Women on the Verge of a Financial Breakthrough

It feels like there are so many financial landmines when we buy a car, but maybe there aren’t as many as we think?

Guest star Kacie Swartz from Blackbarn Financial joins Caitlin and Sara again to explain all the ways we over complicate the car-buying process and undervalue our time.

It turns out no one gets gold stars at the end of life for the moral way they paid for their car. What??

And maybe people that buy new cars right off the lot or lease aren’t suckers? What??

Come on over and think through the options with us: borrow, save, lease, new, old, now or later. So many decisions. And Kacie and Sara have some pretty good answers, without shaming Caitlin about her tortured, overwrought and misplaced sense of moral smugness too much.

Oh wait, and Caitlin pressures Sara to sell her own damn used car. And co-producer Kelly leaves her first podcast easter egg…you’ll know it when you hear it.

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

Most of us who are only learning about finance and investing as grown ups have one very loud question in our minds:

Why don’t they teach this stuff in high school???

We had to learn about dangling participles and square dancing but not how to construct a budget or what’s being deducted from our dish washing paychecks and why?

To answer these questions and more, we invited an expert on what teens should know about finance and investing, and when they should know it. Jacqueline Collins, a Massachusetts-based high school business and finance teacher (the 2021 National Business Teacher of the Year, in fact!), told us about how to meet kids where they are, how to freak them our with our health insurance claims, and why Robin Hood and other games might teach all the wrong lessons.

Jackie takes us through a semester in the life of one of her students and answers the question: What is the one thing all teens should know about finance before leaving the house? (Edge of your seat?? Listen!)

Last thing - even if you don’t have a teen in your life, you might learn something new. Do you know what a neobank is? Neither did we!!

I’ll give you a hint: you probably use one without knowing what it is and might be trusting it a little too much. Get informed!

Teen financial literacy resources, thanks to Jackie:

- extGen Personal Finance (NGPF) Live Dashboard: https://www.ngpf.org/live-us-dashboard/

- NGPF Arcade: https://www.ngpf.org/arcade/

- Build Your Stax is in the arcade!

- If you don't have a class in school, you could try a full-service program like Your Money Vehicle (https://yourmoneyvehicle.com/) *no relation to Jedidiah Collins

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

Should you pay income taxes now or later on all that money you’re earning?

Most of us think about putting our money in retirement accounts as a way to save on how much income tax we have to pay this year, as well as saving all of that money to live on after we retire. But, wait!

For many people who make under a certain amount of money (I’m pretty sure Sara says how much in this episode so you should listen), it might actually make more sense to put at least some of your investment dollars into a different kind of investment account. Enter: Roth.

Fun! Another financial tool to try to remember.

Sara breaks down what the “Roth” part of a Roth investment account means, and how it’s different than a non-Roth (normal?) investment account while Caitlin misunderstands for the 47th time. It has to do with taxes, people.

And if you just can’t live another moment without understanding more about how income taxes work, listen to our episode Women on the Verge of Doing Their Taxes!

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

Am I the prenup type?

Will my house still be my house after it will be our house if I become a me again?

Will I sound shallow/greedy/pessimistic/calculating/shrill/selfish/gold-diggy/cold-hearted if I tell my partner I want a prenup before we get married?

So many questions and fears and misconceptions about what it means to consider the financial implications of signing a contract to join forces! For many, it’s super awkward and feels like the wrong vibe to be starting out with. Women on the Verge of a Financial Breakthrough need to turn that vibe upside down.

But first, we need more information. So, welcome to today’s episode.

Our guest expert, Hannah Hembree Bell, is a family law attorney who sets us straight on who needs a prenup (everyone?), what should be in it and why talking about money with your partner before, during and after marriage is ALWAYS a good idea. Follow @hembreebelllaw for all things divorce and lawyer and mom and mindset and all of that on all of the channels. It’s an education!

After you hear Hannah, you’re going to want to talk about this stuff a lot, to anyone who will listen. Even if you’re not getting married, you can bug your smug engaged friends!

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

Welcome to the episode where Caitlin exploits having a podcast with Sara to get Sara to tell her whether or not to sell her house. Does Sara take the bait??

In true Sara fashion, she leans into empowering Caitlin to make her own damn financial decisions, offering a framework to make big one-off financial moves.

Like, how scared are we supposed to be of tax implications? (And what is a capital gain tax and how the hell could it possibly apply to a normal person like me?) And, how can we tell if the stories of our past financial successes are standing in the way of making new decisions that make sense for our future? (Caitlin raises hand.)

Caitlin relishes the power of a “good deal” story, and how maybe those stories are worth their weight in gold (but not helpful in building a future, reality-based investment portfolio, perhaps.) Do you remember the time Caitlin found a Le Creuset dutch oven at a Goodwill in 2007? She does! And she’ll tell you all about it!

Also, along the way, some ins and outs of the consequences of investing in real estate rather than index funds, and the emotional/financial/logistical math that goes along with owning rental properties.

Listeners - what do you think?? Should Caitlin sell her house??

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

The long-dreaded day has come: We try to tackle a tiny bit of crypto, whatever that means.

What is the occasion for wading into these bro-infested waters? The government changed a rule, so crypto can now creep into our legit retirement investment accounts. Do we care?? Maybe?

As for the “content”, Caitlin makes ridiculous analogies about opening a shell-only currency shop in a beach side village in her to attempt to visualize how a new currency comes into being, and Sara comes out as “crypto curious” and tries to keep it real and balanced.

You will not learn everything you need (want?) to know about imaginary currencies in this episode, but on the other hand, you won’t not learn more than you already don’t know about them. If you’ve been sticking your head in the sand up to this point (ahem, Caitlin), this could be a gentle way to dip your toe in with some company.

Attention: Sara and I have wanted to do an episode about crypto for a really long time, but we want to find someone to talk to about it who isn't in the tank. Like, who's skeptical but isn't so fiery against it, like Caitlin seems to be, but sees both sides. And has a sense of humor. If you're out there and know a lot about it, get in touch. And if anybody listening knows somebody who isn't going to try to sell us anything but has a nuanced understanding, we would love to talk to them!

FYI: When Sara tells Caitlin to listen to one of our previous episodes to remember what a mutual fund is, she’s referring to Season, 1, Episode 5: Like, literally, what is a stock? You should listen to it, too, if you’re feeling a little fuzzy about what exactly a mutual fund is or isn’t.

Another FYI: We did an episode on WTF is a Bank? that helps explain some of the topics we discuss in here - or at least we referred to it, so I’m including it in our show notes so we look really busy.

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman are the elephants in our podcasting Zoom room on this one. Also the trad wife Insta influencers that might con you into thinking buying chicken farming supplies instead of Thai takeout makes you a better person.

Guest star Kacie Swartz from Blackbarn Financial has a money mindset water feature metaphor that splashes Caitlin right out of the…water feature. And Sara falls right into Kacie’s trap and Caitlin bravely shares how many money hidey holes she currently maintains against (medical?) Kacie’s advice.

Most importantly, Kacie points out how much shame we all carry around with us in our money decisions, and how taking all moral and “good person” judgements out of this realm can help us figure out how to use our money the way we want to to make us happy.

We also take on capitalism, the patriarchy, deprivation and the exhaustion of financial decision-making in daily life! Women deserve nice things!

FYI: Here is the What kind of insurance do I need? episode we did last season, in case you want to learn more about what types of insurance are recommended, and which are not (according to Kacie).

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

Just when you think finance talk can’t possibly get more boring…bring in the three i’s. But wait! There’s some stuff you should know, even if it’s not the breezy summer beach listen you were hoping for.

Apparently there is a new normal when it comes to mortgage interest rates (sit down for that bitter medicine), which is actually the old normal that we forgot about. But Sara’s ears finally mildly perk up at the mention of a high yield savings accounts. Mildly.

And were you one of those people that got on the I bond wagon last year? Time to chuck yourself off, penalties be damned. Explanation within.

Finally, Sara explains how people can scare us with inflation doomsday scenarios to trick us into doing dumb stuff with our investing, and also that my method of gauging inflation by how much my gas costs is unscientific (and, more to the point, a bad way of measuring inflation). The good news is that we don’t have to do it Sara’s way either! Maybe inflation is fake news? I don’t remember. You have to listen.

FYI: Here is the episode we did about gold, in case you want to be able to debunk myths about gold being inflation-proof after listening to this episode.

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

Warning: There will be no champagne party in this episode. Last year it was the Bear Market, now it’s the Bull Market. The market goes down, the market comes back up. And no matter what, Sara says we have to be super chill and nonchalant-like, even when things are good.

Also, Sara describes what an economist victory lap looks like (dorky, but kind of bad ass) and why we need to keep plugging away at our plan, no matter what historical dips and historical climbs happen to be happening in the stock market.

Will there ever be alarmist advice on this podcast??

Come for the reasonable amount of drinks at a very sensible, if muted, celebration. Stay for Sara fangirling over a famous female economist I’ve never heard of. It’s Season 3, bitches!

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page!

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.

For our last episode of Season 2, we talk about, what else??: how index funds are the freaking work horses of building a financial future for good reason.

Caitlin grills Sara about a financial column she read that says what Sara has already been saying for two seasons (and 10 years before that): it’s VERY VERY hard to beat the returns you can get over long periods of time when you invest in low-cost index funds. Like so hard that it’s probably a fluke when it happens so don’t believe anyone who says they have the winning strategy or insider knowledge. They don’t. They can’t.

All of the studies for the past 20 years have shown this again and again.

So, forget about the finance bros and pinstriped Wall Street “kings” who pretend they can pick the winners with their fancy words and boring golf stories. While they strive for fantasy heroics, you’ll make more money than they will in the long term sticking to a long term index fund strategy based on reality and research.

Also, Sara reminds us again how dangerous our own fear and greed buttons are to derail us from our deserved financial glory.

Oh! And do you have a passive income story? A success? A failure? Tell us about it in a voice memo and e-mail it to: [email protected]

Ask us your dumb investing and finance questions for Season 3 on our Ask Us page! We also post our transcripts there.

We have the social medias!! Here’s our Instagram (Thank you, Gwen!) and Facebook and LinkedIn.

This episode was edited by our co-producer Kelly West. Music by Bad Bad Hats and Devmo.