Afford Anything

Afford Anything

You can afford anything, but not everything. We make daily decisions about how to spend money, time, energy, focus and attention – and ultimately, our life. How do we make smarter decisions? How do we think from first principles? On the surface, Afford Anything seems like a podcast about money and investing. But under the hood, this is a show about how to think critically, recognize our behavioral blind spots, and make smarter choices. We’re into the psychology of money, and we love metacognition: thinking about how to think. In some episodes, we interview world-class experts: professors, researchers, scientists, authors. In other episodes, we answer your questions, talking through decision-making frameworks and mental models. Want to learn more? Download our free book, Escape, at http://affordanything.com/escape. Hosted by Paula Pant.

Episodes

AI, Layoffs, and the Future of Your Career — with Dr. Ben Zweig (Part 1 of 2)

February 27, 2026 • 46 mins
#693: AI learns your job in weeks … and you start wondering if you still have one. That question shapes our conversation with Dr. Ben Zweig, CEO of Revelio Labs, a workforce data company that uses AI to build large employment databases and study labor market shifts. He also teaches a class on The Future of Work at NYU Stern School of Business. He holds a PhD in economics from CUNY Graduate Center. Dr. Zweig starts with the legen...
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My Brother-in-Law Wants to Buy a Rental in Mexico. Good Idea?

February 24, 2026 • 57 mins
#692: Anonymous (02:01) is excited about early retirement and family time but worried about his brother-in-law, who just returned from a vacation in Mexico with a bold plan: sell everything, move there, and buy an Airbnb to live in one unit and rent out the others. He wants to support him without watching him get in over his head. How can he navigate this tricky mix of family loyalty and financial risk? Maryanne (33:41) is retired...
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Your IQ Won't Save Your Career. Your AQ Might. – with Liz Tran

February 20, 2026 • 66 mins
#691: Your IQ used to be your biggest career asset. Then AI scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, the SAT, and the MCAT — and suddenly the cognitive skills that once set you apart became something anyone can access for free. Executive coach Liz Tran joins us to talk about what actually drives career success and earning power now. Her answer: AQ, or agility quotient — your capacity to handle change, learn new skills fast, ...
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Q&A: Should My Teen Go to College?

February 17, 2026 • 65 mins
#690: Blanca (01:28): Blanca, an immigrant mother raising a 14-year-old, wants her son to think critically about college—not just as an experience, but as a financial decision. With the rising cost of higher education, she’s wondering how families can assess whether an undergraduate or graduate program is likely to pay off over time. Brandon (30:05): Brandon in his forties, recently left full-time work to pursue per diem work and ...
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Your Brain Is Your Most Important Asset, with Dr. Majid Fotuhi, MD, PhD

February 13, 2026 • 121 mins
#689: Most people think forgetting a name means their brain is failing.  Dr. Majid Fotuhi, a neurologist who taught at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, sees thousands of patients convinced they have Alzheimer's – only to discover they're dealing with poor sleep or stress. Dr. Fotuhi joins us to break down the difference between cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. He explains why chronic stress physically shrinks your h...
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Q&A: I'm Burned Out But Not Quite Ready to Retire

February 10, 2026 • 47 mins
#688: Anonymous: "Anonymous Sheryl" is 38, mortgage-free and exhausted after 15 years of teaching. She’s torn between pushing a few more years toward FIRE or switching to relief teaching now for better work-life balance. How do you trade speed to FIRE for sustainability without blowing up the plan? Anonymous : "Anonymous Ray" hired a bank portfolio manager but isn’t sure how to judge the results after just a few years. With mixed ...
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First Friday: The Retirement Rules That Changed While You Weren't Looking

February 6, 2026 • 43 mins
#687: Your tax refund might be $300 to $1,000 bigger this year, and that's just the beginning of what's changing with your money. The Tax Foundation estimates most Americans will see significantly larger refunds thanks to seven major tax cuts. The child tax credit increased by $200. The standard deduction jumped by $750 for individuals or $1,500 for couples. The state and local tax deduction cap now sits at $40,000. Seniors get an...
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Q&A: Are AI Stocks About to Crater?

February 3, 2026 • 71 mins
#686: Rachel: Rachel is new to investing and has noticed the stock market being dominated by AI companies. She wants to make sure her portfolio is balanced without overexposing herself.Should she rethink her index fund strategy to protect against a potential AI bubble? Sarah: Sarah just turned 65, owns her home outright, and has been relying on credit cards since losing her job last year. She’s weighing whether to claim Social Sec...
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10 Rules for Building a Portfolio That Actually Works for Your Life, with Cullen Roche

January 30, 2026 • 95 mins
#685: You're not an investor. You're a saver. That's the first of 10 principles Cullen Roche shares in this conversation about building what he calls "the perfect portfolio." Roche, the founder and chief investment officer of Discipline Funds, argues that when you buy stocks on the secondary market, you're not actually funding companies or making investments in the traditional economic sense. You're just swapping your cash for s...
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Why You Should “T-Bill and Chill” Instead of Using a Savings Account, with Cullen Roche

January 27, 2026 • 83 mins
#684: Most people search for the perfect portfolio — the one allocation that works in every market, at every age, for every goal. This interview starts by explaining why that portfolio does not exist. We talk with Cullen Roche, founder and chief investment officer of Discipline Funds, about why copying someone else’s portfolio can backfire, and why portfolio design works better when it starts with your own constraints instead of r...
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How to Teach Kids About Money, with Dr. Stephen Day

January 23, 2026 • 64 mins
#683: Candy now — or a toy later? You slide play money across the table and let your kid choose. That moment kicks off this episode, where Dr. Stephen Day joins us to talk about building a “mini economy” at home.  Dr. Day is the director of the Center for Economic Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also holds a PhD in social studies and economics curriculum and instruction. His work looks at how kids form money hab...
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52 Tiny Improvements in 2026 [GREATEST HITS]

January 20, 2026 • 69 mins
#682: Grab the FREE handbook: affordanything.com/financialgoals For 76 years, the British cycling team lost — every season, without exception. Then they changed how they approached improvement, focusing on tiny gains instead of dramatic overhauls. In today's episode, we unpack how they became champions – and apply those same tactics to our financial life. This episode originally aired in January 2025. It was our most popu...
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How NOT to Invest, with Barry Ritholtz

January 16, 2026 • 79 mins
#681: Barry Ritholtz's mom sold real estate. Those dinner table conversations about mortgages helped him spot the 2008 crash before most of Wall Street did. Now he runs Ritholtz Wealth Management and joins us to explain why we're often our own worst investment enemy. He breaks investing mistakes into three categories: bad ideas, bad numbers, and bad behavior. Here's what stood out. Research shows just 2 percent of stocks create ...
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Q&A: I Want to Retire Early Without Selling My Stocks in a Crash

January 13, 2026 • 54 mins
#680: Mia: Mia and her husband are planning early retirement and want to draw down their taxable brokerage accounts for the next decade. She’s considering a securities-backed line of credit to defer taxes during market downturns. Can a securities-backed line of credit smooth taxes in early retirement, or are there hidden risks? Jean: Jean, a freelance creator, wants to take a self-made sabbatical in three years and fund it withou...
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Why AI Taking Your Job Isn't the Real Problem, with Fmr. OpenAI Exec Zack Kass

January 9, 2026 • 91 mins
#679: Will you still have a job in five years? Zack Kass, former OpenAI executive and 16-year AI veteran, joins us to tackle the question that keeps knowledge workers up at night. Most people worry about the economics — who can pay the bills if AI takes their job? Kass flips the question: What happens when work no longer defines who you are? He argues we're heading for an identity crisis bigger than any economic disruption. In t...
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Q&A: We Want to Save Senior Dogs … But Should We Sell Our Rental to Do It?

January 6, 2026 • 69 mins
#678: Anonymous (01:52):  "Victoria" is 51, single, and still enjoying their W2 job while building a side business from a passion hobby. They’re thinking about heavy Roth conversions, planning for retirement, and wondering how much traditional money to leave untouched. Should Alex prioritize tax efficiency, or focus on growth and flexibility? Anonymous (34:29): "Gwyneth" and her husband moved to the U.S. to start a sanctuary for s...
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First Friday: What 2026 Means for Your Money

January 2, 2026 • 41 mins
#677: Happy New Year! We're kicking off 2026 with a reality check on where your money stands right now. The Good News: Gas prices dropped below $3/gallon. Inflation cooled to 2.7%. The Fed cut rates again. GDP grew 4.3% (surprisingly strong). Gold hit $4,500 an ounce. And 19 states raised minimum wages. The Not-So-Good: Health insurance jumped 10-18%. Unemployment ticked up. Mortgage rates are stuck around 6.2%. And 80% of homeow...
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Q&A: Should You Keep Part of Your Money Outside the U.S.?

December 30, 2025 • 67 mins
#676: Ally:How can I optimize my asset allocation and Roth contributions now that I’m over $1 million in assets? I’m 45, single, never married, with about $1.2 million in assets. Roughly $100,000 is in stocks, which might scare some people. Here’s my breakdown: Vanguard brokerage account: VTSAX $132,000, ISCV $5,000, VOO $5,000 Vanguard Rollover IRA: VTSAX $65,000, IVV $25,000, VOO $62,000 Vanguard Roth IRA: VTSAX $...
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[E] The Myths We Believed About Startups [GREATEST HITS]

December 26, 2025 • 45 mins
#675: Welcome to Greatest Hits Week – five days, five episodes from our vault, spelling out F-I-I-R-E. Today’s letter E stands for Entrepreneurship. This episode originally aired in September 2018, at a moment when startup culture was loud, venture capital was abundant, and entrepreneurship was often framed as something that involves outside investors and rapid growth. ____ In this episode, we rewind the clock to 2018. Remem...
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[R] Remember When Inflation Was High and Rates Were Rising? [GREATEST HITS]

December 25, 2025 • 77 mins
#674: Welcome to Greatest Hits Week – five days, five episodes from our vault, spelling out F-I-I-R-E. Today's letter R stands for Real Estate. This episode originally aired in May 2022, but the insights on long-distance investing remain just as relevant for anyone feeling priced out of their local market. We tackle the five biggest challenges of investing far from home – from fear of the unknown to managing contractors remotely ...
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