Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp

Do you own a home with a ton of equity? In this episode, I talk about the awesomeness of a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). I cover the pros, cons, and how they compare to other options that may be available to you.

Isai Cortez is a Tax Attorney and owner of Bismark Tax, Inc in Los Angeles, CA. He's also the founder of SynkBooks and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of Law. Isai shares his story, which goes all the way back to age 4 when his family was in a situation that made him want to be an advocate and help people understand their taxes.  This episode is full of of great stories a...

Huge news dropped today regarding student loans. There will be student loan forgiveness! That’s not all, as most people expected, student loan forbearance was extended through December 31st, 2022. Finally, there will be a new income-based repayment plan that will reduce the burden of student loan payments on the remaining balances. The forbearance is pretty self-explanatory, but they included the...

This was a fun episode to record with my mom, Jessica Casarez, who has been working for the same insurance agency for the last 37 years. Insurance coverage is almost like a foreign language and she does an amazing job and translating and simplifying the information. Topics covered: How much insurance coverage do you need to replace your home? The difference between working with a captive agent and...

Dr. Aimee shares important information about fertility. It's her goal to let as many women avoid saying, I wish I would have known sooner. In this episode Dr. Aimee answers the following questions: The importance of understanding your fertility Alternative options to egg freezing A range of costs associated with egg freezing and alternatives One important thing men should know What if you don...

Are you worried about a possible recession?  In this episode, I tackle current events that may lead to a recession in 2022 and identify what you need to know to navigate your way through a recession confidently. Inflation The Stock Market Employment Interest Rates Housing Market

Do you need estate documents? I invited my friend and Estate Planning Expert, Will Beyers to shed some light on that answer. Will does a great job summarizing what each document does and provides some context on when and why they will be needed. The documents discussed in this episode are: Wills, Financial Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, and Trusts We also dove into the importance of...

In her prior career, Kristal worked as a Software Engineer at BuzzFeed and Marqeta, Director of Operations at a cryptocurrency startup, and as an assistant to executives and leadership at Uber, Affirm, and Sledgehammer Games.  She served the largest Latinx in tech community, Techqueria, as a community leader and helped to grow and nurture the community by thousands of additional members. https://j...

Do you know all of the amazing benefits and flexibility of an HSA (Health Savings Account)? The best features are that they are triple tax-free: Tax-Reduction on contributions Tax-Free growth Tax-Free withdrawals That's not all. There could be real savings just by comparing a high deductible health plan to a pricier option. In this episode, I tackle a framework I use to help clients make an i...

Purchasing a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make, but the significant debt you accrue in the form of a mortgage can sometimes carry a lot of emotional baggage. In this episode, I acknowledge some of the reasons people want to pay off their mortgages, but my recommendation a majority of the time is to NOT pay off their mortgage faster than they need to. I'll co...

Jonathan Jennings is a software engineer who works in the AR, VR, and videogame spaces and currently helming his indie VR game at Weird Kid Studios named Galactic Bar fight. He’s been a guest lecturer at University and National Conferences. His first published essay Black Unicorn is available to read in the book Game Devs & Others: Tales From The Margins. He’s been involved in multiple develop...

The Backdoor ROTH is an advanced planning strategy for high earners and big savers. Should you use a Backdoor ROTH? Two reasons why you'd use a Backdoor ROTH strategy is: 1. You are phased out of making ROTH Contributions due to your high income. 2. You are a big saver and have already maxed out your 401(k) contributions The process to implement a Backdoor ROTH will depend on if you are doing...

My guest today is Gina Covarrubias, Certified Life Coach, B.S. Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering (Purdue University), M.S. Mechanical Engineering (University of Utah) Her distinctive background blends life coaching expertise with 12+ years engineering/technology experience in government, academia and corporate aerospace. Gina founded Deliberate Doing LLC, an exclusive STEM coaching serv...

Join me as I interview a real estate expert, Patrick Soukup of Soukup Real Estate Services in Fort Collins, CO. We cover a wide range of topics from real estate as an investment and personal residence.  Patrick also shares his insights on whether we are in a real estate bubble, how to search for a home when you're out of state, and his real estate investment philosophy.  https://www.soukuprea...

Orlando shares his journey from finance, Peace Corp, back to finance and then breaking into tech by writing a jingle. Despite having an MBA and finance background, it took him over 8 months to break into tech. To stand out from the crowd, Orlando wrote Jingles and leveraged Twitter to directly connect with companies. Orlando Gomez is a First-gen Mexican-American from Chicago's South Side. Par...

I'm a big fan of 401(k) loans, but they shouldn't be taken out lightly. In this episode, I cover the basic rules of a 401(k) loan, the pros, and the cons. 

Josiah Haswell, in addition to being a good friend, is the CoFounder of Sunshower. IO. The first comprehensive, provider-agnostic cloud management platform. In this episode, you will hear how Josiah shifted from corporate tech to being an employee at Startups and ultimately starting up his own companies. Like any business, startup life ebbs and flows, and Josiah shares some of the challenges, he’s...

If you are anything like my family, your spending habits have changed significantly during the pandemic. If you managed to maintain employment throughout this whole period, then you may have found that your savings accounts actually increased.   Or maybe you are a stress shopper and managed to find more ways to spend money now that you have more time on your hands.   Either way, your spending habi...

Make SMART Financial Moves in 2021 We made it to 2021! A year like 2020 stretched us thin in many aspects of our lives and that may have included your finances. If you feel you can improve on your finances in 2021 and want to make it a priority, I want to provide you a framework to get started in 2021.  Improving your finances is more than dollars and cents, which is why it is so important to star...

Michael Liendo recorded a live stream with me for this episode.  Michael is a self-taught developer who is currently a senior software engineer and AWS community builder.  In this episode, Michael shares his career journey and how his family has been a massive motivation in not only breaking into tech but also not settling for positions that are not a good fit, even if it comes with a lot of perks...

Sorry for any spoilers, but this movie came out in 1946 so…. A few reasons why this movie has been one of my favorites for most of my adulthood is because I worked at a community bank, similar to the Bailey Bros Building and Loan & when I was 20 one of my close childhood friends passed away.  Not a money lesson, but just something interesting that happens early in the movie. The Spanish flu ki...

Joe Previte is a developer, a teacher, and creator of Vim for VSCode . In his spare time, he enjoys creating videos for egghead, writing articles relating to coding, and participating in an online meditation study group. Joe shares the details of his journey from his decision to drop out of grad school and pursuing a career as a developer. Be sure to listen to the end where he opens up about the e...

Have you seen the rough estimates that you should have saved at various ages? These rough targets are useful, but may not be entirely accurate to you and your unique circumstances. I cover the importance of at least being aware of targets for the amount of money you should have saved in retirement accounts. Good excuses why you may not be on track early on in your career Why the older you get, the...

I have Jason Humphrey on the show and I met Jason online originally because he creates a ton of value-packed content on LinkedIn. And when you create awesome content, people tend to like it and share it. And that's how it came across my feed.  Jason helps coding Bootcamp, students to land their first high paying job as a professional software developer. And in this episode, Jason talks about...

Do you struggle with your finances during the holidays? I cover 6 tips to take control over the holiday season. This episode was originally created for a live video challenge I'm doing on my social networks, but I wanted to share it with you! Set a limit (budget)  Research Free Shipping Make something Be present Experiences over things