This is a mini meditation guided by Bombus. Repeat after me. I'm comfy. Comfy. I'm cozy. I have zero blisters on my toes. Listers. And that's because I wear Bombus. The softest socks underwear and t-shirts that give back. One purchased equals one donated. Now go to bombus.com slash listen and use code listen for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash listen and use code listen at checkout.
It's time for the B-A-Q-A. The B-A-Q-A. What to say? The B-A-Q-A with Manday. The B-A-Q-A. The B-A-Q-A-A. What's up, B-A fam? Happy Friday. It is that time of the week again.
I am looking forward to this weekend. My baby boy is turning five years old. So we are having a neon glow stick, black light. What else did he ask for a party? So it is going to be highly overstimulating and pray for me because I had the bright idea to host this party at my house and listen, I'm just grateful it's going to be dark and it's glow in the dark. So I can just turn all the lights off, let the kids go nuts. I'm making spiked cider for the grown up.
Who cares? Just don't look away from the piles of laundry. Look away from the closet doors that are going to be shut on so much crap that is spilling out of them. Let's just focus on the kids having fun, y'all. All right. Thank y'all for the overwhelming, um, yeah, support for the show in the past couple of weeks. Not only did y'all fill out the BA listener survey and so thoughtfully gave y'all's feedback for what you want to see next.
Um, for Brown ambition in 2025, like I just from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much, BA fam. I just, y'all are the freaking best. I don't know. I mean, I do know. I was going to say I don't know how we got, how we got so, um, so lucky with the BA fam and the BA listenership, but
I know why is because y'all have been rocking with us for years. I know some of y'all have maybe just discovered the show, but we have been around for almost a decade. And we have never lost sight of y'all and why we are doing this show. And I think that feeling y'all can feel that love that we have for UBA fan. You know we're doing this for you.
And that y'all send that love back to me is just incredible. So thank you so much. Now we're heading into Thanksgiving week. And I know you're going to be inundated with promos for Cyber Monday and Black Friday and holiday sales and all of that. But before you get that big pile of marketing emails, I want to offer a really cool opportunity to you. I've never done this before.
I'm a little nervous about it. I haven't even told my business coach because she might be like, Mandy, what you doing? Why are you making it? So why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? I'm doing it because I want to. I'm doing it because I listen to y'all. And I see, even from the survey, from y'all's comments to the questions we get in our DMs, I see that this has been a tough year, whether it's financially or career-wise. You may be feeling like your dollars are not stretching as far as they used to.
that you're not getting the big raises and promotions like we were seeing in 2021, 2022, that you're not feeling as confident getting yourself out there in the job market, or even if you are in the job market, that recruiters are ghosting you, that you're doing a lot of interviewing, but you're not getting any job offers. It's a tough season out there, right? So I'm actually offering a flash sale.
a one day only 24 hour sale on the Mandy Moneymakers course in Academy. So this is my, I wasn't gonna say Magnus Opus. It is my baby. It is the course that I created and have been
Adding to and improving and iterating on for three years now, it is the most comprehensive career strategy offering for women of color that I have seen. I created the solution that is going to help you feel more confident about your career goals, that is going to give you the winning strategies that I myself used to 10x my income from $30,000 to over $300,000 a year across a decade of my own career.
It is going to make you feel less alone if you are someone who's wanting to pivot, but still feeling stuck. It is going to give you strategies to negotiate to bounce back from challenging times like the ones that we're in right now when it comes to your career. It's going to make it give you the confidence so that
You can actually, I don't know, post on LinkedIn, get seen and noticed by not just recruiters, but the right recruiters, the ones who really have job opportunities and are looking for someone special who's gonna separate themselves from the pack. I will teach you, I've got templates for LinkedIn, I've got interview tips, I have got not just that, but I've got a holistic approach to solving some of the biggest challenges in your career. What do I do if I feel stuck?
How do I actually get recruiters to respond to my emails? How do I get noticed by recruiters? How do I be seen? How am I going to be seen as a thought leader in my space? How do I send emails, DMs to people that I'm interested in connecting with without giving them the ick and without feeling super desperate on my part? How do I build confidence as a negotiator? And when I actually earn more money, because that's what I'm here to help you do, how do I invest that money and use that money to
grow my wealth, right? How do I turn my career into a wealth building engine? That is what the Mandy Moneymakers is all about. And for the first time only, like I said, I am offering the full course to you for 55, zero. I really hope my business coach is not listening. Just don't listen. 50% off. 50% off. Okay. And today is the day. So at the at midnight tonight, this deal will expire
But I want to give you guys a chance to take a bet on yourself to invest in yourself. Now, this course is probably what a dozen or more hours of content I've got.
$5,000 worth of bonuses and I keep just adding to the bonuses because why the hell not? I look at the Mandy Moneymakers course as a, it's the kind of investment that is going to appreciate and value over time. There are modules, there are bonuses that I add as I learn, as I gain insights from the community, I'm constantly making it better.
So I've added a bonus on how to start your own consulting business. I've added a bonus on how to start your own podcast, because why not? It's an additional income stream, potentially, right? I've added a module on how to get quoted in media, if you're someone who doesn't want to just be a thought leader, but actually get put in media mentions and things like that.
I have added a module, an additional module on career pivoting. So how did you, an actual hard pivot in your career? And I go through four or five different styles of pivoting that you can do. And I will continue adding on. So 50% off the entire course in Academy is now available. Go to MandyMoney.com slash Academy.
to get this limited time deal. It is ending at midnight. Your turn is turning into a pumpkin at midnight tonight. So please don't walk, run. Oh, and shoot, I just forgot one additional thing. I really hope my business coach is not listening to this. But another first for me is I am introducing a referral. If you and a referral bonus, if you and a friend both enroll in the many money makers and you tell me who you are, you're each going to qualify for a one hour
free coaching session with me, a one hour free coaching session with me. Okay. And if there's one thing that we talk about on Brown ambition, it is the value of time. I typically charge upwards of $350 per hour for a one on one session with me. I'm giving you each one for free. So you're going to get 50% off the course, which you have access to for a lifetime. And in your back pocket,
You're going to have a one on one session with me, your favorite career coach and Brown ambition podcast hosts, Mandy Woodruff Santos at your beck and call. Okay. So please enroll, go to nandymoney.com slash Academy 24 hours only. Good luck. I hope you take advantage of this. It ain't going to happen again. Wait till my business coach comes and grabs me up and tells me Mandy.
I don't care. I don't care. I'm doing it for y'all. Okay. At the end of the day, sometimes you make decisions that are that are just best for your community. And that's what I want to do. Okay. That's why I'm my own boss. I can't wait to see y'all in the Academy.
This is a mini meditation guided by Bombus. Repeat after me. I'm comfy. Comfy. I'm cozy. I have zero blisters on my toes. Listers. And that's because I wear Bombus. The softest socks underwear and t-shirts that give back. One purchased equals one donated. Now go to bombus.com slash listen and use code listen for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash listen and use code listen at checkout.
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Okay, be a fam. Now, just as a reminder, I am not your financial advisor. I am not your personal investment advisor. I am not your lawyer or your doctor or your OBGYN or your landscaper. I'm nothing. Okay, I'm a lady on the internet who has got some insights and some ideas. And I'm here to
Let y'all in on how I think about problems and some solutions I may have, but please, dear Lord, do not sue me, and we'll jump on into your questions. Now, while I'm looking up these questions, I do want to note that Spotify, y'all have been leaving comments on Spotify. Why didn't anyone tell me this?
It's incredible. So you know how we've been reading reviews from listeners on the air. I'm going to start going into Spotify and reading our comments because y'all have been so generous with your feedback. And I just appreciate it. And I want y'all to know that we see them.
We read them. I love them. I will respond when I see them. Yes, it's really me responding. I try to sign my replies, Mandy, so that you know it's me. But honestly, it's probably me. It's probably me who's responding. So let me jump into Spotify comments right now and see who we can give a shout out to because y'all are just amazing. Where do you know that?
Okay, two listeners to the Matthew Knowles interview that just aired this week. Okay, this is a long dumber. This commenter says, wait, the Matthew Knowles? Okay, Mandy, we see you. Y'all know this means we're only six degrees of separation from Queen B. Go, Mandy!
Thank you and then listener Diana says what okay, Mandy flux on flex on us then this is your world We're just living in it. Oh y'all are so funny. Did y'all like the Matthew Knowles interview? That was so fun and shout out to
Yeah, shout out to his team for letting him come on the show. And he was just so sweet to talk to. Kind of felt like I was talking to my dad, you know, just also knowing that he's like a good millionaire who co-wrote some of my favorite songs for one of my favorite bands of all time.
No, no big deal. All right, listener gift. Yeah, 24. Oh, okay. This is on the episode earning $400,000 and still drowning in debt. This is the BA QA from, I think, two Fridays ago. Gift. Yeah. 24 says I love the vulnerability and authenticity that Mandy shared in this episode. Thank you.
Y'all have to go back and listen to that episode because I did. I told a tale. I told a tale about my target addiction. Go back and listen. Um, this is listener two one seven says, Mandy, this, this is what the BA fan has always loved about you and Tiffany, the authenticity that y'all bring. You weren't only talking to Mrs X. You were talking with all of us.
I've been overspending also and I don't make anywhere, anywhere near what you or Mrs. X make, but I felt seen and there was zero judgment. Thank you. That is, uh, that is so kind. Thank you all so much. Okay, I'm going to read
One more and then we'll get into questions. This is from listener Taylor. Taylor responded to the episode, the smartest ways to invest in your future. She said, I love the BA QA. I've been listening for the last half of the year and learning a lot. I changed jobs two years ago and I totally forgot about my 401k. My current job does cash profit sharing. I need to look into where that money went forever, learning from these amazing ladies.
I love that Taylor. Honestly, it's most we just need a reminder, you know, there's so much going on throughout the day, so many other important tasks you got to do that sometimes that old dusty retirement account or investment account or whatever, you just kind of forget about it. So I'm so glad that this show has been helping y'all.
Spotify comments. It's a thing. And what I love about Spotify comments is that I can actually see which episode you are responding to. Whereas on iTunes, we can see the comments, but unless you tell me which show it was, I don't exactly know always which episode really resonated with y'all. So.
Shout out to Spotify. All right, now let's get into this week's question. This week's money question comes from IG listener, Tacola. Tacola says, hello ladies. I need some help getting started with trading. I listened to your podcast regularly, especially when you feed your guests who trade in stocks. I guess I'm a little hesitant and unsure of myself, and I would love some of your personal advice.
on where to begin. Okay, Takola, you know, we got a really great response because we did a replay a Hollaback episode of an interview that we did with Terry E. Geoma of trade to travel or trade and travel. Terry is incredible. Go back and find that episode. I think it was a Hollaback episode a few weeks ago, but you can find her everywhere. Terry, Geoma is an educator.
And she teaches, she probably teaches tens of thousands of people how to trade all the time. But the one thing that I thought of when you asked about help getting started trading is don't trade with real money in the beginning. So what it's called is paper trading. And I have a paper trading account through my trial Schwab investment account and there are other paper trading. So the reason they call it paper trading is because it's not real money.
It's literally like a playground for you to, you can actively trade and you feel like you're trading and you get used to the terminology. You can make mistakes without actually risking real money. And I would say do that for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable.
I've actually been trying to do that for the past year. And I kind of had these like spurts where I'm doing it and not doing it. And I don't quite feel ready to, you know, get to that Terry level of investing, but why not try? And while you're building up your confidence, like use these tools as a way to do it. So there are other paper trading platforms on brokerages like Webull, that's W E B U L L.
They're Schwab, like I mentioned, Schwab actually acquired the Thinkorswim platform. So they acquired TD Ameritrade, which founded the Thinkorswim platform, which is like the OG of paper trading. So if you're on Charles Schwab, that's the Thinkorswim platform. Interactive brokers has a paper trading offering e-trade, of course, has paper trading. And this is a new one that I haven't heard of or personally used trade station.
new to me, maybe not new to y'all. But those are five options if you want to get into paper trading. And I think it's such a great opportunity, even if everything looks like Greek to you. I mean, why do we hate on the Greeks? Whatever. What Greek is a beautiful language, okay? If everything seems hard to understand or it's a lot of jargon, at least you can give yourself time. You can take your time, you can Google stuff, you can look up explainers. And hey, like ask me questions along the way. Maybe we can have Terry come back on the show.
But I love this because it is a, I mean, it's not even, I wouldn't even say low stakes. It's a zero stakes way to start training yourself and how to trade and how to make money literally appear from nowhere. It's magical. So yeah, I am not, again, your investment advisor and you got to do what's best for you. But paper trading, I mean, it's kind of a no brainer.
Right, if it comes to increasing your knowledge, getting yourself some practice and getting over that hump of like making it a little less scary. Just like actually getting in there and seeing how it all works. Okay, Dakota, thank you for your question. I'm going to be right back with question number two, BA fan. Stay tuned.
All right, be a fam. I am back with a question from our email inbox, brought ambition podcast at gmail.com. If y'all want to submit a question to the show, by the way, when you submit a question, make sure you put be a QA in the subject line because the mailbox is full and I need help.
parsing through. Finding y'all's questions, okay? This question comes from listener Ginny. Love that name. All right, Ginny says, I found you both in March 2023 and binge listened to your episode from the start. That's amazing. I feel like I know you both so well and thank you for all the work you both do to empower women. I'm in my mid 40s. I'm married and I have a four-year-old.
I live in New York City, husband and I have a yours mine in hours financial setup. I recently came into some money which falls into the mine category. It's around 100k. For now, I have it parked in a CD till I decide what to do with it. I have the following retirement accounts. I have an IRA and I've maxed out my 2024 contribution. I have a work pension and a 47
B plan, which I contribute towards. I also have a high yield savings accounts with six months worth of expenses. I have revolving credit card debt, which I pay off each month. Also, I have a mortgage. I take care of my disabled father. So I'm wondering if I should keep this extra hundred K in a savings account for when he passes or as his health deteriorates.
I took a step down when I had my son and I wasn't earning as much for a few years. During that time, I didn't contribute to retirement. So should I invest the money into a brokerage account? If so, how much? We have a 529 plan set up for our son. Should I put some in there? I have analysis paralysis right now, trying to decide what to do. Please advise. Thank you in advance, Jenny.
Okay, Jenny, I love rich people problems. I love I got money problems. This is a good problem to have. Okay. And honestly, parking in a CD until you decide what to do with it is so damn smart. And the reason is that with a certificate or deposit account or a CD account, which if you guys don't know what that is, there you go, CDs,
tend to have much higher interest rates than your typical high yield savings account even. And if you get a high interest rate on a CD, that can be a great way to grow your funds. But you have the protection of FDIC insurance, which means that your money is ain't going nowhere. Okay. Also with the CD, the only caveat, well, there's a couple, but the biggest caveat is that you have to leave it there.
So leave it there for up to for the best rates. The best rates on a CD are going to often come along with the longest, the longest periods of time with which you need to keep the money in that account. So one year, two, three, four, five year CDs, they're going to increase in rate, but the caveat is that you will have to pay penalties if you try to withdraw it early. So I'm hoping that you have it parked in like a, I don't know, six months or a one year CD, but seems sounds like a good plan while you figure stuff out for sure.
Okay, so I'm in the, I'm in the put a chunk of that away category, a way for now you have your six months of expenses for your family. But while you're taking care of your father, I honestly think double that because the expense of taking care of being a caregiver, which means, I mean, you have two people to take care of a four year old and your ailing father. And that is just a lot of pressure.
you may need to take time away from work so that you don't end up getting super burned out and overwhelmed. You may want to use some of that money to hire a home health aide or just to help cover your expenses so that you can take a step back. If you want to really take on a lot of the bulk of the caregiving duties and responsibilities, so I could definitely see a world in which you just take a part of that and budget it out for how many months of additional support you can hire to help with your father or even childcare, which I want to or maybe both even.
Um, so you're revolving credit card debt. You say you pay it off each month. So I'm assuming that means you pay off in full each month. Um, so it sounds like you don't have like any high consumer debt that's going to immediately require like a big chunk of that a hundred K. You have a mortgage. I'm going to, I'm going to guess that it's at a relatively low interest rate. So we don't want to, I wouldn't recommend. And again, I'm not your financial advisor or your attorney or anything like that, but.
I typically wouldn't recommend putting that toward your mortgage because there's other better places that you can be putting that cash sometimes. Let me see. As far as your brokerage account, absolutely, I would take a chunk of it and you can break it up.
I would prioritize it by what is the highest risk category for your financial needs. It could be that your dad's going to need around the cloud care. It could be that you're going to be taking a year off because you need more time to do all this caregiving. It could be that I know you say that you're married. I hope you're happily married, but it could be that you anticipate having a separation. And so you'll need to have extra income to
you know, last you through that time. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. I'm just being realistic as some like different scenarios of what would come down the pike to make you want to hold on to more cash. Now, because you were not able to contribute to retirement fund for those three years, catching up by parking, like actually depositing a chunk of that hunter K into your, you said that you've maxed out your IRA, well, then open up a traditional brokerage account.
It can be a Roth, but open up a traditional brokerage account, and you could put half of that 100k, you can put 50k into that. A good strategy to think about too is, as far as taxes are concerned, where can you put that 100k that will minimize your tax liability? If you have an accountant, Jenny, I would definitely say ask your accountant,
This is, I'm answering your question at the end of November. You still got time, right? This episode's coming out tomorrow. You still have time to make some smart decisions about where to put that money so that you don't end up having as much tax liability. So that could be maxing out your 401k or an AC of a 4.7, what is it? 4.5.7 be a program that you have.
So maxing that out, maxing out your Roth IRA, and then whatever else you have, you can max out if you have a HSA account, if you have goodness. What are some other tax advantages, tax advantage accounts that I can think of right now? Those are the big ones.
Yeah. Oh, you're obviously, you mentioned your 529 set up for your son. So also making that contribution before the end of the year could potentially reduce your income, your tax income for the year. So I think it's a good opportunity for you to talk one on one with your accountant or an accountant because sometimes like, I know that you've got these varying priorities and all these different big important things that you could be setting aside money for.
But the beauty of an accountant is that they can help you put that money away so that you maximize the amount of money that you end up with and minimize the amount of money that Uncle Sam takes because he will be coming to get his share. That is the one thing that he will always be want to do, okay?
So that's really my advice. That's some ideas that I have, but I think ultimately sitting down with the CPA who can help you make the best choices to limit your taxes is a really smart way to take this. And I'll be surprised if you don't already have a CPA because
I have never, I mean, I just love messages like this, especially when you listen to our show because it just shows how incredible her audience is and how y'all really listen and take note. And I'm just really proud of you for even being in this situation right now. And I think
You can maximize your tax strategies here. You'll be in amazing shape. Okay. Thank you so much, Jenny, for your question. Be a fan. I'm hit us up. We are Brown at Brown Ambition Podcast on IG. If you want to hit us up on IG, you can email us. Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail.com.
Don't forget to leave a rating or review. Leave us a comment to those who are tuning in on YouTube. Hello, hello, see me live in color. Our YouTube audience, y'all are just incredible. I love, I'm always in the comments. There's incredible discourse on YouTube and I'm loving growing our community there. So if you're listening right now on Apple or Spotify or another audio platform,
on over to YouTube, make sure you're subscribing to Brown Ambition podcast. I post special clips of the shows. When we do live events, they're going to be on YouTube being streamed. So make sure that you are subscribed so you can get notified and stay in tune with our content there. If you just want to see what's the state of Mandy's crazy playroom office and when is she going to get a grownup office again? Join us over on YouTube.
All right, be a fam until Monday. Happy weekend. I can't wait to see y'all inside the academy. Bye.
Welcome to talk bill the ultimate small bill rewatch podcast line a loop of those stops by the kid home That's fine felt what it was the deal trying to blackmail her for the footage. Come on. He sees an envelope and goes He's behind it all thing. He's not yes He made her think she was like oh I didn't get that I was pressed in that was a great scene interesting things of note talkville wherever you listen
