Afford Anything

Author: Paula Pant

Written By Paula Pant

Unusual Ideas about Self-Care … FIRE Edition

There are people who claim that ‘self-care’ requires wasting money.

They’ll encourage you to “treat yourself!,” because “you deserve it!”

Buy those shoes! Enjoy that upscale sushi restaurant! Upgrade to the nicer, newer car! You work hard. You deserve it!

Uh-huh.You know what else you deserve?

You deserve the relief that comes from wiping out a debt.

You deserve the joy that comes from buying an investment or a rental property.

You deserve the pride that comes from maxing out your contributions to a retirement account.

You deserve the stress relief that comes from taking a long walk in the park while listening to an audiobook, or taking a yoga class, or enjoying a hard workout at the gym.

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By Paula Pant

#204: Upgrade Your Thinking, with Super Thinking authors Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann

You make decisions on a daily basis about your career, family, friendships, health and investments; these choices shape your life.But how much have you thought about how to think?

There are common threads and collective wisdom across disciplines. These common threads create mental models, which are frameworks for understanding the world. Mental models allow us to apply insights from a variety of unrelated fields, using reasoning by analogy to make better choices about our lives.

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By Paula Pant

#203: Ask Paula – Early Retirement and The Four Percent Rule

Many people in their 50’s or 60’s warn us about catastrophic or ‘black swan’ events. But what’s the likelihood that this will actually happen?

How can you use the 4 percent withdrawal rule for early retirement planning, given that your portfolio will be split among accounts with different tax treatments? How do you adjust your retirement plan for future taxes?

Should a couple in their 30’s switch from term life to whole life insurance?

Should a couple in their 50’s with adult children bother buying life insurance in the first place?

Is it okay to keep all your assets at one investment brokerage, like Vanguard or Fidelity?

And can you deduct rental losses if your income is over $150,000?

Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I answer these questions in today’s episode.

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By Paula Pant

#202: Slow Travel is Cheap Travel – with Nomadic Matt

In 2006, Matt Kepnes worked at a hospital in Boston, and he felt miserable. He dreaded fighting traffic, spending his days under his offices’ fluorescent lighting, drinking stale coffee.

He decided to take one year off — a “gap year” — thinking that after his sabbatical, he’d resume another 40 years of punching the clock.

He worked 60-hour weeks in order to save money for his sabbatical year. He saved $30,000, then handed his boss a resignation letter.

Matt traveled for 18 months, returned to Boston, and realized he had lost his willingness to punch the clock. He couldn’t sit still in an office any longer.He re-packed his bags, bought a one-way flight to who-knows-where, and reinvented himself as a travel writer known as Nomadic Matt. He lives on a budget of $18,250 per year, or $50 per day.

In the last decade, his travel information website, NomadicMatt.com, has become one of the most popular travel blogs in the world, drawing millions of visitors. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, National Geographic Travel, and the BBC. He’s a New York Times bestselling author, and he’s traveled to more than 100 countries.

In today’s episode, Matt and I discuss the art of slow travel.

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By Paula Pant

#201: Ask Paula – Which House Should I Pay Off First?

Ross and his wife are both in the Navy. They bought a home while they were stationed in Hawaii. Then the Navy sent them to Virginia, where they currently live; they’ve purchased a home there, too. They kept the Hawaii home as a rental property, and they’d like to move back into it when they retire. Which home should they repay first?

Mike is 33, debt-free except for his mortgage, and earns more than $200,000 per year. He saves half of his income. What should he do with his savings? Pay off his mortgage? Invest?

Josh has a nervous habit of checking his investment account balances daily. How can he break this habit?

Amanda and her husband live in a duplex. They have $115,000 in equity in their home, and another $115,000 remaining on the mortgage. They’d like to move. Should they hold the duplex as a rental? Or should they sell and use the proceeds to buy a cheaper home, with a goal of being mortgage-free?

Christy wants to know how to compete with other aggressive real estate investors who are bidding on homes.

I answer these five questions in today’s episode. Enjoy!

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By Paula Pant

#200: What I’ve Learned from Interviewing 500 Millionaires — with Jaime Masters of Eventual Millionaire

Nine years ago, I was flipping through an issue of Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine (as any normal 26-year-old does), when I came across an article about a woman who paid off $70,000 in debt in 16 months.

Her name was Jaime. She lived in Maine, with her then-husband and their young son. Her husband was a professional juggler who earned $30,000 per year; she brought home 3x his income.

They bought the trappings of the American Dream: the suburban house with a white picket fence, a brand-new Honda Civic, a Jeep CJ7 with 36” tires, several kayaks, and a premium cable subscription.

The result? They found themselves in massive debt, with a combination of vehicle loans, student loans, and a home equity line of credit.

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By Paula Pant

#199: Ask Paula – The Three-Year Reunion with J. Money

Ashley is paying affordable rent for a home she enjoys, but she feels certain that the real estate market in her local market will stay strong. She’s thinking about buying a home with 3 to 5 percent down, but she doesn’t have much in savings.

Should she wait for a year to save more? Or should she take advantage of a rising market and relatively low interest rates?

Ian and his girlfriend live together in Washington D.C. and have a combined 40 percent savings rate. He’d like to buy a rental property, but his girlfriend has $18,000 in student loans and is about to re-enroll in school. Should they buy an investment home, or use their cash to repay her loans and cash flow her new academic program?

Annette is about to travel to Spain with her family. How can she plan an affordable and high-value international trip?

William is concerned about losing his job. What if he can’t pay his bills, especially his new mortgage? How can he protect himself?

Anonymous is a renter, and she often encounters surprise fees and charges when she arrives at the lease signing. Can she negotiate with her landlord?

I answer these five questions in today’s episode, and I also feature a short interview with special guest J. Money, my former podcast co-host from the early days!!

Enjoy!

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By Paula Pant

#198: The Japanese Art of Being a Zen Millionaire, with Ken Honda

Most people have dysfunctional ideas about money stemming from childhood and society.

If your parents said, “I’m not sending you to soccer camp. You don’t practice enough during the off-season, so it’s a waste of money,” the message that you might have heard is, “I’m not worthy.”

If your parents complained about the expense of child raising, you might think, “I’m a waste of money” or “I’m an obstacle.”

These ideas stick with us in adulthood. We’re afraid to ask for a raise or promotion, because we still think we’re not worthy. We’re afraid to start our own business or speak up for our needs within a relationship, because we still think we’re an obstacle.

We soothe ourselves by projecting negative emotions onto money itself.

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By Paula Pant

#197: Ask Paula – Traditional IRA vs. Roth IRA — What Should I Choose?

Should Bret invest in a Traditional IRA or a Roth IRA?

If Amanda gets married, how will her child support be affected? What about her student loan forgiveness?

Joe is investing in bonds, which average a rate of return that’s equal to the interest rate on his mortgage. Should he switch to all-equities and redirect his bond investments into mortgage payoff, instead?

Taunia has a car loan, a 401k loan, a home improvement loan, a primary mortgage, and a second mortgage. She also has an emergency fund that only covers two months of expenses, and she’s trying to save for college for her two children. What should she prioritize?

Mickey has a six-month emergency fund. Should he leave it in a savings account or invest in bond ladders?

David made $10,000 from a side hustle last year. Can he open a Solo 401k or SEP-IRA for his side hustle business? If so, which one should he choose?

Should Andy invest in a Target Retirement Date fund, or should he split his money between a U.S. index fund and an international index fund?

Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I answer these seven questions in today’s episode.

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Written By Paula Pant

What Most People Don’t Know About Pavlov’s Dogs

Disclaimer: This article contains a description of animal suffering. Reader discretion advised.

Most of us have heard about Pavlov’s dogs.

It’s a famous tale in the fields of physiology and psychology: Pavlov rang a buzzer, then fed his dogs; eventually his dogs began salivating at the sound of the buzzer. Most people think the story ends there.

Most of us don’t know what happened next.

The lesser-known epilogue to the saga of Pavlov’s dogs tells us that life isn’t as simple as it seems. Tragedy, stress, and grief can disrupt any training, thwart any plans, re-shape any personalities.

But human connection can repair the wound.

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Afford Anything