Extreme Personal Finance Show

How Much Is Enough? Leaving a $200K Job to Start a Business | 122 Most of us spend our careers chasing a bigger paycheck. Kim Pike Walters walked away from one. After 13 years in corporate finance, this CPA turned financial coach left a $200K job to help small business owners plan ahead with their money. I talked with Kim about what happens when you stop asking “how much more?” and start asking “h...

How a 15-Year-Old Metal Guitarist Is Building Multiple Streams of Income | 121 At 15, Gideon Powers is already playing guitar in a metal band, forging iron hooks by hand, creating content on YouTube, and saving for his first car, all while being homeschooled. Chris talks with Gideon about how he got started, how he prices his work, what he does with his money, and the habits that keep a busy teen...

Don’t Wait to Retire: How to Get Your Time Back With Brian Herriot What if you didn’t have to wait until 65 to get your life back? In this episode of The Extreme Personal Finance Show, Chris talks with Brian Herriot, financial advisor, former management consultant, and author of Time Freedom: Rethink Your Work and Money to Create a Life You Love Now . In 2020, Brian ran his numbers after the COVID...

Tax Brackets Explained: Why a Raise Never Cuts Your Take-Home Pay [RE-ISSUE] | 119 Episode Summary: This is a re-issue from a few years ago and it has been one of my favorite episodes. My late friend Dan did such a great job in explaining how our progressive tax brackets work. Ever turned down overtime, a side gig, or a promotion because you were afraid of landing in a higher tax bracket? You’re n...

Building A Life Worth Retiring To with Amberly Grant | 118 What happens when you build a money community and then take it around the world? What we cover: Why Amberly started FinTalks in the worst month in modern history to start anything Turning a weekly Zoom call into cruises, castles, and Antarctica How travel advisors actually get paid, and why booking through one costs you nothing extra Group...

How to Retire on Purpose: The Last 6 Months Before Walking Away What happens when your financial advisor looks you in the eye and says "you could retire today," and you decide to keep working anyway? My friend Scott Folland is back on the show, and this time he's got a date circled. He's an orthopedic PA here in the Twin Cities, he's been at the same practice for 15 years,...

Stop Competing, Start Collaborating with Joe Saul-Sehy and Jordan Grumet | 116 Joe Saul-Sehy from Stacking Benjamins and Dr. Jordan Grumet (Doc G) from Earn & Invest trashed my place…err I mean crashed at my place during Camp FI Midwest. Naturally, I put freakin’ microphones in front of them! This one started as a conversation about our joint Benjamins After Dark meetup in the Twin Cities and...

Live From CampFI: The Power of Community with Bill Yount (Catching Up to FI) | 115 This one's different. We recorded this episode LIVE, on location, at CampFI Midwest Week 1, and I brought in Bill Yount from the Catching Up to FI podcast, to co-host it with me. Bill and I have been talking about jamming for a while, so it only made sense to finally do it in person, in a room full of people wh...

Building a Work-Optional Roadmap & How to Retire Early with Chad Taylor | 114 Do you make good money but still feel like you're falling behind? You're not alone. In this episode, we sit down with Chad Taylor, wealth advisor and founder of Seapoint Wealth Advisors, to discuss why so many high earners struggle with their finances. Chad shares his journey from the big brokerage world to...

Your Money Trauma Is Real: Dr. Erika Rasure on Debt, Shame, and Healing Your Financial Nervous System | 113 Debt doesn't care how smart you are or how much you make. This week I talk with Dr. Erika Rasure, Chief Financial Wellness Advisor at Beyond Finance, about the emotional weight behind debt, the difference between guilt and shame, and why most budgets fail for reasons that have nothing t...

How I Reached Financial Independence in 10 Years | FI Minded with Justin Peters | 112 Chris Luger of Heavy Metal Money joins Justin Peters on Fi Minded to talk about reaching financial independence in roughly 10 years, starting from a rough spot most people don't talk about publicly: a divorce that left him having to learn personal finance from scratch in his mid-thirties. In this episode: •...

Why Women Need Their Own FI Space with Kim Hunter-Borst | 111 Why do women need their own space in the financial independence world? This week I sit down with Kim Hunter-Borst, the heart and driving force behind Women of FI, to talk about the stuff that doesn't show up in a spreadsheet. Kim spent over 35 years in health insurance before finding her way into the FI community, and what she&apos...

Real Men Ask for Help: A Divorce Coach's Guide to Rebuilding After Rock Bottom | 110 Divorce doesn't just wreck your heart. It wrecks your bank account, your identity, and sometimes your whole sense of who you are. This week on the Extreme Personal Finance Show, I sit down with John Hardy, a divorce recovery coach who specializes in helping men rebuild after separation, betrayal, and fin...

One More Year Syndrome: Why You’re Afraid to Retire Even When You Have Enough You reached your financial independence number. The retirement calculators say you are ready. Your expenses are covered, your investments are in place, and you no longer technically need the paycheck. So why are you still working? This is known as One More Year Syndrome , and it can keep financially independent people wo...

LEAVE A REVIEW on Apple Podcasts for a chance to Win JL Collins’ A Simple Path To Wealth!  Most budgets fail, and it's not because you lack discipline. It's because traditional budgeting is built backwards. In this solo episode of the Extreme Personal Finance Show, Chris breaks down why budgets collapse the same way diets do, and introduces values-based budgeting as the fix. Pulling from...

Money Scripts: Why You Handle Money the Way You Do | 107 There's a subconscious reason why and how you make every money decision. In this solo episode, Chris dives into money scripts, the subconscious beliefs about money that get programmed into us in early childhood and quietly steer our financial lives well into adulthood. Drawing on the research of financial psychologist Dr. Brad Klontz, C...

8 Money Rules with Nik Johnson | Chris on Everyday Money Heroes | 106 Chris Luger didn't grow up wealthy. He didn't have a finance degree. He started over from scratch after a divorce in 2015, barely knowing what a budget was. Nine years later, he walked away from his W2 at 50 with a $2.5 million portfolio. In this episode, Chris joins Nik Johnson on Everyday Money Heroes to tell that wh...

Creative Ways to Save Money Without Feeling Deprived with Roxanne Duckels of FinanceRox | 105 Saving money doesn't have to feel like punishment. In this episode, Chris sits down with Roxanne Duckels, accountant, personal finance coach, and the woman behind FinanceRox, for a real, practical, and genuinely fun conversation about creative and resourceful ways to save more without losing your min...

What happens when you put 88 financially intentional people on a cruise ship headed to Alaska? Apparently, a lot of really good conversations, a few late nights, and at least one episode of the Extreme Personal Finance Show recorded on the fly with a phone crammed between two guys. This week, Chris is joined by returning guest Kevin Sebesta, recorded live aboard the FinTalks Cruise somewhere off t...

From $100K in Debt to Financial Coach with Justin Bennett Financial coach Justin Bennett had the career, the house, and the wife by his mid-twenties. But, also over $100,000 in consumer debt he had no idea how to get out of. In this episode, Justin shares the raw, real story of how he and his wife turned it around, and how that experience launched nearly two decades of helping over 1,000 clients e...

What Nobody Told You About Money in School (And Why That Has to Change) with Dr. Paris Woods | 102 Dr. Paris Woods is back on the Extreme Personal Finance Show, and this time she's bringing the playbook she wrote specifically for the next generation. Her new book, "The Student's Guide to Financial Freedom," released in March 2026 and is already turning heads in schools, nonprof...

Money, Mindset, and No More Mondays: A Conversation with Angie Callen What does financial independence actually look like when you didn't start at 22 with a perfect plan? For a lot of us, the path to freedom started later, got derailed a few times, and looked nothing like the textbook version. That's exactly what made this conversation worth sharing. This week is a rebroadcast of my rece...

Starting Early Is the Ultimate Cheat Code To Building Wealth | 100 This is Episode 100 of the Extreme Personal Finance Show, and we're celebrating with one of the most refreshing conversations we've had on this podcast. Nolan Omitt is 25 years old, works as a Hall Coordinator at the University of Kansas, and has been building smart financial habits since he was a kid. Not a kid as in &qu...

Paying for college is one of the most stressful financial decisions a family will ever face — and most families are navigating it completely blind. This week on the Extreme Personal Finance Show, Chris sits down with Jack Wang, wealth advisor and host of the Smart College Buyer podcast, to pull back the curtain on how the college financial aid system actually works, and how families can stop leavi...

What if your employer could offer you a personal financial assistant at zero cost to you? Not a webinar. A real human being who sits with you in the mess and helps you find a way out. That's exactly what Brightside does, and this week's guest is here to break it all down. Kristy Talorico spent over 15 years leading enterprise sales at companies like Apple and Microsoft before a personal...