The Pete the Planner® Show

Americans owe a record $1.29 trillion on credit cards - so is borrowing always the villain? Pete, Damian and Kristen make the honest case for borrowing money: when a mortgage, a degree or the right loan actually improves your options, and when borrowing just lets you dodge a tradeoff.

The real 2026 price of the most common kinds of debt - credit cards, mortgages, home equity, student loans, auto loans, portfolio lines, 401(k) loans and BNPL - the tax rules that change the math, and the five questions to ask before you sign.

Affluent Americans just raised their retirement target 26% in one year, to $2.6 million - and most actual millionaires still don't feel wealthy. Pete and Damian dig into what Americans say they need, why the goalpost keeps moving, and what people say actually makes them feel rich (hint: it isn't just money). Plus the $185,500 health bill nobody budgets for, what Social Security's 2034 deadline really means, and the results of our LinkedIn poll.

What if you could spend your stock-market gains without selling your stocks? This week, Pete and Damian unpack the "buy, borrow, die" strategy: how wealthy investors turn portfolios into spending money, why banks love the arrangement, and what happens when the market stops cooperating. Is it smart planning, a rich person's cheat code, or a very expensive way to discover that debt is still debt?

What if the purpose of some of your money is to buy fewer financial worries? This week, Pete, Dame, and Kristen explore annuities through one central idea: you can pay an insurance company to take on certain risks. We’ll explain the basics, compare the types and costs, and weigh the tradeoffs of exchanging flexibility and growth potential for greater certainty.

Your house has gone up in value. Your checking account hasn’t. Now a company is offering you cash from your home equity—with no monthly payments.

Home Equity Investments promise access to housing wealth without another monthly bill. But what do you surrender in exchange, and where will the money come from when it’s time to settle up? Pete, Dame, and Kristen examine how these agreements work, what the numbers can look like, and whether turning home equity into spending money solves a financial problem or delays it.

Traditional retirement advice has encouraged investors to gradually reduce risk as they approach retirement. But with retirements potentially lasting 30 years or longer, inflation threatening purchasing power, and retirees increasingly responsible for generating their own income, is that advice still appropriate?

“We’ll pay for college” is easy to say when your kid is wearing diapers. What happens when they pick a private school, change majors, or need a fifth year? This week, we tackle three listener questions about how much to save, where parents can draw the line, and what to do when a college promise threatens retirement.

A 53-year-old newly divorced man earns $168,000, kept the family home, and believes his best earning years are ahead of him. From the outside, he appears financially secure.

But he has only $315,000 left for retirement, spends more than his monthly paycheck, carries 22% credit-card debt, and depends on an annual bonus that hasn’t arrived yet. His plan is to maintain his lifestyle, keep the oversized house, and catch up later.

Is this merely a four-year financial squeeze—or has a high income disguised a retirement emergency? We examine the difference between earning a lot and needing a lot, whether home equity counts as a retirement plan, and what it would actually take for him to retire at 65.

After 26 years of marriage, a 51-year-old listener is learning how to manage money on her own. She has a solid income, retirement savings, home-equity proceeds, temporary spousal support—and a persistent fear that one wrong decision could ruin everything.

Millennials are expected to inherit approximately $46 trillion over the next 25 years, making them the largest beneficiaries of the so-called Great Wealth Transfer. But that enormous number hides an uncomfortable reality: much of the money belongs to a very small number of families, many inheritances won’t arrive until recipients are nearing retirement, and millions of millennials will receive little or nothing. Pete explains where the trillions are actually going, why inheritance may widen America’s economic divide and how families should plan for money that may—or may not—eventually arrive.