[00:00:00] Speaker A: It is Tuesday. That means it's taking Troll Tuesday. Mansa Musa is on the phone with me. And it is election season. Manta. The commercials are out, the gloves are off, but we're going to talk about our vote and our money.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, we spend a lot of time on the show and just in our personal lives talking about taking control of our money, how we spend it, how we save it, how we can make better financial decisions. But there's something we don't always think about.
Not every decision affecting your household finances is made in your household.
Think about it for a minute. We work hard to manage our money, but some of the decisions that determine how much of it we get to keep are made by elected officials. Yeah. And a lot of those officials are local.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: And voting gives you the opportunity to have a voice in those decisions.
Let me give you an example right here from Detroit. In the 2024 election, more than 35,000 ballots had no vote recorded on a local school tax proposal, even though those voters participated in the election.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Hmm.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: That's 35,000 ballots without a vote on a decision involving tax dollars.
Now, a lot of people vote at the top of the ballot and stop. So the races further down get fewer votes.
The closer the election gets to home, the more influence your individual vote may have.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Yet those are the races that get the least attention.
Now, I know politics can be frustrating sometimes. It's hard to see what difference voting makes. But here's the thing. Whether we vote or not, decisions that affect our cost of living and how much money we get to keep still get made.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: The only question is whether your vote help decide who's making them. And if you're already voting for the big names, why stop there?
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: A little time, find out who's running. Closer to home, you can easily look up candidates and what's on the ballot online.
You don't have to know anything about politics to get started.
Just find out what those people will be responsible for, what they've done and what they plan to do. And don't skip over the ballot proposals. Some of the questions involve your own tax dollars. Yep. Now, you know we encourage people to share financial knowledge with the people we love and care about. Well, voting is another opportunity to do that.
Help somebody participate. Just as you'd help them make an important financial decision, not by telling them what to choose, but by helping them make an informed choice and then cast that vote.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: So here's something you can ask yourself this week.
If I'm working this hard to take control of my money should not pay attention to who's deciding how it's spent. Come on, take control of your financial well being. And remember some of that control is on the ballot.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: I love the fact that when I do an absentee ballot because I'm of a certain age but I love that I could do my research and make sure that it benefits mine. So it's so important to do that. And even if you're going in to vote, make sure that you're looking at everything on that ballot like Mansa says. Manta, we're going to put this up on the
[email protected] and the good thing about that is you can listen to all the archives from years and years back and you can share that as well. Mansa. Thank you.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Yeah. You know quickly in Michigan they've got no excuse. Absentee, it is just age anymore. If you want an absentee ballot, mail and voting, all you got to do is sign up. You get it now. And like you said, once you have that ballot in your hand, it's very easy to check that low end of the ballot for those unknown candidates and make an informed decision.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Good point. Thanks Mansa.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Thank you.
