Hey Hey Hey 2020!

now and it has been entirely word of mouth. Tiffy and I are too busy to be doing any kind of investment in marketing like marketing and pushing our show, but you guys have been so supportive and we continue building our listenership and it's just it's beautiful. I love it, so thank you guys.

was the hardest thing I've ever done. And the last six weeks have been the hardest weeks of my entire life. But I am alive and we are surviving, and my husband's been amazing. We've had so much support from our family, and you know, I'm we're doing it. We're surviving, which is if anyone out there has a newborn. I've got some messages from people who have like four weeks old and eight week old babies, and it's it's crazy. But uh, I'm just I'm grateful that I'm alive and we're still

doing the show. And I got a three hour nap today, so I.

so low through the whole day with the baby. So wish me luck. And I've got six to seven more weeks of matt leaves and if you guys have any I don't know. All I'm all I'm praying for is that by the end of the next six weeks he is like sleeping the night because I am stressed about well, not stressed because I'm trying not to stress too much

and just enjoy, you know, these early days. But I just think, like, what is it going to be like these if I if I'm up every hour and a half through the night and then have to go back to work, Like what how does that? How does how do y'all do that? New moms? Like how does that work?

so that was super awesome. Honestly, it's been great and pretty chill, and we've been gearing up for my next new venture, which is my children's book, Molly Moore. It's finally literally done, done, done, and now we're just working on the marketing campaign to roll it out, so y'all should see Molly Moore in the early spring. But I honestly I've been really thinking about it. I'm gonna do a Kickstarter campaign for mollymore because one a few things

I want to do. Because one, after doing some more research on like children and books, I realized that, like the statistics for children from low income communities and books is really bad. It's like sixty one percent do not have access to books, and not having access to books set you up for a very hard life. Because books are not just about literacy, it's about comprehension. It's about

exploring your horizons. Books help with counting, books help with stem and so if you don't have books, you know,

it just puts you in a really bad state. And I just thought, I want to continuously be able to use proceeds from the sale of Molly Moore, the first book, in any book that comes after, to provide books to communities with children from low income environments, because if you can start a home library, that could totally transform the trajectory of your life, even if your parents struggled, even your parents are in bad read high school or college

or whatever, that having a home library can actually turn some of those statistics around. So yeah, so I'm excited. Plus two, I think, yeah, it's goodhead.

how am I supposed to teach my kid? And so with molly More books, there at the end there are extending lessons and questions to really help to drive that home because every book has what I call pre financial education lessons, which is like counting math, learning about giving, learning about service, learning about community. These are the foundation for financial education. So it's age appropriate for three to

seven year olds. And so then I show you how do you extend that lesson as a teacher, as a parent or aunt or uncle, So it's like everyone gets to learn. So yeah, it's just I feel like everything that I've worked toward has built up to this, that the budgetiesta was not the end goal. That truly it's this because I really believe, you know, I'm a teacher at heart, and so to be able to teach financial education from like early stages on throughout with all that

I do with my life. I think it's just so. I just think it's like my life's calling. I know that, Like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. And wait till y'all see this. She is so beautiful. Wait to see Molly Moore. So in a couple of weeks we'll be dropping. I'll be dropping the book cover. So you can get excited. Oh if you haven't already, she has if you want a sneak peek. Actually, I have not shared this anywhere, but I do have an Instagram page

for Molly Moore. It's m a l I like the African country Underscore more m Ore, so at Molly may a Lot Underscore more and you can take a sneak peak of the cover. Please follow the page. I'll be doing updates and stuff there. So I posted the cover. I might delete it, so harry up because I was like, I was just testing out if I was able to post on the different Instagram page. So take a look while you can.

he cares about. But it's also like when do you introduce concepts of finance and what's appropriate for a child? That's what I That's what I'm like wondering how early

is too early? Should I even worry about it until you know they're you know what, like what age and what age is appropriate and like how much you cover and you know, because you don't want to, like I don't want You know, I've talked about before, like there was financial insecurity and financial anxiety in my household that I don't think my parents intend intended to make it that way, but you know, you just I absorbed all

that energy. And what I'm trying to change, like flip the script, is to sort of create financial positivity because I think my own fears and anxieties around finances really held me back, especially when it came to to to to trying things like investing and even just saving, like I live from this this mindset of like money is evil and money you know, if you have money then you're greedy, uh, you know, and people who have money are like you know, there's like a there's just so

much negativity around it. And I had to change my own mindset, and I want to. I would just want to have a household where it is. It is an empowering thing and you know, we use it for good and we use it to grow. And you know what I'm trying to say, and.

It's Amelia. You don't want to share with Roman. Roman is my my her brother and her her Uh he's four. So pre financial education lessons are like they look more like morality lessons like sharing and mine versus yours and

more and less. You know what I mean pre financial education lessons are also it's also numbers and counting, so you're likely going to be doing a lot of that anyway, but an intention for that's important and people don't realize that even when it comes to counting, like for example, Molly Moore the book, it rhymes and it seems like, oh, that's cute and rhymes, No, that it was intentional for it to rhyme, because rhyming is a precursor to counting, right,

Because think about it, like if you can go or even just keeping a beat right, so if you can do like cat bat sat, that's like what I'm showing you is that each of those individual things are like one beat, one beat, so now you can say one, two, three and then. So when I was teaching, that's one of the reasons why the ABC song has like this kind of like rhythm to it, because what we're really teaching children is like this like spatial relation in their mind A B C, then one, two three, then what

is one? Oh this is one apple? Oh, this is what two apples look like. So everything kind of builds on top of each other. But that's what it looks like. It looks like by two like you know, singing songs. It looks like, you know, by three, teaching them about sharing and giving and not everything belongs to you. So that's something Amelia is having a very hard time with right now. Right and then by four it looks like taking responsibility. So Roman is in preschool and so at

four he will have a school job. Most preschoolers have like a school job, meaning that like there's usually like a little board where it says his name, and then Roman sets the table or he picks up the blocks today whatever. So he's learning responsibility, like, this is what I'm responsible for. So that's a pre financial education lesson. And what I did is I took it further, and this is what I plan to do when I have

my bambinos. I took it further in that not only is that your quote unquote school job, but I'm gonna pay you. At four or five you can start to do that. I'm gonna give you monopoly money. And for a job job done, you get a dollar. For a job well done, you get two. And if you don't do it, you don't get any money. And then by four and five we can you can create. This is what I used to do with my classroom. We would create savings boxes with shoe boxes, and we would talk

about what does it mean to say? And what are some of the things they like? Oh like candy, I like this? Do you know how much those things cost? And you know, like sometimes mommy and daddy they or auntie and uncle, you see them with money. What does that mean? So now you have a job at school, I'm paying you this money and you're going to be

putting it every day into your savings box. And then every Friday I would go to like the dollar store and get like little Chotchki's, and then they would buy the things that they wanted from with their savings box money. Because I was teaching them this correlation between work, a job well done savings spending. There would be the things in the store that would be more than what they could possibly make in a week, because if you got paid two dollars a week maximum, that's ten dollars for

the week. So there would be things in the store that were fifteen dollars. Then'll may be I'd to make a Teddy beer fifteen dollars. They would have to learn that. Some kids had to figure out, well, if I really want this teddy bear, then that means I don't get anything this week, And learning even that was like some kids, no matter what, they spent all their money every single week, and you got some kids that understood, if I want this teddy bear, I'm gonna have to not spend anything

this week and then save it for next week. So you see how it builds on top of each other. But yeah, I think like when he's really really little, it's just really singing and counting and rhythm and rhyme, and then learning how to share and that everything does not belong to you and lessen more and you'll.

to find another one. But it means that, you know, jobs pay money, and Christmas is coming and gifts cost money. What does that mean. It just means that we're going to have Christmas in January instead of December. Oh okay. But there was never any inflection of this is some bad, terrible thing. It just was And I think that was probably the best thing he could do versus making money a good or bad thing. It was just a neutral thing.

And he was just kind of like sharing the news, and so that's how he approached money when he was teaching us about it, like the light bill is too high, that's the news. What can we do? And so because of that, I grew up with a really healthy relationship with money. Like I said, the recession totally took me out because I you know, it just was such a devastating time. But I was able to go back to or close to my healthy relationship with money because I

had that foundation. So that's another thing too. I think it's as parents not not giving many money emotional and it's it's a thing, it's a tool, it's not it's not the goal itself.

better than nothing. And I know we've gotten questions from parents over the years we've been doing the show on how the best way to save? When is it five two nine versus roth iray. The only reason I decided to go with the roth iray is just because it's a lot more flexible and I don't necessarily have to use the money on college expenses. So something were to happen and we needed to tap into it earlier. It

just seemed like it seemed like the better option. And also five to two nine seem a little like I

understand roth irays. I understand how to open went up and how to choose investments, and maybe because five two ninees I'm a little less familiar with it, just that you know, the the idea of needing to research that space and find the right account, and all that seems like it takes more energy, and right now I'm just like done is better than perfect, and a roth iray makes sense and I can easily just open one up alongside my Vanguard account, you know, and call it a day.

And then number two my goal is life insurance because for those of you who have, like you know, I've always had my life my insurance through my employer, but you know, you can't really take that with you and it gets harder to well. Life insurance gets more expensive as you get older, so some people recommend getting your own life insurance policy. Also, it's only a certain amount, so it may not be enough for, you know, to really sustain your family. It's something were to happen to you.

So I have started to shop around for life insurance, and fortunately there are sites like Value, Penguin, Quote, Wizard, Policy Genius that make it pretty simple to shop for life insurance. I've honestly found. I used all three of those to try and find a to start shopping for a policy. They kind of gave me the exact same company. So I don't know if it's probably based on where you live, what's what's available to you, but it seems pretty simple, and that is that's starting to that that

to me is one of the more important things. It's like, if something were to happen to me, I want to be sure that he is okay and that you know there's no change to his because you know his luxurious lifestyle.

It's it's dark, but it's true and you want to you just yeah, you have this real urge to like protect and to set you know, your child up for success if you weren't to be here, and then of course you cry a little bit and then you know it's all the emotions. But yeah, that's the goal. That's my little baby goals for twenty twenty. In career wise, I don't even freaking know. I just need stability for

the next you know, several months. Hopefully can get back into a flow with work and I'll share with you know, you guys on how that's going. Just I'm yeah, anyway, let me just get the next six seven weeks being home first.

do you see your life unfolding this this year? So it really helps me to pull out of myself because I'm like spending this moment this time to do so. I would say personally, I feel like in the best place I have in a long time. Personally like great family, great friends, Like I'm for the first time in I don't know, in my adult life, every single one of my core relationships is in a good space, like parents, friends, family, like you know, the people I interact with regularly. It's

it feels awesome. You know. You don't realize that that's not true until you start like working on things. You're like, oh, I could really be better with super Girl. You should hang out more. Oh I could really like call my mom more, you know. But I'm in a good space with everything, and I'm like, oh my god, I didn't Wow, this feels awesome. There is no internal dread when it comes to any of my core relationships, which is which

is great? And then professionally, I really think that Molly Moore, because the book is going to be about twenty two bucks a book, I think give or take, because you know, we're going to be doing some of that money. We'll be going toward donating books. But I really think I did the math, like what would it take for Molly Moore to make seven figures in its first year and

it's about forty six thousand books. I think I did the math, which I think we could do you know, Like, I'm like, I've got a pretty good sized audience forty six times twenty two.

Is that I've been saying for since December twenty eighteen, My team and I set forth what we call our big Audacious goals, and the one of them was to get the the the team on average to six figures a year, meaning that some of the team members that like our lead team member might make or lead team members might make two fifty and then maybe customer support just coming in entry level team member might make twenty five dollars an hour, which is about equivalents about twenty

five thousand dollars a year. So how do we get that range? You know, like, what does that look like, and how much does the companies? How much do the companies have to make? And I was talking to my CFO today, our new CFO. Shout out to Shanta, She's amazing, and wasn't this going to be your boost? No, I'm gonna do a different boost.

and a half million dollars. And so last year twenty nineteen, we made like three point five so basically double, which we've been doubling, so that's not crazy. I was like, Okay, great, the Budgetista would have to make one point five million. So the Budgeanesta I called the more poor neglected baby in that the Budgetista is like Tiffany hitting your road. It's like speaking, and so I don't do that as much.

So I think the Budgetiessa maybe pulled in I want to say, seven hundred thousand last year of like speaking in books and things like that. So us making one point five is more than feasible, especially since molly Moore is under the Budgetisa. So if molly Moore Justify itself brings in seven figures and the Budgetista brings in half a million, which would be less than we made in

twenty nineteen, will be more than on track. And then my marketing company, which was super neglected, then marketing company is just our turn on marketing company. Companies come to us and say, hey, we see you love our thing, share our thing, and we'll we'll pay you per person

that signs up. And so with that, that company was actually in the negative because although we made I want to say, maybe two hundred and fifty thousand or something to that effect, but we spent more because of marketing itself, like paying four ads and things, and then staff so that company, I just said, if we can get to a positive maybe like fifty or sixty thousand, I'll be happy with that company because that company drives a lot of the other things that we do, so on its own,

we don't look for it to be a big money maker. But making six point five in one company and one point five in another, that's more than feasible because it's, like I said, we've already been doubling our income. So if we're right in alignment and the goal when we made the big audacious goals in twenty eighteen, the goal was always by the end of twenty twenty to get to that big goal of six figures per person, like

on average, depending on what role you have. So the fact that we're like within range, I'm like yeah, because I mean, I know the people who work for our team. They don't work on our team for the money because we don't. I don't pay what I call a competitive salary yet because just because your company makes a lot

of money, there are a lot of expenses. And now with this we can pay a competitive salary like what you would make, maybe even more than what you would make at like if you were to be working at a similar company, and so I can't wait by the end of the year to be able to get my

team to that because they are amazing. They deserve and I want them, you know, like I know they're here for the love, but I want them to know that, you know, like if you go someplace else, you would still be making the same kind of money and they won't even love you as much as I do. So I'm excited about that. Like that's my big, big, big push for twenty twenty. Business is woof child. It's just just when you're just like you think you figured it out,

You're like what now. Some months you're just like what we did what? Other months you're like, oh my god, Like we have a loss a lot. I didn't know. I was like what the marketing company didn't make no money? Yes we did. They're like, you spent more than you mean.

money and how did she start making money? And I mean those early days when you were making fifty bucks a pop for at home financial budgeting sessions and so you know, now you're like employing how many staff? Like your business is? How has grown so much? I mean it's it was long.

to a pound a week, which is normal. And so I just want to normalize the process that it's good. It's hard, but it's possible, but it's typically not going to take you. Like, for example, this is what somebody will say, Molly Moore is likely to make a million dollars its first year out. So the deceptive me will say, I wouldn't do this, But this is what somebody would say, Oh my god, my business made a million dollars its

first year. But you and I both know that Molly Moore is only going to make that million dollars first year because a ton of years of the budgetese. And so it looks like, oh, this new venture on its own is making this money, but that's not really true. It's all of these years of work that led to the ability of this company to make this amount of

money in its first year. And so that's what you're not seeing oftentimes in some of these people who are sharing that something that they created is making a ton of money right away. But yeah, because they've also they've had previous businesses or previous work that'll set them up for that success. So and year starts now if you haven't started already, So get to it.

It is very hard to scroll and scroll and scroll and read and read and read. But I love that you guys are sending us more questions there. Also, our website is still around. You can go to Brandambisson podcast dot com and click ask us anything all right. Our first question of twenty twenty, No Pressure, comes from listener Anna, who has a question about investing. Here's what she says

so far. Anna has thirty three thousand dollars in online savings, ten thousand dollars she's saving for a car in the future, fourteen thousand sheets earmarked for emergencies, eight and a half for repairs, vacation and investing, and also one hundred and thirty five Is she trying to make us jealous? One hundred and thirty five thousand dollars in a four to one K from my previous employer. Oh, and an additional three K in eleves. So I'm sorry, Where are the

problems here, Missianna? She says? Obviously I'm a super saver, but I need to invest. My question is do you think Do you too think I'm covered with savings and can start investing with money I will earn, or do you think I should invest with some of the money I've already saved. If the latter, where should I take the money from? Please note I'm thirty nine years old and married with a dual income of about eighty thousand

dollars annually. That's really impressive with that with a dual income of eighty K. She's thirty nine years old and has let me do the math real quick, thirty K and online savings ten K, three three k. Oh that includes ten K and then fourteen about one hundred and seventy thousand dollars she's managed to save. That is fantastic. So thirty three thousand dollars of that she's gotten like a regular bank account online make account in savings. Let's

just assume it's online. So she's earning like one percent to be safe. And then she's got one hundred and thirty five K and a four to one K for my previous employer. So she wants to know basically, should she start tapping into that thirty three K and investing with that or should she just start investing with her future earnings? And on top of that she does she's dabbled a little bit. It sounds like she's got three thousand dollars in ell OFST, which we've talked about l

of s before. It's it's one of these new kind of robo advisor funds, but it targets women specifically.

you are already saving for retirement. If you're putting away your prerequisite of like ten to fifteen percent towards retirement, you don't necessarily have to boost that up, but it sounds like you're kind of doing that already. I would look to see am I insured enough to Mandy's point, like earlier, I don't know if you have children, but that was one of the things when I sat down with my financial planner. She I was severely under insured because I set my insurance when I was in my

twenties and I never kind of did anything else. She's like, girl, you are not twenty two anymore. You need more insurance. So one make sure that you have enough insurance. So like homeowners insurance, if you have a home renter's insurance, if you don't, do you have enough of insurance for life insurance, so something happened to yourself or your spouse, So really looking at your insurance, am I fully insured?

And then if you are not setting aside ten and not honestly because you're a woman, I would say upwards to fifteen percent away for retirement. You can start doing that with some of that thirty three percent, because I don't think I'm not sure what you do for a living. You don't need more typically than more than three to six months worth of expenses saved liquid like that as cash, because you're really losing money when you're not investing money.

I think that's I wish people understood that more. I did. Net First, that money in a savings account is literally losing because if for every dollar they're giving you one cent, but because of something called inflation, which means the devaluing of money, that money can't do as much as it used to. Every year, inflation is about three percent, so for every dollar gaining one but losing three, so that leads you at a two penny loss for every dollar

for that money you have saved. So that means that yet thirty three thousand dollars, it's worth less and less over time. So I don't want you to keep so much money liquid, like I had to wag too much money liquid and so.

kind of well six months worth of expenses. Yeah, I mean fourteen K could be you know, plenty for emergencies, and she could take that, you know, let's say break off a piece of that eight and a half K and save that for vacations and you know, have the recurring savings to keep that fund did and I would I feel like she has enough to just go ahead and max out like an IRA. You know, the what is the annual contribution in twenty twenty. I don't want

to mess it up. It's usually around like six thousand, right.

an additional way to invest. But on top of that, Tiffany said, you've got over one hundred thousand dollars in your four to one K. Make sure that you're well diversified in that you know your money is growing at a at a at a rate that seems reasonable and you're not I don't know what you're invested in obviously, but you know, being thirty nine, you can still heavily invest in stocks you have. You have a long time horizon.

So take a look at what you're investing in your four to one K and make sure that it's diversified properly for your age and your time horizon. And that three K and l of us that's all well and good. Maybe you want to take that, you know, and start adding a little bit to that as well, but.

my financial planner, invest for wealth. And so investing for wealth is we're a little bit more aggressive than I would because I'm forty, right, So that means like, okay, retirement is taken care of, and God forbid, this wealth invested doesn't work out. I'm not going to eat cat food because I've invested for retirement. So I would consider like looking into like what does investing for wealth and

what it might look like. You know, maybe that's a target date fund, and you can do target date funds

through your through like a raw iiray. That's just you pick a date that you're gonna want to take this money out, and it kind of balances itself for you every year versus how much money it has invested in, like a more conservative vehicle like bonds or a more aggressive vehicle like stocks, And every year you get closer to the target date, your investments become more and more conservative, so you can preserve the capital the money that you put in. So yeah, I think you're in a good spot.

I just do not like to be from that eight. You probably have a good because vacation shouldn't cost more than like two thousand dollars. You probably have a good six thousand. To Mandy's point, just open up a raw ira and throw it in there, or add to where you have laves or maybe I don't know that I would just be investing in loose stocks. You have not done that before, but definitely putting it. It sounds like to me, putting six thousand dollars toward investing in some is a good idea.

thankfully I just found a new job. But we're now feeling the effects of the financial hit we took this summer, and we're thinking we'd like to start working with a financial planner, especially before we start on baby number two. Do you two use a fee or no fee financial planner? And why? Great question. That's a huge, huge year plus a job lost. My god, so I mean, congrats for coming through it, and I'm glad that you finally have a new job and oh my god, baby number two.

So I personally have fee or no fee financial planner. There's not really a thing as a no fee financial planner, but there yeah, but there's fee based and fee only, so there's planners. It's basically the difference is how they charge their fee. So some planners, especially if they help you invest, they might add an additional percentage, like and take a little bit off your returns on the investments that they that they that they recommend for you, they

put your savings and investments into. And then you have some planners who will just charge you a flat fee for every time you have a conversation with them, or every time they make you know, put together a financial plan for you. You know, there's some planners you can just you can go to them and just say, you know, I want a retirement plan, a financial plan, which is usually what financial plans are. They're like a retirement plan, and that can cost you know, I don't know a

thousand bucks, tweve hundred dollars. It depends on the planner. You just pay one fee and that's it. If you want ongoing investment advice, you're probably looking at someone you may take a little bit of a percentage of your returns, or somebody who just charges again a flat fee for their for their services. I don't have anyone managing my investments, so I've always just used a fee only financial planner.

And basically the way that it works is every time we schedule a call with this planner, she charges us a flat fee. For me, it's been about two hundred dollars depending on the contents of the call and how much we're going to cover, and you know how much she's going to do for us. And that's works for me because I don't need and we don't meet we meet when we want to meet, so honestly, I think we have maybe three meetings last year. I haven't talked to her in a while, is Helen right? Yeah, Helen.

We've interviewed Helen on the show before.

They were my original financial planners were getting paid percentage of my portfolio. But then I once I had enough money to pay someone, I switched over to a fee only and so now I have Angelie. So I interviewed a ton of people and I interviewed so actually my

top three. It was Angelie, it was Helen. I interviewed like twenty people Angelie, Helen, and another young woman that were my top three, But I ended up choosing Angelie because she specifically focused on people who had multiple businesses and everyone else that wasn't like one of their core focuses, And so I was looking for someone who, guess, is going to help my husband and I as a couple. But then also the fact that, like, Okay, Tiffany's got

three businesses and what does that look like? Because I also too want to like be able to offer my employees like benefits and things like that, and Angelie that's something that she does as well. So you're wanting to make sure that whoever you're choosing that you share kind of like your holistic like financial life, because that way they can understand, like, are you someone that I can help,

like if you're a teacher. There are literally financial planners that I interviewed that focus on teachers, or some that focused on doctors and lawyers. So there's a great number out there. But I pay Angeline a lump some fee because there's just so much going on that I had to unpack. A lump sum fee for the year that I pay that I pay monthly and we meet. In the beginning, we were meeting like every month to get like it took like, I want to say, five months

to get all the paperwork together. So me her and my husband and her her admin we met every month and and as things like slow down, we've probably will still be meeting at least four or five, maybe even six times this year because there's still a lot to unpack, and then after that it'll settle into like quarterly. But yeah, and it was not cheap. I mean, I don't know if you guys want me to share them out. How do you feel about that? I mean, I don't.

so Angelie. I actually was just reading an email between her, So Angelie's financial planner, Carlos, who's what I call my big accountant, and Shanta, who is my CFO, my chief financial officer. So they're constantly talking and making decisions financially that benefit the company, myself all of that. So so

to me, I don't I'm not gonna lie. I don't know that I would have jumped out the window for fifteen thousand if it was Tiffany, just purely out of my pocket, but because it was like a company expense that the company can shoulder. But when I tell you it's it's paid for itself time ten, I was really like, what she was literally the most expensive at every time I interviewed, she was the most expensive. But it has paid for itself already. It's been an amazing experience.

looking at everything. And then typically a financial advisor is really helping you specifically with like investments typically so like and they're typically selling you things like you you know, like my insurance. Like Angeley doesn't sell anything, so she will advise that here's the kind of insurance that you should should get. You want me to suggest some, but you need to buy it and then come back to me and show me that you purchased it. So Angelie

doesn't sell me anything. I've already purchased her advice. Not a particular service, I mean, well, not a particular product, which is like what financial advisors usually do. They usually have like products to sell. But there's nothing wrong with that.

But the thing that really helped me was I created this doc and honestly I'm gonna create Like I keep saying this because everybody keeps asking I'm going to create like a template of this doc that I created many that was so great and that I put all of our financial business on there. My husband and I'm like our dreams, our goals, how much we make, how much we have it, if we had any dat, you know, anything,

just everything. But I organized it. And that's what I sent to potential financial planners and advisors that I was interviewing. So somebody would say, I know I have someone Helen. She's awesome. I would send Helen like a template email. Hey Helen, my name is Tiffany, looking for a planner. Here is the doc and like with like where I currently am and where i'd like to be. If you think that you can help, I would love to set

up an interview. And so I sent that and what that did was it helped me to not leave things out, because as you're interviewing financial planners and advisors, you're gonna want to share kind of like where you are and your goals. But I didn't. I always remember, oh, I forgot to tell this one that I'm working on this, and I forgot to tell that one that my husband is doing that. So with that doc, it helped me to be able to compare financial advisors apples to apples.

The most helpful thing and finding your financial planner advisor for me anyway, was creating that kind of like all money stock that I sent out to people and use it as a stepping stone. So then when we got on the phone, we were discussing the same thing, which was this document, and like, yeah, you have to be all the way on with your financial advisor, like the good, the bad, the ugly, and yeah, I just found it

to be helpful. I am going to eventually, like I want to create a template to so obviously my information is not in there. I could pull out my numbers that people can kind of use and put in their numbers. So because people ask all the time, how do I find a financial planner or advisor? And that was the first time I did that, and cause I'd been looking for one for five years and just failing miserably. Every year I would have somebody and it wouldn't be a fit.

And now that doc helped me to find who I have now and she's an amazing fit. And I really credit it to that document.

and look around. Obviously, Like personal referrals are awesome too, asking around to friends, asking around to people you seem to have their lives together if they're using a planner. And definitely interview We interviewed like four or five different people, and you know, you want someone who's not going to talk about money first, who's going to ask you what your goals and your ambitions are, and you're you know what you're looking for, like Tiffany said, before you even

sit down with someone. That's a really good sign you've got someone with your you know, best interests at heart. Fabulous. All right, thank you guys for your questions again. Brandimission Podcast at gmail dot com, hit us up on the gram at brand Ambission Podcast, or you can go to our website Brand ambitionion podcast dot com.

through Amazon Prime. I don't know how Amazon makes money, but they still do free delivery and I can order.

house for longer than a couple hours. So shout out to Whole Foods Delivery. Shout out to Amazon Prime, and I mentioned them earlier, but I mentioned I was shopping for life insurance, and I'm using a few different websites because of course you want to compare rates, so audits do a quick extra shout out for websites where you can compare not just life insurance, but other types of

insurance to like auto renters, insurance, et cetera. So the sites that I've looked at are Value Penguin, Quote Wizard, and Policy Genius, and I've kind of it's they're all basically using the same format, so it's fun. It's nice for me to kind of shop on all three and see what they give me back. So shouts out to

anything that saves you time. And for any parents out there, if you guys, have any tips on things that have made your life easier and have automated your lives or made it easier just to like function day to day. I am open to all of your advice, all of your tips and tricks. One thing that I've done is meal prep my final boost. So my dad has been

in town this weekend, so I took advantage. I made a crap ton of food for the week and I ordered like Amazon sells these bulk kits of like you know, divided BPA free plastic containers and like you know, three divided sections, and I'm just like packing them because the hardest thing is like even just bending over to microwaves because our microwave is down low. I've realized, like just bending over with a baby in mar is hard. So

I'm trying to make things as easy. So I am actually like fed myself and taken care of so meal prep, whole foods, delivery, you know, anything that I can do to make the day to day a little bit easier. And if you guys, like I said, have tips, holler at me.

unquote man cave. There's like an open section where like we have the where which I guess it was like the laundry room, but there's also like this big open space and then there's a section behind a door which is truly his man cave, and it's like where he watches movies and YadA, YadA YadA. So the open section like he's like, oh, this is my game room, but there's nothing there but like one chair in the TV.

I'm like, this is nothing. So I asked him, in my wifely way, hey, bo, can I have this section and turn it into a I told him I wanted to buy a treadmill and I was like, okay, I guess I can bring it upstairs and he was like, no, that's not gonna make sense on the hardware floors. I knew that. I knew that, but I was waiting for him to offer his basement and he was like, it should go to basement. I'm like, you know what it should.

So that's exactly where it is. Slowly, shore I started moving on in I got like, Matt, and.

was nothing there. There was like some like two like Ikia random ikea office chairs for my old office, and he has a TV on the wall and like like some of his console, like he's got like a PlayStation or whatever. When I tell you, the only time he plays games or when we have kids over and he's showing them how to play games, so he's not really

a game person. In the room wasn't big enough for a pool table, because with a pool table he's supposed to have, like he really wanted to pool there, but he's supposed to have like five feet around each side, but it wasn't big enough for that, so it was just basically empty. So now I've got a treadmill down there, and I've got mats, and I was like, how do I tell him I want to order more things? So I just showed him like, I think we should get this rower. Look how cool of this and he looked

at me like, oh, here we go. So I ordered it. It's coming tomorrow.

And then I wanted this dip station because I don't like doing abs on the floor because I'm the type of person that's always pulling at my neck and I don't know how to do them right. So there's a dip station. It's like this thing where and I love

it at the gym. You put your back against it, you put your elbows like kind of like in the L position, and you're holding onto these like poll things and you lift your feet up and then you could also do pull ups and all that kind of stuff, although I don't do all of that, but that's one of my favorite machines. And then I also got like some free weights, like for Christmas, I asked for like a yoga mat and some like a jump rope and free weights. So all together the dip station, I think

it was like one to fifty. So you figure one hundred dollars for like the mats and the free weights. And stuff like that. One fifty for the dip station, three fifty for the rowing machine, and six hundred dollars for the treadmill. It was twelve About twelve hundred dollars is what the gym costs. And I did the math, and I forget my membership. It was like maybe like forty five bucks a month plus whatever La fitness, I don't remember, but one of the fitness places they also

charged like one hundred dollars like annual random fee. So after doing all the math, in two years, it's about twelve eighty. It's what that membership costs me. So I feel like having this home gym, and I've been going every morning. I just I told myself twenty minutes on the treadmill, like, just do that, twenty minutes on the tread no stretch, that's it. And then I'll do that for a week and I'll build on there. So I'm excited because I'm like, I have this gym, it's right downstairs.

There's no excuses. Even if I miss a day or week, I can easily get back because it's right downstairs. And for me, it was an investment. Then I'm happy about. So that is my boost. It's like, really, I really want to invest in overall wellness. Yes, all I would love to lose like ten to fifteen pounds, but ultimately

that's not even what it's about. I just feel like I don't get enough movement, you know, like working from home, sitting a lot, and so this is just a great space because what I found is that like I'll watch TV and I sometimes like it'll be thirty minutes and I'm like, oh wow, because I've watched whatever. Or I'll listen to a podcast. What I really love is that when I wake up in the morning, I can look totally crazy going downstairs, because at the gym you have

to look reasonably reasonable. But like literally I can have like lime green sweatpants, you know, like a raggedy like you know, a tank top with my sports bra, and my hair could still be in a bonnet and I could go work out and I keep my sneakers down there. So there's no resistance to working out because I don't have to leave, I don't have to get a car, I don't have to warm up the car, I don't have to look cute. I just go downstairs. So yay, hopefully you will you know, I don't know. I'm really

happy about it. Like this morning, I was on the treadmill, like look at you, Tiffany doing things.

The numbers, whether it's like I'm gonna save a million dollars this year like probably you won't, or I'm gonna lose one hundred pounds this year, like just one day at a time. People yeah, say that.

in physical, purposeful physical activity every single day. And I feel like if I do that, Like I look at my dad. He doesn't go to the gym or anything. He's seventy five, but since we were kids, he's always done like like physical activity every day, whatever that might look like. And you know he's seventy five and healthy and strong. And I want that for myself. And that comes from consistent effort, not these surges of effort, Like

that's not where real change is. Me changes me in daily consistent effort, and typically it looks like small things. So if you can do that, if I can commit to ten twenty minutes of small effort, then like your girl's gonna be good. Okay, you know what I'm saying. I love it.