Everyone says they know a great “money hack” but Tiffany Aliche (The Budgetnista, Brown Ambition podcast), knows LOTS of them and shares one that Joe calls “his favorite” core idea. While we aren’t really fans of the term “money hack,” in this case it most certainly applies. She also talks about accountability (probably also a money hack), her favorite insurance strategy, and then we take a LONG walk down a tangent that begins with estate planning. You’ll hear about love, pain, the true role of money, what to do when you lose a loved one, and more.
Before that, OG and Joe share a TikTok minute featuring a guy who’s implemented his share of money hacks: Gordon Ramsay. We also throw out the Life Line to a lucky listener, and much, much more.
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our TikTok Minute
Tiffany Aliche
Big thanks to Tiffany Aliche for joining us today. To learn more about Tiffany, visit The Budgetnista – Tiffany Aliche, America’s Favorite Financial Educator. Grab yourself a copy of the book Made Whole The Practical Guide to Reaching Your Financial Goals
Doug’s Trivia
- If we went to Tiffany’s for breakfast, so we could have breakfast at Tiffany’s, what color would our to-go box be?
Need life insurance? You could be insured in 20 minutes or less and build your family’s safety net for the future. Use StackingBenjamins.com/HavenLife to calculate how much you need and apply.
- Maggie and her partner are currently living abroad, but will be returning to the US within the next two years, when they’ll live with her parents rent-free for a few months until the shipping container with their possessions makes it. They are trying to save up for a down payment on a house and help him catch up on his retirement savings. She wants to know if there are any ramifications for throwing extra money into a brokerage account for one year.
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Written by: Kevin Bailey
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Episode transcript
I think being the day after the long Thanksgiving weekend, guys, instead of doing our normal coffee mugs, we should just be holding up turkey legs, right? Shouldn’t we? Turducken.
Tequila and soda water. What are you talking about? Oh, you’re still
going. I had to stop after a few days of, uh, partying and, uh, you know, which party at my house means board games and, uh, and just leftovers and more
leftovers.
It’s the best part. The leftovers are where it’s
at, man. It is. Although, uh, if I have another turkey sandwich, I may, I may just turn I couldn’t
get enough of that. That is honestly has become my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the day after is good bread and then you put more bread inside the bread because stuffing in a sandwich is unreal.
Stuffing is
the worst creation ever invented. Oh, stuffing
is amazing. Stop talking. Yeah, please. What are you, a communist?
Stuffing cranberry, which I hated as a kid. Who hated cranberry sauce as a kid? Everybody. But you do that on a sandwich. And it’s also
nasty as an adult.
I’m there on cranberry sauce.
Give me, give me the green beans with all that onion stuff on top.
Yeah, a little southern mac and cheese, some potatoes, some mashed potatoes.
All that but stuffing as well. No
stuffing. Stuffing is good. It’s so nasty. Like let’s stuff a bunch of bread inside of it. It’s butter and bread
and savory seasonings that are yummy yummy.
How could you not like that?
I don’t like, uh, what are the, what are the, what are the crunchy bread things you put on salads? I don’t like that either. Croutons. Those are gross too. What is the
matter with you? How about coffee? Do you guys raise coffee mugs? Yeah, how about we do that? To our troops?
Tequila soda water.
Semper Fi Marines. On behalf of, uh, the men and women making a podcast, Mom’s Basement, the men and women at Navy Federal Credit Union, after a phenomenal holiday weekend, thanks to our troops for keeping us safe. Thank you so much. Let’s Benjamins together, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, we have a big show, a real
big show.
Live from Joe’s mom’s basement, it’s the Stacking Benjamins Show.
I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and today you’ll learn the money fundamentals with the budget niece to herself, Tiffany Aliche. For our TikTok Minute, you’ll find out why Gordon Ramsey had to sell his Porsche. Plus, we’ll throw out the lifeline to Stacker Maggie, who wants to know if it’s best to go all in on a brokerage account in order to catch up to her retirement goals.
And then, I’ll share some colorful trivia. And now, two guys who start thinking up personal finance advice at breakfast. It’s Joe and O J J J J G!
We are back after a holiday weekend to the Stacking Benjamins show. Sit back and relax, put your feet up because we’re about to have some fun because Mr. O. G., as Doug so eloquently said, the budget nista’s in the house again.
Oh, geez, that’s all I need. It’s a refresh of the budget. It’s Cyber Monday. What are you talking about budgets?
This is OG’s worst episode ever done. Budgets scare the heck out of him. I know.
Especially on Cyber Monday. He’s like,
no, no, no. What do you mean I’ve got to
not spend money on wine? Is that what you think about when you think Cyber Monday? Like everybody else is buying all this other stuff. You’re thinking, this is my day to get wine.
What
winery should I subscribe to? Yes. What booze can
I buy?
We got a great show. We have a, uh, actually it’s because we wanted to make sure we got this interview in before the holiday. It’s actually, uh, Tiffany. I prerecorded it. It is a long, wonderful discussion with Tiffany Aliche. We’ll get into it. She goes over.
So basically, oh, gee, we get halfway through this interview and it takes a big turn. I did not expect and we’re going to leave it all in because it is phenomenal radio. I think that all of our stackers need to hear. But before that, we’ve got a tick tock minute. So I think we will start with that. But before that, Doug, what was the best thing that happened to you over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend?
So here’s the best thing.
I started sauteing all of these. Then I blew an oil gasket and all hell broke loose in the kitchen. Wait a minute. Are you even listening to this?
Oh yeah, no, no, I totally got all that. Oh gee, what happened to you? Well, we
decided to deep fry a turkey, and apparently you’re not supposed to fill the thing with oil.
So there I was, lowering the turkey into the bucket of… So we ended up feeding the entire fire department. Are you even listening?
Oh, yeah. No, we got all of it. Those were great stories, guys. We locked that all in. Yeah. Audience heard the whole thing. Yes. Time for Tiffany. But before that, we got a TikTok minute.
Because we have such a long, great discussion with Tiffany Alicia, no headline today. Right to the Tik Tok minute. This is the part of the show guys where we dive into a creation made by a Tik Tok genius who either is sharing some of their brilliance or possibly some air quotes brilliance. OG! Out of the holiday weekend, big Tiffany Aliche interview waiting in the wings.
What do you think? I
think that we need to amend this, uh, little bit here. I think that every time we do a TikTok minute, Joe needs to do a TikTok dance on YouTube.
And cut.
You’re really trying to drive the YouTube viewership,
aren’t you? Joe, you never know. They’re super awesome. We’re
just dancing
around this topic.
I’m going to say this is, I’m going to say this video is going to be the same quality. as Joe’s first TikTok dance. Oh boy. Live on YouTube coming next week. I
don’t know, maybe. Yeah, uh, probably not. But this is, OG, a interview that, uh, you’re gonna know this guy’s voice right away. Gordon Ramsay did, talking about the early days of, well, before Gordon Ramsay truly was, uh, Gordon Ramsay.
We were young, we were stupid, and we, we were skint. I remember going to ask her father if I could borrow 20 grand for the deposit for a flat that we fell in love with. And I thought this was all going well, lunch is good, I’ll pay for lunch, and I said, oh, by the way, about that, uh, deposit. You know, Tina and I, we’ve got half of it, we need the other 20 grand.
I’ll pay you back in a year. He said, okay, here’s what I’ll do. I’ll have another lunch with you. When you sell your Porsche, I thought you f ed,
you clever f
Here I am driving around in a flash… 9 11. Oh, we didn’t even have a f ing house. We didn’t have a flat. We didn’t have a roof over our heads. That’s the best advice he ever gave me.
Sell your Porsche. I did sell it and 10 years later I went and bought it. Bang. Same car. Same
car. Yes. A lot of bleeps in that, but og I sold mine.
Yeah. And, and now he’s, you’re, you’re definitely on an austerity kick now, aren’t you? OG .
But how many times, OG have we talked about this? People borrowing money.
Yeah. And at the same time, not paying people back while there’re flash of money all over the place.
It’s not even that, it’s just the priorities, right? Like when you’re looking at your financial plan and you’re thinking about going, okay, I need to, I need to write the ship or I need to point this in the right direction or like wherever you are, you have to recognize that everything counts.
Everything’s on the table, even the thing that you like the most, whether it’s the trips or the things that you have or the house that you own or you know, whatever, going out to eat, like all of those things have to have the same priority, which is. And then you build up the financial plan from there, and what’s left, it gives you the opportunity to do it.
I think so many people think, well, I can do, I can’t sell the Porsche, metaphorically, right? I can do everything except sell the Porsche. Like, no, you can sell the Porsche. You can buy it back later. It’s just a car. It’s just a house.
The Porsche probably, in his mind though, at that time in his life, represented success.
He would still feel like he… Internally was as successful if he could drive a Porsche around and selling it probably meant I’ve failed That was probably I think that’s where most people struggle to get rid of those aspirational
things. See, it’s funny. I had a coach one time, I was thinking about renting a bigger house when my financial picture was not that great.
And I remember the coach saying, so do you want to come home every day and pretend like things are really good? Or would you rather make things truly really good? Cause every dollar you put into this, this house that you can’t afford to be renting, even you can’t afford this size house. Do you want to pretend that hard?
Is it that important to you for you to pretend? And it is interesting to me that Gordon bought it back 10 years later. Because, oh gee, just because you can’t have it now, it doesn’t mean you can’t have it.
Sure. I wonder how many sets of brakes that Porsche went through between ownerships of Ramsey, Gordon Ramsey.
The owners in between just trashed it, but he’s still
got
it. But he’s got it back, that same effing Porsche. Coming up next, man, uh, I had a phenomenal conversation about a week ago, sitting down with Tiffany Aliche, the Budgetnista. She’s a woman, if you don’t know the Budgetnista, she has one of the few financial books that became a New York Times bestseller, and she’s followed it up with a workbook now.
We’re not going to talk a ton about the workbook. We’re going to talk about Today, Cyber Monday, and really getting your house in order. And the reason this is a long interview, OG, is because about halfway through, it took a big turn. And I think there’s a lot here that, uh, that I think people really need to hear.
We’ll talk about it after the interview, but this is our extended interview with the Budgetnista, Tiffany Aliche coming up in just a second. But before that, Doug, I think, uh, let’s have some trivia.
Hey there, stackers! I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. I had such a great Thanksgiving weekend. Stayed home alone, watching old movies. I mean, don’t get me wrong. A lot of women wanted to spend the weekend with me. I just, I wasn’t in the mood. I actually shut my phone off on Friday morning and sent my outgoing message to say I was out of town just so I wouldn’t have to disappoint anyone.
I originally planned to watch all of the Die Hard movies, but I couldn’t find my DVD box set, so I settled on an Audrey Hepburn movie marathon instead. You know, I know I seem way too manly for that, but I really enjoyed them. Started with Roman Holiday because of my fascination with the Roman Empire. Boy, that was a little confu After that, I watched Charade with her and Cary Grant.
That one was probably my favorite. I mean, it’s got it all. Murder. Mystery. My doppelganger. My grandma’s friend, Helen, always told me I reminded her of Cary Grant. And I’m almost positive she didn’t have cataracts. So, pretty much me, Cary Grant, you know. And of course, I had to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which wasn’t at all what I thought it was either.
This whole time I thought it was about a woman named Tiffany. who has people over for a meal like the movie Clue, but, you know, without the breakfast. Today’s trivia question is, if we went to Tiffany’s for breakfast, so we could have breakfast at Tiffany’s, what color would our to go box be? I’ll be back right after I see what I’d look like with short bangs.
Hey there stackers, I’m amateur gemologist and Cary Grant lookalike, Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. I did some googling during the break and found out that Audrey Hepburn was an EGOT. Unfortunately, she won her Grammy posthumously. But I’ll still give it to her, you know, still counts. I always thought it would be cool to win all of those awards, but then you gotta find somewhere to put them, so I bet it ends up being more of a pain than anything.
Actually, I’m kind of glad I haven’t won it. Today’s trivia question is, if we went to Tiffany’s for breakfast, so we could have breakfast at Tiffany’s, what color would our to go box be? The answer? Immediately recognizable by millions around the world, Tiffany’s iconic packaging is an official Pantone color called…
1837 blue, named for the company’s founding year. But, the Robin’s Egg Hue is registered with the company as Tiffany Blue. And now, speaking of a Tiffany, here to teach you how to get good with money, it’s Tiffany
Aliche! And I’m super happy she’s back in mom’s basement with us. My good friend, Adochi Aliche, is here.
See,
I can’t Oh, you really did read the book, you did! I
can’t stop! I can’t stop. I did it last time you were here. People don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Tiffany, that is your
name. Yes, it is. It is my, I am Nigerian American and on my birth certificate, it says Adochi Ihoma Aliche. I think my dad thought he was going to raise my four sisters and I in Nigeria.
That’s where both of my parents were born and raised, but the economy took a turn for the worst and the Naira, which used to be on par with the dollar is not. And so as a result, I was in sixth grade. or the summer before sixth grade and he said, everybody should choose an English name, which sounds so crazy at the time, you know, you’re a kid.
So it sounds cool. But I think back at it now, like how am I choosing my own name? And I remember I tried out names with my friends. Jenny was one of them. I was like, call me Jenny for this
week. I remember last time you were here, you were like, imagine. Hey, it’s Jenny the Budgetnista, like not, no,
no,
pass.
Symphony, Renee, which actually, I mean, I feel like Renee could have been a good look because I kind of like that name. I do like that name. Yeah. So I could see myself Renee the Budgetnista, but yeah, then I ended up with Tiffany, but it took me a good, I don’t even remember, like two years to learn to respond to Tiffany because you know, you grow up with your name your whole life and people would call because we also moved school system.
Um, so. The new kids didn’t know me by my old name. And so they would say, you didn’t know you by your name. So people would call the house and be like, can I speak to Tiffany? And we’d all be like, wait, wait, that’s me. So, yeah,
well, there’s lots of people today. It’s cyber Monday, as you know, and there’s lots of people out there who are maybe not responding to their name because they’re getting called from their credit card company going, what the hell are you doing right now?
Right. I mean, while you and I are trying to help people maybe build a foundation. This is a tough day for people. What do you tell people that maybe messed up last week with Black Friday, maybe messing up today with their money? It’s a time of year, Tiffany, a lot of people
mess up. Yeah, it is. And one, I like to say like every time I write a book or post something online, I always leave room for grace and space.
You are not here to get it perfect. You are just here to do your best. And sometimes your best is, this is the knowledge that I currently have and I made the most of it. Or, in this moment, I was feeling bad because last year my kids didn’t get what they wanted and I really want them to get what they want this year.
Whatever that is, try your best to navigate from the best place possible. but give yourself grace and space if you don’t. So what I will say, what is really helpful is don’t go through the financial choices of like gift giving alone. So years ago, I’m, my sisters and I decided to do secret Santa because it got really expensive to buy gifts for every single single, everybody, you know?
So I remember we, I think it was college that we decided, you know, like we’re peak brokenness enough. That how about we exchange one name and so you only have to get a gift for one sister and it was transformative and so it became this really great holiday tradition. We’re on Thanksgiving. That’s what we exchange a name.
We write them down, put it in a little bucket and we exchange a name and you write down your, it evolved to you writing down the name. Maybe two or three things that you’d like, and we always set the budget based upon what’s happening. So when we were college kids, it was like 25 bucks. We start to make a little money, then 50 recession back to 25.
So, so we set the budget. Pandemic down to four. You know, for free. And so, but, but I think about that, even with like, if you have children. Integrating them into like, here’s what, you know, the holiday season is going to look like. If you write down the thing you want, I can get you one big thing and everything else is going to be close and whatever.
Like if you set that expectation, people don’t have to go in feeling disappointed and you don’t have to overspend, you know, if you don’t want to.
I feel like people also underestimate the value of like homemade. Like, we’ve lost that. We think that the holidays belong to Target, you know, and truly they don’t have
to.
They don’t. Honestly, when I was a kid, because there was five of us, we got one gift and like everything else was like underwear and pajamas and things like that. And that was normal. I didn’t know that. It probably wasn’t until middle school that I realized that other kids were getting multiple gifts.
Because my parents had just normalized that you get. One quote unquote big gift, whatever that was, Teddy Ruxpin, if that even, you know, we always got the off brand. I didn’t get Cabbage Patch. We got like, Patchin Kids.
They’re the poorer cousins
of the Cabbage Patch Kids. So it’s like, so, but we, yeah, whatever that one big gift was and everything else I knew were going to be like a practical gift. And so you learn to adjust. Children will adjust to like what the expectations are. I know it’s not, it’s harder now more than ever.
Cause kids don’t even want Jordans. They want Balenciaga and like things that are thousands of dollars. You know, kids are used to sushi and ramen. And that’s also like, what are you navigating at home? How are you showing up? You know, for them, my parents normalized frugality. I didn’t always love it. And, but because they normalized it for me now, it’s really the way that I navigate from a happy place.
Like, I don’t feel like I’m living less. Not having all the things that make you look wealthy on the outside.
You know, financial writer, she’s amazing and hilarious. Uh, uh, Kristen Wong. Yes,
yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, I love her. Yes.
Yeah. She told me a story a couple of years ago, Tiffany, about how Her mom told her that, uh, Santa didn’t come to her house every year, and then Kristen was like, well, she, he goes to everybody else’s house and mom was like, oh, you think you’re special?
You think Santa’s got to come to your house
every
year? I know immigrant parents will say that. My dad didn’t understand the concept of Christmas. from the space of like Santa, because it just didn’t exist in Nigeria. It wasn’t until I went to Nigeria for the first time, I was 21 years old and Christmas rolled around and you woke up and you went to church and everyone said, Happy Christmas.
And that was it. And you’re like, it’s a day besides this. Yeah. It was just a special day to celebrate the birth of Christ, but there was no Christmas tree. There were no presents exchanged. I remember being like, I don’t get it. It didn’t hit me that like, Oh, that part of Christmas has actually been manufactured.
That like the actual purpose behind Christmas. Is this? I’m like, Oh, wow. You know, because you’re like, no, Christmas is the tree and the money is capitalism. No, sincerely. And so it was kind of like the first time. That’s why I got me to understand why my parents navigated the way they did in America, because they were just like, I don’t get it.
Because what does that have to do with, like, why we’re really celebrating, you know?
And I love this idea of normalization and I like the idea of surrounding yourself with your sisters like this positive talk. You spend a lot of time up front in this project, Tiffany, talking, not a lot of time, but you spend a little time talking about your friend, Linda, being this person for you.
Tell me about Linda and about her role in your life, because I think Linda helps keep you real.
No, she does. And she’s still my best friend. So when I, last time I came on, I had just came out with the book, Get Good With The Money, and it’s just exploded, you know, almost 300, 000 copies sold in two years, New York Times bestseller.
And so, Folks kind of asked me for a, because it was really like a textbook, you know, pretty dense. And so they wanted something lighter and they could get to the work of it all. So I created Made Whole, which is the companion book or the workbook, if you will, to the textbook of Get Good With Money. And in it, I tap into Linda again, because before you start working on your finances and getting to the nuts and bolts of the thing, you really do have to like reframe and adjust how you’re thinking and feeling, or you’ll just go right back to what you know.
You’ll go back to what’s familiar, even if what’s familiar is unhealthy and unhelpful. And so Linda has been someone in my life that taught me. She’s my best friend and there’s no judgment there. I can share all of my financial challenges, all the mistakes that I’ve made. And she creates a safe space for me to show up as myself imperfectly.
And it’s because of that, that I’ve been able to see the solutions of like, you messed up, you overspent. You didn’t make the perfect choices, but you’re not a bad person. These choices are not indicative of character, you know, these are just choices that you made that were not in your best interest. Linda doesn’t think you’re terrible, so maybe you’re not.
Maybe you could just focus on, well, what can I do? And so having someone like that in the corner, so when I wrote Made Whole, I, I really wanted to dedicate the First part of getting to the work of the money to that part, like one learning to forgive yourself and then finding someone like your Linda, whoever, maybe it’s your mom or dad or sibling or work bestie or whatever, that you can kind of share your financial journey with them.
And they’re a safe space. They don’t have to be Linda’s not. financially savvy. She’s just a safe space that when I feel like I’ve messed up in a way, I know that she, like, you could tell Linda, I hit somebody with my car and I ran off. She’s like, well, damn, it’s true. You’re like, girl, you’re supposed to hold me accountable.
Did you
at least
bury the body? So she’s like the friend that’s like, well, she’s like. So not wanting to judge you, you know, like, well, things happen. Maybe you should just go back though. I feel like you should go back. Maybe take him to the
hospital. Maybe turn yourself into the
police. So find yourself, you’re on your financial journey, find yourself a Linda and If you don’t have a Linda, well, that’s why I created the Budgetnista, my brand, because I’m like, I can be the Linda for you.
Whole lot of Lindas. Yes. Like literally there are so many like safe spaces, like safe groups that you can navigate into. I have my Dreamcatcher group on like Facebook, but I also like in the book, I give you a link to this, um, Mighty Networks is, is where we use, like, we have another private group. where it’s totally free, but people navigate their finances there.
Because sometimes you need a Linda that also has perspective. Like, Linda and I are very similar in kind of like our life trajectory, but maybe you are a single dad. And you’re just like, I don’t know how to navigate. I don’t know what it’s like to be a single dad, but of the hundreds of thousands of dream catchers in the group, someone there is a single dad that might be able to say, Oh, when my kid was two, here’s how we navigated that spot.
So I don’t believe money is, um, it’s, it should be a team sport. That’s what
I believe. I do too. And often families can get, I mean, I feel like you’re very lucky having. having family that you can surround yourself with. Other people don’t have that. I mean, they have a family that’s judgmental that it’s like, Oh, what do you think?
You know, that you’re, I’m getting good with money. What are you talking about? Like, it’s kind of sad. I want to talk for a second mint, you know, going away, going bye bye. You open up this project talking about your budget. How important is having an app to your budget? I don’t think
you have to. I’ve never, quite honestly, I’ve never used an app for my budget.
Maybe because my dad was an accountant and so I’m a spreadsheet girl all the way. If an app is going to be helpful, then absolutely. You know, I’ve certainly delved into other types of apps and tried to use them, but because like budget is actually a thing that I enjoy, I find that I like to create a spreadsheet, see what the numbers are saying, and then.
Because automation is a thing, I then will go into, like, whatever bank that I’m using, like, online, and then automate what, what I’ve gotten the spreadsheet to. So, like, in the budget chapter of the book, for people who don’t even like budgeting, there’s a thing that I like to call split it before you get it.
I was
just going to go there because I think this tip, by the way, Tiffany, when I sucked with money early on splitting the money, what Tiffany’s about to tell you guys about is the thing that made everything work for me. So. Lay it on us.
So, so one of the things that makes Made Whole different from Get Going With Money is I have these quick starts for people who are like, I’m not doing all that.
I’m like, fine, just do this. So for the budgeting chapter, it’s like, you don’t want to create a whole budget, split it before you get it, is when I suggest four different bank accounts, two checking, two savings, checking one spending, checking two bills account, saving one emergency savings, saving two long term goals, which could be investing as well.
So those are your four accounts. And so you do a little bit of math to figure out how much money, I like to start with bills because they have to get paid either way, how much money needs to go into your bill account every month, therefore every pay period, how much money you want to save, if you can save it all, because saving, you might not have enough for emergency savings or goal savings, but you know, I like to put it out there because if you do, then you want to figure out how much you want to put there.
And then. how much money do you want to set aside for spending? And so that spending is not like, you know, it can be grooming, but it also could be groceries. It could be like, you know, stuff for the kids, extracurricular activities. So once you figure out how much money is going to go into each of those accounts, then you go to HR payroll and say, Hey, instead of paying All of my money to this one checking account, which is where I suspect so many people, their money is going.
You ask them to split your money before you get your money into these four accounts. And most payroll systems can do this. I’m not a big business at Budget Nista. I have like four employees and the payroll system we use, we’re able to do this. Yeah. You know, so most of them are able to do this. And what that means is that money will come in and split into those accounts.
Your money will go into your bills account. And if you have enough, you can have your bills paid automatically from that account. Make sure you disconnect the debit card from your bills account. That’s critical. Right? Then the other money will go into your spending account. So when you’re swiping that debit card, you know you’re not spending bill money, just money set aside for spending.
Money is going to go to a separate bank for savings. Because you want to make your money inconvenient, not easily able to be transferred because inconvenient money gets saved. And plus too, if you use an online only bank that has a high yield savings account, you’ll earn more money on the money being saved there.
And so if you do that, literally you don’t have to think about anything. Every time you get paid, you know the money is landing where it needs to go. If you want to automate your bills further, go ahead. And you know when you swipe your debit card, you’re not spending savings, you’re not spending bill money.
You’re only spending money that’s been allocated for spending and it is life changing if you’re not going to do a deep dive budget.
I got to tell you, just getting the money in the right spot and taking it out of my hand, Tiffany, taking that, that disconnecting the debit card from your spending money.
Yup. Cause I couldn’t trust myself. Yeah. I mean, I had to have it go to the right place and that little change. Yep. Is just absolutely, absolutely
huge. Yeah. I try to do that because, you know, I used to be a preschool teacher for 10 years, as you know, so I’m always trying to figure out. Okay. I’m teaching money and certainly there, here’s the deep dive, you know, that for those people who want to make that deep dive, but some people are just baby towing into the water.
And so I want to have something. So when I wrote Made Whole, I’m, I tried as best as I could for each of the steps to ask myself if there was a quick start, if they only did this one small thing in this 10 minutes or this 20 minutes that still could be life changing. to get the ball rolling, what would it be?
And so I put that inside Made Whole. And then, then once you got comfortable there, then you can go and do the rest of the things to really solidify the change.
Well, I think a lot of these, and this was true for me, I think a lot of us just need that little win, right? Give yourself that little win and then go climb the mountain later.
For now, let’s just get up this little hill or let’s learn how to walk.
Literally that, like I just came back, so I try to walk like every morning and when I was like, I need to get back in shape, I need to, you know, you, you joined the gym for two days and you’re like, I hate this, you know, you’re like, Oh, I’m gonna go for a run.
You’re not right. And so honestly, I remember I was just like a friend of mine who’s a personal trainer was like, What about walking? And I’ve always liked to walk. And I’m like, yeah, but it doesn’t do much. He was like It does. And so I started to walk like 10 and 20 minutes. And then like an hour in the morning, I listened to a podcast.
Maybe I talked to him like my mom or my dad or a friend and the hour. I use that hour to sometimes just look at nature or whatever. And in a year I lost 30 pounds. This is without like hitting the gym. Certainly I started to eat better, but all of a sudden I was like, I’m not winded when I go up the stairs.
I didn’t realize that you can get. a good amount of cardio in with those beginning steps. And now I’ve started to do calisthenics, but that walking was a door opener for me. And so sometimes you need that door opener. And, and that is the basis of how Made Whole is written is that it is a door opener. So that way you can start to integrate real changes that will change your financial life.
Like, I don’t, I mean, I feel like the industry that we’re in, Joe, that there’s been this big, especially during the pandemic and post pandemic about. Get rich, get rich. I know get rich quick schemes have been there forever, but I feel like they really, there was an uptick in the pandemic. Diamond hands. I mean, there was so much, and I’m just like, if you want wealth, I’ll wish that for you, but I am here to teach you the financial fundamentals.
Right, that if you don’t get your pile of a million dollars, that it doesn’t mean that you still can’t have a good life. You still can’t go on vacation with your partner. You still can’t have, make sure you’re, you know, your kid plays at least one sport. You’re like, I want to be able to give you the tools necessary.
So you can still have a good life. Like, so here are the financial foundations. I think to myself, like, I’m like the preschool teacher of personal finance, right? Cause it’s like, that’s what I taught in preschool, right? It was like, here are your letters, shapes, colors, go into the world. And so that’s what I do with, with personal finance.
Well, let’s
dive into some of the stuff that we haven’t talked about you and I before the few times we’ve been together. I don’t think we’ve ever talked about insurance. Step seven of your steps is getting good with insurance. Yes. You probably, I would imagine, don’t get to talk about that a lot during this book tour because nobody wants to talk about insurance.
So let’s go there.
Honestly, like, what was it like maybe five years ago, I started working with my financial, my certified financial planner, Anjali. And I remember she was like, Um, you’re insured like a 28 year old and I’m like, what is, and it was funny because that’s when I had purchased life insurance because I’d bought like a condo and I was like, I’d read somewhere.
Oh, you know, if you have, I didn’t have kids, but I heard that if you have debt or property, then you might want to consider getting life insurance to at least cover whatever that debt is that you leave behind. And I was like, I had never thought about insurance. You know, when you’re young, you’re like, insurance is drinking water and taking walks.
Insurance is maybe staying home on a Friday
night. Yes. And so. Uh, Made Whole is about these 10 simple steps to what I call financial wholeness. And so insurance was a critical component because I didn’t fully understand that the real purpose of insurance Is to protect the assets that you’ve grown and so like your body is an asset, you know, so you have health insurance So if you are no longer here Life insurance will protect like the money that you make that your family might live off of you have kids or a spouse, you know You have pet insurance You know, I know so many people who’ve gone into debt because their pet got sick and they never thought about pet insurance.
Um, there’s homeowner’s insurance. There’s renter’s insurance, which is so inexpensive yet so few people get renter’s insurance. But also too, disability insurance. Sometimes we forget, so your job might have disability insurance, but as someone who has seen Someone not get their disability money come in until they return back to work months later.
Cause that’s how long it took. You know, you can get this gap insurance and in between to make sure that like, well, while I wait for that money to come in, I can still pay my bills. So there’s so many insurances that we’re not aware of. So I break down what. Like our true teacher, all the types of insurance you might want to consider.
There’s a quiz where you could take to see which kind of insurance that you might need, what to expect, not necessarily the amount that you should pay, but like how much you might need based upon where you are in life. That insurance chapter, so many people are like, I’ve never read that in a financial fundamentals book.
And I think it’s left out and it should not be.
Well, what’s an insurance that, uh, most of us need that very few people have?
Well, if you’re an adult, probably life insurance outside of your job, meaning like if you have like kids or you have, um, I just feel like. Not as many people have life insurance. And we could see that because when the pandemic hit and people, you know, unfortunately lost their lives, how many GoFundMes, how many fundraisers?
So people didn’t have enough insurance set aside to, to bury themselves. And so I would say probably that. And renter’s insurance, I don’t know, like a renter’s insurance is like 10 bucks a month. You know, and so, because you might say, Oh, well, you know, I live in this building or this home. Yes. And the owner, the landlord definitely has insurance, but it might not cover your things.
I’ve, I’ve heard so many stories, Tiffany, where the, you know, somebody goes to their landlord and goes, Hey. You know, there was a smoke problem. And so my clothing is all whatever you need to pay for that. Like, well, that’s what your renter’s insurance is for. And so many people go, what are you talking about?
No, no, no. It’s your building. They’re like, yeah, that, that ensures the walls, not your clothing. Yes. It’s like a whole different, whole different deal.
And it’s relatively inexpensive. Renter’s insurance is typically well under 20 bucks a month. You know, I’ve seen it on average, like nine, 10 bucks a month. So you think to yourself for 10 bucks a month, I could have protected myself, you know?
I also feel like Tiffany, this is the area that people, you know, when you are really struggling with money, this is the area where people start thinking, I’m going to cut back. And to me, this is the most dangerous spot to cut back. Uh, but I remember when I was broke, I’m like, Ooh, I’m going to get the worst car insurance known to man.
That’s where I was, you know, which is a horrible way. to, you know, the first time something bad happens, then I’m, I’m
screwed. Then you’re screwed. And also too, I was thinking to myself, your initial question about an insurance that people don’t have, probably disability. Disability. Oh yeah. That’s probably the number one.
Cause I feel like, you know, if you’re in your like thirties and forties, you, you don’t really, you start to conceive of maybe in your forties that, Oh, I might not feel well one day, but. You’d be surprised, a car accident, tripping down the stairs. Shoot, stretching too hard in the morning these days. You know, and then you find yourself like, wait, but disability insurance, because I don’t think people realize that it often takes a long time for it to kick in, even if your job offers it.
Like I’ve seen it take six months before you get your first check and you’re not working. So what do you do in the meantime if you don’t have six months worth of savings? And so disability insurance is something I think that people underestimate. and don’t
have for themselves. Well, there’s the biggest insurance right there having that emergency fund, right?
Yes. Yes. Yeah. That’s probably one. Uh, you end this project by talking about leaving a legacy. Yeah. When, when should people get their estate plan done?
The truth is, as soon as you start working, as soon as you get a bank account, if you’re 21 years old, estate planning might just look like, who’s my beneficiary?
It’s like my mom was always my beneficiary in my bank accounts. You know, so I think people think of estate planning as like, Oh, you’ve got like this big old mansion and millions of dollars. No, it’s just, you have stuff.
I got to make a video of my family watches after I die. And I tell them where the treasure’s hidden.
But what you realize is estate planning is just, if you have stuff. What do you want to happen to your stuff? And so, at the bare minimum, beneficiaries. If you have a job, and oftentimes jobs will, will offer like um, a life insurance policy through the job, you know, who’s the beneficiary? So many people don’t have anybody listed.
They don’t understand even when it comes to beneficiaries, like I didn’t understand this fully, that you don’t have to just say, well, I’m going to list my mom, you can actually list people in percentages. Let’s just say you’ve got like four kids and you can say each of the kids gets 25%. And so beneficiaries is like, if you, if nothing else, update your beneficiaries and make sure that like you’re updating it.
I would say annually, you want to just take a look because as you get older, you might get married and you might get divorced and you might have another kid. So you want to make sure that that’s all covered. Also too, considering a will at, at the very least, once you have a kid, you need to have a will. Mm.
You know, because you really wanna make sure that if something happens to you, God forbid what your desires are for your child are carried out, especially when your child is underage. Because let’s just say, I don’t know, like you grew up in a heavily religious household, but you’ve left the religion and you are wanting, like your sister also left a religion, but your vi your brother is still very religious.
You love him, but you prefer your kid not to Bela raised in that religion, so. You’re going to want to know, like in this will, this is what’s happening. It’s not just about the financials, although that helps. A will really lets people know immediately after you’re passing, what do I want to happen immediately after for about six months after my passing?
What do I want to happen? And then a trust allows you to go as deep into the future as basically as you want to. So a trust, typically, You wanna think about a trust. If you have a a, an estate worth about half a million dollars or more, you wanna start to consider a million dollars or more. You probably should because having a will does not help with probate court, which is real, really where kind of like they divvy up your stuff for the world to see.
Um, and having a will is not gonna really help with potentially the taxes that the people inheriting your stuff are going to incur. A trust allows that, like I have a trust now. Where I have put all my things. I have the house I live in now. I have a condo. I have some businesses, all that belongs to the trust.
And then I have my beneficiaries of the trust. So they’re not actually inheriting anything. So that inheritance tax that so many states charge, you know, they’re not going to have to pay the tax on that because currently we’re all owners.
It’s almost like you set up a company that lives on after
you die.
Yes, exactly. And so that’s really helpful. But the sooner the better. I mean, two years ago, it’s crazy. Almost to the day, my husband passed away suddenly from an aneurysm and he was 41. I always say like death is the most common uncommon thing. Like we know people die every day. People literally die every second, but you’re like, not my people.
Right.
And so it doesn’t happen to
me. Yeah. Until it does. I can’t remember. It was November 9th. He called me and was like, maybe I have such a. crazy headache. I don’t feel good. I’m going to go to the hospital. And I was like, um, okay. I was supposed to go to the city and I was supposed to speak for like Chase Bank or something like that.
And my husband’s kind of like a hypochondriac. So like, I mean, he stubbed his toe and go to the hospital. So I kind of was like, does he really have a headache or, but something was like. Even though, like, Chase paid already, just go to the hospital. And I’m so glad that I did, because that was the last time that I saw him, like, speaking, and alive.
And so, on the 15th, he passed away. He, he had an aneurysm, they did a surgery, they said it went well at first, and then it didn’t. And just like that, somebody who I figured I was going to spend my whole life with is not here. And because we had done a lot of the financial work ahead of time, I would say we’ve got about 85 percent of our estate planning done.
It made it easier, you know, but the 15 percent that we didn’t do, oh boy, oh boy. Cause he didn’t have a will, although we had the beneficiary set up. We had the conversations. And so we had already put things in place, but there was a handful of things that like we didn’t quite get to. And I just think about that, like, thankfully, like, you know, it all worked out, you know, as things are apt to do, but it just was such a reminder, you know, you think you’re so young, you think you have so much time.
Cause it was crazy, literally just the week before. Our financial advisor was like, you guys need to finish your will. And we were like, okay, okay, okay, this weekend, this weekend. And the next week he wasn’t here, you know? And so if you’re looking for like a, a wake up call to like, get to it, get to it.
Honestly, a will is, it was so much easier than I thought because if you have a really good attorney, which I did, she had like a template already. And in the template, we just kind of, cause once he passed away, I did my will right away because I got really scared. Cause life seems so uncertain. And I thought, Oh God, I can’t, you know, and my parents, they had not updated the will.
My dad is in his eighties and he would always say next year, next year. And I’m like, I told my dad and my daddy, you have to get your will updated because it’s a nightmare when nobody knows what you’re wanting. And so my attorney had this great template. He and my mom looked at it and you know, changed a few things and got it notarized right at their local bank.
So we can breathe a sigh of relief because when you do that, you give your family and friends the opportunity to just miss you and not the other stuff. Because it’s really, it’s a lot. I mean, so many people who had lost their partners were like, buckle in Tiffany, because people who you thought, you know, were family or friends or loved ones, you know, a lot comes out when money’s at stake, you know?
And so, like I said, thankfully, like my husband was really great. He, he had had a life insurance policy in place already. So like. My stepdaughter, Alyssa, doesn’t have to worry about school. That’s already paid for. So thank God for that. And he didn’t make a lot of money, relatively speaking to where we live.
He made, never made over 60, 000 a year. So I think people think you have to like make a lot of money. It’s like, no, no school is paid for because of the choices he made before we got married and before the aneurysm, thank God, or they would have never given him that life insurance. These are the choices.
Like we made, like I said, mostly really good choices. So as a result, his family and friends get to just miss him. It wasn’t this big financial shock to the system.
I remember when my brother died in 2021 from COVID and um, and I, well, no, I mean, well, it’s nowhere near having my spouse die, but you’re really emotional.
Like you’re really, and, and, and to not be able to focus on the emotions because you got to deal with the stupid bank or the stupid, you know, whatever it is, I mean, my brother, he, uh, he didn’t tell anybody, not even his spouse, where most of his stuff was, and we had to go look
for it. It’s such a nightmare.
When I tell you that was one of the blessings, blessings, blessings that like there was nothing I did not know about that man. Whenever he logged in to look at his paycheck or whatever, he always used my computer and everything. So all the passwords were saved. I, I knew the password to his phone. It’s so crazy because Jarrell was here when Made Whole came out when, um, Get Good With Money came out and then he wasn’t here.
one made whole came out. So that chapter, both of them have the chapter about estate planning, but it hit different when I was doing that chapter because, you know what I mean? Cause it’s different. You know, you talk about it from a place of like, this is what you should have. And I’m like, no, you effing need it.
Yes. And so a few things that were really helpful, having at least one joint bank account with a family member that you trust. We had this one joint bank account, a checking account, and we had a savings account. When someone passes away, oftentimes the bank will freeze all the assets. But if that’s your spouse, of course you can have ownership of those assets.
And so I was able to transfer some money from his personal bank accounts to that joint account and still have access so we can start the process of figuring out what does burying him look like, you know? So that was critical. At the very least, like you want to keep that cell phone on for a year. It is the key that will unlock so many things.
So you can’t figure out their bank account login. They’re going to send a text to your cell phone. You know, you can’t figure out how to whatever, you know, your cell phone is going to be, so keep that cell phone open at least a year.
Well, think about the number of people that don’t even know. how to get into their spouse’s cell phone.
That’s
crazy. And that’s the key to everything. Everything. Your cell phone and email are the key to everything. Because typically they’ll send you an email, a link to say, click this link so we know it’s you. Or they’ll send you something via your cell phone. Those two things. All my sisters know my password to my cell phone and my email.
And of course my niece and nephew, cause they’re always playing games like so. Bud. So those two things are critical, but also there’s some other things like, Jarrell like had this old school, like metal box where he kept like all his papers. And my dad used to do the same. I used to be like, you’re such an old man, Jarrell.
And so I now have this, like, um, this fireproof bag though, which is great. Where like every bank statement, every whatever I put it in there. So that way, 80 years old, 90 years old. You have to go looking. Everything’s in this fireproof bag, including my will, including the trust. Everything is, um, there, just making things easier.
But another thing I tell people that’s not financial, take so many candid photos and pictures of the people that you love. Not for social media, just like, you know, you’re standing in the kitchen, you’re like eating breakfast. You’re one. Jarrell’s mother passed away when he was in his twenties and he said, I don’t have like any video of her.
So he made it a habit to take a ton of pictures and video of not just us, but himself. He was like a secret vlogger. So when he passed away, I’m looking through his phone and there’s all these videos to us like, Hey guys, you know, like. You know, none of you guys want to help me shovel, so I’m doing it by myself as usual.
But do you know how wonderful that is to like see? I didn’t even know that they were in there. And so we created this Google family album, if you will, of all things him. And there are literally thousands of videos and pictures and that his family friends, I added them all to the album that at any moment you can hear him laugh.
You can see him smile. You can hear him say, I love you. All the things are there. And so that was critical and I’m so grateful. So I try to keep that in mind that when I see my parents video pictures, you know, because they’re older now, but not just that nieces and nephews and none of it gets posted, it’s just.
to keep that memory. So that was a critical component. And also too, I mean, From,
from, can I stop you for just a second? Because from way far away from where I am way down here in Texarkana, Texas, Tiffany, the thing that I really appreciated that you did during that time, As a guy who is a financial planner in the past, and I saw people go through really emotional times, you disappeared for a while.
Yeah. And I think that’s super important for everybody to just get that. I have no idea what you did, Tiffany. All I knew was you were going to be unreachable for a while. Yes. And we all need to do that because I’ll tell you, when I was a financial planner, I would see people do stupid sh Yeah. Right after a spouse died, right after a sibling died, right after a, like, you know what I mean?
Like people do. And to be able to actually have your estate plan done so you could go wherever
you went. Yes. I went to Bali for two months. I was like, I don’t want to be. And then, so I disappeared from like work for, and I know everyone can’t do this for six months. I don’t even know why there’s not grief.
Three days. I can’t even imagine three days you have to be back at work when you lose your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, your spouse. And so I was fortunate that after all the funeral arrangements were done, I was like, I went to Bali by myself. I was looking for a safe space where women could go.
And it was so quiet. The Balinese are like the kindest people you will ever meet. I was just there.
Yes. It’s so beautiful. Well, not only that, when you say the nicest people, the funny thing about it was I gave a talk in Bali. And I said, during my talk, I feel like in Bali, like every culture must have an but Bali doesn’t have theirs.
Like they’ve got Robert stuck in the closet. Cause he’s a jerk. And they’re waiting until after the tourists leave to bring him out.
They’re so nice. It’s not a transactional culture. Like I remember I had like, um. A young woman that would like come by and do my laundry. And it was like six bucks. So I would leave her 10, you know, cause we’re such a tipping culture.
And then she would give me back four. I’m like, no, no, no, no. And she’s like, no, it’s 6. I’m like, I know, but I’m wanting, because thank you so much. I’m wanting to give you, she would refuse to take it. I’m like, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around. I’m like, I don’t. And she’s like, no, I’ve already priced it fair enough for me to get.
What I need. And I mean, I’m here to help you get what you needed. It just, the Balinese are very non transactional that helps so much, but also therapy. I don’t even know what people do without like, um, therapy. My therapist was just also, I literally started therapy when I was in Bali, like virtual therapy that helped.
And I’ve never been in a more spiritual place in my life. I mean, the water temples and the,
yeah, just, Oh, heaven. And then after that, even when I came back, I was like, I’m back from Bali, but I’m not back, you know? And so my team, thankfully, did whatever they needed to do for the six months that I was away.
It’s only just now, two years later, that like, I’m feeling like I’m coming back to myself a little bit. You don’t realize how far away from yourself you are. I look back a year, I’m like, I don’t even know why I came back a year later, because I was not myself, you know, and I’m just kind of left feeling like myself.
And The financial education that I teach has hit different because it’s like for this purpose, for when real life happens, are you able to still maintain like a safe place to live, food to eat, to be able to take care of yourself? I’ve always taught from this holistic space anyway, but it just hit different because I was able to do that because of the choices.
You know, I live far below my means and because of the choices that I’ve made in my financial life, I was able to take time away when I could not focus on Those financial things. I was like, I, I had enough autopilot going that they could take care of themselves and I could take care of myself. And so I want that for everyone, you know, because death is the most common, uncommon thing.
And at some point, none of us gets out of here alive. None of us, you know, I remember Dr. Green, my therapist said, Tiffany, you have unlocked the next level of human living, which is you understand that to love is to lose. But we as humans choose to love anyway, because whether it’s your favorite shirt, your dog, yourself, at some point, all of these things will no longer be here, and we choose to love anyway.
And so that’s what I’ve chosen to do, that I’m just like, I’m in the space now where I’m just like, you know, I get to decide how I want to show up, which is connectedness, which is love, which is family and friends. When I stood next to Jarell, I knew he wasn’t gonna quite make it. He was in a coma, because he was an organ donor.
which I encourage everyone to be because we saved like four lives as a result of him passing. He was an organ donor. And so like his spleen saved someone’s life. I forget what else I thought was like lungs. It was a bunch of things that like, um, he was open to donating. It’s crazy. Cause um, he just told his daughter a few weeks prior because the doctors asked, is he an organ donor?
And I said, honestly, I don’t know. And Alyssa was like, no, he is two weeks ago. I was going through his wallet. And I pulled out his license and I said, daddy, how come you don’t have an organ donor checked off? And like so many superstitious people, I don’t want it checked off because just in case I get into a car accident, I don’t want them to be like, Ooh, fresh meat.
He said, but if you ever, I know, which is so, if you knew him, that is so him. He said, but if ever, if any, yes, exactly. He said, but if anything ever happens to me, he was like, you could donate my whole body. Donate to science. Like if I can help someone else. Then so be it. And so the fact that she had that knowledge is so beautiful.
So we were able to confidently say, that’s part of estate planning. Yes, you know, like donate my organs. And a woman a year later wrote me this really beautiful letter because you can do so through like this donor network. It basically said like, you know, me writing this is really sad because I know you had to lose someone you loved in order for, for me to be here, but I just want to say, thank you so much.
Only 2 percent of people that pass away are eligible for organ donation. Because you have to pass away in the hospital on a respirator. So it’s just very small, you know, like if you get hit by a car and something happens to you. So the fact that you’re in that space, and so he was really generous in life.
And so to leave on that space of generosity, but what I was saying before is like, when I stood next to Jarell when he was in his coma, life became as clear as it ever could be of like what’s really important. And the only thing that came up was love and connectedness. And to me, that is the purpose of the financial component is to free up energy, space, time, so you can work on the love and connectedness and the people that you care about.
That’s it for me anyway.
What a perfect day Tiffany for you to be here mentoring our stackers because this is a time I feel like when people to your point way earlier in this conversation people get too connected to the hustle to connected to the consumerism to buying the right gift to overspending to buying and when you go back to connectedness and we’re not promised forever I think that’s it’s the perfect day for us to talk about getting.
your house in order, because for me, that’s what makes you, you already are whole, but to experience that wholeness by going through these steps and thinking about what truly is important is this time together is so, so good. The book is called Made Whole, The Practical Guide to Reaching Your Financial Goals, and it is available everywhere.
You’re helping everybody everywhere.
Yeah, but if you want to support like a small bookstore, which hopefully you do, you can go to, Made whole workbook. com. We showcase a small bookstore like every week on that platform. Yeah. So, cause you know, I feel like, especially if you’re going to buy something, go ahead and get made whole and then support, support a small business, you know, made whole workbook.
com. Help them
be made whole. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing Tiffany. That’s a, uh, I don’t know. It’s so important for people to hear it from somebody who’s been through all that. Yeah.
Thank you. You’re welcome. Hello, fellow stackers. I’m Michelle from Enid, Oklahoma. When I’m not taming lions as a veterinary technician at an all cat clinic, I’m stacking Benjamins.
Big thanks to Tiffany for sharing that. You know, after interviews, oh gee, I say big thanks to our guest, I think every episode, but huge thanks because, oh gee, people haven’t gone through what Tiffany’s gone through and you could hear it halfway through, couldn’t you? I mean, she just, we went from Tiffany being Tiffany Aliche, the budget Nista, to Tiffany being the somewhat still grieving spouse two years later, who really still, you can tell needs to talk about it.
If you don’t have your financial house in order, it’s so difficult. I mean, just, just the emotions that you go through. I don’t think any of us have any clue even after hearing that interview.
Well, you can’t unless you go through it. I’ve been through it. And I think that’s the important part of contingency planning, whatever you want to call it, estate planning or, you know, risk management or whatever you want to think about it as is that you’re not going to be able to make great financial choices under high emotional strain.
It just won’t work. So you have to give yourself an opportunity to have space in the way that you do that as by doing the things that you know, you can do, making sure that you have the right protection in place, whatever that looks like having the right beneficiaries in place, right? Estate planning and like all, all of the things that are really crappy to think about and talk about and do.
It takes work to do. It takes followup and all that other sort of muscle that we don’t ever have to use. And then you’re still going to have a lot of crap to deal with regardless. You know what I mean? Well, you got so much crap. At least the
money is. If you could just deal with the crap in your head, you know what I mean?
Gives you the opportunity to do that. Yes. Yeah. Well, that’s a best case scenario. Worst case is I got all this crap in my head. I got to go down and fight with the bank about my money. Yeah. And the
mortgage is due on the first. It’s like it’s due on Monday or it’s due on Friday. You know what I mean? Like it’s like the banker doesn’t care.
I mean, your actual banker might, but the bank does not.
I hope that people heard loud and clear, by the way, when we talked about the cell phone, know your people close to you, how to get into their cell phone, at least have them write it down somewhere. Because, oh gee, she was right on. This phone is like the key to all the passwords, all the accounts.
Like if she hadn’t been able, When my brother passed away, they couldn’t even figure out how to get into his phone.
No, seriously, I’m not trying to find out if you have a girlfriend. I just want to, to make sure that if you die unexpectedly, that I can get into
your phone. Well, and like a password manager.
I know Cheryl and I share all our, you know, we use a Dashlane, a good password manager, having the knowledge of where everything is. I know with my brother, and I know I said this during the interview, but with my brother, that’s, we spent so much time looking for stuff because he didn’t share any of that with anybody.
Yeah.
Tough process for sure. It is a tough process.
Glad she shared it. Yeah. Thank you so much to Tiffany. Time to throw out the lifeline to a stacker. When a stacker needs help, we’re always there to help them pick themselves up. It’s a great part of having a great community of stackers. By the way, if you want to be part of our community, head to our Facebook group, uh, which we call Mom’s Basement.
Go to stacking Benjamin’s basement. Just put that in the search bar in Facebook and apply to join. And Gertrude mom’s friend Will, uh, will help you join our community. By the way, also, if you’re looking for good financial tips about today’s show and Wednesday, show the 2 0 1 or newsletter stacking benjamins.com/ 2 0 1.
Today, though, we’re gonna throw out the lifeline to a lucky stacker. Named Maggie. Hey, Maggie.
Hi, Joe, OG, and Doug. Maggie here. My partner and I live abroad at the moment, but we’ll be heading back to the US in the next two years. We will be moving in with my parents for the first few months because all of our stuff will be on a shipping container somewhere and also to save a bit more money to finally buy a house.
Um, my partner is a little bit behind on his retirement savings goals, so I have proposed to him that we use this rent free time to first catch up on his retirement, and then to save more to buy a house. We’re debt free, mid 30s, have a healthy emergency savings account, my retirement’s on track. Are there any ramifications to throwing like 50, 000 or 100, 000 just straight into a brokerage account in one year?
Should we be doing something else? Is there anything else we should be thinking about? Apologies if this is incredibly basic to some folks. Thank you guys so much. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say. Thanks.
You know, Joe, you introduced that as Maggie, but I’m pretty sure that she said, Meggie. Is that, was that Miguel Cabrera that was calling in?
I mean, living abroad.
Yes. Just retired from the, just retired from the world’s biggest contracts going to be in the hall of fame. Yeah. Uh, Maggie, thanks so much for the call. And by the way, when you talk about a basic question, oh gee, those are. That is not a basic question and this is also the type of question everybody has that nobody asks.
The number of times that I’ve fielded questions that people have started with, this might seem stupid and it’s the same question everybody else is asking. So, yeah, ramifications of putting a lot of money away in one year while they’re rent free. I
guess I think about this in kind of an order of operations, savings goal type of scenario, right?
So the first thing that we want to make sure is, is do you have your emergency fund? Second thing is, do you have your consumer debt paid off? Which, you know, it sounds like both of those are checked off. So then the next piece is, what are we going to do about retirement savings? And then other short and intermediate.
She said, Hey, I think that we’re a little behind or he’s a little behind in his retirement savings, but we’re in our mid thirties. It’s like, you can’t be behind in your mid thirties. You know, you have so much time. It’s ridiculous. That doesn’t mean you should like, Oh, sweet. I can not think about this till I’m 50 because every day counts.
But by the same token, I don’t know that it requires like massive jerking of the wheel to get on track, so to speak. That being said, you have the opportunity to save a bunch of money while you’re not paying rent. You know, you’re trying to build the down payment money for the house. Assuming that the house down payment is kind of an immediate goal and also that you have that mostly funded, then there’s no reason that you wouldn’t want to put money away for the next goal and that next goal might be Uh, retirement or financial independence or, you know, other things, but the next longer term goals.
So fill up your retirement accounts, your Roth IRAs and IRAs and 401ks. If you have those opportunities, obviously there’s ways to do that and kind of the order to do that. But assuming that that’s done and you’re like, and I still have 50 grand left over, I still have 100, 000 left over now, what do I do?
Absolutely put it in a, in an investment account. The question becomes is what do I invest inside of my investment account? Cause you can send the money to Schwab and they’ll just let it sit in a checking account until you tell them what to do with it or send it to Vanguard. It’ll go into a Vanguard account, you know, money market account until you tell them what to do with it.
This is really just going to be determined around when’s the next thing that you have that goal for. If this is financial independence, longterm investing, follow your asset allocation. There’s no sense in going slow and investing it over time. And just, if you’ve got a hundred grand, you want to invest it, just invest it, be done with it, move on with life.
No tax issues with that. If that’s kind of the question or limits, you know, some people think that there might be limits in terms of your ability to save and there are within certain retirement specific accounts, but a regular. regular investment account. There’s, there’s no limitations there. So have at it.
I think a lot of people forget about that huge upside, which is not only are there no limits, there’s also the money’s flexible. You can then, if you have something come up, you can get at it. And if you’re investing in something like index funds, OG, I think people kind of overworry about the tax ramification of having that brokerage account, especially money nerds.
And really. The tax hit, if you’re using exchange traded funds, shouldn’t be egregious, should it?
Well, I mean, you pay taxes when you make money. It’s no different than any other… I agree with you on this. People get overly worked up about the tax bill. It’s like, well… You don’t get mad. I mean, you get mad, I suppose, but it’s just a fact of life.
When you make money, you pay taxes. It doesn’t matter how you earned it. If you earned it through working, or you earned it through a real estate sale, or you earned it through a business selling, you know, you sold a business or you sell stock, you’re going to, you’re going to pay taxes. So
be okay. Oh, gee, any weird wrinkles to this because of where she, cause she’s.
Overseas right now if I remember right so any weird wrinkles about when she does this if she does if she’s overseas But she does it while she’s still there versus coming back stateside any wrinkles there She needs to be worried about or is that irrelevant?
Yeah. No, that’s a good question Certain companies are gonna have issues with you opening accounts Overseas you’ll have to do some investigating to find out which organizations, you know, which brokerage companies will allow international accounts.
If in fact you are doing that while you’re overseas, while you’re international still, there are places that allow you to do that. I know Schwab, for example, will allow you to do it. That’s not a silly question. That could be an issue for some people for sure.
So I would go first to your broker, Maggie, and make sure that there’s no.
issues while you’re abroad, I mean.
Once you have an address in the States, you’re, you’re golden.
Maybe it’s Miggie’s sister, Maggie Cabrera.
Yeah.
Maggie Cabrera. Thanks. Thanks for the question, Maggie Cabrera. Congratulations on a great career. Congrats to your brother. Uh, stackingbenjamins. com slash. She’s
like, who the hell’s Miggie Cabrera?
She’s got no idea.
Uh, you can tell we’re all Detroit Tiger fans right there. Are we all? Oh, are you not going Rangers on us? Is that it? Well, one team did win. Well, I
was never a, what’s the team in Detroit? Oh, I’ll tell you. I was never a Tigers fan. Oh, that’s
horrible. Doug, why do we even put up with that?
That’s horrible. Come on.
That’s like the 11th different version of that question we ask about OG.
That
totally is. Which can all be summarized as, what the hell’s wrong with him? It’s like, uh, what is it, like a mind map? What the hell is wrong with OG? It’s like, stuffing? Question mark. Tigers? Question mark.
Cranberry sauce? Question
mark. How many different topics? Tiffany was talking earlier about, you know, needing some therapy while she was in Bali. I’m like, I ain’t got a guy who needs. And I was talking about Doug
and I, having
to hang out with, yes, having to hang out with, with, with OG. Not wrong. Uh, stackingbenjamins.
com slash voicemail. If you’ve got a question for us, Maggie, we are sending you a greatest money show on earth shirt. It truly is our very comfortable circus shirt represents the show. O. G. is all of the animals on the shirt. Rawr. I’m the ringmaster. Doug is the monkeys. Um, it’s really good.
All right, that’s going to do it for today, except for our last segment, which we call Hanging Out on the Back Porch. And at this part, we always begin our back porch, relaxing segment, sitting back and, uh, hearing what’s coming up in the community calendar this week. We’re back from the long week. Doug, what we got going
on?
Well, Joe, it’s an interesting week after a holiday week. Everybody is still in chill mode. So what better way to chill than on Tuesday with an Instagram Live with Kate and then, uh, on Thursday with you, right? So Kate’s, uh, she’s kind of midday. You feel like taking a, uh, mental break midday. Maybe you do this every day.
I don’t know, but certainly on Tuesday, uh, about 1130 Eastern, take a break with Kate and then, uh, with you on Thursday at like five o’clock after work. More
of a happy hour. Yeah. Uh, what we hope to do on Tuesday and Thursday, Is talk about two different things this week. It’s a big time for office parties and community parties.
And let’s say that I’ve, I’m throwing a holiday party. How do I throw a holiday party without breaking the bank and also tipping? Don’t invite me. He will eat everything. He’ll eat it all. He will eat everything. Uh, go to stackybenjamins. com slash welcome, by the way, for all the different places where he can hang out with us.
Uh, guys, I saw a movie. This is a movie by this little known director named Martin Scorsese. Have you guys ever heard of this guy? No.
I think you said it wrong. I think people Scorsese? Yeah. True film aficionados say Scorsese. I always want to hit people that say that. Like, those are the same people that say croissant.
No,
no, it’s croissant. Or Budapest, like it’s supposed to be. Right. Exactly.
Did you know that Budapest is actually two cities? They always have to throw
that in too. This stars two up and coming actors named Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. Don’t know if you’ve heard of them, but let’s take a quick listen.
You know, you got a
nice color scheme
What color would you say that is? My color.
The
Osage. They have the worst land possible. But they outsmarted everybody. The land had oil on
it.
Black gold. Money. It flows freely here now. I do love
that money, sir.
That sound of cars coming through town is, uh, that once they struck oil, the Osage people got really, really wealthy. This is a true story. You guys know anything about this story? Nope. Do not. No. So the Osage, like, uh, you heard Robert De Niro there, that was his voice talking about how they had the worst land ever, thanks to the U.
S. government stuck them on the worst land, and turned out it was pretty damn good land because there was oil on that land, and They all got what was called a head right. So each person got their quote head right. And immediately a bunch of people stepped forward to help them manage it because they weren’t capable of managing it themselves.
And, uh, very helpful people doing that. And also a bunch of people came into town and all of a sudden thought the Osage were very beautiful people and they should get married to emoji. And then the Osage begin dying of mysterious circumstances and their spouses who married into the family ends up getting the head rights.
It is, uh, it is quite a story. Cheryl read the book and really wanted to see it. Of course, when Martin Scorsese’s doing a movie and you’ve got people like DiCaprio and De Niro in it, you’re like, okay, take my money. But I got to tell you, it took us forever to go see this. Have you guys seen the running time on this
thing?
Oh, I gotta imagine. It’s a Scorsese movie. It’s a
Scorsese movie. It’s gotta be. Is it 6 hours?
3 hours and 20 minutes. He doesn’t
do edits. 3 hours and 20
minutes. Now the good news is, and by the way, and we saw it in the theater. Is there a potty break?
That’s what I need to know. There
isn’t! Somebody else asked that.
There should be. If it’s gonna be 3 hours and 20 minutes, give me an intermission. We’ll be right
back after these messages, like right in the middle, you
could turn into like a seven part apple films is behind this. You could have turned into like an apple plus thing and made it seven episodes instead of one big long thing.
Uh, yeah, so we, we, we went to the theater, stayed there for almost four hours after all the previews and stuff. The good news is it didn’t feel like 3 hours and 20 minutes. It was a very well done movie. And by the way, not only do you realize halfway through the movie, you’re like, we are seeing just not only a great director, we’re seeing just phenomenal acting, like Scorsese and DiCaprio are who they are, but many of many of the actors that surround them.
who you’ve never heard of are just amazing are just there’s so much good acting in this. It is such a disgusting story. It just, you leave the theater and you feel so sick to your stomach. Isn’t the
police officer, one of the investigators, the dude from, um, Breaking Bad, like the cousin or something. Yeah.
And you know what’s funny?
Yeah, I think so. Yeah. And what’s funny is that guy in most things plays a bad guy, right? Plays a quote bad guy. And he’s a quote, good guy. In this so cheryl was a cheryl even turn to me and goes is it weird seeing him play like that the guy who’s who’s cleaning all this stuff up and is actually the good dude so weird but a big thumb up assuming that you you can hang with it, is gonna pay handsomely cheryl even said we saw a week ago and cheryl said just yesterday goes i’m so happy when i saw that movie i know how we just kept looking at that running time going i don’t think so.
I don’t think so, but well worth it. The movie I really want to see that just came out this last weekend was Napoleon. I really want to go see the new Napoleon movie. That looks good
too. I’ve seen three, three movies on planes in the last, uh, four weeks, back to a little bit of travel, so we can do mine next time.
Oh
yeah, let’s tackle those on Wednesday. That’s gonna do it for The Back Porch. Uh, last thing we got before we say goodbye is, if you are here not to talk about Scorsese movies or movies on planes, You’re also not here just to talk about budgets or estate planning or insurances with Tiffany Alicia.
You’re here because you just need that foundation that, uh, we’ve talked about all episode long. OG, Doug, Tiffany, and I. For that, OG and his team still taking clients here late in the year. Head to stackybenjamins. com slash OG. And, uh, let’s get set up for a better 2024. If you’re 2023, you didn’t go the way you want.
I love, I love really OG Tiffany’s messaging, which was, you know, you can’t go back, you can’t go back. You got to give yourself some grace. Just go. I am where I am. Let’s just get it started. StackyBenjamins. com slash OG is the link to OG’s team and setting up, uh, making your team better in the future. All right, that’s it for today, Doug.
I think we need a to do list for today. What are maybe three things we should be doing because of, uh, what we heard today?
So what should we do with all of this goodness? Well, we got some to do lists here for you. First, take some advice from Tiffany Aliche and get your estate plan done now. Like pause this, do it pronto.
Second, think about your priorities. That Porsche? Eh, maybe better to sell it and focus on having a house. Would you rather pretend you’re rich or actually find true wealth? But the biggest to do? How about a to don’t? Don’t cut your own bangs, no matter how tempting it might be. But if you do, make sure you got a lot of hats and not a lot of plants.
Just saying.
Thanks to Tiffany Aliche for joining us today. You can find her new workbook, Made Whole, the practical guide to reaching your financial goals wherever books are sold. We’ll also include links in our show notes at stackingbenjamins. com. This show is the property of SB Podcasts, LLC, copyright 2023, and is created by Joe Saul Sehy.
Our producer is Karen Repine. This show was written by Lisa Curry, who’s also the host of the Long Story Long podcast, with help from me, Joe, and Doc G. from the Earn Invest podcast. Kevin Bailey helps us take a deeper dive into all the topics covered on each episode in our newsletter called The 201.
You’ll find the 411 on all things money at The 201. Just visit stackingbenjamins. com slash 201. Wonder how beautiful we all are? Of course you’ll never know if you don’t check out our YouTube version of this show, engineered by Tina Ichenberg. Then you’ll see, once and for all, that I’m the best thing going for this podcast.
Once we bottle up all this goodness, we ship it to our engineer, the amazing Steve Stewart. Steve helps the rest of our team sound nearly as good as I do right now. Want to chat with friends about the show later? Mom’s friend Gertrude and Kate Youngkin are our social media coordinators, and Gertrude is the room mother in our Facebook group called The Basement.
Say hello when you see us posting online. To join all the basement fun with other stackers, type stackingbenjamins. com slash basement. Not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor.
I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and we’ll see you next time, back here at the Stacking Benjamins Show. Wait!
Where
are you going? I was gonna make espresso.
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