Afford Anything

Tag: personal finance

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#207: Ask Paula – Should I Take a $30k Paycut for Better Work-Life Balance, or Stick it Out?

Matt and his fiance earn $7,500 per month combined. They save more than half of their income. He’d like to take a different job that will decrease his income by $2,000 per month, but improve his quality of life. Should he?

Suja wants to take out a loan for business growth. What red flags should she watch for?

Anonymous and her husband are thinking about buying half-million-dollar home, purchasing a second car, and having a baby. They’ve saved an emergency fund and a 20 percent downpayment. Are they ready?

Trayci wants to quit her 9-to-5 and start working as a 1099 self-employed lifestyle. How should she manage this transition?

Daria is curious about the economics of a podcast. What do the income and expenses look like?

Jared wants to retire early and then sell off his rental properties, but he’s worried about the depreciation recapture tax rate. How should he plan?

Ali wants to set up a long-term giving plan, but most of the advice out there is geared towards wealthy donors. How should middle-class workers set up their charitable giving?

Financial planner Sophia Bera (hailed by Investment News as one of the Top 40 Under 40) joins me on today’s episode to answer these seven questions.

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The Diderot Effect: How Buying Fuels Itself

In mid-1700’s France, there lived an artist and writer on the brink of poverty.

His name was Denis Diderot.He had been born into an established family, the son of a successful craftsman, and he had obliged the social standing of his birth by pursuing a formal education. He obtained a Master of Arts in philosophy, and seemed bound for a respectable profession in clergy or law.

But Diderot dreamed of becoming a writer.

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#192: The Latte Factor, with author David Bach

“Don’t buy lattes.”This classic snippet of personal finance advice isn’t specifically anti-Starbucks. “Lattes” are a metaphor for the tiny expenses that leak money from our pockets, often without us realizing how much we’re spending.

Your “latte” could be a pile of subscriptions: HBONow, YouTube Red, Spotify Premium, Netflix, Hulu Plus, the CostCo membership that you haven’t used in two years, and — for that matter — the gym membership that you also haven’t used in two years. (Ahem.)

Your “latte” could be buying bottled water and snacks at the airport, or absentmindedly shopping online when you’re bored, or ordering restaurant take-out or delivery too often.

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#191: Ask Paula – Would You Live in an RV to Save Money?

Should Russell rent a cheap apartment, or should he take out a loan for an RV in order to save money on rent?

Carl is working two jobs that each pay $12 per hour. He has $5,000 in student loans. What can he do to improve his situation?

Caroline is about to finish paying off her student loans, and in the next few years she wants to buy a home. Where should she park her savings in the meantime?

Philip is saving for financial independence, but he’s not sure what to do with his time once he quits his job. How can he discover what ignites him?

Amanda is receiving an inheritance, a New York City 4-plex valued at $500,000. How should she handle this?

And an anonymous caller wants to know what the step-by-step path to wealth building would look like.

I answered all of his questions in today’s episode, plus I feature a short follow-up interview with Kim, the firefighter whom we met in Episode 139.

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28 Important Lessons from 2018

Here are a handful of lessons from 2018 (although many of these ideas originated during a lifetime preceding that). I’ve shared most, but not all, of these lessons on Instagram in the past year.

1: Your net worth is not your self worth. That’s true regardless of whether your net worth is low or […]

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#169: One Tweak a Week in 2019 — Easy Improvements to Your Financial Life in 2019

Happy New Years! To kickoff 2019, we’ve created a free book called One Tweak a Week, outlining 26 easy, actionable ways that you can improve your financial life.

Today’s podcast episode covers these 26 tweaks, so you can listen in audio format, in addition to reading the book.

If you put these into action for the first six months of 2019, you’ll be in a stronger position in June than you started in January.

Each tweak takes less than one hour (some are as quick as five minutes), and taken together, these tweaks can accumulate into a serious impact.

Improve your money management and get closer to financial independence with our free book, One Tweak a Week. You can download it here: https://affordanything.com/2019

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Maybe you don’t need to figure out what’s wrong

A few months ago, I interviewed a behavioral economist named Dr. Stephen Wendel on my podcast. He suggested an idea that’s so crazy it might work.

We were discussing the fact that people often stand in their own way; there’s a gap between intention and action. We know what we “should” do, but we don’t follow through. We procrastinate. We make excuses. We act against our own self-interests.

We have an image of our ideal self, we have the reality of our current self, and it’s harder than expected to bridge that divide. Why?

Most people try to figure out the problem. “Why can’t I stick to my goals?” But during our interview, Stephen turns this conventional wisdom on its head.

Maybe we should approach this as treatment first, diagnosis second.

He suggests that you try a handful of solutions. When you find the one that works, you’ll know the problem.

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#166: Everything I Learned About Money Came from My Grandmother – with Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post

Michelle Singletary learned everything she knows about money from her grandmother.

Well, okay, I shouldn’t say “everything” that she knows. After all, Michelle also has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University. She writes about personal finance for the Washington Post. Her nationally-syndicated personal finance column, The Color of Money, is published in more than 100 newspapers nationwide. She’s written three financial books.

Oh, and guess what? Her column was nominated for a Pulitzer.

Michelle has been learning, thinking, writing, researching and speaking about money management for decades. Yet the most important education she received, she says, came from the lessons her grandmother taught her.

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17 Lessons to Improve Your Money & Life

I’ve learned a ton during the past decade, thanks to reading, interviewing, and massive trial-and-error. I’ve distilled many of these lessons into today’s blog post.

Here are 17 lessons that can improve your money and life.

#1: Money Can’t Make You Happy, But Lack of Money Can Make You Unhappy
They say, “money can’t make you happy.” But that’s false.

Researchers have examined the link between money and happiness — and guess what? Money can make you happy, to an extent. Multiple studies found a significant correlation between money and happiness among people in low-to-middle income brackets.

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#159: Ask Paula – I Have Three Kids and I’m Hoping for Financial Independence

Should a 36-year-old father of three invest primarily in Traditional or Roth retirement accounts? Should Rose, a grandmother of four, open a Vanguard account for each of her grandchildren?

Should Nancy, who lives overseas and is the sole breadwinner in her family, invest in a Traditional or Roth TSP? Should Scott’s wife rollover her 403(b) from her former employer into an IRA? Should Patrick, age 35, cancel his life insurance plan?

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

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