Financial Bliss with Kelley Long

The term "self-care" has come to mean everything from taking a bubble bath to getting your bikini line waxed and is an area of spending that tends to get a free pass when modern women examine their cash flow.

The truth is that self-care has nothing to do with appearance and has everything to do with building resilience as an act of political defiance.

In this episode, Kelley Long, financial coach and money activist,...

Unpacking the mysteries of credit scores, CPA financial planner and money coach Kelley Long reveals the truth behind those three-digit numbers that can have such an impact on our financial lives. This episode explores common misconceptions, practical strategies, and insider insights about credit reporting that every listener should know.

Discover how credit scores really work, what factors truly matter, and how to navigate the...

In this episode of Financial Bliss with Kelley Long, we dive into one of the most powerful productivity tools out there: the Eisenhower Matrix. Named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, this simple yet transformative framework helps you prioritize tasks by urgency and importance, ensuring you focus on what truly drives your goals forward. Whether you're overwhelmed by a never-ending to-do list or struggling to decide where to dir...

In this episode, Kelley Long opens up about the emotional and personal journey of navigating a major life transition—choosing to remain child-free after years of pursuing parenthood. Through this vulnerable storytelling, she reflects on the process of grieving an imagined future and finding peace with a new direction. Kelley explores how this personal experience has shaped her understanding of self-discovery, acceptance, and how th...

In this episode, Kelley Long shares valuable insights about Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and the lessons she learned about health insurance that changed everything about her choices and, really, her whole life. Reflecting on her early experiences, she highlights common misconceptions around high-deductible healthcare plans and the potential benefits that many people overlook, particularly those in good health. This is super impor...

This episode is all about that sticky area of money where we try to separate out our wants versus needs when making decisions around how we want to spend our dollars.

The themes include:

Understanding Wants vs. Needs: Distinguishing between wants and needs can be complex, especially when personal values and societal judgments come into play. It’s essential to recognize that our choices around spending—like gym memberships or s...

You may have heard about a back door Roth IRA, especially if you make too much money to contribute directly into one right now. While a back door Roth and a regular Roth IRA utilize the same account, performing the contribution to get around the income limits has very specific steps that you need to get right in order to avoid unnecessary taxation and issues with the IRS.

This podcast episode goes over what a makes a back doo...

When you know you need to start talking with your partner about money more, but don't know where to start, these 3 questions can help. Rather than jumping right into looking at spending, budgets, balances and statements, answering these questions together can help you gain a better understanding of where the other person is coming from, particularly if you commonly have conversations about money devolve into arguments. Even if ...

If you find yourself living paycheck-to-paycheck despite earning more than enough to cover your bills and lifestyle and know that you have room to save this episode is for you.

When you find yourself always spending more than you intend, even when you know that you can easily cut back because you DO when your run out of money at the end of your pay cycle, there's a surprising habit that may be at play.

The good news ...

The reasons you think you need to buy a home ASAP may not be as valid as you think.

In this episode, Kelley Long gives a hot take on why home ownership is probably not the financial boondoggle a lot of us think it is.

There are plenty of great reasons to want to buy a home. But there are also a lot of reasons it's not exactly the Best Thing Ever, despite what the so-called American Dream says.

If you're stres...

It is human nature to compare ourselves to others, particularly when we are wondering whether or not we measure up. And for the most part, these types of comparisons cause us to feel like we are falling short in some way.

In this episode, Kelley Long, financial coach and money mindset advocate, shares a research-backed way that we can use comparison to actually boost the way we feel about ourselves and our lives that can ultim...

This episode is all about self-exploration to uncover the root cause of financial anxieties. When we have a better understanding of our own origin stories and how they are showing up for us today, we can really accelerate any changes we’d like to make to our mindset and our behaviors, around money: how we earn it, how we spend it, how we save it, how we avoid it, etc.

Grab a pen and a journal, and settle in for an exercise tha...

Get a breakdown of ALL the options you might want to explore before deciding what to do with your old 401k plan.

This episode explores the pros and cons of each of the 4 options available while also touching on related retirement and tax rules at play, including:

- The rule of 55

- Net-unrealized appreciation rules for company stock

- Why a rollover IRA might be a choice you regret

- Where to go for more help making this deci...

Whether your goal this year is to pay off debt, reach a new savings level or achieve a specific financial-related goal, it's easy to lose motivation if working toward that goal also requires you to make trade-offs or change habits that you enjoy or are really used to.

The main reason people lose motivation toward these types of goals is because they are actually tasks that need to be completed in pursuit of a greater, more...

Ever try a new budgeting tool and experience initial success, but then quickly slip back into old habits after a month or two? 

The reason so many of us struggle with changing our financial habits and situations, even when we end up making more money, is partly because there’s not a simple, one-size-fits-all solution. After all, if it were easy you’d already be doing it! 

To change a financial cycle or habit for good, you need to f...

Shame has an impressive ability to rear its ugly head when it comes to money. Many of us experience money shame for a myriad of reasons: budgeting pitfalls, too much debt, not enough savings, or a failure to attain certain markers that are viewed as evidence of success, like buying a home or starting a family. 

But shame has the power to keep us in a cycle of wildly unhelpful self-talk. 

Many people aspire to develop healthier mone...

What does the Serenity Prayer have to do with achieving financial bliss? For Kelley C. Long, CPA/PFS, CFP®, quite a lot.  

If you’ve ever experienced financial hardship that wasn’t your fault, you’re not alone. Even the most careful and diligent individuals can become victims of their circumstances, enduring things in life that put pressure on their pocketbooks. The end of a romantic relationship, a flooded basement, the loss of a ...

You pay all your bills on time, you've either paid off your debt or have a plan in place to do so and you are looking at what's next, but there are so many options. How do you know which to tackle first?

The truth is, there is no definitive answer that works for everyone, which is why Kelley Long, financial coach and podcast host, created a checklist called the Post-Debt Life Checklist to get it all down on paper so yo...