How to Money

We’re joined today by Yanely Espinal, who is also known as MissBeHelpful in the online world of personal finance. Yanely was born in Brooklyn, she is a first generation daughter of immigrants, and even though she went to Brown University it didn’t take long for her to rack up over $20,000 in credit card debt. Academic performance doesn’t automatically mean that you know how to handle your money, and Yanely knew th...

“Spend less than you make.” This is a maxim that is not only true but, if followed, will allow you to accomplish so many other goals that you might have in life. It’s a foundational concept. Similarly, we also think the same can be said for biking. Get this one thing right in your life- pedal your way to wherever you need to go, and so many other aspects of life will automatically fall into place. And we’ve ...

Have you ever eaten so much dessert that you thought you might puke? Or maybe you find yourself at the end of a shopping spree with too many clothes in your closet than you could ever possibly wear? In both cases we’re talking about the diminishing marginal utility that we receive from each additional item we consume- the first cup of water after a run is wonderful, but the fifteenth... less so! Diminishing returns is a commo...

We had the pleasure of sitting down with our friend Brandon Ganch, who is The Mad Fientist, while we were recently traveling in Scotland! Brandon started his career as a computer programmer but then quickly added blogger, podcaster, musician, and producer to his expanding list of pursuits and interests. This is a more casual conversation but listen as you’ll learn a lot about Brandon- life events that may have shaped his view...

You’ve gotta wait 30 minutes to get back in the pool if you’ve eaten! Don’t pee in the pool- it’ll turn red! There are a lot of things we learned in childhood that we’ve likely discarded as false or at least irrelevant at this point. But there are probably some things we still believe because they were ingrained in our brain at an impressionable age. Similarly, there are a lot of folks clinging to the ‘American Dream’ that they sho...

Whether you saw some crazies doing it on TikTok or read about it in a fitness magazine, it seems like a lot of folks are giving ice baths a try. Evidently it’s supposed to be good for your health, but regardless, there are hordes of people who are intentionally soaking in ice cold water around the 55 degree range. Of course this goes completely counter to what ‘normal’ people subject themselves to. Most folks like...

“Work will always be work. Some people work doing what they love. Other people work so that they can do what they love when they’re not working. Neither is more noble.” This is a quote from Simone Stolzoff’s new book The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life From Work, that’s set to publish in a couple weeks. And regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, whether you live to work, or work to live, Simon...

Over 1,000 years ago, somehow, the Vikings were able to sail from Norway to Greenland. Without relying on any special instruments or any rudimentary technology, they were even able to reach as far as North America! Evidently they relied on the polarization of the sky, whales or birds they came into contact with, and the color of the ocean- quite remarkable. It seems unlikely that any sailors would be able to pull that off today wit...

Are you ‘credit card FI’ or are you ‘sabbatical FI?’ But maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves… First, does anyone else remember the home run obsession back in 1998? In an attempt to beat the single-season record, home runs became the only metric that anyone watching baseball seemed to care about. But what’s interesting is that most MLB games aren’t won by someone sending a 450 foot...

Everybody has heard of a consumer advocate before- someone who helps to make sure that individuals are getting the best deal possible. Or to make sure that the quality of the products is up to snuff. For instance think of Consumer Reports and the countless reporting and tests they perform on the different items we use as consumers. But you likely haven’t heard of a ‘non-consumer advocate’ before and that’s who we’re talking with to...

Do you know something that we’re all currently doing? Breathing. It’s something we rarely actively think about, but it turns out that there are ways to improve our technique- by breathing through our nose instead of our mouths, or by taking deeper slower breaths. Well we’re talking about another basic subject today: buying groceries. This elementary practice seems simple on the surface, but just like breathing there are tactics tha...

Close your eyes and think back to high school. No matter if those were the best years of your life or if you were more of a wallflower, you were likely told that you needed to get good grades- but why? Was it because you knew that you needed a particular GPA in order to get into a specific school? Maybe, but a lot of high schoolers just know that it’s generally a good idea to get high marks because it’s going to give yo...

There’s more to successfully handling your money than just figuring out the financial nuts and bolts. Money has emotional and psychological components to it as well, which is at the core of what our guest today focuses on. We’re happy to be joined by Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, who happens to be the first financial therapist in the state of Michigan. She is a social worker-turned-financial therapist. She’s also the author of the book, Th...

Join us as we celebrate our 1000th episode with an AMA!!! We are incredibly thankful and fortunate that we’re able to create a podcast for listeners who are looking to better their lives by improving how they handle their money. Of course at the core of the show are ways to earn, save, spend, and invest more effectively… all with a little bit of Joel and Matt sprinkled in. And that will continue to be the mission of Ho...

*Special Episode Alert*... take a peek behind the curtain as we have an intimate, candid chat with our friend Jillian Johnsrud, a master of intentional career breaks and author of the upcoming book Retire Often (out in September). As we take a summer hiatus from new podcast episodes, we dive deep with Jillian into the art of stepping away from work. We explore overcoming the fear of pausing, navigating boredom, the stages of a mean...

Today’s guest, Doug Lynam, has lived an extraordinary life! From overcoming bankruptcy to achieving financial security, taking vows of poverty as a Benedictine monk to managing over $250 million in assets as a wealth advisor, and graduating top of his class as a Marine to spending 20 years in monastic life, Doug’s journey is as diverse as it is inspiring. We have plenty of questions about how his unique experiences shap...

Let’s kick off the week with some fresh listener questions we have lined up for you! And don't just stand on the sidelines- if you have a question you’d like us to answer, toss your voice memo our way. It only takes about 90 seconds to record and you can find a step by step guide over at HowToMoney.com/ask . Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it!

1 - Is Matt planning to tak...

Time for a Friday Flight- our little sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil them down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: matched 529 funds, luxury dumpster diving, the apps are spyin...

Will our guest today convince us to ditch digital payments?! Listen to find out!

Because here’s something that we hear all the time: “You can just Zelle me” or “Venmo me!”. It’s sort of like “I’ll just Uber to the airport” – once a company name has become a verb, is it possible to decouple it from culture? And of course the fact that they’re incredibly fast an...