Hey ba fam, Wait, did I hit record?
Yes I do.
Let's see Kerrie Washington. Welcome to the v a q A on this beautiful Friday. I am really excited to be joined here by Yan Nelly Spinal aka mis Be Helpful and Chris Browning aka mister Popcorn Finance himself. We're gonna be taking y'all's questions now. If you want to submit a question to Brown Ambition, please go to our Instagram. You can d m us at the Brown Ambition No What at Brown Ambition Podcast on ig or you can email us Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com if
you want to have your question on the show. And we have some some juicy ones today. So I'm excited to have y'all's help here. So you know the Biel, get your salt shakers out. This is infotainment edutainment. I can say salt shakers are required because what we're not giving you is like paid financial investment professional advice. We don't actually know you personally, nor do we you know, need to be sued by you for any information we've
given you. So let me hop on and I think we got some a mix of like career and finance today Our first one is from anonymous what should we call this anonymous person? We'll call her carry after after yan Ellie's girl crush, Kerry Washington. All right, she wants to know is it okay to decline a job offer that actually pays more money to listening to BA for a long time. I'm so grateful for you guys and
what you've built. I'm so sweet. You've empowered me in so many ways, especially as a mom of two, to fight for myself in the workplace and to own my career trajectory. Thank you, hearthnds, Oh, thank you?
All right.
So to get some wait did it do hearts? You should.
Reading the question? I can't see.
Yeah, the red hearts just popped up. It was so cute. Then I go, I can't is it cute? Though it was so forny?
I like it.
I think it's all right.
That's fine, I'll call it.
We'll take our little joints where we can take it, all right. So a little bit on Carrie's backstory. So, my husband and I moved our family across the country almost one year ago for what seemed like a great opportunity for him. But six months after moving, he was laid off. Luckily, my job allowed me to work remotely, so I've been able to maintain my income in between that and his unemployment. We've been able, excuse me to
make ends meet. Right now, I'm making a little less than fifty fifty K annually, and I recently interviewed for position that will pay around seventy five K, and I stand a pretty good chance of getting an offer. It's an opportunity I prayed for after learning more and more about the role in the final interview, it doesn't seem at all like anything i'd.
Want to do.
Things I value clearly defined processes, organization, the ability to work within a team. This job would be the opposite of all those things. I'd be a team of one person working to help the organization create order out of chaos, guaranteed working longer hours. The idea feels nightmarish, so she says, part of me wants to remove myself from consideration. I want a job that will pay more money, but not at the expense of my mental health or time to
spend with my family. But when I consider this would be a huge jump and income, especially when my husband's unemployment income has ended and he still hasn't found a job. The idea of walking away from an opportunity like this sounds crazy. Like Cardi B said, I got babies.
I need some money. I need cheese for my eggs.
Did she say I need?
Is that a lyric?
Yeah, she's in your eggs. I can't do that anymore. The lactose just won't let me. If I take this role, Carrie says, and do it successfully, I think it would put me in a great position career wise when I think about roles I could take on after my time, But my kids and husband are more important to me than anything. I don't want my relationship ships with them to suffer because I'm stressed out all the time. What turning down an offer like this be irresponsible? Especially in
this economy? What would you do? Thank you for reading carry Chris.
I'm gonna let you take it first because I got strong opinions. I'm gonna let you go first.
Oh man, Okay, I I was formulating my thoughts here. Okay, I know I was.
I was.
I'm torn. I'm toured right now. In my mind.
That's relatable because part of.
Me is like, Look, nobody wants to walk into a chaotic situation. Right, if you're happy where you're at. I get it because I've worked in jobs where I was like, this is pure chaos. Everybody hates it here, I'm stressed out, I'm working too much, and I wish I wasn't here, And so I never want anyone to go into that, the situation I don't walk in. Right.
You don't feel that way, now, do you?
Yeah?
No?
They I'll tell you what I really think about all this later. But really it was that that job did set me up for better jobs down the line. It was a promotion for me. There was a big pay jump when I took it. It was kind of like this. It was about a twenty thousand dollars a year pay jump, and I ended up leveraging that job into something else. Now, I hated that job for four years. I was there for a long time, miserable, miserable, the worst job IVE ever had. And I find the two of those four
I was trying to find another job. But if it wouldn't have been for that job, I wouldn't have had opportunities to find the job that got later that paid me more and gave me that balance that I was
looking for. So I'm torn in the sense that, like, I don't want people to deal with that stress because life was horrible for a while, but I saw what that led to, and so that's I'm a little torn because like, yes, there could be another opportunity that might fill that role for you, allow you to get that promotion, allowed you to make that step up and get that experience and that pay. But sometimes you take the opportunity that presents itself and you use that to your advantage
to get to where you need to go. So I'm kind of I'm very torn on this, but part of me is like, especially in the situation she's in, it feels like you know that that extra security might be nice, even though it is going to take a little bit of your time and it might be a bit of a sacrifice for a while. So that's that's that's my response, that's my media thoughts on it.
I mean, that's real, that's real. I'm gonna be honest. My immediate thought was no, don't take it. And the reason and why is because compensation and benefits is one factor in a larger rubric that you use to make a decision about whether you want to take this step in your career. The other factors to consider are the role, the responsibilities, if there's growth opportunities, your work life, balance, your sanity, flexibility with time to come in, time to leave.
You got kids, you got a husband, company culture, the mission and the values of that company. Right, the work environment, the location, proximity to your home, your commute. Is that going to be miserable? You know future prospects? Is that a stable job? Is the company actually stable?
Right?
And personal intuition is one that I would include on my rubric. And your personal intuition is already waiving a big red flag saying everything about that interview told me what I needed to know that this was not the job I thought it would be. But what's most important to me in what you said was that you think that you are about to get this offer, which means you have the potential to make this money. You have what it takes. You're capable of getting an offer at
that salary or higher. So this does not have to be the only job that you will get with that salary. Now that you know that you're capable, you can finesse that offer. Honey, get the offer in writing PDF that joint and take it with you to the next interview process and use it to negotiate a higher offer from another job that does align with the things that you like. Organization, stability, clarity, right, all of those things that you value that this particular
job is making clear. It's not it's not the one. It's not it. So for me, I would think that if you were to do it just for the money, you're gonna end up presenting your hubby. You're gonna end up presenting him because he's kind of technically the only reason that you would do it, because he because he's not working, right, Yeah, because you want to do this.
He still hasn't gotten a job.
You had there that wasn't don't I.
Didn't read that right the way man, he read it. She read it with that little and he made us move out here, ready with the country, be ready with extra sas song, probably like Nevada or someplace.
I don't know.
I hope it's not. Well, maybe Nevada is an income text free state. Good for y'all, But I just think I do think that y'all need you need to be honest with yourself about your personal intuition because the worst case scenario is you hate your job. You resent your job and you hate your husband. You resent your husband because he made you get the job that you resent and hate. And so I think at the end of the day, money ain't everything. We all about more money.
But you can finesse that job offer into another job offer of equal or greater salary benefits if you make moves the right way. And obviously Mandy is the right woman to hook you up, so you're already in the right place.
I know. I think both of y'all have interesting perspectives, and I feel like I agree with both of you in different parts. I've seen this question before, some version of this question many many times. This is like the this is like one of my haven't I said this a thousand times of questions like you in the stock market thing? Yeah, But honestly, when it comes to a situation like this, I have people who would tell me
the exact same thing. But if you flip it, so like they're at a very chaotic or they thrive in chaotic situations, and they're going into a job interview, and it just sounds like everything is so rigid and so structured and more bureaucratic. It's a bigger company will they have as much freedom and flexibility and like, will they
get to be a self starter as much? And I think it also I just want to like I want there to be like a level of understanding about how any job that you have, any job environment, it can change. I mean, you can come into a chaotic organization, or you can come into a very stable organization that can
become chaotic. And like you could be working at I don't know, like what's one of the most oldest Procter and Gamble, like a big company, and like maybe the company itself is very stable, but you get switched to a certain team like I don't know, R and D or accounting or whatever, and either the whole team is a bit toxic, where your manager is toxic, and like you're on your own path at the company that you work and sometimes if it's big enough, like you have
your own little inner company almost like a smaller company within a company. And I think there's just we need a healthy understanding of like the workplace dynamics and sort of have a healthy level of Okay, this may change and like it may not always be this way, and so I need to be a little bit flexible and just going into a situation at least saying like this could change and if it does, well, that's just what
happens in some workplaces. And like we can again be like really upset that all of a sudden that my manager who loved me has left and now I've been assigned to a new manager and he's passive aggressive and like microaggressive and all that. And so when it comes to you, and I totally get what you're coming into, Like you're anticipating this is going to be chaos, that you're going to be spending long hours, and that is
all entirely valid. Is it enough to like turn down the money that you need in this career opportunity?
I kind of feel like.
More on Chris's side, a little bit of like you need the money, take the job. You're not in a situation where you have a lot of options right now. Your husband's out of work, you have two kids. That's expensive, as hay, and even if you're in you know, I don't know, living on fifty K for a family of four, that's just I don't it's tough, you know. And CARDI, like CARDIV doesn't say it, but eggs is like really expensive.
Now you know, like ten.
Bucks a dozen, so they sold everywhere. Yeah, part of me is like, I see, I see where she's coming from. But I also feel like with the extra money, you could invest that in your family to bring to like counteract, if you're going to be spending more time at work, could you be spending you know, the extra money that you're getting if you get a nice vacation package with this company, could you be you doing a nice family
vacation once a year. Could you be using the funds for the bigger picture for like the kids college education or their school tuition, or maybe you guys need something that as a family will make you happier. And like, if you can frame it not as like mommy is going to work for this company and it's I'm just assuming it's not a terrible place, it's just a chaotic place.
Then that may help it.
That may make it easier for you to show up and deal with the stuff that's going on because you're doing it for the right reasons and like you understand where your values are. You're still valuing your family, You're doing it for them, and you're not centering the company in its needs. And if you do that, I just feel like you'll be able to withstand that chaos a little bit better, because genuinely, I think one of my superpowers in corporate was that I could stand a little chaos.
It was just like this, because chaos some people just like to get upset about things and complain about things and like oh this, you know, and worry about things like oh, did you hear what they said in that town hall meeting? It seemed a little different than that town And I'm like, yeah, but this is a corporation, you know, business business plans are going to change. Wall Street's gonna talk, and then the company is gonna make it.
Move this way.
There's always gonna be some chaos. Like I just think if you can like change your mindset, you can you can cope with that stress and that chaos. Does this sound like a really terrible advice?
I just I don't think it's.
I just wanted to.
I just don't want you to like walk away from an opportunity that could be great for your career wise. And and yes, jan Ellie, with this, I love that you said, like, use this offer as a negotiation tactic, but if there's not another offer around the corner, Yeah, and in this job environment, ye, there may not be
you can still take the job. And then you're like, you have the seventy five k as your you know, as your and you haven't even negotiated it can be harder than seventy five k. Now that part Call me girl, I can get you a ninety signing bonus what you want, like and I'm just saying like you could leverage that for more down the line, but like actually being in the role and getting that experience, it could just make you better, you know, better, more resilient, more battle tested.
Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, moms are so willing to sacrifice. I mean, she's Carrie said it herself that she's willing to do anything for her kids and her husband. So if you know that you're coming into this as sacrifice season and you're mentally equipped to handle that and you have accepted it, that's a completely different scenario than the one I was describing, where you go in because you need to because your husband's not working, because it's a job that you feel desperate and you
have to take it. Those are two very different women. So Carrie, I think you need to decide which one are you where are you right now? And be honest, because there ain't no shame in doing a job that you hate for more money. But there's also no shame in turning a job that pays you more down because it doesn't align with your family and personal intuition. So I think you gotta you have a determination to make Carrie like which carry is the real carry?
Carry?
B carry?
You're going to be carry bee? That was really well put. Yeah, well good luck.
This sounds like a really adult problem to.
Have, and I feel like if it's a good problem to have.
Oh and just one thing I'll say, if you're going into the situation with the terrible reason with like your team of one and like all this chaos to order out, order out all this chaos to make order of, ask them during the interview process what resources you're gonna have.
Because it's one thing to be, as you know, an independent person, But if they're gonna if they're going to acknowledge how much work this is and if they're going to give you the resources to make it happen, then that for me becomes a situation where I can cope with that. But if they're saying, like you gotta do it with no budget. We know you, we know this position could be like three people, but we're only hiring for one. Like that is where the toxicity can come in.
But if they're gonna give you a budget to hire contractors and like work with other teams and stuff to get what you need to get done, then that's that becomes a different equation.
Facts true, true.
Well that was a juicy doozy one. Thank you, Carrie, Anonymous Carrie. All right, let's take a quick break and come back with question number two from Sasha. All right, ba fam, we are back with an email question from listeners Sasha, who has a money dilemma. All right, so Sasha says, regretfully, I have been bad with money and credit cards. I went from making around forty five K to ninety K and four years and let lifestyle inflation
get the best of me. Now I have twenty K on my AMX and fourteen K on my Discover card, plus a mortgage plus student loans. I really want twenty twenty five to be the year that I make a dent in this debt. I called AMEX and asked for a rate reduction like you suggested on an episode a few weeks ago, and they said, yes, my rate went down to seven point nine percent for twelve months, and it cut my monthly payment in half. Here's my dilemma.
Do I defer my loans and take the difference of my old MX payment plus my deferred low payment, which is about five hundred dollars and throw it at my Discover card or throw it at my Discover card, throw it out my AMEX card, or save it and put it back to stack my savings. And then, if by the twelve month mark I have a decent savings, throw a chunk at the AMX before the rate goes back up. I'm so torn on what to do. I lost the plot here. There's a lot going on. Do I defer my loans?
Defer?
Does she mean like take a break from paying? Yeah, and then take the payment she's what had been putting.
Yeah, I get it.
Okay, So take the difference of my old MX payment plus my deferred student loan payment and okay, So what she's saving on the MX payment because they reduced her rate, take that amount plus the five hundred student loans and put it on her Discover card because at this point it's more expensive debt right than what's on her MX or should she save it, set it aside, and then save that for twelve months and then throw it at the MX car before the rate.
Goes back up.
Okay, I would not defer the loans. I think the tricky thing is like you're constantly going to be like tempted to stop in one place to then go in another.
Can you just stop your student loans, like what.
You can you can do? That's the thing. The crewl of the interest does not stop, and it continues to accrue on the principal balance plus any previous interests. So it's really important that you like recognize that you're not pausing. They're going to keep adding interest. You're actually just not paying it down. So I think that the key would be to try to call the student loans and see if they can work you down to the lowest possible minimum monthly payment that will still continue to keep you
in good standing. It's not a deferment, it's not a forbearance, it's none of those things. It's just the lowest possible monthly payment that you can get. And that means you might have to change the student loan payment repayment plan that you're opted into right now. If you're opted into, you know, for example, income income driven repayment, you may
have to change to the extended graduated. You may have to swap what repayment plan you have so that you can actually, you know, reconfigure that student low monthly number to be the lowest number that it can be. That way, you free up that other money without stopping completely your payments. Otherwise you're not going to be putting a debt in
that debt and then that interest keeps accruing. So I would say, try that, And then I'm tempted to say, yes, take advantage of the lower interest rate that you have on the AMEX right now and go hamm on that, because once it's back up, there's no way. I mean, you can call them and say, hey, can you give me that low rate again, but chances are they gonna
be like, girl, we just hooked you up, goodbye. So I think you probably will want to take advantage of that, being that they generously lower that rate, and so I would do. I would call the loans, try to get the lower amount monthly, take the difference, add it to the AMEX card, and then you can tackle the capital one card or the Discover card next, after the Discover card next.
So you think you should throw it at the Amex which is at a seven point nine percent rate, Okay, either because then you Discover cards more expensive?
Yeah, because only because of the fact that you're going to basically be locking in a deal that you won't ever get again with the Amex card. And then potentially what you could do is go on to the Discover card and negotiate that same deal that you got with the Amex card, potentially get a balance transfer or do a balance transfer, move that one somewhere where zero percent for eighteen months or twenty one months, right, so that
one you can kind of get to it. But right now you got this opportunity that you can lock in this low rate, get rid of this debt at the lowest rate you'll you'll have it for. And I think there's something there that you should take advantage of before you lose it.
Oh yeah, No, I definitely agree with that too, because yeah, because it's just a different thing that's going to go right back up to whoever it was. I'm assuming twenty plus percent. And the thing is, when.
I feel like she should just put the money on the Discovery, even though only because it's so much more expensive.
Yeah, but then she's gonna have two expensive ones once the mix is back to that same expensive rate again as well.
She has twenty K on MX and fourteen K on Discover.
Yeah, so not only does she have the higher balance on the American Express, she has now a temporarily lower interest rates. So what's happening is now every payment you make is gonna have a bigger impact as well, right, because you're more of it's going towards paying down that balance. You have less accumulating interest every single month, so you're not just paying down a bunch of interest. And she already, I'm assuming has a regiment of a schedule of paying
both those cards already. And the thing that still got to me, she said, they cut my payment in half. And the thing is with the credit card, it cut your minimum payment in half, which is always the worst payment to be making anyway, it was making the least it.
Is going to interest. The majority of that is going to.
Interest fees exactly. So for me, I'm like, you just keep paying that as if nothing changed, You paying whatever the higher payment was you're paying before and in the situation. She's she's admitting like, we, oh, I've been there, lifestyle creep, right, we let things get more expensive. And so to me, it's like, in combination with this great breaky, all you have on interest is now re evaluating everything else you're spending.
Because if you were able to survive on forty five and now you're making twice that, there are probably some areas that you can maybe some areas that were definitely needed to be upgraded, but there are probably some areas that didn't need to that you can bring back down.
So I think it's not for a full evaluation because there's probably some more money you could be pulling from some other areas also just throwing it all at that card and getting those balances down because credit card interest it eats you up quick.
I mean, what's the only.
Thing worse then credit card interest is paid a lending interest. It's the only thing that's worse than it.
And the compounding of it exactly that that that part is the worst, and everyone that you do that you don't send a higher payment compared to the minimum that they're charging.
You, that's another month of you letting them just eat up your money to interest.
Fees, yeah, balance transfers better. Yeah. I feel like this is one of those situations too, where you get the higher paying job and then you start acting like it immediately and you start you know, and I have been there too. It's like you think you're like, oh, I'm gonna have this money coming in whatever, so you start to justify small increases to your spending like oh, I'm gonna have it, I'm gonna have it, and like, but you haven't actually earned the money yet.
Ninety k is not like in your pocket immediately.
It comes in these paychecks, so you really have to It's not about well, I earned double now, it's like, well, how much do you have hitting your bank account each paycheck this time? And still budgeting for that amount and not getting caught up in the whole ninety k thing and making a plan for how you're gonna get un like, get not just pay off these cards, but break the break whatever habits, whatever, like budget issues.
There are that got you into this situation.
So like throwing away those cards, cutting them up Dave Ramsey style, if you want to do that to your ministry, if not just stettying a budget and sticking to it.
Yeah, cut them up, but don't close the accounts. Let's do that because we want to keep your credit good, especially because you have a mortgage. You might want to refinance that mortgage in a couple years when these rates drops. So you gotta be be mindful that there's a strategist, a chess game going on right now with all the components of your financial situation. You mentioned a mortgage, you
mentioned sudent loans, you mentioned credit card. So it is you can't handle each one in complete isolation because if you if you, if you cut the card and close it now, you're affecting potential future mortgage refinancy rates. And so that's kind of you know, looking at the complete puzzle rather than individual puzzle pieces is going to be really important for you right now because this is a stressful situation to have. But it sounds like you have
a menu of options. You you know, you've heard a couple of our opinions on what you should do, and think it is definitely a plan of attack. And then to Chris's point, I would double down on that sit down and go through the numbers like where are you doing too much? Where are you doing the most, and and what can you do to clean that up? I do this all the time, like at least once or twice a year, I will sit down and go, all right, I'm doing too much. I do not need to have
Apple Music and Spotify. What the hell like, I need to stop, you know, And if you're doing that right now, check yourself because that that's a small example of ways that you become careless financially and in larger ways later. So you know, just be on top of yourself because no one else is going to be looking at your finances and checking you. You got to check yourself. Boo.
Yeah. And then also if you're tacking that card and paying it down and you stop using it, what'n't happening to amaxually? But like, hey, we're making a lot of money off this person and we're not anymore. And that's when you start getting some those better offers too, to keep your interest rates low, and it's our offering, Like, oh, what about a little balance stress. If you want to bring over some of that Discover balance, We'll give you
zero percent for a year. So you the more the more responsible you are, the more likely you already get some of these other breaks too. That will maybe make it a little bit easier for you.
Yeah, it's a good call for sure.
I want her to like try to get a balance trends for the discover first ask if they'll reduce it or try to get a balanced trendsfer I mean, shit, MX may even say you can carry that.
On over here and we'll get zero percent.
Because it can't be the same issue where it has to be a different so Chase Bank.
Of America, Wells Fargo.
Yeah, you have options, h yes, but don't spend too much time playing the shame game or the blame game.
Like it happens to the best of us.
Just about like facing it, getting it done and then trying to remember how shitty it felt and not doing it again.
Yeah, that's it.
That's it right there, not letting it happen again to.
The best of your abilities. And also don't have children and move to the summer.
Also really.
Really is a personal finance conundrum. I will say all r Iba fan, thank you so much for sending your questions. Again Brandimission Podcast at gmail dot com to have your question right on the show or hit us up on ig We're at brand Ambision Podcast And until next time.
Bye.