Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • (upbeat music)

  • Hi, I'm Tonya Rapley,

  • entrepreneur and financial educator.

  • And I can say in all honesty,

  • I've never seen anything like this.

  • My income has been disrupted.

  • Okay, my daughter's at home now all day every day.

  • We essentially lost a third of our income.

  • And we don't really know when it's coming back.

  • Which is why

  • we brought together this digital community.

  • A group from around the country,

  • with Bank of America specialists,

  • for a series of open and honest conversations.

  • How do I make credit work for me?

  • Don't get overwhelmed by the numbers.

  • Let me see if I can bring the bill down

  • at a different clip.

  • We have tools to help you understand contribution levels.

  • If you fall in love with the process itself,

  • then those sacrifices will pay off in the long run.

  • This is Better Money Habits, Money Talks.

  • Brought to you by Bank of America.

  • Alright, so this is gonna be a money conversation

  • like you guys probably have never had before.

  • We're gonna pair you with specialists from Bank of America.

  • And I would love to learn more about you, Rachel!

  • So yeah, I've had to take a huge shift.

  • I went from teaching in a classroom

  • to teaching on my computer.

  • I went from working five days a week

  • to my only stable income is once a week now,

  • which is scary.

  • Coronavirus is a lot of people's rainy day

  • and their big emergency.

  • But for me, I was in a traumatic car accident

  • of January 2019.

  • I was rear ended on the freeway,

  • my car flipped over onto its side.

  • Not only do I have the debt I had before,

  • I have medical debt on top of that

  • and it feels really overwhelming.

  • It's like running a marathon and not knowing

  • where the finish line is.

  • Yup!

  • I've been speaking with a lot of people

  • who are dealing with that, it feels like that.

  • So we were coming up with a great financial plan,

  • life was looking great,

  • and then the pandemic hit.

  • My main job as a design engineer,

  • I was asked to take a pay cut.

  • And then I lost my second job

  • as a performer inside the city during nights.

  • We weren't able to do the show,

  • so, I lost a second income entirely as a result of it.

  • Me and my fiancé, we're just talking about this last night...

  • weddings are not cheap.

  • No, no!

  • We don't know if the wedding is gonna happen anytime soon.

  • As our income got disrupted,

  • yeah, we definitely had to look at expenses

  • that just, come out, that you don't even realize.

  • I do want to shout out to my fiancé,

  • because she was like, "I'm not buying any new clothes

  • for at least a month."

  • She just started going on thrift sites.

  • Why do I want to pay full price for something,

  • when I might be able to get a deal on it?

  • And I thought that was like, really savvy.

  • My landlord knows that we're both

  • looking for full time work,

  • and so she's given us a laundry list of things to do.

  • And she says, just count your hours,

  • I'll pay you 25 dollars an hour

  • and just take it out of rent.

  • We did 400 dollars worth of work for her

  • before we even moved in.

  • So, we were able to take that out of

  • just the first month's rent.

  • That's amazing!

  • So we decided to plant a garden

  • and we almost half our grocery spending.

  • We're both chefs!

  • We are both chefs.

  • We like to eat food and make food.

  • We had just bought our new house,

  • and then we lost kind of like a third

  • of the income stream coming in. So...

  • We do all this budgeting beforehand

  • and you can never really budget for the unexpected.

  • Making spreadsheets.

  • Really, we're just trying to find all the little hacks

  • to save money.

  • We actually learned how to can as well.

  • We have sauces and vegetables and fruit compotes.

  • And one day we will eat them,

  • right?

  • We're gonna have to, we have so much of it now.

  • Meal prep and meal planning

  • has been the very thing that I think changed my budget.

  • So something really cool that has happened for us

  • during COVID is that my daughter and I

  • got to move into our own space together, our own apartment.

  • We have never been able to live on our own

  • because I couldn't do it financially on my own.

  • A year and a half ago, I was living paycheck to paycheck.

  • Like there were times where I had to ask friends

  • for gas money. And here we are now a year later.

  • And I'm really excited to change my family tree

  • and break those generational curses.

  • And that is such a fun and exciting thing

  • to look forward to for the future for me and my daughter.

  • Yes! Kudos. So much good has happened.

  • I know that Chelsey is a new mom.

  • Hi, I'm Chelsey, I live in Northeast Ohio.

  • So I did not have any maternity leave,

  • nor did I qualify for FMLA.

  • And my husband did not have any paternity leave.

  • Because both of us are working from home,

  • my husband is able to see our son way more

  • than he would if he was at work 8 hours a day.

  • This is where we used to eat dinner.

  • And now it's been our workstations.

  • Both of our parents are close to us

  • and there have been times where we've asked them

  • to come over and babysit so we could clean our house.

  • So just taking advantage of people who want to help

  • and not being afraid to ask for that help.

  • Each of you have different goals

  • that you're working towards,

  • different things that you'd like

  • a little more insight on how to navigate during this time.

  • And so what we'll be doing is you'll pair up

  • with a bank specialist to answer any questions that you have

  • and really get a plan of action.

  • And then from there, we will reconvene.

  • And so, does that sound good to you?

  • Yeah.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Amanda and Andrew, you are in for a treat.

  • We have joining us, our Bank of America specialist

  • Anthony Dinello.

  • Give Anthony a little rundown

  • of what your pressing questions are.

  • We essentially lost a third of our income

  • and it was right around the time we bought this house.

  • At this point, we've kind of normalized

  • and kind of stabilized a little bit

  • but we really had to sit down and think about

  • what the wants versus the needs were.

  • I think the first, most important thing is

  • what are the monthly expenses that you have?

  • What are the bills that you have

  • that you can count on having to be responsible

  • for every month?

  • That should be your floor.

  • Now, let's see what money we have leftover.

  • And what is our budget going to be for the month?

  • He actually helped me write my first budget

  • in an Excel spreadsheet.

  • I'm glad there's an Excel wizard in the house,

  • that always helps to have.

  • An honest mistake or two will happen along the way,

  • so it's very important that you set up alerts.

  • I actually have an alert on my phone. For every single time

  • a debit card is swiped,

  • I get a text message.

  • That's a good idea.

  • I like the alert thing, so that both of us know

  • that the spending would be happening

  • Keep the communication open!

  • You know, it really helps establish checks and balances

  • because then you're accountable

  • to someone other than yourself for how you're spending.

  • I do also have a Bank of America credit card,

  • which I love because the system they have on the backend

  • is really useful for money management.

  • The alerts is something I do have set up on my end,

  • and that's just good to know

  • whenever your card is being used,

  • or whenever your budget's close to being exceeded.

  • Even if it's like 14 dollars under, you know?

  • It feels good that you're within your means

  • of what you're trying to do that month.

  • You're gonna probably say okay,

  • our goal would be to save this much, this month.

  • I would have two numbers in mind

  • and I would really strive for that stretch goal

  • and really challenge yourselves

  • because I think you would be surprised

  • what you're capable of.

  • It's like the Chinese food last night.

  • We are close to our eating out budget for the month,

  • but last night I was craving Chinese food

  • and he looked at me, and was like,

  • we're close to the budget, we can't get it.

  • So we had leftovers.

  • Yeah, you guys are great.

  • It was good leftovers, I'm glad we did it.

  • There's a lot of value, right?

  • And starting to look at longterm and how much

  • overall you could save when consolidating debt.

  • What type of debt is it?

  • How much do I owe?

  • How much is your minimum monthly payment?

  • And then, what is your interest rate?

  • For me, it's my favorite spreadsheet.

  • That's the one where I'm like, things are getting done.

  • I think that's a pretty cool idea.

  • I never really thought honestly

  • about doing anything like that.

  • It allows you to see

  • what your most expensive debt is

  • or what's the smallest balance.

  • It allows you to focus your game plan.

  • Some people say start with the biggest balance first,

  • because the more you can knock that down the better.

  • Personally, I like to start with the smallest ones first.

  • That smaller amount, you could pay off quickly.

  • It feels good when you get one paid off.

  • And then you have that extra money to go towards

  • the other payments that you have.

  • Until now I didn't really think of it

  • as a bunch of small pieces.

  • I kind of just think of it as this big wall.

  • If we look more at it, more of it as like

  • a bunch of bricks on a wall,

  • and you're just taking pieces out one at a time,

  • I think it's gonna seem manageable.

  • And it will encourage you to continue to do more and more.

  • The first thing we're gonna do is make a spreadsheet

  • with our debts and interest.

  • So like, Date night, date night!

  • I'm gonna, no, it's not a date night...

  • It is! I need it to be fun.

  • It's a money date!

  • There's no such thing as a finance date night.

  • I mean,

  • maybe there is now.

  • (upbeat music)

  • When trying to stick to a budget,

  • stretch goals can be highly motivating.

  • Organize all of your debt by balance amount

  • and interest rate to help determine

  • the best debt reduction strategy for you.

  • (upbeat music)

  • And so Chelsea, I know that you're in good hands.

  • We have our bank specialist, Marcella Gallego.

  • I don't think there's anyone

  • more perfect to assist you with your goals.

  • So we may need to look into some childcare.

  • And so, wondering some different ways

  • that we can budget for that.

  • What works for me best when I was doing this exercise

  • was I did the decision tree.

  • Writing down, if I had to go with a nanny.

  • What exactly do I want?

  • If I want to do daycare, what type of daycare?

  • And then budget, and find out how much it will cost you.

  • And we landed on a hybrid option.

  • We do daycare in the mornings

  • and grandma comes in the afternoons.

  • I never even thought about that split.

  • It allows her to be social and have fun

  • but in the afternoons, she's with grandma, which is great.

  • And, and it's little bit cheaper.

  • How do I set a bank account for my son?

  • It is a lot simpler than you think.

  • You have a minor account which will be joined with you,

  • or you can open an account for them.

  • They are the owner, but you are the custodian.

  • You just go to the bank with their social security number

  • and open the account.

  • Vola, once Daniel is becoming a teenager,

  • now you can open a checking account with him

  • so you can teach him how to use his money.

  • Longterm, college is very important to us.

  • While we don't know what the education system

  • is gonna look like in 18 years,

  • or even if he gets a full ride

  • and all of a sudden doesn't need that money.

  • So we don't necessarily want to put money into a pocket

  • that we can't ever get out.

  • 34% usually comes from financial aid

  • and parents are usually responsible

  • for 29 to 30% of the bill.

  • Don't get overwhelmed by the norms.

  • Time is on your side, in the sense that

  • you have 18 years and small amounts consistently

  • over that period, make a huge difference.

  • It sounds to me like you need a flexible options

  • and it might be a combination of things.

  • You can have savings account, then a college plan

  • that perhaps has some tax advantages to it.

  • Okay.

  • So you could do a combination of both.

  • Don't feel that you have to get married

  • with one or the other, because you don't.

  • We did buy our house about three and a half years ago.

  • We've been watching the mortgage rates just plummet.

  • And even though we had got a good rate

  • when we originally signed the paperwork,

  • does it make sense to refinance?

  • Refinancing is basically doing a whole new loan

  • for your house, all over again.

  • So when you first purchased your home

  • there were some closing costs associated

  • with processing that loan.

  • If you are going to say, let's say 200 dollars,

  • but the closing cost associated

  • with refinancing the home are 5,000 dollars,

  • if you are not going to stay for at least 25 months

  • then you're not saving any money.

  • Divide the closing costs by the savings

  • that you will obtain, and that tells you

  • how long you will have to be in the property

  • for that to be a cost effective decision.

  • The easy math problem makes so much sense

  • and makes it a lot more black and white.

  • Considering refinancing?

  • Pack your closing costs

  • and how long you plan to own your home into the decision.

  • A decision tree is a helpful tool

  • for making financial decisions

  • like selecting childcare options.

  • (calm music)

  • And Andre is joining us.

  • Ahmed, Andre is a Better Money Habits champion.

  • He is one of the Bank of America specialists.

  • And so Ahmed, let us know exactly what you hope

  • to glean from these sessions.

  • Once Coronavirus hit my primary job

  • asked us to take a 20% pay cut.

  • And then my second job, lost that income completely.

  • I did notice that you're an actor, right?

  • So, and you have taught before.

  • So is there a possibility

  • that you could maybe do some online acting classes

  • to maybe supplement some of the lost income there?

  • Because that's just a skill that you already have.

  • I like how you think Andre.

  • Okay, yeah, that's a really good idea.

  • Even my husband who's in a production

  • he'll hire like voiceover actors

  • using some of these gig hire websites, and so forth

  • and he'd be looking for someone to just do voiceover work.

  • I definitely agree with Andre

  • that that's something to think about

  • is leveraging your understanding

  • of like the voice and voice acting.

  • And maybe I'm saying if you bring in

  • some digital income there.

  • Me and my fiancé Erica had a lot of tough talks

  • and I had to scale down our expectations

  • of having a wedding.

  • Trying to plan for the future and make sure

  • that we're in a good, strong, solid financial place.

  • For us, that's the ultimate goal.

  • Being able to be in a position to make choices

  • rather than sort of make sacrifices.

  • And it's funny, you know

  • I was probably two or three years younger than you

  • when I was married, we really had to take a hard look

  • at our, our budget and cutting the cost where we could.

  • If you and your wife are fine with a smaller invite list,

  • also consider maybe an outside venue.

  • Also think about music.

  • Let's have your own music.

  • So those are just some things to consider

  • to help with these finances

  • as it relates to this wedding.

  • That sounds good, thank you.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Leverage your skills and experiences

  • to generate supplemental income.

  • When budgeting your wedding, look for ways to keep cost

  • at an amount that's comfortable for you.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Rachel, we are joined by Bruno Figueiredo.

  • So Bruno is a Better Money Habits champion

  • with Bank of America.

  • And Rachel, I think that you can do a better job

  • of really painting the picture for Bruno,

  • letting him know like how your personal

  • emergency kind of kicked off and where you are today.

  • Yeah absolutely.

  • Coronavirus has been traumatic for so many people

  • and kind of exposed what their rainy day funds look like.

  • My personal emergency, my rainy day

  • happened in January of 2019.

  • I was rear ended and it flipped my car over

  • onto its passenger side.

  • So what I'm really looking forward to diving in today,

  • with you today, is just how I can balance

  • keeping myself healthy

  • and keeping my bank account healthy too.

  • My income has been disrupted.

  • I don't have a consistent number coming in

  • and every single month it changes.

  • Yeah.

  • In that inconsistent way, how do we plan for our future?

  • We have freelancing resources, tracking time,

  • budget, taxes, and then even moving into a business aspect

  • and understanding the difference between

  • an LLC and a sole proprietor or a corporation.

  • I always recommend going back to an accountant

  • and finding out if it is right for you at certain points.

  • And I think what's important to you

  • is based on your income is inconsistent.

  • You still have to hate the medical debt.

  • Yeah, yeah.

  • A year ago, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.

  • We think medical debt is a bad thing, but it's not.

  • It's a good thing.

  • Cause it's the way we move her health forward.

  • That's a huge relief.

  • And if I had heard that sentence a year ago

  • my recovery probably would have been so different.

  • Okay.

  • Cause that was always in the forefront of my recovery.

  • Even as a financial educator, I have a secret,

  • I'm not debt free.

  • I'm still paying off my student loans.

  • So you can have debt and still have a good credit scores,

  • as long as you're managing that debt.

  • You had an emergency, something happens,

  • first and foremost to me was

  • let me see if I can bring the bill down at a different clip.

  • So if they are asking for a hundred dollars

  • could I call them and say, could we bring this payment down

  • at a different, a minimum amount.

  • Reality they could.

  • I just didn't know that.

  • You're carrying a large balance on your credit card.

  • So maybe you want to take advantage of

  • a sign on to an account opening bonus,

  • but maybe they have 0% interest, for 12 or 18 months

  • and just transfer a small amount

  • of your credit card balance over to that credit card

  • so that you can pay that aggressively

  • so that you're not paying interest towards it.

  • Just want to calculate how much is gonna cost me

  • to transfer this debt?

  • How much am I gonna save an interest

  • if I transfer this debt?

  • Does it make sense for me to do this?

  • So that's something to think about,

  • but you want to be strategic about it

  • cause you don't just want to like

  • transfer the balance over, but end up paying more money

  • in transfer fees than you saved an interest.

  • I have, it's cheesy, but it's a debt calculator.

  • So when I spend, I literally put like a smiley face

  • on the bottom, the day you hit that minimum

  • or you got very close to only 20% or 10%

  • you're achieving what you want to do.

  • So I think leveraging our

  • Better Money Habits website is great.

  • The eight simple ways to save,

  • remembering, make it simple, make it realistic,

  • analyze, and it's okay to use your savings when needed.

  • Thank you for steering me in that direction.

  • I'll definitely check out that Better Money Habits site

  • as soon as we're off this call.

  • Track your time and budget

  • to help manage a regular income as a freelancer.

  • Research 0% interest offers to help pay down

  • a portion of your debt.

  • It is possible to negotiate with creditors

  • to adjust your rate or debt payment plan.

  • (calm music)

  • So Candace, this is Courtney, Courtney Prior.

  • She is a senior vice president over at Bank of America.

  • She is a young adult program manager.

  • I too am a mom of a young girl

  • who is just gonna be seven.

  • And it's a lot, it's a lot to manage yourself

  • and to manage the wellbeing of another, you know, life.

  • This whole financial journey is so new to me.

  • And I will say within the last year and a half

  • is when I really dug in and took it seriously.

  • For my daughter, what could I continue to do

  • that sets her up for success?

  • For us, we definitely have a savings account

  • that we have established for her.

  • And she knows about it.

  • She feels very important that she has her own bank account.

  • We also have piggy bank that she puts money into.

  • We've started to do a contribution chart

  • and I also don't call it a chore chart,

  • I call it a contribution chart.

  • What do you want to do for the house this week?

  • What do you want to do for yourself this week?

  • Those all are ways that kids really learn by being involved.

  • I need to give my husband a contribution chart.

  • (all laughing)

  • Nobody has a toolkit for anything right now.

  • Like, it's just all learning as we're going.

  • And I really had found value

  • in some of what Better Money Habits has to offer.

  • We have tools and resources to help you prioritize.

  • Retirement should be always a part of your budget plan.

  • Because when you retire

  • there's no supplemental way to help your retirement,

  • Unless you want to get a job in retirement.

  • Students can take out a student loan,

  • when you retire, That's like your nest egg.

  • So my wheels are turning cause I realize as a parent,

  • we think about our kids first

  • which isn't necessarily a bad thing,

  • but we think about our kids first,

  • before we think about ourselves.

  • Kind of like when you fly

  • Put your oxygen tank on first and then help others.

  • It's like that, same analogy.

  • And it's hard because as a mom, you're like,

  • oh, I give everything to my baby,

  • but give yourself that gift of security.

  • Right.

  • Really the answer is the more I invest

  • and do things for my future truly helps her future.

  • Contribution charts and piggy banks are great tools

  • for teaching children financial literacy.

  • Don't neglect your own retirement savings.

  • Yay, so we are here, it's a new day.

  • We all, you guys have all had your individual

  • one on one sessions.

  • We had some really good conversation.

  • How are you guys feeling

  • about this entire experience together?

  • Learning this stuff and being able to use it and apply it

  • and then share with others is really like making me excited.

  • And it was nice to taking the taboo out

  • of talking about finances not being like,

  • ugh, this is a horrible conversation.

  • Be like, no, this is a conversation

  • that's gonna help us out in the long run.

  • And it's something we should

  • regularly talk about and look at.

  • Yeah.

  • He advised us to use an Excel sheet for our debts

  • and figure out how much interest is on each

  • and which ones we should pay off first.

  • I love that one.

  • We actually put that together last night.

  • He was ready to go. kinda crazy about it.

  • You don't always know what you don't know.

  • And so, I am setting up my son's bank account.

  • I can now articulate what it is that I need.

  • Well, you talked a little bit about the contribution chart

  • and being able to do that with my daughter,

  • that, it's like such a small thing

  • but I know it will have a huge lasting impact

  • on our relationship as a mom and daughter.

  • My action item is, look at the skills that you have now,

  • some of your experience in the past

  • and see if you can leverage that

  • to be able to generate some extra income.

  • One of the things you were talking about

  • for Ahmed in particular was voiceovers,

  • and now listening to him, if I close my eyes,

  • I could still hear him on the radio.

  • Totally. I can see it.

  • Or hear it, I can hear it.

  • I need to create a financial team

  • of people who can advocate for me.

  • Bruno is the very first person

  • that I'm gonna add to my team.

  • He talked a lot about making personal connections

  • with people and negotiating a rate

  • that's comfortable for me.

  • If my insurance is too much, I need to talk to a person

  • so that I can negotiate that rate down.

  • You're all so different, but you're all so committed

  • and so optimistic.

  • I feel rejuvenated, like when I get off of this,

  • I'm gonna go put some more money in my retirement account.

  • I'm so amped up for you guys.

  • (all laughing)

  • Better Money Habits offers a simple way

  • to connect people to relevant tools

  • and guidance to help them take control of their finances.

  • Go to Better Money Habits.com for more tips

  • and resources on planning your financial journey.

  • The way to navigate financial challenges

  • is to communicate with others about these challenges.

  • When you're ready to talk

  • go to bankofamerica.com to schedule time

  • to speak with a Bank of America specialist.

  • Thanks to everyone who participated

  • and thanks for watching Better Money Habits, Money Talks

  • brought to you by Bank of America.

  • (upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it