Oftentimes here on the podcast we talk about our daily lives. We’ll share little ways that we’re saving money, or you get to hear about our curb alert scores, and we might even talk a little too much about how much we’re riding our bikes. So if you’ve been listening for a few years you might know a good bit about us- that happens after nearly 700 episodes! But we’ve never done a deep-dive origin story on the show and what better time to do that than here at the beginning of the year. Especially ...
Jul 12, 2023•51 min•Ep. 695
We’re kicking off the week by answering listener questions! And if you have a question that you’d like for us to answer on the show, we’d love for you to submit your own via HowToMoney.com/ask , send us your voice memo. Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it! 1 - Are prepaid college plans a good deal or should I stick with a traditional 529 account? 2 - What should I do with some EE savings bonds that are maturing? 3 - Is college a good time for my kid to g...
Jul 10, 2023•47 min•Ep. 694
Time for a Friday Flight- our sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil them down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: prepared for Prime Day, student loans (un)forgiven, details of the SAVE plan, FTC targeting fake reviews, shamed spenders, debt counseling,...
Jul 07, 2023•31 min•Ep. 693
Are you ‘credit card FI’ or are you ‘sabbatical FI?’ But maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves… First, does anyone else remember the home run obsession back in 1998? In an attempt to beat the single-season record, home runs became the only metric that anyone watching baseball seemed to care about. But what’s interesting is that most MLB games aren’t won by someone sending a 450 foot bomb to center field. It’s an all-or-nothing approach that most often leads to a strikeout and taking a seat back...
Jul 05, 2023•50 min•Ep. 692
Purchasing an insurance policy is one of those seemingly boring tasks that accompanies entering adulthood. Whether it was your parents making you chip in on the higher costs of car insurance because they were now insuring a teenage driver, or seeing the health insurance deduction come out of your paycheck every two weeks. Or maybe it’s realizing that you now have folks who are dependent on your income so it’s finally time to purchase a life insurance policy. Regardless, it’s often thought of as ...
Jul 03, 2023•56 min•Ep. 691
Time for a Friday Flight- our sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil them down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: student loan clarity with the Chipper app, bad consumer sentiment vibes, resisting rising property taxes, YES in my backyard, Airbnb feelin...
Jun 30, 2023•34 min•Ep. 690
Have you ever renovated a home? If so, then you remember all of the decisions that you had to make that initially were a lot of fun. Paint colors, light fixtures, tile, even the kind of toilet you wanted… but eventually it gets old and you just want it done. If you can’t relate, even picking up a loaf of bread at the grocery store can be overwhelming- “Should I get honey wheat, 100% whole wheat, 13 grain, the stuff with flax?!” While it can be nice to have options, complicating things doesn’t al...
Jun 28, 2023•48 min•Ep. 689
We’re kicking off the week by answering listener questions! And if you have a question that you’d like for us to answer on the show, we’d love for you to submit your own via HowToMoney.com/ask , send us your voice memo. Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it! 1 - With the payment pause ending, how do I approach paying off my student loans while maintaining my credit score? 2 - Why do I need to save medical receipts for my HSA? And another: Should I tap my b...
Jun 26, 2023•52 min•Ep. 688
Marshall Allen is a journalist who investigates why we pay so much for healthcare here in America, while simultaneously we receive so little in return. He is the author of “Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win” and he is also the founder of Allen Health Academy, which produces a curriculum of short on-demand videos to equip and empower employees to navigate the healthcare system. Marshall has been investigating the healthcare industry for 15 years, inc...
Jun 23, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 687
The last thing you want to do when hydroplaning on a flooded road is to overcorrect, potentially sending your car veering into the opposite direction, leading to a crash. Going from one extreme to another can often lead to more harm, or at the very least it can be frustrating and that’s where the ‘laptop class’ has found itself over the past 3 years since the pandemic. We went from typical pre-pan office life when we were all none the wiser, to ‘the death of the office’ where many were working f...
Jun 21, 2023•52 min•Ep. 686
We’re joined today by Yanely Espinal, who is also known as MissBeHelpful in the online world of personal finance. Yanely was born in Brooklyn, she is a first generation daughter of immigrants, and even though she went to Brown University it didn’t take long for her to rack up over $20,000 in credit card debt. Academic performance doesn’t automatically mean that you know how to handle your money, and Yanely knew that she needed to make some changes! Before long she was sharing her experience onli...
Jun 19, 2023•57 min•Ep. 685
Time for a Friday Flight- our sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil them down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: how the CFPB is following our lead, teens making bank, electricians making a SHOCKING amount (yep), Uber Carsharing paying out, car insuran...
Jun 16, 2023•31 min•Ep. 684
When was the last time you were delighted by something or someone?! For Joel, it was when the tree removal company came back out to his house to re-tarp his roof AND they refunded him for it. That’s some Aldi twice-as-nice-guarantee action right there. Not only did they correct the mistake but they went above and beyond to make sure he was happy. And I think that ‘unexpectedness’ is what makes something truly delightful- when it’s a surprise. And similarly when it comes to credit cards we all kn...
Jun 14, 2023•50 min•Ep. 683
We’re kicking off the week by answering listener questions! And if you have a question that you’d like for us to answer on the show, we’d love for you to submit your own via HowToMoney.com/ask , send us your voice memo. Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it! 1 - How should I respond to a girlfriend who is diagnosing my insecurities around money? 2 - Wages aren’t keeping up with rising home values- what should first time home buyers do? 3 - I’m investing so...
Jun 12, 2023•57 min•Ep. 682
Time for a Friday Flight- our sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil them down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: $3 movies, T Swift Tourism, the Messi Effect, Apple breaking the bank, instant ACH transfers, DoorDashOffWithYourMoney, Costco meat indicat...
Jun 09, 2023•35 min•Ep. 681
Have you ever eaten so much dessert that you thought you might puke? Or maybe you find yourself at the end of a shopping spree with too many clothes in your closet than you could ever possibly wear? In both cases we’re talking about the diminishing marginal utility that we receive from each additional item we consume- the first cup of water after a run is wonderful, but the fifteenth... less so! Diminishing returns is a common way to describe this phenomenon, and we want you to know that this ap...
Jun 07, 2023•55 min•Ep. 680
Used cars have APPRECIATED in value! This has never happened before and is a result of the upended car market that we’ve experienced over the past few years. And with this volatility comes a set of new challenges to navigate if you’re looking to buy or even sell a car. But fortunately for us we’re joined by our first anonymous guest on the podcast: Car Dealership Guy, who has blown up on Twitter thanks to his insider knowledge and consumer friendly advice on automobiles. CDG has been in the indu...
Jun 05, 2023•55 min•Ep. 679
Time for a Friday Flight- our sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil it down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: medical tourism frugal or cheap, student loan payments UNpaused, all the ways to budget, the rise of CD laddering, (not so) tiny homes, casel...
Jun 02, 2023•32 min•Ep. 678
You’ve gotta wait 30 minutes to get back in the pool if you’ve eaten! Don’t pee in the pool- it’ll turn red! There are a lot of things we learned in childhood that we’ve likely discarded as false or at least irrelevant at this point. But there are probably some things we still believe because they were ingrained in our brain at an impressionable age. Similarly, there are a lot of folks clinging to the ‘American Dream’ that they should have that house surrounded by that white picket fence, why? W...
May 31, 2023•53 min•Ep. 677
We’re kicking off the week by answering listener questions! And if you have a question that you’d like for us to answer on the show, we’d love for you to submit your own via HowToMoney.com/ask , send us your voice memo. Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it! 1 - After draining my savings to buy a home, what high yield accounts or software do you recommend to help replenish my emergency fund? 2 - More pay or more passion: how do you choose when considering ...
May 29, 2023•59 min•Ep. 676
Time for a Friday Flight- our sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil it down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: new HSA contribution limits, inertia bias leading to wasted premiums, free tax filing on the horizon, DM to save, customer centric companies,...
May 26, 2023•32 min•Ep. 675
Have you seen the meme of the guy on a bike who puts a stick in his spokes and then crashes? There are literally hundreds of different versions based on this goofy comic. For instance the first frame on one says “15 holes of good golf,” then followed by “my brain realizing I’m playing well,” as he puts the stick in the front wheel before writhing in pain on the ground. The truth is, it’s not all that hard for us to become our own worst enemy. And that reality is what makes those memes so hilario...
May 24, 2023•53 min•Ep. 674
We had the pleasure of sitting down with our friend Brandon Ganch, who is The Mad Fientist, while we were recently traveling in Scotland! Brandon started his career as a computer programmer but then quickly added blogger, podcaster, musician, and producer to his expanding list of pursuits and interests. This is a more casual conversation but listen as you’ll learn a lot about Brandon- life events that may have shaped his view of money, how he discovered and then became a leading voice in the Fin...
May 22, 2023•49 min•Ep. 673
Time for a Friday Flight- our sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil it down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: (non-existent) household debt ceiling, breakfast back on the menu, freemium services getting the squeeze, a free 55” Telly, valuable VHSs, “m...
May 19, 2023•36 min•Ep. 672
Getting your driver’s license was a liberating milestone worth celebrating because it meant you no longer needed your parents to drop you off at work, or it meant that your friends didn’t need to pick you up to hang out- you had some freedom to do what you wanted! It was a period of life that was likely accompanied by significant change that we can only truly appreciate in hindsight. And as fun as it was to drive on your own for the first time, graduating high school or college is an even more m...
May 17, 2023•57 min•Ep. 671
We’re kicking off the week by answering listener questions! And if you have a question that you’d like for us to answer on the show, we’d love for you to submit your own via HowToMoney.com/ask , send us your voice memo. Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it! 1 - We’re converting our primary residence into our first rental property: should we hire a property manager? 2 - Should I put all of our living expenses on a 0% credit card and invest the money instea...
May 15, 2023•51 min•Ep. 670
Time for a Friday Flight- our sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil it down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: highlights from our Scotland trip, tyrannical tipping, day (and night) trading, degree requirements getting dropped, white collar apprentices...
May 12, 2023•36 min•Ep. 669
Whether you saw some crazies doing it on TikTok or read about it in a fitness magazine, it seems like a lot of folks are giving ice baths a try. Evidently it’s supposed to be good for your health, but regardless, there are hordes of people who are intentionally soaking in ice cold water around the 55 degree range. Of course this goes completely counter to what ‘normal’ people subject themselves to. Most folks like their showers warm or even hot, and in the rare instance when you run out of hot w...
May 10, 2023•51 min•Ep. 668
“Work will always be work. Some people work doing what they love. Other people work so that they can do what they love when they’re not working. Neither is more noble.” This is a quote from Simone Stolzoff’s new book The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life From Work, that’s set to publish in a couple weeks. And regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, whether you live to work, or work to live, Simone makes the argument that there are too many of us who are looking to our jobs to provide fulfi...
May 08, 2023•55 min•Ep. 667
Since we’re taking a little vacation over in Scotland, we thought it would be a good time to re-release this episode on how you can travel for little to no money. Brian Kelly, The Points Guy himself, is joining us today on the podcast! If you’ve ever attempted some research on airline miles or credit card reward points, then there’s a good chance you’ve read an article or two over at ThePointsGuy.com. Bryan has an entire staff of writers who are all travel experts- from offices in Austin, to NY,...
May 05, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 666
