What's Up With Money?!

It's our One Year Anniversary! Join us as we look back on our first year of What's Up With Money?! and look ahead at Year Two!

Because who really wants to talk about taxes?! That's why we're doing 4 mini episodes. Paying taxes are good! Some countries love paying taxes - so why don't we?! It's often hard to identify where we see tax benefits in our daily lives. Most of the impact of our tax dollars seem invisible to us today. Our health is determined by 5 things. The Social Determinants of Health. Economic...

Because who really wants to talk about taxes?! That's why we are doing 4 mini episodes. Tax never again money is so important! Darth Vader said, "You don't know the power of money that is never taxed again." Money that will not be taxed again has a lot of benefits to many other things that you may not be aware of like tax on Social Security or other taxable money. Most advisors w...

Because who really wants to talk about taxes?! That's why we are doing 4 mini episodes. Tax deferral! We love not paying our taxes now and sending them to future you, but is it a good idea? Many will tell you that you will be in a lower tax bracket in the future so its better to defer - but we do not know where taxes will be going in the future. So it is a bit of a bet. Do you think taxes will...

Because who really wants to talk about taxes?! That's why we are doing 4 mini episodes. The money your money makes is taxed less than the money you make from work! The U.S. tax code is long. Very long! Millions and millions of words. Way longer than The Bible or the entire Harry Potter collection. Most of it is about how to avoid taxes and not what you owe tax money for. Think about that! What...

"It worked for us before." "It's what we know." "We've used this before. It's terrible." "We've used this before. It's great!" Our perspective on different financial tools and their uses can often be hard to shake. We're told be certain financial gurus or personalities that one tool is better than the other, but is it really? In our f...

Ron and Ryan dive deeper in the Financial Toolbox to discuss another framework around filling your financial toolbox with the appropriate tools. Is it taxed or non-taxed? Is it in the market or out of the market? Can you touch the money before you're 59 1/2 or are you heavily penalized for doing so? All of these are important to think about when deciding what tools you need for your own financ...

What are these tools?!?!?! Here is the high-level thinking about financial tools. These are based on uses of money and things you need throughout all of life. Income: You need this forever. It could be active from your job or passive from investments. Some things are really helpful for this - like a job. Sometimes where your money is kept is not as good for this job. Capital: This is the money you...

$100 dollars is $100 dollars. When it goes to work, $100 may not be $100 depending on where you place it. Everyone is looking for one place to put money, but there is no "Swiss army knife" of a financial tool. Have you ever tried to paint the wall with a hammer? Of course not! Now you want to try painting with a hammer, don't you? What most professional and popular advice gets wrong...

Wrapping this series up and Parker the Dog joins the show. We start with a PSA about working with pros and The Stock Market. In most cases it goes better when you work with a pro, but how do you make sense of the products, the licenses, the designations? Licenses require passing state and federal exams and means you are regulated by the government and several others. Designations (letters after yo...

In this episode, we're going to look at Ronald's two biggest pet peeves about popular and professional advice. Peeve #1 - We only talk about the market in terms of growth. Sure, in general, if you look at the long view of the market it shows an upward arc. We leave out the losses and how those can influence your actual growth. A couple down years can really do damage on your investment out...

We took this episode outside for the first time. So, why is investing so critical to us financially, but more so psychologically? We can easily intuit that having more money does something beneficial so we have to put money to work. So we invest! But is that all there is to it? Nope. Market's are not magical but you need to use them to grow your money. People tend to chase rate of return think...

What do we actually mean by these two ideas of saving and investing? Saving is putting money aside - which is Part 1. Investing is putting the money to work - which is part 2. Most people think of investing as a house or the Stock Market. You buy something that will grow larger than the price you bought it for. Simple! Investing is buying something with your money. This could be buying interest. I...

We're going to look at the ways finance being on you and the things that are not your fault make you feel anxious. Both of these make you feel like crap! The financial anxiety ride is something that seems all on you. You feel behind others and you aren't quite sure what to do that could get you ahead or up to par with others. That drives financial anxiety. Compounding the problem - all the...

Well... not so fast. This is not the answer to things being out of your control and your financial situation not being entirely your fault. It can be daunting to be responsible with your expenses when the world is getting more expensive all around you. It is true that following the golden rule of finance - spending less than you make - allows you to save and get money working. Most people only foc...

In this episode we explore some of the roots of "it's your fault" thinking by mainly looking at income and expenses. Spend less than you make is the golden rule of finance, but is that really all that's going on? It's true that you can't save money unless you have some left over. So what's the problem? You have a lot of financial factors at play that you don't con...

We are back for 2024! Healthy and ready to tackle the new year! We begin a 4-part series expanding on our first and most listened to episode: Episode IV - It's Not Your Fault, A New Financial Hope (We began with IV in honor of Star Wars) We thought we'd begin the year where our podcast began with a 4-part series diving deeper into the idea that it's not your fault. Our hope is that thi...

Notes arriving soon!

Show notes soon to come!

What's up with debt?! Never ever, under no circumstance, should you have debt. Debt is the best and having it has made me wealthy. What in the world are the guru's talking about?! Sure! Both sides of the debt convo use the blanket term "debt," but they are not talking about the same thing at all. One side talks about "uncollateralized debt" while the other is talking ab...

As we have said, the old 3-Legged Stool of Retirement is stressed at best and broken at worst. Social Security, Pensions, and Savings methodology of retirement no longer works. We need a new stool - a 6-Legged Stool! Lesson 1 - You can buy different types of money. You must spend every dollar you get and buy more money with it. Lesson 2 - The New 6-Legged Stool Every type of money falls into the f...

The old 3-Legged Stool of Retirement: Pension, Social Security, and Savings It used to be that retirement was simple and you just needed the old 3-Legged Stool to hold you up. In the 1970's and 1980's the Pension Leg got kicked out. Social Security has continued to decline and all the burden is now on the Savings Leg to provide you the income you need in order to cover your cost of living....

In this episode we go back in time and chart out the history of retirement. In order to understand retirement today, it's important to see the evolution of retirement, where it came from, how it developed, and where it's going. Retirement is a relatively new phenomenon. Farm gave way to factory. Factory gave way to corporations. This changed how people worked, earned, and had income for li...

This is all about getting some info to equip you to be ready to have a great Life Insurance conversation with a Life Insurance agent! Do not be afraid of Life Insurance. Do not be afraid of Life Insurance agents. Be equipped. Good agents that really understand the value types of Life Insurance we are talking about structure stuff at their detriment - not yours! Remember, the lower the death benefi...

We are back!!! Part 2 of our 3 part series taking a deeper dive into Life Insurance. This is in honor of September being, among other things, Life Insurance Awareness Month! This episode is going to focus on some of these concepts you may have come across on social media using Whole Life Insurance for - "Being Your Own Banker" "Infinite Banking" "Create Your Family Bank&qu...