How to Money

Some of the best things in life are free, but many of the most meaningful goals demand serious time, effort, and sacrifice. The problem is, we rarely get a clear look at what it actually takes to reach those heights. Instead, we see the highlight reel, not the hard parts, which can leave us with a warped sense of the work required to achieve our own ambitions. Our guest today is here to set the record straight. She believes you can earn your freedom but only if you’re willing to put in the work. Bola Sokunbi is a first-generation immigrant who has helped tens of thousands of women build wealth and take control of their financial futures. Her personal story, paired with her practical advice, makes for a powerful combination. Bola’s new book is Clever Girl Millionaire and today we discuss: 

• High cost of financial splurges run amok
• Appreciating vs depreciating assets
• Quickly adapting to a new financial system
• The example set by her parents
• Learning financial lessons the hard way
• Building wealth with side hustles
• Identifying your phase of life
• Determining your “bigger why”
• And much more…

Can’t get enough How To Money? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Cashback credit cards: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

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.

We’re kicking off the week by answering your 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 - Jumbo downpayment: What’s the downside of putting down more on a house in order to reduce my monthly payment?

2 - Saving rate stress: Should I worry about contributing to my Roth if I’m already investing 25% of my income via my 401k?

3 - Roboadvisor: Is it worth paying the extra .2% for the Vanguard roboadvisor or should I rebalance on my own?

4 - Failure to financially launch: What do I do about my adult son who has ruined his credit, only recently landed a solid job, and now wants to buy a house?

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

• Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

During this episode we enjoyed a Whale Fall by Creature Comforts! 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 best 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:

• WFH holding you back
• Education debt = time thief
• Nice gal discounts
• AT&T vs US Mobile
• K-shaped credit scores
• Super prime downsides
• Portfolio over politics
• Social Security cliff approacheth 
• (and Mike Piper on millennials counting on SS)
• Stock driven wealth
• BTC underwater

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

• Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
  • MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

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.

Try to explain consciousness. Go ahead… we’ll wait. It’s almost impossible, but that doesn’t make it any less real! Same with gravity. You can’t see it, but it shapes every movement you make, and it did long before anyone could fully explain it, even after Isaac Newton put words and math to it. Economic forces work similarly to gravity. You don’t always see them, you might not fully grasp them, but they quietly influence every financial decision you make, from the biggest to the smallest. That’s what today’s show is all about. Alex Mayyasi is a journalist, podcaster, and author of the new book, Planet Money, where he explores the hidden economic forces shaping everyday life. Today we discuss:

• Pricing is more than just a number
• Tariffs as taxes and their impact on quality of goods
• Our personal choices in an uncertain world
• Absolute wealth vs relative wealth
• Expectations for continued economic growth
• Housing supply and demand as a game of musical chairs
• Alex’s new podcast about the business of food, Gastronomics
• And much more!

Can’t get enough How To Money? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Cashback credit cards: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

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.

We’re kicking off the week by answering your 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 - JL Collins: Do you guys agree with the same investing principles in The Simple Path to Wealth?

2 - Mortgage ripoff: Even though I have a 4% mortgage, why am I paying closer to 45% in interest?!

3 - Cash or stocks: Since we’re nearing retirement, should we refill our cash holdings or go all in on investing instead?

4 - Extra income: Help us figure out what we should be doing with more income than we know what to do with!

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

• Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

During this episode we enjoyed Here’s To Feeling Good All The Time by Bissell Brothers! 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 best 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:

• Stock exposure rules of thumb (the Google sheet)
• Exotic ETFs
• Space stocks!
• AI trading agents
• Delaying debt payoff
• Interest rates rise
• Delinquent credit card payments
• Flee from the influencers
• Home insurance hardships
• Sand in the gears of the housing market

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

• Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

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.

In Rockin' the Suburbs, Ben Folds pokes fun at the “struggles” of middle-class life… it’s angsty, a little whiny, but also tongue-in-cheek. It’s killer piano rock that makes you laugh because deep down, it’s a little too relatable. And that tension is still alive today. A lot of Americans, and plenty of HTM listeners, feel like they’re doing all the right things: saving diligently and investing wisely but at the cost of flexibility, and maybe even some joy right now. So how do you balance building wealth for the future without squeezing the life out of the present? That’s what we’re diving into today with Scott Trench. He literally wrote the book on this, Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream, and he has helped thousands of people chart a path to financial independence. Today we discuss:

• Frugality isn’t a virtue
• Managing your biggest monthly expense
• House hacking
• Scott’s ideal day and vision document
• Real estate as an inflation adjusted store of value
• Index funds vs real estate
• Optionality vs optimality 
• Illiquid investments and avoiding the middle-class trap
• Why Scott doesn’t count his primary home as an investment
• And much more!

Can’t get enough How To Money? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Scott: Check out Scott’s book on the topic, Set For Life as well as the resources he mentioned.
• Cashback credit cards: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

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.

We’re kicking off the week by answering your 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 - Retirement rollover: Should I pay the fee with Capitalize to expedite my 403b rollover, just wait, or are there other options?

2 - Too liquid: How do I know if I have too much cash since my financial goals are a number of years out?

3 - Safety vs growth: As I approach retirement, does it make sense to buy additional years of service to boost my pension?

4 - Local vs national: Should I pay more for my mortgage if it means better service with a local lender or is it only about the lowest rate?

5 - Autopilot: Is the “AI World War III” portfolio worth considering over on the Autopilot app?

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

• Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

During this episode we enjoyed a If It Doesn’t Have OJ I’m Not Drinking It by Two Tides Brewery! 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 best 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:

• Rent reductions
• Escrow shortages
• Home equity sharing
• EV fees
• Charity parity
• Prediction market bans
• Financial crunch impulse buys
• Everything’s a subscription
• Healthcare price hikes
• Rx drug deals

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

• Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

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.

Optimization is everywhere in the personal finance world. If we just invest perfectly, we’ll get where we want to go, faster… What's not to love?! Well, retirement planning might be a lot more like horseshoes and hand grenades, where getting close enough is actually good enough. And chasing perfection? That can come with some real downsides. Our guest today is a dear friend who brings clarity to the world of personal finance. Jesse Cramer began his career as a mechanical and aerospace engineer designing telescopes, and now brings that same precision (plus a genuine desire to help people) into the way he thinks about money. He writes over at The Best Interest, hosts his podcast Personal Finance For Long-Term Investors, and today we discuss:

• Choosing to not max Roth IRAs
• How to know if you’re Coast FIRE
• Striking the balance between optimizing your finances and enjoying life
• Reversion to the mean and this year’s stock market returns
• The crushing cost of conservative retirement planning
• Alternative investments
• Does retiring earlier mean living longer
• Aligning your money with your life
• And much more!

Can’t get enough How To Money? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:

• Cashback credit cards: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Money Gears: knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• MG7: and maybe you’re well on your way to financial independence but you’re looking for some financial reassurance, that’s when heading over to HowToMoney.com/Advisor and getting matched with a highly vetted financial advisor makes sense.

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.