In today’s conversation, we will learn how to negotiate your medical bills. Wait, you can do that? Yeah, this was new to me too. Maybe it was the confusing medical jargon or the assumption that hospitals charge fair prices, but negotiating never crossed my mind…and you know I love to negotiate just about everything. Not only should you be negotiating your medical bills, you should be scrutinizing them for errors. As you’ll learn in this episode, 80% of medical bills have errors, and go figure, t...
Feb 26, 2025•38 min•Ep. 161
Struggling to spend money? Same here. Honestly, I never thought this would be a problem as I got closer to financial independence. I mean, isn’t the goal to save up enough so we can finally spend on the things we want? Turns out, after 15 years of working hard to build wealth, it’s not so easy to let go. Add in some good old financial insecurities, and suddenly, I’ve got money, but I’m too nervous to spend it. And guess what? We are not the only ones. A lot of people in the FI community deal wit...
Feb 12, 2025•56 min•Ep. 160
It’s the start of a new year, and you’ve set some financial goals like paying off student loans, saving for a down payment, or maxing out your IRA. Whatever your goal, how awesome would it feel if you could fast-track your progress? It’ll take focus and dedication, but with the right strategies, you can turbocharge your cash flow and get there faster. Today, we’re joined by Justin Brown-Woods, Financial Coach and Co-Host of The Price of Avocado Toast. Justin not only helps his clients reach thei...
Jan 29, 2025•43 min•Ep. 159
Since discovering financial independence, I have focused on wealth-building: choosing the right accounts, investing wisely, and cutting expenses to save more. But now that I’m approaching my FIRE number, a new question has emerged—what happens after I reach financial independence? On one hand, there’s the technical side: What’s the best way to withdraw from my nest egg? This is something I hadn’t given much thought to until now. But beyond the finances, the bigger question is: What changes in li...
Jan 15, 2025•52 min•Ep. 158
Why save and invest? It’s a rhetorical question, but let’s think it through. When you save and invest, you’re sharing financial resources with your future self. This means your future self won’t have to worry about earning money. With that financial freedom, you gain time—the time you would’ve spent working. And with more time, you have more freedom to choose how to you spend your time. You might ask yourself, "What do I want to do with my time?" Maybe it’s traveling, exercising, or catching up ...
Jan 01, 2025•47 min•Ep. 157
Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? With a little bit of creative frugality, I think it is possible to live below your means and buy the things that bring you joy. What do I mean by creative frugality? It is a two-part process. Number 1, identify the things you value and stop spending money on the things you don’t. That is what today’s guest calls value-based spending. Number 2, get creative with the rest of your spending. Let me give you an example. I have a friend that loves to t...
Dec 18, 2024•50 min•Ep. 156
Okay, this episode was so much fun to create. This is outside my normal format but equally as informative and probably more entertaining. In October, I attended FinCon, a conference for personal finance content creators. I know it is super nerdy of me but here you are listening to a personal finance podcast so you have no room to judge me. This was my fourth time attending and my favorite part is all the friends I’ve made over the years. So like when any group of friends get together, we had to ...
Dec 04, 2024•54 min•Ep. 155
There are so many rules in the personal finance space. Some are helpful, others not so much. Let's set aside the bad ones for a minute (for example, stop buying avocado toast) and discuss the helpful ones. What comes to mind? I went through this practice and wrote down a bunch in preparation for an episode with Jesse Cramer on The Best Interest. I realized many would only be helpful for a certain group of people or at a particular time in someone's personal finance journey. One that comes to min...
Nov 20, 2024•51 min•Ep. 154
There will be a point in your FI journey when a stable salary will become less important to you. You’ve built up your savings and investments to a place where you are comfortable. The freedom and flexibility over your time are more valuable than that regular paycheck. The thought of leaving your job has you nervous though. Even after running the numbers and knowing you have enough, there are still a lot of emotions tied up in financial insecurity. “Do I really have enough? Maybe I should work fo...
Nov 06, 2024•49 min•Ep. 153
I love FI because it allows me to break the rules and live outside the norm. Like, no one has time for 40 years of traditional employment. But little did I realize I left one set of rules only to get caught up in another - the rules of personal finance. For example, let's look at one popular idea, “spend less than you earn and invest the difference.” My friend Jeremy Schneider says this all the time and for the most part, he’s right. This is a great principle and one of the pillars of building w...
Oct 23, 2024•51 min•Ep. 152
While we still have a lot of work to do, I’m really glad we’ve made strides in closing the gender pay gap. Women's increased incomes have led to significant changes in household dynamics. More women are becoming the primary or even sole breadwinner for their family. This change is great and has led to many positives for both men and women. However, our culture is still caught up in traditional gender roles, especially when it comes to money. Many people expect a man to be the primary breadwinner...
Oct 09, 2024•45 min•Ep. 151
It’s one of the most hotly debated topics in personal finance…Roth or Traditional? Some argue that the national debt almost guarantees higher taxes in the future and that you should choose Roth and pay your taxes now. Others argue that flexibility and low-earning retirement years should lead you to choose traditional. And of course, some “professionals” highlight that retirement accounts are a scam and you should be investing in their life insurance product to avoid taxes altogether…for the sake...
Sep 25, 2024•45 min•Ep. 150
Over the last couple of years, a key group of companies known as The Magnificent Seven has emerged. This group of high-performing and influential companies includes Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla. These companies are at the forefront of sectors such as artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, cloud computing, and digital services. They have also been positively impacting much of the growth in the US stock market. Just last year in 2023, these 7 companies’ stocks g...
Sep 11, 2024•44 min•Ep. 149
Things can get complicated quickly in the world of personal finance. From investing and budgeting to estate planning and insurance, there are multiple ways to accomplish what you need to get done. Let’s take investing for example. There are different strategies including but not limited to passive index investing, value buying, the 3-fund portfolio, rental real estate, stock picking, target date funds, 70/30 splits…Honestly, I could rattle off a hundred different options which is why I wouldn’t ...
Aug 28, 2024•45 min•Ep. 148
There are going to be differences. And these differences are what lead to disagreements. Imagine a scenario where you and your friends are booking an Airbnb for an upcoming trip. The group isn’t progressing, and you can tell by the tone people are getting frustrated. Half of the group wants a cheap option while the other half wants a nice place closer to the city center. This kind of situation happens all of the time and if you zoom out, you can probably understand both perspectives. Someone mig...
Aug 14, 2024•43 min•Ep. 147
Yes, your path to financial independence is going to take work and sacrifice but it shouldn’t be miserable. Financial independence is not worth it if it means being unhappy for decades of your life. There should be lots of moments of fun because life is precious both before and after you reach FI. So in today’s episode, Jackie Cummings Koski is back on the podcast to discuss five of her secrets for making your FIRE journey fun. If you missed episode 64, first download it to listen to after this ...
Jul 31, 2024•53 min•Ep. 146
Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, you’ve been asked to write before. This could be an essay for school, an email at work, or a caption for a post. Sometimes when we are writing, we have a complete brain fart. No matter how hard we try, the words aren’t coming out. We write a sentence and delete it. We start writing another sentence, get halfway through it, and give up entirely. Then other times, we sit down to write and the words effortlessly flow onto the page. Your thoughts ...
Jul 17, 2024•44 min•Ep. 145
Humans are weird whenever it comes to money. We drive five miles out of the way to save a few cents on gas. We buy things we don’t need because they’re on sale. We don’t ask for a raise although we’ve been working hard at the same place for years. We all have irrational behaviors when it comes to money and a lot of this has to do with psychology. Common biases impact our ability to make logical decisions. You’ve probably heard of a couple of these biases before. Some examples include the sunk-co...
Jul 03, 2024•46 min•Ep. 144
Work optionality is the idea that you work because you want to, not because you have to. As you’re listening to this in your 20s, this concept might seem like a pipe dream. That’s truly fair. Most of us don’t have this luxury. We are building wealth, along with just paying our bills, and it takes income to do that. But this idea might not be as far away as you think. Regardless of your timeline, as your wealth grows even before you hit financial independence, I think you should be itching closer...
Jun 19, 2024•48 min•Ep. 143
Let’s not sugarcoat it, the path to financial independence is a grind. Even with an aggressive savings rate and an extended bull market run, you’re going to be at it for a while. Setting the hard work aside, we also have to ask ourselves, what are we racing towards? Yes, of course, financial independence and freedom, but what would you do with that newfound free time? This is where I’d like to insert the idea of mini-retirements. This intentional time off work can help us reenergize and explore ...
Jun 05, 2024•43 min•Ep. 142
We always hear the importance of taking advantage of our 401K and IRA accounts. The tax advantages and employer match are too good to pass up on. But is this true for early retirees? If I’m planning on retiring in my 40s, should I be locking my money away in these accounts? How do I bridge the gap between early retirement and 59.5 - the age at which I can withdraw from these accounts penalty-free? Well, the good news is that isn’t 100% true. There are ways to withdraw from these retirement accou...
May 22, 2024•47 min•Ep. 141
I love playing with compound interest calculators and one equation I’m routinely calculating is the number of years until I reach financial independence. Using the 4% rule, I multiply my living expenses by 25 to get my FIRE number. I use that, my current net worth and various contribution rates to predict when I’ll reach FI. But then I started thinking about this equation. Instead of using my current expenses should I use an inflation-adjusted number that would more realistically match my future...
May 08, 2024•55 min•Ep. 140
As someone pursuing early financial independence, it is almost guaranteed that over time, a lot of your wealth will come from investment growth but as we all know, it takes money to make money. The first $100,000 of your net worth is a lot of hard work: you need to make income, live below your means, and aggressively save. And through all of this, your career will be the backbone of this process. Improving the skills that will make you more valuable is an important journey throughout your 20s. I...
Apr 24, 2024•54 min•Ep. 139
You’ve been pouring into your personal finance education and you’re starting to feel more empowered to manage your investments. You might have even played around with online calculators and realized how much that 1% advisor fee is really costing you. But years ago, when you were less confident and didn’t know better, you hired someone to help you with this. They grew into someone you call a friend and although you know the math and feel capable of handling your investments on your own now, you’r...
Apr 10, 2024•48 min•Ep. 138
Dating is expensive. There is no way to sugarcoat it. Between dinner, drinks, parking, entertainment, and more…the costs quickly add up. I was reading an article and they surveyed 2,000 Americans to find out the average person has spent $3,025 over the last year on dating. That’s a little more than $250 a month and it didn’t include indirect costs like new clothes, make-up, and haircuts. Even as someone in a long-term relationship where Gaby and I have similar financial goals, and the advantage ...
Mar 27, 2024•49 min•Ep. 137
If you’re interested in early retirement, you have to consider how you will afford life when a paycheck isn’t hitting your bank account every other Friday. Of course, my favorite method is investing in the stock market. This provides dividend income and the ability to sell your stocks when you need to but there is another obvious method out there - real estate. I don’t know how we’ve gone 135 episodes without extensively discussing investing in real estate. It may be because it isn’t something I...
Mar 13, 2024•44 min•Ep. 136
Even with an aggressive savings rate, reaching financial independence will take 10 to 15 years assuming the market plays nice with you. Stack on paying off debts and saving for large purchases like a wedding, a new car, or your first home, we can see how this is going to be an extended journey. Throughout that journey, how do we stay committed and follow through with our goals? This is not an easy answer, especially in the age of instant gratification and social media. So I turned to my friend M...
Feb 28, 2024•45 min•Ep. 135
When I say the word frugal, what comes to mind? Do you think of your penny-pitching sibling? Or your coupon-clipping aunt? Your co-worker that always brings their lunch? The reality is, frugal means something different to everyone. Frugality is a spectrum, and I believe it can be extremely beneficial to live your 20s with a healthy amount of frugality. Split rent with roommates. Shop at value-based stores. Avoid overspending on luxuries like new cars or fancy clothes. Winning these battles early...
Feb 14, 2024•42 min•Ep. 134
You’re a top performer at work. Your manager routinely praises you and you’ve been taking on more responsibilities as your team and your company grows. With all of these positive indicators, a thought has been in the back of your mind - “I deserve a raise.” Those 2 to 3% increases you’ve received the last couple of years aren’t making a major difference to your financial situation let alone keeping up with inflation. Even with this information though, you haven’t gotten the courage to talk to yo...
Jan 31, 2024•34 min•Ep. 133
One of the keys to building wealth is increasing your income. Most 20-somethings don’t have a savings problem, they have an income problem. You’re trying to pay off student loans, graduate from a college lifestyle, and invest for their future all while working with an entry-level salary. While I believe the fastest way to increase your income is focusing on your primary source of income, aka being a top performer at work and negotiating salary increases because of that, I’m also a fan of rolling...
Jan 17, 2024•41 min•Ep. 132
