How To Money

“Work will always be work. Some people work doing what they love. Other people work so that they can do what they love when they’re not working. Neither is more noble.” This is a quote from Simone Stolzoff’s new book The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life From Work, that’s set to publish in a couple weeks. And regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, whether you live to work, or work to live, Simone makes the argument that there are too many of us who are looking to our jobs to provide fulfillment in ways that are unhealthy. For some our careers have replaced religion, for others it’s a deep meaningful passion they’re looking for, and yet others have replaced their social circle with their office, and friends with their co-workers. We’re asking our work to wear too many hats! So today we have a great conversation with Simone Stolzoff about diversifying our identities, steps that both employers and employees can take in order to help define the ‘good en

Over 1,000 years ago, somehow, the Vikings were able to sail from Norway to Greenland. Without relying on any special instruments or any rudimentary technology, they were even able to reach as far as North America! Evidently they relied on the polarization of the sky, whales or birds they came into contact with, and the color of the ocean- quite remarkable. It seems unlikely that any sailors would be able to pull that off today with modern day technology. But that’s often what it feels like as you’re trying to get your financial ship pointed in the right direction. The vastness of options that lie before you feel overwhelming and the obstacles that we face are daunting, but we’re here today to help you to: a) geolocate your financial situation, and b) determine what your next steps should be. It’s important to know where you are, and where you are going. Following our Money Gears will not only allow you to reach your financial goals sooner, but it’ll be the most emotionally satis

Are you ‘credit card FI’ or are you ‘sabbatical FI?’ But maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves… First, does anyone else remember the home run obsession back in 1998? In an attempt to beat the single-season record, home runs became the only metric that anyone watching baseball seemed to care about. But what’s interesting is that most MLB games aren’t won by someone sending a 450 foot bomb to center field. It’s an all-or-nothing approach that most often leads to a strikeout and taking a seat back in the dugout. And when it comes to seeking financial freedom, one of the problems with that go big or go home approach is that it can make financial independence seem unattainable, that FI is just out of reach of the typical American and you might as well give up. And others might see it as a false dichotomy- you’re either working 80 hour weeks in order to achieve FI, or you’re sipping pina coladas on the beaches of Tahiti. But we’re here to exp

Everybody has heard of a consumer advocate before- someone who helps to make sure that individuals are getting the best deal possible. Or to make sure that the quality of the products is up to snuff. For instance think of Consumer Reports and the countless reporting and tests they perform on the different items we use as consumers. But you likely haven’t heard of a ‘non-consumer advocate’ before and that’s who we’re talking with today; our friend Katy Wolk-Stanley! Katy’s site is TheNonConsumerAdvocate.com and she helps people learn to live on less, and to do so in a way that lessens their environmental impact. She’s an uber-frugalite who hardly ever buys anything new, and she uses that superpower to help others to live on as little income as possible. In this episode we discuss some of the different tactics that anyone can deploy: prioritizing lower tech solutions that last, how Katy easily fixes her broken household items, how minimalism and frugalism compliment each other, selling items on eBay, getting ta

Do you know something that we’re all currently doing? Breathing. It’s something we rarely actively think about, but it turns out that there are ways to improve our technique- by breathing through our nose instead of our mouths, or by taking deeper slower breaths. Well we’re talking about another basic subject today: buying groceries. This elementary practice seems simple on the surface, but just like breathing there are tactics that you can implement in order to save more money at the supermarket. The cost of food has always been a big deal as it’s typically our third largest expense. But it’s a bigger deal than ever with grocery prices up nearly 12% in December compared to a year ago. Inflation is making it more expensive to eat! Listen for how much you should be spending every month, our take on meal delivery services, and many other money saving tips that you can implement in order to butcher your grocery bill today!   Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with you

Close your eyes and think back to high school. No matter if those were the best years of your life or if you were more of a wallflower, you were likely told that you needed to get good grades- but why? Was it because you knew that you needed a particular GPA in order to get into a specific school? Maybe, but a lot of high schoolers just know that it’s generally a good idea to get high marks because it’s going to give you more options down the road (not to mention personal development, growth, yada yada). And in the same way that not all students know exactly what college they’re going to attend, not everyone has figured out what their big financial goals are going to be this year. But it’s about moving in the right direction with your finances, getting that momentum started even if the end goal is subject to change. And developing the right financial habits will help you start moving in the right direction, even if you don’t know what your ultimate destination will be. That&rsquo

There’s more to successfully handling your money than just figuring out the financial nuts and bolts. Money has emotional and psychological components to it as well, which is at the core of what our guest today focuses on. We’re happy to be joined by Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, who happens to be the first financial therapist in the state of Michigan. She is a social worker-turned-financial therapist. She’s also the author of the book, The Financial Anxiety Solution, which is a workbook to help folks stop stressing about money by applying therapy techniques to their relationship with money. We’re excited to talk about how having more knowledge may not be the solution to your financial woes, how procrastination and perfectionism are tied at the hip, the value of understanding your financial archetype, how to have productive money conversations with a partner, & much more today!   Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances: Knowing your ‘money gear’

Join us as we celebrate our 1000th episode with an AMA!!! We are incredibly thankful and fortunate that we’re able to create a podcast for listeners who are looking to better their lives by improving how they handle their money. Of course at the core of the show are ways to earn, save, spend, and invest more effectively… all with a little bit of Joel and Matt sprinkled in. And that will continue to be the mission of How To Money. But for this episode, we wanted to take things in a different direction, and rather than answer your personal finance questions we wanted listeners to have the chance to be able to ask questions about everything except for money. This is our episode of How To EverythingElse!   What about taking the show on the road on a nation-wide tour? If you opened a brewery, what would be the vibe/focus Favorite board games? Favorite distance to run? Favorite race in Georgia? What are some of your bucket list items? If you had zero responsibilities, what would your perfect day

*Special Episode Alert*... take a peek behind the curtain as we have an intimate, candid chat with our friend Jillian Johnsrud, a master of intentional career breaks and author of the upcoming book Retire Often (out in September). As we take a summer hiatus from new podcast episodes, we dive deep with Jillian into the art of stepping away from work. We explore overcoming the fear of pausing, navigating boredom, the stages of a meaningful break, how to discuss time off with others, and much more! We cut straight to it during this personal and inspirational convo!   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 y

Today’s guest, Doug Lynam, has lived an extraordinary life! From overcoming bankruptcy to achieving financial security, taking vows of poverty as a Benedictine monk to managing over $250 million in assets as a wealth advisor, and graduating top of his class as a Marine to spending 20 years in monastic life, Doug’s journey is as diverse as it is inspiring. We have plenty of questions about how his unique experiences shape his approach to money and life, and what we can all learn to improve our own financial outcomes. We’ll also dive into his new book, Taming Your Money Monster: Nine Paths to Money Mastery with the Enneagram, which comes out next month. Doug takes spiritual wisdom, blends it with some psychological insight, all in an effort to help folks to successfully handle their money!   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.

Let’s kick off 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 - Is Matt planning to take his old clunker on his 2 week road trip? 2 - After getting married, what are the practical steps in combining our finances? 3 - I’m considering dropping my escrow… what are the pros and cons? 4 - Paying for daycare with a credit card now comes with an additional fee… is the juice worth the squeeze? 5 - What is the new, inflation adjusted, dollar amount for Money Gear #1?!   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 fi

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: matched 529 funds, luxury dumpster diving, the apps are spying on us, insurance dodging, wealthy home chefs, fresh Costco perks, God mode investing, leveraged fund retirement accounts, pudgy penguins, tighter used car market, Cybertruck losses, and Smartless cellular.   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

Will our guest today convince us to ditch digital payments?! Listen to find out!   Because here’s something that we hear all the time: “You can just Zelle me” or “Venmo me!”. It’s sort of like “I’ll just Uber to the airport” – once a company name has become a verb, is it possible to decouple it from culture? And of course the fact that they’re incredibly fast and easy makes the various payment options very attractive. They certainly make life easier when it comes to paying rent for our little office. It definitely takes the hassle out of receiving rent from tenants and I think they’d say the same thing. You don’t have to worry about lugging around your wallet and don’t get us started on credit card benefits! But you better believe that our guest today wholeheartedly disagrees! We’re joined by Professor Jay Zagorsky who is an economist at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. And he's the author of a

Let’s kick off 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 - Should I participate in securities lending if that’s a service my brokerage is offering? 2 - Life insurance is on the horizon so should I get an indexed universal life plan like some friends of ours did? 3 - I’d like to purchase a home in the next few years… would it be beneficial to apply for a new Apple card? 4 - Does it make more sense to repair or replace an old Cadillac that’s due for some repairs? 5 - Should I keep the fancy portfolio that Bloom, now defunct, created for me or is there a better option?   Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways

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: Southwest sale extension, unemployment uptick, you too U3?, 401k contribution cutbacks, 4% rule debunked, avoiding the annuities, high priced mocktails, Gen Z forgoing the bar tab, Kirkland Sig old fashioned, dressed by the internet, golden age of secondhand shopping, and ridiculous returns.   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 F

I’m pretty sure everyone listening will want to either get out of debt, reduce the amount of clutter in their life, crush other financial goals, become healthier and happier… OR, why even choose? Why not select: d - all of the above?! That’s because that was the outcome of our guest today, Ashlee Piper, who documented her journey in her new book No New Things: A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity. Ashlee is a political strategist turned sustainable living expert who has shared her message as a professor in Chicago, on Good Morning America, to her TED Talk, & everywhere between. We discuss the data and how much time we spend shopping or the time taking care of the items we’ve purchased, why she recommends making a “Love List” and how that curbs spending, the vital role our community plays in avoiding new things, utilitarian reasons vs emotional stimuli to purchase, and plenty more in this episode!   Want more How To Money in

Let’s kick off 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 - What target date fund should I go with if I’d like to retire early? 2 - Frugal or cheap: pouncing on an incorrectly priced item at the store? 3 - Do I prioritize my HSA if I don’t receive a state tax deduction? 4 - My homeowners insurance says I need to cut back trees and paint the house… should I push back?!   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, fr

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: CPAP on the cheap, Southwest charging extra, TACO trading, tariffs getting blocked, investing via the Big Beautiful Bill, pointless points, Discover Capital One merger, getting priced out of the housing market, millionaire renters, and house swapping.    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

Newer listeners may not realize how OBSESSED with investing in real estate we were back in the day. In fact, when we were batting around ideas for a podcast, we initially thought it might be focused only on real estate... Luckily we zoomed out enough to cover personal finance more broadly. And it’s not that we’re not excited about rentals anymore, although the current state of the economy has changed our personal approach. But our guest today, Ryan Chaw, is most certainly all-in on real estate which is why we’re stoked to have him join us. Ryan grew his net worth to an astonishing $1.5 million at the age of 28, he completely replaced his pharmacist salary when he was 31, and is now helping others to do the same as a real estate investing coach. We discuss stepping away from a lucrative career, Ryan’s unique strategy of rentals in college towns, using his PRIME method for maximizing profit, high standards when it comes to due diligence, scaling his operations, and much more!   Want

Let’s kick off 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 - Should I use an inheritance to pay off my house? 2 - Buying a used mattress- frugal or cheap? 3 - What should I do with Roth IRA contributions that I’ve already made, if I no longer qualify by the end of the year? 4 - Is it worth paying extra for an extended warranty on our new electric vehicle? 5 - How do I go about switching brokerages if I’m wanting investment options at a different company?   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 jour