Afford Anything | Make Smart Money Choices

#698: We explore financial decision-making at different stages of life: A high-earning federal couple debates whether to pause retirement contributions to accelerate a $200,000 down payment.A part-time healthcare provider seeks clarity on balancing a 401k and a traditional IRA.And a longtime listener asks a more personal question: Is there anything we’re still figuring out ourselves? We examine strategy, trade-offs, tax efficiency, housing decisions, and the long-term thinking that shapes financial outcomes. (01:36) Hannah and her husband are in their mid-30s with two young children, and are hoping to upgrade to a larger “forever home” in several years while keeping their current home as a rental. They’re deciding whether to temporarily reduce retirement contributions to speed up down payment savings and how a possible cross-country relocation might affect those plans. (37:15) Amelia is a part-time healthcare provider in New York who earns hourly income and wants to contribute to both her employer’s 401(k) and a traditional IRA. She’s trying to determine how much to contribute to the 401(k) from each paycheck while still maxing out her traditional IRA—keeping the overall approach simple and tax-efficient. (56:12) Lesley praises Paula and Joe’s thoughtful responses to callers and wonders whether they ever seek advice from their audience. After recently undergoing brain surgery that prompted deeper reflection, the listener asks if there is anything in Paula and Joe’s financial, personal, or professional lives where they would value collective wisdom from their community. Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, and your mailman: https://affordanything.com/episode698 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#697: Most people regret the things they never tried. Venture capitalist Bill Gurley says that pattern shows up again and again in research on end-of-life regrets — including regret about the careers people never pursued.  In this episode, Gurley joins us to talk about how people actually discover work they enjoy - and why the cliché to “follow your passion” sends people in the wrong direction. We start with a question many listeners wrestle with: what if you reach your forties or fifties and still do not know what you want to do?  Gurley explains that career changes later in life remain possible. Financial flexibility helps. People who spend every dollar they earn limit their ability to shift paths. People who control their spending keep more options open. Gurley argues that “passion” often appears only after someone spends time exploring a field. A better starting point involves fascination - the subjects that pull your attention when nobody assigns the work.  Gurley suggests paying attention to what you study in your free time. If you find yourself reading about a topic instead of watching Netflix, that curiosity may signal a possible career direction. We also discuss how most successful careers involve several stops along the way.  Gurley studied hundreds of success stories and found that many people move through two or three roles before landing their long-term path. That pattern shows up across industries. Gurley began as a computer engineer working at Compaq. Even though he enjoyed the work, his curiosity shifted toward investing and business.  He eventually left engineering, went to business school and started knocking on doors in New York until he landed a job as a Wall Street analyst. That path later led him to Silicon Valley and a 25-year career in venture capital. Throughout the conversation, we talk about continuous learning, side projects that expand career options and how curiosity often shapes a career more than long-term planning. Resources Mentioned: Runnin' Down a Dream by Bill Gurley - https://amzn.to/4loywlQ The Power of Regret by Daniel Pink - https://amzn.to/4sNwZbQ Designing Your Life by Dave Evans & Bill Burnett - https://amzn.to/47yfeov One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch - https://amzn.to/4ruPsIX Atomic Habits by James Clear - https://amzn.to/4bj3cjR Interview with James Clear - Afford Anything Episode #638 Interview with David Epstein - Afford Anything Episode #206 Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, and your postal person: https://affordanything.com/episode697 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#696: (01:50) Jeremy has been a careful budgeter for years, but a surprise car repair has him tapping his emergency fund. With rates falling, he’s wondering if cash is enough or if he should try bonds or a CD ladder to keep up with inflation. (22:22) A listener in Canada has a DIY portfolio but is tempted by Dimensional Funds, which requires a pricey advisor. At the same time, she’s thinking about leaving work and returning to school, but also wants to keep financially supporting her parents. (41:27) Anonymous is navigating the tricky waters of buying a new home while still living in their current one. He is considering a bridge loan to avoid a contingent offer, but he’s worried about the strict timeline and potential financial pitfalls. Is a bridge loan a smart move, or does the risk of being stuck outweigh the convenience? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#695: The U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February, pushing unemployment to 4.4 percent.That result contradicts a different report released two days earlier showing 63,000 jobs added, leaving economists trying to square the circle. Many agree that we're in a "low hire, low fire" jobs environment.We walk through several major economic stories using a three-layer framework: the household economy, markets and policy, and long-term forces shaping the future.First, the household layer. Hiring has become uneven across sectors. Health care and education previously drove much of the job growth, but layoffs in those areas now appear in the data.Job openings have also fallen to 6.54 million, the lowest level since the pandemic began. Workers are switching jobs less often, and the pay bump for job-hopping has shrunk.Mortgage rates recently crossed 6 percent, influenced in part by rising Treasury yields and concerns about inflation. Gas prices climbed about 26 cents per gallon in a week, partly due to tensions affecting oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil supply.The episode also looks at household finances. Six percent of workers in Vanguard plans took hardship withdrawals from their 401(k)s in 2025, up from five percent the year before. That increase suggests some households are leaning on retirement savings to manage financial stress.At the end of the episode, economist Dr. Ben Zweig, CEO of Revelio Labs, joins us to unpack the conflicting employment reports and explain why the labor market may look weaker than expected. He also discusses why health care hiring may be slowing and how economists interpret mixed signals across multiple labor data sources. (0:00) February jobs shock(1:02) Three-layer economy framework(2:03) BLS job losses explained(3:12) ADP vs BLS data gap(4:30) Job openings decline(5:39) Layoffs and AI cuts(7:15) Mortgage rates near 6 percent(8:26) Gas price spike(10:02) Markets react to oil shock(16:00) Record 401k withdrawals(19:30) Asset owners vs nonowners gap(21:22) Supreme Court tariff ruling(23:31) AI costs collapse, usage surge(27:03) Fed reactions to jobs report(33:33) Economist Ben Zweig interview Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, and your job recruiter: https://affordanything.com/episode695 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#694: There are about 90 million unique job titles in the U.S. labor market. Ninety million. If you are trying to negotiate a raise, switch companies or launch a side hustle, that number has consequences. If titles do not line up, you cannot easily compare pay, scope or seniority. You might be doing the same work as someone with a higher title and higher salary - and never see it. That problem is the focus of Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Ben Zweig. Zweig is the CEO of Revelio Labs, a workforce data firm that analyzes millions of job postings and online profiles. He also teaches The Future of Work at NYU Stern School of Business and holds a PhD in economics from the CUNY Graduate Center. His work focuses on how jobs are structured and how they evolve. We talk about taxonomy - the systems used to categorize work. A title acts as shorthand for a bundle of tasks. Trouble starts when the shorthand breaks down. Two people with the same title may do very different work. Two people with different titles may perform nearly identical tasks. Zweig explains how large language models can group job descriptions based on actual responsibilities rather than labels. That approach could make it easier for workers to search accurately and for companies to organize teams. The conversation shifts to management. He argues that managers spend much of their time reconfiguring roles as business needs change. Technology accelerates that reconfiguration rather than replaces it. We close with stories about bank tellers and typists. Their titles remained familiar. Their tasks transformed over time. Resource: ⁠Job Architecture: Building a Language for Workforce Intelligence⁠ by Ben Zweig Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, and your bank teller: https://affordanything.com/episode694 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#693: AI learns your job in weeks … and you start wondering if you still have one. That question shapes our conversation with Dr. Ben Zweig, CEO of Revelio Labs, a workforce data company that uses AI to build large employment databases and study labor market shifts. He also teaches a class on The Future of Work at NYU Stern School of Business. He holds a PhD in economics from CUNY Graduate Center. Dr. Zweig starts with the legend of John Henry, the steel driver who raced a steam drill and lost his life trying to prove that a human could still beat a machine. The story mirrors the Luddites, who smashed looms when automation threatened their work. The fear of technology replacing workers is a theme throughout history. It keeps repeating. And yet, this time it feels different. You hear how today’s panic fits into a longer pattern. Sixty percent of current jobs did not exist a century ago. Even jobs that kept the same name changed completely. Dr. Zweig describes his father tabulating punch cards as a statistician, while he now builds neural networks. Same field. Different tasks. We break down what a job actually means. A job is a bundle of tasks. You execute tasks, but you also orchestrate them – deciding order, workflow and coordination. AI tends to automate the most granular tasks first. Broader, abstract orchestration proves harder to replace. Dr. Zweig argues that “augmentation” often just means partial automation that frees you to focus on what remains. The discussion turns to empathy-driven roles, such as rabbis, psychologists, and teachers. Dr. Zweig cites traits such as empathy, presence, opinion, creativity and hope as distinctly human. He notes AI still struggles with memory and long-term relational trust. You also hear what this means if you are early in your career. Hiring has slowed. Entry-level roles appear more exposed to automation. Dr. Zweig says younger workers often lack orchestration experience and face a risk-averse market. He says that to be competitive in today’s job market, you should take ownership of complex projects from start to finish. Show people – through networking and demonstrated work – that you can manage more than just tasks . Resource: Job Architecture: Building a Language for Workforce Intelligence by Ben Zweig For more information, visit the full show notes at https://affordanything.com/episode693 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#692: Anonymous (02:01) is excited about early retirement and family time but worried about his brother-in-law, who just returned from a vacation in Mexico with a bold plan: sell everything, move there, and buy an Airbnb to live in one unit and rent out the others. He wants to support him without watching him get in over his head. How can he navigate this tricky mix of family loyalty and financial risk? Maryanne (33:41) is retired and living on Social Security. Her IRA has doubled in value in the past year and a half, leaving her unsure whether to sell and live off interest or reinvest in ETFs. How do you manage sudden growth in retirement savings responsibly without taking unnecessary risks? Brandon (48:18) has rolled over two old 401(k)s into IRAs but just learned that 401(k)s are generally better protected from lawsuits than IRAs. Now he’s hesitant to roll over his latest 401(k) from his recent job. Is it ever worth keeping a 401(k) separate, or should all retirement accounts eventually be consolidated? *Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising segments. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your Ron Weasley: https://affordanything.com/episode692 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#691: Your IQ used to be your biggest career asset. Then AI scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, the SAT, and the MCAT — and suddenly the cognitive skills that once set you apart became something anyone can access for free. Executive coach Liz Tran joins us to talk about what actually drives career success and earning power now. Her answer: AQ, or agility quotient — your capacity to handle change, learn new skills fast, and keep moving when your industry shifts beneath you. The personal finance implications are real. The average half-life of a technical skill is five years. In tech, it's closer to two. That means the expertise you spent years building — and the salary that came with it — can become obsolete faster than a mortgage term. Tran argues the people who protect their earning power long-term aren't necessarily the most credentialed. They're the ones who can unlearn old ways and adapt quickly. We walk through her four AQ archetypes — the neurosurgeon, the astronaut, the firefighter, and the novelist — each with a different default approach to change. Knowing your type helps you understand where you might freeze up during a career pivot, a market downturn, or a high-stakes financial decision. Tran points out that analysis paralysis, something many real estate investors and career changers know well, often comes down to archetype — and there are practical fixes. We also cover her ABCD framework — anchors, bets, classroom, and discomfort — which maps out how to stay functional and decisive during volatile periods. And we get into the six thinking hats theory, specifically how pairing black-hat (downside) thinking with green-hat (future-focused) thinking can sharpen any major financial or career decision. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Intro to AQ — agility quotient defined (03:19) IQ vs. EQ vs. AQ — how the three differ (04:09) Origins of IQ — born from industrialization (04:41) Birth of EQ — rise of the knowledge worker (05:01) Why AQ matters now — the tech revolution (06:19) AI and IQ — cognitive skills are now commoditized (07:51) Technical vs. durable skills — and why both matter (10:48) Half-life of skills — technical skills expire fast (13:41) Measuring durable skills — how to spot your gaps (15:59) The four AQ archetypes — neurosurgeon, astronaut, firefighter, novelist (25:08) Improving your weak spots — run toward discomfort (30:59) The ABCD framework — four pillars of high AQ (43:56) Anchors — people, places, routines that ground you (54:25) Six thinking hats — six ways to approach any problem (01:04:28) AQ is changeable — it's never too late to grow Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, and your postal person: https://affordanything.com/episode691 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#690: Blanca (01:28): Blanca, an immigrant mother raising a 14-year-old, wants her son to think critically about college—not just as an experience, but as a financial decision. With the rising cost of higher education, she’s wondering how families can assess whether an undergraduate or graduate program is likely to pay off over time. Brandon (30:05): Brandon in his forties, recently left full-time work to pursue per diem work and a side project. Planning to draw down his taxable brokerage account for supplemental income over the next 20 years, he’s wondering whether to continue reinvesting dividends or take them as cash for flexibility. Anon (40:15): Anon has been following Paula’s advice on financial advisors. They’ve heard her recommend fiduciaries and caution against the assets-under-management (AUM) model. They’re eager to understand the reasoning and want guidance on finding trustworthy advisors. Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your Phlebotomists: https://affordanything.com/episode690 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#689: Most people think forgetting a name means their brain is failing.  Dr. Majid Fotuhi, a neurologist who taught at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, sees thousands of patients convinced they have Alzheimer's – only to discover they're dealing with poor sleep or stress. Dr. Fotuhi joins us to break down the difference between cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. He explains why chronic stress physically shrinks your hippocampus — the thumb-sized memory center in your brain — and how twelve weeks of lifestyle changes reversed cognitive decline in 84 percent of his patients. We talk about the five hidden taxes draining your brain: sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep, junk food, chronic stress and mental laziness. Scrolling social media after work counts as mental laziness, even if your day job involves intense focus. Dr. Fotuhi offers a different framework: five pillars that compound over time. Exercise ranks first because it multiplies mitochondria in your brain cells, reduces inflammation and generates new neurons in your hippocampus. Walking 10,000 steps daily cuts Alzheimer's risk by 50 percent. Sleep comes second. Your brain rinses itself during deep sleep, flushing out amyloid — the core protein in Alzheimer's disease. One night of poor sleep increases amyloid in your brain. We cover nutrition (skip the junk food debate), mindset (heart rate variability breathing reduces Alzheimer's footprints) and brain training. Dr. Fotuhi memorizes 70 names in a single lecture and explains his technique for remembering credit card numbers using mental imagery. The conversation covers London taxi drivers who grew their hippocampus by memorizing 10,000 streets, why stress management beats supplements, and how Swedish students learning Arabic increased their brain volume in three months. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising segments. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Defining cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer's disease (05:19) Why cognitive issues don't always mean Alzheimer's (07:24) Thinking of your brain as an asset to manage (07:51) The five hidden taxes draining your brain (10:45) How poor sleep prevents brain rinsing and causes inflammation (14:20) Oral health and brain health connection (16:40) Brain plasticity and the Broca lobe (27:02) The five pillars of brain health (35:23) Cardiovascular fitness versus strength training for brain health (38:51) Sleep as the second pillar of brain health (48:05) When exercise beats sleep (51:33) Different types of intelligence beyond IQ tests (1:03:53) Reversing brain damage from decades of bad habits (1:10:25) Nutrition and avoiding junk food (1:25:09) Mindset and stress management as pillar four (1:33:35) Breathing exercises for stress reduction (1:39:24) Brain training as the fifth pillar (1:51:52) Memory techniques for names and numbers (2:02:46) Nootropics and supplements for brain health Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your that person whose name you can't remember: https://affordanything.com/episode689 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#688: Anonymous: "Anonymous Sheryl" is 38, mortgage-free and exhausted after 15 years of teaching. She’s torn between pushing a few more years toward FIRE or switching to relief teaching now for better work-life balance. How do you trade speed to FIRE for sustainability without blowing up the plan? Anonymous : "Anonymous Ray" hired a bank portfolio manager but isn’t sure how to judge the results after just a few years. With mixed performance, dividend-heavy funds and higher fees, when is it fair to evaluate a manager — and would a simple index ETF outperform? Nathan: Nathan’s 14-year-old just earned his first W-2 income, and Nathan wants to jump-start his son’s investing journey with a Roth IRA. But with household income above the Roth limits, is there a legal way to make this work without sacrificing the child tax credit? Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your substitute school teacher: https://affordanything.com/episode688 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#687: Your tax refund might be $300 to $1,000 bigger this year, and that's just the beginning of what's changing with your money. The Tax Foundation estimates most Americans will see significantly larger refunds thanks to seven major tax cuts. The child tax credit increased by $200. The standard deduction jumped by $750 for individuals or $1,500 for couples. The state and local tax deduction cap now sits at $40,000. Seniors get an extra $6,000 deduction, and deductions for auto loan interest, tips, and overtime work all increased. Retirement accounts saw major changes too. Catch-up contributions for high earners now must go into Roth accounts, which pushed thousands of employers to add Roth options to their 401k plans between 2024 and 2026. Kevin Warsh, the new Fed chair nominee, thinks the Federal Reserve has been doing it all wrong. The former Fed governor and Wall Street banker believes the Fed focuses too much on backward-looking data and reacts too slowly. He wants strategic, forward-thinking policy instead of chasing lagging indicators. President Trump clarified he never asked Warsh to lower interest rates and wanted to "keep it pure." The labor market shows serious cracks. Job openings dropped by nearly one million year over year to 6.5 million. Unemployment claims jumped to 231,000 last week. January layoffs hit 108,435 people — up 118 percent from last year and the worst January since 2009 during the Great Recession. Big Tech continues its massive AI spending spree. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Oracle will collectively spend over $500 billion on AI infrastructure this year. Google's spending alone doubled from 2025, reaching up to $185 billion focused on data centers and Gemini development. Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, and your tax preparer: https://affordanything.com/episode687 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#686: Rachel: Rachel is new to investing and has noticed the stock market being dominated by AI companies. She wants to make sure her portfolio is balanced without overexposing herself.Should she rethink her index fund strategy to protect against a potential AI bubble? Sarah: Sarah just turned 65, owns her home outright, and has been relying on credit cards since losing her job last year. She’s weighing whether to claim Social Security now, pay off debt, remodel her home, or convert her traditional IRA to a Roth.How should she prioritize these major financial moves while balancing income, debt, and retirement accounts? Anonymous “Julie”: This listener is on COBRA after her spouse took a federal buyout and is exploring starting a small business with her two young kids to teach them entrepreneurship.Will employer-provided health insurance fade away, and how can she test business ideas before fully committing? Resources Mentioned: Books:  So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport The E-Myth by Michael Gerber Traction by Gino Wickman The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#685: You're not an investor. You're a saver. That's the first of 10 principles Cullen Roche shares in this conversation about building what he calls "the perfect portfolio." Roche, the founder and chief investment officer of Discipline Funds, argues that when you buy stocks on the secondary market, you're not actually funding companies or making investments in the traditional economic sense. You're just swapping your cash for someone else's stock position – reallocating your savings. This reframe matters because it changes your entire approach. Instead of trying to beat the market, you focus on the boring, prudent work of allocating your savings across different time horizons. We walk through all ten of Roche's principles. He explains why you are your portfolio's worst enemy – not just because fear makes you panic-sell during crashes, but because FOMO during bull markets leads you to chase performance at exactly the wrong time. He breaks down why diversification is the only free lunch in investing, why costs matter more than you think, and why real returns are the only ones that count after you strip out inflation, taxes, and fees. Roche introduces some concrete strategies most people have never heard of. The 351 exchange lets you swap concentrated stock positions into diversified ETFs without triggering immediate capital gains taxes. The "defined duration" approach matches specific pools of money to specific future expenses—like pairing a six-month treasury bill with next year's bathroom remodel. He also tackles the hardest allocation question: what to do with money earmarked for three to ten years from now. That awkward middle timeframe sits between "keep it in cash" and "put it in stocks," and Roche explains why traditional approaches like sixty-forty portfolios don't always work. The conversation covers everything from why long-term bonds make terrible matches for long-term goals to why thinking in time horizons beats thinking in investment styles. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths.

(00:00) Principle 1: you're a saver, not an investor (04:48) Real wealth comes from direct business ownership (06:43) Principle 2: you are your portfolio's worst enemy (09:58) FOMO during bull markets vs fear during crashes (12:43) Principle 3: beating the market is hard (15:18) The 5 percent "fun money" allocation debate (16:18) What to do when your position explodes (17:18) The 351 exchange tax strategy explained (20:28) Should you rebalance concentrated stock positions (22:18) Principle 4: diversification is the only free lunch (31:03) Gold and stock market both high simultaneously (35:43) When diversification becomes diworsification (40:03) Principle 5: the cost matters hypothesis (44:23) HSAs, 401ks and unavoidable fee structures (47:03) Why ETFs beat mutual funds on taxes (51:03) Principle 6: real, real returns matter most (1:00:58) Principle 7: risk is uncertainty of lifetime consumption (1:06:18) Longevity risk and unpredictable healthcare costs (1:13:03) Principle 8: asset allocation as temporal conundrum (1:24:43) The 3-10 year allocation problem explained (1:28:03) Principle 9: past performance doesn't predict future (1:31:18) Principle 10: set realistic expectations, stay the course Resources: Cullin's website and newsletter: https://disciplinefunds.com Grab the FREE handbook: https://affordanything.com/financialgoals Share this episode: https://affordanything.com/episode685 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#684: Most people search for the perfect portfolio — the one allocation that works in every market, at every age, for every goal. This interview starts by explaining why that portfolio does not exist. We talk with Cullen Roche, founder and chief investment officer of Discipline Funds, about why copying someone else’s portfolio can backfire, and why portfolio design works better when it starts with your own constraints instead of rules of thumb. We walk through real portfolio models. The conversation begins with the classic 60-40 portfolio. You hear where it came from, how it held up during the Great Depression, and why it became so widely adopted. We also talk about its trade-offs — why it feels boring in strong markets and comforting in crashes, and how that emotional balance plays a role in investor behavior. Next, we shift to a Buffett-style portfolio. You hear why the takeaway is less about stock picking and more about structure. The discussion covers why Buffett keeps a small allocation to cash-like assets, how that “dry powder” functions during downturns, and why psychological stability matters as much as returns. The episode then turns to cash management. We talk about high-yield savings accounts, money market funds and Treasury bills. You hear how many cash products are built on T-bills, how banks capture part of the yield, and when managing cash directly may make sense. The concept of “T-bill and chill” comes up — along with when the extra effort may or may not be worth it. Finally, the conversation zooms out to time horizons. We discuss why income from a job functions like a bond allocation, how that changes risk capacity when you are younger, and why the early years of retirement carry the most danger. The episode closes by explaining sequence-of-returns risk and why portfolios need to work not just on paper, but in moments of fear. Resource: Cullin's website and newsletter: https://disciplinefunds.com Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Intro  (02:00) No perfect portfolio (03:34) 60-40 portfolio starts (06:38) 60-40 keeps calm (08:00) Buffett portfolio basics (12:11) Stocks vs cash fear (13:34) T-Bill and Chill (18:22) TreasuryDirect is clunky (23:42) Income as bond proxy (25:33) Bond tent buffer (29:12) Sequence risk explained (31:42) Early retirement mindset (32:36) COVID panic calls (42:49) Three-fund portfolio basics (58:41) Get-rich-quick trap (1:18:21) Risk parity and All-Weather Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your preferred financial advisor: https://affordanything.com/episode684 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#683: Candy now — or a toy later? You slide play money across the table and let your kid choose. That moment kicks off this episode, where Dr. Stephen Day joins us to talk about building a “mini economy” at home.  Dr. Day is the director of the Center for Economic Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also holds a PhD in social studies and economics curriculum and instruction. His work looks at how kids form money habits long before they deal with real paychecks, budgets, or credit cards. We break down how a mini economy actually works. Kids have job titles tied to age-appropriate chores. They earn play money. They spend it at a small household store set up on the kitchen table. The store might sell candy, small toys, or privileges like extra screen time. Parents set the prices. Kids decide whether to spend right away or save for something bigger. You hear how this plays out inside Day’s own house. A three-year-old takes on the role of “zookeeper,” feeding the cat and picking up stuffed animals. A seven-year-old creates a weekly plan that alternates spending and saving, using patterns she learns at school. A five-year-old chooses to donate part of his earnings instead of spending anything. The system stays the same. The choices vary by kid. The conversation moves through childhood stage by stage. Early years center on routine, structure, and basic trade-offs. Elementary school becomes the key period for practice, when habits and norms take shape. Middle and high school bring longer planning timelines, more independence, and deeper conversations about work, contribution, and goals. We also dig into questions parents ask all the time. Should kids get paid for chores, or should chores come with living in the house? Day explains how families can separate family work, paid jobs, and service work so kids understand why they are doing each task. Clear categories help avoid confusion about motivation and responsibility. Busy schedules come up, too. Sports practices, travel, school events, and late workdays often knock chore systems off track. Day explains how vague expectations create conflict and why job titles and defined duties bring structure even during chaotic weeks. Throughout the episode, the focus stays on practice, not lectures. Kids do not learn money by hearing explanations. They learn by earning, choosing, saving, spending, and living with trade-offs — all inside a system small enough to fit on a kitchen table. Resource: Book: How to Teach a Kid to Save https://amzn.to/4jVOtze EconEdLink, a CEE program https://econedlink.org Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Intro (02:00) Teaching kids money (03:59) Mini economy basics (06:20) Money skills by stages (10:41) Starting at age three (12:02) Cat job example (16:08) Goods versus privileges (17:27) Bugging versus choices (18:11) Paying for chores (20:22) Family job service (24:56) Busy weeks and chores (33:21) Low-consumption kid example (39:17) Shared jobs and teamwork (43:34) Exchange rate to dollars (1:00:28) Investing, 529, compound interest Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your kid's teachers: https://affordanything.com/episode683 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#682: Grab the FREE handbook: affordanything.com/financialgoals For 76 years, the British cycling team lost — every season, without exception. Then they changed how they approached improvement, focusing on tiny gains instead of dramatic overhauls. In today's episode, we unpack how they became champions – and apply those same tactics to our financial life. This episode originally aired in January 2025. It was our most popular episode of the year on Spotify. You hear how the British cycling team used “aggregation of marginal gains” — tiny improvements like adjusting bike seats, improving sleep with custom mattresses, even repainting floors so dust was easier to spot. Those details seemed trivial on their own. Over time, they added up to Olympic gold medals and Tour de France wins. We apply the same logic to money. The episode lays out a full roadmap for the year, broken down by quarter. Early weeks focus on foundations. You start by writing a short financial motivation statement, calculating your net worth, choosing one metric to track, and creating a spending decision catchphrase that forces trade-offs into the open. Later weeks shift into action. You raise your savings rate by one percent at a time. You declutter physical items that cost money to store. You add a waiting period before purchases. You trim subscriptions, set up credit monitoring, commit to meal planning, and try a one-week spending fast to reset habits. As the year progresses, the tweaks move into optimization. You plan for irregular expenses, build buffers for price shocks, automate goals, check tire pressure to save on fuel, and calculate the real cost of transportation. You review investment fees, workplace benefits, insurance deductibles, and estate planning basics. Toward the end of the year, the focus turns to fine-tuning and reflection. You map out major expenses for the next five years, create rules for handling market volatility, repeat your most effective tweak, and close the year by reviewing progress and setting intentions for 2026. The episode frames the year as a steady climb. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. One week. One small move. No overhaul required. Just consistent attention, applied over time. (00:00) British cycling team wins after 76 years (02:07) Aggregation of marginal gains philosophy (04:02) 52 tweaks roadmap for 2026 (08:01) Week 1: Write financial motivation statement (09:32) Week 2: Calculate net worth (11:06) Week 3: Pick one metric to track (14:00) Week 4: Create spending decision catchphrase (21:34) Week 11: One-week spending fast (23:41) Week 12: Weather-strip home for efficiency (31:14) Week 14: Adjust thermostat one degree (39:30) Week 25: Learn obscure financial terminology (40:20) Week 26: Create price tracking system (43:22) Week 28: Check tire pressure (44:33) Week 31: Plan annual seasonal expenses (59:05) Week 40: Calculate transportation costs (01:01:09) Week 41: Map five-year big expenses (01:03:06) Week 42: Review investment expense ratios (01:07:10) Week 45: Run housing numbers (01:09:52) Week 49: Swap disposables for reusables (01:10:22) Week 50: Create market uncertainty plan (01:11:06) Week 51: Repeat favorite tweak (01:11:40) Week 52: Celebrate financial progress (01:12:03) Control inputs not outcomes (01:14:09) Download free guide https://affordanything.com/financialgoals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#681: Barry Ritholtz's mom sold real estate. Those dinner table conversations about mortgages helped him spot the 2008 crash before most of Wall Street did. Now he runs Ritholtz Wealth Management and joins us to explain why we're often our own worst investment enemy. He breaks investing mistakes into three categories: bad ideas, bad numbers, and bad behavior. Here's what stood out. Research shows just 2 percent of stocks create all the market's value. The other 98 percent? Pretty much worthless. Barry says 90 percent of everything is garbage — from science fiction to investment advice. Even experts have blind spots. Michael Jordan dominated basketball but couldn't make it in minor league baseball. The lesson? Being brilliant at one thing doesn't make you brilliant at everything. Those financial memes everyone shares? They're misleading. Take Kevin's Home Alone groceries — $20 in 1990, $75 today. Sounds terrible until you realize wages went up the same amount. We actually spend less of our income on food now. Or that scary stat about the dollar losing 96 percent of its value over 100 years. Barry asks: who buries cash for a century? His math: $1,000 buried in 1925 buys almost nothing today. Same $1,000 invested in stocks? It's worth $32 million. Markets don't die of old age. Alan Greenspan warned about "irrational exuberance" in 1996. The Nasdaq kept climbing another 431 percent over four years. Recessions need triggers. They don't show up on schedule like buses. Fear wrecks more portfolios than anything else. Barry quotes neurologist William Bernstein: "Control your amygdala or die poor." Our fight-or-flight response helped us escape predators. It doesn't help us navigate market crashes. Make your investment plan before crisis hits. As Barry says, reading emergency instructions while the engine falls off at 25,000 feet is too late. He's seen every crash since 1987. Markets drop 30 to 40 percent about once a decade. Accept it. Plan for it. Barry advocates for Roth conversions and something called the "Mega Roth." Pay taxes now, withdraw tax-free later. We know today's tax rates. Future rates are anyone's guess. His bottom line: humans are terrible at predicting the future. Build portfolios that can survive anything, because anything will happen. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (00:00) Intro (02:00) How fear of mistakes can make investors too conservative (06:00) Bad ideas vs good ideas in investing (09:00) Process over outcome in decision making (15:00) Thinking probabilistically about market outcomes (20:00) Why recessions and bull markets don't follow calendars (26:00) AI's real capabilities vs hype (33:00) Different market commentator archetypes (41:00) Expertise doesn't transfer between domains (50:00) Misleading financial statistics everywhere (56:00) Managing emotions when markets crash (1:00:00) Creating an investment plan before crisis (1:05:00) Tax strategies and Roth conversions Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, and the person who shared that Home Alone grocery meme: https://affordanything.com/episode681 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#680: Mia: Mia and her husband are planning early retirement and want to draw down their taxable brokerage accounts for the next decade. She’s considering a securities-backed line of credit to defer taxes during market downturns. Can a securities-backed line of credit smooth taxes in early retirement, or are there hidden risks? Jean: Jean, a freelance creator, wants to take a self-made sabbatical in three years and fund it without stress. She’s unsure whether to keep her savings in a high-yield account, a brokerage account, or split between the two. How should she balance growth and safety when saving for a short-term sabbatical? Jared: Jared has been reading about pensions and 401(k)s and sees pros and cons on both sides. He wants to know whether pensions really offer an advantage or if the nostalgia is misleading. Are pensions truly better than 401(k)s, or is the preference mostly sentimental? Resources Mentioned: affordanything.com/community affordanything.com/newsletter affordanything.com/financial-goals affordanything.com/your-next-raise quince.com/paula Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, your financial professional who helps you borrow against your securities: https://affordanything.com/episode680 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#679: Will you still have a job in five years? Zack Kass, former OpenAI executive and 16-year AI veteran, joins us to tackle the question that keeps knowledge workers up at night. Most people worry about the economics — who can pay the bills if AI takes their job? Kass flips the question: What happens when work no longer defines who you are? He argues we're heading for an identity crisis bigger than any economic disruption. In this conversation, Kass explains why everyone wants everyone else's job automated (faster legal services, cheaper healthcare) but nobody wants their own work to disappear. He shares why some jobs will vanish while others explode in demand, and which professions might actually benefit from AI disruption. You'll discover why the real threat isn't job loss — it's that we've become addicted to our devices and forgotten how to live without constant work. Kass reveals how financial illiteracy keeps people trapped in debt cycles that AI could help break. He explains why housing, healthcare, and education costs stay high while everything else gets cheaper, and what might finally change that dynamic. The conversation explores what happens when AI makes basic needs affordable for everyone. Kass predicts some people will pursue passion projects, others will double down on work, and many will struggle to answer a simple question: What do you actually want to do with your day? We discuss practical realities like how a 53-year-old attorney might reinvent herself, why accountants face bigger challenges than lawyers, and which human skills will become more valuable as machines get smarter. Kass shares his theory about competing on kindness rather than intelligence when AI can outthink us all. This isn't another doom-and-gloom AI prediction. Kass makes a compelling case that automation could free us to rediscover community, creativity, and purpose … if we can get past our addiction to both work and screens long enough to imagine what that life looks like. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. 
(0:00) Introduction (2:00) Zack's AI background at OpenAI (3:15) Will knowledge workers have jobs (4:52) Job automation is complex (7:53) Longshoremen strike over automation (9:06) Everyone wants others' jobs automated (10:14) Identity crisis bigger than economics (13:36) Lawyers might enjoy job loss (21:42) Societal thresholds stop automation (28:52) Bespoke services always find demand (41:34) AI won't replace human therapists (47:11) Dehumanization threatens physical connections (54:55) Financial illiteracy costs billions (1:03:21) Predatory lending traps explained (1:11:51) Housing healthcare education stay expensive (1:26:31) Screen time hides free time Resource: AffordAnything.com/financialgoals Share this episode with a friend, colleagues, the Permabulls and the Permabears: https://affordanything.com/episode679 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices