They kick off by defining what net worth is and talk about why it matters. But they’re sure to point out that net worth isn’t self-worth. It’s just a part of your wealth. Since net worth is the value of your assets, less the value of your debts, they discuss some examples of assets and debts. They all agree that your primary home is an asset. Understanding and tracking your net worth helps you make financial decisions. Adam and Emily track their net worth and income statement monthly, and Lauren...
Jun 18, 2024•38 min
Before we talk about selling stock to buy a house, we must understand what a stock is, and how you can buy and own them, so that’s where Lauren and Landon start. They also go over what a brokerage account is, versus your retirement accounts. Sometimes, even for long term investors, short-term needs and wants start to outweigh long-term needs and wants. For example, it may become more important to you to buy a home than hold your stocks. Also, interest rates mean that putting more down pay be a g...
Jun 11, 2024•27 min
Lauren and Rocky open up the conversation talking about what success means in business. Most business comes down to math, and simple math at that. If you sit down before starting a business and do the math, you should have an idea about whether the business can be successful. The conversation takes a turn towards cash washes, which Lauren welcomes. Is this really becoming as oversaturated as it seems? Lauren then asks Rocky to demystify and differentiate “money” in business: revenue, profit, cas...
Jun 04, 2024•25 min
First, Lauren needs to know why people call him Rock/Rawk. Then, she asks about the “accidental landlord” thing. It turns out, what happened to Rawk and his wife is a tale as old as time: they bought a house thinking they’d stay a while, but then a job offer took them elsewhere. Lauren and Rawk dive into the numbers of that “deal”: purchase price, interest rate, and rent. Then, the conversation transitions to overall personal finance, like saving vs investing and budgeting. Interestingly, Rawk a...
May 28, 2024•34 min
Lauren needed a vacation, so we're replaying one of her favorite episodes in which she and her friend Kurtis absolutely destroy the beloved self help book Think and Grow Rich. Note that the sound wasn't as good back then, but it's still very easy to listen to. The original episode was posted October 12, 2021. The book Think and Grow Rich was written by Napoleon Hill and published in 1937. It is a famous personal finance book recommended by many. On this episode of Adulting Is Easy, Lauren and Ku...
May 21, 2024•1 hr 9 min
You can’t talk about Bitcoin without starting with defining cryptocurrency. When you think about it, even the US dollar is somewhat digital. What makes cryptocurrency different is that it’s decentralized. Bitcoin started as a cryptocurrency, but it’s morphed over time to a store of value and hedge against inflation. Andy emphasizes that Bitcoin is very much in its infancy. He goes on to explain mining, the global ledger, blockchain, and how it all fits together. Andy explains how Bitcoin is infl...
May 14, 2024•36 min
Lauren kicks the interview off asking about how Alex and his wife got into the wedding venue space. Their interest in the wedding space started when they were planning their own wedding over 5 years ago. It was important to them that they go away from the barn look that so many venues have now. They have both a groom and bridal suite. And they wanted it to be close to the airport. They do offer some additional amenities, like games, fire pit, water feature, and putting green. And they offer ever...
May 07, 2024•30 min
Lauren throws Andy a curveball right at the beginning by asking WHY he paid his house off. This is a very controversial topic in the personal finance world. Turns out, he had an OK reason, but the interest rate was pretty low…. Next, she asks how much money people need for retirement. Andy has a different take than she’s heard before. There’s a difference between wanting to retire after 59.5 and wanting to retire early. The planning is different, but a margin for error is important. Then, Andy a...
Apr 30, 2024•35 min
Allie is so passionate about young professionals succeeding. She kicks off by telling us about how she started a PR firm and ended up hiring a lot of young professionals. Allie started teaching them things they didn’t learn in school, like how to request PTO or set a meeting, for example. Eventually, she built a company around this passion, teaching and training young people. Not long after that, Ascend acquired that company, Ampersand. Lauren asks more about the young folks she was hiring at th...
Apr 23, 2024•37 min
Devine got tired of being tired. That’s when he decided to take the financial reigns and start preparing for an early retirement at 45 or 50 years old. His cousin encouraged him to get into computer engineering, which is a great career. But when he started out, although he was making good money, he had student loans, then he added auto loans, then some credit card debt as well. On the bright side, he was putting some money in his 401k right away. When he got married, she had some credit card deb...
Apr 16, 2024•33 min
Lauren opens by asking Andrew why he started The Personal Finance Podcast. He started it in 2020 to share his passion with others. He loves hearing about people’s “lightbulb moments” when they unlock an ability to build wealth and therefore unlock some time freedom. Then, Lauren and Andrew transition to discussing ways to grow your income passively. There’s a spectrum of income from active to passive, and they two discuss items along that spectrum: dividend investing, stocks, bonds, REITs being ...
Apr 09, 2024•24 min
Lauren opens by askingBrian how he came to the conclusion to change paths from the business path to the missionary one. He truly felt God was leading him in that direction. That was the best way for him to have a positive impact on the world. Then, they dive into how people can invest on low incomes. Don’t wait until you make more! And remember, wealthy people buy luxuries last. Then, they dive into the HACKER(RRR) method: H ack your lifestyle, for example, with house hacking; pay attention to y...
Apr 02, 2024•31 min
Lauren starts by asking why Vanessa dropped out of college. It turns out, she’d be considering it for a year, but she felt she wasn’t learning anything she couldn’t learn in the real world. Vanessa’s father had asked her to join his real estate business, and she’d finally made the decision to follow in his footsteps. Vanessa then shares her father’s story, who invested in real estate on the side while he was a police officer. Eventually, he took that side business full time. Vanessa shares more ...
Mar 26, 2024•31 min
BOY DO WE HAVE A TREAT FOR YOU THIS WEEK! Lauren puts out 2 weekly podcasts, one of course being Adulting Is Easy. The second is called the House Money Podcast. Here's episode 26! House Money Weekly In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan have a special guest, Chris Luger from Heavy Metal Money where they discuss blog 125, which is about the 3 essential skills every real estate investor should have. The 1st essential skill is being optimistic. Alan experiences people telling h...
Mar 19, 2024•50 min
What makes Chris the self-proclaimed Gas Biz Guy? Chris shares his origin story. It turns out his family was “in the business.” The name comes from his uncle’s plate from his Corvette. Lauren wonders what “gas biz” really means, and Chris breaks down all of the businesses in that sphere, many of which he has personal experience in. In short, Chris was born an entrepreneur. Then, the 2 transition to discussing the personal finance reality of business owners. What follows is a gut-wrenching story ...
Mar 12, 2024•42 min
Lauren and Cody kick off the interview by talking about what a CFP® is, and how someone becomes one. The curriculum covers a wide range of financial information. Cody describes financial planning as a bridge between your financial ecosystem and your family’s goals and values. Cody argues that financial planners get a bad rap because of some financial advisors trying to take over management of your investments and sell you insurance on top of it. Some people even call themselves financial planner...
Mar 05, 2024•27 min
Lauren comes out of the gate hot, asking exactly how Lindsay accumulated her $100k of debt. Basically, when she started making money, Lindsay blew through it, and ended up with all of her income going towards payments. Most people think of personal finance through payments. Lindsay didn’t know what she should be doing. How did she eventually get on track? This is gut wrenching. Lindsay and her family were at the Route 91 shooting in Las Vegas, and she realized life is too short to spend your lif...
Feb 27, 2024•28 min
Brendan defines house hacking as making income off of a residence you live in. He took his first house hacking step around the age of 22. He started by playing defense with his finances. Then, he bought a duplex in a college town near where he grew up. Brendan and his buddy bought the place for $110k, then put a bit of sweat equity into it. They rented the top unit to students and also got 2 roommates for the unit they were in. With that first success under their belt, they moved onto another ho...
Feb 20, 2024•28 min
Happy almost Valentine's Day! This week, Lauren brings her husband Aric back to discuss an apropos topic. Using an Equifax article for inspiration, the two go back and forth asking each other financial questions. The topics range from income, credit, expenses, debt, goals, kids, and retirement. This episode brings a lot of levity and laughs between the two, who realize after almost 5 years of marriage and 9 years together, they know quite a bit about each other, but not quite everything! If you ...
Feb 13, 2024•32 min
Justine opens by telling a gut-wrenching story about giving VERY honest, public feedback at her corporate job. This left her feeling vulnerable to being canned, but she got a lot of respect from others in her role. The wheels of change had started to turn, but they started turning in earnest when she attended a personal finance training session. That’s when she started investing in index funds. Individual stocks and bonds followed. Justine then shares that she was once in an abusive relationship...
Feb 06, 2024•33 min
Dan went to college for finance. He got into real estate when the company he worked for after college committed massive fraud. Dan saw what his colleagues were going through who relied on their sales income to live when that income was torn out from under them. Dan became interested in the financial independence movement. He learned that with real estate, a tenant can pay down your mortgage every month, among other great benefits. Dan did momentarily succumb to analysis paralysis while learning,...
Jan 30, 2024•30 min
Are people more stressed than they used to be? Yes! Some of it has to do with awareness because of how much information we have access to. Naturally, we as humans are affected by our environment. Our stressors aren’t as obvious as they once were, i.e. email vs predator. Lauren asked about the difference between stress and anxiety. While stress hormones are necessary for survival, we’re really overloaded with them now. Keep in mind that stress differs whether it’s in your conscious or subconsciou...
Jan 23, 2024•28 min
Adam started coaching over 20 years ago. He bridges the gap between financial advisors and therapists. Money can bring up feelings of fear, guilt, and shame. It’s OK to get help from others to summon courage. Ask yourself what your feelings are. What is coming up for you, even listening to this episode? You could also do journaling. It’s especially important to recognize shame, anxiety, and avoidance. Adam tells a gut-wrenching story about how one of his clients realized money killed both her pa...
Jan 22, 2024•28 min
Josh’s partner, Antoinette, got him into real estate investing. As a professional referee, he was very focused on his career, but he got involved in the real estate business during Covid. Antoinette’s background is in a sales career, and Josh actually motivated her to follow her dreams like he had. When Lauren asks Josh about their “why,” he makes a great point that your why may change over time. You may not know where you want to go when you start. The opportunity recently presented itself to b...
Jan 09, 2024•30 min
Lauren starts by asking Ruthie how you inherit a property. It’s important to have a plan for your assets. You can leave property to others through a will or trust. Another way is from rule of law. It sounds like you should choose the will or trust route. There are some obvious benefits from inheriting a property. You don’t have to come up with the money and go through the process of buying one! Unfortunately, there are downsides too. Firstly, someone who is most likely close to you has died and ...
Jan 02, 2024•34 min
It's that time of year. Time to look back on Adulting Is Easy's FOURTH full year of podcasting. (BLOOPERS at the end) Audience: more than doubled again; getting more than 2000 listens per month, and almost 40k in total About the listeners: 81% from the US (83% last year) Others: Canada, UK, South Africa, Australia, Cambodia, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico, Sudan, Switzerland, Philippines, UAE,Japan, India, Ireland, Israel, Denmark, Ghana (new), Belgium, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Sweden, Italy...
Dec 26, 2023•59 min
Note: Tom had some internet issues early on in the interview, sorry about that! Lauren kicks off by asking what the difference is between a financial advisor and a financial planner. Interestingly, they can be very different or very similar. Tom thinks anyone who panicked during the toilet paper shortage should have a financial planner (those that panic!). Also, he thinks people with complicated portfolios, like maybe doctors, as well as second generation wealth. Of course, given Tom’s licenses ...
Dec 19, 2023•28 min
Rachael starts by discussing what financial independence is: being work optional. You’ve built up enough assets that they provide you enough income that you no longer need to work. But what if you like working? You don’t have to have traditional financial goals of completely stopping work at any point. Lauren points out that your feelings about work may change, and you should be ready if that happens. Then, they transition to discussing the FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement. Ag...
Dec 12, 2023•26 min
Brad Freeman aptly named his company Stock Market Nerd because that’s certainly what he is – in a good way! Brad is fascinated with stocks because you can be wrong a lot and still be very successful. He believes in leaving no stone unturned when it comes to researching stocks. It’s a little obsessive actually. For him, knowledge is both power and comfort. Researching stocks to try to outperform the market, to Brad, is a full-time job. He shares what he’s learning in his newsletter. Brad also poi...
Dec 05, 2023•26 min
Trina graduated from college in 2009, and there were not very many jobs available. She continued working in the service industry when she graduated. Trina loved gardening in her own yard, so her customers started asking her to plant their own flowers. Her first year (Apr-Jun), she generated $10,000 in revenue. She decided that the following year, when she turned 30, she’d be full-time. She met her goal and generated $175k the first year she was full time. Trina knew from the beginning that this ...
Nov 28, 2023•25 min
