How to Money

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 - Pet insurance: As I’m expecting some big vet expenses, should I continue to pay for insurance for my dog?

2 - Roth vs 529: Should we save for our son’s college in a Roth since it gives us more flexibility?

3 - HSA: Can I backfill my health savings account to invest, after I pay for an expensive medical procedure?

4 - Cashless kid: What’s the best way for my 14 year old to pay for expenses while at a cashless summer camp?

5 - 0% balance transfer: Are there good balance transfer cards that have good cashback as well?

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 Grapefruit Substance 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:

• Insurgent I-bonds
• Small business swipe fees
• Credit card limits lowered
• Trendy tiny homes
• Smaller homes in walkable communities
• Recurring handyman subscription fees
• Millennial early retirement
• Cutting back on the big 3
• AI financial advisors
• Chat privacy risks
• Why the AI hate?

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.

Most of us think of college as an investment… one that hopefully pays off over decades. And for a lot of people, it does. But with costs skyrocketing, it’s not quite the slam dunk it used to be. So what if you could flip that equation? What if instead of paying for college, college paid you? Our guest today did exactly that. Nia Baiyeroju earned over a million dollars in scholarships and now she’s helping others do the same. She’s here to break down how it works and how you can take advantage of the estimated $100 billion in available funds. We specifically discuss:

• Leveraging your unique story
• An unlikely social media platform to find scholarships
• Casting a wide net and going for smaller opportunities
• Losing $20,000 bc of a missing headshot
• Sidestepping the headache of filling out applications
• The value of internships
• Hustling, burnout, and mental health
• Importance of stated goals and community
• And much more!

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

• Nia: See what else Nia is up to over on her site and all the socials!
• Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Money Gears: Knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!

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 - Kid IRAs: How do I go about setting up a Roth IRA for a minor?

2 - Advisor fees: By my math, most folks are paying closer to 20-25% for financial advice!

3 - Pension credits: Should I spend $50,000 to purchase teacher service credits in order to boost my pension?

4 - US Mobile: I’m considering switching to the new Starlink home internet… good idea?

5 - Rent vs own: Why don’t y’all ever talk about the nightmares associated with renting?!

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 Whippersnapper by Two Tides Brewing! 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:

• Waiting till 8th
• Secondhand tech
• Cities with all the jobs
• Mistaken starting salaries
• Slow state of play in the housing market
• Crypto-backed mortgages
• Commuting “literally breaking me”
• Biking actually is an alternative
• Self-inflicted inflation
• Energy bills on the rise
• More borrowing to get by

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.

The vast majority of HTM listeners are Gen Z and Millennials - people who are starting early and taking the bull by the horns. But that’s not true for everyone in our audience, and it’s certainly not true for the average American. Our guest today didn’t even start thinking about financial independence until age 50. But he made up for lost time in a big way and now he’s helping thousands of other late starters do the same. Bill Yount is an emergency room physician on a mission to help people escape the rat race, live more balanced lives, and reclaim their time. His podcast, Catching Up to FI, is packed with practical wisdom for anyone who feels like they’re late to the game. Today we discuss:

• Bill’s personal journey from burnout and debt
• Geo-arbitrage and massively downsizing
• Debunking the myth that all doctors are rich
• Debt payoff or investing when you’re last to the game
• Transitioning to retirement and the “One More Year Syndrome”
• Emotional aspects of retirement
• A general take to living a full and engaging life
• And much more!

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

• Bill: Listen to his podcast, Catching Up To FI with co-host (and friend of the pod) Jackie Cummings Koski!
• Credit card perks: Check out our favorite credit cards that we use to maximize rewards and optimize our spending.
• Money Gears: Knowing what to do with your money is crucial to your personal finance journey.
• Newsletter: Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Other money nerds: Find a thriving community of fellow money nerds by joining the HTM Facebook group!

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 - Coast FI: How intentionally should I shift my retirement portfolio to bonds if I’m nearing financial independence?

2 - Credit card bonuses: Does it make much sense for me to budget and track the thousands I receive in rewards?

3 - Trusts: Should we prioritize setting up a trust now that we have a young child?

4 - Rx sunglasses: Where can I get affordable Rx sunglasses that I won’t be afraid to lose?

5 - HELOC: What makes one HELOC better than another?

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 Dream Operator by Piedmont 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:

• Bad bunnies (cost money)
• Negative car equity
• A car loan opportunity cost breakdown
• VOO the GOAT
• Flipping fleece jackets
• Recycled rags
• Slow shippers saving
• Spending more to live longer
• Outliving your money
• Babies or bougie
• EV sales are up
• Sayonara Spirit (or not… Spirit 2.0 -> LetsBuySpiritAir.com)

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.

Shark attacks, plane crashes, and lightning strikes… these are the dramatic and headline-grabbing events that are terrifying but incredibly rare. The odds you’ll ever experience those unfortunate events are tiny, so is it technically risky? Meanwhile, something as ordinary as driving to work should be considered more often since in the US, there are 6 million car accidents a year! When you start looking closely, risk and reward show up everywhere in our lives. And for investors especially, understanding the REAL risks we face, not the ones that dominate headlines, is essential to building a strategy that truly works. Our guest today has made it his mission to bring common sense back to finance. Ben Carlson is the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management, where he focuses on managing portfolios for institutions and individuals. He is the creator of the widely read blog A Wealth of Common Sense and the author of several books on investing, including his new release, Risk and Reward. Today we discuss:

• Over-indexing on existential risk vs personal risk
• “When do you need your money?”
• Stress testing your investments
• International’s spot in a portfolio
• Timing the AI “bubble”
• Role of cash in investments, but also in personal finance
• Protecting your wealth from inflation
• Bonds for younger investors
• Adopting a long term investing mindset
• Treating “future you” like a bill
• And much more!

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

• Ben: Check out Ben’s new book, Risk & Reward: How to handle market volatility and build long-term wealth.
• 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 - Debt-fueled lifestyle inflation: Should I sell a rental property to pay off my 401k loan used to install a pool?

2 - Car financing: Does it make more sense to pay for a new/used car in cash or make payments and invest the difference?

3 - Military service/VA loans: What are the pros and cons of going with a VA loan for a new home we’d like to purchase?

4 - 403b: Leave it, transfer it, roll it, or convert it? (or maybe even BOP it?!... Capitalize could be a part of the solution)

5 - 529 plans: How should I sort through all the options available?! (Virginia's direct-sold site is Invest529.com)

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 DDH Cosmik Debris by Creature Comforts… thanks for donating this one to the pod Nick! 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.