Hey, everyone.

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Regina Pons Noobs. It's a very vintage internet handle. OK, very good.

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Bear with us on the technical aspects of this, guys. This is our very first time using this feature. And it's actually in beta on YouTube.

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Welcome, welcome. Hello. Thank you for filtering in Dallas just like Kim.

Hello, yeah, Long Beach. OK, hey. Awesome!

I'm so glad this is working. So welcome, everyone. This is the live premiere of season 3 of The Financial Confessions, which is our beloved podcast all about money.

And we were lucky enough to have one of our favorite guests from, I think it was season one, of our show Kimberly Foster of For Harriet come on and do our live with us. So hello, Kimberly. welcome. Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Thank you. Where are you checking in from right now? I am in Dallas, right smack in the middle of Dallas.

Mm-hmm. Love it. So, welcome.

And tell us a little bit, for those who might not know about who you are, and what you do. Yeah. So my name is Kim.

I'm 32. For the past 10 years, 10 or 11 years, I've ran a digital platform, multi-platform media company called For Harriet. We're focused on Black women's issues with a progressive bent.

I write at different publications from time to time. I've done a couple of podcasts. I don't know, I'm just like a media person, a person who makes things.

Love it. And so for the record, guys, please feel free to leave questions in the chat. We want to kind of maximize the interactive aspect of this live.

So leave questions here in the chat, and you guys will see on your screens there's a feature to call in. And you can go ahead and use that. We will be taking actual live audio calls towards the end of the show about 7:45.

So do feel free to use that. But for now, we'll be talking to people in the chat box. So go ahead and start talking.

And I totally apologize for anyone who's experiencing any audio or video delays. This is a feature that's in beta for YouTube. So everyone is struggling, including YouTube itself.

So part of why I wanted to have you specifically back on the show, Kim, especially post-- I was about to say post-COVID, but I feel like that's not really something we can say like latter day COVID. I don't know, how would you describe this? What is it feeling like in Dallas right now?

Honestly, in Texas, the pandemic is not-- [LAUGHS] Texas doesn't really recognize the pandemic, but it's still really bad. I know people who work at hospitals, and they're like it's as bad as it's ever been. So outside, like COVID doesn't exist.

But if you're sick, like you're sick. OK. So out of it enough, but still very much in the mix.

Oh, I'm still scared. I should say. Like I'm not trying to get COVID, right?

We go out. And if you're wearing a mask, people look at you weird. But I still don't want to get COVID. [LAUGHS] I will say I live in New York City.

We have 60,000 cases a day, so the situation still feels very serious here from that respect, and people do wear masks. But I also feel like I want to normalize wearing masks during the dead of winter in general because it's really cold out and it's very comfortable to wear a mask. Also, I really like wearing one in the subway now because I haven't gotten anything this year.

I've not gotten sick in two years. I would like to normalize them going forward. Yeah.

I think we are going to have to follow the lead of so many of the Asian countries where it's just like a normal thing. It's not stigmatized at all. I don't have a lot of hope for that living in the South, I have to be honest with you, OK? [LAUGHS] Because even now when there's a million cases a day, wearing masks is still stigmatized.

But that is the way that we need to go. So, and for everyone who says it looks like I'm streaming on a potato. I'm sorry.

I can't control this. This is my computer. I apologize, guys.

So one of the things I wanted to especially talk to you about was the idea of ambition and aspiration post-COVID. I know it's technically still COVID. You talk a lot about feminism and about the way women kind of position themselves in the world.

And millennials were already not having a great time before COVID. And I feel like for so many people this has just derailed so much of what life was supposed to be like. So how are you kind of redefining aspiration for yourself, and how do you think women kind of could and should be thinking about it for themselves in this time?

I think that the 2020 COVID year, I've worked really hard; I kept my head down. I was looking for escape and distraction. And so I achieved a lot of professional goals and financial goals.

And for 2021, I was like, oh, I don't want to do that again. I want to hang out with my family. I got into a relationship; just had a lot more fun; just did more leisure activities.

And so for me, COVID really made me think about how important connection is and relationship is. And yes, I am still a very ambitious person. I have many, many goals, but I am so glad that I took the last 12 months to say your career is not going to be at the center of your life.

Like that is not what's going to animate you every day. Last year for me was really animated by love and varied forms, connection, community, relationships. How did you deal with-- to speak candidly, how were your finances in your career impacted by COVID by the last few years?

I feel bad saying this because-- OK, so I think that this is a content creator thing, right? So because so many people are in their homes consuming content and looking for things to watch, looking for distractions, my business has grown exponentially over the past couple of years. And so I really had to figure out how to navigate that; how to not become consumed with making more money; Not trying to feel pressure to like, oh, OK, the door is open, so we have to jump on every opportunity, and we have to say yes to everything because if you don't say yes now, then like who knows?

In two years, will it still be there? I've really had to take a lot of time to think about what do I want; what do I want the trajectory of my career to be and make decisions that are in alignment with my 10-year goals and not with greed, to be honest. Have you noticed, in terms of when-- because I feel like before, a lot of our centers of validation were very, very external, and a lot of that was driven by our social lives.

For a lot of people, their social lives have been either non-existent, or it's different than they used to be and extremely limited. How have you kind of adjusted the way-- not only you kind of get that validation and that community, but also the way in which you perceive yourself when you're no longer able to be as much-- people say like, oh, you're like the average of your five closest friends, or the five people you spend the most time with or whatever. When you no longer have that external community, where do you get those same centers of affirmation and sense of self without the social aspect?

Oh, this is an interesting question. I've been really-- I think one thing that pandemic has forced me to be is to be much more-- to get my motivation from different places. So yes, before it was very much external validation and who you're connected to and where you can be seen.

And even not even being able to show up, like your cool car, right? And so now I'm very much motivated by am I doing the best that I can do today? And not just professionally.

Like am I being the best aunt that I can be today? Am I being the best partner? And not necessarily comparing that to other people, but comparing that to what my potential is, what I know I can do.

So we have someone asking in the chat here for you, Kim, how have your financial priorities changed since the last time you were on the Financial Confessions? And also did you sell your batons? No, I did not.

I still have my Louboutins. But since-- Who's buying Louboutins right now? Yeah, honestly, like, OK, not to be shady, not to be shady, but Louboutins are kind of out.

OK, OK. But since the last time I was on Financial Confessions, I moved. So I moved from Oklahoma City, moved to Dallas, and now I live in this apartment that I love so much.

But I also, in the process of moving, did a lot of downsizing. I got rid of a lot of stuff. And it was really, frankly, painful, but also really cathartic to go through all of the stuff that I had accumulated over the seven years that I lived in that apartment, all of the material stuff, and be like I don't even like this anymore.

I don't want it; I don't like. It can go. Donate it, throw it away.

Like I don't care. And so now the process of rebuilding and being much more-- I'm much more picky. I'm much more finicky about what I buy, also because I don't want to live in a cluttered space.

And so just the process of getting rid of stuff and figuring out what do you need, and only buying stuff that I am going to want to have in 10 years. That has been really-- it's been really great. So I have to ask you-- and I will get to a lot of these questions in the chat.

But so much of what we talked about in our first interview that people really loved and responded to was the sort of look at celebrity culture, influencer culture, how that's resonating. And one thing that has truly shocked me beyond belief throughout this pandemic is that the Kardashians, the influencers, the young models, like all of these figures that seemed really kind of out of step with the culture, even before the pandemic. How do people still have an appetite for this?

Why are they more popular than ever going by social metrics and things like that? What do you think about that? Oh, but you know what?

I think that this makes so much sense historically. I think I've mentioned this in a video before. It makes so much sense to me that when we are living in an age of almost unprecedented wealth inequality, when so many people are struggling that their avenue for escapism would be through wealth porn.

Like that has happened before. One of the reasons-- you know the roaring '20s, right? When wealth inequality-- that was the last time that we've seen, like the kind of wealth inequality that we have right now.

And there was so much excess during that time, and so flashy and flappers and whatever. But people were starving then and people are starving now. And I think that it makes people feel warm and fuzzy to see people do things that they'll never be able to do and have things that they'll never be able to have.

I think that that's not great for politics. Politically, it's not great, but I actually understand why it's so popular. Well, you mentioned politics, so I have to ask.

I know a lot of people were passing around a tweet the other day, or maybe it was yesterday. I have no concept of time anymore. But I think it was Michelle Obama had tweeted something like, you guys got to get out there and vote because the alternative is going to be so bad.

And I have found myself having the thought several times over the past couple of months of like, I actually in some ways feel like things were better the first time because at least people were getting some checks. And at least people-- some things seem to be happening. And I find myself, even as someone who is pretty politically engaged, really cares about this stuff, tries to get out the vote, things like that in canvasses whatever, I find myself having a really hard time justifying it to myself, and also even potentially explaining to other people why you should, for example, vote for a progressive candidate.

How do you avoid a feeling of hopelessness slash what does it matter, or do you even? Well, one thing I can say definitively is that I am not going to expend a whole lot of energy in my personal time or on my personal platforms or on the For Harriet platforms pushing people to vote for candidates that have repeatedly lied and let them down. I just can't do that.

I was OK saying, do we want four more years of Trump? Let's get Trump the fuck out. I was comfortable saying that.

I am not comfortable in 2022 trying to coerce people or harass people into spending time or energy reinforcing a status quo. I'm sorry, but we love Michelle Obama, et cetera, et cetera, but like the vote or die thing, it's old. It's old!

I'm 32. They've been doing vote or die for like 20 years. It's old.

What are people getting, OK? People are voting and dying, OK? So you've got to give something else.

And so until we can get some very serious hard commitments to provide something else, then you're going to have to-- I'm sorry, Michelle is going to have to sit down, you know? It's embarrassing. Honestly, are you not embarrassed?

I feel like there's this whole crop of candidates, especially on the congressional elections, whose entire value proposition is I'm not this person. Like a couple of weeks ago, there was Marjorie Taylor Greene got kicked off Twitter. And these two people who are running against her in her district in Georgia, I screenshotted it because within like 20 minutes of each other, they both tweeted something like, well, she got kicked out of Twitter, and now it's time to kick her out of Congress.

And both of those tweets were going viral. And my question is like, OK, but do either of you represent any policies that are going to make any sort of real material difference, or is it just a question of brand building against someone who's extremely unpopular? Yeah, I think something that is interesting is they're not even lying about what they're going to provide anymore, right?

At least Kamala and Joe were like, oh, we won't give you $2000 stimulus checks every month-- lie. That was a lie. But now so much of the Democratic strategy is "Republicans are bad." "We are better." It's like how?

What are the specifics? What are you going to do? And not just now.

Now that we know the lies are abundant, now you can't just lie. If you're going to say something or promise something, you then also have to accompany a path to achieving it. And if we don't have candidates, if we don't have politicians who are really focused on laying out the pathway to materially improving people's lives, it's just not worth it.

I understand the harm reduction stance. I will vote. I will vote, because I do believe in that.

But I just am not going to be a part of rallying people around things that are just going to let them down. I just can't do that. I hear you.

So we have a lot of people asking questions. We have Olivia saying-- whoa, sorry, the chat is freaking out. Where did Olivia go?

Oh, Olivia is asking you, what do you think of the corporate gentrification that is happening in Texas right now? I don't know a whole lot about the corporate gentrification, but I do know that in Texas the housing market is crazy. The rental market is crazy.

I mean, the amount of money that I am paying for rent is like, it's unfathomable. The number of new like luxury high rise apartment complexes. I'm like who can even-- how are y'all filling all of these buildings?

Like this is crazy. But so many people are coming to Texas because of the tax issue. Texas is so, so friendly to corporations.

There's no state income tax, so people are fleeing. And so yeah, it's becoming much, much more friendly to people who have money and friendly to corporations. I have to say I'm not overly familiar with the situation, although my uncle is the mayor of McKinney-- Oh, wow.

Yeah. --which is quite close to you. North Texas. Yeah, that's my Texas connection.

OK, so we have, I struggle with asking for a raise because I feel like I'm already overpaid for what I do. I feel like it's not fair to ask for-- gosh, the chat keeps freaking out, guys. Sorry about this.

Oh, no, it got lost. Ah! Well, basically a person feels like they have a hard time justifying asking for a raise for themselves because they feel like they already earn-- oh, they feel like it's not fair to ask for over six figures when teachers are making 40 grand.

What do we think? Oh, I don't-- look, I think that the people who are the backbone of our society-- essential workers, teachers-- absolutely do deserve to be paid more. Absolutely.

But if you are working for a corporation that you know has the money that's just going to give the money that you're asking for to the c-suite executives, I don't see why there should be any hesitation there. It's not like you refusing to ask for a raise is going to then put that money into the pockets of teachers. I mean, if it was zero sum, I could understand that.

But in this case, it's like you against corporate greed. And if it's you versus corporate greed, I'm going to go with you. But that's just me.

Yeah, I agree. And also there's no rule that says if you earn more money, you have to spend it all just doing incredibly frivolous shit for yourself. You're also free to redirect some of your increased funds to other projects and organizations and causes that you think are worthy.

Like why not do some redistribution on your own terms? So someone else is asking how do you balance the desire to increase your income with not basically getting too into the lifestyle inflation? One of the things that keeps me really focused is one, my past experiences with money and knowing what it's like to feel ashamed because you've blown through your money.

And also now that I'm older, I feel like I'm much more cautious about how money is being spent. I have a great accountant. I have a financial advisor-- people who tell me like, whoa, you're running real close-- like you're running close to the guardrails.

Like you're about to run off. That's really important for me. Also I have to say there's a lot of cautionary tales as a content creator.

I encounter so many cautionary tales of people who started making a lot of money and then immediately like blew through their money. I'll say the Ace family, right? That whole Ace family stuff, I was like OK, Kim, you got to reel it in.

And so now just thinking about my responsibility, 32-year-old Kim's responsibility, is to take care of 65-year-old Kim. 32-year-old Kimberly's responsibility is to make sure that she is leaving her nieces with something that she has assets that can be passed down. That helps me to not go crazy. Also we are still in a pandemic, right?

There's not a whole lot that I'm really-- I'm not taking lavish trips to the south of France. I'm not really buying super, super expensive stuff. So I've definitely been able to rein it in just by being careful.

I have to say going back to the subject of kind of influencers and, more generally, social media use. So one thing that I have found, especially during this Omicron wave-- and I think it ties a lot into the lifestyle inflation aspect-- is like I found that this wave I have had the most feelings of like visceral disgust with my social media feeds at different points depending on what I was seeing. And I know you mentioned that it does make sense sort of historically that in times of great inequality that people are going to kind of turn to the aspiration and all of that.

But have you found that your consumption of social media has changed in the past year? And if so, how? I do think I've become a lot more judgy, for sure.

For sure. I think that because I am so serious about how I'm spending money and making sure that things get invested and things get saved, sometimes when I see people, I'm like, can you really afford that? I don't know.

I don't know, it's none of my business. But I know how I'm trying to live. And these numbers-- these things are not really adding up for me.

I also think that, I guess especially over the last few months, I just have less-- when I first started making money years ago, the first part of me making money, I was super into the show it off and flaunt it and flash it or whatever. And now I'm just like, it just doesn't hit the same. Like it just doesn't give me as much satisfaction as it used to.

And so I just don't feel like I need to do it. I feel great about my life, so I don't necessarily need to consistently show how great I am doing or how much money I have. I actually feel like-- and maybe it's just the circles that I run in on the internet.

But I actually feel like outside of the celebrity culture, which is still really pop-- and although-- I mean, listen, I watched almost all the franchises of The Real Housewives, so I'm clearly part of the problem. But I feel like for normal people, it's gotten-- I think it's a little bit kind of gauche to be flaunting wealth in a way that even a year ago, I think it would have been a lot more normalized or even aspirational to show what you're buying. Oh, I disagree with you. [LAUGHS] Oh, maybe, it's probably-- everyone is on a different internet.

Yeah, I think this is like we're like, oh, we're in different internets because I feel like-- and I've talked about this on my channel-- the unboxings are as big as they ever were. The luxury unboxings, I'm seeing just as many as probably more than I ever have. I think one of the reasons why I actually think that the unboxings and the hauls and the luxury goods show-off stuff has actually accelerated during the pandemic because people are less mobile than they used to be.

I actually think that because people can't show themselves on yachts or fancy-- most people on yachts or fancy vacations the way they used to do or whatever, that that has actually resulted in an uptick-- in my side of the social media that I'm on, that has actually resulted in an uptick of people of showing material goods on their social media feeds. That's really interesting. Yeah, I mean, I guess it goes back to the idea of we're not able to get the kind of IRL social validation that we used to get.

I mean, like even something as simple as I bought a cute coat two or three weeks ago. No one's seen this coat. Like, I'm about to just like walk into places and just turn around in circles so that people can look at my coat.

So I guess in that sense, there is like a more heightened desire to show these things somewhere where they can be affirmed and seen. But do you feel like a sense-- I know you said you don't feel a need to do it because you do feel self-actualized. But do you feel like a moment of like, ooh, maybe I shouldn't post this really nice thing that I'm able to afford?

Oh, sure. Look, I mean, I just got a pair of shoes today that I thought, oh, should I? And I was like, no, don't do it.

Like, why? What are you going to get out of that. But they're really cute shoes, though.

But you know what? I also have to say I don't want to be like, oh, I'm so high and mighty, because I'm absolutely not. I do think that one of the things that I have done over the past few months is I put a lot of money into decorating my apartment because that is the thing that people are going to see.

And I always dreamed of being able to decorate my apartment this way, but I recognize that this is the part of my personality and my style since I'm not going out and traveling and going to events that this is like the reflection of me that you're going to be able to see. So I put a lot of energy into that like. That is my conspicuous consumption.

I have to admit to it. Same. I mean, I love apartment stuff.

So someone is asking-- Alfamae says, are either of you seeing a shift from live to work to work to live? Many seem to report that as a big part of the great resignation. Oh, for sure.

Yeah. I made a video about this too about how people are realizing that the myths that we've been taught to buy into that a rising tide lifts all boats, that were all in this together, that that's fake. That's bullshit. right?

If we are living in this age of incredible wealth and income inequality, but people are working harder than they've ever worked-- productivity is up, but the average worker is not reaping those rewards-- it makes perfect sense to me that people are saying, oh, well, the inputs-- the output is not worth the input so I'm going to do something else. And I absolutely support them. I think it's actually a great change.

And I think it's a great thing that workers have more leverage now because people are walking off the job. Absolutely. Drive those wages up, right?

Yeah. I will say where some of you might like [INAUDIBLE] seven-ish, six, seven, eight-- seven. My colleague who's producing this with the app that YouTube has is sitting right over there.

So if you hear her pipe up every now and again that's what's happening. But we're on month eight of our four-day work week experiment. And we all feel very strongly.

None of us will ever work five days a week again because it's not necessary. But also I think part of it-- and there are certain sacrifices that have to be made as a business. But I think something that most of us have realized at the end of the day is that a day of your time, an hour of your time, is so more valuable, almost any amount of money.

If you have enough money to pay your bills, if you're able to meet your needs-- and there are plenty of sociological studies that show this. If you're able to meet your needs, more time and more freedom is almost universally going to be more valuable to you than more money. Obviously, if you don't have enough, you need more money.

But after that, it's all about time. Yeah. And also anyone who's looking to convince their managers to do a four-day work week, email me.

It's chelsea@thefinancialdiet.com. We'll talk about it. OK.

Oh, we got a quick question. Where did you get your sweaters? I assume yours is a Harvard sweater.

I'm an alum. Sorry, I'm sick. I don't know.

This was a Christmas gift. My boyfriend got this for me for Christmas. I don't know where he bought it.

But yeah. [LAUGHS] [INAUDIBLE] OK. So someone here is asking, what are the best financial preparations for the impending collapse of democracy? [LAUGHS] OK, now this is like not a real answer, but kind of a real answer. So something that I have been trying to-- I've been trying to invest more in not assets that are not depreciating.

So I've been getting into art collecting, getting into buying gold jewelry and stuff, real gems, not diamonds. I don't buy diamonds because it's just like, OK, well, I can barter this for something. I don't know if it's really going to help me.

But in my mind, I'm like, OK, what if cash becomes worthless, you know? At least I'm going to have some assets that I can trade. OK.

Now listen, not to poo poo that financial strategy, but if we're in some sort of post-money dystopia, I don't know how much bartering gems is going-- I feel like people are going to be killing each other over food at that point. No gold? Gold is a real asset.

I mean, listen, gold-- are people wearing jewelry in this scenario? Fine. Listen, I will say, though, in all seriousness, this is something every time we do an event, every time we have any lives or whatever, [AUDIO OUT] investment, and especially if we talk about retirement, there are always several people who are like, there's going to be total climate collapse.

I am not going to be-- the world isn't going to be livable; why am I saving for this kind of future scenario? And I can't remember-- I feel like it was Chris Rock. Some comedian was like people talk about living like you're going to die tomorrow.

That's the worst advice of all time. Statistically, you're probably not going to die tomorrow. And you have to make decisions today based on a scenario where you're still alive.

And it's the same thing with finances. You have to make your bets on a future where money is real. And you'll need it.

And you'll want to be able to retire because if we're in some apocalyptic scenario where people are fighting in the streets over food, it's not going to-- like none of this is going to matter. There's no way to prepare for that. You're just going to have to get a knife at that time and try to figure it out.

So you might as well prepare for a reality in which you're going to want to retire at some point, in which case you should invest in a well-diversified fund. OK, that actually makes sense. Yes. [LAUGHS] Just like there's no-- you can't make financial plans for an apocalypse.

No financial plan needed in that case. Just get knives. OK.

This person is asking-- so many people are like still waiting for Uncle Joe to cancel my 10K of student debt. I think you're going to die waiting for that. I think Joe is [AUDIO OUT] interested in any of those promises is what it seems like.

Yeah. Yeah, that's over. Yeah that's-- god, Joe Biden.

OK. So someone is asking would we recommend going back to school? What a vague question, CC Rob.

What do you say as the educated person of the two of us? I'm the educated person? I don't even have a degree, so I feel very like unable to advise on people going to school.

OK, well, I barely made it through undergrad, but I have no thoughts or feelings about this at all. I cannot give any advice on this at all. Can you do it for free?

Do you have to take out loans to do it? I would never take out loans to go to school ever in life. But I understand many people do.

I don't know. I have no thoughts. Don't ask me.

My thought is that grad school especially is way too often treated as just like a thing to do if you can't think of something else to do. And that's possibly the worst financial decision you could make. The vast majority of the time taking, out a lot of money to go to school is a losing proposition financially over the long term because it's not just the initial debt; it's the missed opportunity of being able to do things like invest that money or buy property or any other thing that you would do with that money.

So you should only go to school if it is as close to a solid financial investment as you can make, which means a very limited number of degrees and programs from a very limited number of schools. And chances are if you're that on the fence about it, yours probably isn't one of those. I would say that there was a great article not too long ago in the Wall Street Journal about how so many graduate programs at, quote unquote, "elite universities" are basically just like scams.

Like scams to get people to pay $30,000, $40,000 $50,000, $60,000 in tuition. And the actual return on them is minimal. So I totally agree with that that you have to do a lot of research about the program and what other people have gotten out of that program.

Yeah, we have Paris saying I'm in grad school and I recommend it, but I agree you shouldn't pay for it. Yeah, don't pay for it. If you can just not pay for it, then hell yeah, everyone should go to grad school if you can do it for free.

Also, OK, someone is saying that Joe Biden needs Joe Manchin to cancel $10,000 of student debt. I actually think that's not true, and he could do that by executive order. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's an executive order thing. [INAUDIBLE] but I don't think-- the Democrats are just obsessed with blaming everything on Joe Manchin.

And listen, he sucks, but he's not the pro-- you're all the problem. OK. So this person is-- oh, my gosh, what is up with the chat?

OK, I have some notes for YouTube because I cannot scroll up in the chat without it keeping scrolling down. Oh, this is interesting. With Dr.

Jill Biden as first lady, why do you think she's not taking the initiative to do something about raising teachers' pay? I never thought of that, but yeah, that makes perfect sense. I think that Joe Biden-- like the Biden administration is fundamentally conservative.

It's so interesting because I consume a lot of different kinds of media from people of varied political views. And it's so interesting that they talk about Joe Biden, and the Build Back Better Bill is like socialism. Like no, we didn't vote for Joe Biden to be FDR.

And I'm sitting here like socialism? Like FDR? There's nothing in this bill.

And so I just think that Joe Biden, his natural inclination, his natural orientation toward governance is toward the center. It's pro corporations. And so he's not necessarily invested in helping regular people.

Yeah. Every time-- I don't know-- people on Facebook or whatever are posting these memes about Joe Biden being this radical socialist, whatever, I'm like, I fucking wish. That would be so cool.

The version of Joe Biden that they're always fear mongering with is so much better than actual Joe Biden who's just like a centrist Republican from the '90s. Yeah, I mean if Joe Biden were to get some FDR spirit in him and ram things through and threaten people and use the executive order, use all of the power that's concentrated in the executive branch to just get things done-- threaten the Supreme Court like FDR did-- that's something I can get behind, but that is not what we are getting right now. Ugh.

So also someone is saying, LOL, the Democrats, the call is coming from inside the House. LOL. Oh, yeah.

Someone is asking how do you deal with being in your 30s and feeling behind your other friends? This person changed careers and feels that they are farther behind what they could have been if they stayed in the same career. Oh, I think that-- I don't have experience with this being in my 30s, but definitely in my 20s when I failed out of college.

And I remember all of my friends were graduating, and I was living back home in Oklahoma City and working shitty jobs. And they were all like, if they're investment banking jobs and they're consultant jobs. And I'm like, I'm going to start this blog that's going to be something one day.

I definitely felt horrible, but I just I so believed in my vision, and I so just believed in what I was going to do that, yes, I was sad, and, yes, I was embarrassed, but I really just kept my head down and worked through it. And I think that if you really write out your plan, really think through what your five-year goals are, what your 10-year goals are, and if you really believe in that, you just got to get through the embarrassing period. Yeah.

Like, yeah, it's definitely embarrassing when you feel like everybody else is thriving and living their best lives. But if you just can hold on through that embarrassing period, what's on the other side is really, really worth it. I would also say-- not to sound cynical about it-- but go out of your way to make friends who are on a similar income and career level to you.

Because statistically-- like there are tons of studies on this-- it is really, really difficult to have friends who are primarily-- who earn a lot more than you or who are a lot further along in your life. But like even in other life aspects. If you're, let's say, child-free and all of your friends have kids or vise versa, it's going to be very, very difficult.

You're going to feel isolated. You're going to feel ostracized at some level. And also especially if people are earning a lot more money, you're going to feel embarrassed and you need to keep up with them.

So going out of your way to find people who are like at a similar level who can relate, who can understand what you're going through. Not to say those need to be all of your friends. But if they're none of your friends, that's probably a really bad place to be, quite honestly.

Yeah. And hopefully your friends aren't making you feel shitty about not being in the same space. Yeah.

Yeah. I hope they're not making you feel shitty, but I also feel like it's so easy to feel shitty even if they're nice about it, you know? Yeah.

At least I did. OK. Do, do do.

So also we are going to be taking some calls, guys. So-- I have to open the [INAUDIBLE] OK, we're going to open it up in five minutes. So if you want to talk to us on the-- it's like an old school radio show.

It's like Loveline. OK. I can't-- god, this keeps scrolling.

How do I budget when I can't predict my income as an independent contractor? You're actually really good to answer that, Kim. Oh, am I?

No, I'm actually horrible. I am horrible with money, and I don't budget. And the only reason why I have any money now is because I have a great accountant.

So I'm not the person. I'm very frivolous with money. And if somebody is not keeping tabs on me and disciplining me, then I would have no money right now.

Well, I will say having a good accountant as an independent contractor is extremely good and helpful. So that's not being bad with money; that's knowing yourself and getting out of your own way, which is being good with money. But if you can afford someone to help you manage your money, which is totally understandable-- I used to have a variable income for many, many years.

The number one tip is to have two different budgets [INAUDIBLE] you earn a lot more. So you can kind of click into two different modes, depending on how much you're going to be receiving that month. And generally speaking, you want to live on the lower of those two budgets so that in the months when you earn more than expected, the majority of that money can be automatically redirected to your savings and investments, because it's a lot harder to do that when you don't have a paycheck automatically hitting every two weeks.

Oh, OK, you know what? This does remind me something that I did used to do, is yes, like I would have a set amount that I would always keep in checking. And every week, whatever was above that amount goes directly to savings.

So I don't know. Maybe it would be like $1,500 at the beginning of the week. And then anything over that, it's automatically in savings.

And that did keep me from spending every single dime that I had, for sure. We have None of Your Business saying, I apologize for the misinfo on student debt. We're faced with a choice between Biden and the GOP that want to take rights away from [INAUDIBLE] white cis man.

Feels like we're clinging to a high cliff. Ain't that the truth? OK.

So I'm underpaid and in a non-profit. I'm looking to make a big pay jump to just level me out to a place where I can save, invest, spend, and work one job. But I'm honestly kind of scared of the job market.

Do you have any thoughts on this, Kim? I don't have any thoughts on the job market. All right, I do, so you're in luck.

The chances of being underpaid in a non-profit are basically 100%. It is like people are paid terribly in that industry. It's also from everything I've heard, often a rather toxic industry, similar to academia.

I rarely have known anyone to work in non-profit who didn't have some serious horror stories about that. But it is also chronically underpaid. But the good news is that chances are if you've been working at any job for many years, you are statistically underpaid because most people realize their largest increases in income when they change companies, unless you're working at a company that's really heavily increasing your income each year.

So you're probably overdue in any case to go to a new job. And the good news is a lot of the job hunting process can be done totally discreetly. You don't have to commit to leaving your job.

You can take meetings, take interviews, network, see what's out there, look at listings, and do it on your own pace. I think the scariest thing-- I used to be-- my first job in media I started at $36,000 a year and I capped out at $42,000 a year. And I was a director, and I was the fourth employee in the company, and I had been there for years.

But at the time, I could not picture leaving. I couldn't picture any other company because what you know is always better than the scary stuff that's out there. But once you make that change, especially coming from such a notoriously underpaying industry like non-profits, I think you'll be shocked it took you that long to change it.

What is the quickest way to pay down student loans? Pay more on them. Yeah.

Yeah. When I was getting serious-- I don't have any loans anymore. But when I was getting serious about paying, I paid everything toward getting the loan.

As much as I could possibly pay, I put toward the loan. That's what you got to do. How long ago did you pay off all your student loans?

It was during the pandemic. So 2020. Fall 2020.

Look at that! That's amazing. Congratulations.

You paid off your student loans. That's a huge milestone. Someone is recommending a book called The Non-Profit Industrial Complex.

I want to read that. Pet insurance-- yay or nay? I say nay as a pet owner.

It doesn't cover that much. Do you have a pet? No.

I want one, though. I want a labradoodle, or like a poodle mix or a golden doodle really, really bad. I will say golden doodles are my-- I was just at Christmas at my aunt's house, and they have one.

And I love that dog, but they are a handful. So be prepared if you get a golden doodle. People in this building have them, and they are quite large, actually, and, yes, very energetic.

Yeah. OK. So we have-- if we want to go ahead and open up the call line, Rach, I think we're pretty much ready to go.

So you guys can still keep asking questions in the chat we are opening the hotline. So call that number to chat on air. Is it going to come through our speakers?

We'll have to see. OK. This is the first time we've done this.

Again, this app, Rodeo, is in beta. So we really can't speak to this. But hopefully, they'll make any necessary improvements.

An adventure. OK, what advice do you have for teachers who can't necessarily ask for a raise and don't have many options to go elsewhere because surrounding counties aren't much different? I don't-- I can take this.

OK. Yeah. So at a certain point, I think as tough as it sounds, if you have reached the conclusion that you can't make more at your primary place of employment, you have to look at side streams of income.

There's really no other way to do it. The good news about being a teacher, depending on where you are a teacher, is that you often get summers off. So that's a good time to look at creating some side income.

But I think for the vast majority of people, increases in income are going to be realized at their primary place of employment. But if that's not your case, it's very important to just make peace with that and find other ways to generate income. I recommend our video about side hustles you can do from bed.

I used many of them. OK. So we have question about tiny homes.

When you think of tiny homes-- someone here is saying that they're looking at buying one. I'm not sure why tiny homes is a question, but give it a crack. What do you think of tiny homes, Kim?

I'm super into it, really. Seems like a great idea. I think particularly living where I live where I've seen the cost of housing just explode over the past 18 months, I think that if you can find a great investment that you would feel comfortable living in, I would go all in on that.

Yeah. I would also say as a New Yorker-- I mean, it looks like you live in a condo. So despite being in Texas, you're in a multi-unit building.

I feel like a lot of-- I feel like, especially, it depends on the parts of America that you're in, but there's like such a huge premium on having your own separate home space. And I do feel especially in less urban areas, there's nothing wrong with living in an apartment too if you want a smaller space. Yeah, I think it really just depends on what you're into.

I don't like to be outside. So I'm like-- [LAUGHS] I don't really need to see grass everyday. Well, especially in the Texas part. [LAUGHS] Yes.

But also some the tiny homes, it really frustrates me that the overall concept of tiny homes in theory is about making homeownership more accessible. And so much of the content online is just people who have these insanely luxurious tiny homes that cost more than most actual homes, and are outfitted to the nines. Yeah, actually, that's a really good point.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I've seen a lot of just like, I don't know, bare bones tiny homes content.

Yeah, I guess maybe that's not aspirational. It's like the van life shit. Like people living these incredibly aspirational lives in a van.

Man. Now there's a lot of stuff I can get down with, but the van life stuff is just absurd to me. [LAUGHS] I'm sorry, but you cannot convince me it doesn't smell bad in even the chicest van. I think maybe I'm just too old.

I don't know. Maybe in my 20s when-- but now I'm just used to space and basic amenities. I just can't do that.

Well, we have someone on the hotline. [PHONE RINGING] So let's see how this goes. Bear with us. Can you hear this?

Yes. Hi. Hello?

Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. What's your name?

Hi, this is Olivia calling in from Dallas. How are you? Hi.

Oh, my gosh, a fellow Dallas gal. Hi. Yeah-- What's your question? --first off, welcome to Dallas.

Oh, wait, wait, sorry, there's a little bit of a delay. Well, I wanted to know-- I work in HR in accounting, and we've been seeing increasing amounts of profit sharing and employee-owned business. And I just wanted to know your thoughts on that.

Totally. Go ahead, Kim. Yeah, I think that that is a great thing.

I think it's one of the good things that have come out of this current economy is there's just more and more pressure being put on businesses to share the wealth in order to retain talent. And so I think it's a great thing that there's no longer the normalization of hoarding all of the profits or all of the benefits for the top 5% or 10% of companies that more people are getting in on the upside. I think that's a great idea.

Yeah, out of 12 total employees at TFD, I think six or seven, maybe a little more on some kind of a profit sharing or commission based model as part of their compensation. It's tough for that to be the entirety of it obviously because that's just too volatile. But we find generally mutually aligned interests.

And it's also something similar to a four-day work week when it comes to businesses implementing it. It's amongst the things that are easier for people to make cases for to their management. I've spoken to people who are organized to start a four-day work week in their company.

But I've also spoken to people who are looking at moving to a profit sharing model. And these are the types of things that if you're an employee somewhere, you can make PowerPoint decks to show management about them. And there are a lot of really great studies on it.

One thing that is really beneficial for a company is, for example, if you have an employee who has a base salary, and then on top of it is receiving some kind of a profit share you have to pay out their base salary every two weeks obviously or every month, depending on your payroll schedule. But the commission is often paid out on a quarterly basis, or it's paid out when the company gets paid. So from a cash flow perspective, it can also be really helpful to the business.

So anything that improves [INAUDIBLE],, I love that. But thanks for calling in. And I also think it just feels-- yeah, it just feels better, right?

I told my project coordinator at the beginning of this year, if I make more money, you make more money, right? We're in this together. Hell, yeah!

This is not possible without her. So yeah. Well, perfect-- Love it.

Well, thank you. --thank you for answering my question. Yeah. Have a good one.

Stay safe out there. Yes. Bye.

OK. So we have someone-- I think we'll hold for one second. OK.

Any thoughts on the FIRE movement? Do you know anything about the FIRE movement, Kim? Are you familiar?

This is retire early something-- what does the FI stand for? Financial Independence. OK and then RE is Retire Early?

Financial Independence/Retiring Early. Oh, OK. Yes, I have watched a couple of YouTube videos.

There's a couple of popular channels on YouTube about this. As I mentioned before, I'm not super disciplined with the spending. Also, I like to live comfortably.

So as much as I'm committed to taking care of 65-year-old Kimberly or 70-year-old Kimberly, 32-year-old Kimberly is not going to live in squalor to do that. But I appreciate anybody who has the discipline to forego all of the creature comforts and all of the extras in order to reach that goal. Well, you might be interested.

There's a sub subcommunity of the FIRE community called Fat Fire, which is like people who live fat. They don't very lean. They live a pretty luxurious lifestyle while still prioritizing FIRE.

Obviously, it assumes you're making all kinds of money, so it's very unrelatable. But some people do still pursue FIRE while living a little bit more luxuriously but I don't know. I mean, I don't know how you feel about this.

I do recall I believe I'm right in saying you're also on the child-free by choice train yourself. Is that right? Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. OK, So I don't know how you feel about this, but like I'm not having kids. I can only do so many self-indulgent things.

I prefer to have a job. I don't want to just-- I don't know what I would do if I retired early. I would just rather have a good work-life balance for a very long period of time, then work a shit ton for 10 to 15 years and then not work.

Oh, but you know, now that you're mentioning this, I have thought a lot about working a lot for the next 10 or 15 years so that working after that is optional. So I don't think I'll ever just be like, oh, I'm not going to do anything. But now I have to every day get up and do stuff like because I'm not independently wealthy.

And so yeah, maybe it will be nice to in 20 years write just the book whenever I want to write or write an article whenever I want to or whatever. And also, I'm not going to have children, but I have nieces. And so I do think about, OK, how am I going to help them live financially independent lives and not have to pay for college?

That is at the forefront of my mind. Yeah, I have one niece right now, and she's already going to be so spoiled. Man, even when they're not your own kids, you're just like-- I'm like, oh, I got to get my 529 going-- For sure. --for my little niece.

Yeah. So OK, in terms though of the FIRE aspect, one thing I do want to say-- and I feel like this is a false dichotomy in terms of people who are all about save, save, save, retire early, et cetera, and people who are like, well, I'm just going to work forever, if you do have the ability to be a little bit more aggressive with your savings and investments, which, again, is like a level of privilege that many people don't have, something to also consider is that you can draw on investments and have passive income and supplement your income without totally retiring. You can aspire to get to a place where rather than needing to earn $80,000 or $100,000 a year in order to finance your lifestyle, you're able to bring $40,000 of that in passively and only have to earn $40,000 and maybe only work part time.

It can be a combo deal. You don't have to do one or the other. Yeah.

Do we want to bring someone else? Yeah. OK, so we're going to welcome another person on the hotline. [PHONE RINGING] How do radio hosts do this?

Yeah, it's a lot to juggle. Hello? Hello?

Hi, there. I'm wondering if I could pitch my question if that's how this works. Yes.

OK, I was just wondering if they would like to talk about how people who are not on a single yearly contract will renegotiate if they have, say, like a three-year contract. How to negotiate every year to go with inflation. Woo.

OK, that is interesting, Kim. Don't know. So unfortunately, [INAUDIBLE] of a contract [INAUDIBLE] signed.

You kind of have to abide by the terms of those contracts. So if you signed a three-year contract with a fixed rate where there are no raises built into it or ability to negotiate, you may not be able to. So that's something to consider.

So all the more reason to negotiate upfront when you get one of these contracts, especially if it's a longer term contract. I can't remember what the stat off the top of my head. But I think it's something like 68% of people don't negotiate open opening offers when taking a job.

And that is so dangerous because that-- and I need to memorize the stat, because when you talk about-- when you look at the compounding lost income that that represents over the five to 10 years that the person's at that company because they're now building raises off that lower amount, it's tens of thousands of dollars that people are missing out on by not negotiating. So all of the more reason negotiate upfront is the number one thing to do. Everyone.

This goes for everyone. Thank you for calling in. Yeah, thank you.

Well, thank you so much. So someone says tiny homes don't sound so aspirational when you call them a glorified shed. Right.

OK. So we have a question. Oh, gosh.

OK, my note to YouTube as we got to fix the scrolling feature on this chat because every time someone says something, it takes you back to the bottom, and I can't read anything. I'm curious about your feelings on retiring to a lower cost of living country. Is that exploitative or mutually beneficial?

Oh. I have had so many conversations with people about this. And I don't think that there is a way to do it that is not rooted in exploitation.

I don't. I think that, even as a Black American person, right, and obviously all of the ridiculous bullshit and racism and micro and macro aggressions that are aimed at me, I recognize that if I go to another country and I'm treated better, it's because of American imperialism. And so, do I really want to trade on imperialism in order to reap the rewards that have resulted in the oppression of the people, the Indigenous people who live there?

It's not for me. I'm not judging people who choose to do it, but I think we have to be real about our participation in that. Yeah.

I would tend to agree with that. I do think it's exploitative. And I don't know, it's a very complicated issue because then it throws into all kinds of questions about traveling to these countries and how to l.

I think about that a lot, too. Mm-hmm. 100%. And even when it comes to-- because it's not just countries that are objectively poor.

And that exists, and I think that's extremely tough as far as tourism goes. There are also-- I'm not sure what the word is for like middle economies, semi-- I don't know what the name is but these aren't the most sort of impoverished countries, but they're also not the wealthiest. Even within those countries, it's always so strange to me this sort of the cognitive dissonance of going to places and eating at restaurants where locals can't go and being on private beaches where locals can't access it.

Having this tourist experience that's so inherently about creating an experience that locals cannot and, in some cases, legally are not allowed to access, doing that for tourism is one thing, and that's problematic in its way. But to live there? I feel like, how could you even feel good about that?

Yeah. I mean, I think it's just so, so tricky. I mean, I have a friend who is pretty close to retirement and is thinking about retiring in Thailand, I think he said.

And I get it, I really do. It wouldn't feel right to me. But people are bringing up the well, then just never go anywhere thing.

And I am going to go on vacation one day in five years. One day when it's not really scary to get on a plane. And so yeah, we all have to make decisions about how much oppression we're willing to stomach, basically.

That's life. I mean, to be fair though, in that respect, I mean, America is technically a developed country. But I forget who said this-- people are always saying the greatest things on Twitter, and I can never remember who it was.

But someone was like America is like a developing country with a really, really, really developed country sitting on top of it. There are the stratification of wealth and access and education, and even life expectancy and things like that in America are so segmented that it's difficult to even describe the country as all being on one level of development. But that being said, even when someone's coming to visit New York, for example-- if you're a tourist from Denmark or whatever coming to visit New York, I mean, I'm sure you would be shocked by a lot of what you see in terms of the disparities and in terms of having a vacation on Park Avenue that people six miles uptown in the Bronx could never even access.

So even in America, we're not exempt from that aspect of the discrepancy and experience. Sure. Absolutely.

Yeah. Well, that being said, though, I think one thing we can all say is stop going to Hawaii right now. That's the one that's a hard and fast rule, in my opinion.

Yeah. For sure. I think also the way that people-- I mean, not to get to like-- but the way that so many people who've gotten money during the pandemic have gone to Puerto Rico.

And it's big colonizer vibes, like big colonizer vibes to escape taxes. Like, OK. There was this time period last year-- again, we're all in different internets, so maybe this was just my internet.

But there was a time last year when it was like peak, peak COVID in New York City. And so many people I know from New York City were going to Mexico to just like live and vibe in Mexico and posting these Instagram stories of them maskless dancing on a beach with waiters around them who are all masked up and stuff like that. And I was like the Christopher Columbus energy of doing this, it's so awful.

That was mind boggling to me. Yeah. No that was on my internet, too.

Mexico, Puerto Rico, Hawaii we're like-- a few people getting to the Caribbean. It's like you guys, read the room. Read the goddamn room.

OK. So we have time to take a few more questions here. So ooh, we got a lot of people weighing in on the situation in Puerto Rico as far as the taxes and things like that.

One thing I wanted to ask you before returning to the chat questions-- so we talked at the top of the conversation about kind of shifting our perceptions of ourselves, our aspiration our goals, things like that in the wake of the pandemic. You mentioned you haven't been traveling and things like that. We talked about obviously some really exploitative travel.

When it comes to where you're going to be spending your money on experiences, specifically, is that changing emerging from season five of the pandemic? [LAUGHS] Season 5. I stole that from the chat. Oh, gosh, that's so depressing.

I have. I've spent a lot of money over the past year going to restaurants. I have had a lot of new food experiences.

But honestly, there's just not a whole lot to do. There's just not-- I'm still not going to concerts, really. I really miss going to concerts.

I'm not comfortable getting on planes. I don't really want to buy a whole bunch of luxury shit that I'm not going to like in two years and I'm not going to wear. So I mean, it has been, I mean, a good thing.

Honestly, like I said, my money is going into my home. The experience of decorating my home is the most lavish experience that I've had recently. I think that's wonderful, though.

And I think that that's something that pays dividends, because even post post-pandemic, you'll want to go out and spend money less because you'll love being in your home where everything is less expensive. I so agree. I so agree that I'm not looking to escape from my home.

I feel very rooted and comfortable and safe here. But I do miss travel, though. I do.

Yes. I love that. Yeah, OK.

This kicked off a real convo in the chat. And people are like, so we should only ever travel to Europe then? No, I don't think that's the answer.

But I also think that there's-- I don't know, even in countries that are very, very impoverished, and for which there is an inherent exploitative element, there are still smart and bad ways to travel. I would say, I'm sorry to say this, but the average American traveler does not travel the world in a very conscientious way, I think it's fair to say. Right.

And I also think that, especially with the Hawaii situation, I have become much more aware of Indigenous people from these places, native people from these places who are outlining, OK, if you're going to come here, do this, this, and this. Don't go here. Don't eat at this place.

Don't support this person. And so obviously, you want to get out. You want to get the passport stamps, but yeah, we can do it in a-- it just takes a little more research, a little more effort, I think.

That's like what-- I totally agree. --but that's what having a politic is, right? If you have any kind of politic ideology, if you're a leftist or whatever, you just have to think harder about things. Yeah.

And also I mean, I hear people in the chat who are like, don't blame individuals. And it's true, right? What is the word? "No raindrop feels responsible for a hurricane." But at the same time, you can be a better raindrop.

And I think that's not outrageous to ask of people. Yeah, I also think-- I agree with you. I also sometimes think that the don't blame individuals is the-- OK, I'm not trying to start any shit here.

But I do think that it's much easier to say don't blame individuals, which is true, than for us to really take a hard look at how we participate in and benefit from the marginalization of other people. I totally agree with that. And I think part of the reason it's even harder to make those calls right now is because so much of American society and politics is predicated on making things seem like individual choices that are actually systemic issues-- COVID being a great example.

Like it is damn near impossible to make good COVID choices right now for most people, and yet the pressure is still being put on what you're doing individually. And actually, that's a question I do want to ask you as well before we leave, going back to the [AUDIO OUT]. How are you making your choices?

Do you feel good about anything? [LAUGHS] I feel OK, you know? And as an addendum to don't blame individuals thing, I will also say that I think you have more responsibility to think about your individual choices when you have more resources. And as a person who has resources now, I do take it much more seriously.

And I don't have to-- I'm not haggling with people. I'm not lowballing people. I can pay people fairly.

I can avoid certain grocery stores, right? So it's like, if you have the privilege to be able to take a little bit more time to be more conscientious with your money, just to think harder about how you're participating in exploitation, I think that you should take it. But I'm certainly not going to be chastising a teacher or a low-wage worker about, I don't know, where they're buying their groceries.

That doesn't make sense. But I will say that like consumption is not an apolitical act. Consumption is political.

And so I do definitely think about how I'm consuming and where I'm putting my time and money. I love that. So guys, we have time for just one more quick question before we cede Kimberly's time back to her.

And thank you for joining us. I know from seeing on Twitter, you're under the weather. And you mentioned [INAUDIBLE] I'm doing bad right now. [LAUGHS] Is it the rona?

I don't know, maybe. I don't know. [LAUGHTER] OK, so we has-- I'm trying to find it by scrolling up, and it keeps pushing down. I apologize, guys.

Ah! OK, I apologize, I'm not going to be able to scroll up to it. Ooh, sorry.

Actually, so one last thing I wanted to ask you, because obviously so much of your stuff is on cultural commentary, pop culture, things like that. What have you been watching/reading reading lately that you absolutely love? Oh, gosh, what have I been watching and reading lately?

Oh, you know what? Oh, god. Sometimes I like things and I don't necessarily want to shout them up, but I will shout this out.

Euphoria is back. So happy about that. First episode of season two of Euphoria just premiered left that.

Did I love it? It was an experience. Because and just like that, the spin off for the reboot of Sex and the City came back, no, I'm not into that.

But it did inspire me to go back and watch the original Sex in the City because I was pretty young when it first came out. And I really only remember watching in real time the last season. And man, the original Sex in the City was good.

I do not know what happened. The movies are bad. The reboot is bad, but the original Sex and the City, like, honestly, they knew what they were doing with that show.

I'm a huge Bell Hooks fan. Everybody knows this. So since she passed, I've been going really deep back into the bell hooks [INAUDIBLE],, her body of work.

And just it has reignited things in me and inspired me to do more work and be better and be more rigorous and more thoughtful in my work. So I'm really grateful for her. What else have I been into?

Are there any YouTube channels that I've been into recently? Not really. Not really.

But yeah, that's it for me right now. Love it. I will never watch And Just Like That because I value my time too much.

I just can't do it. But similarly to you, that has inspired me to go on a rewatch of the whole series. I'm on season two now.

And I agree with you. They had some magic that first time around. But there are so many tone deaf moments in that show.

My husband's not watching it with me, but he was like sitting next to me watching it yesterday. And there was just some storyline that was so cringe worthy and so would not fly today. And I was like-- he was like, you watch this?

And I was like, it was a different time. I don't endorse this. So if you can get past that, it's great television.

Yeah, yeah. I think that you have to get past like the super, super casual homophobia and transphobia. And actually, it's so interesting because there's actually some pretty conservative sexual mores in the show, ideas, and not just from Charlotte.

There's a lot of different-- I'm like, Oh, OK. Yeah. So you just have to be, OK, it was 20 years ago.

It was 25 years ago. It was transgressive for its time and just take it for what it is. Kerry was a prude.

That's the big takeaway for me. For sure For sure. And honestly, Kerry was a prude, for sure.

Even Samantha says things that I'm like, ah, that's interesting. Eve says things about master-- oh, sorry, never mind. But-- You can say that.

We're all adults here. But yeah, even Samantha, right? Like the iconic sexually liberated white woman character says things that in 2022 are very conservative.

So you just have to take it and embrace it, and all of the little fun one-liners and the little jokes and move on. Love it. RIP, Willie Garson.

And best of luck to the rest of them. And congratulations. I mean, who has been more chic this year than Kim Cattrall just being like, no thank you, I will not be participating in that mess?

Shout out to her because that was just-- she really preserved her sanity. First of all, she doesn't like them. And also like didn't have to participate in that horrible, horrible show.

I feel bad because I like a couple of the writers on the show. But like, wow, really embarrassing. I know.

One of my favorite authors is I think a writer on that show. And I'm like, I want to support for you. I'm like, is there a way to donate to like just go to the writer's room?

Because I appreciate what you're doing, but yeah, I just can't get down with it. Yeah. But Kim Cattrall told us all, showed us the power of no this year.

And that was a great thing for us all to learn. So thank you guys all so much for joining us. Thank you again so much to Kim Foster of For Harriet.

I know most of the people in the chat are probably quite familiar with you, but if you wouldn't mind just reiterating where they can go to find more of what you do. Yeah, sure. So my channel is For Harriet on YouTube.

Just type that in. For Harriet on Instagram, you can find me on Twitter. I'm obsessively on Twitter at @KimberlyN as in Nicole Foster on Twitter and Instagram and TikTok.

Love it, love it. OK, well, thank you, guys. And we'll do another live on a different microphone.

I'm sorry for streaming with a potato. I've never done this before. We're all learning here.