Hey, hey, Hey, I'm back and I'm black and brown.
Okay, Mandy, Hey, hey to.
How are you?
How are you doing?
Uh?
I'm okay. I have been I feel like kind of homeless lately.
I was at it.
I went to a conference in Austin, Texas Wednesday through Friday, and then I flew to the A which was a secret until I just said it out loud right now. You know how when you go to your hometown and you live where you work, but you go to your hotown and you like, don't tell anyone you're going to
be there because you don't want to be bombarded. I snuck in like a ninja to Atlanta, and then I was at my alma mater, University of Georgia, today, where I was talking to the kids about business journalist and podcasting, which was perfect. I talked all about brown ambition and inspired the use. I think I basically told them that we can do it. Anybody can do a podcast. So I'm in Athens, Georgia now, and I have to head back to Atlanta and then I fly back to New
York tomorrow. And I still don't have a home because mine's being ripped apart right now so I feel a little funky.
Well I am saying, I get well, not really, I mean, I you know, we haven't even started on the house.
I'm like, I'm leaving that for now. But I have a new niece. Oh really, Yes.
I'm the twelfth. My sister had our niece. Her name is Lily and Lily for short, and she's super adorable, full head of hair. So I'm super excited because my sister, you know, she and her husband been trying for a long time.
So we've got this amazing, beautiful little girl. And so now we are up next.
I know I haven't given you guys any update about like my child trying journey. So actually today I had like I don't want to call it a minor surgery, but it's not like like I feel like I've had it so many times. So what happens is you get your fibroids removed, and some people get scar tissue, which I did.
So I had a scar tissue. I had my five words removed.
In January of this year, had scar tissue removed maybe a few months after that. Unfortunately, the scar tissue came back. So apparently, you know how like, let's just say you get like a cut on your arm, and like the skin is like searching for itself, so it like connects together, you know.
And so the same thing happened like in my unus.
So like the top part of my unius and the bottom part of my units are like, hey girl, we're both trying to heal. Let's hold hands. So literally it was like so they were they were like, oh, you got a lot of scar tissue. So I had to get it removed a second time. And then they put something inside me called like a it's.
A u I DA's pregnancy it is.
And so but what it does is they did the one that they did.
It's not with the medicine to actually hold open my unus as it heeled, so now youg it's almost like a stick like a prop you know. And so they put that in and so I'm not supposed to get pregnant now anyway, I have to basically wait until I was healed.
And so they but they put that in. I had a removal surgery.
They put it in so that way my my uterus would would not try to stick together again, and it went really well. So I went today to the doctor, which is I think it's called a hisster copy something I don't know.
No, heck nod, yeah, yeh.
I'm like trying to keep track with what. No, don't do that, don't do that.
I know it's called a hisstorocopy, I think.
So basically, it's basically they go in and remove any like remaining scar tissues. So she said she just saw just a little bit when she was in there today, so she took it left the IUD in because she was.
Like, you know, you probably just need one more month of healing.
But she's like, honestly, Tippy, you look awesome on the inside, so your your uterus is completely clear, it looks healthy, and then I'm going to start my IVF process once, you know, like after this month basically, So basically, like in October November ish, I should start like the process which is like I don't know, need don't needle needle, take your eggs, you know, fertilize them with Superman's firm, you know, hopefully they grow, grow, grow, put them in you.
So I honestly could be pregnant by the end of this year, or it might not take the first cycle. So basically every cycle is matched with your cycle so you know, the next time my cycle comes is basically when I can try. So it can like you know, like some people right away you know their first cycle it takes in yay, and some people it's like three or fourt cycles in, so you just never know.
But I don't know.
I've got a good feeling. So for those of you who are listening, like you know, I'm just sharing it because honestly, I think, I don't know. I feel like
people think having kids so easy. I know, I thought because I just figured, you know, in my thoughting twenties, Not that I was a huge stop, not really, but I just, you know, definitely was on my mind, like don't get pregnant, don't get Yeah, you spend so much time not like wanting not to be pregnant, and then when you finally shift your mind to how to get pregnant,
you realize it's not that easy. Yes, And honestly, when I tell you, when I share with my girlfriends who are like you know, I too, honestly, Mandy, like it feels like thirty percent have like a story of how they struggled, and I'm just like, well, I didn't realize how many women struggle so I just wanted to give you guys a head up because honestly, the only thing I've been doing since the last time I spoke about it, and now it's basically getting scar.
Tissue removed, healing Haley Haley getting scar tissue.
So there was no like real you know, there's nothing I could really do, but just like keel scar tissue. And like the surgery that I had today was I mean, you're up and about, like honestly, like you know, they tell you don't drive. Obviously Superman has to come because you know, they put you under, but there's no pain or anything like that, and then they put you on like hormones so like rebuild up your lining.
Since they took some scar tissue.
But yeah, I'm excited because we could finally actually start all this time. It's been a year of prepping Tiffany's uterus, you know, and so now finally it's like uterus, girl, it's almost.
Time renovating your uterus exactly, a little fixer upper.
And now it's like, whoo, finally fix her upper.
Exactly like and then you walk in like, oh my god, you this girl cuting here. So I'm excited and plus you know, what I really love is that, Like and then the fact that like my sister who also you know, like it wasn't as easy to get pregnant, is the fact that she just had her baby. It's like, you know, just confirmation of like there is and not saying not that because I guess maybe I'm still so early in
the process because I haven't. We haven't actually tried as far as like you know, like with IVF.
So it's not like I've had this disappointment. It's just been prep work. I don't feel like, oh my gosh, it's not gonna happen for me.
I still feel like, yes, next up, baby time, And so I guess we'll see, like what you know, Like, I am a little.
Nervous about the IVA process.
I'm not needle skittish, but from what I hear to love out of needles, you know, well.
Let's talk about it, because don't you have to inject yourself?
Yeah?
Yeah, So basically, you like, from what I understand, you inject yourself, inject yourself.
And then.
Something new like to the doctor was tell me today but I was loopy off of my my meds and she was basically saying something to the effect of like first they kind of suppress your your your homeownes a little bit, and then they give you something to kind of boost them, so that way you have really good, strong eggs that are all mature at the same time. And then they harvest them and take you know, they're hoping.
So let's just say you're you know, you are an egg and making machine, and they could take twelve of them. That would be twelve healthy egg that would be awesome. But some people they can only get one or two, right, and so you just never know, like you know what you're like, what you're gonna do, what you're gonna be, you know.
So if they take say like three or four, I'm somewhere in the average. They'll take the.
Three or four, they'll get a sample from Superman, and they will fertilize the eggs and basically watch them, she said, for five days to see which eggs which Well, by then they'll be not fetuses. What's the thing before the embryos look at you, Mandy, like, they'll be embryos, and they'll see which embryos are growing basically you know which ones are healthy. And then when the embryos are like, you know, the ones that continue to grow up the five days, that's the ones that are most likely to
make it. We opted for the second level, which is to get them tested chromozonally.
The don't want to make sure abnormalities.
Yeah, so that's extra.
So I'm fortunate in that because of the man works for the city, his insurance. Honestly, Mandy paid for like every penny. I think I paid ten dollars to go see the doctors, you know, of.
All the treatments too, like the are Oh that's amazing.
Honestly, I don't know that we would be able to do this without that. So one of his coworkers did this, and she his wife has twins and so and yeah, they pay for everything, the treatment before after, like all of these like clean up surgeries, all of that has been paid for. And so yeah, so the one thing that they didn't pay for, which we're gonna pay for.
It's like, I think it's two thousand dollars, but I want to get the embryos tested chromosonally to make sure that, you know, like to test for things that you know, like it would just make it really hard to raise, you know, a baby afflicted with those things and so we'll get tested for those and then choose the healthiest embryo and then the other ones that are also healthy.
So let's just say chromosonally, they're all fine, and of the five, three of them grow you can freeze two and then you know, try with the one and then if the one doesn't grow and inside you, then they can like unthaw another one.
Here's the thing that's really important is that this.
I didn't understand the whole thing about freezing your egg so because I'm thirty eight, like, let's just say I would have frozen my eggs at like thirty three. And I really recommend folks really thinking about it, especially women who know that they might not have kids until a little later.
When you freeze your eggs, you freeze like.
The timeframe, like, so any eggs, any embryos that I can freeze, now, those are thirty eight year old woman's embryos. So if I say, let's just say later at forty two, let's just say I have this baby, and at thirty nine, yay, the baby comes, and then at forty I'm like, I want to do it again.
I don't have to use forty year olds eggs and embryos.
I can use my thirty eight year old, which you know, by definition should be a little bit stronger and healthier.
You know, so you're gonna do as many as you can.
Well I guess yeah, whatever, I yeah, I mean who I am.
I only get one healthy embryo, and then that's what we work with, you know, you just there's no way to tell, quite honestly, and so yeah, so there's just yeah, it's just such a process because you're just like wow, people literally just lay down in bed and they're like, oh.
Man, and then they have a baby what exactly?
Literally, And then there are people who are like you have to you know, just all of this and it's just crazy to me, like how that works out. But like I said, I'm feeling really good about it, and I you know, one thing that they said too, is that some people pick and I don't know that we'll do this, but like you can, because we're getting tested chromozonally, you can like let's just say like all of them are boys, that's one thing. But I'll know the sex of the of the baby. But like let's just say
I had an embryo that's a girl. An embryo that's a boy. Both of them are healthy. She said, you can pick, and I'm like, I don't know. I probably, I don't know. I want to do all that, but I'm someone who would want to know ahead of time. I might just be like, pick the healthy one. Oh it's a boy, great, you know. Yeah, but yeah, if you got a chance to pick, would you pick the sex of your child?
It would feel so unnatural to pick the sex of a child. I guess, you know what, I would pick a girl because I feel like there's lots of societies where people purposefully don't have girls because of like social normalis. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but uh yeah.
We talked about it a lot, like what do you think? And I was like, honestly, at this point.
I just really want a healthy baby, and so I feel like, I mean that might be out of our hands, not the healthy baby part, but there might be.
We might have three healthy embryos and they're all boys, you.
Know, I mean, think the best one with the best shot of thinking.
I feel like, yeah, exactly what I said. I'm like, I just want like a healthy baby, and you know, a boy or girl. Although I'm like, lord, like.
Supergirl, you know, she's she's so much better now, you know. She certainly doesn't say Tiffany, Tiffany ain't done the dishes in a while. I'm sure she thinks it, but she doesn't say.
So I'm not gonna lie having another girl in the mouth. I don't know. But at this point, I just want a healthy baby.
So I'm excited, though a little nervous because I'm like, yikes, a baby because whatever, our baby, said my niece and my nephew, because my niece is one and my nephew's three.
My sister looks at me like, you sure you want.
All me listen, I don't look too closely, Like that's my philosophy because if you if you overthink it. That's the hard part about like doing this, the IVS and all that, like adopting even like you're willfully doing this to yourself, like you are on purpose having a baby.
Yes exactly. So I'm just like, yeah, but I mean, I know it's not going to be easy. But honestly, me and Superman we're just talking the other day. I'm like, you know, we're just so blessed, like you know, we we've got you know, we're I mean, we have each other. You know, I'm thankful that my parents are here still. You know, I've got awesome family. My sister's, my niece, my nephew, my new niece, and like I get to do what I love for.
A living and you know, make a good amount of money doing so.
But bigger than that, I mean, just it comes down to family and love, and I just want to, like, you know, expand that.
You know, I really want to have a baby with Superman.
He's like such an awesome dad already, the Supergirl and like, just like my niece and my nephew, they just love him, honestly, all the kids.
In the neighborhood. He is the black mister Rogers.
And like, just the other day, I'm telling you, I can't come in the house without somebody eating our apple sauce.
Hey, it's mister Superman. Well they don't call me Superman, it's missus Superman a home, you know. And I'm like, no, y'all got apple sauce. I'm like, that's.
Exactly you must have the good You must have the good squeeze apple sauce. Everyone loves now.
No, well no, we all we just we get the like the little moths cups. Literally, we don't even eat apple sauce.
I think super Girl doesn't even enjoy apple sauce like that anymore because she's eleven now, so you know, she thinks she's grown in seventh grade, so she's not a big apple sauce either. We literally keep it for the babies in the back. And now to even know to ask, can I have a spoon, I'm like, I spooned to we get I get the disposable spoon because god forbid, you know, we don't have a spoon to go with the apple.
Sauce that they're confiscated from our home.
But honestly, he's just like the best, and I just like I could just see him, like he's just a really good father, and I just know that I want to to bring, even though the world is a little crazy, a baby into the world with him and raised a baby.
He's like, Oh, baby's gonna save the world. I'm like about all answers, man.
Probably I just want our baby to be healthy and happy.
Well, it's nice to hear you're such a like positive love. That's the only attitude, Like, the only way to approach it right is just to be you know, as open minded and positive as you can be, and just surround yourself with other people who are positive about baby super Budget Nesta and oh I hope it happens.
Yeah, me too. Yeah, but you know, I'm sure you guys.
You guys, they hit me up sometimes, like in my mentions, like send of your baby raids, or like telling me drink some vitamin that's supposed to be like a baby making vitamin.
And I'm like, you know, like, I'm like, you know what, I'm just gonna stick to the doctor's orders right now.
But thanks man, well, thank you so much for being candid. I mean, if you guys, have you put tiff on blast? Someone was asking on Twitter, like can we get an update on Tiffany's vibroids?
Honestly, and I don't mind, because it's it's it's it's something that we don't talk about enough. And I think, like you know, and I find that there's so many women, even women who've already have kids, so many women, especially women of color, brown women, we are afflicted with five boards like crazy. Honestly, it's really the reason why I
went vegan. I mean, because honestly, I love chicken, you know, and I went vegan because although they don't know the one hundred percent cars of five boards, you know, the suspected cause is like you know, hormones and meat and stuff like that.
That that definitely adds to it.
So I was like, well, what can I do on my side, like to help with this process? And so I'm like, you know, what if I have to give up you know, meat, and well dairy was easy because I wasn't really having that anyway, then so be it.
No chicken No.
I mean I still sneak in like fish here and there, but no chicken, no red meat, no turkey, no pork, which I don't eat pork anyway, but you know, definitely no dairy, and hoping to just because I don't want them to grow back, you know, because they can, you know, just because you got them removed. I know people who are having you know, they're young. A friend of mine is in her still in her thirties, she already has kids.
So she's actually getting a hysterectomy to just remove her her units altogether because the five words have just taken over, you know.
So yeah, it can be a scary thing.
Well, thanks for talking about it, and you've found them through like a routine checkup.
Right now, I'll tell a story one day once I have the baby.
I'll tell you how I found them because it's pretty sad and I'm just like, yikes, but I just feel like I'm not ready to open up about that part yet. But yeah, I found them in a sad way and I was just like, well, this sucks, but but yeah, so when the baby's here, it'll be a good story. And I say that to myself, like I'm gonna it'll be a good story to share for those who have been through the same thing.
No, well, based on what you've gone through. And then my sister went through her own experience with three productive issues this year and I have them kicking myself because I need to go to the guyn of collegist and get my own checkup. And it's been a while. And I feel like, if you're listening and it's been a while since you've had a check up at the guyano, just go and see what see what's there, Because even though I may not be planning to have a kid
right now, I do. I don't want it to be too late when I'm ready to find out there were issues that I could have, you know, gotten on top of you know, it's like it's like saving up for retirement. Like I'm not going to retire tomorrow, but I want to make it easier for myself by taking some steps today to make sure that I can retire.
Well, h questions, how you going to?
I really need to learn the words to what was that? I said? It's A. It's A. That's the shout song, I think, and it's like.
I don't know, Okay, yeah, misindependent or no independent, Yeah, Charlie's angels.
I don't know.
But one of these days I'm going to learn some some some some words so it makes sense.
Yeah, it makes Yeah, you got it, you got it, I got you.
Yeah.
Questions, So, if you guys want to send us questions, you know, you can hit us up at Brannambission Podcast at gmail dot com. Got and we got an amazing
assortment of questions. Also, I need to apologize because we ran and we ran a rerun while we were taking a couple of weeks off in late August, and I guess I accidentally left a call out that we had put on the show a couple of years ago where we were asking people to tell us what brand ambition means to you to enter a contest where you can have dinner with us and get a swag, get some
swag from Tiffany. And that contest is no longer technically running, but we got some fun emails from you, guys, So I think we're going to talk about some way to thank you guys for those sweet messages that you sent. But I'm sorry that was an old contest, my bad, no longer running, So stay tuned, Stay tuned, We'll find a way to thank you, guys. But a couple of questions in the mailbox this week. Let's take one from
listener Shantel. Chantel says, you talked, You ladies talked a lot last year about engagement rings and the amount a man should spend for one. I'm not engaged yet, but like Tiffany, I know it's coming and I'm trying to prepare for my expenses, so her expenses. That's funny, to be honest. I want his band, his wedding band, to be special, so I want to customize it a little. Not sure how yet. My question is how much did you, ladies pay for your husband's wedding bands? And did a
lot of thought go into it interesting. So much focus on the women's engagement ring, but uh, did the men get any love?
I'm not gonna lie, I'm the worst person to ask us.
We didn't spend that much, honestly, because he is so similar to me in that he was like what.
His only thing was.
We were literally like going to Macy's for like a code, and then we walked by the obviously I already had my engagement ring already.
And then we walked by the.
Jewelry section and he's like, oh, do you want to look because we have to get bands because we were, you know, getting married I guess in a couple of weeks.
And I said okay.
So when it came down to his he honestly didn't want any embellishment on it. He just wanted like a simple uh uh what is that rose gold?
What's the gold that looks like silver? White gold?
White gold? Yeah?
Yeah, so a simple white gold band. And my husband is like really tall, so he was like, I don't want to do you know, one of these baby bands, you know, so he wanted like he wanted like a thick band, but you know, so but something that was going to look normal. So it might look thick on me, but it looks normal on him. And honestly, it was like because it was so simple, it was like, I want to say, probably not even a thousand dollars. And then and then on top of that, Macy's was having
this huge tremendous sale. It was like, and then we also had like, he has a Macy's car, so it was like, hey, this weekend, you know, this jewelry is like, you know.
Fifty percent off plus with your car.
And it ended up being like, I think, like for something five hundred dollars, So it was next to nothing, not next to nothing, but for as far as a band is concerned. So yeah, we didn't like, you know, it was just us strolling through. And like I said, he specifically didn't want he didn't want any diamonds, He didn't want any He just wanted a really simple band. And I mean, and so it was easy for me, so
I didn't have to really think about it. I mean, if he would have wanted something fancy, you know, and I'm like, do do the women traditionally pay for we just kind of did it as a I don't want to say as a couple, but we were like it's on the Macy's card and it just gets paid for our bill's account, so I never thought about it.
Did you pay for end weekend? Ooh for husbies?
Oh it's fun. He's out there Husby's wedding band.
Yeah.
I mean by that point, we were living together and our finances were one so he saved separately in a secret savings account for my engagement ring, and I forget how we paid for I mean, yeah, I was kind of out of one pot. But his wedding band was five hundred dollars and that was significantly less than my wedding band. But I feel like men get off easy because you know, their bands are typical, more simple and they don't have you know, diamonds or embellishments and stuff.
And yeah, same thing. He had a very simple, I think a platinum or white gold band, and we went to a local jewelry shop in Brooklyn that we just happened to be passing through, kind of similar to your story, and that was that was it. Five hundred bucks? I think five hundred bucks Max. Like, I don't know, unless your man wants something really fancy, I don't I don't see any reason to spend more than five hundred bucks on something.
Yeah, that's why I said, Like I mean, like I said, it's because his was I'm sure you know Macy's.
I'm sure it's inflated anyway, No.
Shade to Macy's, but like, yeah, I was really thinking in my head like it should not be. I hadn't done any research on bands, so I was like I didn't know what the norm was. But when it came all down to the price, I was like, oh, okay, four fifty or whatever.
That sounds good.
He was like, yeah, just divide that by eternity, and you know, it's like a dollar.
A year exactly. I love that. Divide that by eternity.
Like when they sell you a mattress, it's someone that had cost you eighty none sense a day. When you think about the average time you're going to own a mattress, what does that even mean? Thanks Sean Teal and good good on you for at least thinking ahead and hopefully it works out. Uh So, let's take another question this was. This is a funny one from an anonymous listener. She says, I am currently working at payoff some credit card debt
using the debt snowball method. I plan on having everything paid off next year, but restricted spending is kind of getting me down right now. I miss being able to grab a bottle of wine on my way home without a second thought, or buying new clothes on a whim. While budgeting makes me feel more in control of my finances and aware of my spending, which is fantastic, I'm just having a hard time adjusting to my new budget
babe lifestyle. Any thoughts or recommendations, Poor anonymous, poor budget babe, we'll call her. You're trying to get used to your your new budget conscious life. Yeah, you know, it's it's not fun when you think about it as missing out on something, you know, so don't think about the bottle of wine that you're missing out on. Well, we'll get back. We'll come back to that bottle of wine, because I've been budgeting for a while and I never I never
missed my bottle of wine. But I mean, think about think about what you're going to be gaining by paying off that credit card debt. Think about every dollar you're paying off as one dollar in your pocket, Like you're getting richer by paying off that credit card debt. And then I mean maybe maybe your budget is so is restricted in the wrong ways, Like maybe the things that truly bring you joy you could make a little bit more room in your budget for and then cut back
in other areas to save money. I mean, a five dollars ten dollars bottle of wine, you know once in a while will not should not be breaking your budget. So I would, I would, just I would, I would take a look at where you're cutting back and maybe bake in a little bit of wiggle room if you're being way too restrictive, because like you don't want to make life miserable. And then even beyond that, just think about your mindset around budgeting too, because I think that's important.
Just think about the positive aspects of it versus what you may be missing on.
Yeah, and also too, sometimes it helps of like I mean, I don't know if you're a cash person, but like it helps to have like money that you don't have to think about, meaning like you know, so one of the things I used to do when I was teaching a preschool and I had like this really like kind of like concrete budget. I kind of had like this fun money where it was like it was either on my debit card or I would take it out in cash, and I did, like I purposely did not have to be responsible with it.
It was like tiffany.
Retirement money set aside savings and set aside bills are set aside, and this fun money, this whatever it is, is literally I could. I used to tell myself, you could take this money and flush it down the toilet and you're fine. Like this is like your non allocated has to be responsible money. So sometimes setting aside that you know, outside of your other responsibilities helps because if I want a sushi every night for a week, and my fun money, you know, allowed for that, then so
be it. And so that way, you know, when you when you splurge, you can do so without you know, without worrying about it. Sett inside a fun fund might be helpful.
Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, a small five dollars bottle of one if it brings you joy and it makes you feel like you're still living your fun life, missbudget babe, I mean, that's a small price to pay, and I don't feel like it's gonna wreck your It's not going to make your break your budget, you know. Yeah, treat yourself, just a tiny bit.
Treat yourself preach yourself.
Thank you for your question, and good luck. Budget Babe. Just stick with it.
Yeah, you got it, You got it.
Because budget Babe is way more fun than debt Diva.
Oh yeah, ah yeah.
Debt depression. Okay, one last question. I'm maybe a couple more so. This is another anonymous question. Y'all shady in these streets. She says, Hey, guys, I love your show. I'm late to the podcast game and just started about a month ago, but you're my number one show for inspiration. Awesome. My question is a tax question. Yea, I did not file my taxes quite Tiffany, just like.
I've been there, girl reads.
She says, we're also we're getting a tax question in September, so we know where this is going. Okay, She says, I did not file my tax this year and also did not file for an extension. I know I owe a huge amount and I just panicked. I usually do my own taxes through Turbo tax, but I'm a little scared since I'm so late. Should I just hire someone to do them or should I just file like I
usually do ps. I have a senior in high school and I need my taxes done so we can get her facts for going in a few months.
Help.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Woof.
Yeah, not filing your taxes not cool. So if you guys are out there, if you owe taxes, just because you don't file doesn't mean that the IRS doesn't see the debt. It's still there and a cruing interest. So you don't say how much you owe. But the worst thing you can do is what you're doing now, which
is to ignore it. To be perfectly honest, you need to go to IRS dot of find the find the I'm gonna literally send you a link to an i rs dot coup page where you have the contact info where you can call them and get on a payment plan.
Yeah, I was gonna say that they exist.
I know people who have done IRS payment plans, and you know, interests will still accrue, but at least you will be getting on top of it and getting your ducks in a row versus just letting it sit out there and collect late penalties and nastiness.
And honestly, if you have a good like so like my accountant, Carlos, I remember, like you think you're mad tried three years three years of non filing pack when I when I started my businesses because I was like, I didn't even really make no money. That's not how it works, Oh my god. And honestly, I ended up owing eight thousand dollars like at the end, in half of which were fees.
Can you imagine?
Almost like Carlos was like, tiphany, Yo, you didn't even owe that much, like because you're right, you didn't make a ton, but because it was like fiance and fild top and fiantip.
Fee and so.
But there's also too like you if you're nervous about doing it yourself. I know a friend of mine who he owed even more than that. He owed a significant amount of money. And because of the amount, I like I said, I don't know how much you owe since it's just a year, But because of the amount, Carlos was able to call the IRS and actually work out
not only a payment plan but a reduction. So like you know, like like me eight thousand, although it was a good amount of money, it's not like I think my friend owed like thirty thousand something crazy, so and he was just like, there's no way I'm going to
be able to pay that. So you know, he worked out some sort of like well, settlement basically, so depending on how much, if it's if it's you know, you know, I don't know, a few thousand or a few hundred, you know, calling the IRS and just say I could do this by myself. But if you're like I really think I owe even more than that, you might want to get an accountant who So Carlos's father used to actually work for the IRS and together they opened a firm.
So looking for an accountant who has a specialty and like basically like IRS dealings. You know, that's one of the reasons why I him is because he's not just the regular CPA. He's someone who actually, like, if if I had to go to IRS court, he would go on my behalf. He's done that before for people, So yeah, you know.
You'll probably end up doing is getting put on some sort of installment month installment agreement, and installments is just where you pay the debt off in a monthly payment. And I believe with the if you that's for people who owe fifty thousand dollars or less. I'm actually looking at the Magnifying Money Guide to Facing Tax Debt, which I can send you a link to as well, which
probably has some helpful information. But yeah, I mean you you just just just be honest with yourself about it, Anonymous, and get on top of it, because I mean, you're right, you do need you need to have your I believe you need to have your most recent W two, not W two, but most recent tax files, tax is filed if you want to fill out your kid's FAFSVA. So you want to get on that days app.
Yes you do.
But thank you for your question and being honest about it, because now you're you can at least get on the right.
Track exactly, because you know everybody makes mistakes. Is about what do you do.
Now all of us make mistakes?
You know?
I was just speaking to I was at this conference last week, I mentioned, and I got to talk with a handful of kids who go to HBCUs and they're studying journalism, and of course I went there to like talk about career, but I ended up talking like by the end of it, I had them all on discoverscorecard dot com and checking their credit report. You know, it
was it was really hilarious. But like one of the girls in the group, she like she was so nervous to admit that she had taken out this Discover student credit card and then had misplaced a credit card and hadn't told her parents, and she was super she just didn't. She was like, I don't. I'm just I did just feel like it's really bad that I lost it, and I feel like people could be using it. I just didn't want to tell anybody, and I'm like, but I
was like, oh, it's okay. You know, I lose my credit card all the time, not really all the time, but it's such an easy fix. And yeah, she just felt this sense of like embarrassment around it and around the repercussions. So it's not just big things, like tax said, it's like even the small things. Everyone kind of you know, you get like you feel embarrassed and you don't want to do anything. But that's usually the worst thing to do.
Yeah, not even it's always the worst thing to do, but it's always the number one default, isn't it.
You're like, yeh, child, but that hurs.
I'm just gonna stit here with it, my toothaches, you know what, let me see how long I can wait.
Let me know.
The default is always if I ignore, maybe it'll go away. And it literally only compounds the trouble. So I'm trying to practice that. Like, so one of my new practices and what do you do for this maybe is that like if I'm scared, like say, like today my contractor emailed me and I was I had asked him for a bunch of things, and I thought I was scared to open the email that he was gonna be like, girl, you tried it, I'm moving on to somebody else, and so I forced myself as soon as I saw it,
I was like, I'm scared opening now. So I'm trying to re re kind of like I guess, I don't know, like I almost like retrain my brain that fear equates to immediate action because that's not my normal.
That's not my normal trajectory.
When something happens, it's like, yeah, yikes, I'm scared, open the door, yikes, I'm scared, read the email, yanks, I'm scared.
Listen to the voice message, you know. And so that's like what I've been trying to practice.
I don't always get there, but I feel like I'm like fifty percent of the way there of doing the doing the that initial take action right away when fear.
Hits I'm totally with you on the whole. I get an email, you know how you can like read the first line of the email to creeve you, and I'm like, I don't think I want to read this right now. I like close my browser and try and tell myself I didn't see it. Yeah, but then it just ends up weighing on me and it just stresses me out. Like I'll try and say I'm not going to read that till tomorrow, but then I end up reading it that night because I just can't, you know, sit with
the wondering for that much longer. So I agree, just pull the band aid off.
Yeah, so I'm super passive aggressive. I'll actually send an email to a friend. I'm like, girl, read you, So what is it bad?
It is it good?
I've just done a couple of times.
I'll just get one to ten. What would you say? Read the email and then you want to take one more?
Yeah, we can do one more. Quick question. This is from listener Pollette. She says, one, do y'all think is a good time to request your interest rate to be lowered on your credit card and or a credit limit increase? Did you guys know you can request an interest rate reduction on your credit card. You can.
Sometimes I usually say like if right, I think I feel like A good time is if you've seen that your credit score has increased, because typically the question is, like, you know, the reason why you have the interest rate is the reflection of where your score basically is. So if I've seen, like, hey, my score is doing so much better than it was six months ago whenever I got this card, let me call, then that's a that's a good time.
But I not after you miss three payments in a row.
Because I'm like, oh, so glad you call because you owe us money.
Yeah.
Yeah, but I mean, it doesn't hurt to ask for a credit a rate reduction, but when you ask for a credit limit increase, just know that it will trigger a hard inquiry on your credit report because they're basically going to pull your credit again and it could be a temporary ding to your credit. Have you found this though? Sometimes I've indirectly gotten a credit limit increase by just using my card a lot. Yeah, like charging, Yeah, I mean,
it's it's kind of bad. But sometimes if you actually use your card and you you are almost maxing it out and you're paying it off each month, but you're almost maxing out each month as well. They will eventually some credit cards will be checking for that and they
will bump your limit up. That happened to us with our one of our credit cards recently because we've been buying so many appliances, and they were like, Okay, we'll give you more wiggle room because you need a bigger limit on your credit card.
No, for sure, but you're right, it's not about like, it's not like if you're just putting ten dollars on a month, but typically they're doing that. They're like, oh, you're responsibly using more of your balance.
We got you.
But yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with asking because they will help, like the increase. Although you'll get that like little a ding on your credit score, you know, it might help with your utilization rate, you know, and so you might get like actually like an increase in your credit score because now you have unless you're actually.
Using using your you know, the card to that amount. But now you've.
Got a bigger credit limit and hopefully you're keeping your balances low. So the comparison of my credit limit is higher, even though our balances might be the same. So that difference might might result in a few points in your credit score, so usually it kind of like a nets out even But I mean, if your credit score is DC and you have a decent payment history and you're not late, typically their answer is yes. They might not do it to the extent that you wanted, but typically their answer is yes.
Yeah, good tip. All right, thank you, thank you b A listeners.
Yes, this was a good one. I like you guys have some really great questions.
Yes, sorry spaced out.