Inside Out Money

Retirement planning gets a high-tech makeover with Projection Lab. Explore how to replace sprawling spreadsheets, model income, investments, real estate, healthcare, and Social Security, and test countless what-if scenarios. The discussion also covers automated Roth conversions, tax planning, inflation assumptions, cash-flow priorities, DIY tools versus financial advisors, and how Projection Lab compares with Boldin.

Maggie and Maddie explore how teens learn money habits by watching adults, from allowances and chores to earning, saving, and delayed gratification. They discuss radical financial transparency, psychological safety, and practical tools like decision-maker pays, matching, and seasonal budgets. Blended-family fairness, sibling scorekeeping, and giving teens greater spending autonomy round out the conversation.

Teen money gets practical: a 50-30-20 framework, making digital spending visible, the 24-hour pause, and measuring purchases in work hours. The conversation also tackles college cost tradeoffs, student loan boundaries, budgeting for campus life, and resisting social pressure while building financial confidence.

Teen money is more than budgeting. This conversation explores how digital wallets make spending feel invisible, why impulse purchases can trigger guilt, and how adolescent brains weigh immediate rewards against long-term goals. It also examines social media pressure, peer judgment, future anxiety, scarcity marketing, and why the traditional allowance is fading as teens turn to jobs, chores, and side hustles.

What would your older self wish you had done differently? This conversation explores using future regrets to guide today’s choices about money, family, work, travel, and health. Topics include life-stage time buckets, buying back precious time during parenthood, resume virtues versus eulogy virtues, and finding balance between stability and adventure.

Why does someone else’s highlight reel make your wallet feel inadequate? This conversation explores social comparison theory, aspirational fatigue, lifestyle inflation, and the pressure to keep up with wealthier circles. It also covers curating digital inputs, auditing your social circle, comparing yourself with your past self, practicing humility, giving generously, and returning to financial basics.

Maggie and Liz take an honest tour through the beliefs they’ve changed about money and life. They explore downsizing, mortgage payoff, subscriptions, fitness spending, beauty rituals, parenting purchases, tax strategies, travel hacking, and spending in retirement. Along the way, they examine why flexibility, self-awareness, and context matter when making financial choices.

They unpack why fantasies of ditching everything arise when burnout takes hold. They link those urges to a deeper need for boundaries and time autonomy. They explore bringing nature and simplicity into daily life without abandoning responsibilities. They share small, practical rituals and minimalist choices that recreate a 'cabin in the woods' feeling at home.

They compare deferred compensation plans and taxable brokerage accounts, explaining how each can accelerate retirement savings. The conversation covers tax deferral, forced savings, employer risks, and payout rules. Listeners hear real-life plan surprises, strategies to reduce tax impact, and alternative paths like 457(b) and brokerage flexibility. Psychological benefits of forced savings and simplicity in planning are highlighted.

They explore why our brains sabotage financial choices through familiar behavioral biases. Short segments explain anchoring, the zero-price effect, and mental accounting. They unpack sunk costs, the 'start over' test, and loss aversion. Practical tactics surface for reframing spending and using mental accounting to support goals.