Listen Money Matters - Free Your Inner Financial Badass. All The Stuff You Should Know About Personal Finance.

The process of buying or selling real estate can be intimidating and overwhelming to both the first-time and experienced buyers.  Today we talk to our agents, Dean and Gerard from GD Group Moves Real Estate in Hoboken, NJ about the anatomy of a real estate deal. Every market is a little different, so if your looking to buy or sell a home in your area, you should talk to a real estate agent in your community. In this episode we will cover some of the important things to know before going into one of the largest financial transaction of your life. Choose Your Agent Wisely Buying or selling a home has a lot of steps, mountains of paperwork and a ton super important decisions so, you want to make sure you choose an agent who will be on your side and able to guide you through the process. Don’t fall into the ” I know a guy” trap. Just because you’re best friend’s Uncle is an agent in the neighborhood doesn’t mean he will be the best at marketing your property or negotiating a great deal. You need to do your ow

The guys tackle five great listener questions today. For full answers listen to the episode below.  Question One  Longtime listener, quick question. I currently put about 25% of my income toward my betterment retirement fund. I rent now but eventually would like to buy a house within the next 10 years. Should I go 15% retirement and 10% home? I would create a new betterment account rather than keeping all in one. Let me know what you’d do.  If you are able to save 25% of your income then you are definitely on the right track! The split of the savings really depends on your situation, the percent is arbitrary. What is really important is if x% is enough to reach your retirement and other goals.  Taking into consideration how much you make, what kind of raises you can expect in the future and how much of a down payment you’ll need to purchase a home, will help you figure out if 10% over 10 years will be enough for the kind of home you would like to buy. You also need to figure out if saving 15% a year is enough

Small businesses are a big part of our country’s economic growth, so you would think the government would make starting a business as easy as possible. Of course, this is not the case. If you need a business tax strategy- listen up.  You might think coming up with a great idea and creating a solid business plan would be the most difficult part- that is until tax season comes along. Today we talk to expert business tax planner Diane Gardner about the importance of having a well thought out business tax strategy.  After filing mountains of tax returns, Diane works as a coach the rest of the year using pro-active tax planning to help her clients keep more of their hard-earned cash. She loves creating business tax strategies to help successful entrepreneurs across the United States pay the least amount of income tax they can legally pay.  Don’t Half-Ass Your Taxes  If you are planning to start a small business, it is critical you research all of the federal, state and local requirements. If you don’t cross all yo

It’s been a while but we are back with our Better Know a Millionaire segment and today the guys talk to an entrepreneur, speaker and house painter Matt Shoup.  Matt has an incredible story from being six figures in debt to becoming a millionaire. There were many ups and downs on his journey of success. Listen to hear how he started his business with a hundred dollars and how a customer’s baby ended up completely covered in paint. Yup, true story. From early on in his life, Matt had that entrepreneurial spirit. At the age of 10, he was shoveling snow for extra cash and started his first business selling candy out of his locker. He started to hustle in college when he joined College Works Painting where he received training on how to run a successful painting business. After training, it was up to him to grow his business and began simply by knocking on doors around the neighborhood selling his services. Before he knew it, Matt as making a six figure salary at 22 years old. The problem was he was also spendi

You often hear “overnight” success stories when it comes to people who have quit their jobs to start a business, but it doesn’t happen that way. It takes a lot of work and planning to get there. If you’re fed up with the 9-5 grind, you may have considered starting your own business. We did it and you can too. We’ll show you how to quit your job and actually start a business.  Know what you’re getting into before leaping from your cushy paycheck to starting your own business.  The Bar Has Never Been Lower  If you want to start your own business, it has never been easier or less expensive to do so. The internet and all of the tools it has opened the possibility of starting a business to almost anyone.  Funding can be raised on Kickstarter. An online store and drop shipping website can be created with Shopify. You can target local customers with Facebook ads; you can take credit card payments on your cell phone with Square, you can outsource payroll and other HR stuff to Paychex Flex. What is Your Passion? I d

Our listeners send in some great questions, and today we are going to tackle five of them. We answer five questions about down payments, debts, IRAs, 401k fees, and investing during a chaotic period in the stock market. You asked, and we answered your five questions!  Question One  Hey Guys- My fiance and I are getting married next month, and we are trying to get our finances in order as we plan to buy a house. We are looking for something in the $300K range in about two years and will have minimal savings following the wedding. However, we also have about $100K in student loans, with varying interest rates from 4.5% up to 7.6%.  With proper budgeting, we think we can save about $70K over those two years. Would it be better for us to save all of it for a 20% down payment and closing costs? Or should we use the first $30K to pay down the highest rate student loans and use the other $40K for a 10% down payment and closing costs, knowing that we will have a higher interest rate, PMI, etc.?  The first thing you n

What features do novice and experienced investors get from Wealthfront? How does Wealthfront stack up against the other Robo-Advisors and what sets them apart? We’ll be answering these questions and more in our Wealthfront Review.  Luckily (or skillfully) we got an interview with the Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash. After doing our research, chatting with him for nearly two hours and then doing a metric ton more research we’ve got a pretty good idea of where they stand in the Robo-Advisor space. Wealthfront has more than earned their spot at the table. Remember the epic rap battles with the East Side vs the West Side? Sharks vs Jets? In the Robo-Advisor space that’s Wealthfront vs Betterment. Wealthfront is a San Francisco startup with a boatload of funding and Betterment is an NYC startup with an equally large boat filled will funding. If you’re on the east cost you probably know more about Betterment, if you’re on the west cost, the same is probably true for Wealthfront. We’re based out of NYC (ok, fine, Hoboke

We all need and use money nearly every day of our lives but do you know where it comes from? Today the guys cover payment history, the creation of money and how it affects our economy.  The IOU Economy  You can’t talk about the creation of money without first talking debt. As most of us might think, money was created to make paying for things easier, but that is not the case according to the book Debt by David Graber. The exchanging of goods was always based on debts from the beginning. Let’s say a caveman needed some berries. He wouldn’t go to his neighbor with two goats and try and trade for five bags of berries. Instead, they would give two goats expecting the other person to repay them at a later time. Their economy was not quantified by money but debts to each other. Think about it as using ious like a currency. The use of money came about during war, and new empires were being created. There needed to be a way for soldiers to buy the things they needed in other lands without owing a debt. A Brief His

Everyone wants to make money, it’s usually what turns people on to personal finance. Today we’re going to teach you how to make more money in the sharing economy – on your own terms.  Uber brought this concept mainstream and as a result, it’s sometimes called the Uber Economy.  The idea at its core is that there is slack in our economy – resources that are not being utilized. Your car parked in the garage. Your brother’s carpentry skills. The free time of a math honors student.  The goal of the sharing economy is to monetize this slack and provide income to those who would have otherwise been beholden to a 9-5 schedule and boss. Now, you can get paid for work and pick some people up during you drive home to make a few extra bucks.  The best part about these sharing economy jobs is that often money doesn’t directly change hands. It’s all handled digitally which allows for you to focus on your task at hand and for your clients to focus on the work you’ve completed.  Uber is just the most discussed service in th

We have all asked ourselves at some point, do I need life insurance? You’re young and healthy, nothing is going to happen to you, right?  Sorry to be a debbie downer, but the reality is anything can happen to you at anytime. Will someone suffer financially once you’re gone?  Will your family be able to afford mortgage payments and other living expenses? Funerals are really expensive, will they be able cover the cost?  If the answer is yes to any of those questions, then it’s probably a good idea to look into an insurance policy. Life insurance will help replace your income so your family can meet important financial needs if you are no longer around.  This week we have Francois de Lame from PolicyGenius on the show to answer our questions about life insurance. Who Needs It? You’re Married Most people start to think about life insurance when they get married because they are starting a life another person and building a future together. If something happens to you, will your spouse’s income be enough to pa

Whether you believe it or not, we have all heard the age old saying money can’t buy happiness, but there certainly is a relationship between your personal finances and your happiness. Maybe it’s time to change your mindset.  People who earn a more are often happier than people who live in poverty, but it’s not just about the money itself. It is about providing insurance that you and your family can live a comfortable life no matter what life throws at you.  Many of us think we only need so much to be happy, but you have no way of knowing how much you’ll need at some point in the future.  Today the guys talk about how to change your mindset from “how much I need” to “how much is possible”. It doesn’t mean you have to constantly think about money or compromise your other values and interests, but you can simply think differently about your money. It’ll start to shift your choices.  Unless you can predict the future, you do not know what you will need or want beyond today. Building your financial resources will

   It’s been too long since we’ve done a five questions episode. Today we talk about lotto, stock games, APR, diversification, and student loans.  Five questions are back! We answer questions we get through e-mail and the LMM Community.  1. What would you do if you won the lottery?  Thomas doesn’t want money he didn’t earn so if he somehow won the lottery, he would hand it over to various charities. Andrew actually did buy tickets, $20 worth. He thinks winning the lottery would ruin his life because it would take away his drive and his purpose.  He would keep his job and just stick the money in US Treasury bonds which are one of the safest investments you can make. Even with the low-interest rate on bonds of about 2%, taking the lump sum of the recent Power Ball would still earn $1.2 million per month.  2. Do you recommend any on-line stock simulator games for those new to investing?  Motley Fool has a good one. Most games focus on the dollar value but Caps, the Motley Fool game, removes that and base wins o

It’s the time of year to reflect on the past twelve months and set goals for the new year. What does figure skating have to do with it? Tune in to find out. At LMM we prefer the word “goals” to “resolution.” Resolution has almost come to mean failure in three weeks time. We think framing our resolutions as goals will help us reach them. Sometimes you just have to trick your brain! Why January 1? You can see the appeal. Everyone likes a clean slate and the slate is never cleaner than it is on January 1. But what if you woke up with a hangover and despite resolving to eat more healthfully, you order breakfast from McDonald’s? Are you going to wait 364 days to try again? Of course not. You don’t have to wait for a certain day to change a habit. Year End Review Rather than making the same old tired resolutions, which at a certain point become traditions, look back at the year that just passed. What would you have liked to do better? What did you not manage to get to at all that you still want to pursue? If y

Want to level up your life? Steve Kamb from Nerd Fitness joins us to discuss turning your life into a game.  We’ve discussed the ways being physically fit and financially fit are similar. Steve Kamb learned that when he started Nerd Fitness. His health improved alongside his finances. He turned his life into a video game with himself as the protagonist. Now he’s written a book on how we can do that too, Level Up Your Life. Nerd Fitness Steve was working a sales job he hated and wasn’t very good at when he saw Tim Ferris’s book, The Four Hour Work Week. In the book, Ferris details how to start a very small company that solves a problem that a lot of people have. Steve was becoming increasingly interested in fitness and if there is a problem a lot of people have, (aside from money problems. LMM will handle those) it’s being unfit and unhealthy. As with any good side hustle, you need to find a niche. There are a lot of fitness sites out there. There aren’t a lot of fitness sites geared toward people who love

Look at your family, just sitting there costing you money. Slackers should be making you money, pulling their weight! We found a way to do it. We will show you how to turn your family into a profitable business with Natali Morris.  Incorporate Your Family  The tax system is not set up to benefit the individual; it’s set up to benefit businesses because businesses drive the economy. That’s why eleven companies on the S&P 500 who made profits last year paid less in income tax than you. How much less? Well, they paid nothing. If you want to get in on that, incorporate. Set up an LLC, S-Corp, whatever is the most appropriate for your situation. What if you don’t have a business? Well, you might and not realize it. Do you babysit, clean houses, mow lawns? Because if you do, you set up and LLC or S-Corp. No? Well, start! And incorporate your hobby, side hustle. However, you term it, as a business. Remember what Adam Carroll told us in last week’s episode? The two most significant expenses in life are taxes and i

Adam Carroll joins us to discuss how to actually save thousands on your mortgage with home equity lines of credit.  When we interviewed Adam for our new Rich Tips series, he mentioned how he is paying off his mortgage years ahead of schedule and saving thousands of dollars in interest. We were intrigued and asked him to join us to explain his strategy in greater detail.  What Is A Home Equity Line Of Credit?  A home equity line of credit, HELOC, is “An open ended line of credit extended to a homeowner that uses the borrower’s home as collateral. Once a maximum loan balance is established, the homeowner may draw on the line of credit at his or her discretion. Interest is charged on a predetermined variable rate, which is usually based on prevailing prime rates.” Most institutions will lend up to about 90% of loan to value. Strategy Adam has an ingenious use for his HELOC and you can use his strategy too. The HELOC is used as a checking account. All of your income is deposited into it and all of your expenses a

Ace Chapman joins us to explain how to buy a business. Something he’s been doing for sixteen years and it’s made him a millionaire.  Ace was on the usual college path when the opportunity to buy a business fell into his lap. He was playing with an online stock simulator that crashed a lot and found the company unresponsive. He reached out with an offer to help, merely hoping for an internship.  Instead, he was offered the chance to buy the business for $70,000. Ace had just $3,000. What he also had was no idea how such transactions usually work so he asked if the sellers would finance half of the deal. They agreed!  Ace got some money from a similarly entrepreneurial minded friend and financed the rest of credit cards.  Ace grew the product from 10,000 members to 250,000. He turned down seven-figure offers to sell but lost it all in the first dot-com bust. But he had a school of hard knocks bestowed MBA and decided to buy businesses was what he wanted to do.  Due Diligence  Ace had a big advantage when he bou

Our listener Eric has made an appearance in the past to school us on bonds. Today he’s back to teach us about inflation.  What Is Inflation?  Economic concepts can be broken down into the micro and the macro. Micro looks at the smaller picture concerning the behaviors of individual consumers and businesses. Macro is the study of the economy as a whole and where inflation falls.  Inflation is one economic concept that most of us see on a regular basis. It’s the purchasing power of your money, the general increase of the cost of goods and services over a specified period of time. Your dollar that is worth X today will not be worth X five years from now. Consumer Price Index One of the best measures of inflation is consumer price index. CPI measures changes in price of a set of consumer goods and services purchased by households. There are eight major groups that include the costs of things like cereal, rent, dresses, gas, prescription drugs, televisions, college tuition and funeral expenses. The Big Mac inde

Today we interview Bobby Monks and Justin Jaffy about their book, Uninvested and understanding the pitfalls of Wall Street.  Bobby Monks calls himself a “chronic entrepreneur” and as such, understands the dirty dealings happening on Wall Street and how they effect the average investor. Justin was new to the subject of finance but a journalist who wanted to know more.  Together with a third author, Bree LaCasse, they wrote Uninvested: How Wall Street Hijacks Your Money and How to Fight Back.  The Book  To the average person, investing seems like this complicated thing that no lay person can possibly understand. So they hand their money over to a “financial advisor.” The authors wanted to demystify investing for the average investor using simple language. They spent four years interviewing people like Barney Frank, Jack Bogle, Carl Icahn, mutual and hedge fund managers.  Financial Advisors  There are 450,000 people providing financial services in the United States and 90% of them are sales people. Just 10% are

Today we interview Joan Sotkin of Prosperity Place, who approaches money in a holistic way. Because listen, emotion matters when it comes to money. Joan’s Story Joan comes from a family of compulsive debtors. She was born in 1940, a time when women’s roles were pretty prescribed. Joan got married and started on the prescribed path. She became a teacher but didn’t like teaching any more than she liked being married. She felt out of place. Looking for something else, she started studying what she terms, “woo woo stuff,” like astrology and healing crystals. In the 1980’s she began selling crystals and minerals for healing and meditation and was making great money. In 2015 money, she was bringing in $50,000 a month! And then she went bankrupt. Joan didn’t know how to manage cash flow. Her father died and she has since learned that people often deal with a big trauma by overspending. Her field started to grow and she didn’t know how to compete. Eventually, the business closed. Early Adopter In 1995 Joan disc