Capitalize Your Fridays!

Open enrollment is more than an annual box to check—it’s an opportunity to make sure your employee benefits still support your financial life. In this episode of Capitalize Your Fridays, Mike and Taylor discuss how to evaluate health coverage, HSAs and FSAs, disability and life insurance, retirement contributions, voluntary benefits, and PTO as parts of your total compensation. They share practical questions to help you coordinate elections with your household’s changing needs, taxes, cash flow, and long-term goals. Before you simply repeat last year’s choices, learn how to approach open enrollment as an intentional financial-planning exercise.

Medicare can feel overwhelming, but understanding the basics can help you make more confident decisions about your retirement healthcare strategy. In this episode, Taylor Dennis and Mike Williams break down Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D, compare Medicare Advantage with Medigap, and explain enrollment periods, costs, IRMAA surcharges, and common mistakes to avoid. Discover how your Medicare choices connect with Social Security, employer coverage, HSAs, taxes, and your broader financial plan.

Whether you work in higher education, engineering, healthcare, government, or simply have student loans on your mind, this episode explores how to think strategically about college costs, career mobility, and building a financial future with flexibility — not just “free” benefits.

Prompted by recent headlines about Social Security's funding challenges, Mike Williams and Taylor Dennis discuss what retirees and future retirees should know about projected benefit shortfalls, retirement income risks, and future policy changes. They explain why Social Security is not going bankrupt but it could have future impacts and why claiming early out of fear may be a mistake. They also discuss how ALTIUS Financial's Social Security Resilience Planning can help stress-test retirement income, build tax flexibility, strengthen portfolio resilience, and reduce dependence on uncertainbenefit assumptions.

In this episode, Taylor Dennis of ALTIUS Financial is joined by North Rittner of Rocky Mountain Technical Solutions for a practical conversation on planning your digital legacy.

Building on ALTIUS Financial’s recent virtual workshop, they discuss what counts as a digital asset, why a will alone may not provide access to online accounts, how password managers and legacy contacts can help, and why secure planning is especially important for assets like cryptocurrency and digital banking. The conversation offers a simple first step toward making your digital life more secure, organized, and accessible to loved ones when it matters most.

In this special Independence Day episode of Capitalize Your Fridays, Taylor and Mike step back from the usual market headlines to explore “The American Abundance Story”—the idea that prosperity is built by free people using their minds to solve problems, create value, trade, invest, and improve life over time. Rather than ignoring real concerns like debt, inflation, political dysfunction, geopolitical risk, and AI disruption, Mike explains how rational optimism keeps those risks in context by focusing on the deeper engine of progress: freedom, ownership, productivity, and human creativity.

The conversation connects Independence Day, financialfreedom, artificial intelligence, and long-term investing, reminding listeners that a diversified portfolio represents more than ticker symbols—it is ownership in productive businesses and participation in future problem-solving. Taylor and Mike also share practical takeaways for staying disciplined, avoiding both pessimism and hype, and keeping financial decisions anchored to a thoughtful plan rather than short-term emotion.

In this episode of Capitalize Your Fridays, Mike and Taylor dive into the excitement, opportunities, and risks surrounding Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). With high-profile companies making headlines and investor interest heating up, they break down what an IPO actually is, why companies choose to go public, and the tradeoffs that come with entering the public markets. The conversation explores recent IPO buzz, including the renewed focus on AI and space-related companies (like Anthropic and SpaceX), while highlighting the difference between investor enthusiasm and disciplined investing.

They also discuss the unique risks of IPO investing—from volatility and limited public track records to lofty market expectations—and share the practical questions every investor should ask before buying into a newly public company. Whether you're intrigued by the latest market headlines or simply want to become a more informed investor, this episode offers valuable perspective on evaluating IPO opportunities through the lens of long-term financial planning rather than short-term hype.

If you’ve ever asked, “How much do I actually need to retire?”, this episode is for you. We unpack the math behind retirement planning, explain how compounding turns consistency into wealth, and break down concepts like the 4% rule, savings strategies, and tax diversification. Tune in to discover how to align your savings with your lifestyle goals and build a future you’re excited about.

AI is no longer just a futuristic tech tool—it’s becoming part of everyday decision-making, productivity, and even financial organization. In this episode, Mike and Taylor break down whether paying for AI is actually worth it, comparing free and paid versions of popular tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and open-source-style bots.

They also discuss what you’re really paying for when you upgrade, from stronger reasoning and file analysis to privacy controls and higher usage limits. Plus, they explain how AI pricing works, including flat-fee subscriptions versus usage-based token fees, and how to avoid surprise costs when using AI casually or professionally.

We spend, save, and invest money every day, but very few people stop to ask what money actually is, where it comes from, or how changes in the monetary system affect long-term wealth.

In this episode of Capitalize Your Fridays, Mike sits down with Jim Brown, better known as Hard Money Jim, to discuss money creation, inflation, sovereign debt, precious metals, Bitcoin, and the practical challenge of preserving purchasing power in an uncertain financial world. This is not a prediction show or a "buy gold" pitch, it's a conversation about understanding the monetary forces that quietly shape every financial plan.

One minor correction: In the interview, Jim slightly misspoke. At 33:28, he referred to the chapters in his book called “Good Money Creation” and “Bad Money Creation.” However, in the interview, he said “good money inflation” and “bad money inflation.” So forgive that verbal faux pas.