It’s that time again…open enrollment season. And while we know this topic doesn’t get anyone out of bed in the morning, it SHOULD. Because buried in that HR email you ignored is a decision that could cost or save you thousands.

This week, we’re breaking down why so many people just auto-renew last year’s health plan, what rising premiums in 2026 actually mean for your wallet, and how AI can help you stop making five-figure decisions based on casual conversations with your coworkers.

We talk about:

• Why health insurance is quietly eating your raise
• How to sniff out hidden changes in your 2026 plan
• Using AI to compare plans without becoming an expert
• The power of a good prompt and what to include in yours
• Why planning for next year’s pregnancy, braces, or mental health care needs to happen right now

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

We recently teamed up with Consumer Reports on an eye-opening project that made us rethink how we evaluate, purchase, and engage with our homeowners insurance policy. This week’s episode is about what we learned.

Here’s what we unpack:

• Why homeowners insurance is way more confusing and critical than we thought
• What’s driving double-digit rate hikes (even if you’ve never filed a claim)
• How your dog, HOA, or even local crime rates affect your premiums
• One of the most overlooked parts of your policy that could actually save you
• Why checking your mail might be the most important financial task you do this week
• How to protect yourself with umbrella policies and avoid common traps

This one’s shorter than usual, because we want you to take action:
 → Read your policy.
 → Shop around.
 → Check out CR’s list of top-rated homeowners insurance companies based on actual customer satisfaction, claim handling, and renewal transparency 

Links: 

• Why are Homeowners Insurance rates going up right now?
• Homeowners Insurance & Extreme Weather: What you should know

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

Food prices are up (again), takeout is 4x more expensive than eating at home, and yet somehow..dinner still ends up on your doorstep. That’s exactly why we created Eat Better, a new video series that makes home cooking feel doable, even if you're not “a cooking person.”

In this episode, we're breaking down why so many people aren’t cooking at home, and what it really takes to change that.

Julien talks about how 20+ years of cooking at home and 7 years as a pro chef shaped our latest project, and Kiersten opens up about what’s kept her out of the kitchen. We also dig into how we think about food and money, and why this moment in time demands a better approach to nourishing yourself and your family.

Listen to hear more about:

• The launch of our new video series Eat Better
• Why your favorite restaurants might all be serving the same food 
• How people got to a point where cooking feels harder than it is
• The emotional, cultural, and economic reasons behind the takeout trap
• Why your kitchen might be working against you
• Why cooking is a critical life skill, not just a nice-to-have
• How restaurant-quality meals at home are more doable (and cheaper) than you think

Links: 

• Start here and leave your questions for Eat Better (full series HERE)
• “I tracked down the company ruining restaurants” via More Perfect Union
• Ep 158 - The secret to stress-free cooking at home | must-have kitchen tech for busy people (watch it instead) 
• Eat Better on a Budget ebook

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

If talking about credit makes you anxious, confused, or just flat-out annoyed… you're not alone. In this episode, we break down the truth about credit scores and reports: what they are, how they work, the most common myths people believe, and why it’s time we stop treating credit like a moral compass.

Whether you’re building credit for the first time, trying to bounce back from a rough patch, or just wondering why your score dipped after doing the “right” thing - we got you.

We cover:

• The biggest myths about credit (including the one a lot of folks still repeat)
• Why your score is not a moral report card
• How to check your credit and why you must 
• The rise of shady credit repair schemes
• Smart ways to build or rebuild without getting scammed
• Credit reports, analogies, and a little tough love

Links: 

• Episode 211 - Everything you were never taught about bankruptcy (or watch it HERE)
• Check your credit report for free at AnnualCreditReport.com
• National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC)
• Operation HOPE – Financial counseling and education

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

This episode is sponsored by NordProtect. To save up to 59% on annual plans for NordProtect visit https://nordprotect.com/richandregular and use code RICHANDREGULAR

This week, we’re breaking down three money identities we’ve seen over and over again. None of these are “good” or “bad,” they’re more like energies, instincts, patterns we’ve all lived at some point. And just like a horoscope, you might recognize yourself in all of them.

We’ll walk you through a quick quiz so you can find out where you land, and then we’ll show you why the answer isn’t as simple as picking one lan​​e.

In this episode we: 

• Break down 3 money identities you’ll probably recognize in yourself (or your friends)
• Walk you through our quiz so you can see how they show up in real life and which energy you naturally lead with
• Talk about why sticking with just one money identity might leave you stuck

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

If budgets are supposed to keep us on track, why do so many of them make us feel stuck instead? In this episode, we talk about why the most common advice fails and what actually works when life keeps changing.

The problem with budgets isn’t discipline, it’s design. Most advice assumes your income, expenses, and goals stay the same forever. Ours doesn’t, and neither should yours.

We get into:

• Why the “stick to your budget no matter what” mantra sets you up to fail
• How to spot seasonal spending patterns and stop treating them like emergencies
• The difference between rules (non-negotiable facts of money) and richuals (flexible habits you can adapt)
• Why cash flow management matters more than month-to-month tracking
• How to stop treating budgets as a once or twice-a-month activity and start managing them in real time
• How to use non-cash choices like skills, time, creativity, community as part of your default financial strategy.
• The problem with formulas like 50/30/20, and why they were never built for everyone
• Why sticking to the wrong budget doesn’t earn you extra credit and just ruins your motivation 

Links: 

• Listen to Episode 224 - How to actually save money on groceries in 2025 or watch it here
• Listen to Episode 189 - Underconsumption Explained or watch it here
• Georgia residents - Mark your calendars for the Georgia PSC Election 

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

What if retirement wasn’t a one-time event at the end of a long career, but a rhythm you could build into your life right now?

In this episode, we're joined by the brilliant Jillian Johnsrud, whose new book Retire Often flips the script on traditional retirement. Instead of waiting 40 years to enjoy life, Jillian makes the case for taking intentional mini-retirements throughout your career by taking one month off every couple of years….not to escape your life, but to design it.

Jillian drops a 6.5% rule that reframes everything you’ve been taught about budgeting for time off. And we both realize: we’ve been doing mini-retirements, we just didn’t have the language for it.

So together, we unpack:

• Why a single month can be more transformative than you think
• What burnout actually feels like (and why most of us misread it)
• The financial math behind taking breaks without going broke
• Why your future self will thank you for planning now
• How to pitch a break to your boss and mean it

Links: 

• Get the “Retire Often” book or visit the website
• Grab her free worksheets on Planning and Negotiating your mini-retirement
• Follow Jillian on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube 

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

This week we’re celebrating our 10 year anniversary by sharing some lessons about money, partnership, and staying excited about the long game.

10 years of marriage isn’t just a milestone, it’s a record of every choice you made together, from buying a house to splitting a check to deciding who’s unloading the dishwasher. Some of those choices aged well. Others? Let’s just say they came with late fees.

In this episode, we get into:

• What to do when “my idea” needs “our money,” and how to bring and how to bring it up without sounding like you’re making a sales pitch or begging for permission
• The difference between conviction and borrowed confidence, and how to tell if you’re just hyped by somebody else’s results
• The price we’ve paid for decisions that looked fine in the moment but flopped later and how we move on without dragging it out.
• Why marriage isn’t 50/50 most of the time, and how keeping score only makes the game worse.
• The trap of calling yourself “the responsible one” or “the spender,” and how those roles mess with the way you see each other
• The metrics that matter more than net worth if you want your marriage (and your life) to feel exciting in year 20, 30, and beyond

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

Some seasons of life are defined by money, and not in a good way. Those years test your patience, your relationships, and your identity. But they can become turning points and leave lessons that last long after the struggle is over.

This week, we're talking about the kind of year that stretches everything. When progress feels invisible and the usual advice doesn’t cut it, it’s easy to lose momentum or give up entirely. We’ve been there, and in this episode, we’re sharing what helped us stay focused and keep moving forward when it felt like things were falling apart. 

Inside, we get into:

• How to know if you’re in a “hard year” (and why that label matters)
• Why you need new ways to measure progress when money is tight
• What baseball, burnout, and corporate spin can teach us about manufacturing wins
• How to make quitting harder

If money’s been testing you lately, and you're tired of pretending it’s fine, this one's for you.

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow

Most people only invest for retirement through their employer plan, which means if that plan is weak, your future could be too. But how do you actually know if it’s bad, or if you just don’t understand it yet?

In this episode, we break down the three biggest signs your employer plan might be holding you back, and what to do about it.

We’ll get into:

• Why some 401(k) fund menus feel like a restaurant with no good options (and how to find the hidden gems)
• What “the match” really means, why it’s not free money, and how to calculate its true impact on your paycheck
• The ugly truth about vesting schedules, and why they’re less about rewarding loyalty and more about saving your employer money
• How to compare your retirement benefits across jobs the same way you’d compare rent prices or school districts before moving

Your retirement plan is part of your compensation, just like salary, PTO, and health insurance. If you’re ignoring it (or assuming it’s fine) you could be leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table.

Take a closer look now so you can decide whether your plan is working for you, or if it’s time to find a better path forward.

Links: 

• Ep 171: Why you need a brokerage account: The Swiss Army knife of investing 
• Ep 105: Planning for your retirement 
• Ep 108: Sparking your early retirement dreams: A guide to FIRE  

Connect with Julien and Kiersten on our website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Join our email list to get updates from us, opportunities for discounts, freebies and a quick rundown on the relevant financial and career news impacting your life.

Get our book Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, named 2023 best overall book about investing by Business Insider and one of the best personal finance books by Forbes

If you would like to learn more about investing, check out our newest class, Making Money Grow