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Experiencing an unexpected loss can be one of the most difficult challenges you will ever face.

What can make it worse is if you’re wholly unprepared for what comes after –– taking care of the estate of a loved one. 

We invited season one guest Tiffany Aliche (aka the Budgetnista) to join us for an episode to talk about the immense change she’s faced over the last year –– including the unexpected loss of her husband, Jerrell.

In this episode, Tori and Tiffany talk through what Tiffany learned in the days following his untimely passing and what she wishes more people knew about how to plan for the unthinkable.

Tiffany also shares how this loss impacted how she views her life and her business and the changes she’d made in the year since Jerrell’s passing –– including how she’s embracing her “Rich Auntie Era” and making decisions for her business based on sustainability over profitability.

You’ll learn:

• What to do when someone you love has passed

• What Tiffany wishes she had prepared before Jerell’s passing

• What it means to be in your own “Rich Auntie Era”

• Tiffany’s steps for financial planning for all stages of life

Tiffany’s links:
www.TheBudgetnista.com

www.MyMentorTiffany.com

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Transcript:

Tiffany Aliche:

I’m just so grateful because I get to just miss my husband. I don’t get to miss my husband and my house and the income and the… You know what I mean? Like so many people. Women later would hit me up and just say, “My husband died and I lost my house, too, and I can’t afford the car and I don’t know how I’m going to survive.”

Tori Dunlap:

Hello. Hello, financial feminists. Welcome back to the show. I am Tori Dunlap, your hostess with the mostess. We are so grateful to have you here. We are so excited for Tiffany Aliche to return to the show. She is our first ever returning guest. If you’ve been with us since season one, or you’re one of those extra credit new listeners who are going through our 90-something episode back catalog, you are going to recognize her. Her episode is one of our most popular, and she was like the original 12 episode, first season run, and we’re just so excited to have her back.

Tiffany, The Budgetnista Aliche is an award-winning teacher of financial education and author of the New York Times bestselling book Get Good with Money. Through her company, the Budgetnista, Tiffany has created a financial movement that has helped over 2 million women worldwide collectively save more than $350 million, pay off over $200 million in debt, purchase homes, and transform the way they think about their finances. These women that participate in this global live richer movement call themselves dream catchers.

We caught up with Tiffany on what has been a huge year, a lot of years of change since we had her on the show way back in 2021, which was only, on calendar, two years ago, but somehow feels like 10. In that time, she has starred in a Netflix show, grew a ton as a business owner, but also experienced the heartbreaking and unexpected loss of her husband. We talk about her life over the last few years and about how the loss of her husband changed the way she saw not only her day-to-day life, but also how she runs her business and what she hopes for her future in her Rich Auntie era. We spent some time talking about the process after losing her husband, including what she’s grateful she had in place and what she wishes she had known in the aftermath.

Tiffany is such an incredible person and educator. I want to say personally, she has been such an advocate for my work and the work of Her First $100K. She sat down with me multiple times in the launch of my book, Financial Feminist, and was so transparent about how to launch a book, what she had learned. Literally, was just so giving of her time and energy and continues to be, and she was just so beautifully vulnerable in this episode.

This loss was extremely unexpected, came out of nowhere and completely, not only changed her life, but changed the course of her business and her experience. I just feel for her as a friend, but also just appreciate that she was willing to come on and share this. It’s incredibly important information about losing a loved one, about navigating that experience, both from a financial standpoint, but also just personally. If you aren’t sure what to do next or how to proceed after loss or your grief, just feels really heavy, hopefully this will feel really comforting to you right now.

We are so grateful for her authenticity and openness, and we talk about a lot of other things besides grief in this episode. So, please, this is one that is so worth your listen, and thanks for being here. Let’s get into it.

But first, a word from our sponsors.

Are you still in Jersey?

Tiffany Aliche:

Mm-hmm. I actually just bought a condo calf. We could talk about that too, girl.

Tori Dunlap:

Oh, that’s amazing. How big, what was that, what did that look like for you?

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah. I bought this beautiful… I live in a historic district in Newark, which I love living in Newark. The house I owned, I purchased it cash and renovated it cash because there’s no mortgage. I said, “I don’t really want to live in a house anymore. And there’s just so many memories here,” which are beautiful memories. But every day because since my husband and I renovated it, and so my sister lives down the street with her two kids and I was like, he and I always talked about when my stepdaughter went to college that we would move someplace else and that they could live here because their school is down the street. So, she’s going to move in here with the kids. I’ll still be here all the time. I see them all the time.

But I found this beautiful historic… because I love an old building… Beautiful, historic, hundred-year-old building, the condo’s 2,800 square feet. It’s four-and-a-half bedrooms, three-and-a-half bath. It is like 1920s luxury. It is so beautiful and gorgeous. I purchased it. It was 520. Although my financial advisor was like, “Do not buy cash, Tiffany.” She knows me. I’m a nervous Nellie. I’m don’t like having bills, monthly bills. I bought it cash because I’m like, “I have plenty.” I purchased it cash.

Tori Dunlap:

And I didn’t expect to ask you about this, but that’s the interesting thing that a lot of people don’t realize, is this concept of debt versus leverage. Debt, of course, is for lower-income people, or for “the common person” and debt is bad, but when you get to a certain level of wealth, financial independence, actually debt can be a good thing, and then it’s called leverage. So, it’s called something different depending on who’s doing it, which is so fucked.

Tiffany Aliche:

Here’s the thing about personal finances. They’re personal. There are times when I know that logically it would’ve been better for me to hold onto the half a million dollars and then put it in the market, but literally, I live off of 10% of what I make. I already put so much… It’d be one thing if I’m not putting anything into… I put so much into the market, so I have to ask myself, “Although it would make more sense to put this half a million into the market, let it generate income, but how do you feel, Tiffany?” The condo has an HOA fee of 1,200 or 1,300 and plus taxes, so it’s going to be additional $2,000 a month, which is not a ton of money. But on top of that, I was like, I also don’t want another $2,500 mortgage to go from no monthly income for housing to $5,000 a month. It just didn’t sit well.

So, I just said, you know what? I’m going to do this even though I know the financial component says this, but my emotional financial component says this would make me feel better. If I’m feeling stable later, not stable, not that I’m not stable, but if I’m feeling better later, I could do a cash-out refi when interest rates are more reasonable. Because also the interest rates weren’t that great. So, I’m like, “Who’s trying to owe when the interest rates were 7% when I purchase?” I could do a cash-out refi, pull $200,000-300,000 out, pay the mortgage on that, and then put the money in the market. So, it’s not like the money is lost to me. Sometimes you make ch
oices that make financial sense for you, and that’s okay.

Tori Dunlap:

Totally. Yeah. And especially with you, you have the financial flexibility to be able to make those choices. Totally.

Tiffany, I’m so excited to have you back. You are our first repeat guest on this show.

Tiffany Aliche:

Really?

Tori Dunlap:

Yes. I am so appreciative of your friendship and your advice as a business owner and a financial expert. Your episode was so well received by our community. So, we’re just really excited to have you back.

We started asking this question in season two for our money experts, and I wanted to ask you what your first money memory is. What is the first time you can remember thinking about money?

Tiffany Aliche:

The first money memory I had was I had to been like four or five. I remember that I had this obsession with running the water in the house. I don’t know why. I guess that was feng shui before… I know. My dad would be so mad because I would go into the bathroom, turn on the water on the faucet, and then he’d be like, “You can’t do that.” I’m like, “I am and I will, and I will throw a temper tantrum if you turn it off.” So, they were like, “What do we do with this Tiffany?”

But I’m one of five girls. We didn’t grow up with a ton of money like most folks, and my parents are immigrants from Nigeria. But during the summertime, one of the pleasures of the summertime was that you could get ice cream from the ice cream truck, which is about a dollar. But because there were five of us, he couldn’t do $5 every single time. So, he would let us rotate and, “Oh, it’s your turn and then it’s your turn.” But then, the other daughters would go in the house and get ice cream from the freezer. My mom always would get the ice cream cones. It’s not like you didn’t get ice cream, you just didn’t get from the truck.

Just so you know, my dad, he’s retired now, but he’s got his bachelor’s in finance; his master’s in economics. He’s my first financial teacher. He was a CFO, an accountant, all the things. And so, he figured out quickly, “How do I tie my financial desires of lowering the water bill with Tiffany’s financial desires of getting ice cream?”

One day, it was my turn. I heard the ice cream man coming, ran in the house, said, “Daddy, it’s my day. Can I have my dollar? The ice cream man is coming.” And he said, “You just missed the water man.” And I was like, “I don’t care about him. I need my dollar.” And he was like, “No, every time you run the water, we have to pay the water, man.” And I was like, “Okay.” And he was like, “Well, I didn’t have any money, so I had to give him your ice cream dollar.” I had a heart attack. I had a heart attack. I said, “But I don’t… I don’t… Wait. What?” And he said, “Yeah, that’s why I was trying to tell you not to keep the water running because the water man had to come and get your dollar.” Do you know, to this day, I still don’t like running water too long?

Tori Dunlap:

Because the water man’s going to come and take your money.

Tiffany Aliche:

But how genius was that? Instead of yelling at me, spanking me, whatever, he was like, “Her financial goals don’t align with mine, but I know how to do so. Ice cream is her financial goal. And if I make my financial goal of the water bill, the ice cream bill, bet you she stop.” I mean, I stopped so fast. It was to the point where I told my sister, “Turn the water off!”

Tori Dunlap:

You’re like, “I’m not showering for weeks.”

Tiffany Aliche:

So, that was my first memory of money, that the choices you make have consequences. So, that was the lesson that I learned.

Tori Dunlap:

It’s really about values-based spending. Yes, you need water. That is a necessity. Let me be clear. But also, what we talk about all the time is budgets are not deprivation tools. They’re the thing that you do in order to say, “Oh, I can afford this, and I’m not going to spend money on this so I can spend money on the things that I really love.” And for you, it’s like ice cream. It’s like, how much ice cream can I get? Okay, that might mean I’m not spending my money somewhere else so I can get the thing that I really want.

Tiffany Aliche:

Exactly.

Tori Dunlap:

Yeah, I love that.

Last time you joined us, we talked about the un and unbanked community in the United States, and specifically how that affects people of color. What has changed since we had that discussion in 2021, if anything?

Tiffany Aliche:

Honestly, I feel like it just always gets worse for people who are already disenfranchised. What I’ve seen change in the community is that there are way more people helping, which I’m glad for. I’ve never seen more people of color in the financial education space, which is great. But the numbers are not shifting in the background. If anything, net worth is down. Still struggling with the fact that there’s this racial wealth gap, largely due to homeownership. That has not increased, especially now with interest rates so high. Also, too, it’s not like people are making more money.

Whenever they show the stats of for every dollar that a man makes, every woman makes 75 cents. What they mean is every white woman makes 75 cents. For Black women, it’s less; for Native American women, it’s even less; for Spanish women it’s even less. And so, those things have not shifted.

But what gives me some hope is that the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs are women of color, specifically Black women. Because you start to understand that, “I actually have to be the change. No one is going to come save me.” No one is going to come save me. So, I love that that shift is happening, that there is a shift as it relates to Black women seeing an increase as a result of them saying, you know what? I’m going to create my own opportunities. We all know that when women have opportunities, they tend to give more opportunities to other women.

So, I’m hoping that that will… Because the small business is still the financial backbone of the United States. And so, if we can permeate small business, I think we can shift the trajectory of poor people getting poorer and disenfranchised people getting even more disenfranchised.

Tori Dunlap:

Well, and I think you realized at some point that, yes, we are all participating in the system and we also understand that the system needs to change at the same time. I think one of the easiest things that we can do actively
to start changing things is creating our own table, building our own table, whether that’s a business or some sort of a DEI community in your company, but as opposed to working to continue to build a table that is already broken, it’s like, okay, how do we build our own in the hopes of repairing all of the tables, I guess. I don’t know. I’m trying to, trying to keep the metaphor going, but it’s-

Tiffany Aliche:

No, but I understand what you mean because the truth of the matter is I was going to be a preschool teacher for the rest of my life. That was the plan. I was like, “I love teaching. I love the babies.” Then the recession shifted that plan. I was fortunate to stumble onto entrepreneurship, but that’s why I love how you own, because I used to be shy about saying I’m a millionaire. I’d be like, “Oh, I’m a baby millionaire.” What does that even mean? Are you a millionaire or you not? So now I’m like, no, I’m a big girl milk. I am a multi-millionaire. But I don’t know that that happens for preschool teacher Tiffany, at least not at this age, that maybe because I was a good saver and I did tutoring and babysitting on the side, and maybe by the time I retired, I would’ve been a millionaire. But certainly not by 37 is when I became a millionaire.

I lost my job when I was like 29, 30, and then 37, it took me some time to get my businesses together to where I could figure out how to make money. But I don’t know if that happens for preschool teacher Tiffany. But as a result, I have been able to help so many other women, and a friend of mine the other day, she always says, “I want you to be my mentor.” And I’m like, “Girl, I’m not your mentor.” She was like, “When I met you, do you know I was negative six figures in my business?” I was like, “Oh, I didn’t know that.” We talked about her business a lot and we met up regularly because she had all these questions and she was like, “Then two years later, I’m at 2.5 million.” I was like, “What the hell did I say?”

No. But I know we talk, but that’s what this type of success allows you to do, is that now because of the knowledge and the access and things like that, I then now pour into especially other women, but this is what I’ve known. I’ve since helped so many other women grow their businesses to six figures and beyond.

Tori Dunlap:

I didn’t plan on talking about this with you, but you unlocked something for me, something that I’m kind of struggling with lately. I am very transparent of my financial journey started with my 100K, obviously. That 100K came from me doing corporate. I was saving a percentage of my corporate pay, but it was also because Her First $100K was starting to make some money and I was able to save that. That was my side hustle. Then I went from a 100K to being a millionaire in, oh, gosh, a year-and-a-half.

Tiffany Aliche:

That’s crazy.

Tori Dunlap:

It happened quick. It’s really difficult for me because I very much acknowledged, like you just did, that I would not have gotten there as quickly as I did had I not started business. Now, I took on a lot of risk to do that. There was a lot of work that went into it. There’s also this level of some people just don’t want to be entrepreneurs, and you can become financially stable. It just might take you longer. I’m trying to figure out the balance between being, like, yeah, entrepreneurship was kind of the thing for me, and if you want to do it that quickly, that might be the only way to do it. But also, there’s a ton of people who don’t end up making it as entrepreneurs or who don’t want to do that. And it’s like, it’s very nuanced as all of these things are with how do I continue to give people hope for their current situation or for a possibly better situation, while also acknowledging that’s like, yeah, millionaire at 28, we got there that quickly because I started a business that ended up becoming successful.

Tiffany Aliche:

Well, I’ll say this. One of the things I tell people all the time is, first of all, one, yes, I make seven figures a year take home. I’m not talking about… My business obviously makes multiple, but as take home, Tiffany, I make seven figures. I live off of about 100,000 give or take, maybe 150. So, I tell people all the time, you don’t actually got to be a millionaire to be okay. One, I want you to think I’m still wearing my Target’s best.

But the truth is, preschool teacher Tiffany was on track to also be financially secure. At my peak, I was making between $50,000 or 60,000 a year. I was really mindful. I was renting this really cute house with my sister. So, I had a roommate and then I saved up like 30,000, and I was able to put a down payment on a condo. Then I still rented out to my sister, which helped significantly with the mortgage. I had saved when I was in college. My last year in college, I saved $2,500 or $3,000 or $4,000 and I got myself a little car. I was saving. I was maxing out my 403b because I was a teacher and I was learning to invest. So, preschool teacher Tiffany would’ve still been financially secure, and by now, maybe as a preschool teacher, I would’ve been making maybe 80 or 90, give or take, because it’s about years in.

I just say all that to say when I teach financial education, it’s not from the space of get like me, make millions because one, you don’t even necessarily need to, but it is that no matter where you are, you can reach what I like to call financial wholeness, which is a solid financial background where you have these 10 components of your financial life, budgeting, savings, debt, credit, investing, insurance, net worth, estate planning. You have these core financial things in place where you and your family will be more than okay. And for people who do want to start businesses, that’s why I mentor because there are women who are like, “I actually do want to take the leap. I do want to start a business.” It’s not guaranteed you’re going to grow wealthy with a business, but certainly, it can fast-track you.

Tori Dunlap:

Yeah. In our research, we learned that you said you felt more complete before achieving financial independence. Let’s talk about that.

Tiffany Aliche:

Well, now I’m 100% financially whole, but when I was a preschool teacher, I was on it. Financial wholeness is budgeting, savings, debt, credit, learning to earn, investing, net worth, insurance, your financial team and estate-planning. Those are the 10 components. When I was a preschool teacher, I was rocking out those 10 components based upon my salary. Like my dad would say, he just said this to me the other day, he’s the king of metaphors: You cut your coat according to your size. So, for a preschool teacher, estate planning looked like, I was like 22, 23 when I first started, that my mom was my beneficiaries on my bank accounts and things. That’s estate planning.

When I started to make money, those 10 components, I was still living those 10 components as if I was making my $40,000 or $50,000 a year and not what I was making as this budding millionaire at the time. I had this term life insurance policy for $300,000 to cover my condo if something would’ve happened to me. But now, I’m like, you have way more real estate now. You don’t have enou
gh that if something were to happen to cover. I didn’t have the financial team I needed for where I was as this budding millionaire. I had the financial team I had when I was making 60,000, but I needed a financial planner that worked with people who have wealth.

So, that’s the thing that it was like there was a gap of maybe four or five years where I was not, although I had money, I didn’t have financial wholeness in that. I had a budget and I didn’t have any debt. But it’s like, “Girl, you don’t have your team. Your estate plan is not where it ought to be. The way you’re invested doesn’t make sense for where you are now.” And so, it took me a little while, but now I am fully financially whole, where it’s like my coat is cut exactly according to my size of where I am now. Now I know that when it’s next time for me to elevate to the next level, because I can sense that it’s coming financially, that I know that you have to adjust these components of the financial wholeness scale to adjust to where you are now.

Tori Dunlap:

Yeah. That’s super applicable to anybody listening, also applicable to me where I’m even doing a mental checklist in my head where I’m going, “Oh, yep, haven’t updated that since I was making different money in 2018, 2019. Okay. Probably about time to do that.” Well, and it’s proof that even financial experts like us, it’s really difficult to keep on track of all of these financial tasks and to keep doing that. I joke all the time, there’s mistakes I make about money even now as someone who writes and speaks and coaches about money for a living. There’s things that are on my to-do list still all the time that I’m either avoiding or just haven’t had time to do.

Tiffany Aliche:

Because they say doctors make the worst patients, right?

Tori Dunlap:

Right. Right. What is it? Cobbler’s shoes… What is that? I don’t remember.

Tiffany Aliche:

Have holes in it or something like that.

Tori Dunlap:

Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yep. Totally. Another accomplishment and exciting thing since you last came on the show, your law got passed, which is so fucking cool. Can you quickly sum up what the law is and what the process was for getting it passed? Because it’s actually something that we’ve started to explore here at Her First $100K is using our voice to affect policy. So, talk to me about that.

Tiffany Aliche:

It’s called The Budgetnista Law A1414. The law is to make financial education mandatory for middle school students in the state of New Jersey. How it came about is a woman, she’s an assembly woman now, Angela V. McKnight, used to take some of my classes when I taught at the United Way Financial Education at the United Way for the Community. She is just so community-based. Someone suggested she run for office of Jersey City, and she won.

But she reached out to me right away because we stayed connected. It was like, “I want to really work on education laws, and I’m reaching out to people I know who care, and I want to get a law passed about financial education.” I said, “Well, New Jersey already has a law in place,” a weak one, but still a law in place for high school students. But I think it should start sooner. I think it should start in elementary school and middle school. What happens is, is that you have to connect with a lawmaker or someone who can help, whether it’s a assemblywoman or whoever, your senator, someone who is going to be able to craft this kind of pre-bill. Then what they do is they have to find someone who’s going to sponsor.

So if you’re smart, let’s just say Assemblywoman V. McKnight, she’s a Democrat, but she also looked across the aisle to say, “Hey, would you want to sponsor this bill, too?” That way, when it’s time for voting, we’re all in agreement. And so she did that. But then she also have to pass through what they call committee. This was the education committee. These are people who kind of have a say like, “Oh, yes, no.” There was a little bit of pushback of is elementary school too young. So, that happened. Then it goes to the House and gets voted on, and then it went to the Senate, of your state, to get voted on. And then it went to the governor. And at the time, the governor, Governor Christie, did not sign it into law because he’s-

Tori Dunlap:

Wow, I’m shocked.

Tiffany Aliche:

I know, because he’s a dick. Anyway.

Tori Dunlap:

He sucks.

Tiffany Aliche:

But thankfully… We went back, you have to literally… Our governor now, Governor Murphy, when he came into office the next year, you have to literally go through the same process again. Unfortunately, that’s when they really pushed back on the elementary school side. They only let the middle school side pass through, which I was like, “Fine, whatever.” And he signed it. So, that was awesome.

So, that’s really what it takes, is that working with find your local lawmaker and say, “Hey, this is something that is important to me.” Angela would say, “Hey, get all the dream catchers to send an email to this person so they could see how many people are… This is important to them.” We would do that. Sometimes I would go actually to the Senate floor, House, and then I would testify, to say, “This is why this is so important.” Honestly, it was awesome to see, and I’m working on something now because the appraisal process in New Jersey is inherently racist.

Tori Dunlap:

Right. We talked about that in the first episode.

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah. At first I was complaining. I was like, “It’s not like I can write a law.” I was actually talking to Angela. She was like, “Yeah, we can.” I’m like, “Oh, wait.” I was like, “Oh, wait.” So, there is something in where we’re… I think it’s… I don’t know if it’s in the bill stage yet or it’s like pre-bill. But before the pandemic happened, we were working on that, or during the pandemic, because I myself was a victim of an appraiser under-appraising my property.

When you think of the racial wealth gap, think about that. For most people, their property is where the majority of their wealth is housed, if you own a home or you own property. So, if you tell me my $500,000 property is worth 250,000, you’ve cut my net worth in half. Then think about that. Tiffany times millions of other Tiffanies. And then you’re like, “Well, how come this community doesn’t have any money?” If you’re undervaluing our property, and then we’re not paid equitably at work. So, it’s the things that we own are worth less and then we’re also paid less. Of course, there’s a racial wealth gap, at least in the state of New Jersey, at least as it relates to housing and homes and how they’re appraised. We’re working on making that illegal to appraise in a way that wo
uld under-appraise properties with people of color.

Tori Dunlap:

Let us know when that starts becoming a bill and we will advocate our communities to support it as well.

Tiffany Aliche:

I love that. Thank you.

Tori Dunlap:

Yeah. Another exciting update for you. You had a documentary on Netflix come out. I know it can feel sometimes when we’re watching any sort of reality TV or reading articles about money, watching YouTube videos about money, there’s this feeling of like, “Okay, well they can do that, but I can’t,” for whatever reason. Like, “Okay, that person, that’s their reality, but I have student debt, or I have a different financial situation than them.” What do you hope that someone takes from your advice, specifically on the documentary?

Tiffany Aliche:

I have to say I was really pleased with the way it came out with Netflix because it’s called Get Smart With Money. Because I was afraid. I knew I showed up with kindness. That’s one. But I wasn’t sure because they don’t let you see until a couple days before.

Tori Dunlap:

Right. The edit. Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah. I was like, “Please. But everyone else was super kind.” I hope the biggest thing that take you take away is that you can relate to someone there. I loved Ariana, who was a dream catcher and she was a woman who I helped, because there were four other people or couples that were struggling with their finances. Was it four? 1, 2, 3… I think. Yeah, three or four.

Tori Dunlap:

I think you were the fourth, right?

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah. So yeah, three others.

Tori Dunlap:

It was four total.

Tiffany Aliche:

Mm-hmm. And then three other financial experts that helped them, like Mr. Money Mustache, Paula Pant, Ross Mac. What I hope people took away is that the biggest struggle that Ariana was having was her mindset. She was filled with so much shame. I mean, the way she used to talk about herself on and off camera about the mistakes she made… I mean, we would just cry sometimes, the both of us together, because I’m a big baby. If you cry, I cry. Because I was like, “Ariana, you didn’t kick anybody’s puppy. You made financial mistakes because you didn’t have the knowledge.”

Tori Dunlap:

Right. You’re trying your best. Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche:

Yes. Because she was a wife, she had these two beautiful little kids, and she was just like, “I just feel like I’m failing everyone. I’m failing myself. I’m a bad person.” I guess the thing that I was so proud about was that afterwards… Ariana did the best because that’s what we do around here. She saved the most and paid off the most debt than everyone, not that it was a competition, but you know.

Tori Dunlap:

But it was. Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche:

But my proudest moment was afterward, she and I did an IG Live recap so people could see her and they asked, “How are you?” And she had gotten, I don’t know, she had got injured, broke her foot or something. So, she had been out of work for a little bit and she said some of her credit card debt came back. Not all of it, but some of it. I was like, “How are you feeling?” She was like, “Honestly, I don’t feel bad about it because I already know here’s how to pay it.” I almost wept tears of joy because I don’t think she saw that was not you before. It would’ve been, “I’m terrible; I’m bad. I’m a bad mom. I’m a bad wife. I’m a bad person.” It was like, “I already know the steps to take in order to remedy this.” It was just, “I was temporarily out of work, but now I’m back.” And so-

Tori Dunlap:

Right. And something out of my control happened. Okay. Couldn’t do anything about it, but I can control as much as I can of navigating my way out of it. Amazing.

Tiffany Aliche:

That was amazing. To me, the point for me is not the money. The point for me is I want you changed so you can make better choices for you.

Tori Dunlap:

Yep. Yeah. I wrote, obviously, a book, and then the entire first chapter I’ve talked about many times on this show is… I said that so weird. I’m like, “I wrote a book, obviously.” No. But the entire first chapter is about the emotions of money and the psychology of money. I know you and I share that perspective of, I can’t teach you how to pay off debt. I can’t teach you how to get a budget together because you will sabotage yourself later if you don’t understand all of the narratives you’re believing either about yourself or about money or about people with money. It’s like you have to start there. And that’s the messy fucking work that is not sexy to show.

That’s one of the things that I thought was so interesting because we’re starting to talk about pitching TV shows and that sort of thing. It’s a really interesting concept to show, of course, money coaching. It’s so necessary, but it’s not like Queer Eye where they get a new house. They get a new living room. They get a new haircut. They get new fashion and suddenly they’re a different person. These things take a long time. So, for you, was that a little bit of a struggle in how do we portray this change if we’re just like… It’s not like they got highlights. They have to go pay off their debt.

Tiffany Aliche:

It was a year. That’s the thing. They take with us for a year and some change because you’re right, in six weeks, you’re not likely to pay off $60,000. That’s what I think she paid off. So, it was a year and some change. That is the challenge of financial shows because I’ve definitely had major meetings and that’s kind of like how do we show the transformation at the end without it taking two years? That’s really the challenge.

But I’m glad that Netflix knew that it was going to take time, and then invested that year so we can pour into our person. She and I are still cool. She lives in Jersey and she’s just awesome. So, if you haven’t watched Get Smart with Money, you ought to. Even if you don’t relate to Ariana, there are three other people and there’s a couple there that you might say, “Wow, that’s me. I could use that advice.”

Tori Dunlap:

A lot has changed for you in the past couple years. You’ve had a lot of really exciting career and lif
e milestones and unfortunately, some really devastating ones as well. I’m tearing up. You lost your partner. I think from talks with you personally and also from interviews you’ve given, it really changed the trajectory of your life. As vulnerable as you’re willing to be, can you talk to me and dive into that a little bit? I think many people can relate to just a really difficult few years with a lot of loss and a lot of grief and just trying to wade their way through it all.

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah. It was really hard because it was so sudden. My husband Jerrell, he was only 41. It was an aneurysm. Literally, he called me and was like, “Babe, I got this rocking headache. I’m going to go to the emergency room.” If you knew Jerrell, you knew that that was so him. You know some men don’t like to go to the doctor? He went to the doctor for everything. I used to be like, “It’s just your pinky toe.” “You never know.” When he said, “I have a headache, I’m going to the emergency room.” I slightly was like, “Okay.”

I remember I was supposed to do a speaking engagement for this major bank in the city, and the car was waiting outside for me because I’d gotten ready and something said, “You should go to the emergency room.” Even though it’s a headache, something just doesn’t sit right. I called my admin and I was like, “Tell the bank I’m not coming,” even though literally I was the speaker. But I was just like, “No, nothing. Whatever. They could take their money back. This is more important.” So I actually asked the driver downstairs… Because I came downstairs… I guess I was frantic. Sometimes your inner knows before your outer knows.

Tori Dunlap:

Yes.

Tiffany Aliche:

I was frantic and I must have looked frantic because when I came down, I called the driver downstairs and said, “Hey, I’m actually not going to go. My husband’s in the hospital and I’m just going to go see him.” When I came downstairs, I must have looked disheveled. And the guy, when I saw him, he was still there. I was like, “Bruh, I’m not going to the event.” He’s like, “I know. I’m going to take you to the hospital.” I remember I was like, “What?” He was just like, “You shouldn’t go by yourself; you shouldn’t drive.” And I was just like… Like I said, he must have just heard in my voice I could not have driven, although I did not know that at the time.

So, he went with me to the hospital and then he waited there, which I’m like, “He’s such…” I still to this day cannot remember his name, but he was like an angel. He waited there until my family came. At the time, we’re just like-

Tori Dunlap:

If you are listening, good sir, wow, thank you. That’s… Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche:

I just thought to myself… At the time, you’re worried. But I wasn’t super worried. He was talking. He was just like, “My head hurts so much.” A few years prior, Jerrell had an aneurysm that he tripped and he hit his head, and when he went to the doctor, they’re like, “Okay, well, there’s nothing wrong. You hit your head. There’s nothing wrong. But we do see this kind of latent aneurysm.”

For those of you who don’t know, an aneurysm is like… I want you to think of a balloon. You know the balloons that they use to make the animals? They’re long and skinny. Your vein is similar to that animal balloon before it’s blown up. You know how a balloon pops because it’s usually you can tell the section of the balloon that’s going to pop because it’s slightly raised because there’s a weak spot in the balloon. That’s what happens. That aneurysm is that weak spot in the balloon; that’s your vein. The blood is flowing back and forth, back and forth all the time. If you do not clip it or reinforce it, then your vein will pop and then the blood will just come gushing out, and most people die within minutes because you don’t even know what’s happening because aneurysms are silent killers, typically. You don’t have headaches; you don’t have anything.

Him hitting his head before was not why he had the aneurysm. He just tripped and fell, and they were like, “Wait a minute, did you know you have an aneurysm?” They did surgery right away. He was out of work for a few months, full recovery. It was fine. It didn’t even click to me when he said he had a headache that it could be another aneurysm because that’s how fine he was. So, when we got there, they were like, “We think it might be another aneurysm.” Honestly at the time, I was like, “Okay, been here before. It’s going to be scary surgery. He’s going to be home, bitching and moaning. That’s fine. And then he’s going to be fine because he was fine before,” because even the doctor was like, “The fact that you’re talking,” the doctor said, “You look better than me. You’ll be fine.”

They did the surgery the next morning; they called me and said it went great. I said, “Great, I’m on my way.” I got there and he wasn’t really himself. He didn’t even recognize me. He was really lethargic. I’m like, “Is he still on anesthesia? I thought… It’s been about an hour.” And they were like, “No, he shouldn’t be slurring. He shouldn’t be…” And so they rushed and he was still bleeding. They raced him into surgery and that was it. He was here on a Monday and gone on Thursday. It’s still so crazy to me that like… He wasn’t some 95-year-old. My dad is in his 80s and you know that it’s coming because he’s in his 80s. But you don’t suspect that your partner who’s 41 is not going to be here just like that. It was just… I mean, I’m still reeling. I don’t know what I people do without therapy because that’s what saved my life.

But I will say that the other thing that helped significantly is the financial foundation that we set. I don’t know what we would’ve done because, one, if I’m being honest, I was one of the financial educators. I was like, “Eh, financial advisor. I guess, girl.” But the truth is, if I had not… Jerrell and I started working with Anjali, my financial advisor. She’s a certified financial planner, wealth planner. She also has her CPA, which I love because she is an accountant by trade as well. So, she helps me with my business as well as us personally. We’ve been working with her for three years, and we were about 80 to 90% all the way together.

When Jerrell passed away, I called her within a week or whatever. One, she’s just super kind. This is why I love working with women. She created a list for me that I did not know. She met up with all my other financial team, my CFO, my attorney, my accountant. They worked together behind the scenes as to not bother me to get my “what does the financial life look like for Tiffany now.” She would only tell me bits and pieces, like, “You need to call his job because he had a pension and you’re the beneficiary as well as your stepdaughter, and this is how much it is and what they’re going to be sending.” She would just give me bits and pieces, things I could not have known.

Tori Dunlap:

Very digestible as opposed to-

Tiffany Aliche:

Yes.

Tori Dunlap:

Yeah. Wow. What a gift.

Tiffany Aliche:

But she also, there were things… Like the first year-and-a-half of working with her, she just kept asking us for homework, “Bring me this, bring me that.” Like, oh, gosh. But thank God, because she knew where everything was. She was able to tell me what to do, who had what, how much. “I can make that call for you.” I cannot express to you. I would still be digging my way out because, candidly, our last conversation with her… Jerrell passed away in November of 2021. We had a meeting with her in October and she was like, “You guys are dragging your feet onto these wheels,” because you’re like, “I’m young.” And I was like, “Okay, okay, okay, we’re going to get it done.” So, he passed. He did not have a will. But because we had done the other financial plans, I knew exactly what he wanted and beneficiary forms were in place. All these other forms were in place where, although a will would’ve been helpful, it wasn’t as necessary because we had done just about 80% of everything else.

I’m just so grateful because I get to just miss my husband. I don’t get to miss my husband and my house and the income and the… You know what I mean? Like so many people. Women later would hit me up and just say, “My husband died and I lost my house, too, and I can’t afford the car, and I don’t know how I’m going to survive.” And that is not-

Tori Dunlap:

I don’t know the logins to anything and I don’t know what investment decisions he was making.

Tiffany Aliche:

And I knew everything. The key is with your partner. If you’re not partnered, your sibling is your partner, your bestie, whoever, someone at the very least, two keys that will help to make sure everyone has everything they need is the password to your laptop and the password to your phone. Because anything that I didn’t know, they’re going to send, “Hey, you can reset the password. We’re going to send you a link to your phone.” So, make sure that you keep that person’s phone going at least a year when they’re not here because it will unlock everything. Then their laptop as well. But I already had all of the access. Something that helped, too, is something happens to your loved one. It’s always good to have at least one joint account. We had a joint checking, a joint savings, and then our own checking and savings.

So, I was able to transfer that money over from his personal savings and checking to the joint. Then the joint to me, because once the bank finds out your person is not here, they’re going to lock your money up. It’s just going to be a nightmare to get it. But it’s not illegal to do that. A person can transfer money to themselves and then you can pull it out. So, that was one of the things that Anjali told me, “Do that now, because within a few days, they’ll know that he’s not here.” You don’t want to have to worry about trying to unlock that money because we have a bonus daughter, and this is money that I wanted to set aside for her.

Make sure your name is on everything. One of the mistakes that we made is that we bought a city-owned property maybe five years ago, and the city, for whatever reason at the time, said “Both of your names, the property contract that you’re signing, you can’t both be on it.” Which I was like, “Why?” But they were like, “Just go get the title changed the next week.” Totally forgot. That was five years ago. We renovated this property, put all his money into it, was going to rent it out, and then it turns out only his name was on the property because I totally forgot.

In the state of New Jersey, if you are legally partnered, meaning like husband, husband, wife and wife, husband and wife, if you are legally partnered and both of you are on the title of a property, you actually don’t inherit a property because the state of New Jersey said both of you own 100%. That means Jerrell passed away and the house that I live in now, we don’t have a mortgage or anything on this house, bought it out in cash. So, when he’s not here, I own 100% percent of this house. So did he. I don’t actually inherit it. I don’t have to worry about inheritance tax. It’s one of the other ways-

Tori Dunlap:

Got it. Got it.

Tiffany Aliche:

… that they let you… But because of the other house, only his name is on it, then that meant it went basically 50% to me, 50% to his daughter. But we’re inheriting. Even though it’s like, “Damn it, that’s my house!” I don’t mind the part of splitting it with his daughter, but now you worry about now there’s potentially for me to pay taxes on a house that was my house as well. So, that was a mistake that we’d made along with not having the will. Thankfully, he had a identical twin, Terrell. Jerrell and Terrell, which is such a twin thing. Terrell, who had been looking to purchase a home, and I said, “Do you want to buy your brother’s house?” Which he was like, “I would love nothing better.” I sold it to him at market rate, and then I put the rest of the money up for my stepdaughter, Alyssa, for college. She doesn’t have to worry about college at all or a house after. That’s what we wanted for her.

Those are some of the financial choices and just some of the personal choices that I’m so glad that we did that we took a ton of pictures. Jerrell’s mother passed away when he was in his 20s and he would always say, “I wish I had more picture and video of her.” And so, he made a concerted effort because he was like a secret vlogger. I had no idea. His phone was filled with pictures and video. He would just be like, “Hey, it’s me, Jerrell, just cleaned the car today. Tiffany made salmon. I’m so excited. Life is good.” And I’m like, “What is this?” But it was the sweetest thing because if I need to hear Jerrell say, “I love you,” I can watch him say that. If I need to hear him say my name, I can hear him say it. If I need to hear him laugh. There are thousands of pictures and video in his phone.

Every time someone came to the hospital when we knew he wasn’t going to make it, I would take their phone. Google photos is the best. I would find a picture. I said, “Do you have a picture of him in your phone?” “Yes.” I would find their picture. With Google, you can say, “Find this face in your picture, in your photo album, and add it to this joint album.” There’s pictures I’d never seen before when he was six years old up until 41. We have 5,000 pictures, videos, and it’s just the most beautiful thing, that when I’m really missing him, I watch the videos; I look at the pictures. I’m so grateful that we have those candid video and picture of him.

Right away afterward, I made sure I got my will done. We had been working on a trust. My trust is now done. Actually, I’m just waiting for the paperwork to come so I can get it notarized because if something happened to me, I want to make sure that my family is not scrambling. I got one of these fireproof bags where I keep all that paperwork because my dad was like, “Oh, I keep everything at the safety deposit box at the bank.” I’m like, “Yeah, but the bank is not going to let me get it because I have to have the papers to say I am the trustee.” So, I got them. My parents, their will was so old it said I was like six years old in it. So, I forced them to update their will. Now, all that stuff is in a fireproof bag for like 20 bucks off Amazon. And mine as well.

I talked candidly with my family. Jerrell was a organ donor, although it was not on his license because just the month of prior, Alyssa was asking him, “Daddy, how come you don’t have organ donor on your license?” And he was like, “Oh, I’m suspicious. I don’t want people taking my organs.” But he was like, “If something happens to me, you can donate whatever organs you want,” because he was the most generous, the kindest.

There is nobody that Jerrell did not look after, from the neighbors across the street… The day after he passed away, this little old lady came to the house and was like, “Is this the house where that…” My husband was 6′ 6″, “where that tall gentleman passed away?” I thought she was lost. I was just like, “Yeah.” She was like, “Oh, I’m so sorry. He used to help me rake my leaves and mow the lawn.” I had no idea. But that was so him. I can just imagine him riding down the street, seeing this little old lady raking her leaves and him saying, “No, no, no, no, no. Let me pull over. Do you want me to… I’ll come every week and do it.” But that was him.

His homegoing had hundreds of people. It could have had hundreds more if I made it even more open just because he helped so many people. He was just the most generous, kind, just so loving. I was so well-loved, so well-loved. I don’t even know how he managed. Everyone felt special. I’m like, “How are you looking after all these people?” I was like, “This is why you didn’t have any money.” Because I was always like, “Babe, we cannot give away everything.”

The loss is not just mine, it’s the loss to the community. People still hit me up and just say, “Your husband was my work son. He made sure I ate,” or, “Your husband, I used to sleep on his couch when I got kicked out of my mom’s house.” So, we all just miss him so much. But I’m really just grateful of the financial foundation that we created. I get to just do that.

I took two months off and went to Bali for two months after he passed away. I couldn’t have done that if I didn’t have this financial foundation because I could not manage. I was like, “I need to get away from everyone and everything. I cannot manage here in New Jersey.” So, I was able to take two months off and then another six months off of work and let my team do whatever they needed to do to support the business. I could not do that without a strong financial foundation. What it brought home, Tori, to me was that these lessons that we’re teaching, it’s not really about so you can get rich, whatever, it’s this. It’s when real shit happens, you and your family can still be okay.

Tori Dunlap:

I don’t really know what to say other than I am deeply, deeply, sorry. I appreciate you being so vulnerable and transparent that you felt safe enough to share. Thank you. I have not had anyone super close to me die, but when uncles, aunts have passed away, when my grandparents have died, you just realize, logistically speaking, beyond the emotional grief, there is just something so reassuring to know they have directions in place of what they would like for their body, for any sort of ceremony. We know what to do with their property, with their stuff, with their money. When you’re grieving emotionally, that is the stuff that you don’t want to have to worry about. It truly is the greatest gift you can give your family who will be in a really dark, terrible place, to just be like, “Yep, we handled all of the financial stuff. I handled all the financial stuff so you don’t have to worry about me.”

Tiffany Aliche:

I think people think, “Well, that’s easy for you to say, you’re a millionaire.” My husband never made more than $60,000 a year. Most of the things that he put in place were before we got together. So, this man who was making $60,000 a year, I’m talking about the insurance policies, the beneficiaries, all that stuff was there before we got together. It’s not from a place of… He left his daughter more than enough to pay for college and a house beyond that before we got together. I just want you to understand that this wasn’t millionaire Tiffany. Truthfully, when we work with Anjali, she was like, “You’re more of a mess, Tiffany. Jerrell got his stuff together.” I just want you to know that you don’t have to make a whole lot to leave your family not destitute when you’re not here.

I just wanted to reiterate that it wasn’t that he wasn’t a financial educator. He was a super for the city of Newark, and he was not wealthy and yet, still, he left us better financially. I think that’s the most important part because I think people think like, “Well, that’s because you have money.” But it wasn’t me, honestly. I was so proud of him. Once everything kind of rolled out and I was like, “Wow, babe. It’s like you knew because look what you’ve done for us. Everyone’s better.” I was like, “Your brother has a house. Alyssa will have one when she graduates. College is done. Your sister got something.” He just made sure that we’re all better as a result.

Tori Dunlap:

Yeah. Taken care of.

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah.

Tori Dunlap:

I want to be able to end this interview on a lighter note. You’re in your Rich Auntie era.

Tiffany Aliche:

I am.

Tori Dunlap:

And I fucking love that for you. What’s been life-giving about embracing this and what’s been difficult about Rich Auntie era?

Tiffany Aliche:

Rich Auntie era is like… I’m 43. My husband and I, we were trying to have a baby before he passed away. It didn’t happen. I’m not having kids now. I’m like, “I got my baby. Her name is Alyssa. She’s 16 going on 25.” Then I have my nieces and my nephew, and if anymore come, those are my babies. So I said, “I will forever be a Rich Auntie.” What that just means is that I am leaning into the tangible and intangible things that growing wealth can provide. I’ve already taken care of the safety and security. I paid off my parents’ house years ago. I told you the properties I own. I don’t have any mortgages on. But I took the whole month of March off because I can from business. They know, “Don’t hit me about anything unless it’s Oprah or Michelle Obama.” That’s literally my rule.

Tori Dunlap:

I have literally told my team very similar things. I took all of February off and I’m like, “Hi, you call me if something is burning on fire that you cannot fix yourself, or if Oprah calls.” That was [inaudible 00:52:06]

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah. Right. I took the whole month off, and then the first half of the month I spent in Egypt, which was so beautiful, life-changing, stepping into a history book that you can actually feel and touch and see. The second half, I spent walking, reading, talking to family and friends. I just got back because it’s now April. I plan on taking that three times a year, a full month off. I thought that I would make less as a result. We’re not. We’re making more. Actually, just had a call with my team about the B
udgetnista. Not so much my online school, but I was just like, “Wait, what? These projections are insane,” and I’m not working one-fourth of what I used to. I used to overwork and overwhelm as… That was just what I did. I don’t do that anymore.

Jerrell, my therapist calls it the gift of grief. It brought clarity that I’m not interested in overworking and overwhelming, that I want space. I want freedom. And so for Rich Auntie, I love the house that I live in now, but Jerrell and I renovated it from the top to the bottom. So every area of the house, it’s like a monument. I want to keep this house, and my I’m inviting my sister and her two kids to live here.

But I bought myself a condo, this beautiful 1920s condo, huge, 2,800 square feet, all one floor, four-and-a-half bedrooms, three-and-a-half bath. It’s beautiful. Huge picture frame window that frames New York City skyline. The sunsets are out of this world. I mean, the sun rises are out of it. I bought it; it was 520, purchased it cash, even though, like I said, my financial advisor was like, “I don’t advise purchasing it at cash,” just because I know I could put it into the market and make more, but I needed it for my own… I don’t want a mortgage. Plus, I out plenty into the market since I’m like, “I make seven figures a year. We good.”

That’s what it is. It’s just leaning in… It’s going on vacations. It’s eating well. It’s hanging out with family and friends whenever I want to. It’s working not even one-fourth of the time, but making two or three times what I made before. It’s leaning into the fact that I built this strong foundation, and I’ve always given back, but now more than ever, I have been mentoring. When you were like, “I have a book coming out,” I was like, “Ooh, say less. Let me tell you all that I learned that they’re not going to tell you.”

Tori Dunlap:

So helpful. So helpful.

Tiffany Aliche:

But I was like, “I want to do this in a more concrete space.” So, I started mentoring. I always mentor, to have about maybe 10 mentees that I talk to regularly on the phone, but I get asked all the time. So, I started officially mentoring. I started this mentor platform via Patreon where I mentor women in business in particular. You could have just started; you could be 10 years in business. You could be whatever. It’s just 10 bucks a month. But it’s an outlet for me to be able to pour into women all the lessons that I’ve learned. I made about $40 million in business since I’ve started, most of it in the last five years. I have a New York Times bestseller. I have my award-winning podcast, Brown Ambition. I’ve done successful Kickstarters. I launched a children’s book. I’ve self-published.

Tori Dunlap:

You got laws passed.

Tiffany Aliche:

Yes.

Tori Dunlap:

You’ve been busy.

Tiffany Aliche:

But I say all that to say because I was like, all of this knowledge… If you’re like, “Hey, I want to learn how to do this,” I’m like, “I’m likely to have done it,” and not just done it, I believe in good, great, and unicorn. Unicorn is the next level. I call my team the Unicorn Squad because they make magic happen every day. I always operate from a space of unicorn. If it’s good, okay, that’s great. Okay, no, we don’t do great. We do unicorn. And so in all those areas, I have reached the peak. I’m like, “Now I just want to share that knowledge.” So yeah, I’ve got this site… Well, it’s Patreon. MyMentorTiffany.com, and there’s about maybe 1,500 mentees in there. I go live once a month with them. But they do challenges with each other. They’re doing this first sale challenge for mentees who are just starting out. They’re helping each other get their first sale because you know how hard that is, their first kind of little bit of income.

To me, Rich Auntie era is enjoying life, but pouring into other people and enjoying the money a little bit more because I was never really good at that. I’m looking forward to what life brings next. I’m certainly not chasing. People ask me, “Are you going to have a show?” And I’m like, “Of it comes up,” but I’m not chasing it. If I don’t, I’ll still be rich. If I do, okay, I’ll still be rich.

So, for me, I just love… I want peace. I want serenity. I want some adventure with travel, and I want whatever good thing is laid before me. I don’t want to be a hindrance to that, and I want to pour into other people, especially other women.

Tori Dunlap:

I am so honored to know you, so honored to learn from you. Thank you for being here. People, please get Get Good with Money. It is so good. TheBudgetnista.com, question mark, right?

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah.

Tori Dunlap:

Yep. Where else can people find you?

Tiffany Aliche:

I’m the Budgetnista on all the platforms. I’m not Tori the TikTok queen. I talk on Tik, I’m like… But I’m the Budgetnista on TikTok, on Instagram, on Twitter. But yes, TheBudgetnista.com. My favorite part of the site for TheBudgetnista.com is, yes, you can get my book, Get Good with Money, but we have a tools and resources page that people find really helpful. If you want me to mentor you and you got 10 bucks a month, although the price is going to be doubling soon, but if you got 10 bucks a month, it’s MyMentorTiffany.com.

Tori Dunlap:

I love it. Thank you. Truly. Thank you.

Tiffany Aliche:

Yeah, you’re welcome.

Tori Dunlap:

Thank you a million times over to Tiffany Aliche for joining us. I know these episodes where we speak really candidly about loss and death and grief can be really difficult, but it’s so important to have things like a will and an estate plan in place, life insurance, all of these things that feel scary in the moment because you’re talking about death and it’s really uncomfortable to think about people dying, but it’s so necessary. I speak from both personal and professional experience. It’s so necessary to have these housekeeping things in order so that you can really give your loved ones this gift. It’s one of the most giving and unselfish things we can do, is make sure that our loved ones have a plan put together and are taken care of should they lose us. I hope after hearing Tiffany’s story, you’ll really consider it.

We’ll link in the show notes down below resources of recommended life insurance partners, more episodes about that, as well as more resources about getting an estate plan together and know it doesn’t cost a lot of money and know it doesn’t take you a lot of time. But it’s so important. I know I sound like a broken record, but truly, so important for your financial we
llness and health.

You can learn more about Tiffany at TheBudgetnista.com, and she has an incredible book called Get Good with Money that I own, is on my shelf, and is a great use of your money and time. We’ll be sure to link her Netflix show, the book, all of the things in our show notes.

Thank you as always for being here, financial feminists. Thank you not only for your support of the show, but for listening to episodes that are so helpful and also vulnerable and holding space for that. We so appreciate you listening and we’ll chat with you soon.

Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First $100K podcast. Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap, produced by Kristen Fields, marketing and administration by Karina Patel, Cherise Wade, Alena Helzer, Paulina Isaac, Sophia Cohen, Kahlil Demas, Elizabeth McCumber, Beth Bowen, and Amanda Lephew. Researched by Ariel Johnson. Audio engineering by Austin Fields. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton. Photography by Sarah Wolfe, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First $100K team and community for supporting the show. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First $100K, our guests and episode show notes, visit FinancialFeministPodcast.com or follow us on Instagram @FinancialFeministPodcast.