How to Money

In this episode, the hosts answer listener questions on topics like paying off a car loan or saving for a house, using medical bill negotiation sites, investing for retirement as a travel nurse, depleting an IRA to avoid a pricey mortgage, and whether paying $25 for a gym membership for bike commuting is frugal or cheap.

Time for a Friday Flight- our 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: what lengths would you go for freebies, unemployment remains near historic lows, rusty realtors, realtor fees lawsuits, homeowners insurance issues, insurers pulling from Florida & California, Roth IRA FTW, disloyal to Disney, $1T on credit cards, and home equity expenditures.   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.   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. Have an awesome weekend!   Best friends out!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’ve got a weird colored mole on your shoulder that’s getting bigger- you should probably visit a dermatologist ASAP! Most health issues are best addressed sooner rather than later and you’re not doing yourself any favors by prolonging the inevitable. In fact, because you’ve kicked the can down the road so many times you might actually be worse off! And the same is true when it comes to student loans. The repayment pause was extended so many times that a third of borrowers spent the money that was previously going towards their student loans because they didn’t believe payments would resume. Well payments are resuming, but not without some relief from the new SAVE repayment plan. Today we cover what types of loans are impacted, how you can enroll, and calculating the maximum amount that you’ll pay. We’ll also cover smart ways that you can shop around for a degree, whether the “first year’s salary” rule of thumb still applies, and how your employer is eligible to pay off $5,250 annually of your student loans.   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.   During this episode we enjoyed an IPA by Wakuwaku Tezukuri Farm Kawakita- thanks for sending this one our way Julia! 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 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 - My mom bought me a single DRIP stock when I was a kid- should I sell or hang onto it? 2 - Can I fund a brokerage account for my niece that pays dividends, in order for her to set up a Roth IRA? 3 - Should I take advantage of a vacation savings match that’s offered by my employer? 4 - Cell phone insurance that comes with credit cards: does it apply if you pay your bill annually as opposed to monthly? 5 - Is an assumable mortgage a legit way to find an affordable home?   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.   During this episode we enjoyed a Kanazawa Hyakumangoku Koshihikari Ale by Wakuwaku Tezukuri Farm Kawakita- thanks for sending this one our way Julia! 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 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: free figs, asking for a discount, signing up for SAVE, sneaky buy-now-pay-later loans, septennial car loans, pricey public water works, lousy landlines, crowdfunding kerfuffles, America’s credit downgrade, & pouring one out for Republic Wireless.   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.   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. Have an awesome weekend!   Best friends out!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emily and Kate are here to give you all the dirt! Not really, but they have graciously agreed to sit down with us, the dorky husbands, to help answer listener questions that we fielded from our Facebook group. Specifically during this episode we talk about expensive vacations, challenges we’ve faced having uprooted our families over the past year, shifting household roles with grad school, resolving our own financial conflicts, combining our finances when we first got married, the ways we communicate financial goals, whether the wives know where all of our money and accounts are, favorite stores to shop, justifying luxury spending, financial impact of having kids, and plenty more!   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.   During this episode we all enjoyed a Madame Rose by Goose Island! 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.

Traveling for free sounds like a lofty goal for most folks. Sure if you’re single or if you’re a DINK couple- but there’s no way you can pull that off with an entire family in tow! Well, it’s actually easier than you think and our guest, Lyn Mettler, is here to explain how. Lyn is a long-time travel journalist who has been featured on the Today Show and US News & World Report. And she practices what she preaches as she and her family travel and fly, for free, about six times every single year! We cover her simple approach, what three credit cards to focus on in order to give you the most bang for your buck, a smart approach to the Southwest Companion Pass, getting into Disney on the cheap, how to use points to erase travel expenses, and plenty more travel tips on today’s episode.   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.   During this episode we enjoyed a Che Si Dice by Halfway Crooks! 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.

Excelling in your career depends on more than just doing a great job. Just because you’re a decent software engineer, or you get the job done as a nurse- that doesn’t mean that you’ll quickly rise through the ranks. Nor does it mean you’ll automatically see big raises or year-end bonuses! That’s because there are things that managers and bosses expect of you, but they’re never explained to you. This is the basis for Gorick Ng’s best-selling book, “The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right.” Gorick is a career adviser at Harvard, focusing on coaching first-generation, low-income students. But before that, he gained plenty of professional experience from working in management consulting, investment banking, and as a researcher with the Harvard Business School. Regardless of your specific job, there are plenty of soft skills and unspoken rules that you need to discover, in order to find success in your career.   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile. During this episode we both enjoyed a Belgian Aloha by Olentangy River Brewing- thanks Scott for donating this one to the podcast! 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.

Winning the lottery shouldn’t be a part of your financial plan- but why are we so enthralled by the idea of winning the lottery?! On average, Americans spend over $1,000 every year for the chance to strike it rich. That’s a lot of wasted money that could be going towards literal investments. But even though we’re not going to win millions, statistically speaking, this exercise can provide some insights about the ways we want to spend our money and our time. This is helpful because there is a much higher likelihood that we would experience some sort of windfall in our lives whether that be a bonus at work, proceeds from a home sale, or even an inheritance. And if we haven’t taken the time to think through what we would do in these scenarios, there’s a good chance we could make the wrong decision in the heat of the moment. We’re going to get personal and share what we would do if we won the lottery, and we’re also going to explain how you can come up with your own money mission statement.   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.   During this episode we enjoyed a Crucial Crucial Taunt Taunt Enhanced by The Veil 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.

We’re kicking off the week by answering 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 - With a 7% mortgage, should I pay extra towards my house or invest in the stock market instead? 2 - Is a home warranty worth the money? 3 - Can I choose where I open my 401k or Roth IRA as I’m just getting started investing? 4 - Is it possible to make HSA contributions when you’re on a health sharing plan? 5 - Do you have some marketing ideas as I’m trying to ramp up my photography business?   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 your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.   During this episode we enjoyed a Data Loss by Halfway Crooks! 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.