The Jesse Mecham Show

While there's no way to prepare for being a parent without actually becoming a parent, you can prepare financially for the experience. Chelsea Brennan shares some tips on how to do this, and what kind of difficult conversations you need to have with your spouse and family as part of the process.   After a successful career as an equity analyst and hedge fund portfolio manager on Wall Street, Chels...

At YNAB your data is exactly that -- YOUR data. Financial data is personal and sensitive, and as Jesse explains, YNAB does not and will not touch that!   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse chats with productivity master Jeff Sanders, host of the 5AM Miracle podcast. As the title of his podcast suggests, Jeff loves to wake up early, but he doesn't necessarily think you should. Instead, Jeff focuses on setting clear boundaries around your work time, family time, and personal development time (especially physical fitness).   Especially in the remote working arrangements that are...

In today's money story, Jesse chats with Erika, a 32 year old married woman who found herself struggling in the deep end of credit card debt. Until YNAB, Erika always managed her money with her bank statements -- if there was enough for her current outflows, good! There wasn't much of a plan or cushion for surprises, however.   Shortly after getting married Erika began to feel trapped in her debt...

Jesse chats with author Mary Marantz about her book Dirt , the story of her life journey growing up in poor, rural West Virginia to eventually attending Yale Law. Mary grew up with a strong, hard working father who instilled in her a vigorous work ethic and a love for her hometown. However, her working class roots cast a shadow of doubt over how high she could climb in the world, and how qualified...

Student loan payments have been frozen for several months due to COVID-19, but that doesn't mean your budget has to be frozen. Jesse strategizes ways for you to address student loans during the grace period.   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse chats with Laura Vanderkam and Sarah Hart-Unger, two time management experts and the hosts of the Best of Both Worlds Podcast, a show all about balancing busy lives and careers.  Sarah is a pediatric endocrinologist while Laura is a writer (and author of I Know How She Does It ), and both of them are also busy mothers. While they approach the challenges of time management with different stra...

Whether it's because of changing careers, preparing for a child, or some other life event, you and your partner may need to downsize from two incomes to one. This has a major impact to your budget! But, with some planning, you can make a smooth transition. The easiest way, Jesse says, is to live on a single income before actually losing the second income. With a little help from YNAB, you can prac...

New York Times columnist and bestselling author Ron Lieber joins the podcast for a frank discussion about the ever rising cost of college and whether it's even a good idea for young people today. Evaluating the true cost of college, as it turns out, is essentially a budgeting exercise. There's the sticker price for tuition and room and board, but the real analysis lies in examining the hidden cost...

Buying a house is a stressful experience, especially in the current market where low supply and high demand have pushed prices up and up. Naturally, house shoppers worry about overpaying for a house, or whether they've overpaid for a house they've already bought. We'd all like to perfectly time the market and buy at the lowest possible point, but it's very difficult to do.   Jesse reminds house sh...

What does budgeting have to do with nutrition? A lot, actually, explains Kali Langevin, a nutritionist and Registered Dietitian who has spent 16 years working with athletes in United States Soccer Federation. Kali is also a long time YNAB user, and joins the podcast to explain how the Four Rules can be applied to nutrition. Much like Jesse encourages people to be mindful of their spending habits -...

This week's Money Story comes from the vivacious Diania Merriam, founder of the EconoMe Conference which brings together speakers in the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). After finding herself working for a decent salary in NYC but falling deeper into debt, Diania decided to pull her head out of the financial sand and figure out where her finances stood. Around the same time, a...

Jesse chats with Geoff Woods, President of ProduKtive, the training company behind the bestselling book The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. After leaving a high-stress and ultimately unfulfilling job in medical device sales, Geoff set out to surround himself with successful mentors. Eventually Geoff found Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, and immersed himself in their philosophy of the "one t...

Jesse attempts to give some advice on purchasing a car... before admitting that he has no advice to give! Well, maybe a bit of advice. Jesse reminds us that optimizing your budget involves optimizing for YOUR needs and wants. Jesse chooses to lease a Tesla to drive around in, because he wanted to have as little headaches with car maintenance as possible. That's important to him today, but ten year...

Bestselling author Ian Morgan Cron introduces the Enneagram, a personality typing system which identifies nine different personality types, their motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. As Ian explains, understanding your enneagram can help you better understand your motivations for why you want to do the things you do, which has direct implications in budgeting. Understanding the motivations and...

Jesse reminds us that the ideal budget... is the budget which helps you achieve your goals and values. And those goals and values can, and will, change over time!   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Robert Leonard has been a uniquely driven person since a young age. Eyeing the professional ranks of motocross at age 14 (the minimum age to turn pro was 16), he competed all over the country. When his father discouraged his going pro, Robert started working various jobs and reading about investing. By the time he graduated college, he had already purchased his first piece of real estate and began...

Sita Thomas is a woman of many talents, and many careers, having worked jobs ranging from massage therapy to data analytics. She has been using YNAB for over 8 years to help her reach her goals, including going back to school and making a career change, taking time off work to care for a terminally ill family member, and removing the day to day stresses of money from her life.   Sign up for a free...

Jesse chats with professional coach and business strategist Kelsey Murphy about how she left a high profile -- yet unsatisfying -- corporate job to travel the world with her husband. During their travels Kelsey realized she had a gift for coaching and helping others put their visions and dreams into practice. Today she runs a successful coaching business doing just that.   Kelsey puts a lot of emp...

Jesse answers your questions about small business in Q&A format.  You can send Jesse your questions and comments at: podcast@youneedabudget.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse chats with Amir Salihefendic, CEO of Doist, the company behind the popular productivity tool Todoist. Between running a company and being a father, Amir has a very busy life. He explains how he keeps everything moving smoothly, including the importance of managing your energy throughout the day, not just your schedule.   https://todoist.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.yo...

Jesse chats with YNAB's manager of support hiring, Emma Rolls, about what it takes to get hired at YNAB, what type of person fits in with the company culture, and Emma's personal experience learning about YNAB and getting hired.   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse identifies four common traits in people who don't stress about money. They have a cadence for checking their money. These people  regularly check-in with their budget and watch their money. It's not a panicky, reactionary review but a planned part of their week or month. They have regular conversations with themselves and/or significant others about money. These conversations are not highly...

Writer and entrepreneur Corbett Barr joins the podcast to discuss digital mindfulness, the pitfalls of social media and endless digital content, and his own quest to find peace as a digital creative. https://corbettbarr.com   Sign up for a free 34-day trial of YNAB at www.youneedabudget.com

Jesse interviews strength coach, former pro Strongman, and founder of Barbell Logic Online Coaching, Matt Reynolds, about the many analogs between strength training and budgeting.   Matt relates the Four Rules to the basic tenets of effective strength training -- consistency, small increases in weight each workout that add up to big results over time, and focusing on the  things that will give you...