuff that people ate in the eighties, but something has changed in the food and the food or whatever we're in, like all the chemicals were in or whatever that have it making it harder to lose weight.
I have put on about twenty pounds since me and Superman have gotten together, and I'm like, oh my gosh, nothing fits behind is like growing too magnanimous portions, and I'm like, oh my gosh, struggle is real.
And yeah, I mean obviously, like I am, you have to be realistic, Like I know, I have thighs four days and they are never going to go away no matter what I do.
But you know, you want to be your best self.
I mean I don't, That's what I'm saying, Like, I want to be realistic about what your body should look like and being a hell healthy version of yourself. That's what's important. And it took me a long time to learn that. I used to beat myself up a lot when I was.
A kid about one super skinny.
Yeah, about you know, wanting to have like yeah, exactly, a beautiful Brittney Spirits sized bottom, Okay, and that kind of stuff like that's.
Never gonna happen, you know, it's so crazy. I remember, like I was super super I was abnormally skinny as a kid, like so much so that like they used to take me to the doctor to say, like what's wrong with her? And they were just like nothing, she
just bones because I was at a big eater. And then I but I always had like this little bubble butt, like it was like one of these butts that were so random because you're like so skinny, They're like, wait, you turn around and say, what in the world's going on back there? And I remember I was on the
tennis team. So I went to like an almost all white high school to you little browns here and there, and I was on the tennis team, and I was wearing a tennis skirt, and so my skirt it's like you know, like you know, tennis skirts are like mid thigh in the back, and it was like grazing the bottom of my behind in the or mid thigh in the front, and in the back it was like up
hiked up. And so I remember the girls from the tennis see and they're like tivioty pulling down my skirt one day, like your skirts up and then what is that like trying to wear a skirt as a Yeah, but especially like a little skirt, and I was like, yeah, that's my booty. It's not going anywhere.
I wear this skirt today and I'm pulling down the back. You have to buy a size banger.
You have to get tailored, yeah, because then your thigh and your booty is one thing, and then your waist. You're like, oh, I'm a six in the ways and I'm a fourteen and thig.
It always looks good in the front, but then you turn around in the profile and then it's like shorter.
Yeah. But you know what I've learned though, I've learned like my silhouette, like cause I have like I don't really have much of a bust, So I learned that like you know, like I do the dresses that kind of are like snatched, like fit and flare. That's what I've learned. It works really good from my body side, like okay, fit and they kind of like flare out. But and honestly, like I've put on like way or weight.
But I was looking at myself the other day and I was like, you know what, Tiffany, I love your shape. I don't you know. I know I'm not skinny like I used to be anymore, but I don't I don't want to, just want to be healthy and fit and firm. So I've been going back to the gym for that, not necessarily to lose weight like I was originally like, I want to ge skinny, and I'm like why. Drew's like why, I mean Superman. Sorry, I hear that he's not gonna listen.
I mean say he will, but then when he won't, mention that that he didn't listen.
So yeah, Superman is like what what you know? The men's love it. They're like, yes, Mandy, keep that weight. I don't know.
I am dating a Dominican. Yeah, so you already know he's like more rice and beans for you. You love yourself and then you find someone else you also love it exactly. So yay Shanna Rhimes. Oh and just a quick shout out. My dad lost like one hundred pounds. He had gastic bypass surgery, and I'm proud of him because, like I said, even if you get gastric bypass surgery, that's not a band ad. I mean, that's not like a one and done fix. You have to really, you can stretch your
swomming back out. I have had family members who have lost the weight, gotten the surgery, gone through all that hell, and then put on double what they weighed before. Because it's a lifestyle thing. And I'm proud of my dad. He's always texting me photos of like the soup and like the salads he's making and chopping up his Oh my god, he sent me them. This had to be the most Southern like ghetto photo my dad's ever sent me. He so hill one of his friends brought him, had
just harvested her garden or whatever. She had a bunch of turnip greens, and he's like, look all these greens and I washed them. Look this way I washed them. He texted me a photo of all the greens in its washing machine, like his, his laundry machine. Yes, that's how he washed the greens. And he just couldn't he could not understand why. I didn't understand why, Oh Papa would drug He's never gonna find a wife all you never know, he doesn't want one.
But well there you go.
Oh, well that's my dad for you know. Yay yay Daddy, Yay Shonda rhymes and yay Marcia barn.
Yes, please please please stay in contact with me and Mandy at the Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com dot com, Brown Ambition on Facebook, and.
At the BA Podcast on Twitter. So many of you guys have been sending us such lovely tweets and like dms. But and me love to hear how you guys feel about us. But can we just please ask that maybe you share us a nice review on iTunes. Let me let everybody know how.
Much you love us, please, cause that's what honestly like if you look kind of like in our category career in business, there's not too many brown faces.
There's like zero mm hmm.
It was basically us. So we want to encourage other people when they see our brown faces to join the whole podcast movement and you know, start their own. So reviews really really really help, and just keep keep sending them.
So emails are nice, that were tweets, but please leave us reviews and send us a screenshot because we're going to be announcing the winner of our iTunes review giveaway in a couple of weeks and we'd love to have more people to pick from. Yah, leave us some reviews.
All right, Well, this has been lovely as usual, Mandy. Mandy looks so pretty today. Gal, She's got like her hair all done up.
I did my band two nuts, two strand twists and bands busy last night. Oh my god.
I know she's got like a cute outfit. I was like, where you going? Meanwhile, I haven't like tights and like a big shirt. Alyssa was like, I mean, supergirl, I'm mess and she looks like we're you. I have like read chucks on Converse. They my family told me before I left, you look like Punky Booster. Some of y'all youngins don't even know what Punky Booster is. Google it.
I have Punky.
Oh well yeah, but you're like Moonfry whatever.
Yeah.
Yeah, so I look very like twelve years old, and Manny looks like very sophisticated ladies.
All right, stop best version of yourself.
Yes, no, I mean I think I look cute, but you know, I'm like, yeah, cut in the ten year old one. All right. Bye. Got By