🚨10 STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM & HOW ANYONE CAN MAKE MORE MONEY WITH THE BUDGETNISTA

24:24Start now. Listen to Brown Ambition. That's Brown Ambition. And begin your money reboot today. Listen to Brown Ambition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Then there's income. Are you making enough income to both support your day-to-day life, your budget, but also enough to pay down debt and also enough to save? And so if not, I show you ways of how do you increase your income? One of the best ways is to see if your current job to pay you more. And if they can't, are there external ways from your job that you can make more? So those are the foundational five.

24:58Then investing for both retirement and wealth, right? So are you investing in a way that retirement just means look around at your life now? Can you maintain this current life when you're no longer working? Investing for wealth means that you get to improve your life now and leave a legacy for your family. So that's investing. Then there is insurance. Do you have enough insurance to cover and protect your assets? So assets are things like your money, your job, your life, your dog, your house, your car. Are you covered? So if something should happen, then insurance can kick in. Then there is your financial team.

25:35And so do you have an accountant if you need one? If you have a job or a business, do you have a CFO if you need one? Do you have a bookkeeper? Do you have a financial advisor if you want one? Who's on your team? At least I say you should have an accountability partner to help you with your financial goals. Then your net worth. Do you own more than you owe? So that's critical because I know people who are like, well, I own$20 million worth of stuff. I'm like, yeah, but you owe 30. You're upside down in all your homes. You know, you're tapped out. And so your net worth is an indicator of your financial health.

26:09And lastly, estate planning. Do you have a will? Do you have a trust, if it makes sense? So a will everyone should have so that way your family knows what to do with your things. And a trust, if you have a net worth of$500 ,000 or more, consider it a million dollars or more. which is really just a house many places, definitely you should look to have a trust because this will help to, I won't say minimize the tax burden, but at least manage the tax burden for the people that you leave behind. And so those are the 10 things that I walk through every single thing in Get Go With Money, my book, and I really walk you through how do you do every single one of those things well, no matter if you're the 22-year-old who just started working or the 102-year-old who, you know, has been retired for 30 years.

26:53Yeah, it's a lot. It made me think, as you're saying it, is there a difference between being financially free and financially whole? Yeah. Right. Because the person you would assume that has 100 million or 50 million financially free. Yeah. But the wholeness may not be there because of all the things you just listed. I'm glad you honestly, I'm glad you pointed that out, because that's the reason why I wrote it, because I was like I'm financially free, but I wasn't whole. right so when so my husband passed away in 2021 and we had everything but we didn't have a will and trust because we were 41 I was like I'll get to it I'll get to it so we had more than enough money but then when he passed away it was like kind of the wild wild west figuring out I mean people were coming out the woodwork I'm like that it didn't make sense um because we didn't have that in place and so that's the difference is that yes you can have a ton of money but it doesn't mean that you're whole.

27:47It doesn't mean that you have your will or your trust. It doesn't mean that your credit is where it's supposed to be. It doesn't mean that you have the people in place on your team. So, for example, you could be an athlete or something like that. You have a$30 million contract, but they took your money. Who was it that we just saw the accountant took$2 million? Was it Nick Cannon? Well, actually, he was just in the news that his accountant ran away with$2 million of his money. That's not financial wholeness because you have a team member who's a thief. You know what I mean? And so financial freedom means you have a ton of money that you don't have to work anymore.

28:20But financial wholeness means that your life is working for the best benefit of you. Your financial life is working for the best benefit of you. So how are we building it, right? We want to have financial freedom. We want to have both. Is there a number that we should say, hey, we should start thinking about becoming whole, right? Or you do that from the start? No, I don't think there's a number. So, for example, like financial wholeness for when I was 21, estate planning just looked like my mom was the beneficiary of my bank account. You know what I mean? But for me, Tiffany, at 46, that looks like I have a trust in place.

28:54I have four properties. And so some of them are in a holding company. And then my will is tight. And then, you know what I mean? So you can be financially whole no matter where you are on the spectrum, even if you don't have enough money to not work anymore. To me, the number one goal is financial wholeness. And if you get to financial freedom, great, because you can still live a good life financially whole. But you can have the freedom and not have a good life. You know, I know, I mean, y 'all know people with a ton of money that are not living well. You know, they're not enjoying themselves.

29:23They don't have no free time. You know, like they're like a slave to the thing that they built. I know somebody right now who is a slave to the thing that he built. And he's worth over$60 million. He has no joy. And I'm like, well, I don't want that. Financial wholeness is what I'm looking for. Even if it means I have less than you, I still have more of a life. So you had talked about this briefly, but for people that know, you know, you had a unfortunate, very unfortunate situation with your husband passing away young. Can you speak on that as far as like the lessons that you've learned? Like you talked about like having to trust, not having to trust.

30:01Right. You also spoke about life insurance and people have gone through similar situations. or they might be going through a situation currently, right, where they actually have somebody that may have, you know, cancer or they're dealing with things themselves. How did that change your perspective, and what valuable lessons did you learn from that experience? Honestly, I learned so much, so much so that I'm writing a book called The Gifts of Grief. It has nothing to do with money, just because it's just like I learned so much. So this happened 2021, November 2021. and probably the number one lesson I learned was what was really important.

30:41You know, we spent so much time, like I used to be a beast. Like if it was to be gotten, I was getting it. You know, I went for preschool teacher in a number of years. You know, the first five years in business, I think I made, it took me five years to make six figures, but then two years after that to make my first seven and then a year and a half after that to make my first eight. And, you know, and I'm just like collectively, we probably made over$60 million in business. So I was like, yo, I'm going to get it. But then after Jarrell passed away, I was like, to what end? You know, I remember I was so stressed.

31:14I was working all the time. I felt like seven days a week. And I'm like, well, this is what it looks like. Yeah, but to what end? Because we didn't really need anything, you know? And he was so chill. He was born and raised in Newark. And like, just like, yo, babe, you good? I'm good. So, I mean, I don't need nothing else. As long as you good, baby girl's good. my stepdaughter Alyssa, then what else is necessary? So one of the biggest lessons I learned from him, Jarrell, was enough. And so I have slowed down significantly and the business makes less, but we actually keep more, which is funny because I don't kill myself anymore.

31:49I don't do much of what I don't want to do. I, you know, I used to have, it might be like five or six meetings in a day. That would be a crazy week for me now. Next year, I'm taking all next year off. I'm just taking a sabbatical. The business will continue to run because we have our B2B. I could never do that before. I take way more vacations. Alyssa, my stepdaughter, she lives with me. She goes to school. And so I spend way more time with family and friends. I'm a better daughter. I'm a better sister. I'm a better friend. I'm a better neighbor. And so losing Jarrell taught me that it really sharpened what was really, really important.

32:26and on the financial side, because we had done just about everything except for the estate planning. And we did some estate planning. So candidly, Jarrell, and I think I mentioned this on the podcast before, never made over$60 ,000 a year. He was a regular dude, worked for Newark Housing Authority, was a super, didn't make a ton of money. I met him when I was teaching preschool. So I was making like 39. So at that time, that 60 was looking good. Like, okay. You're both. Right? You're both. Right? And then, but you know, it just kind of tapped out at that, at that space. But I remember, um, when I was starting to budget Nista and, um, he was like, you're moving with me.

33:01And I was like, Oh no. And I was like, well, I guess cause he, he, cause he worked for houses. So he lived on campus and, I like that. We call it. I know, right. You see, I came out the door and this girl was like, budget Nista. I was like, mind your business girl. I live on campus too. We lived in housing. So it was like$900 a month. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, okay, I'll give you half. He was like, what do I look like to have, Tiffany? Like, I was paying bills before you got here. And so, but it allowed me to focus and really take the budget needs to the next. That's when I went from my six figures to my seven figures.

33:36And what people don't realize is that even before we got together and got married, he had life insurance. Like, he was really big on life insurance. I don't know why, but he was. And so between the two of us, Alyssa and I, he left us seven figures. This is somebody who never made over 60. I think people think you have to have a lot of money. to do right by money. So, I mean, I was able to like, I had, we had purchased a property together. We had two and I was able to get my third. Cause I was like, I, I didn't want to live in the house where we had kind of built together. Cause it was too much.

34:08So I told one of my sisters, y 'all can live here. Just pay me the carrying costs. And I bought a condo around the corner that I bought for five 20. Now it's worth eight 20 because Newark is the fastest growing market in the, in the country. Just about, um, the country is growing at about half a percentage. Newark is growing at 6.7%. And so like everything I bought in Newark has six figures plus worth of equity. And so, yeah, that loss really just made clear for me like what was important. I just don't like, I don't go hard like that anymore because I'm like, for what? Now, here's the thing. This is that someone who made my wealth.

34:44You know what I mean? Like, I'm not talking about, you know, somebody like, oh, I'm not, no, no, no. If you have nothing, you better keep going. You know what I mean? That part. Yes, because I, you know, exactly, because you should. You've earned your leisure. Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. I see what you did there. I like that. But I will say that, like, so, but the thing is, I used to go so hard, even though I had earned my leisure. But I wasn't leisuring. And that's the part that shifted for me. They're like, Tiffany, why do you take the chips off the table? Because you have your money, girl. You have plenty.

35:14You can look at a bank account. It's not just assets that are worth millions. I can look and see millions in the bank. so like what does it take for you to relax some and enjoy he has this thing all the time about being paranoid at that level i wonder that was part of it paranoia or anxiety of saying that i could go back the fall back to zero was a lot further than my hell yeah i'm gonna try to be broke again i remember what broke felt like exactly i remember ramen noodles and this was in my early 30s i remember because i i teaching preschool i was all right and then the the recession hit and And that's when I went all the way down.

35:49I lost my property that I purchased. I was in all this debt. It was a bad time. I said, I can't go back. I'm not going back there. And so it was a lot of, I still have a little bit of power. And I call it a post-traumatic broke syndrome. Because I'm like, I ain't going back. Because I've been broke. I've been broke, broke. I remember sleeping on my sister's couch, broke. You know, I remember renting a room like I just came home. Some of y 'all don't even know what that means. Like literally renting a room like I just came home, like that kind of broke because I could only afford$500 a month. for, for, um, for my rent.

36:20And so like, I'm like, I'm not going back there. And so even the way that I navigate my money, like I'm, my sisters, my, one of my sisters is always like, if I had the money, they would get sick of me. Cause I still live fairly. Like, I mean, yes, I own a bunch of properties, but you know, like I'm not miss ball out of control. You know, you're not going to see me on a private jet unless somebody else is paying for it. Um, but I have curated my life in such a way that most of my properties are paid off. I always think to myself, if I had to go back to teaching preschool, I can maintain my life because my overhead is so low because I don't really carry any mortgages.

36:53I don't carry credit card debt. My car is paid for by the budget. You know what I mean? So even the way I navigate that is like, well, let me make sure I don't carry too much overhead. So that way, if things go low, I can still maintain my life. So that helps me with the anxiety a little. Yeah. Living well below your means. Well below my means. You said something earlier, and I hope they caught it because a lot of entrepreneurs do listen to the show. So you said three to six months, regular person for savings. Entrepreneurs have a year. Yes. Tell them why. Because entrepreneurship is a crazy rollercoaster ride.

37:27So three months, it really is you're somebody who could get a job very easily. My mom was a nurse. Nurses, I remember when we were in high school, her hospital closed down. I mean, they were stalking her on the phone because nurses were high in demand and are still so high in demand. Three months, if you're a nurse or a job like that, you're good. a pilot, for example, right? Six months for the average person. So because, you know, things get rough, especially in an economy like now, hopefully in six months you can replace your income. But as an entrepreneur, it could take you a year to recalibrate.

38:01And so it allows, I say this, nothing kills creativity like brokenness. And so when I've really struggled with business is because I knew in the back of my mind, dang, I don't have that many more months left to see myself through. Even in my business, we have seven months worth of emergency savings, of overhead. Because I remember a time when, like, we had two or three, and then we hit a rough patch. I said, oh, this is not enough. My aim for the business itself, not just for Tiffany, is to have a year's worth of overhead. That way, if something happens in the business, we have a whole year to figure it out, which is plenty of time.

38:35What's the biggest mistake people make when they're trying to budget or manage money? I think the biggest mistake is not automating. like you don't have to be like you know you don't have to be a wizard if you set it set it and forget it semi forget it then that is one of the best things you can do because automation really is a new discipline yeah automation so okay so follow up on that most people think of automation think of like a business right but in this economy you have to kind of treat your life like a business right so what systems what systems should everybody have in place for their financial life So I like to do what I call split it before I get it.

39:15So that means you go to HR, go to payroll and say, I have these four accounts, two checking, two savings. Checking one is for spending. Checking two is for bills. Savings one is for emergencies. Savings one is for goals. You do your math and say, OK, how much money needs to go into each? How much money needs to go into my bills account? How much money into my spending account, to my goals account, into my emergency account? And then you have your checks split before you get. So that's one of the first automations, right? But even before that. So they send it to four different bank accounts. Four different bank accounts.

39:47And they can do that? Mm-hmm. Like, I don't have some huge company. We've got, like, 15 employees, right? And so we're able to split your check up into four. And if they can't, you can have them split into two. And then you can have the money from those accounts go to where you want. But, like, ideally, you have those four bank accounts. Now, the key is the checking accounts are at the regular big banks, like the banks that we see outside. They don't pay me no money, so I ain't say no names. Right? them banks you see on the corners, that's where you like your checking for ease, you know? One of the checking, your bill checking, take that debit card off.

40:19Because when you're swiping away at wherever you go shopping, I don't want you swiping your bill money. So the debit card can stay on your spending account. That's fine, right? And then the two savings, I like to have at a high yield savings account, but at a different bank. Ideally, one of these online banks, you know, that are FDIC insured. So you're insured up to$250 ,000. And here's why. Because if your savings and checking are in the same bank account and you're really trying to save, you're just going to make the transfer easily like everybody else. But if you're transferring from an online only or high yield savings to your regular checking, you're looking at 24, sometimes up to 72 hours, depending if it's a holiday or whatever.

40:57So it slows down your spending of your savings. And so if I'm going to transfer like, oh, I really want that like dress from wherever, you know, then if I'm going to make that transfer while I'm at Macy's or something, unless I have a sleeping bag, I'm not getting that dress today because that money's going going to take at least 24 hours to hit. And so that's what I tell people, that automation. But then even the pre-automation before that, automating your retirement. So like, are you putting money in your 401k, your 403b, your Roth IRA, your IRA? Are you setting aside money for your older self?

41:28Because if not, what you going to do? Like, who's going to take care? I call my older self Wanda. Who won't take care of Wanda? You know, like Wanda is not trying to eat cat food. And so Tiffany can work hard. So Wanda could chill. And so I set aside money. I max out every year. Does your, like I match for my employees. Does your employer match, match that? You know, I'm always constantly looking and running the numbers to see like how much, how much money does Wanda have? Like if I, like, if I wanted to retire now, just asking my financial advisor, like if I went to retire now, what could, I could live my current life now.

42:04But I was like, no, but what if I want to retire and make half a million dollars a year doing nothing? You know? And she said, well, then here's the numbers that you have to have. I'm like, all right, let me have a few more years left to work. Cause I want to retire in such a way, like I don't spend half a million dollars a year now, but I want to retire in such a way that I have a huge bucket of money that still comes to me annually, even though I'm not doing any work. It's just my investments and other things that are growing for me. And so like, but that doesn't happen accidentally. So pre your, your very first, automation is retirement.

42:37Second, split that check. Third, pay your bills automatically if you can. You know if you got it or not. Right? And so you want to pay your bills automatically and have it come out of your bills account so that way you don't have to think about it. Because the reason why automation is so powerful, especially for bills, it's going to help with that credit score because like 35 % of your credit score is paying your bills on time. And so, and if you have good credit, it allows you to have access to more money. And access to more money means oftentimes you can make more money. Like the house that Jarell and I purchased in Newark, our first house was$180 ,000.

43:11It was a foreclosure. So we bought it. Then we put 180 into it. And now the houses were 550. And so, but access to credit allows us to do that. Then we bought another house in the city. They sold it for$10 ,000. It was literally falling apart. It was cats everywhere. I mean, falling apart. bought it for 10 ,000, put like 120 into it. So that's 130. Then sold it for about 300 ,000 to his twin. And so, and even that, that was me being generous because after Joel passed away, one of his desires was that his twin would also own a home in Newark where they were born and raised. And so I said, fine, I'll sell it to you at like a solid rate.

43:52I'm gonna take that money, put it aside for Alyssa. And then even though I knew that they were building Lionsgate. So Lionsgate is coming to Newark right around the corner, like the Southwater Newark. When people say Newark, that's the Newark they be talking about. Quick one before you jump back in. You're listening for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker.

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48:56This is your chance to hit reset, break the debt cycle, get honest about where your money's going, build a savings plan that actually sticks and start making financial choices that support the life you want, not just the bills you have. Because wealth building is not about being perfect. It's about having a plan, knowing your numbers, and making your next move with confidence with a community that cares like we do on Brown Ambition. Each episode gives you practical steps, real talk, and the motivation to stop putting your financial goals on hold. So if you've been saying, I'll get serious about money next month, this is your sign.

49:33Start now. Listen to Brown Ambition. That's Brown Ambition. And begin your money reboot today. Listen to Brown Ambition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

50:09Certainly depends where you live. But even the condo that I purchased in 2023, I bought it for$520 ,000. I put about$100 ,000 into it. That's$620 ,000. And I just got it appraised. It's worth$820 ,000. $200 ,000 in two years ain't bad. And I just bought two more. And so now I've got, because I sold the other one, I have those four properties. But all of them, collectively, they're seven figures. But a lot of that is in equity, which is amazing. When you're talking about splitting a check, I know that there's some people listening like, how do I split it? Is there a formula for splitting it, right?

50:44Like in our book, we talk about that 100 % circle. How are we dividing it? Is it 55 % for your bills and things that necessities, 25 % for saving, investing, which people seem like. Is there a formula that you use when you're thinking about that? When people first start off, I'm like the formula is what that money doing? Like I say, start with your bills. How much are they? because you know we can tell you okay 30 goes here and the bills are like 30 please you know we 60 and so to me i like to people for people to start by doing the math so this is for people who it's a little tight like for me yes i do like 30 here 20 here but for someone who's starting off i just want you to look at your actual like what are you spending money on and say how much do my bills cost me monthly and then maybe you want to split that in half so let's just say your bills are$5 ,000 a month.

51:35So maybe you put$2 ,500 per check into the bills account. And then you say, okay, how much does everything else cost? So grooming, nails, lashes, the kids, trips or whatever. And then so that can go in your spending account. And then you say, okay, maybe I'll split that in half and put it per check. And then is there money left over for savings? And then you tell yourself, okay, I can commit, based upon what's left over, $100 into emergency savings and maybe$200 into my gold savings, whatever that kind of looks like. And so in the beginning, just do what's true, you know, and then as you get a little tighter, you start to make more, then you can start to add more to each bucket as necessary.

52:15But to me, in the beginning, you know, you have to do what's true. So for people that's just nine to five struggling that paycheck to paycheck, right? What's the first step to get them to actually be able to even have enough money to start to do an emergency fund to start to split because it's hard to split if you don't have any money if you don't get yeah you said 2 ,500 split I'm like that's the whole check yeah no and that was for me too in the beginning it was like savings was like ain't no savings I just had so that's the idea of those four accounts but in the beginning all I had was two checking and so I opened the savings as like almost like a hope account like one day and then And I said, you know what, Tiffany, what if you just did a dollar a month?

52:57Because I told myself you could do a dollar, maybe one day you could do 10. And if you could do 10, like consistently, maybe one day you could do 100. And so open the two savings, even if you're not putting anything into it, because savings doesn't cost any money. They don't typically carry like a carrying cost. And see if you could commit to just something monthly, just so you could prove to yourself, I can put something in here. And if it's OK, if it's just checking for, you know, your regular everyday spending and your bills for it right now, you know. Because what happens is that nothing moves until you move.

53:28So when you start to organize your money, then all of a sudden you're like, okay, I'm paying my bills kind of on time. I have a little something left over for spending. I don't have nothing for savings. But I am going to put this dollar into savings. And if you don't feel comfortable with that, get you a coffee can. I'm going to put a dollar in here. Because you have to create this new synapse in your brain that says, I can do it. You know, when people fight back on me, I'm like, all right, you win. Broke forever. What do you want me to say? You know what I mean? Meaning that why do you want to win at losing?

53:59You're fighting me to say, I can't, I can't, I can't. Well, guess what? Your brain believes it, so now your hand believes it. Like, what if you told yourself, maybe in this moment it's a little tight, but, you know, I had some change in my pocket. I could put it into a can. And then, you know what? I could put a dollar in there. And you know what? I do have$10. And so you start with what you can do until you can do more. what you will find is if you are a good steward with what you have more money is attracted to you i think people don't understand that fully yeah how how strong of that split is investing because i see it a lot of times when people have these ideas of like gotta save gotta save and people start with like you said maybe it's 2500 yes you get the three to six months but saving won't build wealth no it won't right it creates a foundation in an event of investing is what builds wealth So even at that stage, is investing like a core principle or is it something that we should wait till we have this three to six months in your estimation?

54:57So one of those savings accounts, the goal one, to me, one of the goals should be when I build this up enough, I'm going to then transfer this money into wealth. So to me, anything saved beyond. So I used to over save. I remember one time I had in saving seven figures. I say, you know, you bugging. I know, but I'm scared. I said, Tiffany, seven figures. And we were still living in house. I'm like, yo, you're a wild to me. But I just was too scared to let it go into the market. I'm like, what if it never comes back? What if the campus finds out? I know. Yeah, I used to try to keep it so low key.

55:27Because I'd be like, ain't you? Nope, not me. I drove an old car. They used to be like, can't be her. Look at her car. I'm like, yeah, can't be me. And so what I say is that like that goal account, anything to me, now I have a year's worth of emergency savings, anything above that has to go into investing. So if three months is enough for you because you're a nurse, anything above that should go into investing. That goal account is just a place to hold it until you put it into the market. Got you. You have to because you cannot budget and save your way to wealth. Absolutely. Money needs to actively grow on purpose.

56:04So, okay. For people, you were a school teacher that was making like$30 ,000 a year, right? $39 ,000. Put some respect to my nine. another aspect is how do you make more money like what are some ways if somebody's coming to you and they just they're doing everything financially correct they're packing their own lunch but they still at some point in time you got to start to make more money right so what are some tips that you would give people as far as how they can actually grow their income so one first place to look to make more money where you actually work so let's just say like i know troy you were teacher right so teachers sometimes can become coaches boom some more money sometimes also after school program boom some more money if you are like say you work for me and you're like tiffany what would happen if i took on this additional role what would that look like boom more money like the people on my team they um started asking for commission i was like you all would ask for them damn commission but they was right though and i said what you mean they're Like, well, if we bring in more money from this affiliate program and this other contract, can I get a piece of it?

57:09And I was like, you know, all right. They went balls to the wall. I remember like I was like, how much did we make this month? Six figures. We never made six figures in a month from affiliate because that was not our focus. But because they knew they were going to get some back end, they went really hard. And so asking your job, is it a raise? Is it that you have to apply for a different position at your job? So stay where you currently are. I'd be looking and exploring ways to make more money there. For some people, you're like, my boss ain't giving me more. This is kind of dead end. There's no excess.

57:42Then you're going to look to make money external to that. Right. So is there anything you could do on the side? so when I'm looking for a side hustle so when I was a teacher one of my side hustles was teaching not teaching um babysitting and tutoring you know and so that was extra right because the thing is who doesn't want a teacher to tutor your kid or babysit your kid and so the reason why that works is that one when looking for a side hustle I look for these two things is it a new skill set I have to learn I don't want to learn it so what are you currently already doing so you don't have to learn a new school skill set so Jarrell used to make extra money he used to do people's floors like oh he'd be like yo I'm gonna strip your floor wax your floor whatever on the weekends make extra money doing that way that work or handyman work he would do because not a new skill set and then two I look for a side hustle where something that is matched to like a degree or certificate that I already have because then I can demand more money so when I used to babysit you know it's like yeah maybe you're paying this person 40 bucks an hour to babysit but you gotta pay me 60 because I have my master's in teaching, you know, and, you know, and I, and I've been an educator for so many years.

58:47And so those two things help you to make more externally. Um, so those, that's where I would start. If I was looking to make more money, I would start looking, can I make more money where I currently am? And if not, um, can I put those two things, something I have a degree or certificate in and something it's not a new skillset I have to learn so I can start making, getting to the money faster yeah i just had a colleague i spoke to recently um because we know that steam and stem programs are huge there's actually colleges that will pay you to come back and so a couple of my colleagues were paid twenty thousand dollars to go back to school wow get certified same thing is happening in ai in in tech right like somebody's gonna get certified yeah the school doesn't have it right now this becomes an opportunity yeah there's so many opportunities i wonder how you're viewing AI in the educational space and even in your workplace now, how is that being used?

59:39Have you seen it become more efficient for the work that you're doing? No, absolutely. I mean, there's still nothing like hands on people because we all still call customer support. Representative! Quick one before you jump back in. You're listening for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker.

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1:05:17Start now. Listen to Brown Ambition. That's Brown Ambition. And begin your money reboot today. Listen to Brown Ambition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. we don't want to talk to anybody i'm like zero zero zero zero right people still want to talk to the representative uh but i will say it makes things faster obviously like blog posts are easier um social media posts are easier um and even like i'm not gonna talk like low-key like whenever i do um tv interviews you know they always want you to like can you come up with six tips for whatever I'm like, I always hated that.

1:05:56I'd be like, AI, about to be on Kelly and Mark, about to be on Good Morning America, on Today's show, six tips that the budget needs to be saved for how to, and then of course you review and you're like, they're just gonna pull your stuff and your information. Keep the notes of the pre-interview. Yes, I'm like, oh my God, because it's so annoying when they, I mean, I get it. And like, wham, cry me a river, you get to be on Good Morning America, but you be busy, you know? And so now I'm like, my tips are like, boom, boom, boom, here you go. And then AI is like, do you want me to make them, you know like shorter or longer or whatever it is they ask for and I'm like sure.

1:06:26So I've seen it can make things much easier but you have to be so careful. I don't want to become AI stupid. Some people live and breathe off AI. I have people who won't even think. I ask AI you know should I go outside today? I ask AI I'm like I need you to touch grass because what's going to happen is is that a muscle that's not used atrophies. If you don't use your brain Like, honestly, I rarely use AI. I'm like, let me try to figure it out because I want my brain to stay strong. Right. So if you don't use your brain to think through a problem, to do things, then what's going to end up happening is then they're going to sell you your own brain back to you.

1:07:06That's what AI is getting. Because it's always free in the beginning, you know, and if something is free, you're the product, you know. And so I'm really mindful to not overuse AI in such a way that, you know, like, I don't know. I can't manage without it, you know. And so I feel, I mean, these young kids, I fear, because I have a 19-year-old. Alyssa is 19 now. And I think about it because I'm like, girl, do you know how to speak? Is this mic on? Do you know how to think? Girl, everything can't be, you don't even take out the dashes. People be so damn lazy. Take out the dashes, please. I mean, dag.

1:07:40And you can literally ask AI to take out the dashes. Telltale sign. Yes. And so I think it's an amazing tool, but just like any tool could be overused to your own detriment. it. So how important is credit in 2026? And the flip side of that is for people that are in debt and struggling with debt, what are some methods to get out of debt? So I think credit, honestly, is really important, especially now, because if you don't have money, I mean, credit card companies hate to hear this, but it could be like your backup tool until you get back on your feet for credit. But also good credit is going to allow you to pay less of a life, you know, because if your credit is bad, then everything that you borrow is, they're going to charge you more, you know?

1:08:24And so even when I purchased the last two properties, I was debating whether to buy them cash because the other two properties, they're paid off. And I said, do I buy cash? Do I use credit? But I always have an excellent credit score because credit is like, you need to know me before you need me. Right. And so my financial advisor was like, girl, you could do something called a pledge asset line. I was like, what's that she said this is what them rich people do i said do tell and she was like this is what you can borrow again from yourself i was like wait what she's like yeah girl you can she's like here is your portfolio you could borrow up to 60 60 and i didn't need all that and she was like then you borrow from yourself and because you're borrowing from yourself the interest rate is lower i was like what and she was like yeah then you just pay it back she said or you could be like elon musk and never pay it back and just be paying the interest for the rest of your life Where is it Elon Musk?

1:09:14Because she was just saying, like, this is what he does. This is what a lot of people do. They literally borrow like very wealthy people will borrow from themselves and then just pay interest payments. And then I'm like, yeah, but what happens to the principal? They're going to aren't their kids going to have to pay for that? She said no, because then they do this thing called step up in basis. And then that debt, some for many people kind of gets eliminated from the heirs because they're basically like, yes, what I paid for is not what it's currently worth now. And so it kind of erases what you owed.

1:09:42And I was like... Or you just get insurance to just... Yeah. So I was just like, honestly, once you sit down and really talk to people with... I'm confused at how anybody ever goes broke. You know what I mean? I'm like, how do you go broke when all this information is out here? And so that's what I did. The last two properties, essentially, I have a mortgage against myself. From your brokerage account. Uh-huh. And so it's just... I mean, some people call it margin, but the particular brokerage I use calls it a pledge asset line. Charles Wall? Yeah. I was like, don't be giving no shout out. Are you going to want me some coin?

1:10:15Shout out to them. No, I'm just joking. Yeah, so they call it a pledge asset line. So I borrowed from myself and I pay myself back every single month. And I can, you know, because she was like, Tiffany, why this money could be used in the market? You know what I mean? To make you more. And also the interest was significantly lower than what a bank would have given me. And she was like, girl, think about it. The market you're going to make at min 7%. You know, like that's what the market typically, you know, generates on average annually. And so she was like, and meanwhile, you know, your interest rate is way below that.

1:10:51You know, so I was like, yes, let's do that. So that's what I ended up doing. And so, you know, for the first time in, I don't know, 10, 15 years, I actually have a mortgage, but a mortgage against Tiffany, you know, for these last two properties that I purchased. So, you know, I know, but that's what credit allows you to have like more options. That's what credit is like a leverage. So think about like a door. The door is really heavy, but the knob allows you to pull this heavy thing, you know, with less effort. And so that's what credit allows you to do. Like, yes, a house is very expensive, but credit allows you to get that house with less money.

1:11:27And so credit is always going to be important. and then getting out of debt, honestly, really is a function to me of automation, especially our people. What I found, Prudential, I did this study, and they found that the number one goal for our people was to become debt-free. And the number one goal for people at large was to grow wealth. The problem with making your goal debt-freedom is that that's not enough. I have a nephew, Roman. He has no car note, no mortgage, There's no student loan, don't know nothing. But Roman is broke because he's 10. So what does debt freedom mean? Like y 'all got kids, they debt free too and they broke.

1:12:06I know they be in your pockets. So debt freedom by itself does not equal wealth, you know? And so, yes, debt freedom is nice to have. But when you grow wealth, you can have debt freedom and everything else. And so if you want to get or manage your debt well, one, pick a method of how you're going to pay it down. A method that you can automate. So whether it's the snowball method, when you pay down the debt with the lowest balance first, or whether it's the avalanche method, where you pay down the debt with the highest interest rate first, or what I call the blizzard method, where you pay down the debt with the highest anxiety attached to it first.

1:12:46But you pick a method of debt pay down, and then you automate it. And then you kind of just leave it to the side and then put your focus toward growing wealth because what you focus on is what grows. I'm gonna throw some words at you because we get asked this question a lot. Inflation, layoffs, volatility, recession, all those words in the lexicon of the financial space right now. How do you see and what would you tell somebody who's dealing with this anxiety for this year but going into the next few years as technology changes, the market changes? What do you tell that person who's like, man, I don't know how I'm gonna get out of this?

1:13:24there's nothing new under the sun like welcome to the world i i came up under the recession i lost my condo like i was my brokest at 30 i was negative 300 000 that was my net worth by 37 i was a millionaire and so and also too i tell people everybody ain't broke like really sit with that everybody ain't broke meaning that money doesn't just burn up so if there's a pile of money here there are people on this side who are receiving it and people on this side who are losing it. So your job is to figure out how to be on the winning side, not to say, oh, you know, oh, my God, the economy. Yeah, well, tell that during the Black Plague.

1:14:03And then, you know, you know, inflation. OK, people live through the depression, you know, and then and we live through the pandemic. It's always going to be some mess. Always, always, always. But you get to decide for yourself, what side of the equation do I want to be on and what do I need to do to be there? You know, before it was dot com. Then it was OK, like, you know, investing in homes. And then it was so you have to keep your ear to the streets of like, what do I need to do? The key is, how do I make enough to cover my bills? So there's excess leftover to invest. That's really it. How do I make enough?

1:14:38So preschool teacher Tiffany making thirty nine thousand. I still lived under my means. It was hard that I had a roommate, and all the other things, but I was like, I made enough to have just enough extra to set aside for retirement. And so wealthy Tiffany now, I make, you know, significantly more and I set aside even more to set aside to grow wealth. And so that's the key. All of this that we're talking about is to make enough to pay your bills, to make enough to save for a rainy day and to make it enough that there's excess so you could put to work. Because if you don't put money to work, then you're just going to stay in the same place.

1:15:12Actually, you don't stay in the same place. You just get broker you know and so that's the thing is that like you can give into the hopelessness of it all but everybody ain't broke there there are some people who are doing the thing with less than you there's some there's a teacher out there right now making 50 000 killing it you know and so it is out there but first believing that it's possible and then what do i need to do what what book do i need to read what podcast do i need to listen to what rooms do i need to be in what networking do I need to wake up early every morning to practice trading on this practice account?

1:15:43You know, do I need to, you know, on the way to school, when I take the kids, we're not listening to music right now. We're listening to this ebook, get you up, you know, get good with money, you know, like, so that's really the key is I'm here as a result of those years of grind and hustle, because I didn't know anything. And now I get to sit back and say, like, well, how do I want life to go now? But that's what I say to those people that those things will always be there, but you don't have to be there with them. Amen. What's some investing tips for people that just are beginning to start their investment journey?

1:16:14Well, one, start with retirement. If your job has like, what is that called? A TDR? Oh my gosh. What's the? TSA? TDA? TDA. No. That's tax-affirmed annuity. No, no, no, no, no. It's, oh my gosh. 401k? Not a 401k, but it's an investment inside the 401k. A match? Not the match. Dang. See, now you'll say every word except for the word I need. It's never coming to me now. I'll be in the car home like, damn. So essentially, you want to be putting money aside and making sure it's being invested. There are people who I know, they're like, oh. Oh, money market account. Yes. But there's like, I forget there's a name.

1:16:54Oh, it's like specifically tied to how old you are. Target date fund. Yes, please. Thank you, Jesus. Yes, Target date fund. Money show advisor. Right, exactly. So Target date fund. So if you don't know how to do nothing else, you can at least choose. Typically, there's a target date fund. You will choose what the date is that you think you're going to retire. So if you think it's 65 or whatever that is, then you would choose the target date fund that has the year closest to that year. And what happens is you put your money into it, your hundred bucks a month or whatever it is, and then it will rebalance itself every year to become more and more conservative the closer you are to your target date.

1:17:29So if you don't know nothing else, you can just say I'm about to put$20 a paycheck. And this is the target date fund because this is the year I think I'm going to retire. And even though there's fees, everything else you don't know about, it's fine because you're still doing better than most, you know. And so I would just start there. Then if before you jump into the market and like you said, let's just say they're going to take one of your classes. Right. About investing. Right. I would be practicing with one of those practice like sink or swim. I think I did. Who is it that has? Is it Fidelity?

1:17:59No. Maybe it's Charles Schwab that has one of those accounts where it's paper money. You know, I'd be paper money at least for six months to a year before I jumped in with my real money. Like, can you actually stick to it? You know, you get that gym membership and you never go. You know what I mean? But this is, the stakes are too high here. And so, like, if I was going to be investing on my own, then I would ask myself, okay, can I do this for six months? Like, I have a friend, you know, that's how she made so much of her money, trading. And so, or investing. And everybody trades. Maybe you, you know, day trading, obviously, is not for everybody.

1:18:29but at least even if you're investing long-term. So that's what I tell people to start, that the best place to start investing is in the education, you know? And then when you're like, I feel pretty solid, then you can step out. But don't be afraid to join groups too. There's so many online groups that may be free. There's all these Reddit groups. And I'm not talking about buying some hot stock, you know, but about like solid foundational education and moving through there. Foundation is important. That getting started piece is super important. Yes. The next step, because statistics have shown that women are better investors.

1:19:02Yes, I can see that. You can see why. The emotional piece. Yeah. How do people get, because again, this is something I feel like I'm coaching on every day. Relax, patience, patience. How do you deal with that piece of, hey, there's an emotional side to investing as well that you have to conquer? Well, one, I think like if you're like your money outside of investing is doing OK, meaning is your debt under control? I know it's spam. Is your debt under control? Is your credit score solid? Do you have enough emergency savings? That helps you to relax a little bit to know that in your day to day life, you're OK.

1:19:44Right. And then, you know, the money that you set aside for investing, you're not getting it now anyway. So if I know I have three months, six months of years worth of emergency savings, it's like, well, I don't need my investments right now. So get yourself to a place where your money is solid enough that you don't have to be so pressed about whether your investments went up or down because that's going to happen. And then invest in a way that matches your personality. In the beginning, I was really conservative, like too conservative. I was like 70 percent stocks. like I'm like it was my dad was more he's in his 80s was more you know like more invested into the market now I'm 90 percent you know um but so but also invest in a way that makes you feel comfortable so if you're just really scared about the market going up and down then maybe you want to invest in a way um where um not all of your money is invested in equity that's a little more volatile you know but that's why that that's why education is so key because education helps you knowledge helps you feel less worried because you understand what's happening like i have friends now who because they've invested in the market so long they're like up down i'm up like when you really understand like i can you know like i know how to put um i could put a call in where like you know i won't lose a much um past this amount of money because then it's going to sell the stocks for me you know what i mean like there are ways to set your money up in such a way where you won't lose what you don't intend to lose.

1:21:09But that only comes with education and practice. So. For sure. And try not to look at your stuff every day. I don't look at my stuff every day. Because it's just too much. I'm like, what? I lost$300 ,000. Okay, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Because you was just up five. So, you know. Comes with it. Mm-hmm. Well, thank you for joining us. Any last words? Tell the people where they can get the book, all the information. Well, let me hold it up. My band of black on. Get Good With Money. So, yeah, you can get Get Good With Money literally the same way. website as the name, getgoodwithmoney.com.

1:21:41And if I was going to give you one piece of advice to leave, is that oftentimes people don't have the money that they want because, not because they're not competent, but they're not confident. That's a bar, just so you know. No, but seriously, meaning that you haven't done the research, you haven't done the work. And so therefore the confidence is not quite there, but you have to know that you're more than smart enough. If you're raising kids, I promise you kids are harder. You figured out that, you know, that the low taper fade ain't really for your head shape. There you go. If you can figure out that, you figured out the last curl that you want.

1:22:17I promise you the decisions that you're making are harder than managing your money day to day. A lot of it is automation. And so work on your financial confidence through acquiring knowledge because I promise you that you're way more competent than you think. And yes, I'm Tiffany the Budget Nista on all the social platforms, Instagram. I don't really TikTok much, but YouTube, thebudgetnista.com. And yeah, I'm just your friendly neighborhood financial lady. There you have it. All right, guys, thank you for rocking with us. We'll see you next week. Peace. Peace. Before you sign off, you tuned in for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use.

1:23:00ChatGPT for Business can help. ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for Work. Download the ChatGPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. You already know how AI is changing how everyday work gets done, how much ground you can cover, and how fast a team can scale. To stay ahead, you need the tools that give you a competitive advantage, built for this new era.

1:23:38Welcome to Agentic Revenue. Adio is the CRM for this world. It meets you where you work, compounds every customer signal into context, then acts on it across your pipeline to let you move it on match speed and scale. With agents and automations for every job in revenue, Adio orchestrates your work around the clock. built to handle the scale of your workloads, extensible with API and MCP, and with the infrastructure to keep up with your most ambitious agents. Loved by high-growth startups like Granola, Modal, and Etched, Adio runs the work behind every win. That's Adio, the agentic CRM, the intelligent system that never sleeps.

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