Emotional Balance Sheet with Paul Fenner

What if, one day, you decided to quit your job?  Without having another one already lined up? This is the email Anya Kamenetz sent, which instantly grabbed my attention.  Anya covered education for many years at NPR.  She speaks, writes, and thinks about learning and the future.  Anya is a returning guest.  You can find our previous conversation in the show notes. Our conversation focuses on two m...

Eight years ago, I was introduced to someone who helped change the direction of my life.  I am quite positive that I am not the only person whose life has been impacted by this one person.  The funny thing, this is the first time that I have been able to speak with and thank Scott Hanselman.   Scott Hanselman is a programmer, teacher, and speaker. Although Scott maintains a full-time role for the...

My guest this week is Scott Kapeller, a leader in pharmaceutical sales and, more importantly, the father of triplet girls.  Scott is a good friend and neighbor of mine in which we share a lot of similar life experiences, one of which is being the father of triplets.  One of the life-changing experiences that Scott and I share is that we both went through a significant job loss within our careers. ...

How do you help your kids determine what they want to be when they grow up?  Furthermore, how do you balance the emotional and financial sides of going through the college planning process to help them find their way? These are questions that almost every parent and family wrestle with when it comes to raising kids.  Fortunately, there are professionals to help parents along this journey, like Hol...

Are you willing to do the work and focus on someone else besides yourself?  Are you willing to be a better person for it? These are the same questions that drive Cathy Adams, a self-awareness expert, podcast host, & author focus on helping parents and empowering families.  Cathy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Parent Coach, Certified Elementary School Teacher, Certified Yoga Teache...

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Amazon Music | Spotify How are you adjusting to parenting as we move into a post-Covid world?  Are you back to the rat race and overscheduling that so many parents experience before Covid? Dr. Lindsay Malloy is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Ontario Tech University, specializing in developmental and forensic psychology.  Lindsay is...

What has a bigger impact on our brain health, genetics, or environment?  And if we can't change our genetics, can we change our environment to improve our brain health? Dr. Teryn Clarke, a board-certified neurologist with a primary focus on memory and cognitive health, rejoins us on the show to talk about how we can optimize our brain health.  As Dr. Clarke puts it, genetics may load the gun, but...

Aren't we all selling something?  Our time, ideas, or influence.  But what are we selling to our kids as parents? Jay Rooke is charting a new way to become a salesperson to your kids as parents; he calls it parenting with comedy, otherwise known as Gonzo Parenting! Jay, the father of twins, considers parenting a full-contact sport, and I couldn't agree with him more.  Being in the thick of the mes...

Do you feel overworked and on your way to burnout?  Have you returned to running a chaotic life as we move into a post-Covid world? Burnout is the number one topic that Melody Wilding, a licensed therapist and coach is helping to address with her current clients.  A year ago, Melody was on our show when she launched her book, Trust Yourself, and how she helps highly sensitive and high-achieving pr...

How did we go from one extreme to another with the stock market and inflation?  How is inflation changing the way we go about our daily lives? Josh Brown is the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and a contributor on CNBC, and these are just a few of the topics and questions we address during our conversation.  Josh is a person I have been following for over a decade within the finance world who sp...

Have you stopped for a moment and thought about your future self?  Go ahead, take a few moments. It's not a natural state to think about what your future self may look like, but you could be doing yourself a huge disservice by only thinking about your present self. Mariel Beasley is the co-director of the Common Cents Lab at Duke University, where they focus on helping people make better financial...

My guest this week is Sandy Hodde.  Sandy is a certified professional English Language Arts and Social Studies educator and taught at the high school level for 22 years.  After seeing increases in high school class sizes, Sandy decided to launch her own business, Your Coach for College, to help prepare and teach kids the skills they would need to succeed in college that they weren't receiving in h...

Research shows that parents are the most influential factors in their kids' money life development.  What you model to your kids growing up lays the foundation for how they think and treat money into adulthood.  So how do you model good financial decision making for your kids?  How do you even begin to talk with your kids about money? Rebecca Maxcy is director of the UChicago Financial Education I...

What if there was a way to limit your investment risk exposure?  A defined outcome where you could have a good sense of what your range of results could be? Given the volatile stock market we have seen to begin 2022, I wanted to dedicate an episode to how I help families manage risk within our portfolio management process at TAMMA.  The best way I knew how to do this was to have a conversation wit...

In this episode, Dan Pink talks about finding your motivation, figuring out what you're good at, and combining the two to create success for yourself. How does someone become a multi New York Times best-selling author? First, ask yourself, what do you do when no one is watching? Dan Pink, a 4-time New York Times Best Selling author, shares his story on becoming a prolific researcher and writer.  H...

Are you setting yourself up for success, joy, and excellent and extraordinary outcomes based on the things you choose to focus on?  For example, can you choose to "Think Like a Champion?" From the locker room to the board room, Dr. Amber Selking has dedicated much of her life's work to the power of Mindset and Leadership to drive lasting change in businesses, on athletic teams, and in individual l...

Am I going to be okay?  The question—not explicitly about money is posed by everyone from the ultra-wealthy to the just-getting-by, from the retiree to the just-getting-started.  No matter the lifestyle, accent, politics, or favorite sports team, everyone I meet wants to take care of their families, remain or get healthy, be generous to others, enjoy their hobbies, and excel at work. These words s...

Who wouldn't want to provide their family with peace of mind during an emotionally difficult life situation such as losing a loved one?  Or the ability to tell your story about how you would like your children to be cared for when you are no longer able? There are many misconceptions about what an estate plan is and isn't, but one thing is for sure, it allows you to tell your story on how to prote...

Why do we tend to avoid the question of "why" when it comes to our personal and financial lives? In over 20 years of being an advisor, I have learned that financial planning is more about feelings than numbers.  And no expert epitomizes this point more than Carl Richards. For ten years, Carl was the creator of the Sketch Guy column, appearing weekly in The New York Times .  Carl, a Certified Finan...

Who doesn't think about resolutions and creating new goals to achieve at the beginning of the year?  But what drives us to make those resolutions and goals?  And more importantly, how will we reach them? Each new year, Diane Soulliere would begin a cleanse to help detox her physical body from the toxins that had built up over the prior year and to help herself promote a healthy lifestyle.  But the...

What do you think of first when you hear the term behavioral science?  It is a topic that I research and read about constantly as it sits at the precipice of my work with families.  Behavioral science, to me, is a toolbox that I use to help families be happier, healthier, and wealthier. There is no better person to talk about this topic than a behavioral researcher.  Allison White is just that per...

You may save for years to help pay for your kids to go to college, but what happens when they get there?  Will they have the skills to succeed or know where to find the right resources to help them figure out this new life transition? Nicole Martinez has spent her entire career in academia helping prepare kids to have a successful college career.  Nicole currently works in the exploratory advising...

Starting over is hard, but what if you were starting over in a new country where you didn't even speak the language? This is precisely where Emil Izrailov found himself as a seven-year-old when his parents made the courageous decision to immigrate to the US.  Growing up, Emil found himself helping to support his father's restaurant business and learning firsthand what true grit and determination w...

What would having a better perspective mean to us?  Would it allow us to see little problems for what they are, little?  Or big challenges for what they are? Ben Feller is a former award-winning Chief White House Correspondent for The Associated Press.  A journalist for 20 years, Ben spent many years questioning and covering Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, gaining perspective like no o...

How often are we looking for the quick fix to a health, personal, or financial problem? How often do we dismiss looking at the root cause and attacking a problem from within vs. searching outward for a quick remedy, someone to blame, or an investment that has the potential to shoot to the moon? Dr. Thomas Kay has seen these scenarios play out within his missionary work and working with his patient...