By Paula Pant
Predicting the stock market is a terrible idea.
But we can look at economic indicators and upcoming events to get a big-picture, 30,000-foot view of where our economy might be heading in 2024.
In today’s episode, we explore what’s in store for 2024.
We talk about the recent surge in Bitcoin prices, and the expected […]
By Paula Pant
The death of a sibling.
Being declared dead after a head-on collision with a drunk driver.
Suffering financially during the Great Recession.
CANCER.
Today’s guest, Hal Elrod, has battled all of these tough challenges.
His little sister passed away in his mother’s arms. Years later, Hal was hit by a drunk driver, broke 11 bones, declared dead, and once revived, learned that he might have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. (He eventually regained his ability to walk.) And after that, he was slammed hard in the wallet during the Great Recession.
But he’s a fighter. He needed to develop practices to build his resilience.
So Hal created “The Miracle Morning,” a morning routine practice that gained massive popularity when he released it in 2012.
The six-step Miracle Morning routine is coined S.A.V.E.R.S. — silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing (writing).
The routine became wildly popular, in part due to its flexibility; Hal explains that time-crunched people can start this as a six-minute routine; dedicating just ONE minute to each of these six steps. Over time, people can see the positive changes that this makes, and expand the time they allot for this.
The routine is now the subject of a documentary, also called the Miracle Morning, available on Prime Video. Midway through filming, Hal was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and given a 30 percent chance of survival. He let the cameras roll as he coped with his diagnosis in real time.
He joins us on this podcast to describe that experience, and to talk about the practices that he’s used to stay productive in the face of grief, severe injury and cancer.
He talks to us about:
— the powerful Five-Minute Rule that helped him recover from a nearly fatal car crash
— the six most popular personal development practices of the successful
— specific tactics you can harness to create YOUR most successful life.
As we move into the New Year, many of you are setting goals and resolutions.
Hal describes specific, actionable tactics that you can use to build scaffolding and support around your new goals.
By Paula Pant
Nicole’s 78-year-old mom is paying huge fees for low returns. How can Nicole help her mom make better investments?
Nick is in his 40’s. His long-term care insurance rate is nearly doubling. Should he stop spending on this type of insurance?
Paul is a single dad, worried about paying his daughter’s college costs. He’s trying to figure out how to report lower income on the FAFSA, so that his daughter can get better financial aid.
Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I tackle these three questions in today’s episode.
Enjoy!
P.S. Got a question? Leave it here.
By Paula Pant
Ever skipped that extra drink, pricey cheese, or a night out for the sake of your wallet?
If this feels familiar, then you’ll appreciate today’s episode with Jamila Souffrant.
Jamila is a Certified Financial Education Instructor, podcast host, and author, guiding us on making savvy choices to save while still having fun.
Jamila explores the power of understanding our “why not,” staying motivated on our financial paths, shaping a success-bound mindset, and posing THREE crucial self-assessment questions for goal alignment
By Paula Pant
Kayla is torn between paying off a loan early or catching up on missed retirement contributions.
Josh wants to retire early and meets the threshold for zero capital gains taxes. Should he put all his retirement savings into a brokerage account?
An anonymous caller wants to know how to merge financial lives with her husband from another country.
Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I tackle these three questions in today’s episode.
Enjoy!
By Paula Pant
Mike Massimino stared in disbelief at his TV.
The date was July 16, 1969, and he marveled as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon.
At that moment, he knew he wanted to become an astronaut.
He was six years old.
But as Mike grew older, he developed more “realistic” dreams. After all, every kid wants to become an astronaut. The chances of making it are incredibly slim. He went to a local college, studied engineering, and took a job at IBM.
But he couldn’t shake the tiny voice inside that said – “why not try?”
So Mike upended his life. He enrolled in a Ph.D. program at MIT, and then proceeded to fail the qualification exam so horrifically that his professors gently suggested that perhaps a doctorate isn’t right for him.
He battled to pass the exam on his second attempt, and went on to teach at Georgia Tech, from where he repeatedly submitted applications to NASA for their astronaut candidate program.
He was thrilled when he received his acceptance – until he learned he needed stronger vision. At the time, NASA required astronauts to have natural 20/20 eyesight, without surgery.
So he sought out a doctor to help him re-train his eyesight.
Then he learned that he’d need to pass a swim test. He was in his 30’s and had never swum. “Can’t I just take a math quiz?,” he joked.
But he … didn’t let that sink him. (Pun intended).
In today’s special episode, former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino explains how anyone – including you – can take your own moonshot.
By Paula Pant
Born in 1924, Charlie Munger was raised during the Great Depression.
At the time of his death on Tuesday, his net worth was estimated at $2.6 billion.
But Munger’s greatest achievement wasn’t merely the scorecard of his net worth. His wit and wisdom, which Munger shared with the world through his book, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, which made him one of the most respected investors of the last century.
Munger is the man who taught Warren Buffet how to invest.
He’s lauded as the moral compass of Berkshire Hathaway, the company where he has served as vice chairman since 1984.
He’s the man who famously said, “In the short run, the market is a voting machine. But in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”
Munger and Buffet met each other in Omaha, their shared hometown, at a lunch at the local Omaha Club, where they were introduced by mutual friends. They instantly connected.
Buffet was an unknown at the time, but Munger saw his potential.
Munger’s wife once asked him, “Why are you paying so much attention to [Buffet]?,” and Munger replied, “You don’t understand. That is no ordinary human being.”
Their business partnership and friendship has lasted for more than 50 years, and Munger played a key role in many of Buffet’s investing decisions.
He passed away on November 28, 2023, at age 99.
In today’s First Friday bonus episode, we pay homage to the late investing legend Charlie Munger.
By Paula Pant
When Tiffany Aliche was in her 20’s, she fell victim to a credit card scam.
A crafty swindler convinced her to take out a cash advance against her credit card for $35,000. He said that he’d invest the money and produce Bernie Madoff- style returns. She was an inexperienced investor. She believed him.
She never saw that money again.
Aliche worked at a preschool. She didn’t make much money to begin with. But matters worsened when the school shut down, and she lost her job. She fell behind on mortgage payments and lost her condo.
In order to recover from such huge setbacks, she had to grapple with an enormous sense of financial shame.
Today, financial educator Tiffany Aliche, better known as The Budgetnista, shares how she overcame financial shame.
She talks to us about the opposite of shame, which is a sense of financial wholeness. And she discusses practical tips for how to navigate the challenges of debt and scams.
By Paula Pant
Sarah has cash to pay a $8,000 medical bill but she’s reluctant to drain her savings. Should she sign up for the hospital’s interest-free payment plan?
Jennie is an independent consultant but gets paid as a W-2 employee. Without access to a SEP IRA or a 401k plan, is there another option to save for retirement?
An anonymous caller is wondering how to run a cost-benefit analysis on pursuing a graduate degree.
Brian is getting inundated with spam calls as a real estate investor. Is there a way to stop the madness?
Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I tackle these four questions in today’s episode.
Enjoy!
By Paula Pant
Imagine this: You’re a teenage musical prodigy, a world-class classical French horn player. You drop out of college at age 19 and spend your twenties touring the globe as a musician (including, once, tripping and falling off the stage at Carnegie Hall).
At age 31, you retire from your musical career, get a Ph.D., and become a professor – first at Syracuse and then at Harvard, where you teach both at Harvard Business School and at the Harvard Kennedy School.
You publish 13 books and write a column for The Atlantic, which gets noticed by Oprah Winfrey. Oprah then invites you to dinner, where she asks you to co-author a book together.
This is the life of today’s guest, Harvard Professor Arthur Brooks, whose collaboration with Oprah, a book called Build the Life You Want, focuses on the science and research behind happiness.
Brooks teaches a class on leadership and happiness to second-year Harvard MBA candidates. In our conversation, we discuss a range of topics, including metacognition (thinking about how to think), the neurobiological basis of ruminating, and how to balance the concept of contentment with the innately human urge for ambition and progress.
He also offers a formula for happiness: enjoyment + satisfaction + meaning and purpose.
So – I hope you enjoy this episode; I hope you find it satisfying, and I hope it fills you with meaning and purpose!
– Paula
