How to Money

Some folks will swear that taking a nap is bad for you. “It’ll throw off your circadian rhythm!” or “You’re being lazy- maybe it’s time to be more productive with your time!”. And of course, like many things in life, you could take it too far. For instance taking a nap while your friends are visiting or climbing in bed for 3 hours in the middle of the day will likely lead to poor outcomes- there will be negative downstream effects. But the reality is that a well-timed nap can bring a lot of benefits for many folks- it can boost your memory, increase your job performance, and ease your stress levels. Well, in the same way that naps are misunderstood, so is debt. Indiscriminate use of naps or debt could easily create a mess. But the strategic use of debt is an incredibly nuanced topic that we’re venturing into. Today we discuss how you can determine if you’re using debt strategically by looking at your finances holistically, how folks use debt as a crutch, why it’s important to understand opportunity cost, evaluating your own personal debt tolerance, and much more!

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

During this episode we enjoyed a Milk and Cookies by Wicked Weed! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Think about the last novel you read that included a dangerous quest. If it’s a fantasy like the Hobbit, there might be giant spiders, goblins, and dragons- but in the end, it’s worth it because of the unfathomable treasure and riches that await them. The thing is, when we’re talking about investing in single stocks, the chance that this perilous journey ends up with a happy ending is much less likely, but folks continue along in their quest. Why? Maybe it’s because of the sophisticated tools that we have at our fingertips, or because it’s more accessible than ever with apps like Robinhood where you can buy and sell for free, or maybe you just think you’re smarter than everyone else. And sure you’ve heard of individuals who have crushed it by investing with a company like Tesla, but we’re still not fans of this type of approach. So in this episode we tackle some of the most common arguments advocating for investing in single stocks, why we ultimately disagree, and how you should invest your money instead. Single stock investing is unnecessary and can often be problematic.

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

During this episode we enjoyed a classic: Trappistes Rochefort 10 by Brasserie de Rochefort! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know you can’t believe everything that you read on the web, right?! There are all sorts of myths, half truths, and straight up lies that can not only make us look foolish were we to believe them, but they can also separate us from our hard earned money and cause us financial harm. And it turns out there are a number of myths that pervade how many think about their credit scores. Some of this confusion has to do with the fact that different lenders reference different scoring models, so it’s tough to know exactly what is going on underneath the hood. But in addition to that there is flat out wrong information floating around that has an impact on how we view these mysterious three digit numbers- our credit scores. Listen as we tackle some popular credit score myths head on, and explain what you actually need to do in order to maintain a healthy credit score.

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

During this episode we enjoyed a Hello World! by Spyglass Brewing - a big thanks to Gary for sending this one our way! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time for a Friday Flight- our little 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: Home Grown Comfy Chicken, leaning into divergent spending, asking for rent concessions, boarding house startup, comfy cash, abandoning the internet, boutique fitness bankruptcies, resale resurgence, affordable prescription drugs, & geographic arbitrage for kids!

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money. Have an awesome weekend!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you a neat freak, or do you prefer to simply wing it? Here’s a thought exercise: How would you feel if your partner said, “We’re going to The Container Store!”? If you’ve never been before, it’s pretty self-explanatory; basically, a retailer dedicated to organizing everything from Christmas decorations to tools in the garage and shoes in the closet. But last I checked, they didn’t have anything specific to organize your personal finances. That’s why we're lucky enough to be joined by the woman behind The Organized Money, Alaina Fingal. The Organized Money is an incredible resource – it’s a site, a blog, and Alaina creates a ton of videos on YouTube where she has nearly 200,000 subscribers. Her goal is to help folks build wealth by organizing their money. As a certified financial coach and author, Alaina is on a mission to help folks find financial peace by utilizing different systems that work for them. We discuss how Alaina developed her organizational prowess, going with analog strategies to help you stay on target, how her weekly meeting keeps her from busting her budget, organizing your time, and much more during today’s episode.

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

During this episode we enjoyed a Missile Toad by Ever Grain Brewing – a big thanks to Rhiannah for sending this one our way! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For a year that could be dominated by headlines of derailed trains, wildfires, and global conflicts, we think it’s important to focus on some of the good things that happened this year – and we’re not just talking about The Eras Tour! Not only do we share our financial wins from this year, but a massive number of How To Money listeners have been able to make significant strides with their own money. We love creating this episode, hearing what y’all have been able to accomplish, and sharing it with your fellow listeners. We hope that it’s as inspiring and motivating to y’all as it is to us! Listeners were able to do everything from negotiating hospital bills, to pivoting careers in order to drop commutes, to maxing out IRAs, to buying new homes, to launching new businesses… we could go on. Hopefully we can all learn something from each other today and we’re also hoping that this episode might be the spark for some epic 2024 money wins.

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

During this episode we enjoyed a Chronic Happiness by Frog Rock Brewery- a big thanks to Joe for sending this one our way! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time for a Friday Flight- our little 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: a $700 million contract, deadly debt, housing crash hopes, irritating institutional investors, meager housing supply, stock market predictions, the expensive “American Dream”, & entrepreneurship to build wealth.

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money. Have an awesome weekend!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To everyone who has decided to ‘take a break’ from your Zillow or Redfin apps: we applaud you! Whether you did it to cut back on your screen time, or simply because of sheer frustration as you’ve sensed that something was broken in the housing market, home affordability seems to be at all time lows. As you scroll through listings, there's this dark cloud of overwhelm, courtesy of the real estate starship we find ourselves strapped to. And even if prices taper off some- how are folks going to handle their mortgage payments considering where rates are sitting? There are a lot of big unknowns when it comes to the largest financial decision that many of us will make, but luckily, we’re joined by Lance Lambert. Lance is the nation's foremost data journalist and beat reporter in the residential real estate space. He’s been the real estate editor over at Fortune Magazine, and he’s recently launched ResiClub to help folks to stay informed on the US housing market. We discuss why home affordability has deteriorated so quickly, specific cities that will continue to see prices increase, key indicators to help you know where your market is headed, the most important consideration before you buy a home, and much more!

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

During this episode we enjoyed a Juice Lovers by Other Half Brewing- a big thanks to Jason for sending this one our way! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let’s dive into the week with some fresh listener questions we have lined up for you! And don't just stand on the sidelines- if you have a question you’d like us to answer, toss your voice memo our way. It only takes about 90 seconds to record and you can find a step by step guide over at HowToMoney.com/ask . Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it!

1 - We’re planning to have a baby! How do we financially prepare and what other advice do you have for us?

2 - Should I sell my home in California and move to Arizona?

3 - How aggressively should I invest within my new daughter’s 529 college savings plan?

4 - My son starts at his first job this weekend – how can I encourage him to invest a portion of his paycheck?

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

During this episode we enjoyed an Austell La Vista Mexican Lager by Frog Rock Brewery- a big thanks to Joe for sending this one our way! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time for a Friday Flight- our little 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: Disney+ with ads, affordable Christmas lights, EV apathy, the best time to buy an EV, drill baby drill, green tax credits, penalties on tax estimate shortfalls, at fault inflation, gifting appreciated securities, curated tchotchkes, & financial literacy 101. 

Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money. Have an awesome weekend!

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.