Author: Paula Pant

March 1, 2019By Paula Pant

#180: The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business – with Elaine Pofeldt

Elaine Pofeldt, a writer for CNBC, Forbes, Fortune, Money Magazine and other business publications, decided to deep-dive into the world of solopreneur million-dollar companies.

What are the stories of entrepreneurs who gross $1 million or more in their businesses, despite having no employees? How did they begin? What do they do differently?

She interviewed hundreds of founders of non-employer seven-figure companies and wrote a book about her findings called The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business. Today, she joins us on the podcast to talk about what we can learn from this special class of entrepreneurs.

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February 25, 2019By Paula Pant

#179: Ask Paula – We Want to Start Househacking in a Duplex. Should We?

Should a couple in New Orleans sell their single-family home and use the sale proceeds to househack into a duplex?

What do you think about turnkey investments?

What tax consequences will someone face if they transfer their property to their parents?

How do you handle tough situations related to the way some home renovation contractors treat women?

What’s the latest update on your real estate course?

I answer these five questions on today’s podcast. Here are the details.

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February 18, 2019By Paula Pant

#178: How to Make Work Optional, with Tanja Hester

Tanja Hester retired at age 38.

She had a negative net worth until her late 20’s, thanks to a combination of student loans, buying expensive cocktails and clothes, living far beyond her means, and not paying attention to her money. If you were to have met the 27-year-old version of Tanja, you wouldn’t guess that she’d be a likely candidate for retiring early.

Yet a decade later, she’s saved 40x of her annual cost of living.

How? Tanja worked as a political consultant in Los Angeles, and during her career, ascended to important high-ranking roles. Every promotion came with more grueling hours, accompanied by a raise.

Tanja maintained her same standard of living, banking every raise. This simple strategy allowed her to rapidly grow her net worth.

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February 11, 2019By Paula Pant

#177: Ask Paula and Joe: Should I Buy a House or Catch Up on Retirement Savings?

Imagine that your job is extremely well-paying, but you don’t enjoy it.

You’d like to switch employers, even though this will probably require a paycut. But before you make the switch, you want to accomplish two goals: buy a home and catch up on retirement savings.

Should you pursue both goals? Or should you defer the home purchase, given the potential future paycut?

If you decide to pursue both goals, which one should come first?

This is one of the five questions that former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I answer in this week’s podcast episode.

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February 4, 2019By Paula Pant

#176: Digital Minimalism – with Dr. Cal Newport

Cal Newport created a philosophy called digital minimalism, which is the idea of reducing your digital life down to only the most important core essentials. Remove the apps from your phone, then slowly re-introduce only the ones that are the most useful and beneficial. Take control of your smartphone, rather than letting it control you.

Digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use. This philosophy pulls from the concepts of minimalism, essentialism, the slow movement, and the 80/20 principle, applying these ideas towards your digital life.

Cal discusses the digital minimalist philosophy on today’s episode.

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February 1, 2019By Paula Pant

#175: Three Percent is the New Four Percent – with Larry Swedroe, Retirement Planning Expert

Larry Swedroe is one of the most respected investment thinkers and writers of our time.

He’s published 8 books on investing, including one of the first books to explain the science of investing to a layperson audience. He recently wrote an ultra-comprehensive guide to retirement planning.

He joins us on the show today to discuss the nuances of investing and retirement planning.

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January 28, 2019By Paula Pant

#174: Ask Paula – I’m 48 and Retiring Next Year. Should I Buy More Rentals?

Should a 48-year-old New Yorker who’s retiring next year buy more rental properties?

Should a Michigan-based first-time homebuyer use an FHA loan to buy a duplex for $135,000 that rents for $1,800 per month?

Should a 40-year-old music professor who owns a duplex transfer his property into an LLC?

Should a New Jersey condo owner sell her unit as For Sale by Owner?

And should a woman who’s anxious about owning her own rental properties dive into real estate crowdfunding deals instead?

I answer these five rental property questions in today’s podcast episode.

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January 21, 2019By Paula Pant

#173: When a Child of Financial Chaos Stumbles into Adulthood – with Paulette Perhach

Paulette Perhach is a journalist who has been published in The New York Times, Slate, ELLE, Marie Claire, and Cosmo.

She catapulted to fame as an accidental personal finance writer after she published an article called The Story of an F-Off Fund.

This article tells the same narrative twice: in Scenario A, the protagonist in the story doesn’t have any emergency savings, and in Scenario B, she does. Paulette wrote this as a work of narrative fiction that vividly shows the power of an emergency fund, or as she rebrands it, an F-Off Fund.

This story went viral. More than a million people read it, it was translated into multiple languages, and it landed her a book deal and a major profile in the Seattle Times.

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January 14, 2019By Paula Pant

#172: Ask Paula – Should I Buy a Nice Car or Save My Money?

Should a 25-year-old homeowner with healthy savings and no debt (other than his mortgage) upgrade his car? Should he make this choice if his current car is fine, and upgrading puts him into new debt?

Should a couple without access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan put their savings into a taxable account, or should they save for a downpayment on a rental property?

The market is fluctuating like mad; if someone has a lump-sum of cash, should they invest it now or should they slowly meter it in?

Should someone without an emergency fund enroll in an HSA-qualified health insurance plan? Or should they stick with a plan that has a smaller deductible?

How should a husband-and-wife team that’s self-employed and running a company together handle their health insurance?

Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I answer these five questions on today’s podcast. Enjoy!

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January 9, 2019By Paula Pant

7 Expensive Rental Property Investing Mistakes to Avoid

My readers and podcast listeners regularly reach out to me to say that they’re afraid to invest in rental properties because they don’t want to put their life savings at risk on a deal.

I get that – but, if you approach real estate investing the right way (with risk management in mind), then you […]

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