Build a Better Life

With Paula Pant

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#398: How To Travel For (Almost) Free, with Chris Hutchins

Chris Hutchins is an avid life hacker, a financial optimizer and the host of the top ranked podcast “All The Hacks”, where he shares his quest to upgrade his life without having to spend a fortune. These passions have led him to being featured in a documentary on financial Independence called “Playing with FIRE” and collecting millions of points and miles.

If you want to learn more about optimizing your spend so that you can travel with less of an impact to your bank account, you’ll want to hear what Chris has to say.

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#397: Ask Paula: Is the bank trying to scam my parents…?

Nick’s parents are forced to confront earlier than anticipated retirement…and they aren’t financially prepared. Now, a bank is offering to buy a part of their mortgage or a part of their house.  Is this a scam?!

Jon from Colorado is curious about after tax contributions to a Roth 401k, and would like us to talk about why we wouldn’t recommend it.

Anna is househacking, and she locked down an awesome interest rate. But, she’s still carrying PMI and is wondering if there’s a way to remove the PMI without refinancing.

Courtney from Denver is a real estate investor who wants to invest in new locations and wants tips on building out her network.

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

Enjoy!

P.S. Got a question? Leave it here.

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#396: Creating Happiness At Work, with Julie Winkle Giulioni

International best-selling author and leadership speaker, Julie Winkle Giulioni, talks through a multidimensional career framework that features eight dimensions of career development.

She spells out how to apply the dimensions of contribution, competence, connection, confidence, challenge, contentment, choice and climb to different parts of your professional life, whether that’s assessing your current job, navigating a conversation with your superior or setting yourself up for the next progression.

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#394: Ask Paula: Inflation is High! How Much Cash Should You Keep?!

Bill listened to our episode with Bill Bengen, father of the 4% rule, and he wants to know if there was a way for him to figure out how much money he should be keeping in cash.

Heather inherited an IRA but MUST empty it within ten years – but she doesn’t need it right now.  What should she do??

Sheryl gets stock from her company, and she would usually sell it…but the stock value has decreased. And now, she isn’t sure what she should do.

Julie and her husband have access to an HSA for ONE MONTH.  Can they max it out before they lose access to it?

In today’s episode, former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I tackle these tough questions.

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

Enjoy!

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#392: Ask Paula: Did the Great Recession Lead to the FIRE Movement?

Colleen and her husband own SEVEN paid off rental homes. Now they’re heading into retirement and disagree on what to do with some of that equity.

Kevin wants to hit FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and believes his motivation comes from witnessing the financial trauma of the Great Recession. He’s wondering if others are motivated to reach FIRE for similar reasons.

Anonymous wants to learn more about utilizing HSA accounts and Susan wants to learn more about investing in tax liens.

My friend and former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy joins me to answer these questions on today’s episode. Enjoy!

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

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#391: Powerful Tactics to Take Control of Your Life and Career, with Dr. Reza Abraham

Dr. Reza Abraham, an international leadership consultant, walks us through a framework of staying in control of your career and your life. This framework utilizes a singular core, three cornerstones and twelve principles.  He explains how to apply and execute these principles to reinforce personal fulfillment, growth and progression.

0:00:47: Introducing Dr. Reza Abraham

0:02:48: […]

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#390: Ask Paula: Help! My Bills Are Too High

We start this episode with two anonymous callers who have opposite problems: one says her bills are too high, while the other is worried that she’s saving too much.

Anonymous (“Izzy”) saves A LOT. She wants to relax about her spending more, and start including more joy into her life. How should she approach the next 10 or 20 years, so that she can enjoy her financial security?

A different anonymous caller (“Starlight”) has the opposite problem: her expenses are mounting. Her bills make her uncomfortable. She wants to shake up her investments so that she can tap her assets in order to make her payments. Ideally, she’d also like to buy a house in Europe within the next 10 years. How should she do this?

John liked the episode with Bill Bengen, where we discussed the 4% rule.  However, he questions whether that rule should really be applied to the FIRE community.

Steve is a landlord who needs his property to cash flow, but doesn’t like to raise rents. What should he do?

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

Enjoy!

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#389: Invest Anywhere: Should I Bother Investing in Long-Distance Real Estate?

Welcome to Invest Anywhere, our monthly series on long-distance real estate investing. 

Invest Anywhere airs on the First Friday of each month and is co-hosted by Paula Pant and Suni Rao.

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Today we tackle one of the most common questions we hear:

“Should I bother investing in real estate?”
“Is the hassle worth it?”
“What’s the upside? Is this worth my time and effort?”
“Do I really want to do this?”
“Maybe I should just stick to index funds …”

How can you methodically, systematically dig into answering this question?

In this episode, we’ll help you take a personal inventory of four factors: your time, capital, relationships, and mindset.

Time, capital and relationships are the resources at your disposal, and your mindset governs how well you’ll use those resources.

These four factors will have a major influence on your experience as a long-distance investor.

And there’s good news:

Plenty of successful investors start out with empty coffers in one or more of these arenas.

They’re strapped for cash. They’re pressed for time. They lack connections.

In this episode, we discuss how to inventory your time, cash and connections (you might have more than you think!), as well as what to do if you’re lagging in one or more of these arenas.

Enjoy!

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