How to Money

The difference between scoring a home vs. missing out can be incredibly small- and a lot of it comes down to your offer. There are lots of little things that can help your offer stand out and make the buying process move along smoothly. However, since most of us only buy a home once or twice in our lifetime, not knowing or forgetting a step can cost us a place we really want or cause us to make un...

Over 45 million Americans are saddled with over 1.5 trillion in student loan debt- this is a nationwide epidemic! With such a massive burden, how do you even begin repaying your student loans? Our $Pro this week, student loan expert Meagan Landress, is here to shed some light on the many different student loan repayment programs and how to choose the plan that best fits your financial situation an...

Buying a house will likely be the most expensive purchase you’ll ever make, so it’s no surprise that it can be an intimidating process. But this is the very same reason you should be a well informed buyer- so much money is on the line! Today we’re covering several steps everyone needs to take before purchasing to make sure that you’re getting the best deal possible on a house that you love. During...

The fact is that everyone wants to travel, but nobody wants to pay more than they need to for airfare. Who doesn’t want a deal?! Our $Pro today is Scott of Scott’s Cheap Flights, and he’s going to explain how we’ve been going about booking our vacations all wrong. It’s time to turn the way we plan for trips completely upside down! Listen as we discuss ways to save money when booking airfare. Durin...

Weddings are expensive, but they don’t have to be! Spend your money on the things that truly matter to you and your fiancé and let the rest go. Cutting out elements that don’t mean much to you, however traditional or expected, will save you a ton. Once you’ve decided on your most important elements and it is time to spend some serious money, do it wisely! Listen as we cover a variety of ways to pl...

Networking is one of those things you may not think is necessary- until it’s too late. Our $Pro this week, Jordan Harbinger, is here to explain how vital it is to network now, even if you’re an introvert or if you’ve felt smarmy about it in the past. What’s important is that you’re genuine and interested in helping others now, before you need help yourself! Listen as we hear from Jordan and then b...

Since personal finance is not taught in most public schools, the job falls squarely on parents and caretakers. Hopefully this means we are intentionally teaching our children through lessons and examples in order to shape their perceptions of money. Listen as we cover the foundational money principles that we feel will have the biggest impact on the way our kids view money. During this episode we...

You don’t have to be a millionaire to be a successful real estate investor. Chad Carson, our $Pro this week, is here to explain how even a small, effective real estate portfolio can lead to reaching your financial goals in a short period of time. He illustrates this with an example of a couple reaching financial independence with only five properties, not hundreds! Having greater financial freedom...

Last week we covered the pros and cons of whether you should renovate or move- and so this week we’re discussing specific pointers when it comes to renovating on a budget. We spend a good amount of time on general contractors as they likely have the largest impact on all aspects of your renovation- financial but also the quality of work and your overall experience. In addition we cover the high po...

Trading our time for money will only get us so far. So many of us are programmed to believe that we have to allocate a large percentage of our time to making money in order to ever consider retirement. Grant Sabatier, this week’s $Pro, is here to say otherwise. Grant wants to disrupt the linear model where time equals money by arguing that our time is actually much more valuable than money. Listen...

For whatever reason, you might find yourself outgrowing your house and needing more space. Maybe you’re now self-employed and need a home office, or maybe you have a quickly growing family! With these changes come different needs and wants that we have for our homes and the most popular solutions are to either stay and renovate, or to sell your home and move. With home prices at all time highs, re...

Today our $Pro, Paula Pant, is going to reframe what it means to be an investor - does investing some money make you an actual investor? And what role should your emotions play when it comes to investing? Paula has broken the shackles of paycheck-dependence and has been sharing her expertise and experience with others on her wildly popular site AffordAnything.com, where she has given a TON of thou...

Are we ready for a recession? The economy has been roaring for close to a decade and corrections are inevitable. We’re not saying to pay uber close attention to the news cycle and the different predictions of the market tanking, but it is good to be prepared. But even if an actual recession never occurs, getting our personal finances in shape will allow us to be prepared for short-term bumps in th...

***We are pumped to start releasing an additional episode every week that we’re calling our money pro episode, or $Pro for short! Every Monday we’ll hear from a $Pro as they discuss a topic that they’re passionate and knowledgeable about, and then we unpack it even further and discuss the impact that topic has on our financial lives.*** Too often in life it’s like we’re sleepwalking- as if we’re d...

Should you itemize your deductions or take the new increased standard deduction this tax season? Answer carefully as thousands of dollars could be on the line! Most folks will opt for hitting the easy button and take the standard deduction- however if you own a house, had some big medical bills last year, and gave money to charity, you should consider itemizing! Listen as we cover it in more detai...

The new tax law nearly doubles the standard deduction which means even fewer folks will be itemizing deductions on their tax returns this year- however, there is still an important way to massively cut our tax bills! Regardless of whether we take the standard deduction or if we itemize deductions- we can still reduce our tax bill by ‘above the line deductions’. These are technically not actual ded...

Happy New Year! As we’re all looking ahead and setting goals let’s not forget about money- we need a money roadmap! Now is the time to decide what we’re doing with our money this year. When we know exactly what it is that we’re saving for, we have a clear mission to keep us pumped and on track. Listen as we cover the practical tips that help guide us when it comes to creating our own money roadmap...

Every once in a while we like to step back and think about our work. Why do we do it? Are we doing a good thing? There are a lot of misconceptions of work floating around the internet and our workplaces today. There’s the generally more millennial-ish, romanticized view of work as a calling and a means of personal fulfillment, and on the flip side there’s the end goal of a stable career where your...

How amazing is it that we live in a world where there are so many ‘free’ things all around us? And how unfortunate is it, that we don’t even see these ‘free’ resources because we’re so used to purchasing and consumption- we don’t even think to make use of them. Our technology and culture steers us in the direction to spend. Chances are there are times when we're not taking advantage of this ‘free’...

There are secondary costs associated with almost all purchases that we make in our lives. It’s important to consider all of these additional costs that tag along when making purchases, and not just the initial sticker price. In this episode we explain how there are hard secondary costs and then how there are soft or lifestyle secondary costs which are similar to lifestyle creep. And then finally,...

Money oftentimes feels like a topic that is off-limits when it comes to discussions you have with your friends. Is it because it’s too personal? Maybe you feel it’s none of your business? A big part of why we started How to Money is because we feel that money conversations need to happen more often. Talking about money shines a light on it and brings about awareness, which can ultimately lead to i...

Buying new stuff makes us happy, right? Yeah for a minute, but you may have noticed how quickly you get used to all that new stuff! Hedonic adaptation, or the hedonic treadmill, helps us understand the effect of consumption. Coming to grips with that can help us end unhealthy cycles of mindless consumerism and set us on a path to a healthier way of thinking about money, spending, and saving for th...

Shopping and overspending dominates the holiday season, and we want to make sure you’re not rolling into the new year with that holiday shopping hangover. Honestly, how much more stuff do we really need?! Consumers are expected to spend over 1 trillion dollars during this Christmas shopping season. It’s unfortunate how much emphasis is placed on high ticket gifts to supposedly prove how much you c...

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You’ve gone through all the hard work of saving your money for a down payment, you’ve spent countless hours searching for the right investment property, and now it’s time to find the right tenant! It can be pretty tempting to cut some corners on that last step, but the type of tenant who signs your lease can be the difference between that rental being a blessing or a curse. The good news is that a...