Happy Valentine's Day, Baller Fam! This is Part 2 of our 2-Part Valentine's Day special with my friend and personal finance blogger Cassandra Bustamante, mastermind behind The Wealth Vineyard, a personal finance blog focused on crypto, investing, side hustles, and financial freedom. In Part 1 (Episode 8), Cassandra and I discussed some common frustrations people have with this holiday and how unreasonably pricy it can be for the amount of stress it can induce.

Now that we've covered the female perspective of Valentine's Day, we're curious to hear about the male perspective of this holiday. Join us in today's episode as we call 3 of my trusted straight guy friends to get their thoughts about Valentine's Day and what their experiences and expectations are. This episode is filled with comedic worst-case scenarios, some of our real-world experiences, and some serious thoughts about gender roles reinforced by the binary lens of Valentine's Day.

In This Episode:

• Jon’s budget-friendly musical Valentine gift (2:52)
• Who does Jon feel should pay for the day? (5:02)
• Is dinner at home and lovemaking enough for men on Valentine’s Day? (6:08)
• Aileen’s accidental Valentine’s date (9:02)
• Chibuzo’s at-home Nigerian cuisine experience (12:20)
• If I pay for the date, I can guarantee a good experience with my preferences (13:36)
• Chibuzo’s budget-friendly Valentine’s Day tip: steal flowers (15:46)
• Chibuzo’s $150 Valentine’s date (18:04)
• Michael’s broke romantic date on the beach (25:16)
• The original idea behind Valentine’s Day is chivalrous men pursuing women (26:11)
• Is splitting the bill less romantic? (28:03)
• How a man’s pride can be affected by picking up the bill (29:08)
• Who started the unrealistic luxurious expectations on Valentine’s Day? (31:56)
• Is Guylentine’s Day becoming a trend for men like Galentine’s Day for women? (33:46)
• How Michael would turn $100-$200 roses into a tax write-off (36:26)
• The nightmare scenario: your expensive date makes your credit card decline (38:14)

Episode Notes:

• Valentine's Day Spending: How Much Do People Spend In The Name of Love? (Fully Vested)
• Inflation means price jumps for dinner and a dozen roses this Valentine’s Day (CNBC)

Where you can find Cassandra Bustamante:

• Instagram: @itscassandrabee
• www.thewealthvineyard.com

Where you can find Aileen Luib:

• Instagram: @aileenluib
• Instagram: @theballeronabudget
• www.theballeronabudget.com

Happy Valentine's Day, Baller Fam! We are kicking off your February 14th with Part 1 of a 2-Part Valentine's Day special with my friend and personal finance blogger Cassandra Bustamante, mastermind behind The Wealth Vineyard, a personal finance blog focused on crypto, investing, side hustles, and financial freedom. Cassandra and I share a deep affinity for both personal finance and modern-day culture, so unsurprisingly enough, we poured out our opinions on the societal rules of dating and how much they wreak havoc on our budget during Valentine's Day.

A common complaint on Valentine's Day is how much of a hassle it can be to go out and celebrate this holiday with your valentine, no matter how smitten you might be. Restaurant prices skyrocket, date night activities become packed with other couples fighting for spaces, and people are often scrambling for a pricy Valentine's gift to win the heart of their romantic interest. And with the heavy influence of social media, many people feel frustration, shame, or even jealousy that they may not have a special someone to celebrate with, let alone the extra funds to comfortably treat themselves or anyone else on a day that encourages love in the form of gifts.

But is this holiday that serious? On average, Americans spend $175 during Valentine's Day, with men spending twice as much as their female counterparts at a whopping $235. Cassandra and I are curious to know if this holiday is really worth spending so much of both our money and emotions on.

In This Episode:

• Cassandra’s Worst Valentine’s Day Experience (3:07)
• Does commercialization have a significant impact on how we view Valentine’s Day? (5:19)
• How social media influences us to celebrate Valentine’s Day far beyond our budget (9:03)
• Financial stats behind the $23.9 billion Valentine’s Day industry (11:56)
• Price hikes on Valentine's Day steaks and other common holiday goods (14:41)
• How Valentine’s Day brings out people’s dating anxiety and relationship wounds (20:25)
• Why not being asked out on Valentine’s Day hurts more than being single year-round (23:33)

Episode Notes:

• Valentine's Day Spending: How Much Do People Spend In The Name of Love? (Fully Vested)
• Inflation means price jumps for dinner and a dozen roses this Valentine’s Day (CNBC)

Where you can find Cassandra Bustamante:

• Instagram: @itscassandrabee
• www.thewealthvineyard.com

Where you can find Aileen Luib:

• Instagram: @aileenluib
• Instagram: @theballeronabudget
• www.theballeronabudget.com

We're finally back for Season 2, Baller Fam! It's been a whirlwind of events for me outside of work as I took the majority of 2022 off to focus on rebuilding my personal life. After I separated from my former partner in 2021, I expected 2022 to be the jumpstart to my new life, and I needed to double-up on work and increase my income fivefold in order to make the big money moves I wanted to. But unfortunately, there were a lot of unaddressed issues in my personal life that were begging for my focus before I could truly hit the reset button on my life and move forward in a way that wasn't contributing to my already rapidly-declining mental health.

Like many, you can imagine how working full-time and overtime can prevent us from addressing the fires in our personal lives and the more we put them off, they only grow bigger. In 2022, I took the courageous leap of faith to hit the pause button on work and focus on rebuilding myself as a person, dive into trauma therapy, and realign with what was most important to me in life so that I could have a solid foundation to springboard off of.

In this episode, I dare you to probe the taboo idea of taking the time off work to focus on putting out the fires in your own life. My experience of voluntary unemployment was worth its weight in gold, and I'm sharing all of my revelations and experiences in the hopes that I can inspire you to take that hard-earned break you deserve to find your joy and purpose again. Funemployment is a worthwhile investment in yourself - your exhausted brain, your hurting heart, and your tired soul will thank you.

In This Episode:

• Where we last left off in Season 1 (1:55)
• How occupational burnout caused my severe depression (4:46)
• I quit working to focus on healing full-time (6:34)
• The importance of creating a loving relationship with your career (7:29)
• Taking a break from work can be critical to finding joy and purpose (9:43)
• How I leveraged passive income to take 8 months off of work (10:59)
• Why what you do for a living needs to provide a sense of purpose (15:46)
• My personal life began interfering with my work performance (16:22)
• Figuring out why my work wasn’t bringing me joy anymore (19:49)

Episode Notes:

• Financially Surviving a Breakup with Dannie Vann From Pennies to Wealth
• All About Love: New Visions - Bell Hooks (Amazon)
• Bullshit Jobs - David Graeber (Amazon)

Where you can find Aileen Luib:

• Instagram: @aileenluib
• Instagram: @theballeronabudget
• www.theballeronabudget.com

If we told you it was possible to earn money while dating, would you do it?

Happy Valentine's day, baller fam! In today's episode, my friend Jenn Darling joins us for a juicy episode full of love and money. Last year, Jenn and I were struggling financially and jokingly brought up the possibility of becoming a sugar baby. It was a joke at first... until it wasn't.

Jenn and I teamed up to explore the world of sugar dating. We did our research, created our profiles, made a plan of attack, and set into the wild to catch some big fish.

It was not at all what we expected.

In many women's social circles, we tend to joke about selling feet pictures or becoming sugar babies, but the industry is lucrative if you have the steel stomach for it. Sugar dating is becoming more and more commonplace - in fact, USC and UCLA are 2 of many college schools in the US that have a large number of students living double lives as sugar babies. What’s a girl to do when she’s gotta eat, pay rent, and can’t get a job because she’s a full-time student?

Join Jenn and me in today's hilarious storytime where we share our comedic experience of attempting to become 6-figure sugar babies - and failing miserably.

Episode Notes:

• How Much Do Sugar Babies Actually Make? I Tried to Be One...
• USC, UCLA Make List Of Fastest-Growing ‘Sugar Baby’ Schools In America
• An ex-sugar baby reveals 4 things people always get wrong about the job
• Seeking.com
• SugarDaddy.com
• Let's Talk Sugar
• The Sugar Baby Confessionals Podcast
• Can I Be An Escort Legally? (Avvo)

We're getting deep in a discussion full of heartbreak, radical life changes, and tackling the fear of being alone. In today's podcast episode, Dannie Vann from Pennies to Wealth and I discuss my newest chapter in life: ending a 6-year relationship.

Although my recent partner and I weren't married, we still built a life together and were on the way to marriage, which made the process of separation painful. Just 2 years ago, Dannie was in a similar situation, but even deeper: she was married for almost 10 years.

Dannie's story has been an inspiration to me ever since I first followed her last year, but I never thought that one day my story would follow the same path. We both stayed too long in relationships that were no longer serving us; however, pulling the plug was the best decision for us. Dannie's story of making it out on the other side of heartbreak and becoming financially stable once again serves as a beacon of hope for many other women just like me who've just begun the healing journey.

In this episode, Dannie and I spill the tea on both of our stories of navigating through heartbreak while balancing the more practical side of separation: learning how to financially survive transitioning from a 2-person household income down to 1. We talk about grief, the financial strategies we've used to rebuild ourselves, learning to love ourselves again, dating post-breakup/divorce, and what's in store for us moving forward.

 In This Episode: 

• Dannie’s life before the divorce (2:30)
• When Dannie knew it was time to leave (5:08)
• How culture enables women to become codependent in relationships (6:08)
• Dealing with grief and loss (8:06)
• How Dannie discovered her relationship was holding her back (9:23)
• Losing your identity in an unfulfilling relationship (11:34)
• What Dannie's healing journey looked like (13:11)
• The cost of being single in this economy (16:19)
• How to retain your independence in a relationship (18:42)
• Why people avoid discussing money in relationships (21:51)
• There is never a "right" time to leave a relationship (23:00) 
• Focusing on financial strategy when leaving (25:39)
• Discussing the breakup with your partner (29:22)
• Finding support outside of the relationship (31:28)
• Learning to be comfortable being alone (32:32)
• Where we are settling outside of our relationships (36:37)
• Getting into "situationships" after a serious relationship (39:05)
• Dating when you're financially insecure (44:08)
• Toxic men who prefer women who are struggling  (47:05)
• How financial stability ensures healthier dating  (49:56)
• What are our future plans for ourselves (53:19)

Where you can find Dannie Vann:

• Instagram: @penniestowealth
• www.penniestowealth.com
• Get access to Dannie's free resource library including her budgeting spreadsheet

Today on The Baller on a Budget podcast, Diane Taha, influencer & host of the Channel Your Influence podcast are discussing our consumer habits & shopping sins in a tell-all fashion confessional. In this episode, Diane & I talk about the cost of building a wardrobe, the exclusionary practices of luxury brands, corporate activism, sexist marketing & much more.

Diane has been an influencer since 2013 & is a full-time social media manager. She also hosts the podcast Channel Your Influence, where she discusses the climate of influencer marketing.

 In This Episode: 

• How Diane began her career as a beauty & fashion influencer (1:43)
• What is “high-low” fashion? (3:38)
• Designer brands are more of a status symbol than style (7:20)
• How much of Diane’s wardrobe is designer (8:02)
• The attainability of luxury brands (10:56)
• Why do we strive to consume luxury? (16:10)
• How online fast fashion brands were popularized by fast fashion (18:19)
• Diane’s main issue with fast fashion (19:52)
• How often do we buy clothes that don’t fit but still keep them? (23:18)
• The percentage of our wardrobes that we actually wear (24:45)
• Why fast fashion sizing is a breeding ground for eating disorders & body dysmorphia (25:45)
• What are capsule wardrobes? (26:54)
• Will our current wardrobes age along with us? (30:39)
• Why designer bags & shoes hold their value (31:26)
• Small changes consumers can make to reduce environmental impact (34:02)
• How retail mark-ups & sales are exploitative (38:08)
• Preventing buyer’s remorse & FOMO (40:45)
• Consuming new items like underwear with less environmental impact (43:16)
• Why class divide makes ethical consumption costly for working-class people (48:20)
• Using influence to advocate for change (49:06)
• The impermanence of canceling corporate activism (51:13)
• Is the real power of ethical change within consumers or corporations? (55:38)
• The majority of household consumer decisions are made by women (58:19)
• How shifting the responsibility of ethical consumption to consumers contains subtle sexism (1:00:07)
• The female empowerment argument vs. the male gaze (1:02:50) 
• How Millennial & Gen Z women are financially independent of men (1:07:33)
• Do your consumer habits sabotage your financial goals? (1:09:00)
• How do we identify ourselves outside of what we look like, how we produce, & how we consume? (1:12:29)

Where you can find Diane Taha:

• Instagram: @stylecontext
• www.stylecontext.com
• Channel Your Influence

Sources:

• Fast fashion & the social media culture of consumption with the Baller on a Budget (Episode 20 Channel Your Influence Podcast)
• Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster (by Dana Thomas) - affiliate link
• Statistics On the Purchasing Power of Women (Girl Power Marketing)
• Who Makes the Call at the Mall, Men or Women? (WSJ)
• The Commodification of Kim Kardashian's Plastic Surgery (@kardashian_kolloquium on Tiktok)

Did you know that the majority of Americans do not own any stocks? According to Tiktoker @bettyimages, more than 80% of the stocks in the US are owned by the wealthiest 10%. Fact-checked by the National Bureau of Economic Research & stock market expert Peter Ricchuiti, this is true - but experts say it may now be even higher.

Today on The Baller on a Budget podcast, Camilo Maldonado from the Finance Twins & I discuss the world of stocks in a simplified way. For the longest time, investing education has been kept away from the working-class & middle-class, keeping them overworked, underpaid, & in debt.

Many believe that successful investing is only achievable for the wealthy, but that isn’t true. Camilo challenges this by encouraging the remaining 90% of US citizens to invest in stocks, which you can start with as little as $1. Like saving money, investing your money is a muscle that must be exercised often. The generations ahead will thank you for starting.

Camilo & I also dive into the socioeconomic impact of the stock market, how BIPOC are shut out from participating, why investing is the quickest vehicle to building wealth, & how, even in the midst of a global pandemic, we must start safeguarding our financial futures, now more than ever.

Camilo's course “How to Start Investing” was designed for people like his mother, a working-class Colombian single mother, in mind. It covers everything you need to know to get started & is priced at $179, which, compared to other investing courses, is far more accessible for people who really need this info.

Camilo has 10 years of experience with the stock market, starting his 1st job on Wall Street as an investment banking analyst at the age of 22. He moved on to other finance jobs, including JP Morgan, Chief-of-Staff at Bonobos, & more. Using his experience on Wall Street, he started The Finance Twins with his twin brother, Francisco, where they offer free resources that make personal finance exciting & approachable.
 
 In This Episode: 

-Camilo Maldonado’s background (2:15)

-Investing to prepare for financial emergencies (6:08)

-The 1st basic step to start investing (7:26)

-The Finance Twin’s How to Start Investing Course (10:16)

-Why you should invest in stocks & bonds over other financial products (11:19) 

-Why racial, class & gender divide are causes of wealth inequality (15:36)

-Should you use your COVID-19 stimulus check to invest? (20:58) 

-Is it possible to invest in stocks & create systemic change? (28:23)

-Getting started with a 401k (32:31)

-Investment options for self-employed or non-401k employees (34:11)

-Is maxing out your investment portfolio important? (36:07)

-Stock portfolios vs. high-yield savings accounts (38:57)

-Camilo’s predictions for 2021’s economy & how it will affect our finances (40:24)

-Why you shouldn’t “time the market” (45:22)

-Why “striking big” in the stock market involves luck (48:45)

-Buying indexes, ETFs, & mutual funds vs individual stocks (51:18)

The Finance Twins “How to Start Investing” Course (use code BALLERS25 for 25% off)

https://courses.thefinancetwins.com/p/investing-for-beginners

Where you can find The Finance Twins:

Instagram: @thefinancetwins

www.thefinancetwins.com

Sources:

VERIFY: More than 80% of the stocks in the US are owned by the wealthiest 10%

@bettyimages on Tiktok

It can be extremely inconvenient when your car reaches the end of its life, but having to buy a new one is even more stressful. This month, my car finally went out, and I had to get a new one. But I was able to negotiate with a few dealerships and walk away with the exact car I wanted at a price I was happy with!

Many people feel intimidated by the salespeople at car dealerships, so in this episode, I'm sharing my 10 best tips on negotiating the best deal for a new car. As a former car salesperson, Realtor, and simply having a background in sales and retail, I hope this episode helps you feel more confident when it's your time to negotiate for a new car.

In This Episode:

My buyer's remorse (1:32)

Why I bought a Kia K5 (3:53) 

Why I bought a new car quicker than I expected (5:12)

10 Tips For Negotiating the Best Deal on a New Car: 

Tip #1: Plan Ahead (7:17)

Tip #2: Save as Much as Possible, and Then Save Some More (9:15)

Tip #3: Do Your Research (10:47)

Tip #4: Consider Buying During Certain Times of the Year (13:15)

Tip #5: Test Drive Like a Race Car Driver (15:02)

Tip #6: Negotiate From Home Before Going to the Dealership (18:02)

Tip #7: Do Your Own Math (28:16)

Tip #8: Shop Around For Better Car Loans (30:08)

Tip #9: Consider the Extra Expenses (30:58)

Tip #10: Determine Your Car's Trade-In Value (34:59)

Check out my latest blog post featuring all of this information so you can bookmark or pin it on Pinterest for future reference: https://www.theballeronabudget.com/how-to-negotiate-with-car-dealerships-for-the-best-deal/

If you found this episode helpful, share it on Instagram and tag me @theballeronabudget so it can help someone you know! And if you'd like to support us, please leave us a review on iTunes so that new listeners can find this podcast too.

Welcome to the first episode of The Baller on a Budget! This episode introduces your host Aileen Luib along with insights on the wild ride that has been 2020 so far. How do we approach our finances in 2021 after dealing with the financial dumpster fire of 2020? In today's episode, I'm sharing a few tips to reset your mindset and form approachable goals to get you back on track with your financial plans.