MONEY WITHOUT MATH

Could having a sense of humor actually help you earn more money? Research suggests that humor can influence how we're perceived at work, how effectively we communicate, and even the opportunities that come our way. But you don't have to be the funniest person in the room to experience those benefits. In this episode of Money Without Math, Karen welcomes Andrew Tarvin, comedian, author, s...

For many high achievers, rest is something to earn after the work is done. But when the work never ends, neither does the cycle of depletion. And even a full night's sleep or a relaxing weekend may not restore the energy you’re missing. According to Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, chronic exhaustion is often the result of something deeper: a lack of true restoration. Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is a p...

What happens to our money if our ability to manage it changes? In this episode of Money Without Math , Karen Coyne talks with Christine Moriarty, CFP®, founder of MoneyPeace, about the financial considerations that accompany changes in memory and cognition. Christine shares the personal experience that brought this issue into focus for her: watching her mother, a lifelong bookkeeper who balanced h...

What if some of the financial decisions you make today are being shaped by a story you learned decades ago? At 16, Sarah Walton faced a choice: use her first paycheck to pursue a dream she had worked toward for years, or help buy groceries for her family. She chose the groceries. Years later, despite building an impressive career, Sarah realized she had been carrying beliefs from that moment with...

We live in a culture that celebrates more. More productivity. More habits. More goals. More optimization. More commitments. But what if the path to greater impact, fulfillment, and even financial well-being isn't adding more to your life? What if it's learning what to remove? In this episode, Karen is joined by leadership strategist, keynote speaker, author, and self-described "subt...

For generations, retirement was viewed as the final chapter. Today, it may be the start of an entirely new one. As people live longer and healthier lives, the traditional path of working, retiring, and slowly winding down no longer reflects reality. In this conversation, Karen sits down with JoAnne Moore to explore why retirement is becoming reinvention, how longevity is reshaping the way we think...

What if one of the greatest retirement risks isn’t market volatility, but losing healthy years of life? In this episode of Money Without Math, Karen sits down with Joshua Herring, CEO of the Longevity Science Foundation, to explore the rapidly evolving science of healthy longevity and how it might affect how we think about health, wealth, and aging. Joshua explains why longevity isn't about c...

What if you approached your life with the same intentionality that organizations bring to strategic planning? In this episode of Money Without Math, Karen Coyne sits down with leadership strategist, speaker, and "Sparkologist" Dr. Katie Sandoe to explore her personal strategic planning process. Inspired by years of leading strategic planning sessions for organizations, Dr. Katie adapted...

Nearly 95% of older adults are aging in place. But studies suggest that as little as 1% to 5% of U.S. homes actually have the key features needed to make that possible. Most people assume aging in place is about installing grab bars or making renovations after a health crisis; today’s guest says that’s exactly backwards. In this episode, Karen is joined by Esther Greenhouse, environmental gerontol...

Love and money are deeply connected—even when we avoid the conversation. In this episode of Money Without Math , Karen Coyne sits down with attorney and Love Richer creator Jackie Combs to explore how women can set themselves up for financial success at every stage of life—single, dating, engaged, or married. From subtle money conversations you can have on a first date, to the truth about prenups,...

Where you live shapes more than your lifestyle—it influences your health, relationships, and long-term financial outcomes. In this episode, Karen sits down with Ryan Frederick, founder of HERE and author of Right Place, Right Time, to explore why place is one of the most overlooked drivers of well-being and wealth. They discuss how your environment shapes your habits, why most people underestimate...

You might assume that receiving a financial windfall would feel exciting, freeing, or even relieving. But for many people, sudden wealth brings something much more complicated: overwhelm, identity shifts, grief, uncertainty, and emotional paralysis. In this episode of Money Without Math, Karen Coyne is joined by financial coach and speaker Marin Laukka to explore the psychology of sudden wealth an...

Negotiation is often equated with high-stakes conversations: salary offers, contracts, or tense back-and-forths across a conference table. But leadership coach and consultant Ranieka Weston says negotiation is happening constantly, often in the smallest moments of everyday life. In this episode of Money Without Math, Karen Coyne sits down with Ranieka to unpack the mindset behind effective negotia...

Historian and generational expert Dr. Eliza Filby, author of Inheritocracy: It's Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad, joins Karen Coyne to explore why economic outcomes increasingly depend more on access to parental support and less on income or education. An estimated $80-$120 trillion is set to pass from Baby Boomers down family trees over the next two decades, but this transfer is l...

What if the key to feeling more financially secure, more successful, and more at peace had nothing to do with your account balance? Gratitude might sound like a soft skill, but the science says otherwise. In this episode of Money Without Math, Karen Coyne is joined by Dr. Peggy DeLong, the Gratitude Psychologist, to explore how a daily gratitude practice can literally rewire the brain, shift your...

Parenting around money is messy for almost everyone. Your kid blows through their allowance or your college student burns through the semester’s food budget–and without intention, you might find yourself responding in a way that’s more controlling than it is constructive. In this episode of Money Without Math, Karen Coyne is joined by parenting speaker, author, and coach Mary Wilcox Smith to explo...

You don’t make decisions about your later life in later life, you make them in midlife. And one of the biggest decisions? Where you choose to live. In this episode of Money Without Math, Karen Coyne is joined by demographic strategist Bradley Schurman to explore how declining birth rates, aging populations, climate risk, and technological disruption are reshaping the future of cities, and what tha...

Have you ever dreamed about relocating abroad? As many as 34% of Americans say they would move overseas if they could, and interest is only growing. Concerns about quality of life, cost of living, and a desire for a different pace are motivating more people to explore life beyond the U.S. In this episode of Money Without Math , Karen Coyne is joined by Michele Collu, co‑founder of Sardiamo, a relo...

In this heartfelt and deeply practical episode, Karen Coyne sits down with Kathi Balasek—educator, grief literacy advocate, and founder of Grief Ready Communications—to talk about how to support someone through loss. Drawing on her experience as a young widow raising five children, Kathi shares why our culture often gets grief wrong, how well‑meaning comments can unintentionally wound, and how to...

In this thought-provoking conversation, Karen Coyne sits down with Ken Stern, author of Healthy to 100, founder of the Longevity Project, and former CEO of NPR, to explore the critical but often overlooked role of social health in living longer, healthier lives. Drawing from global research and firsthand reporting from places like Japan, Singapore, and Italy, Ken reveals why countries with the hig...

What do medical bills, group dinners, canceled flights, and even premarital counseling all have in common? According to Matt Schulz—Chief Consumer Finance Analyst at LendingTree and author of Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More —they’re all opportunities to take back control of your financial life simply by asking the right questions. In this insightful conversation, Matt and Karen uncover the ev...

Money has a way of slipping into every corner of life, shaping how we feel, how we make decisions, and even how we show up for the people we love. So when the online noise insists that “nobody needs an advisor anymore,” it ignores the part of money that isn’t mechanical at all. In this conversation, Daniel Crosby brings a grounded, deeply human view of what advice actually does for people — the ca...

Patterns shape the way we lead, work, spend, save, and even show up in our relationships, and still, most of us rarely stop to notice the ones shaping us behind the scenes. In this conversation, Karen sits down with leadership strategist and keynote speaker Bukola Oguntala, whose work centers on helping people recognize the unconscious behaviors that drive burnout, miscommunication, and resistance...

Generation X has officially entered the “wait… how close is retirement?” era. And while most of us still feel mentally 35, the numbers are inching closer whether we’re ready or not. This conversation with Kerry Hannon and Janna Herron, co-authors of Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future , feels like a warm, clear-eyed check-in about where we stand, what we can do now, a...

Building a life with someone means blending histories, emotions, habits, and hopes, and money is woven through all of it. In this conversation, Karen is joined by author Heather Boneparth, who spent two years interviewing couples and experts to understand what truly helps partners feel seen, supported, and financially aligned.  Together, they explore how couples can move toward more fairness, more...