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

It’s time for your questions.  We’ll cover brokerage accounts, car payments, and credit card fraud.  You know where to come for the answers. 1.  Why us Betterment over Vanguard S&P 500 for index funds? Betterment has a much lower minimum for investing.  To get into that Vanguard fund, the minimum is $10,000. 2.  Is it worthwhile to have more than one brokerage account?  It depends on your goals and how involved you want to be.  Betterment is the hands off option.  A good reason to have multiple accounts is SIPC protection.  Each account is guaranteed up to $500,000.  If you have more than that in an account, you could lose that amount.  Spreading the money out in $500,000 increments is safer. 3.  Why is Matt investing when he has a car loan he’s paying interest on?  Matt’s interest rate is 2% so he’s making more in investments.  As long as your interest rate is very low, keep the money invested. 4.  If I have fraud on my credit card and have to receive a new account number, does that negatively impact my

Teaching personal finance is badly neglected in America.  Zela Wela is changing that. Nancy Phillips joins us to discuss teaching kids about money. Kids develop their beliefs about money at the same time as they develop them about everything else, during the formative years.  By age seven, their ideas are in place.  A good age to start is between two and three. Because the learning needs to start so early, parents are the ideal teachers.  Kids will observe and model the behavior of their parents.  A two year old won’t understand what a 401K is but they can understand choice and are capable of making them.  They also understand accumulation.  A big pile of strawberries is better than one strawberry.  It’s strawberries when you’re two but that lays the ground work for understanding a big pile of money is better than a little pile and how to grow the pile. Giving young children an allowance is a powerful teaching tool.  Zela Wela recommends the GISS method, give, invest, save, spend.  Part of the allowance is

Mary Lynn Schroeder is an entrepreneur with the #1 leather shop on Etsy. Learn how she turned her love of leather into a successful business selling on etsy. Today we go hell for leather with the founder of In Blue Handmade, an Etsy shop with eight employees and over 300 wholesalers.  If you’re unfamiliar, Etsy is a global online marketplace for handmade goods. Mary Lynn was failing at fabrics when her dad sent her a piece of leather and told her to give that a try.  She crafted some phone cases and journals, put them on her Etsy site, and they started flying out the door. But it didn’t come easy.  Mary Lynn was working on her own stuff during the day and working in a restaurant over night.  She can pinpoint the exact moment things took off, December 2, 2009.  She got a mention on Martha Stewart’s blog and woke up to eighty orders. Part of Mary Lynn’s success is down to not knowing.  Late 2008 was a terrible time to start a business but she didn’t realize that.  If she had, she probably wouldn’t have done

Finding your passion has become a hackneyed cliche but there is some merit in doing so, we just have to think of a less Oprah way of phrasing it. People say it as if it’s something easy to do.  What if you’re passionate about sitting around smoking weed all day?  How do you parlay that into income?  You don’t.  What it really means is to figure out what you like to do that can also generate income and do that to make money. It doesn’t have to make you a lot of money, not in the beginning, maybe not ever.  But being able to spend a part of your time doing something you really love to do is a big part of being happy in your life. Matt loves music and has even toured with his band.  But music super stardom wasn’t meant to be for him.  It doesn’t mean he can’t incorporate that love into other areas of his life.  For example, he created a music video for LMM and recently created one for a podcasting conference.   Maybe your passion won’t ever make you money. Or maybe you’re afraid that by turning it into a car

Want to start investing but a little nervous to get started?  We totally get it. Investing should be simple and easy and with Acorns you can get started with just some pocket change. Acorns is a great way to start investing and building wealth. We’re here to show how you how to get started investing without a lot of money, and then forget about it until you retire. What is Acorns? Each time you spend, Acorns rounds up to the nearest dollar and invests that amount for you.  So, if you spend $2.50 on a cup of coffee, Acorns will automatically invest $.50 for you. The pizza you just ordered that cost $15.05,  $.95 gets invested. All you need to do is download the Acorns app, connect it to your credit cards to get started. A lot of users are new to investing so the app provides a lot of guidance. There are also cool tools, that help you set and reach goals. By just entering your savings goals and what age you want to achieve them by and the app tells you how much you need to invest each month to get there.

Health insurance is so complicated.  We deep dive into HSA plans so you can get the most out of your health care dollars. What is an HSA?  Simply put, it’s a health savings account that usually has an investment option and is tied to a high deductible plan.  The money goes in tax free, it grows, and when you withdraw it to spend on out of pocket health care, it remains tax free!  And it’s flexible. If you take it out to spend on non-health care purchases, it is taxed and there is a penalty but you do have that option.  And once you reach age 65, you can use it without penalty and at the prevailing tax rate which should be lower than it was during your prime earning years.  Not to be confused with an FSA (flexible spending account) which must be emptied by the end of the year or you lose the money. The numbers change year to year but currently, a single person can put $3300 into an HSA and a family can contribute $6550.  Our guests advise first funding the matching portion of your 401K, then fully funding t

  Jim Wang became a millionaire through his finance blog Bargaineering.  He sold the site and started Microblogger.  Let’s hang with an internet millionaire. Jim could easily have quit working when he sold his site but that’s not what millionaires do.  His life also didn’t change much when he became a millionaire, something that all of our millionaires have had in common, they avoided lifestyle inflation. Whether Jim had $10,000 or $1,000,000, he treated his money the same.  Invest it in the stock market and know that over forty years, it will grow.  Looking at your numbers day to day can lead to poor decisions.  Set it and forget it.  He slow dripped his money in and bought when others were selling in a panic.  Jim monitors the number about once a month just to make sure things are where they should be. Jim keeps up the Joneses but not in the way you would expect.  He found success at a young age so when he reads other success stories, it helps to keep the fire alive.  Comparing yourself to others can hu

Best selling author, world traveler, entrepreneur, Chris Guillebeau joins us to discuss his latest book The Happiness of Pursuit. Chris became an entrepreneur when he realized he was a terrible employee and never wanted to work for someone else.  He started his blog, The Art of Non-Conformity in 2008 and it grew into an empire.  He now travels the world speaking and teaching people how to start living their own unconventional lives. Chris attended community college before transferring to a four year school.  He graduated with no debt by financing his education through selling items on e-Bay.  Once he ran out of things to sell, he tried other small businesses, creating several small things rather than one large thing. It gave him enough money to avoid debt and do what he wanted to do and allowed him to sample a variety of things, seeing what worked and what didn’t along the way. Chris wrote an e-book on discount airfare in less than a week and it started selling.  This led to more books about travel and sel

Do you dream of retiring early? We interview the expert in early retirement, Mr Money Mustache. We must learn his ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people are more willing to talk about sex, politics, and religion than about money.  Why is personal finance such a taboo subject? Your parents probably gave you the “birds and the bees” talk but did they ever talk to you about money?  A lot of parents don’t and that seems to carry over into our adult lives.  That personal finance is so taboo is handicapping a lot of us when it comes to knowing how to manage our money. It’s not polite to flash money around and to brag about how much you make or spend but it shouldn’t be shameful to discuss the opposite problem, how little money you have or, more importantly, how little you know about money.  Imagine being illiterate and not asking for help learning to read.  What a disadvantage you would be at in every area of life.  Being financially illiterate is no less devastating and if no one knows, no one can help you. There’s more openess now because of the internet and the anonymity it affords us but for a lot of people, money matters can be such a shameful t

“Never a borrower nor a lender be.”  We’ll discuss the pitfalls of loaning or borrowing from family and friends. You know the old saying, only loan someone money if you can afford to lose it.  It’s easier said than done.  Money is already a fraught issue, throw family ties into the mix and it can become down right volatile. Sometimes you lend money to someone out of sheer awkwardness.  It’s so surprising to be asked and so uncomfortable that sometimes we just agree to alleviate the tension. Then kick our selves immediately after. It doesn’t even necessarily matter if you’re mad about losing the money.  Maybe it was negligible  amount or maybe it was a lot but you had it to lose.  The borrower who doesn’t pay it back might feel so awkward or so guilty that they avoid you.  You aren’t mad and don’t want the money back, but the relationship is lost anyway. A loan doesn’t always mean money.  Has someone ever asked you to co-sign something with them?  It’s a slyer way of getting a loan from you than out right

Active trading is buying securities and holding them for a short time before selling.  We put the practice on trial and make a case against it. Remember, at LMM we advise you to stay in the market for the long con.  Active trading, or day trading is the exact opposite of that and a bad practice to get into. Jim Kramer, the big mouthed yelling “financial guru” advocates active trading.  Should you listen to him?  He’s on TV after all.  Let’s look at his record.  Between 2005-2007 he underperformed the NASDAQ by 2%, the S&P by 4% and the Dow by 10%. But what if you hire the best money manager out there?  Surely he or she can do it better than you.  No, they can’t.  Over a twenty year period, 80% of them underperformed the market.  And remember, no one cares more about your money than you. What if you pick a MorningStar Five Star rated fund?  It’s like Michelin stars, right?  The more stars the better?  In theory yes, in practice, the inverse is true.  Vanguard tracked funds for the first thirty six months a

Five listener questions answered, establishing credit, monetary gifts, Betterment security, IRA migration, and the pros and cons of renting out a room. 1.  What is the best way to establish credit?  A secured credit card is a good start.  You give the bank a set amount of money and that amount is the card limit.  So it’s a bit like a debit card but it helps build credit.  It’s no risk to the bank because they have your money. Getting a store credit card is usually pretty easy and will build credit.  If your landlord uses something like Cozy.com to collect rent, you can build your credit by paying rent this way. 2. What is the best way to give my children financial gifts?  You can still buy savings bonds but no one knows what the hell to do with them.  A better idea might be to set up a trust account in something like Betterment.  You can set parameters, like the beneficiary can’t withdraw the money until they reach a certain age or the money can only be used to pay for college. 3.  How secure is your money

Got too much stuff?  Want to do a big purge before the cold weather sets in, maybe make a few bucks?  Take the LMMs’ Sell Everything Challenge! Are you a hoarder?  Not like the demented ones on those gross shows, but just a little bit of a hoarder.  We challenge you to clean out your life, toss, sell, or donate all that stuff and see how much better you feel. First of all, round up all your stuff from where ever it has been banished to.  Your parents attic, the back of your closet, the storage unit full of stuff you are paying to home. What you do with it next depends on a few things.  Do you have sacks full of ripped, stained clothes that are not nice enough to donate?  Recycle it!  The Council for Textile Recycling site lets you enter your zip code and find a facility that recycles things like old clothes and bedding.  Much better than filling up landfills. If your clothes are of a higher quality and still in good shape, maybe they just don’t fit anymore, donate them to an organization like Dress for Su

It’s Labor Day and most of us are not working.  We’ll tell you the reason you have the day off and the story of those who sacrificed so you could sleep in. Labor Day celebrates the American Labor movement.  It became an official holiday in 1887.  If you think you’re job is oppressive now, imagine what it was like before the concept of organized labor.  At least we get paid in money.  At some points, workers were paid with “company chit” that could only be spent at places that were conveniently owned by their employer. Once upon a time, workers labored as apprentices under master workers.  You then became a journeyman and eventually, a master yourself.  By 1815, journeymen began to outnumber masters due to migration patterns.  As a result, investors began building labor intensive businesses on a big scale. When the workers began to collude to raise wages, the practice was made illegal by the government.  Commonwealth vs Hunt made collusion to raise wages a legal activity.  That was the beginning of the mode

Money is the currency of living but gratitude is the currency of life.  WTF does that mean?  We’ll let Andrew explain it because we don’t know either. Practicing gratitude sounds like some trite thing Deepak Oprah tells her legion of house wife minions to do but there is something to it for those non-Kool Aid drinkers among us.  Particularly when you tell someone you’re grateful for something they’ve contributed to your life, it makes you both feel good. Most of us don’t get enough gratitude in our lives.  When was the last time some expressed gratitude for something you did at work?  Maybe that’s never happened.  When was the last time you told your significant other you were grateful for some small thing they did, emptying the dishwasher without being asked or picking up the dry cleaning?  If you aren’t getting enough kudos, most people around you probably aren’t either.  So instead of waiting for the gratitude to be bestowed, be the bestower.  That sounds like something a wizard would say doesn’t it.  Yo

Despite the dire warnings, it is possible to graduate college free of debt.  Shanice Miller will tell us how to do it. Most people go the route of taking out massive student loans to pay for college but it’s possible to get all or at least some of your expenses covered through scholarships and grants.  You don’t need a perfect GPA either.  There is money available for everyone if you know where to look. The best time to start looking around is your junior year of high school and the best place to look is with your guidance and career counselor.  Start early, the beginning of the school year is ideal because it allows you to make a strong application before the deadlines which are usually in late winter or early spring. The application process can be ponderous but you can use the same application or essay for multiple opportunities, just customizing each as you would with a job resume.  The average award for a scholarship is $2000.  So if you take three hours to apply, that is great value for time. Big, na

So, what is an expat? Want to live and work abroad and reduce your tax burden? We talk to David McKeegan, an ex-pat tax expert to learn the tricks. Many people dream of leaving the US and it’s taxes behind to start a life and a business in a new, exotic place.  It can give you a brand new life and reduce your taxes to near zero if you know how to play the game.  Seven and a half million of your fellow Americans have done it so why not you? If you move abroad to live and work, you don’t have to renounce your US citizenship although increasingly some people are doing so for financial or political reasons. But to qualify to pay zero US taxes, you will have to reside outside the country for 330 days per year.  If you meet this threshold, your first $99,200 in income, is US tax free! You may still have to pay taxes in your new home.  Or maybe you don’t.  In Dubai for example, there is no personal income tax.  So the lesson is, investigate the tax codes as part of choosing your new country. If you are able to w

The importance of budgeting can’t be overstated. Today we talk to the king of budgeting tools, Jesse Mecham the CEO of You Need a Budget and give you an honest YNAB review. We talk about budgeting with Mint a lot and it’s a great tool. But there is always talk of You Need A Budget within the personal finance community so we wanted to check it out. And because we provide only the best for you, we brought on the founder to discuss the tools so we can provide an in depth YNAB review. YNAB was originally a spreadsheet that Jesse and his wife used to budget their money when they were newly married and expecting a baby. He had just intended to sell it to make a little extra income on top of his accounting job, but it soon proved so successful that it become his career. Zero-Based Budgeting Zero-based budgeting forces you to “spend” every dollar. At the end of the month, the goal, as it is with any budget, is to have brought in more money than you spent. And that’s where most traditional methods of budgeting end

We should strive to be the best we can in all areas of life. One of the key areas to be the best is at work, the work you do for a boss or for yourself. If you feel like you aren’t doing the best you can at a job, it might be time to reevaluate what you’re doing for a living.  Most people aren’t bad at things they like to do (singing maybe for some of us) so maybe you don’t like what you’re doing.  If you don’t like it, you have no motivation to improve so it’s best to move on. Being good at your job gives you more job security, a rare thing these days for a lot of people.  The company can’t fire the indispensable ones.  You don’t have to be the CEO to make yourself invaluable.  No job is unimportant or the company would have cut it by now. Ever been to a restaurant with so-so food but a great waiter?  Or a restaurant with great food and a bad waiter?  Which experience would you prefer?  I can cook tasty food at home myself and I consider eating out to be a total experience so I prefer the place with the g