It can be difficult to determine where your hard earned savings should go. It's difficult to determine if you should focus on building up your emergency fund or start saving for retirement. In this episode we discuss how to optimize your savings and give advice on what savings vehicles you should be using.
Episode 34 - What's the deal with buying a house?
Join us this week as we discuss how to determine how much house you can afford and walk through an example. We break down the numbers and talk about how much closing costs are, what a PMI is, 15 year vs 30 year mortgage and more.
As always we're happy to answer any questions you may have. Either leave a comment below or send an email to angie@moneyinthebankpodcast.com
Episode 33 - What's the deal with financial planners?
When your car stalls out you go to a mechanic, when you need a root canal you go to a dentist, so who do you go to when you need help with your finances? Well usually a financial planner, or perhaps a financial coach. What's the difference anyway? And how do you pick one? We discuss all that and more on this weeks episode.
Episode 32 - Consuming versus producing
One huge way to get ahead financially is to make the switch from consuming content and goods to producing some of your own. This is a largely mental task because once you realize you have the power to create anything you want you realize just how easy it is. This is a case where optimism and simply getting started can go a long way. Everyone has a skill they could put to work and we could all learn from each other. So let's start the discussion and create a community where we support local makers!
Episode 31 - Listener Q&A - Mid-term Savings, Market Corrections & More
This weeks episode dives into questions from listeners as we discuss where to hold your mid-term savings, what you should do during a market correction and how to start saving small amounts to reach your big goals! We listened to what you wanted to know and merged a few questions to make one awesome episode. So listen, let us know what you think and feel free to shoot any other questions our way!
Episode 30 - Annual Review Checklist
This episode we discuss all of the financial topics you should be reviewing on an annual basis. From 401k/403b contributions, to rebalancing your portfolio, to expenses, & taxes we touch on all of it! While that all might sound intimidating in writing - have no fear! We make sure it's easy to understand in our episode to make sure you set up 2018 to be your most successful year yet. After all: if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
Episode 29 - Rent vs. Buy
Join us this week as we discuss the true cost comparison of renting versus buying and why equity isn't the magic bullet that makes renting a better decision 100% of the time. The truth of the matter is that buying wins out when you're going to stay in an area for a long time or if you are in an area where your mortgage would be significantly less than your rent. This episode is meant to help break common myths that renting is just throwing your money away by realizing buying can be just an expensive. If you're only in an area for a few years you'll grow your stache much faster by renting!
I included an infographic that helps break down how much it costs to rent for so many years versus how much it costs to buy. Note that this doesn't include appreciation which will allow you to sell your home for more than you bought it (unless we're in another housing bubble!) BUT it also doesn't include expenses and maintenance on your home so I figured for the purpose of keeping it simple it was a good illustration. Feel free to debate me in the comment section if you wish, I'll keep my calculator handy :)
Now I mention all of this and I still don't discourage everyone from buying! If you are in an area where you can get a 15-year mortgage for the same price as your rent you will build equity much faster! Or if you plan on being somewhere for 5+ years and want the freedom of home ownership GO FOR IT! Or maybe you've worked hard and simply want to be a homeowner - nobody is stopping you from indulging here! But if you are feeling pressured to buy a home from friends/family use these facts to fight your case and enjoy the free and easy life that comes with renting, guilt-free!
Episode 28 - Our 2017 Annual Expenses Revealed!
Join us for as we analyze our 2017 budget and determine what areas we should increase or decrease for 2018. We reveal it all in this episode and prove that we don't just talk the talk when it comes to the latte factor; our 2017 coffee budget was a whopping $31. Can you guess what our 3 largest expenditures were?
Episode 27 - Getting Started With a Small Business
Join us as we discuss how we've started a few different small businesses over the years. We'll talk about capital needs, business plans, and various strategies we've used. 80% of small businesses fail within 18 months - most of the commonly sited reasons are lack of communication, disconnect with customer base, not a need for your product, poor leadership, and lack of consistent revenue stream. While a business plan doesn't help ensure these things won't happen it does give you a manual to guide you along the way. It also helps you think through these tough things in the beginning to help ensure you have enough start-up capital and contingency plans in case things don't start out as you expect. There's so much more we could discuss in regards to small businesses so if you like this topic sound off below or shoot me an email!
Episode 26 - Saving Money by Biking
Did you know the average consumer spends $8,500 on transportation related expenses each year? At just over $.50 a mile it really adds up. Using a bicycle as a mode of transportation ends up saving you tons of money! In fact, we've saved over $3,000 this year alone by biking more and being more intentional about our car trips. Join us as we discuss common excuses for not riding your bike as well as how we both started using our bikes to get around town.
Episode 25 - Making Money on the Side
In this episode we chat about some ways to make additional money on the side. From small ideas to big ideas every penny adds up! We discuss some ways to fill your free time to make a few extra bucks while watching Netflix or just relaxing. Whether it's working an extra job or picking up tasks online tune in to hear how to make a few extra bucks!
If you're interested in some of the survey websites we mentioned we put together a list of our favorites* here: https://www.moneyinthebankpodcast.com/recommendations/
*By favorites we mean the websites that averages $50 a month per person and didn't generate so many pop-ups you felt like a virus from 1999 was overtaking your AOL account. Instead we chose the ones that may not have surveys for you 100% of the time but when they do you are already qualifies and will indeed get the payout promised.
Episode 24 - Getting out of Debt
Do you know how much the average consumer owes in credit card debt in America? How about car loan? Or student loans? We discuss these amounts and why becoming debt free will be one of the best things you ever do in life.
Episode 23 - Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle
We discuss how to start tracking expenses to get your finances back on track and stop living paycheck to paycheck. Many people, if asked, have no idea where there money goes each month. Being able to answer that question will help you identify the areas where you can trim some fat and start banking money.
Episode 22 - Don't be fooled by marketing
Tune in to this weeks episode as we discuss common marketing traps that trick you into buying things you don't want or need. Avoid buying things this year during Black Friday sales that you'll just end up getting rid of come Spring cleaning. We run through a few of the common scenarios as well as discussing how to buy the right thing for YOU!
Episode 21 - Winter Savings Checklist
Winter is coming so join us as we run through a checklist designed to help you get ready for winter and save some money in the process. We cover topics ranging from heating your house to cleaning out your closet to making bone broth in this episode. So pull up a chair, grab your headphones and take a listen, then let us know what we forgot!
Episode 20 - Why Save Money?
A big question we've been getting lately is why save all this money? You can't take it with you when you die and why not just enjoy it when your young? The thing we've realized early on in life is that having capital and having a long-term financial plan gives you freedom. Money doesn't buy happiness but like anything it can be used as a tool to improve your future life. Instead of spending money on 1-use objects or things that don't matter why not save up to take 2 years off of your working life?
Enjoy the show and let me know if you take on our challenge to save $25 a week for a month. Does that $100 make you happier at the end of the month then whatever you gave up? By the end of the month do you even remember what you gave up?
Episode 19 - How much do you pay for auto and home owners insurance?
You may have been asking yourself if you're paying too much for auto insurance or home owners insurance. There's a good chance you are if you haven't had an independent agent check rates in a while! Going to an independent agent allows them to check multiple companies very quickly and find you the best coverage and price. While it can be confusing to compare policies, taking the time to read through and ask questions will save a lot of headaches later! So, if you haven't looked at your insurance in a while this is a friendly reminder to review your policies and make sure you know what you're paying for AND if you can get it cheaper by switching to a different provider.
Episode 18 - Saving in a Big City
This week we travel back in time to when we lived in Chicago. While we were there we still saved money even with enjoying all the great things about a bigger city. We chat about housing tips, transportation and more on this extra nostalgic episode.
Episode 17 - Investing 102
Hopefully after the first investing episode you're ready and excited to begin saving/investing more! In this episode we chat about how to choose funds to make up your investment portfolio, how often you should re-balance (and what the heck that even means), what expense ratios are and more. Let us know in the comments what questions you still have!
Episode 16 - Phones - Carriers, Devices, & International Data Oh my!
We chat about how to best have access to your phone while traveling internationally and how easy it was to buy a sim card in Germany. We also chat briefly and carriers as well as how much you should spend on a flagship phone and if you should buy the iPhone X.
Note we didn't spent nearly enough time chatting about the Average Joe user who doesn't care about flagship devices. But hopefully our conversation helped shed light on how much money is wasted on devices. There are some really great phones out there in the $200-$400 range that I think would be great for the average user. Feel free to comment below or email me for more info (not linking anything since cell phones are always being released and I'll keep a current list instead of posting advice that will be outdated in 6 months.