169: Financial Literacy to Financial Fluency

We recently heard several stories of people whose financial situations got turned upside down due to illness. Often you hear of these situations where people have no insurance. What was unique about these stories - they all had jobs with employer provided health insurance. And yet they all wound up filing for bankruptcy. On today's show, we will discuss the cost of getting sick (hint: it's more than just medical bills) and the ways you can prepare today!

Three quarters of Americans are stressed about their personal finances. Many of us should be. But there are also many people with significant financial resources who are stressing themselves out for no reason. On this week’s show, we will walk through the steps of easing your financial stress so that you can stop “tripping!”

Studies show that people with low levels of financial literacy are 5x more likely to have insufficient emergency savings, 6x more likely to live check-to-check and 3x more likely to lack confidence in their retirement income prospects. On this show, we will quiz you on the “P-Fin” test to ensure you have what it takes to go from financial literacy to financial fluency!

Last week we discussed “the tuition treadmill” which is the idea of running on an endless treadmill of paying tuition for multiple kids. We are finishing that conversation today, but we are also going to talk about two other treadmills: the work treadmill as well as the health treadmill. This show talks about managing tuition, saving for retirement (especially for business owners) and getting healthy, which is the most important treadmill of them all.

There are more than 1 million families with multiple kids in college at the same time. For many of us, paying tuition feels like a treadmill that will never end. In this week’s show, we give you strategies for managing college costs, and we also break down how the new and improved FAFSA works. Spoiler alert — goodbye to the sibling discount.

As financial advisors, we get a lot of questions… Is the economy heading towards a recession? When will the Fed cut interest rates? What’s happening in the stock market?  On this episode, we will answer those questions. But more importantly, we will give YOU a list of questions that you must answer in your OWN financial life. Some of these questions, you can figure out with your financial advisor. But there are other questions that only you can answer.

After a long break, we are back! There has been lots of talk this week about the pay disparity between WNBA players and NBA players. Despite dazzling the country in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, Caitlin Clark will earn less than $80,000 per year, while NBA players will earn more than 200x that amount. While there is a huge pay gap in professional sports, there is also a pay gap in Corporate America – women earn 82 cents on the dollar compared to men, and the figures are even more stark if you consider race. On this episode, we discuss the pay gap, but more importantly, we give tips and strategies on how to close it.

Most people are getting excited about "March Madness" but what we're seeing and hearing about even more is mortgage madness. Reports shows that a lot people are out here refinancing mortgages right now even though they're going to end up with a considerably higher interest rate. On this episode, we talk about all things mortgage including when it is--and is not--a good idea to refinance.

Have you heard the story about the Uber driver who won the lottery and was still driving Uber? Well, we have and we know it firsthand. On this episode we talk about what happens when you actually hit the lottery, the Powerball, the MegaMillion? How much money do you get, when do you get it, who should you know, and how should you be thinking to make this miracle a long-term blessing.

In the past 30 days, Allan and Tiffany have bought 2 cars: one for their business and one for Allan’s family. In times past, Allan was adamant about the "proper" way to buy a vehicle, even though his thoughts were very different from Tiffany's. It turns out, after these two new car purchases, Allan is ready to admit his wrongs. Tune in to this episode to learn all about buying a car in today's climate and how what you thought may be best, may not suit your car buying needs in the end.