Sean Pyles
Appearances
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Well, Elizabeth, there's a word out there that we haven't heard bandied about for a while now. It's not a word we like, but it's a word we need to address.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
It is. Recession. It's cropping up in discussions of the economy, so today we're going to talk about the likelihood of one and how to prepare for it. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
And how long do recessions usually last?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Lisa, I'm glad that you mentioned umbrella insurance policies. A lot of people may not be aware of them or really how good a deal they can be. Can you give us a brief explanation of what umbrella insurance is and why it might be a good idea?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
I think that's a really helpful way to think about it. And in general, when it comes to insurance, people want to think about what risks they are realistically likely to face and what exposure that could mean for them financially and personally. And then on top of that, what helps you sleep at night? And for me, umbrella insurance helps me sleep very well at night.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Absolutely.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
So, Lisa, shifting gears here, pun intended, we know that insurance costs have gone up dramatically over the past few years. According to NerdWallet data, the median auto insurance rate for full coverage increased 14% from 2023 to 2024. What are maybe the top two or three things that folks can do to save money on their car insurance?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Well, Lisa Green, thank you so much for coming on and sharing everything we need to know about shopping around for auto insurance.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
So there's a lot up in the air right now. What about the data? What's happening there that's worrying experts as well as consumers?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
This episode, we're answering a listener's question about car insurance.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Okay, Ana, so we aren't in a recession right now, but the possibility of it happening this year isn't entirely out of the question. What happens to things like interest rates and prices during a recession?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
What's the difference between collision and comprehensive? We'll ask our nerdy expert for some definitions and best practices. But first, some definitions of another kind in our weekly Money News Roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Credit is another big thing to pay attention to. It's often harder to get new credit during a recession, but financial flexibility seems to be key in difficult economic times.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
You can also have a few credit cards that you keep open and mostly unused. To stay in good standing with those cards, you'll often need to make a charge or two each month that you can easily repay the balance on, something like a Netflix subscription.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Well, Ana, thanks for walking us through that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Now let's get to this episode's money question that's coming up in a moment. Stay with us. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode's question comes from Gerson, who sent us an email. Here it is. How much coverage should I have on my car insurance? Regards, Gerson.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
So we have a short and sweet question from our listener here, but I have a feeling that the answer is not so simple. Lisa, where should people start when they're evaluating how much car insurance they should have?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Those are the people you're sharing the road with. Well, Lisa, that is thoroughly terrifying. I can't believe your neighbor admitted that to you. That's really scary. So what you're saying is that we need to soberly evaluate the risks that we're all facing on the road when we consider how much auto insurance coverage we might need.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
And that's the end of today's episode. Thanks for stopping by, Anna.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
But people should know that liability insurance doesn't cover damage that happens to your own vehicle as a result of an accident or some other automotive misfortune that you might be responsible for, right?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Ready for a Recession and Choose Enough Car Insurance
Lisa, you just mentioned the two big areas of liability, injuries to people and damage to property. And those are two different types of liability coverage. Can you explain what each covers?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
I'm interpreting your desire to take action and improve your finances as a way to work through that guilt and anxiety that you have.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
This episode, we're talking about ethical investing and what to do with excess savings. But first, our weekly money news roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money. Try not to be shell-shocked, Elizabeth, but egg prices have cracked past records and now stand at the all-time highest average ever, $4.95 for a dozen large grade A eggs.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Ooh, those are some heavy questions. Elizabeth, I know you wrote about investing for many years. Do you want to take on ESG generally, which stands for environmental, social, and government investing, sometimes also called socially responsible investing? They're basically synonymous.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Or that any kind of investing is a negative thing to do to the planet or the world. You just have to do your due diligence. And there is a certain amount of greenwashing that can happen in ESG funds. For example, some companies in ESG funds have been found to invest in bonds from fossil fuel companies. But you can just look at different funds to invest in.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
You would probably invest in an exchange traded fund, most likely, if you're doing ESG investing. And you can look at what companies make up that fund. If you see, oh, here's a company that I don't agree with ethically, I don't want to invest in this fund, you can search elsewhere and find a different fund that aligns more closely with your values.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
I would say no, not necessarily. Elizabeth mentioned a robo-advisor fund, which automates investing for you. So you can set up one of these accounts. It's very easy to do so. You can automate monthly deposits into this account, and you can have the fund that you selected before, having done your due diligence that one time and made sure, okay, I agree with companies that are in this fund.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
And then your investments are just going in the background. So it might take a bit of homework on the front end, like you would do if you're shopping around for a new credit card or buying a new car. You want to make sure you're doing it right at the beginning so that things can be fine as you're using them on a day-to-day basis.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
There you go. Yeah. Maddie, you also talked about your savings and having all of your money in a high yield savings account. How are you managing the amount that you have just in that high yield savings account? Is that something that you're drawing on? Or is it strictly savings that you're not touching? Are you feeling okay about having all of that money in the high yield savings account?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Are you able to withdraw cash from that emergency fund in your high yield savings account if needed?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Yeah, they're a popular online bank, essentially. So I'm glad to hear that you have access to cash in the high yield savings account because some accounts will not just send you a debit card. And what I worry about with some people is if they have all of their money or the vast majority of it in a high yield savings account. And they are in some cash crunch where they need hard cash.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
They might have a hard time getting it or they might need to wait for a transfer to go through before they can withdraw cash. And that is just not a fun situation to be in. But it seems like you aren't dealing with that. So good to hear.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Something else I want to talk with you about is how you think about the purpose of that amount that you have in savings. It seems like it's somewhere between an emergency fund and a daily spending fund.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Thank you so much. Here's another wild stat. The cost of a dozen increased 15% from December to January. It's up for the year, too. In January 2024, eggs were $2.52 on average, which means the price of a dozen has nearly doubled since then.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
There are various rules of thumb around emergency funds for households where you're both working, you're a two income household. A lot of financial advisors will say that you can get away with having a three month emergency fund. So that would be around $27,000 going on the high end. I think that's a conservative way to approach it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
But if you were to maybe step away from the workforce to have a second kid, I think it might be a good idea to beef that up to closer to six months. Obviously, that would take time to do. But that's the more conservative, safest way to do it. But for where you are right now, you are doing great. And that means that you have
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
plenty of extra cash in that fund that may not need to be earmarked for emergency savings. And the reason I bring this up is because I find it personally really helpful to have different savings buckets where I have a number of different savings accounts at my bank where I have my high yield savings account.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
and my emergency fund for different purposes so i do have that emergency fund i have one that is for home improvements i have a fund that is for fun money that way you know exactly how much you have for each purpose and you're not being too worried about oh am i draining too much from the emergency fund you know that amount of cash is sitting there with its purpose you're not touching it just to pay your bills but you do have another account that's maybe for groceries or regular monthly expenses that you can pull from when you're paying off your credit card
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Well, returns are never guaranteed. There's always risk when it comes to investing. But over time, history has shown that investing your money is a great way to stay ahead of inflation. And you may be able to get a greater return than what your current interest rate is. But there are a lot of factors that go into that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
I want to talk about something that might have a little bit more certainty to it, which would be how you save for your kids' futures. So do you have a 529 or how are you weighing what to do in terms of that type of savings?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
At least you'll be able to help in some way.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Yeah, that is really individual. It can depend on where you think your kid or kids might be going to school. So I would poke around with some calculators. There are five to nine calculators online that you can experiment with and get a feel for, okay, if I want to have X amount of money in X number of years, here's what I have to start saving today and on a regular basis.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
you mentioned maybe using a roth or a 529 in general a 529 is the best most tax advantage way to save for college depending on which state you're in or the rules of ohio where you live you might be able to make a tax deductible contribution to that account
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
The earnings in 529s grow tax-free when used for qualified expenses, and they also provide a lot of flexibility because you can use them not just for a traditional four-year college. You could use them for even a K-12 schools in some cases, and you can also use them for trade schools. And unused funds can be rolled into Roth IRAs. There are certain requirements for that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
In that case, you could partially jumpstart your kids' retirement savings with this 529 account. So they just allow people a great way to save. And I think that because they're a little bit more efficient tax-wise than Roths, I encourage a lot of folks to look into them.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Well, Maddie, thank you so much for coming on the show and talking with us today.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
And that's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. You can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Unlike other wearables, Amazfit goes beyond basic fitness tracking. It has specialized modes like High Rocks Race Mode, Smart Strength Training, and even Free Diving, built for both everyday users and elite athletes. And with AI-driven coaching, it adapts to your workouts, tracks recovery, and helps you train smarter.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Yeah, I heard that Waffle House added a 50 cents per egg surcharge to customers' bills.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
That's one way to meet customers where they are. But the avian flu has been going on for a while, right? So why are eggs getting more expensive now?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
So it's your basic supply and demand issue, and we are short in supply of eggs.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
And anything that's not a conventional egg is considered... A specialty egg.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
This is a weird thing that I've seen recently. Some cage-free eggs on the shelves are actually cheaper than conventional eggs.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Without getting too graphic here, what happens when bird flu is discovered amongst a flock?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
But culling hasn't fully worked to slow the spread, right? I saw the Trump administration is planning another approach.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
I'm curious if the Trump administration's federal workforce changes are impacting these efforts.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
and higher prices, which is why we always recommend comparison shopping types of eggs as well as where you're buying them from. Well, Ana, thank you for that excellent rundown.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's Amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney. Elizabeth, do you know where your money is invested?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Whatever your money question, leave us a voicemail or text us on the Nerd Hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy — the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced, so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
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NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Maddie, welcome to Smart Money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
So before we get into the substance of our conversation, I want to remind you that everything we're going to talk about is just for educational and entertainment purposes. And while I may be a certified financial planner professional, I am not your CFP. Got it? Understood. Perfect. Let's start by hearing a little bit about your finances. Can you describe how you manage your household finances?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Like what's been good? What has been challenging?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
So you said that you feel like you can be doing better. In what areas specifically do you feel like you have room for improvement?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Well, as you know, that's called ethical investing. And today we're going to explain to a listener how it works and how to know that your money isn't going toward companies and activities that you don't want to support. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
I have some kind of nitty gritty questions for you. So first off, how much do you and your husband earn? What's your annual household salary if you could ballpark it?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Okay, between both of you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
And you said you have a decent amount in savings. How much do you have?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
It sounds a little chaotic, too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Well, sometimes having a lump of money in savings is a great thing to have just sitting there, not being put to use, just being there as savings. So that's good that you have that. And congratulations on what you've been able to do with the money you got from your housing situations. But I want to focus a little more on your debt. So you mentioned that you only have student loan debt.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
Is that correct?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
And do you know what the current balance is of all of your loans?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Egg Prices, Greenwashing, and Smarter Ways to Invest
So you mentioned that you are in public service loan forgiveness, and that's a program we can get into that in a little bit, but you generally have to be in it for 10 years before your student loans are forgiven. How many years do you have under your belt?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
And because your stepfather was sick, did he also need your support at that time?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Yeah, from however many hundred miles away when you're in New York and she's in Virginia.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Well, we'll come back to your story, but I want to dive into Kay's questions as well. Let's start by talking about talking, I guess. I can imagine that having conversations about potentially managing your parents or another loved one's money could be kind of uncomfortable. There's this sort of role reversal going on.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
So how do you recommend people approach what could be a tough conversation or series of conversations?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Did you have conversations with your mom before she needed your care?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
That really makes me think about how much a gift estate planning is to your loved ones, because you basically had the playbook of what your mom wanted and you could just execute it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
So any other thoughts around how people can begin this conversation with their family?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Yeah. And I would say the sooner you can do that, the better. In a lot of cases, you want to have this conversation when people are pretty clear headed and not responding to a big, stressful medical event.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
And it can also be a time consuming process and it can be a little expensive too, depending on how complicated your estate is. So the more you can dole that out over time, the easier it will be to manage.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
So our listener asked about managing finances for older loved ones as a power of attorney, which in technical terms is called being an agent. I realize that a lot of people might not be familiar with what it means to be given power of attorney and act as an agent. Can you talk with us about what that entails?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
But what if your loved one is incapacitated and can't actually be on the phone, but you're getting pushback from a company?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Yeah. Who has a fax machine nowadays?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Okay. Well, let's talk about healthcare power of attorney. What's the deal with that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
One of the more granular questions that Kay asks is about funding and which sources to prioritize. If an older loved one has a variety of accounts, like a pension, a 401 , maybe an annuity, are there rules of thumb about which might be better to prioritize drawing from first?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Let's go a little more into managing and paying for medical care, which can be one of the toughest areas to talk about with a loved one. How can you ensure that they're getting the care that they want and not getting the care they don't want while managing expenses? And how does Medicare fit in, too?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
You know, for me, I'm all about a classic PB&J, preferably with chunky peanut butter. But today we're going to talk about a different kind of sandwich, the financial one that you can find yourself in when you're of a certain age. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
So far, we've been talking about how to talk with your parents, care for your parents. We haven't talked as much about your kids. Kate, when you were going through your experience with your mom, how did you make sure that your kids were also getting to school on time and hanging out with friends and going to their extracurriculars and had their lunch made?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
All of those things that you have to do when you're a parent.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Yeah, of course. I imagine this might also be a good opportunity to start this dialogue with your kids, depending on how old they are. You don't want to scare them if they're really young, but having a conversation about what you're experiencing with your mom, with your kids might help them begin to understand that, hey, you might have to care for me one day, too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
And how old were your kids at this time?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
So they had a lot going on in their own lives, too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Well, I'm glad that you could begin to have that dialogue with them and also care for your mom in this really difficult time.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Do you have any final thoughts for our listeners or others who might find themselves sandwiched between caring for older loved ones while raising kids?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Yeah, that's just one of those things that you would never consider as you're planning the bigger things like health care. It's like, oh, yeah, my mom also has a Netflix account I have to manage at some point.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
What a relief. Well, Kate, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story and your insights.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
to automatically download new episodes. Here's our brief disclaimer. I may be a certified financial planner professional, but I am not your financial or investment advisor. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland, Holly Carey, and Hilary Georgie helped with editing, Megan Maurer mixed her audio, and a big thank you to NerdWallet's editors for all their help. And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
This episode, we're looking at how to help manage the finances of aging parents while also caring for children.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Exactly. But first, our weekly money news roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Whatever your money question, leave us a voicemail or text us on the Nerd Hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. Now let's get to this episode's money question segment that's coming up in a moment. Stay with us. Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy, the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced, so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Ana, this was a big topic of conversation last fall, right? During election season in particular, economists were saying, hey, the U.S. economy is doing pretty darn well, while voters were saying, no, no, it's not, at least not where we live.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
And if the pavement disappears, no problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode's question comes from Kay, who sent us an email. Here it is. Could you please do a podcast with a deeper dive into financial decision-making as a power of attorney for older loved ones while raising kids?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
I have several questions about talking to older loved ones and managing their finances in order to support their goals and navigating the systems and care that they need. When it comes to being a power of attorney and navigating the financial decisions, where can I go for information and how do I prioritize which funds to pull from?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
I'm thinking about pensions, 401ks, social security, estate slash trust, etc. Is there a recommended amount to pull out in order to make sure there's funds for when they are older and need more care? When navigating the medical care and service needs, how much of that is covered by Medicare versus how much is from their funds slash social security?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
To help us answer Kay's question, on this episode of the podcast, we are joined by NerdWallet Medicare Authority and certified senior advisor, Kate Ashford. Kate, welcome back to Smart Money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
So our listener has a lot of pretty specific questions about managing care for their older loved ones while taking care of little ones, too, something that's known as being in the sandwich generation because you're sandwiched between caring for typically your parents and your own children. This is a pretty common experience. About a quarter of U.S.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
adults fit this description, according to the Pew Research Center. Before we get into the nitty gritty of Kay's questions, I want to hear from you, Kate, about what it's like to be in the situation because it's something that you have personal experience with, right? Can you tell us about that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
Yeah, I can imagine. I'm sorry that you had to go through that. And I'm sorry to hear about your mom, too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
You described putting complicated systems in place. What did that actually entail?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Managing the Job Market and Your Parents’ Finances: Tips for the Sandwich Generation
It also sounds really expensive.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
We both work and earn in the 22% federal income tax bracket and take the standard deduction, so I don't see tax benefits. My employer allows my domestic partner to enroll in my health insurance, so that's not a perk. My main apprehension has to do with debt and credit. I have excellent credit and minimal debt.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
My partner was a victim of an awful scam many years ago that led to credit card default and charge-offs that haunt their credit report despite being over seven years old. They were recently even denied for a secured credit card.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Furthermore, they have nearly $200,000 in student debt that may never get paid off, considering that I view marriage as a liability for my own credit, debt, and ability to borrow money in the future, which is necessary for both of us. Am I misguided? Are there other financial consequences I'm not recognizing? Thanks, Bailey.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Yeah, you're right. A lot of people think that getting married is this great way to save on taxes. And for some folks, that's really not the case. The big things to think about are combined income and tax brackets. When you file your taxes as a married couple, the income threshold for the marginal brackets is much higher.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
So your combined income may be taxed at a lower rate than what you would have been taxed at as a single filer. And I realize this can get kind of confusing. So let's use our listener situation as an example. Bailey said that they and their partner are both in the 22% tax bracket. For single filers, that bracket is between roughly $48,000 and $103,000 for the 2025 tax year.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
For married couples filing jointly, the 22% bracket range is between roughly $97,000 to around $207,000, so it's basically double. Since our listener and their partner are both in the same tax bracket, the larger range for that 22% tax bracket for married couples doesn't amount to much in terms of savings on a tax bill for them.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Getting married would be more advantageous tax-wise if one partner earned much more than the other, so they could take advantage of those larger tax brackets. And another thing to note that Bailey pointed out is the standard deduction. For couples who file jointly, the standard deduction is double that of single filers.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And while that might sound really exciting, it ends up being kind of a wash when you break it down on an individual basis. So like Bailey said, getting married may not be a huge advantage tax-wise.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Yeah, growing pains as a young married couple.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
So getting married can have big implications for a range of aspects of your finances, including things like social security benefits and how you save for retirement. But I want to touch on two that come to mind for me. Health care decisions and your estate.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
When it comes to health care, when you're married, you become the default decision maker for each other's health care decisions in the event that one of you is incapacitated. And this happens without having to get a medical power of attorney, which can be a kind of drawn out and sometimes expensive legal process where you might probably have to get an attorney involved. It's just not super easy.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
So this can be a huge advantage in a health emergency. Instead of having to pull out some paperwork to prove that you should be in the room with your partner and that you can make the healthcare decisions for an incapacitated partner, you are just accepted as being in that role. Again, think about what that might mean in some kind of crisis.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
You want to be there to support your partner without having to dig through documents. And then when it comes to your estate, being married can make it much easier to transfer each other's assets upon death, something that folks might not want to think about, but you'll be happy to have that sorted out in the event that that happens.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Yeah, lots of economic indicators were indicating that things were going pretty swimmingly. But polls kept showing that the public did not agree. Our news colleague Anna Hilhoski is here with more. And Anna, there really has been this huge disconnect between perception and reality when it comes to the economy.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Thank you for that. That's super important. And a lot of people aren't aware that they can dispute information on their credit reports, or they may not know how to do that. We have articles on NerdWallet that walk you through this process because it's a little bit different with each of the three credit bureaus.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
So we will link in our show notes two articles that can help people understand how to dispute errors on their credit reports. So Lauren, is there any way that getting married could limit our listeners' ability to qualify for credit in the future if their spouse does have a pretty rough credit record?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Alright, so I want to zoom out a little bit and talk about just managing money as a married couple. Even though our listener and their partner earn about the same amount, it seems like they have very different financial circumstances. Lauren, how do you think they should go about building the financial future that they want to have together considering what each person is bringing to the table?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
You have to play to each person's strength in a relationship. That makes it a lot easier to manage household stuff and finances. So something else I'll add, because from Bailey's original email to us, I've gathered that they're in a queer relationship. And, you know, we're living in, shall I say, very uncertain times right now.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And there are some signals that gay marriage may be challenged at the Supreme Court. So for peace of mind alone, for people like Bailey and myself, frankly, getting married to the person that you plan to spend the rest of your life with may be worth it for that sense of security and stability that marriage can bring. My partner and I are planning on getting married this year.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And for a long time, we approached marriage much like Bailey and their partner. It wasn't really a priority because we weren't on that traditional path that is expected of more heterosexual couples traditionally. But we want to build a secure life together. And marriage just makes that so much easier across a range of areas of your financial and personal life, as we've laid out earlier.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Well, Lauren Chuan, thank you so much for joining us.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
That's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. Visit nerdwallet.com slash podcast for more info on this episode.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Unlike other wearables, Amazfit goes beyond basic fitness tracking. It has specialized modes like High Rocks Race Mode, Smart Strength Training, and even Free Diving, built for both everyday users and elite athletes. And with AI-driven coaching, it adapts to your workouts, tracks recovery, and helps you train smarter.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's Amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney. When you think of all the reasons to get married, what comes to mind?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Well, this episode, we help a listener figure out if marriage is worth the effort and cost. Wallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And we want to talk with more of you live on Smart Money this year. So if you want to hang out with Elizabeth and me and get some nerdy wisdom, let us know. One more time, leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy, the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced, so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And if the pavement disappears, no problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments, so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode's question comes from a listener's email. Here it is. Hi nerds, I have a spectacularly unromantic millennial dilemma. What are some of the more nuanced financial implications and benefits of marriage?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
This episode, we're talking about some of the more nuanced financial implications and benefits of marriage. But first, our weekly Money News Roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
My partner and I have already established we want to spend the rest of our lives together, but haven't gotten serious about planning a marriage. We do want a ceremony someday, but with no intention to have kids and no traditional pressure from family slash friends slash selves to have marital titles, we look at it as mostly a financial decision and struggle to understand the ins and outs.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Well, we'll get into all of those details around your retirement in just a moment. Amy, can you talk with us a little bit more about your job and your husband's job? How much are you typically earning? And why are you maybe concerned about some uncertainty around your jobs?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
So just to clarify, you said that you have one of only 15 full time church jobs in your area. Is that musicians or just all church jobs?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
So there might not be a lot of other options if you do need to find a new job at a different church or something.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
This episode, we're talking with a listener who's wondering how to catch up on retirement savings and whether early retirement is still an option. But first, our weekly money news roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Community property?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Sure. So you guys have kept your finances separate. But now as you're thinking about retirement planning, I get the impression that you guys are maybe doing a little bit more collaboration on that. Is that correct?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Oh, that's great.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
You know, my partner and I right now are planning our wedding, which we're having later this year, and we're setting up our registry. And we're in a similar situation where we have all the household things we need. And our default was to say, oh, just fund our honeymoon. But part of me is wondering, should I have a fund my 401k option on my registry?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Well, thank you. I'll send you the link. So you've been saving for retirement with your partner, but separately on your own for the past 10 or so years. How much do you have saved?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
I think you're sort of going back and forth and thinking through this and confusion speaks to one of the hardest questions around saving for retirement, which really is like, how much do you need? How much do you need to have the life that you want? And it depends on so many factors, like the lifestyle you plan to have, the age you plan to retire, your life expectancy, how much you have saved.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
A lot of people can live on 70% of their pre-retirement income during retirement. Others might want to live on closer to 80% if they want to have a cushier retirement and want to travel a lot. When you think about your retirement, when you're talking with your husband about this, what do you envision your retirement to be like? Where do you see yourself if you can make a mental image?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
I'm glad to hear that you mentioned you're planning to talk with a financial advisor because retirement planning specifically is so individual. It depends on where you are, where your husband are, where you are together overlapping.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
And you would really benefit from having someone dig into all of your numbers and really have that longer conversation with you about what would it be like if you went to Costa Rica? What would it be like if you stayed here? Could you sell your house? Could you get rental income from your property if you're living elsewhere?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
There are so many factors to consider, but going with a fee-only fiduciary certified financial planner is often the best way to go to have a comprehensive plan for your retirement. Okay.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Sure. Well, I think the fact that you and your husband both like to and make a point to think outside of the box will really help you get creative with your retirement savings, because the truth of the matter is that you have a ways to go and you're planning to retire in 10, 12 years. What's your timeline for that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
So 17-ish years, that's a decent amount of time, but the clock is for sure ticking. So you'll want to, when you meet with that financial advisor, think about those creative ways and also maybe consider bumping up how much you are contributing to these retirement accounts. Do you know what percentage of your income you're putting away into your 401k right now?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Well, that's great because a lot of financial advisors recommend saving between 10 and 15% of your pre-tax income for retirement. So you're pretty much right there at the higher end. But that said, if someone is behind in saving, that percentage could be closer to 25% or 30% or even more of your pre-tax income.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
So when you meet with the advisor, they'll have some software where they can run different percentages of your income being put into a 401k or a Roth IRA and see how that might play out over the years that you have left before retirement to see how close you can get to that goal of two, 2.5 million. All right, cool. Something else you wrote to us about in your email was the FIRE movement.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
What are your thoughts around that? And how did someone plant the seed in your brain?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
That's so romantic of him. And also, you should take him up on that offer if you can.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Yeah, because doing the FIRE movement in the purest sense often requires folks to save between 50 and 75% of their income for retirement. And a common guideline is to have 25 times your annual income saved before you can retire early. Yeah. Oh, wow. Pretty difficult to do for anyone, no matter where they are in their financial life.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
But FIRE comes with some risks, such as having to foot your own medical bills until Medicare kicks in at 65%. So you mentioned your hips. Healthcare is something that I always am concerned about when it comes to retirement, because as we know, when we get older, our medical expenses tend to get greater. You have to account for that when it comes to your savings and investments, too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Yours might be musician fire where you're playing in a band and you're getting some money from that, but you're not doing it 40 hours a week.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
There you go. Yeah. You don't have to be working at a coffee shop. Barista really just refers to having some kind of part-time job.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Well, maybe thinking outside of the box, you can combine some aspects of making coffee with playing music. There might be something there.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
So, Amy, we've run through some different aspects of how to save for retirement where you might be able to catch up on some aspects of investing and saving. How are you feeling at the moment? Are there any other questions around saving for retirement that we haven't gotten to yet?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Well, Amy, thank you for coming on. And please keep us updated on how everything goes for you and your husband. Will do. And that's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
You can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Unlike other wearables, Amazfit goes beyond basic fitness tracking. It has specialized modes like High Rocks Race Mode, Smart Strength Training, and even Free Diving, built for both everyday users and elite athletes. And with AI-driven coaching, it adapts to your workouts, tracks recovery, and helps you train smarter.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
OK, so a lot of back and forth here. What's Trump's reasoning for the tariffs?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Canada, China and Mexico are our three biggest trading partners. So what has their response been?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's Amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney. You know all those grocery price hikes that made us mad over the last couple of years?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
And thank you, Ana.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Maybe you want to up your credit card points game, but aren't sure which card is right for you. Or you're in the middle of planning your wedding and you aren't sure what's a reasonable amount to spend on flowers. And I may be speaking for myself there. Again, leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy, the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Well, quite a few products from the grocery store shelves are about to get even more expensive, along with even bigger ticket items as new tariffs kick in. We've got some advice on how to deal with them. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
And if the pavement disappears, no problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode, we're joined by Amy, a listener who's 49, lives in Wisconsin, and has some questions about how much they need to save to have the retirement of their dreams.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
We're happy to have you. Amy, can you start by telling us what your financial life is like right now? Where do you feel good? Where do you feel like you might have some room for improvement?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Okay. Living within your means.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
That's what we like to hear.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
And when you say you don't know what's coming down the pike, what do you mean by that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And if the pavement disappears, no problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
This episode, we're joined by a listener, David, who's planning a big cross-country move with his family and has many questions about the financial and logistical challenges of moving, including whether they should sell or rent out their current home after they move. David, welcome to Smart Money. Hi, Sean.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
So to help me tackle your questions, David, I am joined by NerdWallet writer Lisa Green, who has experience managing rental properties and moving and all sorts of things that you are wondering about. So Lisa, hey, welcome to Smart Money too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
So David, before we get into the conversation, I want to remind you that everything we're about to discuss is just for educational and entertainment purposes. We are not here to give you specific financial or investing advice, but instead provide you with information so that you can make your own smarter financial decisions. Sound good? Sounds great. Perfect.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Let's start by digging into your financial life generally. How do you and your wife manage your household finances? How are you feeling about things financially?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Do you end up Venmoing each other or finding some way to send cash back and forth when you're covering expenses?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And what about your income levels? Because I know with some couples, if one person is earning more than another, they might cover certain things and the person who's earning less might cover less. How does that break down for you guys?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Right. Yeah. And we'll get into that in just a second here. But I'm wondering also, how do you feel like you're doing financially? Do you think things are going well? Do you think there are areas where things could be better?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
This episode, we're talking about all of the financial decisions that you have to make when you're deciding whether to move, especially when that move can take you 2000 miles away. But first, our Money News Roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Well, it seems like you also worked hard to get to where you are too. So you should be proud of that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Let's get into your move. You and your wife are thinking of moving with your kids. Where do you want to move and what's motivating this?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Yeah, and I assume you have some family out there too? Correct. That can make things easier. So how do you expect moving to change your finances? Do you think it'll make things easier? Might it actually make things more difficult?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
But you haven't done it, so it's new to you and your wife. Correct. I want to talk a little bit about your jobs because that's a big thing to line up when you're moving to a new place. Make sure you have an income coming in. Have you looked into jobs in your potential new home? How has that gone so far?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
David, can you think of any financial reasons to not move just to stay where you are? Or are you really set on this lifestyle change?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
So it's more the personal reasons that might be hard, saying bye to your colleagues and to your current community.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
You mean the one that feels like six weeks ago?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Right. And that kind of move would only get harder as they get older.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Well, I think I have grilled you enough, David. Let's get to some of your questions for Lisa and me around the move. What concerns do you have? Where do you want a little bit more information?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Yeah, that definitely was not true.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
So that all sounds pretty cushy and nice, but I imagine it's not all easy. Money coming in as you are managing a rental, especially when you're living in a different state.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
What do you think David should keep in mind to ensure that if they do go this route, that everything is properly maintained and they're getting their rent on time and they're not on the hook for a mortgage several states away, perhaps while having a new mortgage?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
It is. And so today we're going to take a closer look at one of those pieces of news, which is the apparent shuttering, at least temporarily, of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Our news colleague, Anna Hilhoski, is here with more. Hey, Anna.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And Lisa, one thing I'm thinking about is savings. It strikes me that you or anyone, you know, David, anyone who's looking to have a rental property in another state or even in the state that they are in would probably want to have more in savings to cover a month where maybe they don't have a tenant, or there is some sort of maintenance that needs to be done to the property.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
How have you thought about this with your own rental properties?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
So David, how is this sounding to you? Feasible? Difficult? Stressful?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
We touched on this in last week's episode, but there have been some new developments since then. So this is the Financial Industry Watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB for short. and it is apparently on the chopping block right now, along with other government agencies that are finding themselves scalped out of existence.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And David- You're planning on buying a new home when you move. Is that correct?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I can touch on the tax part quickly. One thing to note around Roth IRAs is that you can take your contributions out, but you'll likely have a pretty sizable tax bill on earnings. And in general, withdrawing funds from a retirement account is likely to leave you with a tax bill and potentially penalties too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
If you need to sell investments, look into your taxable brokerage account because that is probably going to be the most tax advantaged way to do it. If you've held the investments for longer than a year, you'll be taxed at a favorable long-term capital gains rate, which is lower than your income tax rate, most likely.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
So that might be the best way to go, potentially, if you need to sell investments. I'm wondering how you personally have thought out which option might be best for you. Have you maybe put together some sort of nerdy spreadsheet where you're listing each option and what it might cost you in terms of taxes or interest rate, any of those things?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And I think running those numbers will provide you a lot of clarity. So I would say add some meat to that spreadsheet, see what the bottom line is for each option. And David, how are you thinking about timing here too? Are you planning to move in the next few months? Are you planning to put your house maybe up for rent soon? How are you considering that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Think about what you do and don't need at your current home and also whether it would just be more expensive to haul it to a new place versus getting rid of it and maybe buying something in your new location. Lisa, how have you handled that with your various moves?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
You got to match the furniture to the vibe of where your house is. Otherwise, the feng shui is off.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
David, how have you thought about that with your wife? Have you had discussions of like, okay, like, we really don't want to have to move this sectional 2000 miles? Have you even gotten that far yet?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
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NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
That's something that I want to emphasize, too, is how can you make this move easier for you? Because you and your wife will be moving 2,000 miles, you said, with two young kids.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
There are going to be all sorts of logistics to figure out around snack time and bathroom breaks and where all of your stuff is in the car and how do you load up the car that I think to the extent that you can take steps to make that process easier for you, you will appreciate it afterward and especially while you're doing it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Have you also looked into the cost of like movers or using pods or U-Hauls? Have you mapped out what those expenses might be too?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And the depreciation on the furniture in the home could potentially be a tax write-off too. So David, I know we've run through a lot of different aspects of moving and selling and renting and managing a rental property. How are you thinking about all of this right now?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
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NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And over the weekend, Vote posted on X that he had withdrawn any requests for further funding from the Federal Reserve. Side note, the CFPB is financed through requests to the Fed rather than Congress. On Sunday, the CFPB's 1,600 workers were informed that the agency's headquarters were closed and were ordered to stand down from doing any work.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Soon after, the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB workers, filed a lawsuit against Vote and the OMB.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
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Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's Amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney. Elizabeth, I remember you moved from Florida to Texas last year. Was that easy?
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Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Maybe you're wondering if you should take the standard deduction or itemize or whether you can get by with using one of the online filing services or if you might need to hire a CPA. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD or email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Yeah, that's for sure. So today we're going to walk a listener through some of the financial tips and advice for doing a big across the country move. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy, the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
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Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced, so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
Elizabeth, I don't know about you, but if I never hear the word tariff again, it will be too soon.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
And I get the feeling that Chris isn't someone who can just throw caution to the wind and spend their money freely. In that case, Amanda, your suggestion to try out budgeting could help them spend their money intentionally and allocate some of their money to the life experiences that they might be missing out on while still saving for retirement and other investment goals.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
What do you think about that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
But as the certified financial planner professional in your ear, I want to emphasize the importance of not making rash decisions and remembering that while this time might feel different, so does every time something tumultuous happens to the economy.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
That's a really good point because oftentimes people think that when they make a decision, it is irreversible and they're stuck with it. But in reality, it's often not the exact decision that you make, but what you do with that decision and how you grow from it and maybe pivot from it. That can help you long term.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
But in general, I kind of get the sense that Chris is maybe a pretty numbers focused person and likes to map out their finances in detail and. In that case, they could put together maybe a few mock budgets for different scenarios and different lifestyles. One could be having a studio apartment. Another could be having roommates.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
Another could be both of those options, but where they have a vacation a few times a year. That might make the idea of enjoying life and spending money a little more concrete. Amanda, I'm wondering if there are any other financial fundamentals that you think Chris should acquaint themselves with before making a big change like moving out of their parents' place.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
The best thing to do is focus on the long term, maybe back away from checking your 401k balance if that's going to make you anxious, and continue to stay informed, which is what we're doing day in, day out on Smart Money, keeping you up to date on the latest financial news so that you can make smart decisions about your money and your life.
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Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
I like that idea, Amanda. And knowing what you're going to do in a really specific way can help you when you are someone who likes to control your money a lot, which is how I think Chris tends to operate. But at an even higher level, Chris could benefit from some thought exercises and some introspection about what kind of life they want to live and what they really care about.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
And at 23, I think it's okay to not have all of the answers there. When I was Chris's age, I had just moved to the Bay Area. I knew pretty much no one besides my twin sister and a childhood friend, and I was just figuring out how to get into the media work that I wanted to do. My life felt like kind of a mess, maybe because I only had like $5 to my name, but I knew some of my passions.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
I wanted to travel. I wanted to make the most of living in a vibrant city. I wanted a career in media and everything that I did was with those goals in mind. So I would ask Chris, what do you really care about? What do you enjoy doing and how are you going to craft a life yourself where you can pursue your passions and have meaningful experiences?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
With all that said, Ana, what should folks be paying attention to right now?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
Tariffs are driving up the costs of all kinds of goods, including ones we drive. So we're going to talk about how to manage that cost. Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
Something else I'm picking up on from Chris's question is that they're following a common money script known as money vigilance. With money vigilance, as you might imagine, people are really focused on saving and investing and avoiding spending and avoiding making financial mistakes, which can be great.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
But money vigilance can also slip into money hoarding at its most extreme, where you hold on to every dollar and you don't actually enjoy what you've worked hard to earn. Money isn't just there to be accumulated like we've talked about before. It's really meant to be enjoyed, too. Sometimes that means you make mistakes with your money and you have less of it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
But the lessons that you learn from those mistakes have their own value. And I often like to say that one of the best ways to learn lessons is by hearing what others have gone through so you can avoid making those mistakes yourself and. then hearing how they came out on the other end.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
With that in mind, Amanda, Elizabeth, I'd love to hear about a financial mistake that each of you has made and how that maybe informs the way you manage your money today.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
Always. All right.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
And start investing today.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
Yeah. Yeah.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
thinking back on my early 20s i remember a very long period of time where i would just avoid looking at my bank account and it wasn't because i had so much i could just get by it was because i had so little i was afraid to see what was in there and there were plenty of times where i would go to the grocery store and my debit card would be declined i didn't even really have a credit card i was using at that point either so i was just scraping by and hoping that ignorance would indeed be bliss until it became a lot of stress at a certain point
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
It really took until I started working at NerdWallet and learned about the importance of being proactive and responsible with your money that I began to have a more healthy relationship and regimen with checking my finances. And now it's a weekly, if not daily thing of just checking where my balances are.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
But I learned in a way that I have this impulse in me to avoid problems when I know they're there in the background. And sometimes I still feel that impulse to not check my accounts. And sometimes Whenever I get that feeling, it's probably because I know that I've spent maybe a little more than I should have. And so now at this ripe age of 33 years old, I know better and I get that feeling.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
I try to push back against it and just check my balance, rip off the bandaid because it often just makes me feel better afterward.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
I'm putting on my certified financial planner hat and monocle to answer this question.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
The monocle and the hat both have feathers. It's extremely fancy. Well, with the disclaimer that while I may be a certified financial planner professional, I'm not Chris's CFP. Let's go back to some key facts that Chris gave us. They're 23 years old. They have a net worth of around $190,000 and no debt. At this really early age, they're doing better than many Americans of pretty much any age.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
In 2022, the median net worth of all U.S. households was just under $193,000. Now, there's a lot that we don't know about Chris's situation, how much they earn. They said they earn a lot, but what is a lot? How much they're contributing regularly to their retirement accounts and brokerage accounts. But they did say they have around $120,000 in investments.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
I use NerdWallet's investment calculator to see what this could grow to if they didn't contribute a single additional dollar and their investments grew at an average rate of 6%, which is a relatively conservative estimate. So by the time they're 67 in 44 years, their money would grow to a little over $1.5 million.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
And if they contributed just $100 more each month, that number would grow to just over $1.8 million. So I would say Chris is doing just fine and there is room to allocate money to other things potentially.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
That's really fair. It's hard to say exactly whether they're on track, quote unquote, for retirement because we don't know what Chris's goals are, how much they might need to be spending in retirement. And, you know, as we often say on Smart Money, it's not our job to tell Chris what to do with their money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
We're just here to provide context and information so people can make their own informed decisions. But I will say that it seems like Chris has enough in their retirement and investments. and savings to pursue other financial goals without jeopardizing their long-term investments. Again, the conversation really does go back to the idea of goals. What does Chris want, right?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
We just have this one life and I certainly like spending my money to enrich my life in meaningful ways while I'm alive.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
Well, Amanda, I love that. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your thoughts.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
That's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. Follow Smart Money on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and iHeart Radio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds. Guess what, listener? Smart Money is a finalist in the 2025 Webby Awards, and we need your vote to win. Go to vote.webbyawards.com, register real quick, and vote for us in the best individual podcast episode business category. It takes a minute, makes our day, and lets you say, yeah, I helped pick that winner. Voting ends April 17th.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
One more time, that's vote.webbyawards.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
This episode, we're talking about letting loose a little with your money when you're ahead of the savings game. It doesn't always have to be about frugality. But first, our weekly money news roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
Our news colleague, Anna Helhosky, is here with more. Give us the scoop, Anna.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
And thank you, Ana.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
And we have an exciting announcement before we move on. We're running another book giveaway sweepstakes ahead of our next Nerdy Book Club episode. In a few weeks, we're talking with Asia Evans, author of Feel Good Finance, Untangle Your Relationship with Money for Better Mental, Emotional, and Financial Wellbeing.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
All right, let's get to this episode's money question segment. That's up next. Stay with us.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode's question comes from Chris who sent us a text message. Here it is. Chris here. I'm 23 years old with a roughly $190,000 net worth and zero debt due to living at home the past couple of years post-college with a high income. I would like to move out eventually to become more independent.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
However, it is hard to justify spending nearly $2,000 a month on rent when I could continue to invest more and build even more of a nest egg. How do you balance and justify life experiences such as moving out versus simply optimizing finances and saving as much as possible? At what point can someone cool the brakes on saving slash investing aggressively if they have a head start?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
For example, about $120,000 in diversified investments slash retirements and a fully funded emergency fund. How can someone balance the desire for financial freedom with the potential trade-offs of missing out on life experiences or personal growth opportunities due to being overly focused on saving and investing?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Car Prices, Tariffs, and Trade-Offs: What to Know Before You Buy or Move Out
And we know that many folks listening might be feeling nervous seeing how the stock market has behaved over the last week. Many might be wondering what this means for their retirement or if they should change their investment strategy. I know this can all feel really confusing or scary, and I want to take a moment to acknowledge that those feelings are valid.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
So last year, we talked about the IRS's free tax filing program. Bella, what's the current status of that? Is it still intact after the slicing and dicing of the federal government that we've seen over the past several weeks?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Bella, we often talk about the importance of filing your taxes early. Can you give our listeners, especially the procrastinators out there, a couple of big reasons to file before April 15th?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
This episode, we're talking about, dun, dun, dun, taxes. We've got a lightning round of your tax questions as we approach the sure signs of spring, tulips, cherry blossoms, and the IRS deadline. But first, our weekly money news roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
So Bella, can you explain what might be happening with Diana's situation and how reinvested dividends might make someone's income above the limit to contribute to a Roth IRA?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Yeah, that's a little thing called phantom income. The IRS considers you to have received this income, even though you never saw the cash hit your bank account. So the income is there, but it's also kind of not there like a phantom. So Bella, how can folks like Diana contribute to a Roth IRA if that's their goal, even if their income might push them past the limits?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Bella, any other words of wisdom for folks as they embark on tax season 2025?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Thank you. And Bella, Elizabeth, I have one last question for you. Have you guys filed your taxes yet?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
I'll take that as a no. Okay. Well, I'm happy to brag and say that I have filed my taxes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Thank you. I try to set a good example for everyone. Well, Bella, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your insights with us.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
It was. And it was by and large a reaction to the implementation of tariffs on Canada and Mexico and their retaliatory tariffs. Our news colleague, Anna Hilhoski, is here with more. Hey, Anna.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
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NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
And thank you, Anna.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
You know, Elizabeth, I actually just checked my 401 balance and it is certainly lower than it was a couple of days ago. But I'm trying to do a little bit of exposure therapy and practice what I preach, realize that the markets go up and down and don't make rash decisions based on what's happening from one day to the next.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Maybe you need some help planning the best way to use your credit card points as you book your spring and summer travel. Or you're trying to figure out whether you should revisit your investment risk tolerance. Whatever your question, leave us a voicemail or text us on the Nerd Hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy. The Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
And if the pavement disappears? No problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode, we're taking on a number of questions about tax season 2025 in a lightning round.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
So Bella, let's start with the basics, the who, what, where, and when of tax season 2025, as in when do people need to make sure they get their taxes in?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
Well, June, thanks for going deep into the weeds with us this episode. Do you have any parting thoughts for Vicky or others who are trying to sort out different accounts and investment options for their retirement?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
All right. Well, Jun Xiao, thank you so much for joining us on Smart Money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
And that's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
You can follow Smart Money on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
We are back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode's question comes from Vicky, who left us a voicemail.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
Hey, June. So I want to start by laying the groundwork for the conversation. Our listener, Vicky, has a 401k. It happens to be maintained by an insurance company. And Vicky isn't too happy with the plan and is wondering whether it's worth investing in at all. To start, I'm betting that some folks might not realize that a 401k can actually be managed by an insurance company.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
And it's not as sketchy as it might sound. So June, can you describe the role an insurance company might play in managing a 401k and whether it's any different from another kind of financial institution like an investment company overseeing such an account?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
Our listener is considering not investing in their 401k at all, given that they don't get a match and they aren't wild about the investment options in the account. But there are still some serious advantages of investing for retirement in a 401k versus a regular taxable brokerage account. Can you lay those out for us?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
I want to talk more about specific investment options that are available in retirement accounts because different accounts can have very different options and costs. In preparing for this conversation, I logged into my 401k account and saw that I have access to over 20 different funds to invest in.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
And I'm currently invested in a target date fund that will change my investments over time to become less aggressive the closer I get to retirement. And the expense ratio, which is basically the administrative fee for the account, is is .08%, which is pretty low.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
Then I logged into my robo-advisor Roth IRA, which automatically determines my investments, and saw that the expense ratio is .25%, which is a lot higher than .08 and can add up to a difference of thousands of dollars over the years.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
401(k) vs. Brokerage Account: Which Is Better for Retirement Savings? Plus, the National Debt Explained
June, would you say that investment options and fees are the two main things that people should weigh as they compare retirement investment options, or what else do you think people should consider?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Elizabeth, are you ready to keep it real? Like, really real? So real that people might be shocked by what you're saying?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Although I tend to veer toward thinking that debt is neither good nor bad in moderation. It is a tool to be deployed carefully. And I'd like to hear how you guys have negotiated your feelings around debt, because Andrew, it seems like you've kind of come around to thinking that debt is less bad in general than you thought in the past. Is that right?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Yeah, it's essentially a financial buffer. But you wrote to us about how you will soon have some new wiggle room in your budget. Tell us more about that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
That is more than my mortgage payment, I'll say, that you have in your budget to work with. So you're considering maybe the expansion on your house. What are the other priorities that you're weighing?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
You know, I think that's why we get along so well. Well, this episode, we're doing another round of Money Hot Takes, where we lay out the nerdy truths about money that people might not be ready to hear, but it's our job to do it anyway. So buckle up. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
How many months of savings is that for your expenses?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Well, a lot of financial planners will recommend that for households where you have two incomes like you guys, three months can be okay. But it does seem like you're pretty risk averse and you like having a lot of financial security. So in that case, you might feel safer with closer to six. Tell us a little more about your retirement savings too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
That's a great question and one that we get often. And think about what you would do in a crisis. Say, God forbid, one of you lost your job. You would make some drastic changes to your budget. You probably wouldn't be eating out as much. You might pull back on retirement savings. You would go into like shelter mode, basically.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
So you want to think about for your emergency fund, three to six months of your bare bones budget.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
50 seconds left.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
I think that's how everyone feels, unless you're a multi-multi-millionaire. And even then, I bet lots of people who have lots of money feel like they still won't have enough. So that's totally normal. You've played around with NerdWallet's retirement calculator?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Love to hear that. And for folks curious about it, we'll have a link to it in the show notes here. But as you play around with that calculator, you can see, okay, I'm planning on living on maybe 70% or 80% of my pre-retirement income in retirement. and it can give you an idea of how much you might need to save. But that is an estimate.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
We don't really know what the future holds, how the stock market might perform, but this is why it's really helpful, like you were talking about earlier, with doing some financial planning.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
I would recommend, just for retirement planning specifically, partnering with a certified financial planner professional who can run what's called a Monte Carlo simulation, and they can basically run all these different variations of your current financial plan
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
and factor in, okay, the stock market crashes, or it does really well, or one of you stops working, any number of changes, and it can give you a percentage of how likely you are to hit that financial goal and have enough in retirement. It seems like you want a clear percentage of how on track you are and what your chances are of having the retirement that you're envisioning. Is that right?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
And I think once you have that shared vision in mind of what you want your retirement to be like, you can almost walk backwards into that and think, how can we allocate the $1,400 that we're going to have each month now to get what we want? Having an addition on your house can be great in the short and medium term just for quality of life, especially as your son grows up.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
But then longer term, it could make your house more valuable. Also, putting more into your kids' 529 could make it so that they have less debt later on or you don't have to take out as much debt for them when they hit college age.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
So like Elizabeth mentioned earlier, there are a lot of ways that you can deploy this money simultaneously to achieve the vision that you want one month, one day at a time.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Okay, that's 100 seconds. Do you have any more you want to say?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Well, 529s are great because they are very flexible for higher education. You can also use them for things like trade school or even high school if needed, if you're putting them toward the right expenses.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
But if you want to fund something like a gap year, an account like a taxable brokerage account might be the more flexible way to go because you don't have all these restrictions around what you can use the funds in it for. So that would probably be something to look into as well. Have you considered opening one of those for your son?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Well, we have tons of roundups on the NerdWallet website. So check those out. You can, again, even think about putting some of that money that you have each month into one of those. I do want to remind you that I'm not telling you exactly what to do with your money. You know, I'm a CFP, but I'm not your CFP. But these are just things to think about.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
You have a lot of money at your disposal right now. And a 529 is one way you can build savings for him. But again, that taxable brokerage can give you a lot of flexibility too. Naomi, Andrew, we've run through a lot of different ways to meet different goals, different ways to think about your values and your priorities.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
How are you two thinking about the money that you'll have at hand on a monthly basis pretty soon and how you might deploy that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Yeah. And you guys are thinking about this and talking about this at a great time. You have a few weeks before you're going to see any of this money. So take the time to have these conversations to dream a little bit. Maybe even map out how your budget might look if you put a certain amount toward this goal and a certain amount toward another goal.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
And then try mixing up those numbers a bit and see where you might be five, ten years down the road if you allocate a certain amount toward different goals over time. That might help you see how you can get to where you want to be in really concrete terms too.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Well, Naomi, Andrew, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story and talking with us.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Yeah, thanks, Sean. Thanks, Elizabeth. And that is all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdballot.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
There you go. A little over 100 seconds, but I think well worth the extra time because that is a really important point. So many people, especially on social media, are consumed with this hustle culture mentality and think that you have to be working constantly to become a millionaire. And first of all, becoming a millionaire can provide great financial security, but it's not everything in life.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
You know what's also great to do in your life? Enjoy hobbies, spend time with friends, not be working constantly. And I worry sometimes about this mentality that you have to have a business. You have to be constantly working. Otherwise, you're doing something wrong. So thank you for laying all that out.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
I love it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
All right.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
My money hot take is that Roth IRAs are way overrated. But Sean, you're thinking, you guys always talk about the benefits of Roth IRAs. What do you mean they're overrated? Well, let me explain.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Sure, Roth IRAs can give you a tax-free pot of money in retirement because you fund them with after-tax dollars, and you may be able to use the funds for certain reasons before retirement without taxes or penalties. But guess what? Roth IRAs have some serious limitations, and there is likely a better alternative right in front of you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Starting with the funding limitations, the maximum that folks under 50 can contribute to an IRA, traditional or Roth, is just $7,000 in 2025. And if you're over 50, you can contribute a measly $1,000 more. For many people, that is just not going to be enough to save annually to fully fund their retirement. Then there are the income limits.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Oh, God. Okay. You can't contribute the full amount to a Roth IRA if you earn over $150,000 as a single filer or $236,000 for married filing jointly. And people will counter that if you earn over the income limit, you can just do a backdoor Roth. Sure, that's an option. But guess what?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
There is a way you can contribute Roth dollars to a retirement account without an income limit, a much higher contribution limit, and without the hassle of doing a backdoor conversion. I'm, of course, talking about a Roth 401k. which I'm here to say is the superior way to contribute post-tax dollars to a retirement account and have a tax-free pot of money in retirement.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Many employers offer these now, and they allow you to contribute much more to a Roth account. It shares the limit with your regular 401k, so you could contribute at least $23,500 this year, depending on your age. And again, earning too much won't limit whether you can contribute. Ding, ding, ding! Oh no, I'm not even close to done yet. Elizabeth, please give me a few more seconds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
So you might also be eligible for matching contributions from your employer, which makes it even easier to save for retirement with a Roth 401k. So do Roth 401ks allow you to take out your contributions before retirement penalty-free like a Roth IRA? No. Do they let you pull out up to $10,000 for a first-time home purchase like a Roth IRA? Also no. But guess what?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Pulling from retirement accounts can jeopardize your retirement savings anyway. And also, you only have to be 55 to begin withdrawing from your employer's 401k upon retirement without penalties compared to the standard withdrawal age of 59 and a half from an IRA. There you have it. Roth IRAs are clearly way overrated. That was a marathon.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
That was a marathon, but it was a sprint and a marathon at one time.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Thank you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
I'm glad you mentioned the potential limits of 401ks because you're right. You are kind of up to your employer's retirement savings. Thank you so much for having me. But I do realize that not everyone is as spoiled as we are here at NerdWallet. So you definitely want to compare your options and shop around. This is not a one size fits all situation.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
But first, you heard us up top. It's time for another round of Money Hot Takes. If you are new here, this is how it works. Elizabeth and I have 100 seconds on the clock to rail against something in the personal finance space that we are annoyed by or simply don't like.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
You're completely right, Elizabeth. Relying on access to a 401k or a similar account like a 403b Through an employer to have a reasonable chance at saving for retirement is, shall we say, a massive problem in our society. And that might actually just be a topic for another round of Hot Takes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Now here's me getting the last word on your last word. You're only able to withdraw your contributions. The earnings can be taxed and face penalties if you withdraw those before 59 and a half. So downsides, trade-offs in every direction.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Thank you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
But before we get into that, we are at the part of the show where we ask you to take a second and think about where you need some guidance with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
And a reminder that one of our goals on Smart Money this year is to talk with more of you live on the podcast to help you with your money questions. So if you want to hang out with Elizabeth and me for a bit and get some nerdy wisdom, let us know. One more time, leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
because there's a lot of misinformation or just misguided stuff that happens around money, and it's our solemn, nerdy duty to impose our perspective on listeners every so often. Elizabeth, this is your very first Money Hot Take segment, so you have the honor of going first. Are you ready?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Naomi, Andrew, welcome to Smart Money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
So to start, I'd love to hear a little bit about what your financial life is like right now. Where do you two feel confident? Where do you think there's maybe some room for improvement?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Tell us more about that. How do you align on your values and priorities? Because that can be a challenging thing for couples.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Okay, okay. I'm setting my timer to 100 seconds. Three, two, one, go.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
I love hearing how aligned you are. It's really refreshing. And the idea of you guys having a weekend to talk about your values sounds weirdly romantic in a very nerdy way. So you mentioned that you had these five values. Generosity is one of them. What are the other ones?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
I love that. You guys are manifesting this so much. Where did these words come from?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Build Wealth Right Now and How Couples Can Align on Financial Goals
Yeah, well, good debt is debt that often helps you build wealth long-term. A lot of people think of student loans as a good debt. Bad debt can prevent you from... achieving your financial goals. Often that's high interest credit card debt. So based on these pretty simple parameters, it does seem like you guys have good debt.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
Got it. So essentially, a broker makes shopping around for a mortgage much easier than doing it on your own, which I know from personal experience can take a long time to do. So beyond saving time, brokers can also save people money. How much money are we talking? So there was a study done.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
Hey, Elizabeth and Kate, it is me, Sean. I'm sorry I can't join you for this conversation, but I have some questions about home selling this year. I'm planning to sell my house in just a couple months, and I'm wondering about the best way to do it. I'm probably going to hire a realtor, but I'm wondering what I should be considering as I shop around for an agent.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
Also, how could the recent change in realtor commissions impact how much I might pay to work with a realtor? And is there anything else unique about selling a house in 2025 that I should be aware of? I'm trying to sell my house quickly, but not pay too much in fees. And I've also never done this before. So that's why I'm turning to you, my dear nerds. Thank you so much.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
I can't wait to listen to your answer.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
And so is it basically that borrowers might be able to get a lower interest rate or where exactly is that $10,000 coming from?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
I'm wondering also if there are certain types of shoppers who might especially benefit from working with a broker or certain times when a broker might be really advantageous. And also on the flip side, when people might not need a broker.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
And sadly, I'm not there for that conversation, but spoiler alert, I may make a special cameo, and you'll just have to listen to find out what that means exactly. But first, we're going deep into the nuts and bolts of shopping around for a mortgage, including how to get the best rates and what to look for in a broker or lender.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
Well, I bought my house in 2021 and was still spending a lot of time holed up in my house due to the pandemic. So I had plenty of time to shop around and compare lenders and naturally build out a very elaborate spreadsheet with all of my options.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
And then on the consumer side of things, how can folks put themselves in the best position to get the lowest rates before working with a broker or even shopping for a loan on their own?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
And joining us in this conversation is Jonathan Haddad, president of Nextdoor Lending, a mortgage broker and wholly owned subsidiary of NerdWallet. Jonathan, welcome to Smart Money. Thank you for having me today, Sean.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
It's great to hear that folks do have options because to me, it seems like getting a credit score of 760 or higher is is maybe more attainable than a 40% down payment. I know I certainly didn't have enough money for that when I bought my house, but I did work hard over time to get that higher credit score, and a lot of folks can do that without spending much money at all.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
Well, Jonathan Haddad of Nextdoor Lending, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your insights.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
But before we get into that, we are at one of my favorite parts of the show, the part where we ask you, listener, to take a second and think about where you need some guidance with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Broker to Budget: How to Buy or Sell a Home in 2025
And a reminder that one of our goals on Smart Money this year is to talk with more of you live on the podcast to help you with your money questions. So if you want to hang out with Elizabeth and me for a bit and get some nerdy wisdom, let us know. One more time, leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
That's so interesting.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
That makes me think about how people often forget that one of the goals of investing is to buy low and then sell when it gets high. That second part, people just think they want to hold on to it forever. But no, at a certain point, you want to cash it in.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Johans Harrison, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Sean. Elizabeth, it was wonderful to be here. All right, we're about to get into this episode's money question segment where we answer a listener's question about what kinds of returns they can expect from their investments.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Maybe you're wondering how to shake other behavioral biases that are leading you to make bad financial decisions. Or you're in the middle of planning a vacation and want some help maximizing your points game. Whatever your money question, we nerds are here to help. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
But first, I want to share an exciting update. Longtime listeners have heard Elizabeth join me on the podcast many times over the past few years, but I'm thrilled to announce that she is officially moving into a new role as my full-time co-host on Smart Money. For folks wondering, we will still have Sarah Rathner join us on the pod occasionally too. But hey, Elizabeth, welcome to the hosting seat.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
All right, let's get to this episode's money question segment. That is up next. Stay with us. Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy, the Range Rover Sport.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power. On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced, so every turn feels effortless. And if the pavement disappears, no problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments, so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com. Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
To help us answer Mary's question on this episode of the podcast, we are joined by investing nerd Sam Taub. Sam, welcome back to Smart Money. Good to be back.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
So in Mary's case, after about seven years, their $1,000 grew to $2,000. And I'm assuming that's with no additional investments. And that growth amounts to a return of about 10%, which isn't too shabby. Can you put this in context for us, Sam?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
And folks might have noticed that we also have a pretty snazzy new logo for Smart Money. We're always learning and growing here at Smart Money. And sometimes that means getting a fresh co-host, getting a fresh logo and mixing things up.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Although we should say that even though you are potentially investing in a riskier fund, that doesn't mean that you're guaranteed better returns, right?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
So Sam, underlying any conversation about risk and return and investments is the question of goals. I'm wondering, what is Mary investing for? When do they need this money? How do you see questions like this playing into Mary's question about what kinds of returns they should expect and what they're invested in?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
All right. And we'll have a link to that in the show notes. Well, Sam, thank you again for coming on and talking with us. Of course. Thanks for having me. And that's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Yes, hopefully a positive one. All right, well, let's get on with the show. To start things off, we are talking about some of the behavioral biases that can get in the way of a good investing strategy. And these are biases that anyone can exhibit regardless of their experience.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. You can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Joining us to talk about this is Johannes Harrison, a behavioral financial advisor and founder of MoneyScript Wealth Management. Johannes, welcome to Smart Money. Thank you. Good to be here, Sean. Elizabeth, congratulations.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
So let's start with a little behavioral finance 101. In essence, behavioral finance is an economic theory that describes how people make decisions about their money based on emotions or psychology rather than acting in a purely rational way. So can you give us a couple of examples of what that looks like?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Unlike other wearables, Amazfit goes beyond basic fitness tracking. It has specialized modes like High Rocks Race Mode, Smart Strength Training, and even Free Diving, built for both everyday users and elite athletes. And with AI-driven coaching, it adapts to your workouts, tracks recovery, and helps you train smarter.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
Because you expected it to be more expensive, so all of a sudden, because of basically a trick of marketing, you think you're getting a fantastic deal on this new home.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
So I want to turn and chat a bit about recency bias. You mentioned that before. Can you define that for us?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
And what you've just described is why a lot of financial advisors will often recommend that you don't invest money that you will need within five years so that it has enough time to grow and weather ups and downs. Because over the long term, the market has gone up historically, but you want to have enough of a time cushion so you can get that long term growth.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
But Johans, a lot of people now treat investing like a game on their iPhone because for a lot of folks, that's what it has really become for them through certain apps that they're using.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's Amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney. Sometimes your brain can be your own worst enemy when it comes to making progress on your financial goals.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
These kinds of biases seem to be a part of who we are as people. They're really kind of ingrained into our humanity. So I'm wondering how you think people can become more aware of their behavioral biases and maybe actually tried to counter them to minimize any sort of financial losses.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
I'm wondering if you could talk about the role that robo-advisors can play in keeping us from making these kinds of decisions and sometimes mistakes, because algorithms don't have recency bias, right? Although they may have other biases.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
This episode will help you overcome at least one self-imposed roadblock so you can make smarter money moves. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Behavioral Finance Mistakes That Hurt Your Portfolio and What “Good” Returns Look Like
But to your point earlier, you have followed and established a plan. You know what your client's risk tolerance is, what their time horizon is, and you can tune out the rest of the noise in the meantime, as long as you're making regular progress based on your own parameters.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Money can be confusing. Should you invest in ETFs, get a travel rewards credit card, buy a house, or just build a really fancy pillow fort?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
I'm Sean Piles, a certified financial planner professional.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Our nerds do the research so you don't have to. We'll help you understand your options so you can make the best decision for your situation, from optimizing your investments and maximizing credit card rewards to making big money moves with confidence.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Whether you're planning for retirement, weighing a big purchase, or just want to make your money work harder for you, we've got insights that you can use in real life.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Trust us, future you will thank you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com. Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. Answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode, we're joined by Jeremy, a talent agent living in New York City who's wondering about his financial blind spots.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Kim, need I remind you that I am a certified financial planner professional and I do not have any financial blind spots. Just kidding. I certainly have financial blind spots. I think everyone does, really.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. So Jeremy, before we get into the conversation, I want to remind you that everything we are about to discuss is just for educational purposes and is not individual financial advice. Make sense? Absolutely. Perfect. So to start, can you give us a high level overview of your finances ranging from like savings to debt to investing?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
How are you doing?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Oh, of course, of course.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
I like that analog approach. So on paper, quite literally, it seems like you're doing all of the right things financially, but you seem to have this nagging feeling that something is missing. Tell us about that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
But first, we are tackling a question that each of us faces every day. How can we be better at spending our money? Kim, in her role as the host of our regular book club series, is here to guide the conversation. So Kim, who are you talking with?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
And it's almost like you don't know what you might be missing. That's kind of the question mark. Exactly.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Yeah, I would encourage you to play with that. We have a great retirement calculator on NerdWallet's website, so that's a pretty handy thing to pull up. Just Google like NerdWallet retirement calculator.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Okay. And can I ask what your salary is?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
I guess annual income, yeah.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
So one common benchmark that's put out and Fidelity recommends this, which is to save at least one times your salary by age 30 and then three times by age 40. And it just grows exponentially as you get closer to retirement. And that's in part because of your compound interest and your continued contributions to retirement accounts.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
So based on that, you're doing well in terms of saving for retirement. You're not quite at that 100% mark, but having $100,000 between two retirement accounts, a little north of that actually, is really solid for anyone in general, but especially for someone who's just 31 years old. So pat yourself on the back for that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
And that's especially impressive considering that you don't have access to a 401k right now. I will take that compliment. Thank you. Yeah, of course. But yet you still have this nagging feeling of, okay, what's going on? Where am I missing? Where can I improve things? And I think with that in mind, it might be helpful to zoom out and talk about what your life goals are.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Like, do you know what you want to do with the rest of your life? Do you want to travel? Do you want to retire early? Maybe increase your charitable giving? Yeah.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Do you have an age in mind where you think, okay, maybe when I'm 55, I'll want to step away from nine to five work?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Sounds great. We also want to remind listeners that you can enter for a chance to win our book giveaway at nerdwallet.com slash book club for our next book club pick. And with that, take it away, Kim.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Well, that's helpful to know too. So 58 might sound like an arbitrary number, and it may well be, and that's fine. But I would encourage you when you play with a retirement calculator to put in that number of years that you have until 58, and then how many years you might need to be living off of your savings afterward.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Because obviously, if you're retiring earlier, you'll have to have a larger nest egg to fund those post-retirement years, even if you are still working somewhat. Yeah, absolutely.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Another thing that I think you might want to consider as you decide or mull over what your goals are and what you might want to do with your finances and how you can shore up your financial life is the question of like, what do I want to do? Which we kind of talked about. And then also to your point earlier, where am I vulnerable?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
So that can provide an opportunity for introspection and evaluation of how you can shore up your finances. And on the subject of being vulnerable or preventing vulnerability, insurance comes to mind for me. Have you looked into life insurance or disability insurance?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
I mentioned disability insurance because it's something a lot of people overlook. And the chances of becoming disabled before normal retirement age is 25%, at least according to the latest information from the Social Security Administration. And that's for those who were born in the year 2000. But that 25% number has been pretty steady for a number of years.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
So a lot of people may not realize that they actually have disability insurance through their workplace. Evaluate your benefits. You may currently have this coverage. But if not, it's worth doing some research and looking into a policy because I don't know about you, I'm pretty risk averse.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
And hearing that I have a 25% chance of not being able to work or potentially earn an income through my job makes me a little bit nervous. And I try to do what I can to prevent that risk from happening.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Another area I wanted to touch on kind of quickly, because it does go back to the idea of security that you seem pretty focused on too, is estate planning. Have you talked with your partner and your family around estate planning and set up anything like a will?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Well, it's something that I suggest everyone look into regardless of their age is making a will or at the very least having your beneficiary designations set up on your financial accounts and double checking that they currently reflect who you would want the assets in those accounts to go to upon your death.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Because doing that helps ensure that your finances and other property are managed according to your wishes. And it also makes the lives of your loved ones a little easier during a really difficult time if you were to pass away, knock on wood. And, you know, it seems like you've done a really great job of building a strong financial foundation.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
So setting up a will can help ensure that your assets go where you want them to and that your loved ones are supported. Yeah, that's a really great point. And I'm going to stop harping on estate documents in a second, but there's one last one that I want to talk about because you are living with your partner. You're not married. Correct.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
The last thing I want to mention is a living will, which is a legal document that directs the kind of medical treatment that you would or would not want to get in the event that you're incapacitated. And you can also direct a medical power of attorney that could be your partner who could help execute this stuff.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
that way you can ensure that if something does happen where you or your partner has something happen medically that you will be there for each other and you can help get the care that you want and not get the care that you don't want it's pretty important you probably want to talk to an attorney to get this sorted out but i think given where you are with your assets and the savings that you have it'd be well worth the money you would spend doing this yeah absolutely
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
You said that you feel inhibited by money. What do you mean by that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Unlike other wearables, Amazfit goes beyond basic fitness tracking. It has specialized modes like High Rocks Race Mode, Smart Strength Training, and even Free Diving, built for both everyday users and elite athletes. And with AI-driven coaching, it adapts to your workouts, tracks recovery, and helps you train smarter.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Well, Jeremy, we've covered a lot of ground over the past however many minutes we've been chatting here. I'm wondering if you have any other questions or thoughts for us based on what we've discussed.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Elizabeth, do you want to dive in? You were an investing writer for many years.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
This is all very helpful. Thank you. And Jeremy, you mentioned a robo-advisor account. That's essentially a type of taxable brokerage account where your investment allocations are automatically sorted based on your specific goals and perhaps the type of account or investments that are within the account. So it's not that different from a taxable brokerage account.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Upon selling the assets in that account to get your money out, it would be taxed at either short-term or long-term capital gains basis, depending on how long you held the investments for. Well, Jeremy, I hope this has been helpful and given you some things to think about and maybe consider on an existential and financial level what you might want to do with your money in your life.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
We're happy to do it. That's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's Amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney. The buy button is one of the greatest inventions of our time. Also, one of the worst.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
So let's get some advice for managing that spending and feeling good about making a budget. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Great conversation, Kim. Thanks so much for doing that. We've got more on the way, but here's the part where we ask you to take a second and think about where you need some guidance with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
And a reminder that one of our goals on Smart Money this year is to talk with more of you live on the podcast to help you with your money questions. So if you want to hang out with us for a bit and get some nerdy wisdom, let us know. One more time, leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
All right, let's get to this episode's money question segment. That's up next. Stay with us. We're back and today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy, the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power. On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced so every turn feels effortless. And if the pavement disappears? No problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
And as we'll discuss, there can be some serious and complicated tax implications.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
That's a good suggestion because the amount that you convert is considered part of your gross income for the year that you do the conversion. And the tax implications of a Roth conversion are a good reason to pause before making this decision. You want to make sure that you have enough cash to cover that tax bill.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
And you generally can't use the money from your IRA to pay what you owe in taxes without facing a penalty unless you're over 59 and a half.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Well, if you didn't gather from the name ProRata, it's a little complicated, but I will try to describe this as simply as I can. So here's how it works. Say you want to convert money from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. It's usually pretty straightforward, Sam, as you laid out earlier. You generally pay income tax on the amount that you convert.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
But things can get complicated when you have multiple traditional IRAs or one account where you have a mix of pre- and post-tax contributions. So let me give you an example to bring this to life a little bit. Say you have $75,000 in one traditional IRA where you took the tax deduction, which effectively makes the money in the account pre-tax.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
and $25,000 in another traditional IRA where you haven't taken the deduction, for a total of $100,000 across two traditional IRAs. With a simple backdoor strategy, you could move the $25,000, which you already pay taxes on, into that Roth IRA without taxes. But because you have multiple traditional IRAs, some with pre-tax and some with post-tax funds, the IRS says, not so fast.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
When you go to convert the money from that second IRA, the IRS looks at the total amount you have in all of your IRAs and will assess a proportional tax on the amount that is pre-tax. Because here's the thing, pro rata is Latin for proportional. So with the example we've been going with, the IRS sees that 75% of the money in your IRA is pre-tax and 25% is post-tax.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
This means that if you went to convert that $25,000 that was in the account that had entirely post-tax contributions, you'd still likely be on the hook for taxes on up to 75% of it because the IRS is looking at your total IRA amounts, 75% of which was pre-tax.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
But first, let's explore the rapidly evolving and sometimes intimidating world of AI and whether it's a good idea to use it to help you manage your finances.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Well, one is to keep your accounts or contributions simple. You could make sure that you only have pre-tax or only have after-tax contributions in your IRA account or accounts. Another option is to avoid Roth IRAs entirely and instead contribute to a Roth 401k if your employer offers it. I'm personally a big fan of the Roth 401k route.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
They allow you to contribute directly to a Roth account without having to deal with any of the IRA accounts or their income limits. I find that much easier.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Great. Sam, thank you so much for coming on and chatting about this with us.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Thanks for having me. That's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
You can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
I guess I'm in that minority of 38% of millennials not using AI, but maybe by the end of this conversation, I'll be converted. Elizabeth, before you go too deep into AI stuff, I want to be really clear. What do you mean by using AI to manage finances? Because AI is really broad and so many financial tools can fall under the category of AI.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Unlike other wearables, Amazfit goes beyond basic fitness tracking. It has specialized modes like High Rocks Race Mode, Smart Strength Training, and even Free Diving, built for both everyday users and elite athletes. And with AI-driven coaching, it adapts to your workouts, tracks recovery, and helps you train smarter.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Yeah, and a lot of companies are just saying they have AI elements to be with the trend right now, even if it's not a super advanced product. So it sounds like various forms of AI can be deployed to manage different aspects of your personal finances.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Okay, Elizabeth, can you share three or four ways that people can use AI to manage their finances today?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Let's start with budgeting there, since that's a pillar of personal finance. Off the top of my head, I think chat GPT or generative AI in general could be used to help you create a budget plan. What do you think about that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
I'm certainly not, but I try to stay up on what's happening in the world.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
And I imagine that AI tools might also be helpful for analyzing spending habits, maybe looking for areas of improvement in your budget and providing recommendations for how to spend less money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Elizabeth. In general, one of the roadblocks for people when it comes to accomplishing financial goals is just inertia. It can be really hard to get going for any number of reasons. So if you want to incorporate AI into your budgeting practice, think about what application of AI might make you more likely to accomplish what you want to do with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
That might mean using AI-powered budgeting apps to organize your spending or having a conversation with ChatGPT to help you find ways to stay motivated as you make progress on your financial goals. Let's move on to using AI for financial education. Elizabeth, how can folks do that and is it going to put us out of a job?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Yeah, I get that in theory, but here's where my curmudgeonly Luddite tendencies are going to come out. One of my biggest qualms with AI models is that they have a track record of just making stuff up and giving people inaccurate information. So I think if folks want to learn more about a subject, AI can be a good jumping off point.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
But then I would recommend going to a more trusted source like NerdWallet to ensure that you're getting accurate information.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
I'm just looking out for our listeners, okay?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
So we have covered budgeting and financial education. Let's touch on the last use, investing research.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's Amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney. Hey Elizabeth, what's the last thing that you used AI to do?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
And I just want to throw it out there that I think people should be cautious when it comes to using AI to tell them what stocks to pick or for personalized investment advice, and also that people should be aware of algorithmic bias when using AI-powered investment tools.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Algorithmic bias is when machine learning algorithms make decisions that systematically disadvantage certain groups due to flaws in the data it was fed or trained on. Remember, these tools are using data that they've been trained with, as you mentioned earlier, Elizabeth.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
It's possible that data may favor certain companies or sectors, so folks should just keep that in mind when they use these tools.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
And I think the sum of it is that AI can provide perspective, but it shouldn't be the only source that you use to make investment decisions. On that note, Elizabeth, are you telling me that I shouldn't ditch my financial advisor for an AI tool quite yet?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Well, until an AI model can make my dinner for me, I think I'm going to stick to my barefoot Contessa cookbooks to figure out what I'm having for dinner.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
But quickly, before we get into that, we are at one of my favorite parts of the show, the moment where we ask you, listener, to take a second and think about where you need some guidance with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
And a reminder that one of our goals on Smart Money this year is to talk with more of you live on the podcast to help you with your money questions. So if you want to hang out with Elizabeth and me for a bit and get some nerdy wisdom, let us know. One more time, leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy — the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced, so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
And if the pavement disappears? No problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments, so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode, we're taking on a couple listener questions about Roths, specifically backdoor Roths and Roth conversions. And here to help us answer them is investing nerd and friend of the pod, Sam Taub. Hey, Sam. Hey, Sean and Elizabeth.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Good to be back.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
So, Roth conversions are a pretty hot topic nowadays, and for good reason. They can save folks taxes later, but the kicker is that they'll generally have to pay some taxes now. Sam, to start, can you describe quickly how a Roth conversion works?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
Wow, those all sound like really useful applications. I'll admit that I'm not an AI power user, largely because I worry about its environmental impact, but maybe one day I'll use it to plan my life. This episode will give folks a few tips for how they can use AI to help them manage their money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Can AI Really Manage Your Money? Plus: The Truth About Roth Conversions
I also want to add that while having the tax diversification that Roths can provide can be really appealing and beneficial in retirement, conversions aren't a great idea for everyone. Among other factors, they generally do make sense if your current tax rate is lower than the tax rate that you think you'll have in the future, which requires a bit of guessing there.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Wow. Well, I got to say, those make me glad that I'm not in the dating pool. Well, for some people, the amount of debt that you carry might just turn them away from dating you. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
From what you mentioned earlier, Tenzin, it sounds like it's really just been in the past decade or so that you and your wife have begun to seriously save for retirement. Is that correct?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
When would you like to retire? Do you have a year or an age or some other sort of milestone in mind where you think, okay, this is when we're going to flip the switch and retire?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Tractor here. I've not heard that term before.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
That could be a retirement project for you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
so maybe retiring in air quotes looks more like continuing to farm but sort of changing how much income we're expecting the farm to generate and how much passion project it can support right well i think that would make sense considering that it seems like you and your wife may not have a huge nest egg saved up for retirement but you do have this great asset that's making money this farm
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
and you have workers who are passionate and care about what you're doing and its impact in the community. So what you might want to look into is a shared ownership model that might be a way for you to slowly transition ownership over time. You also might want to consider some kind of business arrangement where you are really just minimally involved in the company but can drive in
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
This episode, we talk with a listener to help them figure out what their retirement might look like, including whether they should leave the farm that they built their life around.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
come from it, like an LLC that's managed like a partnership could be a good option here. But one thing I'm going to recommend is that you connect with a certified financial planner who has specific experience in managing businesses and transitioning owners from active management to maybe a less active role or even selling a business.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Perfect. This is really important to do right now because if you have a good certified financial planner who understands your position, they can serve as sort of the quarterback or the coach of your financial team where they are directing your tax pro and maybe they can connect you with an estate planning attorney.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
They can really help you connect the dots and get a comprehensive plan so you can get what you want from your money and have the retirement that you and your wife want so you can focus on those passions that you mentioned earlier.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Yes, there's a lot out there. But one thing I want to go back to is what you imagine your retirement to be. So when you and your wife are having these conversations, what does that look like? What are those passions that you want to spend time on? When are you going to make this amazingly successful tractor hero comic book series? What is it that drives you to have a retirement?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Well, one thing that might be helpful is for you and your wife to think about what are maybe the top two, maybe three scenarios for your retirement. Are there a couple ideas that you keep coming back to besides travel?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
All right, well, Sarah, tell us, how much debt makes someone undateable?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Part of why I really encourage you and your wife to get clear about what your goals are for retirement, what you imagine your retirement to be, is because retirement planning really has this qualitative element that I just laid out, knowing what you want your retirement to look like, whether you're going to travel a lot, stay in a specific area, move around, completely retire, semi-retire, all of these different factors.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
And then you want to turn more to the quantitative side, really knowing how much money you would need to save to live that life that you want in retirement. And this is where that CFP with succession planning and retirement planning can help you make a very specific plan for your needs and your goals.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
So then once you have an idea of how much you need to have saved, you will also want to factor in a potential stream of income from your business. And a lot of people count out Social Security, which I don't. think is maybe a little bit misguided, people will just buy into the fact that they won't have it. That can be a good conservative estimation.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
That really stood out to me in the survey. Nearly 40% of respondents said that they don't care how much debt their partner has of any kind. I found that kind of shocking because if I was dating someone and I found out they had a huge amount of debt due to discretionary spending, that would certainly make me question things.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
But I also don't want people to just assume that it won't be there for them. And then they just give up on the idea of it existing in general so that when it comes to the chopping block in Congress, people already think it's already dead.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
So I like to say consider Social Security, but try to have a plan for what your retirement savings might look like without that too, just so you can play with a few different scenarios. Well, Tenzin, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. I really appreciate it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Well, please keep us posted. And we want some photos of cats on the farm, please.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Thank you. That's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. Also, visit nerdwallet.com slash podcast for more info on this episode.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
And remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Unlike other wearables, Amazfit goes beyond basic fitness tracking. It has specialized modes like High Rocks Race Mode, Smart Strength Training, and even Free Diving, built for both everyday users and elite athletes. And with AI-driven coaching, it adapts to your workouts, tracks recovery, and helps you train smarter.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
And context is really important here too. If someone has a bunch of medical debt or student loans, I think that's easier to sympathize with because our educational and medical systems can sometimes force people into debt just to get by or to get ahead.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Yes, I sign on to that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Go figure.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
I also want to throw out there that sometimes debt can be a green flag. Like I, for one, have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with my mortgage. That's a good kind of debt that you would want to see someone have, especially if it's affordable in their budget. But the study mentioned some entertaining red flags and some green flags that people should consider in a potential partner.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Can you talk us through those, Sarah?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Not so fun.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
And this goes for all parts of a relationship beyond just money management, too. Remember that you and your partner are on the same team and do what you can to support each other.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
But before we get into that, we are at one of my favorite parts of the show, the part where we ask you to take a second and think about where you need some guidance with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
And a reminder that one of our goals on Smart Money this year is to talk with more of you live on the podcast to help you with your money questions. So if you want to hang out with Elizabeth and me for a bit and get some nerdy wisdom, let us know. One more time, leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD or email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy — the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's Amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney. Hey, Elizabeth, what's the last red flag that you saw on a guy that made you say, No, sir, this is not it. I gotta go.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced, so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
And if the pavement disappears? No problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments, so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. On this episode, we're joined by Smart Money listener Tenzin, an organic produce farmer, with some questions about how to plan their retirement and manage their business. Tenzin, welcome to Smart Money. TENZIN ZHANG Thank you. Glad to be here.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Definitely.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
So to start, Tenzin, tell us a little bit about your life personally and financially. A lot of it revolves around the farm with your wife, right?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Tenzin, I also saw on your website that you have some animals that roam around the farm. I'm imagining some idyllic scene with cats roaming around and carrots being harvested. Is that what it's like, or am I overly romanticizing it a bit?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
And do you sell in your local community or are you distributing nationally?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
I want to turn to how you and your wife have managed your money over the years. You mentioned earlier that there is some seasonality to your focus on money, much like how you have to focus seasonally on different parts of your farm. Describe that for us.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
I imagine that there's a lot of overlap between how you and your wife manage your household finances and how you're managing the finances of the farm. How have you been able to make it so that you are getting income stream in a somewhat stable way from the farm, but also not intermingling too much the business finances and your personal home finances?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Wow.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Tenzin, you and your wife are at points in your lives where you're beginning to really seriously consider what your retirement will look like. What kind of retirement planning and saving have you done so far?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Debt in the Dating World and Retirement Planning for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
I like to hear that you're working with a tax professional because that is often essential when you're managing a business. And even if you just have somewhat complex finances as a non-business owner, it can be really beneficial to have a CPA that you're working with.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
All right, Bella, Simon finds themselves in a bit of a complicated tax situation. And I should probably remind our listeners that we don't give specific tax advice, but we'll give you some nerdy wisdom to consider. So can we start by discussing high level tax rules when it comes to living and working in different states?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
From my understanding, the state you live in may tax all your income, but the state you work in generally only taxes the income earned within that state. And each state has its own rules on this stuff.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Definitely not. I sometimes have panicked thoughts about what's going to happen if I die some horrible sudden death and no one knows where any of my stuff is.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
And states don't automatically withhold taxes, right?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
The listener also mentioned not having enough to pay a tax professional. Can you lay out some options for people who can't afford to pay a tax professional? I'm wondering if going the DIY route might be a good idea here, given Simon's somewhat complicated tax situation. I do know there are free and lower cost options that taxpayers can explore.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Okay, Elizabeth, I think it's good for us to outline what types of documents we're talking about to start with. My assumption is you're referring to all financial documents, right? Like tax returns, bank statements, birth and marriage certificates.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Well, here is our last listener question, which comes from Rob, who sent us an email. Here it is. I recently discovered the NerdWallet podcast and normally keep to myself about finances, but have been emotionally overwhelmed by my tax situation and feel there may be others in my same situation.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
In short, I'm 45 years old, have three amazing teenage kids, and a wonderful wife who has been a stay-at-home mom and cancer survivor up until two years ago when she started writing for three local magazines as a 1099 employee. I work in IT sales, making around $150,000 a year.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
I've floated through a few different online tax solutions in the past, then moved to tax firms for a few years, and since my wife started as a 1099 employee, I'm frozen as to who to turn to or how we should file our taxes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't filed for two years, and I'm not sure how to best pull my family and me out of this hole we're in and could use some guidance on the best financial and possibly emotional way forward to tackle our situation. Thanks, Rob.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
So that could be a potential relief for Rob. Their situation might not be as dire as they're imagining if they don't actually owe taxes. But for people who do owe taxes, they could end up paying penalties and interest. Bella, we talked about this a bit earlier, but can you run through what this might look like?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Let's turn to the emotional side of Rob's question, because that might be the bigger hurdle to get over than filing their taxes. Sometimes people build up these financial boogeymen, whether it's saving as much as you might need for retirement or paying off a lot of debt or filing your taxes that you haven't touched in two years.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
And they get so paralyzed by that fear that they carry it with them and they become unable to do anything at all besides dwell on this. I think Rob has made some important progress by writing to us and acknowledging their issue. And really, once you get to that point, the next step is just setting aside an hour to at least start sorting this out.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
I think time blocking a single hour where you don't do anything besides working on the problem at hand can be really beneficial. And Rob might be surprised by how much progress they could accomplish in that short amount of time and also how good it will feel to take action on the stressor that's just been hanging over their head.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Bella, what are your thoughts about how someone can work through the anxiousness that's keeping them from filing their taxes?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
And we'll include a link to that in this episode's show notes. Well, Bella Avila, thank you for coming on and answering these tax questions.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
That's all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds. Guess what, listener? Smart Money is a finalist in the 2025 Webby Awards, and we need your vote to win. Go to vote.webbyawards.com, register real quick, and vote for us in the best individual podcast episode business category. It takes a minute, makes our day, and lets you say, yeah, I helped pick that winner. Voting ends April 17th.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Pretty much everything you could imagine.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
One more time, that's vote.webbyawards.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
So Elizabeth, what suggestions do you have for a better way to organize my files in their current situation, which is a mixed up mess?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Learning how to store documents also seems to be a process of learning where you shouldn't be storing them. And a big part of this is finding secure places to keep documents. What are the safest options that folks have?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
It's also important for folks to have some type of filing system so you can easily get to your financial documents. Instead of just dumping all of your documents into a single folder, maybe categorize them. So you could have one folder for health, another for bank statements, another for loans, and so on.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
If you want to be super organized, you can also arrange the document in chronological order within each folder. And that just inspired the ultimate this or that question for you, Elizabeth. Paper or digital storage?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
It's also good to have both because in some cases, like with a will, a digital copy won't suffice. So having a hard copy can save your family from a lot of confusion and anguish.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
So we know how to store documents, but how long should we keep them? I feel like it's really easy to become a document hoarder. I say speaking as someone who has a decade's worth of tax returns in my nightstand.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
So are there some rules of thumb that people can follow around when to keep and when to securely get rid of documents?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
And now what about receipts? I personally hate accumulating receipts and I tend to toss them out as quickly as I get them.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
For things like titles, deeds, insurance policies, and mortgage statements, you may want to keep those documents for as long as you have the house. And be sure to keep a copy in the cloud somewhere in case you can't get it from the city. Well, Elizabeth, let's turn to how folks should get rid of documents they don't need. What's your advice there?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Well, now that I publicly shamed myself on this podcast, I'm going to take a trip to the container store and get myself some drawers and a fireproof box to finally organize my documents.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
But before we get into that, listener, take a second and think about where you need some guidance with your money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
And I have a special request for you. I've covered scams at NerdWallet for a while now. And last year, we even did a whole series about scams that we encounter every day. So I want to hear from you about what you're seeing out there right now. Those annoying text messages from EasyPass saying that you owe a toll you never actually drove through.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Social media influencers guaranteeing returns on big investments, that random WhatsApp message from someone trying to strike up a relationship with you. Scams are everywhere, and I want to hear about what you're seeing and how you handle it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
I did. Yeah, my own dad was scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars a couple years back. And that just underlines how everyone is susceptible to scams, which is why it's so important to keep talking about them. So, listener, again, let me know your scam stories. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the Nerd Hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
I never thought I'd see the day where we'd be ready to nerd out about documents, but it is an important topic, so here we are.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
People have a week at this point, so hop to it. So to help us answer your questions on this episode of the podcast, we have NerdWallet tax writer, Bella Avila. Bella, welcome back to Smart Money.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
And as we mentioned earlier, the deadline is coming up fast, April 15th. You need to file your taxes by then or request an extension. But note that an extension does not give you more time to pay your taxes. With that in mind, let's answer the first question from our listeners so folks can get busy filing if they haven't already. This comes from Laurel B., who sent us an email. Here it is.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
Okay, well, this is where I confess that my document management is one of my biggest financial and adult blind spots. I'm embarrassed to admit that I have been keeping my documents in my nightstand for many years now, all mixed up with books I've been meaning to read and old headphones and whatever else accumulates in there. And let me tell you, it is not a good look for a CFP.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
I just found out that I owe $2,300 in taxes that I wasn't prepared for. I made $10,000 more last year and I did withhold extra for my paycheck, but not enough. When I got a raise, I didn't immediately think to change my tax withholding. My question is, do I pay out of my emergency fund and set myself back in savings? Or is there some kind of no interest payment plan for taxes?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
I will definitely work with my tax person to figure out how much I need to withhold going into next year.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
I'm wondering how much Laurel has in their emergency fund, because a surprise... $2,300 bill could well qualify as an emergency, but that said, they could opt for a payment plan and hold on to their cash, which isn't necessarily a bad idea. But it sounds like the listener needs to decide whether it's worth paying any interest and penalties.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Last-Minute Tax Questions Answered and Tips for Keeping Your Financial Documents Safe
For listeners who may not know, the first-time penalty abatement allows some taxpayers to remove a penalty from their record or get a refund for one they already paid. With penalty relief for reasonable cause, if you can prove you tried to pay your tax bill but couldn't because of a major life event like a house fire or a death in your immediate family, for instance, you might get relief.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Today's episode is sponsored by Amazfit. I've been wearing the Amazfit Active 2, and it's basically like having a personal assistant for my health. Except it doesn't judge me for hitting snooze three times. It's also a game changer for fitness. It combines AI-driven coaching, smart tracking, and premium features without the premium price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And do you think you'll still have roommates? Do you think you'll still be in Jersey? What do you imagine your life to be?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
But that's not everything, you know. Sometimes it's worth moving to a new place, even if it's a little more expensive, so you can get different life experiences and see what opportunities there are.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Well, you wrote to us about your debt and how you're trying to balance your payoff of your debt with your emergency savings and maybe investing. So talk with us about the debts that you have currently.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
That's exciting.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Cars are so expensive.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
What's your interest rate on that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
But first, we're going to talk about a few ways that you can prepare for uncertain, unprecedented, possibly unstable times. Whatever un-word you want to use, it can feel like we're facing it right now. And we've been hearing from listeners with concerns about how they can prepare for any unforeseen unpleasantness.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
So you took out a personal loan separately in anticipation of buying this car, and then the dealer said, no, no, no, you have to take our financing.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
In the future, I might walk out of that car dealership because they should be able to take a different loan than the one that they offer. This is a lesson you learn when you're early in your financial life.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And what's the APR on that personal loan?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And the balance on it?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
All right, so how are you currently approaching your debt payoff? Do you have a strategy that you're employing?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
With the debt snowball method, you begin by paying off your smallest debt first, focusing as much money as you can into that while making minimum payments on your other debts. And then once that first debt is paid off, you put the amount you're putting into that into your next biggest debt and so on.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And that's been working for you?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
That's good. A lot of people debate between whether they want to use the debt snowball or another option, the debt avalanche method. Some people like the debt avalanche method because with that, you're focusing on paying off your debts with the highest interest rate first, and it can save you money in the long run.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
But for many people, snowball can be better because you are getting the wins of paying off smaller debts first, which gives you some positive reinforcement. You feel good about what you're doing with your finances, and you're more inclined to aggressively pay off your debt over the long run when you have multiple different debts that you're paying off.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
For 24 years old, that's not bad. At 24, I don't think I had an emergency fund for any months.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Be proud of that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Do you know how much you have in each of those retirement accounts?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
So you have close to $10,000 in a retirement account at an early age. So that's great to hear. I want to talk a little bit more about your emergency savings. You mentioned that you're using the zero-based budgeting method. How are you allocating savings as you budget?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
I mean, that can be hard when you just have one savings account. Something I talk about all the time is having different savings accounts for different goals. The emergency account, you really don't want to touch it unless it's a true emergency.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
So you could have maybe 8% going into your emergency fund and then 2% going into a rainy day, semi-emergency, oops, I went out with my friends and spent too much money type fund. That's a little bit more flexible.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Thank you. In addition to being a money nerd, I'm also a word nerd. But this is a really important topic to address. Right now, there are myriad events happening simultaneously that might lead some folks to feeling like they're vulnerable, either personally or financially or both.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Just one last note on your emergency fund. In general, it's best practice for folks who are on a single family income, kind of like you are, is what people would consider that, is best practice to have six months of emergency savings. That obviously can take a long, long time to build up. So it can be an aspirational goal, but one that you can gradually work toward.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
But that will give you the cushion to cover things. If your car breaks down, you need a repair that's a couple thousand dollars, you can dip into that fund and it won't end up going onto a credit card, which is what we want to avoid because credit card interest rates can be quite high. As I'm sure you know, what is your APR on your credit card, by the way?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
That is not uncommon, which is why we really do advocate for folks paying off their debt as quickly as possible, their high interest debt, before going on to steps like investing more seriously. It's great to multitask, but we talked a little bit earlier about your investing or maybe lack thereof. How are you thinking about investing right now?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Is it just through your retirement accounts or what's your general philosophy at the moment?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Well, you are investing in your retirement accounts, so that's good. One thing I would add to your to-do list is to just triple check in those retirement accounts that you are actually invested because sometimes people set up these accounts, whether it's their 401k or a Roth and they put money into it and then they don't select the investments.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And so then it's basically just a savings account that's earning you no interest. So I would recommend doing that sooner than later, just for your own peace of mind. And that also can give you exposure into different types of investments that are available to you in a retirement account.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Many people like to opt for what's called a target date fund, which is a way where you can say, okay, I'm going to retire in October. in your case, might be 40 something years. So for now, while you have all of these years of growth ahead of you, it's common that people will invest in more aggressive stocks.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And then as you get closer to retirement, they automatically are reallocated into less aggressive stocks. So you can have some sense of security as you get ready to retire. And you often won't have to do that work yourself. So that's helpful.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
So we're going to talk about a range of ways that you can shore up your own resilience and take action when you might feel powerless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
So Michaela, you are investing or you have multiple different retirement accounts. How are you balancing maybe your 401k with your IRA and figuring out how much to put into each account? Or is that something that you're considering?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
8% is great for your age because you are so young. Your money will go a lot further. And I want to spell out how much further your money goes at an earlier age with an example. So you're 24 years old. You have, let's say, $10,000 in a retirement account. And just for the sake of this example, let's say that you contribute $500 a month into a retirement account.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
With a 6% annual rate of return, which is pretty conservative, you would have a little over 1.6 million saved by the age of 67. Now, if you're 34 years old, a decade older, and in the same situation, by the time you hit retirement at 67, you would have about half, you would have $806,000 save for retirement.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
There are three main areas that I think people can look into. I mean, there are more than three certainly, but we're going to talk about three in this segment. One is their own personal preparedness. This includes improving your financial resilience and taking other steps to weather a literal or metaphorical storm. Next is building out your community.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
So by starting as early as you are, you could have twice as much as someone who starts a decade later.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Pat yourself on the back. You're doing great.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And I want to talk a little more about your Roth IRA account. How are you using that to save, or is it just sort of in the background?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
A lot of people like to contribute to Roth accounts. You could possibly contribute to a Roth 401k if that's an option from your employer. But people like to have Roths in their mixed retirement accounts because it gives them tax diversification. Basically, you would have a pot of money that is tax free in retirement.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
We have an article about how to invest in a Roth IRA on NerdWallet that I recommend you look into. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. But Roths can be especially useful when you're early in your career, like you are right now, because you are likely to be at a lower tax bracket than you would be when you're further along in your career.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
The way Roths work is that you are putting after tax contributions into these accounts. So right now you're making 50 something thousand dollars. The tax rate's lower than you would have after you finished law school and you are a high powered wealthy attorney. So right now is a great time to think about Roth contributions.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And finally, focus on what you can control and the actions that you can take today.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Although Michaela, I'll say it seems like you don't need to rein in your spending. If anything, I kind of get the impression that you want to loosen up your budget a bit.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
You have the reality of your finances. So in a way, zero-based budgeting can be really beneficial for you maybe in the short term while you're focused on paying off your debt. The good news is that, like you said, you should have your really high-interest credit card paid off pretty soon.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And then having the amount that you're putting on that credit card monthly back in your budget might give you some more wiggle room. How much are you paying monthly on that?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
That's a lot of your budget going to this credit card.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Have you thought about what you might do with that money once it's not going to this credit card?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Well, we're not here to tell you what to do with your money. We're here to give you information so you can make informed decisions. But it depends on your priorities. It seems like you want to save and invest. And the good news is that you could do both with nearly $1,000. You could even split it three ways. You can maybe put $300 a month toward a fun account or a vacation account.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
You could put 300 a month into your savings to build that out too. And then you could put $300 a month into a different type of investment. You could look into opening a brokerage account, for example. You have a lot of options.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And that is so important with managing your money too, is getting yourself out of this scarcity mindset. Yes, money is not infinite for most of us. And you can only do so much with what you have coming in based on what's going out each month. But you have a lot more control and a lot more opportunity with your money than you might imagine.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Okay, Michaela, we've run through so many different aspects of your finances. How are you feeling right now? And what decisions do you think you might make based on what we've talked about?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
There's always room for growth, but you have done a great job for how early on you are in your financial life.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Well, Michaela, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with us.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Unlike other wearables, Amazfit goes beyond basic fitness tracking. It has specialized modes like High Rocks Race Mode, Smart Strength Training, and even Free Diving, built for both everyday users and elite athletes. And with AI-driven coaching, it adapts to your workouts, tracks recovery, and helps you train smarter.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
I heart radio to automatically download new episodes.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
That is smart. And I'm sorry you went through that. That sounds pretty scary. I've been thinking about this a lot recently, too. And I've heard advice that it's a good idea to keep maybe a few hundred dollars in cash in the house in case of an emergency. But this was always one of those tasks where I thought, oh, I'll just do it some other time.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And I never got around to it, in part because I rarely use cash or have it on me. But recently I decided to get over my inertia and I went to the ATM and took out some cash. I felt pretty proud of myself.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
You know, it really varies in part based on how much cash you can comfortably pull out and not need to use for the foreseeable future. Personally, think about how much cash or how much money you might need to get through a few days of an emergency until payment systems are hopefully back online. You might need a hotel room or to fill up your gas tank or get a few meals out. I took out $500.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
That felt like a safe number for me and my partner and our pets. Other people might want more than that, especially if they have kids. And for some, pulling out that much cash might not be possible financially, but having some amount of cash is better than having none at all, as you experienced, Elizabeth.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Yeah, of course. And we've talked before about the importance of keeping some extra cans of food and maybe some water bottles around. I like to have enough food and water for at least a week, even if I'm just left eating cans of beans and rice for every meal. But something that folks might want to pick up is a battery powered radio.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
This can help you stay up to date on news or honestly just listen to some music to keep yourself entertained if the power goes out. I have a pretty small radio that has a solar panel and a flashlight on it. And let me tell you, it is super handy.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
It is honestly not. It was like 20 bucks on the internet, but it has all sorts of features and gizmos on it. So just look around and get one online.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
There's also a free ZEPP app you can pair it with to get in-depth analytics and downloadable maps you can use with turn-by-turn directions. And it has Zepflow AI voice control, so you can check stats hands-free. And don't worry about battery life. The Amazfit Active 2 runs up to 10 days on a single charge.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
The idea of building community can sound kind of corny or like a cliche at this point, but it is really important. Even beyond preparing for an emergency, we have an epidemic of loneliness in this country and community is part of the cure there. But when I think about what community means for me, I'm focused on two things.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
One is my immediate community, like my friends and my neighbors, and also a broader support network that I can be a part of. I'm lucky to have some really wonderful friends and lovely neighbors that I know I can rely on. Like if the power goes out at one of our houses, we can just huddle together to stay warm. On the other hand, joining a bigger network can take time and research.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Elizabeth, I know that you recently moved to a new state. I'm wondering how have you been able to build community so far?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Wow. Okay. So you're a social butterfly.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Well, it can take a lot of different forms, but common ones are mutual aid groups. And it sounds like you, in a way, are part of one with that mom group that you mentioned. But a lot of mutual aid groups have popped up in cities in recent years.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Some of these organizations are built at a local level and work to provide aid and resources to those in need, whether they're unhoused or recovering from a crisis or just a mom who needs a meal for their kids. You can volunteer to help at a lot of these mutual aid groups, or you can just reach out to one if you need assistance.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
At a more casual level, building community can look like joining an affinity group of some sort, which Elizabeth, it sounds like you're doing on Facebook. Me, I'm not on Facebook, but I recently started meeting up with an LGBTQ plus run group in the Portland area because I wanted to expand my queer community.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
If you want a smartwatch that delivers more for less, then visit amazfit.com slash smartmoney to get 10% off. That's amazfit, A-M-A-Z, fit, dot com slash smartmoney.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And I'm not going to lie, joining an established community can feel a little awkward at first, kind of like you're the new kid at school and you don't know where to sit during lunch. But the more you see people, the easier it is to talk and to build relationships. And hopefully you'll meet some people that you click with.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And over time, they can become part of that more immediate network that you can turn to in a crisis. Or maybe if you just want to go out dancing with some friends on a Saturday night, they'll be there for you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And community is a form of wealth that goes well beyond dollars.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
All right. Well, the third area that I want to talk about are the actions that you can take when you feel powerless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
We've been hearing from listeners about concerns they have around changes to the Department of Education and what it might mean for their student loans or about whether changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau might leave them more at risk of being taken advantage of by a company.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, it's just good to know how you can make your voice heard.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Definitely. And one of the most effective tools that you have is probably within arm's reach right now, might even be in your hand. And I'm, of course, talking about your phone. I recently learned about an app called Five Calls, which makes it very easy to find the phone numbers of your elected officials.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
This app also has a number of prompts that you can talk with them about, most of which are fairly left-leaning. But if that's not your jam, you can still use the tool to easily find phone numbers to call to advocate for what you want your representatives to do about the issues you care about most.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Well, here's a shortcut. Pro tip, Elizabeth. Call during off hours and leave a voicemail. Easy peasy.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Smart. Thank you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And I find that when I do take action, like contacting my representative or donating, I am much less likely to doom scroll or even worse, doom spend to cope.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Oh, you know, it's just when you buy stuff online to make yourself feel better about the state of the world. And it's certainly a form of self-soothing, but I'm going to say not a healthy one. And it is one that I'm occasionally guilty of.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Well, folks, I hope this has helped you think about a few ways that you can build up your personal resilience and feel more capable during unprecedented or uncertain times. And if you're looking for more resources, check out the link in the show notes about preparing for emergencies.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Yes, and I live in an earthquake zone, so I'm making sure my go bag is ready in case I got to get out of town.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Maybe you're feeling a little lost, like you don't even know what your financial goal should be, or you're trying to break yourself out of a bad financial habit, but just can't seem to do it. Whatever your money question, we nerds are here to help. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Today's episode is sponsored by Range Rover Sport. Some decisions in life require careful research, like picking the right investment strategy or figuring out which streaming service actually has the movies you want. But when it comes to driving, there's one decision that's easy, the Range Rover Sport. It's a bold take on sporting luxury, blending sophistication with power.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
On the road, adaptive dynamics keep your ride smooth and composed by reducing unwanted body movements. Because, let's be honest, the only thing that should be unpredictable is the stock market, not your suspension. When the road changes, the Range Rover Sport changes with it. Dynamic air suspension adjusts to keep things smooth and balanced, so every turn feels effortless.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And if the pavement disappears, no problem. Adaptive off-road cruise control kicks in, reading the terrain and making real-time adjustments so you don't have to spend your drive making more calculations than your tax software. Visceral, dramatic, uncompromising. The Range Rover Sport leads by example, just like you do. Build yours today at LandRoverUSA.com.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Again, explore the Range Rover Sport at LandRoverUSA.com. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions. This episode, we're joined by Michaela, a listener who is 24, lives in New Jersey, and has some questions about how to balance debt payoff with saving and investing for retirement.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Michaela, can you start by talking with us about your financial life? How do you feel you're doing? How do you manage your money? All of that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
What do you do for work?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
So that definitely will help with income, I imagine.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And how much are you making, if I can ask?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
For $24,000? That's pretty solid. And what's your living situation like and your expenses?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And how do you feel like you are managing your finances at the end of the month? Do you find that you still have cash left over or are you kind of scraping the bottom of your paycheck there?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How to Get Your Finances Ready for a Crisis and Tackle Debt Smarter
And you hold pretty strict to that budget that you make.