Episode 15: Budget is a Bad Word

Check out Get Money, a new podcast I'm in launching January 22nd! It's a fun time. www.getmoneypodcast.com

With the burden of healthcare costs falling to individuals and families, HSAs can be an amazing tax free way to pay for not just doctor visits and hospital stays but also LASIK eye surgery, acupuncture for chronic pain, and more. Enter Lively, a company focused on making HSAs flexible, affordable, and accessible to everyone. My guest is the co-founder of Lively, Shobin Uralil, who takes us through some of the hoops to jump through to access one of best financial planning tools out there. 

My guest is Ramona Ortega. She's the founder of My Money, My Future, a personal finance platform aimed at young women. We talk about all the amazing free tools out there for people looking to get their finances together and how the barriers to having a sound financial plan are slowly crumbling.

If you have college-bound kids or are thinking about funding a family member's education, this episode is a MUST LISTEN. My guest is the wonderful Joe Messinger, a financial planner who has dedicated his career to helping families pay for college. We talk about everything from the FAFSA to 529 plans. 

Setting yourself up for failure is almost inevitable when you're trying to save money. We're told by "experts" to make a budget and stick to it but often we have no idea where those budget numbers should come from. On today's show I talk with the Luxe Strategist about real ways to save money that actually work. 

My guest is bookkeeper extraordinaire Katherine Pomerantz. She has amazing perspectives on money and how business owners can completely change their relationship with money. When you own your own business you are not only the CEO but you're also the HR department, the accounting department, the mail room, the office manager. It's time to outsource and ask for help when you need it. The books - meaning the record that tracks inflows and outflows of your business are the heart of the matter.  If categorizing transactions and spreadsheets don't excite you, it's time to hire help! Katherine walks us through a slew of free and inexpensive tools that can save a small business's life. We talk about how to price your art, how to maximize your time as a business writer, how to be your own bookkeeper and why creative people are better business owners.

Understanding the 1.5 trillion dollar student loan crisis starts with individuals. Student loan expert Heather Jarvis takes us through every possible option for borrowers who find themselves underwater. From refinancing with a private lender to enrolling in a program that will eventually completely forgive the balance owed, we cover every angle of student loans. Being in debt can feel like a death sentence but with knowledge comes power and with a few minutes spent on the phone with your student loan servicer, it's possible to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

As humans we naturally fear death. We fear the great unknown and we have to fear what happens to our loved ones after we go. In this episode we'll cover estate planning and why having a will is just one small part of a plan to make sure your stuff transfers efficiently to your survivors while they are grappling with your death. I've got a brilliant estate planning attorney on the show to answer all my death and finance questions, plus I find out if I need a will!

Whether you're choosing a health insurance plan from your employer or shopping for your own on the exchange, there are a ton of terms you need to know: deductible, HMO, PPO, co-insurance, out of pocket, etc. My guest is Todd Erkis, a former actuary and insurance professional who is now a professor of finance at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. He helps us wade through the confusing waters of insurance and warns us of the dangers and monetary penalties for not having insurance.

The holidays are approaching and that means you're about to go on a spending frenzy to buy family and friends stuff they don't need. Let's change that. If you have a ton of nieces and nephews don't buy them Bath and Body Works and Starbucks gift cards, buy them a future. This is not your typical listicle and no, this isn't a joke. I'll countdown the ten best gifts money can buy that will give you a chance to shift someone's entire relationship to money. Along the way, I'll explain how the gold standard worked, I'll walk you through how to buy government issued savings bonds, show you how to buy bitcoin, and explore how microlending can impact communities thousands of miles away.